8 Great Tools & Resources for Musicians (That You’ve Likely Never Heard of) Pt. 1
If you’re anything like me, you’d much rather spend your time writing music than tracking down tools and resources for building your writing career. Well, I decided awhile back that someone (me) should do this hard work, so that the rest of the world’s musicians could focus on what you do best (you’re welcome :-). It’s easy to get overwhelmed by information overload, so I’m going to publish these resources slowly over time (if you don’t want to wait, here’s a place you can find more great tools and resources for musicians.)
Crowd Reviews/Market Research
How do you know if people like your music? Asking friends and family is a place to start, but they’re already fans and aren’t usually the most objective of critics. It’s imperfect, but there are services out there that allow you to upload tracks, and they send them out to listeners for feedback.
One of the main concerns with services like these, of course, is: who are the people that are listening to your music and giving you feedback? This is an important part of the equation, and unfortunately there is no perfect way to make sure that the feedback you get is accurate and ultimately helpful. That said, objective feedback is valuable, and as long as you correctly manage your expectations, you’ll likely find it worth the time, effort, and cost to try out one or more of these services.
Market research for music creators. Analyze your song in a survey of real listeners.
People-powered promotions. Access people who can promote your work and give you feedback.
Music Xray is the industry’s leading song & talent filter. Over 1,000 songs & acts selected for opportunities each month.
Find out if your music is radio-ready.
We predict the future…when you have no data. Crowdsourced foresight. Access the wisdom of the crowd 24/7. Go beyond trend and gut. Don’t just think. Know.
Purchase track smarts reports today and get ratings, reviews and advice from real music fans.
Want to use one of these services, but don’t know which one to go with? Here are a couple of good articles to check out:
“SoundOut vs. TuneCore Track Smarts vs. ReverbNation Crowd Review”:
http://passivepromotion.com/crowd-review-track-smarts-soundout-audiokite-music-xray
“How to Objectively Pick Your Best Songs (or Find Out if You Suck)”:
[NB: I can’t get Medium to process the above link properly (perhaps it’s too long?) So…the only thing I can suggest is to Google the title of the article. Both articles are great…Ari and Brian know what they’re talking about!]
Music Blogs/Press Releases/Exposure
A lot of musicians are familiar with Hype Machine for finding new music to listen to, but less are familiar with the list of 722 curated music blogs that power Hype Machine. Most music blogs accept submissions from artists, but they’re only interested in artists in certain genres. Using Hype Machine’s blog page, you can click on the tags that describe your genre to quickly find top music blogs that you can submit to.
Sales
Pledge Music: There are a lot of ways for musicians to get their music into the hands of their fans, but there are very few that provide a platform that is substantially different. Pledge Music is one that provides a unique platform:
A full service music company that connects artists and fans from the minute they step into the studio to the release of a project to the end of a tour and back again.
