Recording Using Ubuntu

You know I am into my recording, right? :)

One of my friends Mahesh, an excellent singer and songwriter, has started a blog all about creating music.

He's just posted an excellent introduction to Recording In Ubuntu.

For those unfamiliar with Ubuntu, it is a popular Debian based operating system.

It's a new blog, but I think it will be well worth subscribing.

5 Critical Elements Of Your Band Bio

One of the fundamentals of the modern band and band web site is the Band Bio. Many bands struggle to write an effective bio.

With a little thought and by paying attention to the following guidelines your bio will stand out by it's quality alone.

5 Critical Elements Of Your Band Bio

1. Who Are You?

The most important elements to include are fundamental to any bio. You should include:

Your band name

Your location

Your contact information

A description of your music

Your influences

First impressions really, really count. Your bio is often the first impression that people get of your band. Simply put, the first paragraph of your bio is very important.

Your first paragraph has to grab attention and hold it. It has to be interesting, informative and engaging.

Don't make huge unfounded claims about how fantastic you are, that sort of bio text does not give a good impression. In fact unrealistic or fantastic claims actually work against you as people often read it as "unrealistic". Far better to tell them the facts in an interesting way and let them be impressed by that.

2. What is your Band Doing Currently?

You should also include some info on your current band activities. For example do you have a planned tour or are you touring just now? Are you releasing a new album? Or busy recording songs towards a new album? Are you writing new material? You get the idea.

3. Background

If you include any other background information, make sure that it is relevant.

One of the most common mistakes is to include information along the lines of “Rick has been playing violin since he was 4 years old. At 7 he began learning the guitar and performed his first gig at only 9 years old. At 10..."

Uggh.....

Industry pros will just toss your bio in the trash as soon as they stop yawning.

By all means include something about your relevant musical history but be brief, keep it interesting and present it in a way that it doesn't simply become a list!

4. Highlights and Achievements

You definitely want to list your successes. You may have had your music played on the radio, have collaborated with a musician or music producer, won a battle of the bands or similar competition.

Make sure that the most attention grabbing, flattering story about your band is featured in your bio!

5. Your Band in the Press and Media

You can include press quotes in other parts of your bio, for example to help describe your band sound, or the power of your performances, but you should try and include at least one press clip in your bio.

General Band Bio Tips

Apart from the critical elements of your bio mentioned above there are some more general things that you should be aware of:

No Typos

If you think that a typo or two would not count against you, think again. A simple rule: NO TYPOS (now that I have mentioned that, I bet someone finds some in this post!)

Honesty

Under no circumstances make up things to enhance your bio. It will be found out, and when it is the consequences are simply that professionals will not work with you and your reputation can quickly be ruined.

I'll say that again, don't make stuff up!

Create More Than One Version of Your Band Bio

You should make several versions of your bio so that it suits the purpose and needs of the moment. You should create the following versions:

• Elevator Pitch - Be able to describe your music in 30 seconds, i.e. only a couple of sentences.
• Short Bio - 1 paragraph
• Medium Bio- 3 paragraphs
• Long Bio - 1 full page

The various media outlets, festivals and conferences all have different requirements. Being prepared with different versions to hand means that you can react quickly to opportunities with a minimum of stress. Writing on spec when you are presented with an opportunity will lead to sub-standard pitches, which will do you absolutely no favors.

Images

If you include any images alongside your band bio, make sure they fit well with your band image and they are of a good quality. Images help to break up the text a bit. You do not need lots. One, possibly two, will do as you will have some form of folio in your press kit or website (I hope). Images can also bring a distinctive quality to a bio, so make sure it stands out for all the right reasons!

Keep Your Band Bio Up-to-date!

When you achieve something more, get featured, play a huge gig etc make sure that you add it to your band bio


Useful Related Links

Electronic Press Kits

Songstuff Music Industry Articles

Songstuff Music Business Brief


Conclusion

It really doesn't take much effort to put together a good Band Bio and it is well worth the time to make it as good a quality as you can.

What To Do Before Posting Your Songs On The Internet

There are millions and millions of songs posted on the internet by aspiring artists that have failed to take the simplest steps BEFORE posting their song.

So what do you need to do?

3 simple steps to protect your rights, and any income from your music.


Step 1: Register Your Songs With The US Copyright Office and National Libraries

If you are not living in the United States, this section STILL APPLIES TO YOU. As soon as you put your music on the internet in any form they will be crossing copyright regions into the United States as soon as a US visitor plays or downloads your song.

If you plan to sell your songs registration with the US Copyright Office is absolutely essential.

The US Copyright Office is part of the US government. They maintain a database of songs with copyright claims of ownership on a certain date. It's cheap at about $35 per submission. Submissions don't need to be a solitary song, you can submit an album worth of material and the cost will still be $35.

There is an online submission site for the US Copyright Office:

Electronic Copyright Office

For further information please visit the US Copyright Office.

Write out Lead Sheets for your songs and then submit them to your national and other important libraries. Submit your lead sheets to, for example: the British Library, Oxford & Cambridge Library, The National Libraries of Scotland and Wales, in the UK, Trinity College, Dublin; and in the USA: the U.S Copyright Office - Library Of Congress etc.

Note:

I would strongly suggest that you write out lead sheets for your songs and then submit your works to the big libraries before sending anywhere.


Step 2: Create An ISRC Code And Encode It Into Your Recording Master

An ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) unique to you and the recording and is added to your track master. It identifies the specific recording of the song as being yours. This makes the job of logging radio airplay and that makes royalty collection much easier.

The RIAA no longer supplies ISRC codes. US citizens should now apply for ISRC registrant codes to the USISRC

USISRC Website: https://usisrc.org

In the UK you should request your unique base ISRC Code from the PPL.

PPL Website. http://www.ppluk.com/

From the base ISRC code you can create an entirely unique code for each recording you intend on releasing.

For general ISRC information please visit
http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_resources/isrc.html

When you send your music (in any recorded form) to a radio station, make sure you include a TYPED PAGE containing the ISRC codes for the submitted songs.

Notes:

• Radio stations do not extract ISRC codes from wav files, MP3 files, CD's or CDR's.
• ISRC Codes are not embedded into the audio files on a CDR
• ISRC Codes are not embedded in MP3 Files when they are converted from wav files
• ISRC Codes can be included in MP3's using ID3 Tags to add information about the song name, artist, copyright etc to be embedded.

ISRC codes are not "embedded" into the actual audio files on your mastered CDR (PMCD, "Pre Mastered CD").

Sending someone a mastered CDR does not automatically provide them with your ISRC codes. You need to supply accompanying documentation.

To encode an ISRC yourself yo uwill need a redbook capable CD authoring program. Both Wavelab 7 Retail and CD Architect 5.2 are capable of doing this. Adobe Audition CS5.5 I understand no longer supports this format but they are reconsidering reintroducing it. Make sure you review the specifications before you buy a product as specifications DO change!


Step 3: Register Your Songs With A Performing Rights Society

Depending on exactly what country you are in will make a difference to which rights society you register your songs with.

To start off with you will need to register with the appropriate performing rights society , and then register your songs with them. When you register your songs you will be able to include your ISRC codes in the song registration.

Many performing rights administrators provide software to easily allow you to register your songs and edit any song information that you place in their database.

In the US ASCAP, BMI and SoundExchange in the UK PRS For Music are common collection agencies. Each country has one or more collection agencies representing songwriters and publishers. There are many more. You can find a list of collection agencies here:

Professional Bodies


Recommended Links

If you would like to talk about this article or any of the points raised please go to:

Songstuff Songwriting and Music Community

Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment below!