Muzik Mogal

tweakin the page

2008-06-14T06:54:00.000-07:00

i have recently been so swamped with requests of help on myspace that i decided to put up a small how to and help page couple links for rescources and things like that....its not great visually and i have to get some of the links up but by this time next week it should be up and running so keep an eye peeled for that.

new from dez

2008-06-07T06:57:00.000-07:00

because of the popularity in my advice column i have decided to do a teleconfrence and short course on how to promote your music online the cost will be low but so will the available spots email me at dez.rockbeddor@gmail.com for any interested.

i know better

2008-05-31T07:40:00.001-07:00

I have been around the music game long enough to have learned all of the tricks. I own my own PR firm and have managed several bands, but there is one thing that all of the successful bands had that most people (especially on myspace) don't have or don't understand.....you need a buisness mind....or atleast understand a few basic things about the industry.
1 its not easy and there are no backdoors into the biz...you have to EARN it.....
2 it takes money to make money....labels put thousands of dollars into you. Why can't you come off of 100 or 2?....
3 people are going to rip you off along the way...you can't stop it from happening...just try to control how often and for how much....
4 the only sure thing is that there is no sure thing...case in point....a few years back on American Idol...a man named William Heung tried out and failed the first audition....an indy label gave him a record deal and he sold more than 100,000 copies of his bad karaoke songs......your thinking 100k big deal....RAY J...mr secret video with Kim Kardashian has a huge PR firm under him and videos on the tv...spokes people and the whole 9....sold a desolate 60,000 copies of his newest album...no sure things....ever!

I'm trying to say this....if you are on here to get your music career started..good...its a great starting point....but thats all this place is....if you are not going to take your music career seriously enough to put a few dollars into yourself why is anyone else supposed to do it for you?
I have helped a lot of you but everyday i get 50 messages saying: "teach me how you do this for free"....so I take the time I have and give away tips on how to do this for free...I could do like everyone else and instead send you to my PR firm and charging you 10k....However I actually enjoy helping out the up and commers...but what I dont like is this.....people who expect to get it all for free.....in the music biz NOTHING is free! Not even my free advice is entirely free....I give it away for free but when it helps people they tell thier friends to look me up and those friends do the same ...eventually I have built a good online presence and more of the major labels start using me and my PR firm for promotions.....in music everything costs...so please if I tell you how to do something for free use it as much as you can....if I say you need to spring for a 40$ website .....in the grand scheme its only 40$ and the advice I have already given you would have cost you hundreds if not thousands in comparison.....so you are already saving money .....have a bit of faith in yourself and go for it.....dont balk at the 40$ then continue to ask me for free tips....it shows me you aren't serious about what your doing and are just wasting my very valuable time, as well as the time a serious artist could be getting.
I recently helped another band on here.....we will call them band X....they sprung for the site from host baby and are doing great I have helped them build a strong street team in thier area.....cd sales are building and they are growing financially....I also spent 2 weeks helping out this other individual artist...he actually had more talent than the other band ..in my opinion...but he only wanted to do the free stuff.....I helped him out and he is building fans......slowly...but they are building and his cd sales have only climbed like 5%. Eventually he will get there but the work he is putting in pays off in small dividens...its what you do when you have to do it the free way.....if its eat and do things for free of it the free way...but if its new xbox game or website to help my musical career...that shouldnt be a hard decision.
Its important you guys know this ...I dont get paid for any of this...I dont get kickbacks from the places I send you, they dont give me buisness in return....they are simly the best places to visit for the cost...the same places i would use in a low budget PR campaign.....infact when i help you I send you on the same path i take ...the reson i dont charge you for what i tell you is because you are doing the work not me....if you went to my firm i would do the same things i am telling you to do but since we are doing them it costs way more...all I actually get from you for my adice is people tlking about me and hopefully talking to thier labels and friends about me. I'm not trying to rip anyone off. Its aggrivating to see people not take the chance on theselves ...its 40-100$ and the tips I give out are worth thousands....I just dont get it....you have already saved so much and being asked to invest so little how can you not believe in your music enough to invest that little bit?

ok im off the soap box ...just people please....put faith in your music and really go for it.....I like to think of things like this
" If you do what you have aways done, You will get what you have always gotten."
in other words ...every now and then take a small calculated risk and hope for the best....if it didnt work...oh well the potential payoff should have been worth the loss ..ie.. 100$ for a website...vs......a possible major music career.
Dez

colleges pay better

2008-05-24T04:43:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about ways to get more money quicker....as we all do...and I remembered hearing about a band you may know "the Dave Mathews Band" and how they came up through the college scene....i was thinkin bout how many guys are in that band and how much it would have to make to be able to use music as thier full time gig.....the numbers had to be there....so i started looking into how much money you could actually make playing the college circut...here is SOME of what i found:

Have you ever heard of the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) or the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities (APCA)?

These organizations have regional and national conferences in the U.S. where independent, unsigned musical acts of all kinds play in front of hundreds -- sometimes even thousands -- of college campus entertainment buyers.If you do well at a NACA or APCA showcase, you should be able to book dozens of college shows worth TENS OF THOUSANDS at one time. The catch is ...most indie artists don't even know about this market, and those who do know about it are confused and or intimidated by it.

there is a submission process and an interview with the heads of the NACA and APCA as well as a few other steps. I am currrently researching and writing a How to guide on how to book in this market as well as find a reputable booking agent. so stay tuned for that.

got your own BIZ?

2008-04-20T07:02:00.000-07:00

Recently i was talked into promoting for a couple small unsigned local bands .....they are both doing good but one of them put a little more effort into the promotion and they have blown up! atleast here...i havent done a national promotion yet but just in their local market they have alreadybooked gigs for the next two months and are setting up an east coast mini tour....they opted to set up a street team and we have a full street team in a few hours not to mention the growth of the fan base and now they have three major label offers and a slew of indie offers......it has gone so well for them that i am thinking about opening up a promotion company... I charged them $1500 flat fee to cover everything...set up a few gigs.....got them a website.....doubled ther plays on here (myspace) and set them up with a new website and kicked off thier street team recruiting....and they have already made thier money back!
Sounds like im braggin........I am LOL...they got quotes of 4900 for the same stuff and i produced better than the other place offered.....The funny part is it was so easy to do I could have offered a money back gaurantee...tell me what you guys think...should I open a biz or just help out a few people here and there.....im excited about how well it worked...i just dont want to get in over my head....tell me what you guys would do.
Dez

changing the industry!!!!

2008-04-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

I have gotten together with a few web savy friends of mine and we have built an invite only music social networking website its going to have forums, profiles a section for connetcting with labels managers and all kinds of industry reps and other musicians...there is no other place like it on earth....look for its official launch soon....if your interested in an invite please message my Myspace page.....stay tuned for details.

2008-03-22T05:49:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,
i have been contacted by a reader of the blog and he informed me of a blog of his own that is designed to help out musicians please check it out here:

http://gigdoggy.wordpress.com

he has a lot of good information and if you cant find it on one of my rescource pages you can find it with him.
Dez

sell 3 to 4 times more cds with blogs

2008-03-22T05:25:00.000-07:00

I was doing my research online and found this recently published article:
A fascinating study from NYU’s Stern Business School was just released. This study was based on the correlation of album sales and blog posts, and the researchers discovered the following:
If 40 or more blog posts were made before an album’s release, sales ended up being three to four times the average for both independent and major label releases.
If blog posts crossed 250, album sales rose to six times the average regardless of label."

Keeping this new info in mind I have decided to put together a guide on how to get your music Blogged about...for all interested in a copy of the guide email me at Dez.rockbeddor@gmail.com with the subject "BLOG ME" and i will send you a free copy to help you out....

if you are interested I will review your cd and blog about it on both my blogs....giving you 2 to start with meaning you only have 38 more to go ....and the guide will explain how to do that :) If you want your music blogged by me friend request me on myspace ( www.myspace.com/muzikmandez )with a note saying "blog this" and ill check out your page and blog it for you, or email me at the gmail account if you dont have a MySpace page.
Dez

Copy laws

2008-03-22T05:24:00.000-07:00

I found an article that was more than informative about copyright laws for bands and music.....its really basic and explains 11 common myths about copyright laws....believe it or not once you write it down its copywritten...well basically...check out the link....this guy explains way better than me.
http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

Free for you

2008-03-22T05:23:00.001-07:00

I contacted a buddy of mine and got him to agree to give away a limmited number of his ebook for free. I can only give away a few copies so, the people that sign up for this blog will recieve a free copy of "new internet stratagies" it is a good starting point for learning how to use the net to your advantage....kind of a prelude to the upcomming project i have been talking about....once you have the book its yours...give it away to your friends....list it as a freebie on your website whatever you wanna do with it but im only giving away a certain number of copies then its gone so sign up soon. send your request to dez.rockbeddor@gmail.com with the subject EBOOK
thanks
Dez

Sell your sample..

2008-03-22T05:22:00.000-07:00

I found this article that explains how to sell a song if you have "sampled"somone elses song.....it explains the royalty rates and who to contact and why so you can sell your song without gettin gin trouble.

http://cdbaby.net/dd-covers

sell a song

2008-03-15T06:58:00.000-07:00

hello all....I have put together a few connections and I found a advertising company that is looking for a song....the song needs to be up tempo...they have an account for a well known german car company who is going to be running a comercial where there are two cars involved in a chase....the lead guy on the project is a friend of mine and I told him I would see what I could come up with...hopefully he likes what I can send him......

This is where you guys come in....anyone who would like to have thier song submitted to him needs to send me an mp3 of the song along with contact info. My stipulation is this....you must be a reader of this blog...im not giving away jobs to just anyone...and since I dont get paid for this and you would...the least you can do is listen to what I have to say right....so sign up for the blog and send me your sogs to Dez.rockbeddor@gmail.com
I cant wit to hear your entries.

myspace mistakes

2008-03-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

The 4 MySpace mistakes you are probably making
In today's internet world everybody who is anybody or even dreams of being somebody has a MySpace page. If you do not have a MySpace page yet you are letting one of the best marketing tools of the decade pass you by. These days even employers ask about and check MySpace pages so please believe perspective fans are going to do the same thing. Be careful of how you run your page though, making the wrong decisions can hurt your chances of adding a loyal fan. We saved you some time and scoured the net, polled MySpacers, and viewed hundreds of pages to come up with this list of don't do's.
1 Don't use MySpace as your web page. MySpace is great but it's not intended for you to setup shop there. Think of MySpace as a night club or bar; it's a great place to meet people and maybe even get your music out there but it's not where you would conduct business. The cost of a website is small compared to the things it can do for you. If the CEO of a major music company wanted to see proof of your internet fan base would you really refer him to a MySpace page? Having the ability to send him to a professional looking site that has stat trackers about fan support, site traffic, record sales, and upcoming events (just to name a few options; there are MANY more) would be far more impressive. See our website chapter for more reasons to get a site.
2 Writing Lots of text. Writing a short blurb about yourself or your band is expected. Writing a 10 paragraph synopsis of your music style and inspirations for songs is overkill. People are going there to get a small amount of information and listen to a song or two. If they want more, they can go to your website where you can entice them with info and hopefully sell a few cd's.
3 Using your MySpace as email. Believe it or not this is done more than you would think. I can't recall the amount of times I've heard "MySpace me" when asked for an email as a contact point. What could be less professional? You would be better off saying "I don't have one yet".
4 Design problems. Your page is going to have content about you right? Wouldn't it be great if the fans were able to read it? There are 2 major design mistakes running rampant on MySpace pages today. The first is the background Image. Why put the effort into what you are saying about yourself and or your band if you are going to use a pic that makes your page hard to read? You can avoid this problem by selecting contrasting colors when choosing text and background images. The second is too much media! It is definitely a good idea to put your music player with your latest songs up there and maybe even a new video of your band, however, keep it at that. If you have more content put it on your website. Load times on MySpace are slow and they only get worse when you add your top 5 YouTube videos, 3 of your own videos and a picture carousel from Photo Bucket. Fans will gladly go seek out this stuff out on YOUR website.

Sooo you think you need a manager huh?

2008-03-14T19:50:00.000-07:00

All over the world people are breaking into or trying to break into the music industry, the most common misconception is that in order to do this you need a manager. Trust me, YOU DON'T!
I have managed bands in the past...I stopped due to stress :-) the one thing that will always be true about the music industry is that there is always some person with their hand out waiting to make money off of your hard work......managers can take up to 25% of shows and sales....thats without taking a percentage for booking and promoting. I have actually had bands come to me for management because they OWED their manager money..... for those of you keeping track at home its a managers job to make sure the money goes where it should there is never a reason a manger should be owed money. Wanna know how it happened....
This incident happened to a band I managed called "the Damned" I got them from thier former manger becaue of this incident. the band was paying the manager 25% of all sales and shows.....he was also acting as the promoter and publicist wich neted him another 25%.....since he was doin these jobs he took on the the role of booking agent for a flat rate fee of 250$ per show.....well the band played a gig at a local college bar and made 500$ for the show and sold just about 100$ in cds and t-shirts....thats a grand total of 600$
the booking agent got his 250 off the top....thats 350 to the band but then the promoter/publicist got 25% and the management took thier 25% leaving the band with 175$ the shirts they had printed up for the show cost 75$ taking the total down to 100$ but then the cds they ordered were paid for in advance by the manager....1,000$ the last 100 went to pay that debt leaving the band owing 900$ to the manager and at this rate the band needed to do 9 more shows before they could start making any money! sadly they played 3 more shows with roughly the same output before i could buy the rights to manage them from thier manager...that guy made money hand over fist and the band was broke.....in the end I got them an opening fpot for a major band at a local show and they are making enough money now to live off of just doing music...not bad.
That is typical my friends....the manager took them for all they had and more! It is a common occurance...it even happened to the female group TLC.... if you remember a while back they had to file bankruptcy!
In todays world you can manage yourself if you know how to do it....Nobody is gonna work harder for your music than you! I know you are probbly saying .....I DONT KNOW HOW...
This is where I get excited....there is a product about to be released on the net...complete with video, audio and written information as well as a members only website that is centered around teaching people how to be their own media center for their music....teach people to do it themselves and change the way the industry works....I have friends in the industry who are currently working with industry reps., artists, producers, ceo, label heads and writers to come up with everything an artist needs to make it.
I know this is starting to sound like a commercial but its really not...im just letting everyone know what im hearing so they hold out a bit longer before they sign away all of thier profits to someguy who is gonna do what they could be doing themselves...
The world is going digital....myspace is a breeding ground for talent and thats where labels are starting to look.....Sean Kingston...Colby Caillat....Soulja Boi....all found on the net... I want to help usher in the era in music where you control when you get discovered, not some jerk who holds the keys and makes you pay big to get in. Hold on a little bit longer guys help is comming....until it gets here, if you sign up to this blog, ill be giving out tips and advice on how to get promoted online so you can start doing it yourself and making a little cash to help you out.
if you have questions ....want to know about the services that are comming out or just wanna chat about the biz let me know im always here ot help. If I dont know the answer I can find it out.
Oh ...and if you still want a manager..I might be persuaded to do some net management LOL

Why the web?

2008-03-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

Why use the web?
The days of spending thousands of dollars on the production of a cd and passing it out after shows, giving it away in parking lots, and approaching strangers in malls are gone, the world is going digital. So with the rest of the world going digital….what are you doing to keep up? Sure you have a MySpace page but is it really getting you any extra publicity? Odds are, unless you are getting a thousand plays a day or better, nobody even knows you are there …..the internet is music’s new playground and the people who know that fact are using it to get themselves noticed.
Artists like Sean Kingston, soulja boy, and Colby Caillat were all discovered on MySpace. In fact until recently Colby was still unsigned and making money without the help of a label. In a web based press release Newstoob.com said this about Colby Caillat “With no marketing push and only the power of the music behind her, Caillat became a sensation on the social networking site. Last October when she had 6,240 friends, Rolling Stone highlighted her as one of the top female artists on MySpace. Ultimately, Caillat became the #l unsigned artist for over four months and her number of friends swelled to more than 100,000. Her profile has been visited over 3 million times, and she has more than l0 million plays. As her online popularity grows, so does the recognition factor. “I’m not even famous yet and every time I go shopping, the young girls who work in the stores, they know who I am. They’ll ask, ‘Are you Colby from MySpace?’”
They aren’t the only musicians using the net for fame though. Nine Inch Nails, Madonna, Radiohead and many more have all used the internet to launch their newest albums and projects. The available tools online give the artist unique opportunities to connect with their fans and long time supporters. The internet is giving the power back to the musicians; all you need to do as an artist is learn how to use it properly.
Record labels no longer hold all of the keys to unlock doors in the industry. Anyone with the right information can make it big these days, and when I say big I mean on a global scale not just your home town. Overnight success is no longer a myth. In a matter of hours you could have a song recorded and distributed from Alaska to South Africa and every point in between, with the click of a button you can start selling music and creating a buzz that can’t be ignored.
Unfortunately in today’s changing music business quality is nowhere near as important as popularity. With the flood of music designed for ringtones and club music, most serious artists get lost in the mix. This makes it even more difficult to get your music heard by label reps. Labels have to weed through thousands of upstart ringtone producers to find one single serious, seasoned, and accomplished musician. Don’t just take my word for it…. “Internet exposure seems to have become an acceptable substitute for experience, and many artists are getting signed before they’ve played a live show, mastered the art of songwriting, or found their voice.” (Quote taken from the Newyorker.com) CD sales are down from a year ago which was down from a year before that, in fact the music industry stopped making the bulk of its profits off of cds well before the turn of the millennium. U.S. Album Sales Fell 9.5% in 2007. A total of 500.5 million albums in the form of CDs, cassettes, LPs and other formats were purchased last year. The number of digital tracks sold, meanwhile, jumped 45 percent, to 844.2 million, compared with 588.2 million in 2006.
Jeff Rabhan, who manages artists and music producers including Jermaine Dupri, Kelis and Elliott Yamin, says "Sales are so down and so off that, as a manager, I look at a CD as part of the marketing of an artist, more than as an income stream. It's the vehicle that drives the tour, the merchandise, building the brand, and that's it. There's no money." Industry labels want proof these days. If they are going to spend thousands of dollars getting a cd produced, publicizing the artist, setting up a tour etc…they want proof people are going to want the music. Your online profile is a strong selling point when those big dogs come calling with that lucrative contract.

Whether you are trying to get noticed or just want to sell some of your music, the internet is the only place to accomplish your goal quickly. There are hundreds and hundreds of ways to achieve success online; this publication will teach you how to utilize some of the webs most visited sites and forums to your advantage. All the information you need is right here in this book, read it, apply it, and reap the benefits.

Welcome

2008-03-12T12:03:00.001-07:00

Hello all and welcome to the Muzik Mogal blog. Mygoalforthis blog is to inform inspire and teach people how to promote their music in the new web based music industry. This blog will be updated at a minimum of 3 times per week and will feature free tips and advice as well as interviews, opinions on products and services. If you would like to contact me with information to contribute to the blog or need info from me concerning a post please contact me at dez.rockbeddor@gmail.com or myspace me at www.myspace.com/muzikmandez I also have a blog on myspace that carries a lot of information and will often times use the ideas from there to post here so either one is very informative. I lok forward to helping all of you along your musical path.
Dez