The Best Local Eats for Touring Musicians

Finding healthy food is one of the most frustrating challenges that bands face while on the road. Indie bands My Brightest Diamond and Clare and the Reasons are currently on a three month national tour (following their recent European tour) and write to us with a list of healthy restaurants that they have found along the way.

Happy Thanksgiving!

From My Brightest Diamond:

We are a van of six lovers of the healthiest food available. After two months of culinary glory in Europe we came to the states with gastronomical trepidation. With our mighty van internet and a lovely network of like-minded food-lovin’ friends and a healthy portion of each morning dedicated to research, we found and would like to share our little wealth of health and tastiness.

Unemployment Benefits for Musicians

Nationwide unemployment insurance first began in 1935 in response to the Great Depression.  At that time 25% or more of the United State’s workforce was unemployed. The unemployment insurance program…

Bassist Doug Ross: The Path Less Taken

How do you make a career out of playing music? This is one of the most common questions I get from the young, aspiring professional musicians I teach at L.A. Music Academy. It’s a difficult question to answer, because every pro musician has a unique story and occupies a unique niche in the business. Let’s face it: there really is no civilized job placement system for musicians! But that is not cause for despair. It only means that, like any other entrepreneur, you will need to be creative, flexible and open to whatever opportunities arise as you build your career.

And I do mean build. A career in music is an ever changing, growing, evolving thing. It sometimes seems to take on a life of its own, quite apart from your original intentions. I can’t tell you how your own story will play out, but the one thing I can assure you of is that it will not go exactly as you had envisioned! Mine certainly hasn’t. As an example of just how magically, alarmingly, unpredictably a career can develop, I offer my own humble story.

Job Profile: Music Career Specialist Heather McDonald

A few weeks ago, I had coffee with a friend of mine. She’s younger than me – she’ll be graduating from college in May and she’s wondering what to do with her life. She went on and on about this job or that job, dismissing most possibilities as not lucrative enough, wondering if she should go to law school because that’s what everyone else seems to be doing, and balking at my suggestion that because she has NEVER had a job before, like it or not, she’s probably going to be looking at a low paid, entry level position. (OK, “friend” is a strong word.) Then, she took a sip of her drink, put it down, looked me square in the eye and said, “do you think you’ll ever get a real job?”

She’s not the first to ask (honestly, is my mom in on this?). But these kinds of questions make me more pensive these days, because you see, my main job in the music industry right now is to talk to you about your job in the music industry. I spend a lot of time telling people that they should treat their musical ambitions, whatever they may be, as a job and work hard at them as such. Then I also warn them that they should get used to working long, hard, thankless days and that most people will think that they don’t work at all. Hey, it’s not pretty, but it’s honest. It’s one of those music industry conundrums.

Lyricist Yip Harburg and the Great Depression

There were two things in the news last month that really moved me. First, the talk of a looming second Great Depression and second, the death of Studs Terkel.

It was about 3 months ago that I came across a tattered copy of Terkel’s book Hard Times – a collection of stories about the Great Depression – while stopped at a roadside book sale. The book had sat on my shelf for a few months, but with the news this week I thought it was time to take it down and start reading.

Average Income of a Musician

Straight freelance musicians typically make a living on not just one of these areas, but in many, if not all, of these categories. Few musicians are able to devote all of their time to just once kind of music income, and in fact, I would assume that musicians that only devote themselves to one category of music income do not make very much money.

Regarding freelance income, geography has a big impact on one’s income potential (but also on one’s expenses). Living in a small town in Kansas may not net you the volume of work that would be available in a large population area. That said, although one might associate music careers exclusively with only the highest population centers (New York, LA for example) it is still possible to make a living as a musician in a smaller population centers. I have met musicians living and working comfortably in cities like Phoenix, San Francisco, Orlando – even St. Paul, MN and Richmond, VA. I do not mean to suggest that one could make the same living freelancing in St. Paul as one could make in New York City, as that is not true. I only mean to suggest that towns like St. Paul may have enough volume of work for musicians to make a living.

Getting Started as a Musician

You are in one of 3 scenarios:

1. You are in your teens or twenties and you’ve decided college or working full time is not for you and you want to be a musician and break onto the scene.
2. You’ve just graduated music school with a degree in music and you want to break onto the scene as a musician.
3. You are in your 30’s, 40’s, 50’s or 60’s and you have always wanted to be a musician. You’ve decided now is the time to break onto the scene.

The question I get most often in lessons or at clinics is, “How do I get a gig?”

This is a million dollar question. No matter what your proficiency level or age, this is an answer everyone wants to know and as soon as I find the answer, I will write an article titled, “I have the answer on how to get started and how to get a gig.” In the meantime, I’m happy to share a few suggestions that I’ve learned through personal and professional experience about getting started. This is by no means, an all inclusive list and it comes with no guarantees.

Vermont Musician Defends Appeal Against Drug Maker Wyeth

In 2005, professional guitarist and pianist Diana Levine won a lawsuit against the drug company Wyeth, resulting in $6.7 million of compensatory and punitive damages. Levine claimed that the drug company had given insufficient warning of the possible side effects of their products. The U.S. Supreme Court is ruling this week on an appeal made by Wyeth.

Metadata for Musicians

Metadata is your digital liner notes, embedded in every file. As more music is consumed digitally, both bought and traded, the metadata in those music files matters. At the most…

Search Engine Optimization for Musicians and Bands

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is process of making the content on your website most easily understood and indexed by search engines. If you do it right, you will be closer to the top of the list when strangers search for terms relating to your website.