Originally published at The Null Device Blog. You can comment here or there.

Internet Geek-rocker Jonathan Coulton (hereafter often referred to as “JoCo” because apparently neither he, his die-hard fans, nor I really enjoy repeatedly typing “Jonathan Coulton”) was recently interviewed by NPR’s “Planet Money” podcast/radio show, and he blogged about ( Read more... )

Originally published at The Null Device Blog. You can comment here or there.

It’s the ugly truth.

Pundits tap dance around it. There are hundreds of music blogs that tell you all the Important Things You Need To Do To Make It Big, but they all noticably ignore one big thing.

Luck.

Obviously, nobody wants to talk about it, because frankly it’s ( Read more... )

Originally published at The Null Device Blog. You can comment here or there.

You’re on stage.  This show is great.  The crowd is eating it up.  This will be the defining moment of your musical career.

Hey, what was that popping sound?

Where did the vocals go?

Oh…oh, hell.

It’s an inveitability.  Play enough gigs and something catastrophic will ( Read more... )

Originally published at The Null Device Blog. You can comment here or there.

Be good to your ears. A new study came out this week, showing 1 in 5 adults is suffering from noticable hearing loss.

I SAID, A NEW STUDY CAME OUT THIS WEEK SHOWING…

Ah, okay, easy joke, I’m sorry. But seriously, musicians spend an awful lot of time going over the minutiae ( Read more... )

Originally published at The Null Device Blog. You can comment here or there.

As both a guy who makes music and a guy who masters other people’s I’ve encountered the tendency - sometimes even in myself - to write off some mix errors as just “stuff that can be fixed in mastering.”

While maybe it’s true that the mastering engineer *can* indeed fix ( Read more... )

Originally published at The Null Device Blog. You can comment here or there.

The band press kit or one-sheet is like the band photo - it’s a necessary evil.  You’re gunna come off looking like a douchebag no matter what, but you still need to do it.    It’s a lot like a resume in that you can’t get a job without one, you can’t outright lie on it, ( Read more... )

Originally published at The Null Device Blog. You can comment here or there.

“Recursions” has been out for a month now and I’ve been tracking it with much interest.  For me, it’s not merely a release, it’s part of a continuing experiment in distribution models.

We did “Footfalls” as a giveaway, to see if it would boost album sales for “Sublimation ( Read more... )

Originally published at The Null Device Blog. You can comment here or there.

Recursions is almost done.  I’m in the process of getting the final masters together.

It occurred to me, with a bit of prodding from Matt Fanale, that I’ve never actually talked about what mastering really is.  I’ve blogged passionately about what to do and what not to do, ( Read more... )

Originally published at The Null Device Blog. You can comment here or there.

In the past week I’ve crash-coursed in the mechanics of putting out a CD with all the appropriate “stuff” attached.

It’s danged easy to put out a CD - got a CD burner and a few blanks and you’re set.

To put a CD out that you can sell widely?  That’s trickier.

First off, ( Read more... )

Originally published at The Null Device Blog. You can comment here or there.

Continuing my random stream of music-industry/marketing blogging…

Yesterday, I was talking to the good Dr. Goedken regarding all the recent blasts of marketing ideas, sales concepts, promotions, etc etc that I’ve been itching to try.

Eric asked me “so, well…what’s the goal ( Read more... )