And I don’t mean musicians on tour – it’s more about people changing their location, moving between cities and even countries. While it’s generally obvious how to prepare for a long travel if you are a freelance writer or run a small online business (after a brief check I’ve found that there is a myriad of great resources for that, e.g. Location Independent or Free Pursuits), musicians might need access to not so evident things – like a recording studio.

And here I remembered the site that had been pitched to me few months ago, called Open Studio. Sounds like an appropriate deal, so let’s take a look at it.

Connecting Musicians And Rehearsal Spaces

Image credit: aileenrobot on Flickr

Rand Rognlien, Chief Musician’s Advocate at Music Nomad noticed that twenty percent of musicians utilizing the encyclopedic information at his site were looking for studio space. Inquiries were said to be from touring professionals and garage bands alike.

“We have over 250 studios listed on our site.” remarked Rognlien. “And we’ve researched every one to make sure it’s a legitimate business. Many studios are listed on sites like craigslist, but we’re the only site that goes the extra step to insure our musicians are dealing with reputable companies.”

And so he launched Open Studio, “allowing to hourly and monthly rehearsal studios to list their available rooms, and musicians to find available studios in their area using their zip code or city.”

If you’re a space owner, you can set up a profile of your studio and any room you have available. You can set up additional room profiles, and when a room becomes available, visit your profile page, check “Available,” and anyone coming to the site can now see your listing.

Promised to be added soon is a waiting list of musicians in any area that are looking for available monthly rooms.

If you are a musician, just enter your location and sort available studios by distance.

What might be not so attractive for bands and musicians at this point is that the site lacks what it is supposed to have – a large list of available studios (there are 25 listed when this post is being written). It might be due to very recent launch of the start-up (it’s still in the beta mode), so if you own a studio – be sure to add it to the directory.

What Open Studio also needs to become a true creative nomad’s assistant is support of more countries, though I’m not sure if this exists in the founders’ plans.

But if you need a rehearsal space in the US or own one – check out the site and let me know your thoughts.

Do you know any other services created specifically for musicians living a life of a traveler? Any tips? Share them in the comments!

The social buying and selling feature is an addition to TheIndie.biz’s Frindie application launched in April. Frindie is based on the concept that like-minded people (friends) tend to have like-minded tastes in music and is the basis for the social buying and selling feature.

The Indie

“We’re truly happy to be offering this unique opportunity for fans to be able to buy the music their friends are listening to right from their social media profiles,” said Damon Cleveland, TheIndie.biz’s CEO. “There really isn’t anything out in the market like it and we’re excited to be the first to offer this to our fans and member bands. This is what TheIndie.biz is all about, giving independent musicians and bands the avenues to sell their music to new audiences, while offering music lovers a taste of what their friends are listening to so everyone’s music experience is enhanced.”

In addition to allowing music fans to expand their music choices and enjoyment, with the social selling feature bands will be able to reach a growing, fan-driven audience as users listen to and post their favorite songs to their social network feeds right from TheIndie.biz. As people see the music their friends are listening to, they will be able to listen to and buy the songs that they like directly from their friend’s profile.

Independent musicians, labels and bands can post their music for sale and distribution through three primary options. The first package lets bands sell an unlimited number of songs and includes full membership to TheIndie.biz for a flat fee of $149 a year, plus a 15% fee per song sold. The second and third options are $7.95 per song, or $19.95 for three songs, plus a 30% fee per song sold.

The representation of the not too revolutionally new idea is pretty intriguing, in my opinion – give it a look.

And thanks to Rockethub’s newly launched community site, that’s about to get a lot easier.

“Musicians should know that crowdfunding regardless of the platform is still work,” cautioned Brian Meece, one of Rockethub’s founders. “It takes a strategy and organized thought to make the campaign come together.”

But formulating that strategy can be daunting, and finding information about what works and what doesn’t is difficult; crowdfunding is a relatively new idea, and aside from the odd user of the crowdfunding hashtag on Twitter, most artists, already unfamiliar with the demands of fund-raising, have few places to turn.

RocketHub

That’s where Rockethub.org comes in. The site was founded, Meece explained, on the idea of “learning [from] and supporting each other.”

To draw users and curious crowdfunders to the site, Meece and his partners wrote something they call The Crowdfunding Manifesto, essentially a road map that anyone can follow, “to galvanize both our community and help the overall ‘Crowdfunding for Creatives’ movement,” Meece explained.

The Manifesto helps artists understand what’s required to successfully fund projects based on their size, the importance of rewards, and what kinds should be offered, and more. Its insights can be applied to any crowdfunding platform, whether it’s Rockethub or a competitor like Kickstarter or IndieGoGo.

That is one of the most important things about Rockethub. “We really consider the other platforms colleagues in this new sector,” Meece stressed. “We share mentions by bloggers, radio shows, news articles etc. – and have a lot to learn from each other. In the end, choice stimulates demand for the overall market – and the pie gets bigger, which is good for all of us.”

Whether that means gaining insights into Kickstarter’s “fund and follow” approach, or chatting with fellow crowdfunders in Rockethub’s forums is up to you. The important thing is that there is now a place for you to do it.

Courtesy of WeAllMakeMusic.com. Reposted with permission.

MicControl

While music bloggers make up a significant portion of the overall population of the blogosphere, there are far too many blogs that just float along in cyberspace without the understanding or direction to put their blog onto the path of success.

Meanwhile, there are far too few artists who truly understand the power of a blog and why it should be used in congruence with a strong social media presence.

Therefore the purpose of The Blogging Side Of Music is twofold – First, to share some powerful insight with existing music bloggers as to how they can get on the right path towards success. Second, is to elaborate on the effectiveness and usefulness of a blog in any artist’s overall marketing strategy.

The bloggers featured throughout the series have all found success at their own levels of blogging, each with their own purpose and motives for establishing a blog in the first place. The following is the schedule for the 5-part series:

• Monday June 7: Matthew Moran – Musician/ Social Media Consultant
• Tuesday June 8: Dave Tamkin – National Touring Musician
• Wednesday June 9: Peter Malick – Award Winning Music Producer/ Blues Musician/Blogger
• Thursday June 10: Andrew Apanov – Editor-In-Cheif, Ultimate-Guitar.com/ Blogger (Jon, thank you!)
• Friday June 11: Christina Duren – General Manager, Ariel Publicity/ Blogger

While the need to record in a professional studio used to be the standard, the same quality of recordings can now be achieved from the comfort of your own home – you just need to know what you are doing. The purpose of this series is twofold – first, to explore different forms in-home recording in hopes of sharing some insight with other emerging artists looking to record their own music. Second, to expose the music of emerging artists who have put the time and effort into perfecting their craft.

MicControl

The music featured in Recording In The Home will vary from acoustic based blues to electronic based house, where the recordings were obtained in settings that range from an attic to a home-office based studio.

Except from interview with Eric Dennis – Metal Guitarist who goes by the stage name Daemon Blak:

Typical how many tracks will one of your songs contain? Can you explain the different tracks use?

On most of my songs, there are the following tracks – Drum rhythm tracks= 3-  main drum track for the primary beat, one fill track for cymbals, one fill track for drum fills, Bass track= 1. Rhythm guitar =2 tracks- one for left, and one for right, and Lead Track=1 for the guitar solo. There may also be two additional tracks for a lead harmony. That makes for an average total of 7 to 9 tracks for the music. There will be one track for vocals (when I find a singer), so the average track count is 7 to 10 total tracks, depending on the song.

Except from interview with ESEMDEE – Electronic Instrumental Composer:

Where do you get your samples from?

I hit the dollar (record) bins something serious. I had to not shop at the spot I go to for a while because I cleaned house. I got Prince’s “Purple Rain” album for .50 cents not too long ago. Everything from my 404′s & Cold Sores* album was made from dollar records. With vinyl back on the rise, so are the prices. I’m a man on a budget. If I’m feeling lazy, I’ll just sample whatever songs I have on my computer. It could have came out today or in the ’40′s.. I’ll sample it. When I first started, I was using the sound of a heart beat for drum kicks. I might record my vocals to chop up and throw in a track from time to time. I get my samples from anything and everything. I’ll record voice memo’s on my phone when I’m riding the bus or hanging out and use everyday events even. Nothing is safe. You can’t limit your sources.

This series is right in line with the goals and purpose of MicControl.com – to establish a learning network through the use the fully functional blogging platform, where musicians can teach each other and learn from past experience. While MicControl.com is a fully functioning music social network, the primary focus is blogging and learning – forming a level of engagement and trust within the music community that has yet to be established on the internet.

This was a guest post by Jonathan Ostrow. Be sure to check out his ‘Recording In The Home’ interview series next week and express your thoughts on the topic in the comments below.

Chairman and CEO of Metal Blade Records, Brian Slagel comments:

We are very excited about the launch of our own TV channel, Metal Blade TV! We are going to bring you not only content from Metal Blade artists, but from the entire world of Heavy Metal. We want to take you behind the scenes and see all the bands in a different way. Also there will be a lot of rare live video clips too! We really hope you enjoy this new venture from Metal Blade Records!

We Are The Fallen video shoot

What I also love about this idea is how Metal Blade looks to showcase metal from all over the scene on Metal Blade TV. From being one of the leading independent metal record labels, this shows a love for the game, which if you think about it, we are all fans of the game at heart.

Another fine example that comes to mind is Trustkill Records, and their involvement in the music scene running the website KillerTours.com. Such an upbeat and stylish website where you can find all of the latest tours, embed widgets of your favorite band’s upcoming shows, and there are also in depth CD reviews and interviews. You can just tell that the Trustkill guys have a love for the music scene as a whole, and will do anything to help spread the word. Killer Tours also sponsors tours, run ticket giveaways, and they help increases awareness for all involved.

Simply put, Killer Tours is the go-to-place to find all of your metal, hardcore, and punk shows. You’ll never be lost in the dark wondering when your favorite show is coming around. I mean, man, I’m always looking around for shows in the area, and a lot of the time you never know they are even there! Killer Tours is the perfect place to find the shows that you want to see. It’s an easy site to navigate through, and you can adjust the search engine to your local area, or to all around the globe. Seriously, go there right now, make a profile, and join in on all of the action. In the end, there’s nothing like a killer tour!

Originally, the website was going to be launched on January 10th, but was delayed due to technical issues. The blog, which was launched this month instead, is now up and running and is already loaded with posts on the industry and music in general. What I checked out in the first place, though, was the About and Take the Tour sections.

What the hell is it?

Tunited logo

The platform is aimed at music lovers and musicians alike, at this point being more of interest to independent artists. “It will be a level playing field where artists are not judged on which label they are signed to or even if they are signed to a label at all, but they are judged on the quality of their music and how they engage with their fans,” the description says.

Tunited promises 100% of profits from musicians’ music downloads and maximum transparency. “We’ll let you know the why, where, how and who of everything on our site and give you a context to place it in. For example, we will be showing you where every penny goes of a 79p download.”

The site is based on four cornerstones: Create, Collaborate, Promote and Enjoy. Here’s a description for the Promote section:

Now this is the section to be rinsed for all it’s worth. Tunited has a pool of industry experts, A&Rs and producers poised to give advice and feedback on Tunited’s artist roster and scout the latest talent to sign. Add to that some marketing advice, a facility to produce merch and press up CDs at a low cost as well as a contacts list for industry people and you will be set. Listeners can promote the new music they love too by recommending bands and uploading tracks to playlists and widgets.

Sounds kind of familiar, but still not bad huh?

Asked if Tunited gives any priorities to particular music genres, the service’s Managing Director Matt Stanley told Dotted Music: “Tunited will be multi genre and we will attempt to cover as many genre within the editorial as possible.” He added, however, that Indie, Rock and Dance Music are expected to be three of their biggest categories.

And here is why you may care, if you are an artists yourself: you can become one of the first 100 profile artists featured on the website when it launches. Just submit your details (and upload a demo mp3) at this page. The competition closes at midnight on 31.01.10.

If you are not a musician, this service – self-proclaimed “a music lover’s paradise” – might be your destination as well. Head to the blog for more info.

Conclusion

It’s too early to praise what haven’t been launched in full yet, time will tell. But Dotted Music stays tuned. I might get a bit more of useful comments after meeting the company at MIDEM next week.

PS: I love how Tunited is impregnated by powerful mottos. Remember I mentioned Midge‘s loud statements at the beginning? Check this out:

“With Tunited, we’re not just opening doors for new artists – we’re blowing the doors right off, Italian Job-style!”

A brief tutorial on the site shows that the tool allows bands to automatically plan tours using a tour router (built on Google Maps API). This takes the hassle out of planning and booking, which I believe is true. The product is designed “to assist new artists who lack management experience to help move their careers from the garage to the arena.” You should note, however, that it can only be used for planning gigs across North America.

TourSavant.com logo

One of TourSavant.com‘s pleasant advantages is that it welcomes bands to contact them from the road for assistance with issues they may face. “I learned a lot about what these bands need while keeping the band Cactus’s going on the road for over six months… my passion for new bands led me to think about how to help others,” says music industry veteran Paul Rogers, who formed the site and business in late 2008. With his aid, Cactus’s moved from the garage to an industry showcase at the famous El Mocombo Theatre in six months time.

The site is a membership-based community. Features include GIGTONIGHT, a free service that sends a text message to bands within a four-hour radius of a venue available in the next 24 hours. The basic membership costs $12.50 per month and the PRO Level 24/7 band concierge is an additional $89 per month. Each membership comes with one personalized loadable TourSavant MasterCard, which has discounts at numerous gas stations and hotels (a very smart partnership, in my opinion).

While the concept behind the project and its features sound exciting, I’ve got only one complaint / advise to whoever is responsible for the site itself: get through with your design. Right now, it’s a mess, and such assumption isn’t acceptable nowadays – especially when you are asking for money to become a member of your website. A good example of how a service like this should look like is bandize.com, which seem to include lots of useful organizing and planning tools, but lacks some major TourSavant’s features (I shall test it out in the nearest future though).

Conclusion: once the site gets a serious redesign, I may start recommending this to anyone going to tour in the States.