I see a good deal of bands that have a review section on their website or on social media sites that always are from their backyard and never that far away. That Seattle band for example that only has reviews from Seattle proper and about a 25 mile radius does not come off like a band that is anything more than a band that plays Seattle.

How Do I Get My Music Heard?

When you ask the question, How do I get my music heard? You should also ask, where should I get my music heard?

Why not reach out to a wider audience and other states or even other countries when you are going after getting better indie music reviews? This can help make you look a little more worldly in a sense. It gives you the appearance of more traveled group that is being heard by a wider array of fans and music industry people.

This can be done in emails and basic research very easily and requiring a limited amount of time. Do the research of different reviewers, review sites, review bloggers and email five a day with a basic template review letter that is personalized to the person or company you are reaching out to.

Getting indie music reviews is easier than you think, and the more you can build up for a wider mileage, the more that will be out there about you! There will be negative or bad reviews too but no worries. As a music consultant, I get asked how to get rid of bad reviews and I always respond, asking why. It is not bad to have bad reviews out there. It is more marketing. Your name, your album, your song is now out on another page or another site that it wasn’t on before.

Try it. It’s five emails a day and some research. Tell them why they should check you out, what you are about and go in to some basic detail to make some one want to check you out and possibly review you. Think about the fact that these people receive hundreds of requests, so make sure you do not sound like the masses in your email.

And again, the best music consulting tip I can give regarding reviews is to research and email out to five a day. You could easily find thousands and you never know which ones will give you a review or help you, your music or your website reach a whole new audience you have not been able to reach before.

Loren Weisman is an accomplished music producer, author and music consultant. He is the author of “The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business”, a book to help independent artists, musicians, bands, labels and managers achieve self sufficient and sustainable success.

What you’re immediately introduced to are two columns with our life’s events hanging off of a lithe, blue, never ending trunk that’s topped off by a summation of our identity – who we are, where we are, what we do, what we like – enclosed in a 851px wide white rectangle. Amid the changes, we retain one recognizable feature, our Profile Picture. But behind the recognizable, lurks an over-sized opportunity to personalize yourself, which Facebook calls a “Timeline Cover.” To leave it blank is almost a sin.

You may have noticed friends taking creative advantage of the Timeline Cover, or you may have caught Amy-Mae Elliot’s compilations of creative Timeline Covers on Mashable. While you can take advantage of third party apps to achieve pictorial harmony between Cover and Profile Picture, where is the fun in that? Luckily for you, I did the math so that you can pull out your favorite photo or vector editing programs and create a uniform Timeline and Profile Picture.

As you’ll notice right away from the pictorial representation above, the size of the Cover is 815px wide by 314px high.

Cover (red) = 815px wide by 314px high

Here what you should recognize is that the Porfile Picture, represented in blue, is 125px by 125px. A white 5 px wide frame borders the Profile Picture, but for designing purposes we will imagine that the Profile Picture was superimposed and centered on a larger 135px by 135px box represented here in yellow.

Profile Picture (blue) = 125px by 125px
Outer square (yellow) = 135px by 135px

Before proceeding further, for simplicity and efficiency’s sake, superimpose the Profile Picture over the Timeline Cover and build the Cover around the Profile Picture according to the following dimensions:

When designing, omit the white frame (in yellow) and position the Profile Picture as leaving a 28px space between the left edge of the Cover and the left edge of the Profile Picture (in blue). The correct vertical positioning of the Profile Picture is achieved at a height of 87px from the top of the Profile Picture (in blue) to the bottom edge of the Cover, as illustrated by the red rectangle.

Cover Edge to Profile Edge Positioning Dimensions = 28px wide by 87px high

For your reference, I also added an additional reference rectangle, illustrated in green at 5px high and 23px wide, in case you’re looking to manually reposition and center the frame (in yellow) behind your Profile Picture.

Cover Edge to Profile Frame’s Edge Positioning Dimensions = 23px wide by 5px high

Now that you’ve been enlightened, share with us links to your creative Timeline Covers that best represents yourself as a musician, or your band.

Francis Bea is a New Yorker turned Chicago co-founder of Musefy.com (in development), Proptone.com and writes Musefy’s blog Musebox. You can find him at @francisybea or @musefy.

Music is pervasive in society, appreciated by the young and old to the fashionable, religious and sporty. So it’s not surprising that labels license musician’s tracks to high profile programs and recognized brands as a near guarantee to boost the band’s profile in the mainstream eye. But more so, the importance for such deals are paramount for musicians. For example, Michael Grubbs, the face of Wakey!Wakey! has One Tree Hill to thank for launching his career and placing his name in front of the public eye and into the public ears.

But of course, unless you’re lucky to have met the right person at the right time, as Grubbs had done, or you’ve signed to a music licensing service that happened to catch a producer’s or company’s eye, you’re stuck in a waiting game.

What appears to be an in-house traditional music video typified by the collaborative effort of bands and friends, “Punk Kids,” the latest hip hop and rock single by Portland duo Shadows on Stars, is in fact a strategic partnership with L.A. based womenswear designer Hellz Bellz, and indie menswear label, Gentleman by Day. Philosopher by Night. Pervert by Choice. Rebel by Fate. A third collaborator, Crooked Engine, directed the music video. In doing so, SoS is able to leverage the collaboration in two ways.

• Resources

SoS’s decision to choose clothing labels to work with is based on the vision for “Punk Kids,” starring a rebellious teenage antagonist in his anticlimax. What best exemplified Crooked Engine’s artistry was Hellz Bellz and GPPR’s sassy and subversive personality, embodied in their collections, but what SoS had also gained was the styling expertise of these fashion inclined labels to hit the video’s message home.

• Cross-cultural marketing

More importantly, from a marketing perspective, short of having your music featured on high profiled outlets including Grey’s Anatomy and Apple’s commercials, the cross industry collaboration with the fashion labels provides Shadows on Stars with an opportunity to reach out to a non-music demographic in addition to those that have Spinner and Pigeons and Planes bookmarked. Shadows on Stars saw its brand cross promoted through Hellz Bellz and GPPR’s respective social networks and blogs, that typically sees a fashion-centric demographic, but one that, like music, tends to have dedicated fans.

Shadows on Stars’ Reach

The recently formed Shadows on Stars, with 358 likes and 477 Twitter followers indirectly encompassed a secondary circle through their collaborator’s promotion of “Punk Kids” on their respective social media accounts – Hellz Bellz’s 3.6K Facebook fans and 6.8K Twitter fans and blog readers, GPPR’s 1.3K Facebook fans, blog readers and its founder’s 832 Twitter followers. So when you haven’t yet had your music tacked to a Ford or Starbucks commercial, but are considering filming just another music video, think about how you can leverage your resources and expand your band’s reach, outside of your own closed circle of fans.

• Give your CD cool cover art. Make your album cover and liner notes so cool and amazing that they can’t not buy it! This doesn’t mean your CD has to look tacky or gimmicky – unless that’s your style – it just means that the imagery and print quality should both be really good. They say never judge a book by its cover but that’s precisely what we all do, and the same applies to albums get yours noticed, make it look so cool that they want to have it in their hot little hands to show off to all their friends.
• Individualize or personalize the albums – this can be done in multiple ways, it just depends how much time, money and effort you want to spend on them. Some ideas include numbering the albums by hand to show just how limited a run, and therefore how valuable the CD is, autograph or draw pictures or write jokes or whatever takes your fancy on each album – make them all so different that the die-hard fans will have to buy more than one copy just because of this.
• Give something extra with the CD, whether that be a special download code for hidden tracks or remixes, stickers, buttons or other small tokens, to full on prize packs or gift packs with tshirts, your CD, stickers and some kind of limited edition or novelty item like a keychain lanyard, or tour-specific item for example.


Image credit: CuteDrop on Facebook

• Do something really interesting with your CD packaging, such as offering it packaged in a digipak with a foldout poster to put on the wall, or get your actual CD stamped with an interesting image or in a certain color. Get creative with it.
• Make your own zine, featuring beautiful high quality printed photos of your band, a bio and some anecdotes or interviews with band members and such and package your disc on the front, attaching it like it’s a giveaway with a music magazine and sell it for a slightly higher price – people love unusual, limited edition or creative items and packaging, it makes things more special.
• Don’t use a CD at all – instead have a DVD with your regular CD tracks and creative content like an interactive game or video clips of your band, or sell the whole thing on a small custom USB stick. Get creative, thinking outside the box and adding a little value to your CD is a great way to up your CD sales and make your fans happy.

This is a guest post by Pandie Suicide of Mixonic, a CD duplication service based in San Francisco. Click to like Mixonic on Facebook.

Here are some words of wisdom from those in-the-know:

Do Your Research

“You’ve got to have a very solid plan and go up to brands that are going to reflect your lifestyle.” – Samantha Pickard of Strut Entertainment

Read The Fine Print

“Know the terms of the deal and honour that commitment with the brand.” – Spee Chalkiotis of Neverest

Don’t Take Just Anything

“If you’re going to accept an endorsement, make sure it’s something you actually want to use and a company you stand behind.” – Dan Hay of Amos The Transparent

You Are What You Use

“Do these things with integrity and remember that the people who will see you play or wear certain things will associate these items with who you are as an artist. It’s important to be honest with your public.” – Jeff Stinco of Simple Plan

Make It Happen

Getting endorsed is not like winning the lottery. Artists that have a plan and know how to pitch themselves make for perfect candidates. If you’ve been booking your own shows and handling the publicity for your act, the pitching part should come fairly naturally. If you lack that experience, the best way to gain it is to dive in and learn to talk the talk.

You would speak differently to a music programmer at a radio station than you would a talent booker. The same can be said for gear companies. What needs to sit at the core of any pitch, however, is the mutual benefit attained by both parties involved in a prospective deal.

Image credit: oooh.oooh on Flickr

You need to demonstrate how your supplier is going to increase sales by offering you easier access to whatever it is you’re asking of them. If you’ve never toured, don’t have an album, or you’re playing one show a month at the local watering hole, you may want to reconsider the request. Tell them how many people you usually play to or which well-known artists you’ve shared the stage with. Anything impressive is going to show that opportunities come your way – opportunities that will come their way should their logo be somewhere onstage. Remember: They’re running a business, but so are you.

Every band with a good business plan should be able to demonstrate growth and profile, two key items that will open the gates to discounts and free wares. Drop a few hints about your goals for the next year and how they can involve the company. Be realistic: It’s hard to believe that a band drawing 50 people a week is going to be playing Glastonbury. (Not to say it’s impossible.) Useful items including how long you’ve been together and where you’re at in your discography would help as well. While your website and press releases should be available to them, you still want to make it easy to digest a fractional but punchy slice of what you’re all about so that they are inclined to research you further.

Stress your mandate. What is so special about you? There are some companies who are going to want to jump on the “next big thing” while some might feel safer about working with an artist who is fairly homogenous. Align yourself properly. Do your research and try to get a feel for what they look for and understand if it matches what you do.

Probably the most important aspect of your pitch should be your love for what they provide. Have you actually been using their stuff or are you just excited at the idea of someone helping you out? Here’s a test: What was the next thing you were going to purchase before hitting the road or playing that showcase? What do you need to replace? Is there something you can’t perform without? Find out who makes it – that’s the company you should be targeting. The best position you can put yourself in is to approach someone who could give you a discount on something you were going to buy regardless of the deal. If the deal doesn’t happen, you didn’t lose anything by trying. If they take a pass on you, thank them for their consideration and, if you’re still interested, touch base after you’ve developed your career some more. Building that relationship is more important than any material help.

Be sure to keep yourself in check and mull over the reasons why you’re looking for an endorsement. You can get caught up in the very idea of it and start to lose sight on the bigger picture. As cool as it could be, the sponsorship should be nothing more than another tool in your business plan. The last thing you want to do is start measuring your success by how many brands are backing you up. You’re an artist, not a stock car.

While it’s easy to talk about instruments when you’re on the topic of endorsements, there is a wealth of products out there you use night after night that could make your life easier. Basically anything that you can pay for has some kind of markup. Fortunately for you, this markup translates into a margin of sponsorship. With ever-evolving trends and fads, clothing is one of the bigger expenses you will face as an artist. You present yourself to people in photos, onstage, and at conferences, so you have to look your best within the parameters of your genre’s norms (unless you want to shatter those standards).

Pop-rockers Neverest – who’ve recently come off a tour with New Kids On The Block and the Backstreet Boys – aligned themselves with PF Flyers and Lucky Brand Jeans in order combat the war with laundry while on the road. “Clothes are definitely at the top of the list, especially when touring,” says lead singer Spee Chalkiotis. “The wear and tear of a tour is unbelievable.” Chalkiotis would like to drum up more lifestyle-oriented sponsorships with beverage companies, car companies, or cell phone providers to further cut down on daily expenses. “Everyone has needs.”

Neverest have been very happy with the relationships built with the brands they love. One thing Chalkiotis has noticed is the room for opportunity an endorsement can open up including subject matter for the red carpet, invites to perform at corporate events, and in-store concerts. “That not only brings business into the store, but we get exposure.” The discounts and free wares are only the beginning. “Don’t be afraid to start small and build on that relationship. Think outside the box.” And while he recognizes the need to promote the products used by Neverest, the singer couldn’t be happier to help. “We’re basically ‘walking billboards,’ but we definitely look forward to that.”

Atypical Clothing

If you’ve got the goods but lack the ability to negotiate a deal with your target sponsor, you may want to enlist the help of someone like Samantha Pickard, VP of PR firm Strut Entertainment. 3 Street Management gave Pickard the responsibility of hooking Neverest up with threads so that their resources could be better spent promoting and booking the act instead of dressing them. “They’re sweating through clothes on a nightly basis,” she says. “It’s very important to be saving that kind of money.” Seeing an opportunity to help the band stay on budget while looking good, she demonstrated to companies like PF Flyers how they could benefit from having a high-traffic, well-received group showcasing their line in the public eye. “Brands with less money to spend are looking at more grass roots partnerships.” She built a win-win situation for the client to digest and the deal was born.

Atypical Clothing, a relatively new apparel maker run by co-owners Logan Traynor and Matt Gardner, has been relying on the help of up-and-coming Canadian bands like The Artist Life and Victory Sweet Victory to spread hype about their designs. Without the ability to launch a multi-million dollar advertising campaign, the boys worked on the niche they were carving out and sent t-shirts to some of the bands they wanted to work with. Traynor thought the collaboration would benefit everyone involved: “It’s really hard to start out as an independent brand. The bands really help us grow.”

Those who accepted were usually so excited to represent the brand that they would immediately do photo shoots and post the pictures online for the fans to see. Atypical Clothing doesn’t feel the need to outline any promotional expectations with their artists because of how important it is to maintain this level of excitement with them. “You can’t get better than people on the Internet wearing your shirt,” observes Gardner. “A lot of bands wear their clothing sponsorships as a badge of honour.”

Once you’ve secured and nurtured one sponsorship, the rest are easier to come by. “Once you’ve built one positive brand relationship, you can leverage that in other categories,” advises Pickard. For those companies who have formal endorsement applications, you’ll often notice they ask for a list of other companies who are working with you already. This will not only demonstrate that people want to endorse you, but it also shows them whether you are picking products that match your lifestyle or if you’re just being whimsical.

Ryan at SABIAN also thinks it’s a good spot to determine if there is a conflict of interest between brands: “There’s kind of an unwritten rule in the industry where you don’t go out trying to steal people from other companies.”

You have to wear a lot of different hats in order to further your career in this industry. Convincing someone to give you things for free or on the cheap can be tough, especially if it’s too early in the game for you, but recognizing when an opportunity presents itself and how to capitalize on it is paramount.

If all else fails, you can always redeem your Air Miles.

Originally posted in the September/October 2011 issue of Canadian Musician magazine. Chris Gallant is a singer-songwriter and touring musician from PEI who likes to write about the things he wished he knew before entering “The Industry.” He can be reached at chris.s.gallant@gmail.com.

An oft-applied method of relieving some financial hardship in this industry is to acquire an endorsement deal. In a nutshell, you get easier access to your favorite products and services in exchange for some form of advertising to the supplier.

Everybody knows that celebrities help sell stuff. Television commercials are nearly plagued with appearances from actors and athletes confessing their love for some kind of a sports car or cold medicine, and the viewers aren’t ignorant to the rewards paid out for these cameos.

Musicians, however, often enter the world of sponsorships from a different angle. In the time leading up to their chart-topping success they can be found spending their last penny on that piece of gear, signature outfit, or stage prop that allows them to charge on and break new ground in this industry. Though they effectively mean the same thing, the music industry tends to prefer the word “endorsement” to “sponsorship,” something that hints to a feeling of support and passion rather than charity or corporate image. Musicians are quite vocal about the brands they trust, whether they partner with them or not; you won’t usually find an actor tweeting about their favorite toothpaste or eye cream without some hidden motivator.

What It’s All About

It’s pretty clear how an artist benefits from an endorsement, but there are more lenses to use from the manufacturer’s standpoint. “The feedback that we get from players using our pedals helps us refine what we do and improve our products,” says Aimish Wallace, Director of Operations at Diamond Pedals. Fans of bands become fans of the brands they use and this Nova Scotia based company has attributed a lot of its sales to its association with Buddy Miller (Band of Joy/Emmylou Harris). “He’s known as a real ‘tone guy’ and I think the people that are aware of that look pretty closely at the stuff he’s using to achieve his sounds.”

When you’re looking to get free gear you’ll probably think you have to be famous. SABIAN Cymbals’ Sales and Artist Relations Manager, Terry Ryan, describes it as visibility. Drummers like Daniel Adair of Nickelback and Neil Sanderson of Three Days Grace are keeping brand recognition alive when they beat their splashes and crashes in front of thousands of fans every night.

Image credit: steviep187 on Flickr

That being said, Ryan also thinks it’s very important to foster the relationship at an early stage when you find the right act. “Artists tend to need you more when they have no money,” he says, outlining the importance of fostering loyalty in order to keep your advertising economical. “You hope they elevate their career.” Assuming they do, a band that becomes an international success will prove a worthy investment for any endorser. “If you’re in Spain and Rush performs, our logo is the same… It gets us a wider visibility at a minimum cost.”

Ask Fred DiSanto of Godin Guitars what matters most and he’ll say: “Heart! All of our artists have played a Godin even before we were aware of it.” The company’s artist program is a vital part of its success as a manufacturer and goes hand-in-hand with media coverage and a great dealer network.

Rarely do reps like Wallace, Ryan, or DiSanto find themselves scouting for new artists when they get so many sponsorship requests from bands all over the country, but it can happen. When it does, the terms of the relationship are quite varied. Dan Hay, guitarist of Amost The Transparent, cites how his deals with Empress Pedals and Wicked Guitars came together: “When [we] started touring more and playing some bigger shows, they asked me if I’d like to use some of their gear on stage.” While working with these suppliers, Hay can happily play whatever piece of equipment he likes on stage. “They’re pretty easy going about my obligations. Unlike other companies, Wicked doesn’t require me to only use their guitars… same with Empress.” Amost The Transparent’s latest album features many tones shaped by his Empress pedals, including one that sounds like “a backwards spaceship.”

Advertising requirements are usually a big concern for somebody considering an endorsement deal – everything comes at a price, right? Simple Plan guitarist Jeff Stinco says it’s circumstantial but it can happen: When they weren’t busy recording, touring, and releasing their latest album, Get Your Heart On!, they were doing ads for manufacturers like Sennheiser, DiMarzio, T-Rex, Mesa Boogie, and Fender. “It’s a case-by-case thing and we always make sure that the company understands our desire to expose a product that we love in a very organic way. We don’t wish to become sales people; we are here to help spread the word.”

Image credit: katrinalopez. on Flickr

Being on the roster for a gear company comes with other perks than discounts and promotional outlets. Occasionally you’ll be privy to new products or services. Stinco explains: “We have access to some special tweaks that are not necessarily useful or available to the general public but help us out on the road.”

The other issue you might face with an endorsement is your ability to continue using the other brands you enjoy. Vans – well known in the music industry for their annual Warped Tour – expect a certain degree of exclusivity from their athletes but like to keep things more organic with their artist roster. Chris Overholser, Senior Marketing Manager for the company, says: “One of our main tenants is to support creativity. By being heavily involved in music we get to be front and centre.”

Holding a global perspective has allowed Vans to give back to those in need. An effort between the shoe company and Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament will see the proceeds from a signature sneaker help build a skate park on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota – a community with a tragic past and high rates of poverty. Overholser says that working with musicians has opened doors to these types of opportunities and is a very important bi-product of endorsement. “We want people to wear Vans because they care about what we’re doing.”

Originally posted in the September/October 2011 issue of Canadian Musician magazine. Chris Gallant is a singer-songwriter and touring musician from PEI who likes to write about the things he wished he knew before entering “The Industry.” He can be reached at chris.s.gallant@gmail.com.

These days the presence and existence of stolen music is not as much of an issue, with services like Rhapsody and Spotify putting the practice of torrenting and music theft partially out to pasture, the environment for free flowing music to once again thrive (this time legally) has been firmly established. Additionally, there are new and untapped opportunities for independent artists to gain control of their music and distribution like never before.

Image credit: cbhdesign on Flickr

Recently, Social Media Juggernaut Facebook expanded its pay per click ad system to include a link to privately owned third party website landing pages for website and business promotion. And (not surprisingly) bands and independent artists have taken advantage of this new feature and ad system with relative Gusto. Facebook’s simple but effective PPC platform makes it possible to target your ads so they are only seen by possible fans who share like minded interests.

For Example, if you are interested in promoting a release from a German industrial act, you can set the parameters of your campaign filter so that your ad will only appear on the pages of people with keywords similar to that musical genre. What’s more, you can target your ad geographicallyso that you can promote your release by the region and demographic where it is bound to get the best bang for your buck. Ideally (in this situation) you would set an age and demographic filter to specifically target people of a certain age and geographic bracket who would already be fans of your musical genre.

Facebook’s notorious data mining system that they have compiled about their users since the launch of the social media behemoth may now potentially serve as one of the most game changing digital advertising tools that everyone from a major label band, to an independent musician, to a music marketing websites to a wedding dj can potentially use to target their exact audience. What’s even more interesting is the ability to filter ads so they only appear on the pages of people who are “friends” of “friends” thereby increasing the odds that a “click” will turn into a “like” exponentially.

Increasing the odds that a “click” will turn into a “sale” is the name of game in PPC advertising. Lowering your Cost per acquisition, while increasing the probability that your ads are showing up in the right place (to the right potential customer) is one of the most defining principles of paid search. And with 250,000,000 million active and highly engaging users, Facebook is a great starting point when considering where to launch a social media campaign to take control of your musical career.

Ryan Michael Farrell is a former Professional Drummer for the international punk rock band Guttermouth and is currently working for Wpromote as a digital advertising and search engine optimization professional. Visit his blog at Rumstreet to learn more.

Until now, the reason behind signing up with Facebook has been to serve as a destination for your fans to keep up to date with the minute to minute happenings of your band and as a showcase for the mini battles that you’ve won. But Facebook’s f8 partnerships have opened up a whole new level of Facebook marketing, where offering your music through a Sonic Bids, Band Profile, or a non-partner Facebook App, despite the allure of the customizability, is no longer taking advantage of the social marketing “game” in Facebook.

Spotify on Facebook in ticker

If you’ve taken a look at the new Facebook ticker on the top right of the screen, you’ll notice your friend’s listening habits, courtesy of Spotify. Divert your eyes to the left navigation menu, below the category “APPS” and you’ll notice a permanent fixture titled, “Music.” Forget Pandora and Last.fm. Music has gone social – Facebook social.

Facebook's Music App

In theory, in a social world, users are inclined to listen to the music selected by their common denominator – namely their friends. You can see how Facebook Music has opened up an opportunity for listeners to be persuaded into listening to friend’s music tastes, instead of those of the automated machines that fuel Pandora and Last.fm.

But how this translates for musicians is that Spotify has gone from just another medium to publish your music, to THE medium for publishing your music. Prior to Facebook Music, unless you were spamming your friend’s walls with your music, you have the opportunity to capture the ears and attention of your listener’s friends.

Spotify’s Increasing User Base

Since the launch of Facebook music (and Spotify’s login changes that require a Facebook account to use the music service) according to Inside Facebook, Spotify has gained 1 million new monthly active Facebook users, up from their average of 3 million users per month. The increase in users makes it that much more necessary for your marketing arsenal.

How to get your music onto Spotify

If you’re looking to get your music up on Spotify, you can sign up for Tunecore’s music distribution service. But, as Information is Beautiful’s infographic, “How Much do Artists Earn Online“, shows, unless you’re seeing 4,053,110 plays per month of your Spotify tracks, which would earn you a minimum wage of $1,160 per month, don’t expect to be making a living using Spotify alone. Think of it as an investment into increasing your social presence.

Two Tips:

1. If you’re pitching your music to a particular blogger or journalist, sending them a link to your tracks on Spotify will guarantee that their network of friends will have access to your music, granted that the blogger or journalist does in fact listen to your music.
2. Create a custom Facebook landing page (using iFrames) that sends visitors to your Spotify tracks. As a result, upon their listening to your tracks, the news of your listener’s music choices – namely your music – will get published onto the listener’s wall and their friend’s tickers and music app.

Francis Bea is a New Yorker turned Chicago co-founder of Musefy.com (in development) and writes Musefy’s blog Musebox.

Image credit: decaens on Tumblr

He believes his retail chain, famous for its logo of a dog peering into a gramophone, will finish stocking CDs by 2016. “There will be a place for CDs, but it’s difficult to see out more than five years,” he said.

CDs reportedly reached their sales peak in 2004, but with the growing popularity of digital stores like Apple’s iTunes, and illegal downloading, CD sales began to falter.

It is hard to imagine how a high-street store like HMV will keep their doors open when digital stores have already carved a space online, and it could be difficult for ‘traditional’ retailers to enter the new marketplace.

However, HMV have a plan. In preparation for their uncertain future, HMV will re-focus their shelves and increase their stock of MP3 players, headphones and other technology products to account for 25% of their product range.

What do you think? Will CDs and their high-quality audio keep a place on your shelves, and will you keep releasing your music on CD? Or will you drop it all to go digital?

LA Noire: Soundtrack to Success Picture: IGN

A game’s soundtrack is integral to immersing the player in the world they find themselves in. It has many obvious uses – like a thunderous, empowering score during a huge battle sequence as the player frantically fights for survival and shoots for victory despite overwhelming odds.

But there are also subtleties at work – quiet, psychologically disturbing undertones – as a player slowly turns a corner not knowing what may jump out of the dark. So, just as in films, videogames employ a range of different music to enhance the public’s experience, ultimately immersing them into the world and storyline that has been created for their enjoyment.

L.A Noire, by Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games of Grand Theft Auto fame, is a great example of a game that utilises music to its advantage. Featuring an original score by British composer Simon Hale and songwriting by British band, The Real Tuesday Weld, the music in this game aids significantly the player’s immersion into the post-WWII Hollywood setting as players take on the role of Cole Phelps of the LAPD in trying to solve various crimes. The 1940s setting is brought to life by the audio heard throughout the game which helps to anchor the player to the setting.

However, L.A Noire is also of note when talking about videogame soundtracks, thanks to its novel use of the soundtrack as a device to propel the gameplay forward. When investigating a crime scene, faint music can be heard which alerts the player to clues critical to solving the case; the music only ends when all clues have been discovered. The evidence clearly demonstrates the importance of a good soundtrack to the success of a videogame, and helped propel L.A Noire to great success.

If I’m not convincing you of the importance of music is to videogames and their success – or lack thereof – then consider this: in May 2011 world-renowned metal band, Avenged Sevenfold, wrote and recorded a new song specifically for Call Of Duty Black Ops (more specifically the game’s Escalation downloadable content pack).

This could be taken as an indication that the music industry, itself, sees, or is at least beginning to see, videogames as an alternative distribution method, or a new way to increase its fan base.

Dotted Music’s latest columnist – Alexander Goodenough – will discuss the relationship between the videogame industry and the music industry in his column. Alexander is a freelance writer whose interests range from videogames and films to music; he has experience in magazine-editing and graphic design.