It’s official like a ref with a whistle! Start Your Music Grind Now! is up and running and a lot of music marketing advice, info, tips, and resources are being provided to independent and DIY rappers, singers, and all other musicians out there. I’m a DIY musician who’s 100% independent and 100% committed to succeeding on an independent level and Start Your Music Grind Now! is here to help other musicians with the same mindset.
I haven’t been blogging on my own site too often because most of my focus has been on Start Your Music Grind Now! and building that to be what it is now. I invite all DIY (Do It Yourself) musicians to check out this site and soak up the knowledge being dropped in it. This was built for myself and others who don’t have major label deals and want to succeed in the music industry on an independent, grassroots level.
Click the pic below to enter a realm of music marketing info aimed for your success in the music industry
All kinds of people are on social networks, but these are the top 10 most prevalent personalities that show up on social networks. If you’re on a social network, there’s a 9.5 out of 10 chance that you fit in one of these categories and you know someone who fits in one of these categories. Let’s get into it…
10.) The Outspoken Nonconformist/Rebel
This person will say whatever the fuck they want with no regards to how it will affect people in a positive or negative way. In other words, they’ll speak their mind no matter what. They say things that are not only controversial but things that most people think or want to say but are too scared to say out loud. This person has no problem being the outcast, the black sheep, or the outsider. Their posts and status updates show that they’re unconventional thinkers who display nothing but critical thought and a unique perspective on things. Obviously, they stand out instead of fit in.
9.) The Victim
I’m sure everyone who’s on a social network or two see status updates from this kind of person all the time. These people cry and bitch about all the bad things that happen to them in life. It’s like they want people to feel sorry for them for sucking at life. It’s ok to be sympathetic and empathetic towards people who are victims of certain situations/circumstances that are beyond that person’s control, but people who bitch and complain all the time about things they feel happen to them need a reality check. Bad things happen to EVERYBODY. You’re not the only one who goes through hardships and struggles in life. In life, there are winners and losers… which side are you on? Winners go through everything losers go through, the only difference between the two is that the winners decide to win and the losers decide to keep losing and whine about it. If your life sucks that much, change your life or shut the fuck up.
8.) The Drama Queen/Attention Whore
This is self-explanatory. This person needs, wants, and craves attention everywhere they go. They either have to do or say something stupid to get everyone’s undivided attention. These people are over-dramatic and full of shit. They take small things and make them into a big deal. They’re the little kids with temper tantrums that not only need to be put on time out, but need to get that ass whooped.
7.) The Mediocre/Boring Person
Average. Mediocre. Whichever you want to use, this person shows it all the time with their statuses about how nice it is outside or how they’re about to go to work or how they’re on their way to the grocery store. A normal status is ok every now and again, but when that’s all your statuses are, then it’s hard to see how you can be interesting as a person. This person shows that they’re incapable of original thought… they say whatever everyone else says, so instead of showing that they’re an individual, they show that they’re just the ordinary, everyday person.
6.) The Pseudo-Intellectual/Excessive Quoter
A pseudo-intellectual is a fake smart person. On social networks, they put themselves out there as some kind of prophet, but in real life, they don’t show any signs of being an intellectual or even really being an intelligent person. Some of these people constantly posts quotes from politicians, iconic people throughout history, and real intellectuals in their status updates. It’s cool to drop knowledge on people, but when you don’t exemplify being a knowledgeable person yourself or practice what you preach, then you’re wasting your time.
5.) The Inspirational Person
This person is real motivational and inspiring with their down-to-earth perspective on life and how to overcome everyday hardships and struggles. They always inspire people to do better. They always inspire people to change for the better. They say something profound that can make someone’s day better.
4.) The Super Religious Person
This pic speaks for itself. This isn’t a diss to Christians in particular, but the super religious person includes anyone who follows a religion. These people think that their way of life is better than others and that their religion and beliefs is more superior than others. They’re real fucking self-righteous and have no problem condemning people and shoving their views down peoples’ throats. They show this by excessively posting quotes and scriptures from whatever religious book they read. That’s not the way to convert people or get people to see things your way. If this is you, then all you’re doing is annoying people and making people not give a fuck about anything you say.
3.) The Angry Person
Arrrrrrggggghhhhhhh!!!! HULK SMASH!!!! That’s what these people should post on all of their statuses. These people hate life itself. They always have some negative to say and they’re always posting about how angry they are at something or someone. Their posts full of profanity and CAPS LOCK typing show nothing but anger and aggression. They either look like an internet thug or someone who needs serious anger management.
2.) The Real Intellectual or Information Broker
This person is a real intellectual and is really knowledgeable outside of social networks. They posts statuses, videos, articles, blogs, and insightful information that is informative. Sometimes it goes against what people think especially if the information is not mainstream, but these people post stuff that is backed up by reputable sources. They’re usually into politics and other intellectual pursuits and show that in their statuses.
1.) The Pseudo-Celebrity
These are the people on Facebook, Twitter, etc. who have thousands and thousands of friends but only know about two or three hundred of those people. Some people do a lot of networking and realistically have met most of the people on their friends list, but then there’s others who just like to add random people and inflate their friends list and following just for the sake of looking like they’re the shit.
1.) Working a 9-5 isn’t the way to truly live. People are just surviving instead of living. We wake up every morning to go to a job that we hate/dislike and work for a manager/boss/supervisor that we hate/dislike. That shit makes no sense at all.
People frown on pyramid schemes, but the real pyramid scheme is corporate America. Here’s the pyramid… your company/franchise owner —> CEO —> District Manager —> Manager —> Assistant Manager —> Supervisor —> Employee (you). You make money, but guess who makes the most money off of your hard work and efforts. Again, this shit makes no sense at all.
Entrepreneurship is where it’s at. Start your own business, make your own hours, make your own money, and control your own time. That sounds much better to me. Being someone else’s slave and asking for permission to take a lunch break is bullshit, especially for grown folks.
2.) The U.S. educational system is a huge FAIL. English, math, science, social studies, etc. are all the basics and are stuff that should continue to be taught, no two ways about it, but what about teaching kids things like philosophy, critical thinking, problem solving, entrepreneurship, and politics. Those were just a few examples off the top of my head.
All school teaches kids to be is slaves to the system like being an employee. Boss/slave owner to employee: “Just be a good boy/girl, do your job like a good slave, and we’ll pay you a little bit of money so you can survive (eat, sleep, shit, pay bills) enough to come back in the next day and do it again (for 5, 6 days a week). Get the fuck outta here.
Yeah, our educational system needs an overhaul.
3.)Learn about how corrupt the U.S. financial system is… 11 Examples of Recent Corruption on Wall Street. The American Dream will continue to be just a dream for most us, especially with the bullshit that goes on within our financial system. If you think the people who participate in the Occupy Movement are doing what they are doing for nothing, then you might want to get from under that rock you’ve been living under. Big bankers been pulling crazy jack moves on us without us knowing (or knowing how). The more we know, the better.
4.) Stop giving in to a political system that never works in the favor of the people. We all know that all politicians are scum. People think voting for the “lesser of two evils” is better than not voting at all, but is it? The act of voting just makes people believe that they have some kind of power, when really we don’t. We continue to sanction a system that’s already in place and not designed in our favor just for the sake of saying we did something to contribute to the betterment of society. Stefan Molyneux explains why we shouldn’t vote at all in his video, The Truth About Voting…
5.) The system as a whole is corrupt and the ultimate goal for the elite is to usher in a New World Order. I got three blogs that touch on this in a way for you to get a better understanding of what I’m saying…
This is how I truly feel about SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Personal Information Protection Act or Protect IP Act). I don’t care what Congress or any other person in power says about this. They’re not fooling anyone with this nonsense. They say they want to stop online piracy i.e. illegal downloading, but really they just want to censor the internet. Most importantly, they want to censor the truth! This is yet another way for the elite to make a jack move on our right to freedom of speech.
If you live under a rock and aren’t familiar with SOPA and PIPA, then just holla at Google and do the knowledge. NO ONE in their right mind would support this. These bills can crush the internet as we know it and that’s not a good look for anyone.
Ladies and gents, my debut album, “Pat Fraser? Who The F#@k Iz That?” has been re-released. I didn’t plan on re-releasing it, but my dude, JLC (check out his work at Milli Dreams Art), inspired me to put it back out after he took it upon himself to design his own cover for this album.
Me being a graphic designer and all, I designed my first cover, but honestly, my boy’s cover is waaaaay better than mine. I give props when it’s due and his cover definitely blows mine out the water lol. My cover was good in my humble opinion, but his is much better and suits the overall feel of my album, real talk.
So I figured since I’m putting my album back out, I might as well add some bonus tracks to create more interest. I also felt like these 3 new tracks I did made my album a lil bit more well-rounded. The original was good the way it was, but I always felt that something was missing. Not to be cliche or anything, but I needed a song for the ladies. ”Jockin’ My Style” kinda was that song, but it was more of a club type track and not strictly aimed at the females. Enter “Ain’t No Shame In My Game“… this song speaks for itself when you listen to it. The ladies will dig this one. Both men and women can relate to it. I knew that I needed a singer on the hook, so I holla’d at my boy, Rayzaah and me and him went to the studio and he laced me with a nice hook.
The other two songs I did were “Nowhere to Go” and “King Kong, Godzilla.” “Nowhere to Go” is another song that speaks for itself once you listen. Anyone who’s ever felt picked on, left out, alone, lonely, etc. can and will relate to this song. Everything talked about in this song is something that most, if not, all people have went through at some point and time in their life. ”King Kong, Godzilla” is a banger track. The sample is bananas and the overall beat in itself is even more bananas. It sampled one of Wu-Tang’s songs, so I knew I had to come correct (pause). Lyrically, I had to pull my pants down and let loose on this shit. So for all my real hip hop heads out there, this is a head banger for y’all.
Now go download this shit in the Music section of my website.
Umm yeah, what my blog title says. Art in my opinion is constantly taken for granted and not appreciated as a talent or craft that helps push society forward. It’s hard as shit (pause) to get support when it comes to your art. Art’s a broad term, so I’m going to focus more on the art form, music, since I do music . As a musician and being involved in the music community, I see that most up and coming musicians look for validation and basically want permission to be successful.
Examples would be…
Searching for a record deal
Searching for fame and notoriety
Trying to make “music for everyone”
Trying to get any and everyone to buy your music
Constantly trying to keep up with the joneses and following trends instead of starting your own
This seems to be typical of some musicians who want to be loved and accepted by everything under the sun. Not a good look at all. Instead of waiting for validation and permission to be successful by people, we just need to give ourself our own validation and permission to succeed on our own terms. We as musicians need to just make music that we’d enjoy before we think about who else would enjoy it. I’m confident that if you make music that makes you happy, then your music will be at a point where it will make others happy. From that point you can build a real fan base.
As far as the succeeding on our own terms part, us musicians shouldn’t be afraid to make a living doing what we love. I know I want to make a living doing what I love. People have to realize that artists’ have to eat. We have to pay bills, put food on the table, put a roof over our head, etc. Our parents told all of us as kids that “money doesn’t grow off trees.” That’s a true statement right? With all that being said, artists’ have to learn how to monetize. Your website should not only promote your music just for the sake of promoting music, but also to market yourself as a brand and a business that people can love and support. You do this by selling merchandise, selling products through affiliate programs; products that are beneficial to your customers/fans, offering services that will make your customers/fans’ lives better, etc.
If your music is awesome and you think it’s worth money, then charge people for it. Sell your music, but also offer free music too. People download all day, everyday, so giving away free music shouldn’t be something you feel funny about because at the end of the day, if your music is like that and people really want it, they’ll take it anyway. All I’m saying is as artists’ we shouldn’t be afraid to think like entrepreneurs or even be an entrepreneur ourselves when it comes to our art. Be an artistpreneur!
For all of my true fans out there, you can support me by…
Simply shopping on Amazon.com. I’m not saying go on a shopping spree (unless you feel like it), but if you’re the type to order stuff online, then you can just do it through my Affiliate site. Once you order something through Amazon.com, I get a nice lil’ commission off that.
Making a donation. I’m going the Trent Reznor route. You can donate however much you feel my music is worth to you. It’s up to you.
Buying your own domain name and web space if you plan on starting your own website. The ad speaks for itself. For $6.95 per month you’ll have your own domain name and website that you have 100% control of. If you need help setting up your website with WordPress, I’ll be more than willing to help you for a reasonable price. Just click here —> WordPress – Website & Blog Services for Artists, Musicians, Small Businesses, etc.
Getting a design for your website or any other graphic design service you need (flyers, album/mixtape covers, business cards, etc.). My creative services also include blog writing, so if you want to set up a blog (or have one set up already) and you just don’t have the time to write blogs, hire me to do it.
Musicians’ IQ
Musicians’ Independent Quest
Independent music quest
Roadmap to indie music success
GPS to indie music success
How to build your musician IQ
How to succeed as an independent musician
The journey to indie music success
Indie music success brainpower
Indie music roadmap to success
Guide to succeeding in the indie music scene
Guide to indie music success
There are tons of aspiring musicians out there who would love to make a living from their music. The music industry has gone through many changes and continues to go through changes. A lot of major label musicians are suffering sales-wise. The economy is in a bad state and downloading is at an all time high. However, there are still a lot of musicians out there who are very successful in their careers. The reason is, these musicians have been taking the steps that are necessary to succeed on their own terms. They realize that with the music industry being in the state that it’s in, it has not only allowed them to be extremely creative musically but it has also leveled the playing field money-wise.
Many aspiring musicians are concerned about the who, what, where, when, and how to get on the path to succeeding independently. There are many musicians out there who are blindly pursuing the music career of their dreams without a plan or any knowledge of how to get started properly. This book was designed to help you come up with a plan and most importantly get you on the right path to independent music success.
Features and Benefits
Planning and Goal Setting – You will learn what you need to think about and what you need to do when you are planning and goal setting.
Finding an Investor – You will learn multiple ways to fund your music career; this includes getting the funds that is necessary with or without borrowing money.
Finding a Good Quality Recording Studio – What you will need to look for when looking for a recording studio as well as the equipment you need to own your own home-based recording studio.
Marketing Your Brand – What you need to do in order to market your brand effectively. You will also learn how identifying your ideal fan will help you get more fans.
Copyright and Various Music Income Sources – Learn why you need to copyright your music and learn about music income stream resources that will help you profit off of your music in many ways with or without music sales.
CD Info to Ensure Album Quality – The difference between CD duplication and CD replication and how to go about the CD artwork proof process.
MP3 Info – The types of MP3s you need to sell online.
Enhancing Your Internet Presence – Find out what it takes to market yourself effectively on the internet and how to leverage social media networks to promote your brand.
TV and Radio – Learn what you need to do to get your music played on TV and radio.
Media Promotion – Learn how to promote yourself in the media as well as increase your presence and exposure in the media. Learn what it takes to build a team that will help you get your name out there faster.
Booking Shows– Find out what needs to be done in order to book shows and later on get paying gigs.
Securing Your Fanbase – Learn ways to build a fanbase, keep your fanbase, and continue to grow your fanbase. You will also learn how to keep track of all of your industry contacts who are important to helping you in your independent music journey.
Store Promo and Music Distribution – Learn how to promote your music to retailers and find out how to get music distribution.
Different Ways to Sell Your Music – Even though physical CD sales are decreasing, there are many other ways to sell your music and make a profit. If you have trouble selling CDs, you’ll find out the other formats you can sell your music in.
Increase Your Music Industry Exposure – You will learn how to increase your chances of building a successful career in the music industry once you learn how to increase your exposure. You will learn the jobs and activities you can become a part of to increase your exposure.
These are the steps that are necessary to staring you in the right direction to creating the music career of your dreams. Don’t miss out by not finding out more in-depth information on each of these steps. The details in this book will put you in a position to know exactly what needs to be done in order for you to prosper from your music on an independent level.
Since this is a bonus package, instead of buying one ebook, you’ll get five more ebooks in addition to this one. All for the price of one! All of these ebooks will take your online music hustle to a whole ‘nother level. This is marketing 101 on steroids! These ebooks were written to help people make money online from any online business they have going on. Music included. The more traffic you get, the better your chances are for selling your music and anything else you want to sell in addition to that. Let’s get into it…
Black Belt Web Marketing
by Mark Acutt
Developing a Black Belt Web Traffic Plan
Registering Your Web Site
Announcing Your Web Event
Increasing Web Traffic with Classified Ads
Populating the Internet with Links to Your Site
Developing a Database of Content-Rich Resources
Participating In Internet Discussion Groups
Using Email to Generate Web Traffic
Publicizing Your Site to the Media
Advertising Online
Achieving Long-Term Success
Working with ClickBank
by Tom Hua
This book is designed to assist anyone who wants to set up an account with ClickBank to accept credit card payments online.
Internet Marketer’s Guide to Free Traffic
by ZHEN DIANG CHEN
Generating thousands of free visitors to your site by way of writing articles. Writing articles is one of the basic and most effective ways of generating free traffic to your webpages and getting free promotion.
Inside the Minds of Winners
by Charles Burke
Learn how you can take command of your life and create your own good luck with the same techniques proven winners use.
What would you give if you could sit down with a double handful of successful people and ask each one of them to explain their techniques?
How to Win the War of Internet Marketing
by Lawrence Pryor & Andrew Fox
Discover how to create the life you desire on the Internet in less than one year. No magic secrets, just a proven formula for success. In a world with lots of dull ebooks, this one really stands out.
Oh yeah, I did say all of these ebooks are sold together for the price of one. The cost of Musicians’ IQ by itself is $24.99, BUT I decided to throw in these extra ebooks and lower the price significantly because I’m a nice guy. All jokes aside though, I decided to sell all 6 of these ebooks as a package deal for only…
$10.00
Yup, $10.00 for all that. This will be for a LIMITED time only, so you’ll definitely want to snatch these up ASAP. Just because I’m so confident in these tools and resources, I’ve added a 100% money back guarantee if you’re not satisfied within 30 days. So if you change your mind within 30 days, you get a refund. I’m not worried though because I know these ebooks will be real helpful to you.
This whole Occupy Wall Street movement is taking on a life of its own and some people look at this as the possible start of a revolution. I’m not anti-Occupy Wall Street, but I’m not going to say I’m pro-Occupy Wall Street either. If anything I’m leaning more towards pro only because it shows some initiative on peoples part to stand up and fight for what they believe in.
The media (especially trash like FOX News) in regular fashion is trying to make this movement look like it’s a bunch of crazed disenfranchised people who are disorganized and unaware of why they’re truly going at Wall Street the way they are. Obviously, I disagree but…
In my opinion, I think people are latched on to the idea of change and revolution, but they don’t know how to start a revolution in a way that could REALLY create change. I think there’s a lot of people who have a mission and a clear idea of what they want to accomplish and then there’s a lot of other people out there who are false prophets and pseudo-revolutionaries, and this movement is just going to create more. More false prophets and pseudo-revolutionaries who either give lip service and hope and pray for someone else to “change” things or ones who repeat the same events of the past to get things done (i.e. marches) —–> Why Are We Still Marching?
I’m not against marching and protesting, but I feel like in this day and age, we shouldn’t even be at a point where we still have to resort to that. Real talk.
As for the revolution part, people think revolution has to be accompanied by violence, but there’s a way that a revolution can be non-violent. I’m going to try to keep things as simple as possible, it might even be to the point where I oversimplify things to a point where a 5 year old can understand this.
First of all, if we’re going to start a revolution, we must…
1.) Start a revolution within our own mind (knowledge of self) and within our own lives (change your own life) – How exactly can you expect Wall Street and the government or whatever institution you want to fight against to change their ways, when you probably have a hard time cleaning up your own backyard?
2.) Be self-sufficient! – Through means of entrepreneurism (starting your own business), agriculture (growing your own food or shopping at local farmers markets for organic food), science (seeking truth and knowledge), taking care of our own communities, and anything else that can contribute to us being self-succient.
3.) Strike real fear into Corporate America by not supporting them – Corporate America is fueled by consumerism and all of our wants, needs, and desires are manipulated in order for us, the people to feed into that consumerism to keep these businesses going which keeps a certain percent of our population rich (and a large percentage poor). This documentary called The Century of the Self explains all of this 10x better than I could.
Click on this pic to watch the video
They need US, not the other way around. Until we realize that, the corporate greed that’s been raping the U.S. economy is going to continue. A lot of these businesses besides Wall Street are corrupt (businesses we support on the regular), don’t believe me, just look up the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations). Look up what they do and check out their roster.
4.) Once corporations are shook because of lack of support across the board, we as a people, in a more organized fashion and clear plan on what exactly we want changed can demand the changes that we want made. We outnumber the elite, so once there’s strength in our numbers, then the odds will be stacked in our favor.
I could go much further with all four, but I want people to actually read this blog. I tried as much as possible not to turn this into a 10 page essay. Marching and protesting and all that is cool, but honestly how far will that get us? There’s even been celebs who got involved with the Occupy Wall Street movement and let’s be real, how genuine is it for them to get involved with a movement that can possibly get them blackballed from the industry (backed by corporations!!!) to the extent of losing money. I already know what’s going on, but I digress…
Oh and how can I forget… our central banking system called The Federal Reserve… something needs to be done about that.
. As a musician and being involved in the music community, I see that most up and coming musicians look for validation and basically want permission to be successful.
