The HostBaby Blog

We’re all familiar with MySpace,  Facebook and Twitter, but have you heard of  Wer-kennt-wen? How about Taltopia? There are a fast growing number of new social networking sites out there, and it’s hard to know which ones are fly-by-night operations and which are sustainable business models that can help advance your music career.

Now before you sign up to half a dozen new sites just because we mentioned them, it’s important to decide ahead of time what your goals are.  Are you looking to reach a wider fan base, connect with other musicians, or experiment with innovative artist tools? While most music-centered social networks offer all of the above, we recommend doing some research and asking your fellow musicians and music fans which sites they enjoy.

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Why Be Social?

Selling music online can be tough without first developing a loyal fan base.  How does one go about developing and engaging people online you ask?  Well,  lets start with the basics.

If you use your social networking tools properly, you can easily keep your fans up to date on your new albums, performances, and promotions.  Getting your fans involved with your music career is a great way to get even more fans.  Take this scenario for example:

Joe Schmo follows you on Twitter and learned about your upcoming  show Friday night.   He attended and loved your show.  When he’s at the show he tweets to his friends about how great the show is.  A few of Joe’s buddies, in turn, follow you on Twitter, and decide to check out your website.  They tell more friends about you, THOSE friends follow you as well — you see where this leads.

So, let’s talk about a the two most popular social Networks of the day and provide some examples of how to use them to generate more followers (Twitter) and likes (Facebook).
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Not everyone has room for a nice black satin baby grand piano in their home studio, but most of us have a computer with more than a few gigabytes of harddrive space.  These days you can buy a midi keyboard for under a hundred bucks.  So what’s stopping you . . .the sound?

Musicians are often skeptical of synth sounds and are wary of creating music that sounds artificial–and rightfully so.  Luckily today’s midi sounds are not your Dad’s midi sounds.  Infact, some must  be heard to be believed.

Whether you are a composer, songwriter, recording artist, or all of the above, a midi keyboard and a good sound library can help you reach new levels in music production.

While sampled piano is not 100% realistic, nowadays it’s quite close. Many sample developers have been increasing the standard of virtual instrument libraries in the last few years.

Piano is one of those instruments that has taken decades to perfect.

When some of the first high quality sampled piano libraries came out, they weren’t cheap. But thankfully today there are a few options out there, some more expensive than others.

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Music recording technology has advanced considerably in the past few years. As a result, there are a lot of options for assembling your own recording studio without breaking the bank.  In fact, our sister blog Echoes shows how you can get started for just under a 1000.00 dollars.

Now before you get out your credit card, it’s important to know what elements to consider when building your home studio. Certain aspects are often overlooked.  Many people will end up buying the cheaper gear, thinking it’s all the same quality unless they spend thousands of dollars. However, this is not the case! Many renowned equipment manufacturers have altered their product line to focus towards low budget studios.

So let’s get started with the key elements!

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Lyric writing can be a frustrating, nail-biting, paper-crumpling experience.   Getting just the right words to conform to the cadence and rhythm of a musical piece is hard enough, let alone composing a gripping tale to woo the hearts and minds of your listeners.   Here are 8 tips to inspire and help you get through the roughs spots in lyric writing.
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