There has been tremendous excitement over the past few years about the new technologies and services that help artists directly connect with their fans.  I’m personally a huge advocate of this trend and the opportunity it presents for both artists and music fans.

However, I’ve recently noticed just how many artist websites are still lacking the primary thing music fans are interested in today; downloadable music in MP3 format. Some in the music business blame the rise of the MP3 on the demise of the music industry and reject its use. It’s clear today’s music fans have wholeheartedly embraced the format. Ignoring what your consumer clearly wants in a competitive marketplace is extremely perilous. It’s the consumer’s preferences and desires that drive any market.

In a very unscientific test, I selected 10 of my favorite albums that have been released in the last year or so. I then checked the websites of those 10 bands* to see if they had a MP3 download store. Surprisingly only three (Big Head Todd, Kings of Leon and Matthew Ryan) had any MP3’s available for download at all. A quick check of the websites from several popular independent artists in my area found none of them had MP3 downloads available. Unfortunately several of the local artists didn’t even have their own website. 

Competition for the attention of music fans has never been fiercer. Artists now have to spend more time, energy and money than ever before just to get noticed. Spending countless hours emailing and texting fans, building social networks, writing witty / insightful blogs, or creating contests is largely a wasted effort if fans can’t find what they want when they finally do arrive at the artist’s website. Music fans want downloadable music, in MP3 format. If fans don’t quickly find what they are looking for they will simply abandon the artist’s website. Highly motivated fans might check iTunes or LimeWire as an alternative but there is much less value for the artist in the indirect relationship.  

Having the ability to offer MP3 downloads directly from the artist’s website is a great tool for building a direct, long-term relationship with fans. Regularly providing unreleased tracks, alternative versions of songs, live recordings or acoustic tracks will keep fans engaged and coming back for more. Once the artist / fan relationship has been established (with music) blogs, videos and emails can then help deepen the interest level of the fan.

The question of if, when or how much to charge for downloads is a complicated one and there is certainly no “one size fits all” pricing strategy. Personally, I’m always happy to pay for music from artists with which I already have a strong fan relationship and for music from a new artist that has really gotten my attention.

There are numerous, very good, inexpensive solutions that allow artists to easily add a MP3 download store to their existing website including Musicane , Hooka and Easybe. Nimbit provides the ability to sell MP3’s directly from the artist’s website plus tickets, merchandise, CD’s and DVD’s, all integrated into the same storefront. There is also an option to private label the Nimbit storefront for an additional fee.

Every artist should have their own website. For those artists who haven’t yet taken this important step towards building and protecting their brand BandZoogle offers a full feature hosted website solution that includes an MP3 download store. Their most expensive plan is only $19.95 per month.

With all the music marketing information, strategies and tools being pushed at artists today it can be easy to overlook the one thing music fans are most interested in, the music. It’s critical for music fans to easily find what they are really wanting when the visit an artist’s website, downloadable MP3’s. Hopefully as more artists embrace MP3 downloads it will help them to create strong direct to fan relationships and the opportunity to build a long-term, sustainable career.

*American Princes , Austin Collins , Bell X1 , Big Head Todd & the Monsters , Black Rebel Motorcycle Club , Drive-By Truckers , Kings of Leon , Matthew Ryan , Silversun Pickups , Tegan & Sara .

David Franz is a songwriter, producer, engineer, multi-instrumentalist, performer, and educator. David’s production company, Underground Sun, writes, produces and engineers music for a wide range of clients. He teaches production courses online at Berkleemusic, the continuing education arm of Berklee College of Music, and performs with his touring rock band, midatlantic. He is author of Producing in the Home Studio with Pro Tools (the first book about using Pro Tools, now in its third edition) and Recording and Producing in the Home Studio (Berklee Press).

In the second installment of my Pro Tools blog, I want to show you the basic steps for setting up a new Pro Tools session and recording an audio track. If you’re anything like me, when you come up with a new musical idea, you want to record it right away. My memory is good, but trying to remember that cool lick I played last night can be quite difficult. And even if I remember it, many times I can’t recreate the original feel even a day or two later. Capturing that fresh idea is the first step in the preproduction process for songwriting. Here’s how to record that idea quickly using Pro Tools.

Follow the steps in the text below and watch the video at the end of the article for all of the details:

1. After launching Pro Tools, select File > New Session, name the session, choose where to save it, and select the session parameters. For this example, choose the settings shown in figure 2.1. (More information on session parameters can be found in my book in chapter 3.)

Fig. 2.1. New Session Dialog Box. In the New Session dialog box, you can choose the session’s title and save location, as well as its audio file type, sample rate, bit depth, and I/O settings.

2. Plug your mic/instrument into an input, choose the appropriate input type (Mic, DI, Line, etc) on your Digidesign/M-Audio device, and turn up the gain knob on that input.

3. Create a new audio track by selecting File > New Track. If recording a single input (like a mic or a guitar direct), create “1” new “Mono” track. If recording two inputs (like a stereo keyboard), create “1” new “Stereo” track. For both, choose “Audio Track” and “Samples” for the track types, as in figure 2.2.

Fig. 2.2. New Tracks Dialog Box. The New Track dialog box enables you to create multiple mono and stereo audio tracks, aux inputs, master fader tracks, MIDI tracks, and Instrument tracks. Click the plus symbol (+) to add more tracks of any type.

4. If you’re not already viewing the Edit window, select Window > Edit. Then, select View > Edit Window and make sure there’s a check next to “I/O” to see the input and output selectors on the new track.

5. Select the input source that your mic or instrument is plugged into by clicking on the input selector, e.g., Mic/Line 1, as in figure 2.3. Inputs for audio and aux input tracks can assigned to audio interface channels (such as “Mic/Line 1”) or to busses (e.g., Bus 1–2).

Fig. 2.3a. Input Selector

Fig. 2.3b. Input Selector List

Fig. 2.3 (a) and (b). Selecting the Input Source. (a) The input selector is used to assign which input will be routed to a track. (b) When you click on the input selector, a list appears with all of the available input options. Any input can be routed virtually to any track.

6. Select Setup > Playback Engine, choose the smallest H/W Buffer Size (e.g., 128 Samples), and click OK. (This reduces the amount of latency, explained in more detail in chapter 3 in my book.) If using a USB powered device like the Mbox2, Fast Track USB, etc., I recommend turning the “Mix” knob all the way to the left to the “Input” side to achieve zero-latency monitoring. (Note: On some USB devices, like the MobilePre, this Mix control is software driven. Go to Setup > Hardware, and click the Launch Setup App button to adjust the mix level.)

7. Record-enable the track by clicking on the Record (R) button on the track, as in figure 2.4.

Fig. 2.4. Record-Enable. Press the Record-Enable button (R) to “arm” the track. The button will turn red when it’s armed.

8. Choose Track > Input Only Monitoring. This sets the “monitoring mode” so that you always hear the input signal on record-enabled tracks. (Monitoring modes are discussed in more detail in chapter 2 of the book.)

9. Set the input level on your Digidesign/M-Audio device by adjusting the input level controller (gain) knob while singing/playing. The recording level should go into the “yellow.” Try not to let it hit the red Peak light.

10. Record your idea by clicking the round Record and triangular Play buttons in the upper-right corner of the Edit window or in the Transport window. Click the square Stop button when you’re done.

Fig. 2.5. Transport Controls. The basic transport functions are located in the upper-right corner of the Edit window. With your track armed, hit the round Record button first, and it will blink red. Then hit the triangular Play button. Pro Tools will start recording and the Record button will stop blinking.

This may seem like a lot of steps just to start recording. However, these steps will become second nature to you very quickly. Also, note that you don’t have to be in the Edit window to record on a track. You can be viewing the Mix window instead. In fact, I often view the Mix window while recording multiple tracks at once because I like the larger faders. And speaking of that, recording more than one audio track at a time is just as easy as recording one. Create the number and type of tracks you want, record-enable them, set good recording levels, hit Play/Record, and you’re good to go.

(This text is an edited excerpt from David Franz’s Producing in the Home Studio with Pro Tools (3^rd Edition), Berklee Press/Hal Leonard, 2008) Visit www.protoolsbook.com to learn more about the book and DVD.

Larry Mills is VP of Marketing & Partnerships with independent music licensing company Pump Audio (a division of Getty Images ).

 As everyone knows, the music industry is in a state of flux.  What we know and what we thought we knew changes every day.  While the revenue model for the artist continues to change – one constant is the potential for making money through licensing.

In the past, most artists saw their publishing royalties tied directly to the sale of CD’s and radio play, with the occasional movie, tv or advertising placement.  That’s different now.  With CD sales decreasing, on-line radio royalties not set, the need to increase ones synch licensing is vital in the business model for artists.

Licensing revenue and opportunities are much more expansive than many artists realize.  Everyday, thousands and thousands of songs are licensed for advertising, web, mobile, corporate uses, tv shows, movies and many more.  Not all of these songs – actually a very small percentage of these songs – are from major label artists.

How synch licenses work.  A content creator (TV production, advertising, media, corporate, web design, etc.), must acquire a license when they take music and use it as a soundtrack in their production.  They must pay (or negotiate not to pay) the artist, or the rights holder (record company, publishing company), for this license which allows them to use the music in their work. 

One of the major positives of the synch license is that the payments come directly to the master owner and song publisher – which means if you are an independent artist, you see that money right away.  For example – if an ad agency uses your track in an on-line advertising video and pays $2,000 for it – you as the master owner and publisher would get that check cut directly to you.  If you have a record deal, and don’t have a publishing deal, the label (master owner) may get half (if you’re not recouped), but by keeping your publishing, you would get $1,000 right away.

With a television placement, you not only receive money from the synch, but every time that show runs, the broadcaster must pay performing rights fees which results in the artist getting paid by their PRS (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC).  You may not receive much to have your song used on a reality show on MTV, but every time there’s a “Road Rules” marathon and your song is in there, that is generating performance fees for you.

There is also the ever needed ‘exposure’ that you as an artist are looking for.  There are great success stories of bands that have had a song in a movie, or an advertisement or as the theme song for a tv show, which has made their careers (see The Rembrandts, Feist, etc.).

I worked with an artist who placed a song in a Portuguese bank commercial and received around $10,000 for the spot.  The song became so popular that they have seen their fan base in Portugal (which has turned out to be mostly women) grow so large that they set up a tour, and have traveled over there three times in the past two years.

Now – this may sound all well and good, but there is still some work involved in getting these synchs, and there is no one way to go about it.  There are online licensing companies that feature and promote independent artists (for full disclosure, I work for one), there are also tons of music supervisors out there that are always looking for new music and finding them can be tough.  There is also the old fashioned way of reaching out to ad agencies yourself.  I would recommend all three (and all the other ways that you can think of).

If music licensing is appealing to you, I would also recommend cutting an instrumental version of each song you create while in the studio, and also 30 and 60 second cuts of key parts of the track.  In many cases, productions use instrumental versions (better for background music) and also like to have neat :30 and :60 cuts so they don’t have to do any music editing.

With the industry changing, the playing field is leveling off, and the money making opportunities are increasing – maybe the multi-million dollar record deal is a thing of the past, but the possibility of being a professional musician making money doing what you love is growing.

Steve Wynn led the influential band the Dream Syndicate from 1981 to 1989 and afterward began a solo career. Steve recently teamed up with fellow baseball and music fan Scott McCaughey plus Peter Buck and Linda Pitmon to record The Baseball Project, Volume One: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails

There's a story from the filming of “Marathon Man” that I love and often repeat (I hope it's actually true and not just a cinematic urban legend).   It seems that Dustin Hoffman was in the process of trying any method acting trick he could come up with to get inside his character.  He stayed up for three nights straight, didn't shave, worked himself into a slovenly stupor and came onto the set bemoaning to Laurence Olivier, “I just don't get it.  I've tried everything and I just can't get inside this character.”  Sir Larry gave Hoffman a withering look and said, “Why don't you try acting?”

This is often the way I feel when musicians ask too many questions about how to make it in the music business.  Or when fellow musicians talk a little too much about “the biz.”  Hey, these things are important.  I'm ever grateful to my industrious peers, my mentors who have taught me ways to survive as an independent musician and I've tried to be as free with my advice for those who come to me for clues and suggestions.  It's enough for Gloria Gaynor to swear that she will survive-she had a hit record.  For those of us who have slalomed through the independent scene for years and decades it's a little trickier.  You need clues.  And tricks.  And tenacity.

But at the end of the day you have to love writing songs.  And you have to love making records.  And you have to especially love playing shows and touring.  And you have to love doing all of those things for their own sake.  The biggest issue when writing a song or making a record shouldn't be “what will my fans think?” or “will it get on the radio?” or “will Byron Coley like it” (okay, this used to trouble me in 1982) but rather “Do I like it?  Am I getting off on this song, this album, this gig?”  You should be able to honestly feel that the record you just made would be your favorite record of the year or that the gig you just finished was the epitome of your own idea of what a great gig should be.

Amuse yourself.  Indulge yourself (personally, I always thought that being “self-indulgent” is what being a great musician is all about).  Take chances.  Do something crazy and precocious and surprising.  What's the worst that can happen?  You might suck.  And, really, sucking is the best way to find your way to greatness.  You have to be willing to fall on your face in order to hit the heights that all of your heroes have hit over the years.  Nobody inspires awe with competency or proficiency or “getting the job done.”  The great ones became great because they did something that nobody else would dare to do-that is until the great ones did what they did and then everybody wanted to do what they had just done.  Got that?

So, the next time you're wondering how to write a hit song or make a hit record or make your fans happy or get better reviews than your last album you might just want to consider what Laurence Olivier might have said to you:  “Why don't you just try making music?”

Be sure to check out the The Baseball Project Blog for more information on The Baseball Project, baseball news and updates on a music celebrity fantasy league.