Archives for May 2014

#131: Ari Herstand – Should You Pay to Play?

Ari Herstand is asinger/songwriter and bloggerbased in Los Angeles, California. Ari has played over 600 shows and writes about being an independent musician on his blog, Ari’s Take. He also regularly contributes to popular indie music news and advice sites, including our very own DIY Musician Blog.

In this episode, Ari sits down with CD Baby’s Kevin Breuner to talk about the phenomenon of “pay to play” gigs for bands. Ari recently penned an article on the subject and it garnered quite a bit of attention, not to mention a lot of interesting responses. Before you consider paying for a gig, listen to Ari’s take on this controversial practice and learn how to look out for the pitfalls and scams that can leave an unwitting band in the lurch.

Get more info about Ari and his music at http://ariherstand.com

Check out his new album Brave Enough HERE.

#130: Benji Rogers – Fan Participation and Pledge Music

Benji Rogers founded Pledge Music to help musicians and fans share in the experience of creating albums. 6 years ago when Benji started Pledge Music, there were fan-funding platforms popping up left and right, but nothing that really focused on fan participation.

Benji explains that fans are given “thousands ways to buy music,” but what they are not getting is really compelling reasons to participate in an artists life.”

Benji believes that traditional crowd funding focuses too much on the amount of money being raised and not enough on the creative process and the artist-fan relationship. Pledge Music is designed to bridge that gap.

Questions or comments about this episode? Let us know in the comment section below!

#129: Ariel Hyatt – Fans, Fears, and Funding

Kevin interviews Ariel Hyatt, digital strategist, international speaker, author, and owner of Cyber PR. Ariel shares social media tips, music career advice, and her experiences and insights with crowd funding.

Ariel stresses that artists need to move past vanity metrics (likes, shares, and followers) and work on making real connections with real people. “Share, don’t sell” she says, referring to how artists should interact with fans. She also stresses that it’s important to build an email list, so that artists can connect with their fans beyond the confines of social networks like Facebook.

Ariel also discusses her upcoming book on crowd funding, and insights from her own experience raising funds via crowd funding.

Don’t miss this episode!