What's Going On?

As I sit here listening to Marvin Gaye, I figured it'd be a good time to sum up some of the recent activities of this freelancer. The frequency of my blog posts has dropped considerably these last two months, but that's actually a sign of being busy, not a lack of things to discuss.

For starters, you probably know I've been working on a website with my friend Dave Hahn. I've been trying to brainstorm new articles for that site as well as find more guest writers to share their stories as musicians.

I've also been recording with Lauren Zettler, a process that has influenced a few posts here. We're shooting to have an EP done by the end of January.

And of course I'm writing a lot of music. Not only for my new album, but also for Collective Pursuit and some songs that seem to be just for the hell of it, not really sure where they'll end up. This song is still in the works although I haven't done much work on it since I started traveling for the holidays.

Speaking of Collective Pursuit, I've been arranging some of the tunes from Life Is Loud for the larger ensemble. Currently I'm working on "Chester Bustamante." When I first came to NYC, I was re-arranging music for an octet to be played by a trio, but now I get to go the other direction. I'm finding this process a whole lot easier.

You can also find me on some other social networking sites like Twitter and now Tumblr. Twitter is where I'll post some short, random thoughts or links I find interesting. Tumblr is something I'm still trying to figure out, but for the time being I'm posting an mp3 everyday. Each track is something I've worked on. It ranges from Life Is Loud to the hip hop band I played in back in college.

Finally, the holidays are a good way to stay busy. My wife and I spent a week in St. Louis with our families and friends, and are now in San Antonio visiting her dad. It's amazing to see how things change with time. We're still close to many of our high school friends (in fact, my wife and I started dating 11 years ago, while we were in high school). These are people that really feel like extended family, in that you start moving in different directions and maybe don't have that much in common after a while, but you still love each other and enjoy hanging out together. These are the people that inspire and encourage me to keep doing all this. I'll probably reflect more on 2008 later, but for now, let's just say it's been a tumultuous year and I'm looking forward to smoother sailing in 2009.

Thanks for reading.

Recording, Releasing, and Performing Cover Songs

Here's a recent article I wrote on using cover songs as a means to connect with your audience and help boost your sales.

My Hidden Funk Band Agenda

I've been playing with Collective Pursuit for about 6 months now have a secret agenda to turn it into my new funk band. That's not to say it will replace my trio, but I'm starting to do more writing for the larger ensemble along with arranging many of my trio tunes for the group.

When I was in Indiana, I had a similar group which recorded in 2004. Those recordings make up most of my first album. I've pulled out several of those tunes and updated them for the group so far. The rest of the tunes on that album are with my old trio, which at the time was guitar/bass/drums. Those were more straight ahead jazz tunes.

I love the energy of a larger funk band, with poppin' horns and a deep bass groove. But upon moving to NYC, my plans of reforming the funk band met with the daunting reality of organizing the group (many props to Katie Chauvot for organizing and running Collective Pursuit for doing just that). So I ended up putting a trio together and for the love of funk, re-arranged some of my charts for the trio.

Then I got around to writing strictly for the trio, and that's how Life Is Loud was born. I've grown to love playing jazz/funk in my trio. There's fewer lines of communication and therefore fewer boundaries while improvising. When the tune abandons the ink, it's generally a sign things are taking off, not crashing because half the band is lost.

But after writing some funky new jams with James Brown inspired horn lines for Collective Pursuit, I remember why I went to all that trouble to organize the funk band in Indiana. I have definite plans to release a new trio album in 2009, but who knows, maybe I'll be adding a straight up funk record to the agenda as well.

To find out when Collective Pursuit is playing, check my calendar.

"Untitled" Progress report

It was a busy weekend, with gigs Friday and Sunday and a Christmas party on Saturday. Not to say I wasn't writing, but I wasn't writing for this tune. In fact, I came out of the weekend with three more ideas: a funk tune for Collective Pursuit, another possible trio tune, and something else that would work in a singer/songwriter context. Who knows when I'll complete those ideas, but I'm hoping to do a good bit of composing and arranging over the holidays.

The point of writing tonight is just to point out that this is part of the creative process. It's probably similar for a lot of people. It's impossible to just work on one idea at a time. If I narrowed my focus to just this one tune, I'd miss out on some potentially great ideas. Balancing all of these, along with whatever other work I may be doing, is the real challenge. Multi-tasking is one thing, but multi-composing can really max out your mental capacity, at least for half your brain.

"Untitled" - New Song in Progress

Last night a new idea came to me. I'm never sure where these ideas come from, but it's probably a combination of the music I listen to all the time mixed together, combined with my constant revisiting of the material I've already written for the new album. It all gets mixed together and the ideas come to me while I'm in the shower.

The idea last night, like most of these ideas, hits me as a complete tune. Sort of like instant improvisation, where I just hear the whole band playing the chart and everything locking together, including the solos. It's similar to having a song stuck in your head, but it's a song you've never heard, or at least don't think you've heard. The trick is to hone in on the heart of the tune and replay it in my head for a while. As soon as I wash the shampoo out of my hair, I run to my notepad and jot down the idea.

Sometimes the heart of the tune is the guitar part, melody, a certain riff, whatever. This time it was the drum part, with a little bit of a bass line mixed in. I wrote this down before I went to bed:

And another beat:


This is pretty common for me. I get two ideas, one usually a response to the other. The first beat is the "A" section. I'll probably start this tune with just drums playing that beat to set up the groove. I'm generally pretty liberal about the hi-hat part, and this tune is no exception. Quarter notes feel right for the time being, but as we break it in, I'll let Kenneth do whatever he wants.

The beat is without a doubt influenced by Clyde Stubblefield and the beat to James Brown's "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)" which I've transcribed before. In JB's tune, the hits are on 2 & 3, similar to my "A" section. I moved the hits up to 1 & 2 for the "B" section. However, the tempo is brighter and I often shift my back beat off beat 4 of the first measure of a two bar phrase. I mean, let's face it. That's just funky. I also feel it moves the music forward through anticipation. Similarly, the 16th notes on beat 4 of the second measure in the "A" section (that's a mouthful) will create a lot of energy. Or noise. We'll see.

Today I got up and played the beat a few times on my imaginary drum set. The bass line, which will probably be initially doubled by the guitar, started coming back to me. I didn't write it out the night before because it simply wasn't sticking with me. This morning, the idea morphed slightly. I manipulated it a little more to create a more interesting (yet subtle) chord progression as well. Here's the bass line for the "A" section:


There would be a C-7 on the first bar, Ab-6 on bar one "and" of 4, and E9(#11)/G# on beat 3 of the second measure. That just changes the colors slightly. I chose these chords in part to tie into another song that'll be on the album. It moves from an Ab minor sound to the E lydian dominant sound. I will be working some other thematic material from some of my other new tunes as well. That's all part of tying this album together as a complete thought.

Tomorrow I'll spend a little time developing the melody for the "A" section and maybe figure out what I want to happen over the "B" section as well.

If you're not yet bored out of your mind, I'd just like to add that when the next Coldplay album comes out, please listen closely for any of these motifs! I need to retire somehow...

Making of a New Album

I've been writing the music for my new album for a while now (this is for the jazz/funk organ trio), but it happens in spurts. First two tunes, then three more, and now I feel another rush of creativity coming on. This time, I'm going to walk through my process of composing music for my trio. I have no idea how this will work out. I could end up scrapping the idea before it's done. Either way, you'll get to see me nitpick every rhythm and note and be happy you don't live with me while I work through the creative process.

My next album is, for lack of a better term, a concept album. Life Is Loud was a reflection of my move to New York City, and while I approached each tune with the same frame of mind, I didn't fully understand what I was writing until halfway through. Also, I wrote several of those tunes for a guitar/bass/drums trio instead of guitar/organ/drums. So I wasn't using the instrumentation to it's full potential.

The new album is a reflection of my roots and influences. I grew up in St. Louis, which is a river town. Culturally, it's similar to other Midwest towns like New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City, and many smaller towns along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. A lot of great American music was born, developed, or flourished in this part of the country. Many influential writers and artists come from these towns. I'm also reflecting on the influences from my childhood, from the years I spent tap dancing (thank you Mom), to the books I read (thank you Parkway North English department), to the music I listened to (thank you... Metallica?).

I'm hoping this album will help me define my voice as a guitarist and composer. The actual tunes themselves, as they appear on the page, are only the beginning. They are really just outlines or guides for the band to explore. Brad Whiteley and Kenneth Salters have a pretty big role in the way things will ultimately turn out. I write for them, and take their feedback on every tune.

So here we go! Shall we see what happens?

Unknowning Fans as Unknowning Publicist

I'm going to try an experiment.

It dawned on me the other night that the press mailings I did when Life Is Loud was released were incredibly ineffective. The first mailing of about 40 CDs, sent to very specific writers who write about my kind of band/music/guitar playing produced a handful of reviews and pretty much zilch increase in sales or internet traffic. More importantly, the whole point of these mailings was to spread the word about the album, not to the writers, but to the potential fans out there. Hello? You out there?

So here's my experiment. Writers, you're fired. Not that you cared in the first place. Instead, I'm going to see if I can find a dozen or so regular people out there that would like my music, and ask if I can send them a copy for free. In exchange, I just want to know what they think.

If I'm able to look at somebody's internet presence (Facebook, MySpace, blog, Twitter, Last.fm, etc.) and determine that they would probably like my music, I'm betting that they would be more likely to spread the word on their own. I'm not asking them to blog about the music, but if they write a blog, chances are good they just might do it (what else do we blog about?).

I'm not looking for friends who blog, I'm looking for bloggers that don't know me who fit the M.O. of a Cameron Mizell fan.

I mentioned this to a couple friends, and they didn't quite get it. "Shouldn't we be doing this anyway?" Well, kind of. But I'm looking for people kind of like me. If John Scofield personally sent me his next album and wanted my opinion (ahem), I would not only tell him, but I'd share the experience with friends. Not that I'm Sco, but if somebody hadn't heard of me and all of a sudden I wanted to send them my CD, I bet they'd want to figure out who I am, and what's wrong with me.

All I have to lose is a few CDs that would otherwise end up in the abyss of journalists' desks.

What can we learn from Christmas music?

As soon as the dishes are cleared from Thanksgiving, many people cue up the Christmas music. Maybe there's a nap somewhere in between.

My wife is one of those people that loves Christmas music, because of the nostalgic feelings that surround the most wonderful time of the year. To envoke nostalgia, you usually want to hear the same music you heard growing up, or at least the music you've heard in the past that is tied to those happy feelings. Therefore, we end up listening to the same few albums over and over again.

I tend to look for variety. I have no problem with Christmas music, but I like hearing new ideas, new songs, and avoid too much repetition. That's not to say I don't have my favorites. I could sing every lick Vince Guaraldi plays on A Charlie Brown Christmas just like I know Kind Of Blue like the back of my hand. But because I'm a musician, I probably process the music differently than my wife (although she has a strong background in music herself).

Christmas music is the gold mine of specialty music for both of these reasons. Bing Crosby's classic White Christmas will sell for eternity, passed generation to generation through nostalgia. But at the same time, there will be ridiculous amounts of new Christmas music being recorded and released, and it will sell because there are people who want to hear something different.

To successfully capture some of that nostalgia, new Christmas music needs to become a part of somebody's tradition. That's not something you can market. But it is something that can grow with time through a persistent presence every holiday season.

This has never been easier than with today's technology. When we play music around our apartment, it's usually off one of our computers. I have a Christmas playlist that holds all the music we like to listen to, both Jill's classic favorites and the slightly more obscure titles I like to hear for variety. Set it to shuffle and we're all happy.

The rest of the year, there's plenty of other music to listen to. Plenty new releases to explore. Can we learn anything from the trends around the holiday?

I think so. The music people listen to around Christmas is usually serving a purpose. Nostalgia is one. Atmosphere is another. Participation (caroling) is another. The music becomes tradition. It represents a moment in time.

What can your music represent? What might people do listening to your music? What kind of tradition might your music play an important (or relatively minor) role? Can it be embraced as part of an existing tradition because it adds variety to the status quo?

Congratulations Ben and Ann!

My cousin, Ben, got married yesterday. I wasn't able to attend because my wife and I couldn't make it back to St. Louis for Thanksgiving this year. But my brother, an excellent photographer, took pictures at their wedding. Here's one shot of the bride he posted on his blog.

Ben is a Marine, and will be headed to the Middle East soon (part of the reason the wedding was the day after Thanksgiving). That kind of make missing the wedding a little more disappointing, but I'm sure I'll see them soon and can offer my congratulations in person.

Sequence

Today I've been listening to some music that I recently added to my iTunes library. Conveniently, all I have to do is click on the Recently Added smart playlist and hit play. But after a few tracks I realized the albums were playing in reverse order, because the last tracks are imported more recently. A couple of the albums were compilations of blues musicians. These are typically sequenced in chronological order, so I found myself hearing the newest cuts first, and then moved back in time to earlier material. I don't think I've ever listened in this manner, and it grabbed my attention.

While many pop oriented artists are starting to release digital singles and EPs in place of full albums, I find myself scratching my head a little. Is the idea to only offer the good songs and do away with the filler tracks? Do you still play the filler tracks live? Sure, nobody wants to be forced to buy filler material to get the good songs, but I've got a great solution: Don't write it. If you write a bunch of great music, package it together as an album, and sell it for a decent price, your fans will feel like they're getting a deal when they buy 14 songs on iTunes for $9.99.

One of the albums I listened to today, in reverse order was Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever. You'd fight an uphill battle to say that album has filler tracks. They're not all hits, but they're all very good.

I think full albums with a well thought out sequence are absolutely still valid today. The problem is not the buying patterns of consumers, but the artistic vacuum known as the bottom line. We know CD sales plummetted in part because they were overpriced and full of crappy music. But what made the sales surge in the first place, for this and every format?

Not well constructed business plans. Not brilliant marketing people. Not innovations in distribution or production.

I'm pretty sure it was simply a matter of good music.

Blog: A Musician's Journey

Christopher Lars Carlson is smart. I stumbled across his blog this morning and liked everything he's written. He thinks the way I try to think (not sure if that's a compliment), and his approach is kind of similar to mine.

If you've ever found anything interesting in my blog, you'll find much more at his:

A Musician's Journey

Happy reading.

Textures, Pt. 2

Last week I started writing about using textures to take your playing to a new level of musicality. For starters, we should always look for the inner voices in a piece of music, and then adjust tone and timbre through slight adjustments to our playing techniques.

That first part is very important because it's about using what you have before relying on effects or other equipment to manipulate your sound. For most of us, money is going to limit what kind of equipment we'll have, so we may never have exactly what we think we need to get a certain texture. But even for those with huge bankrolls, there will be plenty of instances where you can't bring along all your gear. Therefore, it's always important to learn how to find the simplest solutions first, and build from there.

Now that we all know how to use the Force for good, let's talk about some of the stuff money can buy.

I'm a guitarist; my people are known for our smoke and mirrors tactics usually associated with effects. But many guitarists' signature sound is due in part to their gear, so it's worth investigating. Let's review the basics:

Acoustic guitars are made from different tonewoods and come in different body types or shapes. Knowledgeable salespeople usually match a guitarists playing style to certain types of wood and body styles because it balances out their sound. But if you're a well balanced player that can manipulate the sound with your fingers or pick, it's usually worth shopping for guitars with different tonewoods and shapes that will expand your sonic possibilities.

Electric guitars capture sound with pickups. The two basic pickup options are single coil (found on Fender Stratocasters or Telecasters) and humbuckers (found on Gibson Les Pauls and SGs). Popular opinion describes single coil pickups as having a bright, clean tone while humbuckers have a fat, warm tone.

Secondary to the pickups, wood and body type can also change the sound of an electric guitar. Archtops and hollow bodied guitars allow the top to vibrate, similar to an acoustic guitar, but with humbucking pickups. These produce a woody, warmer tone usually used by jazz or blues guitarists. Different types of wood can affect sustain and ultimately tone.

Look at some pictures of classic rock bands like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones and you'll see a variety of guitars on stage. Before digital effects became widely popular, using different guitars created all the tonal textures they needed.

If you can't afford a new guitar, sometimes a cheap, used guitar that's been beat up a bit can give you a unique sound. I have a few in my collection, and while I don't use them live, they've been very handy in recording situations.

Next, you've got amplifiers. Most people are going to tell you tube amps are the way to go. Frankly, the only time you can argue against that is when a solid state amp can do well enough to save yourself the trouble of dragging a tube amp to the gig. I recently spent a good amount of money on a Class A tube amp, and while I don't understand all the technology behind it, I do understand the wide range of tones I can create. In general, I'd recommend a simple but well built tube amp over any digital amp simulator. Nothing tops the genuine tube sound, and if you put a decent EQ between your guitar and amp, you can mimic most classic amp sounds.

Everything other than your technique, guitar, and amp is just details. But textures are often created in the details.

I've always considered myself a guitar-to-amp guy, but I ended up with a decent collection of effects pedals. My favorite effect is the vibrato on my amp, not pictured below, but here's a rundown of what you see on my pedalboard: Jim Dunlop Crybaby Wah, Electro-Harmonix Mini QTron envelope filter, ProCo Turbo Rat distortion, Boss Giga-Delay (with an FS-5U pedal I use to tap tempos), Boss Flanger, Boss EQ, Ernie Ball Volume.
I can create more sounds than I'll ever use with this rig, and when I use it, I use it sparingly. In most live situations, I'll change my tone by switching channels on my amp, changing pickups, adjusting my tone and volume knobs, and picking closer to the bridge or neck. But with my trio, I often take it a step further using my pedal board. The wah-wah and envelope filter pedals allow me to quickly sweep a wider EQ range. The distortion and flanger color the tone. I usually only use the EQ pedal when I'm dealing with a house amp. The giga-delay lets me program four different pre-sets. I'll use some light delay during some solos, and then I've got some wacky settings for taking things out. Psychadelic jazz doesn't happen without some enablers.

The trick is to know when to use these options. Django Reinhardt made legendary music without any of these effects. Jimi Hendrix practically played effects like they were an instrument all their own. Yet if you took everything away from Hendrix, he still sounded like Hendrix. Jazz guitarists Pat Metheny and John Scofield both have very distinct tones on electric guitar. Yet both have recorded acoustic albums, and their playing is immediately recognizable. In fact, every great artist has at some point recorded or performed acoustically and maintained their unique sound.

The point is to use your textures to suplement musicality, not replace it all together. Learn how to manipulate your sound organically first, and then introduce some other effects to alter your tone even greater. Used tastefully and with a strong musical purpose, textures will add new depth to your songs.

Textures, Pt. 1

My latest kick in writing or playing music has been experimenting with textures. This actually isn't a new thing, but I'm spending more time at home, on my own, trying to figure out ways to play the same passage differently.

For starters, a song needs to be good. If your tune is lame in it's most naked form, it's going to be lame no matter what smoke and mirrors you apply. My yard stick is my wife. If I write a tune for my trio and have been honing the melody for a while, and then hear her humming it later that night, mission accomplished.

The next step is adding texture. How can I make the "A" section sound different from the "B" section? Do I need a bridge or vamp to add more interest? Who plays the melody? Is it doubled? Is everybody playing?

Since my trio is basically an electric jazz ensemble, many of our textures happen on the spot, but I try to write some of it into the music. I think one of the problems a lot of people have with jazz music is that it kind of sounds the same to them start to finish. The same instruments and sounds and feel basically the whole time. It's really easy for someone like me to forget about this perspective because my ear picks up on the other things happening. Specifically, what the soloist is doing.

When it comes to the other music I make, very specific textures play a larger role. Take, for example, a chord progression of G to D. Repeat. Ad nauseum. There are many great songs written with these exact two chords. Lyrics and melody definitely create interest, but what can you do to pull it away from the Kumbaya-fireside-I-learned-this-song-from-online-tabs sound?

A lot.

First, take stock of how the song is performed. Most of the time I'm playing with somebody else who can play guitar and sing. I can play a variety of instruments, sometimes at the same time. At least in theory, it's physically possible. I've got some practicing to do.

But I always start with what I do best, the guitar. I start with playing inner voices on the guitar. Then it's a matter of rhythm and attack. Fingers or pick? Strum or pluck simultaneously?

Next comes tone. Acoustic or electric guitar? There are many ways to change your tone before using various effects pedals, so I do whatever I can with a straight, clean tone (the fewer effects I use, the less I have to drag to the gig!). Right and left hand position make a huge difference here.

With your left hand (or whichever you use on the fretboard) the further up the neck you voice a chord, the shorter the string becomes. I call this choking up, like a baseball player. But if your other guitar player is playing in a lower position on the neck, choking up will create a distinctive tone and prevent the music from getting too muddy.

Your right hand has even more control. Pick close to the bridge and the tone gets "tinny" while the picking close to or even over the frets produces a "warmer" tone. You can also change your angle of attack by flat picking or using the edge of the pick for a smoother release. I try to maintain my fingernails on my right hand, which has come in handy many time. If I shape them right, it's like having five guitar picks. Each has it's own tonal character as well, just because they grow differently. This is where some classical chops come in handy, even though I rarely play classical music.

I'll expand further on effects and other instruments I've found helpful in future posts. For now, just playing with an acoustic guitar should keep you busy!

Does your artist name make a difference?

Flipping through my iTunes library today, I noticed that most of my 6,376 tracks are by artists whose names are in the first half of the alphabet.

This could be quickly filed as a useless statistic, except I don't think I favor that end of the alphabet. For all the Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen I have, I've got more Stan Getz. I've got a lot of James Brown and Jimi Hendrix, but I also have plenty of The Meters, Miles Davis, and Radiohead. (And it's worth noting that for people, iTunes organizes by FIRST name, where a store organizes by LAST name.)

The difference is in the bands with an album or less in my collection. Those are the groups I wanted to try out. Buy a little, see if I like it, maybe buy some more later.

The music in my library comes from four sources, more or less in this order by quantity:

1) A few hundred CDs that I bought in an actual store, which I keep in some of those big folders.
2) Music that I bought online, mostly as downloads, a few from Amazon or CD Baby.
3) Music from friends, either by ripping their CDs or mp3s they send me.
4) CDs I got while working at Verve, either for free or at an employee discount.

Believe it or not, I never did any massive free downloading. I just never wanted all that junk on my computer. And despite all the free music I got from work, and the huge options I have amongst my friends music, it makes up a pretty small fraction of the music on my computer.

So I have to wonder whether or not there's some reason for this? Am I (are we?) conditioned to start at the beginning and work our way back? If we find something we like by the time we get to the J's, do we buy it before getting to the Z's? Is there a disadvantage? Does the internet help or hurt the issue?

Tonight @ Europa Night Club

Tonight my trio will perform at Europa Night Club in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It's a night of groove focused jazz/funk/jam music organized by yours truly. I could use as much support as possible, so please come on out!

Cameron Mizell Trio @ Europa Night Club
9pm - 10:30pm
Featuring Brad Whiteley on keyboards and Kenneth Salters on drums

Europa Night Club
98 Meserole Ave. (at Manhattan Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11222
Visit my calender to see more of my performance schedule.

Lyrics

I can write melodies.
I can write harmonies.
I can write chord progressions.
I can write rhythm.
I can arrange all this together and turn it into a song.
But damnit, I'm having a tough time writing lyrics.

I also can't sing very well, but I've been ok with that. The only part of college I couldn't get a good grade in, no matter how hard I tried, was the singing part of my aural skills and music theory classes. I can hear my voice on the wrong pitch, and just can't get it to the right one, unless it's within about four notes just below middle C, depending on how long I've been awake that day.

Never singing sort of eliminated the need to write words, so I've gotten along quite well without that skill for the last 20 years I've been playing guitar.

Now I'm going to start writing lyrics. I'm writing music with a friend, and we need to both bring ideas to the music. In order to veto his lyrics, I need my own ideas. Plus, I just want to be able to do it. Do I really need a reason?

I doubt I'll ever be a poet like Dylan or Mitchell, or a storyteller like Springsteen, but I've heard enough Kiss to know lyrical content doesn't have to necessarily be very deep.

My biggest problem, I think, has been the first line. When I listen to any song I like, the first few words are always perfect. How does one do that?

I'm curious, how do different songwriters get their inspiration for lyrics? If you're a lyricist, what do YOU do?

And if you're in the same boat as me, this might help with that first line.

Turn your music into money.

There are many ways to make money as a musician, and we're trying to learn how different musicians are doing this over at MusicianWages.com. Yeah, yeah, I've been plugging that site a lot, but I think it's a pretty cool project, so go check it out already.

Today I spent a good part of my day writing an article about making money from original music. I think that's the one thing nearly every musician would love to do, yet it's usually the most difficult. But I've managed to have some success, at least I've built a steady stream of income that in turn funds future releases, new equipment, and even helps pay some bills.

If you're interested, here's the link to Creating Income with Your Original Music.

Let me know what you think.

And don't forget to vote.

And you thought election season was over!

I need your help. For the first time in my life, I'm a part of a music related contest, and it's one of those annoying types where anyone can vote once a day until the deadline. In other words, a popularity contest. Luckily, the public can't tell I have anything to do with the song (unless you find the bonus link to the "making-of" video).

I recorded a song with Lauren Zettler (who's mug shot is easier on the eyes than mine) and she entered it into a contest. It was picked as one of the Top 10 Finalists by a bunch of really important people and now it's up to the masses to decide who's song is best, and the winner gets to go on a cruise to perform this song along with a handful of popular and influential singer/songwriters. This is a big opportunity for Lauren, and by association, a big one for me too.

Enough chat.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!!!

You will have to register. I know, it's a pain in the ass. But once you're registered, you can vote once a day through November 23.

My wife would get to come along, so that multiplies the karma you receive from your deeds.

Thanks!

Home Recording Tips, Learned the Hard Way

1) Save often.

2) Make sure you're comfortably in front of the mic and can reach the mouse/keyboard. Slightly repositioning yourself to set up punch-ins can noticeably change your tone.

3) Tell your wife when you are about to hit record.

4) Take time to pet your cat before you start, so they don't come asking for attention mid-take.

5) Save often.

6) If patience is a virtue, be the Pope.

7) Give yourself some breaks, and try not to obsess.

8) At a certain point, it's not going to get better, you're only wasting time.

9) Play less.

10) When layering several guitars, find a distinct tone for each based on it's role in the song. The same tone on top of itself just gets muddy.

11) Save often.

12) Learn how to use your equipment, inside and out.

13) When all else fails, reboot.

14) Learn the part, then press record. Doesn't work as well the other way around.

15) Sometimes, it just doesn't sound good. Chalk it up as a learning experience.

16) Try to figure out what time your neighbors get home from work (if you live in an apartment).

17) Save often.

18) Getting the part right is always easier than editing pieces together.

19) Before you say, "I can fix that." and move on to the next part, make sure you can actually fix it.

20) Learn to use what you have. You'll never have the ideal equipment, but many times the best results come unexpectedly by not being able to do what you think you need to do.

New Website: MusicianWages.com

For the last two months, Dave Hahn and I have been working on a new website:

MusicianWages.com: The Website for Working Musicians

The website is built around the simple idea that musicians can learn the most from their peers' success stories, as well as lessons from others' mistakes. We're promoting a community atmosphere as well as an informative resources for those interested in making a living as a musician. So far, we've received some fantastic articles by some of our friends who make a living on a variety of different gigs:

Guitarist Gary Melvin contributed an article about being a professional sideman. Currently, Gary is playing guitar and touring with Frankie Valli and stays busy promoting his first solo album, "Spare Time".

Singer/songwriter Lauren Zettler wrote about her decision to quit her job and follow her true passion as a musician. Lauren is performing regularly in NYC supporting her EP, "Call Me Out" as well writing and recording for her next.

Percussionist David Jolley shares his story of becoming a professional musician (you'll laugh, you'll cry, maybe even tip that one guy on the subway platform). Dave is presently the resident percussionist for the Prather Entertainment Group.

Along with this there are many articles by Dave and a growing number by yours truly. We've also got some great stuff in the pipeline from others, and as those articles become available I will probably add some links on this blog.

So if you're a musician, please stop by, visit the forum and let us know what you think. Feel free to suggest an article, or ask questions. If we don't know the answers, I bet we can find somebody that does.

Collective Pursuit tonight @ Europa Night Club

Tonight I will be performing with Collective Pursuit, an 8 piece jazz ensemble packed with talented players. We're part of a night of performance art where bands and painters will collaborate to create a larger experience. If you're in NYC, come to Greenpoint, Brooklyn to and be a part of the event:

Collective Pursuit @ Europa Night Club
11:30pm - 12:30am
Featuring Cody Brown (d), Craig Akin (b), Bobby Avey (p), Cameron Mizell (g), Luke Malewicz (tb), Michael Eaton (ts), Jackie Coleman (tp), and Kt Chauvot (tp)

Europa Night Club
98 Meserole Ave. (at Manhattan Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11222
Visit my calender to see more of my performance schedule.

To do list.

When I started this blog, I intended to write something every day to keep me focused on whatever I was actually doing to build this little business of being a musician. It's been a great exercise. I typically sit here and just think through my fingers, organize my thoughts, and then put them into action. If anyone reads it, that's an added bonus (Hi, Mom).

If I haven't had anything interesting to say recently it's because I have so MUCH interesting things to say, or at least things I think are interesting and frankly my dear don't give a damn if you do or not. Some of the articles/posts in the pipeline:

-Metadata! What's that? I'll tell you, and why I think it's important. Who am I kidding... I'll link to the Wikipedia page and then tell you why I think it's important for musicians.

-Gigs! No, not computer memory, but the things musicians do that supposedly makes them all their money while everyone downloads their music for free. Which brings me to our next topic...

-Free! Again, my thoughts about giving away music, but this time why the idea of rampant downloading frustrates the hell out of the people that actually invest their creative energy, time, and money into the music, aka artists. I'm one of them, yet I'm indifferent about the downloading and I'll tell you why.

-Music Entrepreneurship! I was asked what I thought about a Masters degree that would essentially prepare students to do more or less what I do. It's a really interesting concept. How do you make this successful? I don't know, but I'll write down my thoughts.

And a few still shaping up in my head. Many of these will be posted at the new website Dave Hahn and I started:

http://www.musicianwages.com

If you haven't checked it out, please do. There are a lot of posts there so far, and a forum for discussions amongst musicians. If you have a question, ask it in the forum. Dave, myself, or one of the other great musicians that are contributing to the site will try to answer it, or find someone that can.

Blogging is just my side gig, though. The real reason I haven't been writing much recently is because I've been BUSY. And it's great. I'm writing a lot of music, practicing a lot, and continually working on some recording or another. Outside of my trio, I've been playing two other gigs:

Collective Pursuit. An 8 piece modern jazz group playing music composed by all members, under the leadership of trumpeter KT Chauvot. Loaded with talent, the band has really started to come together after getting some gigs under our collective belt. This gig definitely keeps my reading, arranging, and jazz chops in shape. We recorded three songs for a demo, and have been recording some of the shows as well. Check the MySpace page every now and then for more music.

Lauren Zettler. I'm not really a huge fan of the term "singer/songwriter" because it's so vague, but it's a good place to start when talking about Lauren's music. She's a fantastic singer and her writing gets better with every song. It's folk/pop/rock/alt-country/grunge/alternative/klezmer/reggae at it's best. Hopefully that make you curious enough to go listen to some of her music. I've played several shows and have been recording with her, something that will be released in the next couple months. I practice the "less is more" approach to playing her music, which is something every instrumentalist needs to do. Whatever the song needs, I try to do. This sometimes means playing mandolin or even harmonica, and sometimes NOT playing (what?!?). Lucky for Lauren, I'm a fantastic dancer and bust out the Hammer whenever I have more than 8 bars of rest.

I'm also starting a band with my good friend Eric Clay, formerly of Team Tomato. Eric and I started our first band in junior high, sold it three years later for $64 million, and are doing this start up for the same reasons. Actually, that's not true, but how cool would that be? Anyway, we've been writing music and will hopefully record some of it in the next couple months. This is a straight up rock band--the kind my wife was embarrased to tell her mom about. Her end of that conversation went something like, "Oh yeah, Eric has moved up here. Yeah, he's living with his girlfriend. Him and Cam are uh, writing some music together, and uh, you know, playing guitar." Just say we're starting a band! Although, it does kind of sound like something you do in junior high. My band phase. There are a couple people still waiting for me to get out of that one.

All the while I'm also trying to find time to finish another album of cover songs with my friend and singer Matt Ketteman. Matt has recorded all his vocal tracks, and now it's up to me to make the music sound good. I find myself being such a perfectionist that I usually get fed up with my results after adding a few parts and moving onto another project. I can't pinpoint what the problem is exactly, but this would probably be easier if I wasn't trying to do it alone. Matt, take a vacation. Come hang out with me for a week so you can press record, stop, undo, record, stop, undo, etc.

As I'm working on this stuff, my cat will be taking my calls. She's more likely to answer if you call between 4:27 and 6:51 in the morning, when she's usually knocking things off my bookshelf. The rest of the time, she's catching up on her sleep or taking a lunch break.

The excuse didn't work in college, either.

Keeping Up.

I've never been much of a tech freak or computer nerd or what-have-you, but I am pretty particular about certain things and like my HTML code nice and tidy.

Tonight I was putting together a web page for somebody. I taught myself web design about 5 years ago with a couple books. My first website looked awful, and the following two were a little better. The last time I redesigned my site was in the summer of 2007, just after my latest CD came out. Back then, it was still somewhat important to have your own website. Now that's just icing on the cake if you have a profile for every social networking site out there. I think they keep a running count of those things on a clock in Times Square. It's around 10 trillion now. What's that? Oh right, that's the national debt. Both are about as hopeless. I've digressed.

I need to redesign my site sometime soon, but it feels like I need to learn how to do it all over again. How are you supposed to keep up if you only do it once every 18 months? I've considered hiring somebody to do it for me, but then I hear nightmares about unresponsive web designers.

Oh well. I'm starting a rock band with my friend Eric. At least I get to make a new MySpace page.

Twitter

There are at least 4,397 social networking blog websites for us to choose from, and for those of you out there doing the whole independent musician thing, you realize that you're only cool if you have profiles on at least 1,000 of them. Bonus points if actually log into them all once a month.

My approach has been to focus on one at a time and see what happens. I set up a Twitter account on August 11 after reading some press about how various companies are using it for customer service and bands are able to... etc. Enough for me to check it out.

The first thing I noticed was that many of my friends were already on Twitter, but most had stopped using it. Next I noticed that I'm long winded, because Twitter is a mini blog, and you can only post 140 characters and spaces or less. That's hard for us Mizells.

Other problems... how often do you Tweet? Should new Tweets have anything to do with previous Twits? Is it lame if you only Tweet once a day?

In any case, I have found some interesting information thanks to Twitter. Plus the search function allows you to track queries that might be relevant to you. I'm following terms as varied as "Cameron Mizell" and "cameronmizell" and "Cameron Mizell is awesome." So far the RSS feed is empty, but I haven't given up all hope!

In all seriousness, I'm trying this out for a while to see what happens. This is the only way to figure out what sites work best for me. Ultimately, I'm just trying to reach a few more people that might enjoy my music.

Follow me at Twitter!

Quest for a Decent Lunch

A New York Experience:

This afternoon I was hanging out with a friend, working on some music we've been writing together and cleaning up in the backyard of his new apartment in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. After a while we set out for some lunch.

My friend wanted to go to a spot where they made this sandwich called the Vegan Temptress. He talked about it as we walked the 6 or 7 blocks to the place. My mouth was watering. When we got there, the place was being used to shoot a movie, with Jason Schwartzman sitting in the window. We stood across the street staring while we tried to decide where to go eat, when the director turned around and gave some dude the stink eye while pointing at us, and we were quickly asked to leave.

Then we wandered around looking for a Mexican restaurant he wanted to go to, but of course couldn't remember where it was because he's only been living in Brooklyn for about a month. When we finally found it, it turned out it was closed on Tuesdays. Only closed on Tuesdays.

We ended up at a spot around the corner. Another Mexican restaurant, but they were playing jazz. I knew it was a Verve album because I recognized Herb Ellis' guitar, Lester Young's tenor sax, Buddy Rich's drums, Oscar Peterson's piano, which of course meant Ray Brown was on bass. But I couldn't pin point the trumpet player and asked the waiter. It was Harry "Sweets" Edison. Don't you hate it when that happens?

What I Learned at My Record Label Job

There's a new website in the works, and it'll be the future home for my blog. I've been working on an in depth article about what I took from working at a record label. It's pretty long, so I might not be writing too much more on 'Between the Music' this week.

What I Learned at My Record Label Job

After you're done, take a sneak peak at the site. If you're a musician, you can participate in the forum or even contribute an article yourself, simple read this post by Dave Hahn, my cohort and the true evil genius behind this adventure.

Record Labels

I used to work at a record label, and loved the job. Almost as much as I love making my own music for a job.

There is a lot of trash talked about record labels, and I read a lot of independent artists regurgitating the same complaints over and over. But I feel like most of this contempt is towards the huge corporations that own the labels. It's really the system that's the pain in everyone's ass, not the labels.

Record labels have to operate a business, just like I'm trying to do with my music. Labels have to hit quarterly numbers to satisfy their corporate owners, or else heads roll. Every ethical problem people have with labels screwing over artists is rooted in money and could probably be traced to somebody trying to keep their job. On the contrary, my short term goals are best achieved when I focus on the greater long term goal. Money is an issue, but I'm trying to make a career, not just a weekly paycheck.

One thing I learned when I worked at the label was that most artists need this. It's nearly impossible for one person to work a record the way five professionals specializing in production, sales, marketing, promotion and publicity can. Then there's the internet--a good new media person can coordinate multiple websites, social networks, and blogs from a single feed. Trying to do all that alone eats up all the time for everything else. Forget making the actual music.

Perhaps one reason so many unsigned artists complain so much is lack of understanding mixed with jealousy. They want to be signed, otherwise I don't know why they are complaining. I don't want to be signed, which is why I view this objectively. My opinion is based on some first hand experience and education, not what I hear other people say, and definitely not what I read in music business books that are practically obsolete by the time they are published.

It's also worth noting that a lot of artists know what they're doing when they sign a deal. Most of the artists on this label were pretty smart, as were their managers. I didn't work in the legal department, and I never saw any deal memos, but here's how I came to understand things:

Artists usually try to get the largest advance they can, because recouping costs and making royalties is a long way off, if it happens at all. All those pie charts you see where the artist get $0.00009 of every CD sold don't account for the $50k advance. Rather, once the artists' cut pays back the advance and agreed portion of the rest of the budget, royalties begin to flow (or trickle). If an artist can continue to sell enough records to release something every few years, they can make an advance on each record. Factor in the money from various other revenue streams and they're doing alright.

The real problem is that it's really, really hard to break a new artist. It's an investment and costs a whole lot of money that you hope to make back on the second or third record. The terrain is so rocky today that who knows what's going to be happening five years down the road when the third record is released. Meanwhile the labels have to pay their employees, and that adds up even in smaller companies. So decisions have to be made to cover the bottom line.

The way I see it, I would love to have my former colleagues working my albums, but there's just no way my music will generate the amount of revenue needed to support that effort. I also don't want to forfeit ownership of my recordings. And my general rule of thumb is that if you want to work with me and get a cut of my revenue, then you have to be able to triple what I'm making now so I feel justified in giving you a percentage.

Someday, somebody is going to figure out how to restore some balance. Maybe I'll come up with it on this blog.

Getting over the hump

You know how the first gig with a new band is always exciting? By the next gig the excitement is worn off and everything that's going wrong is pretty obvious. Then a few gigs later, everything clicks and the music just happens, you take the little risks to make the music better, even if it means there may be a little mistake, but the feeling is all there.

That happened at the gig last night. We got passed that invisible hump. Sure, I have a list of things I need to work on, but now that we have our cake recipe figured out, the rest is just the icing.

Lauren Zettler tonight @ Rockwood Music Hall

Tonight I will be performing with Lauren Zettler, a very talented singer/songwriter I've had the pleasure of working with for the last several months. She has an EP available on iTunes, a free download of a show we played in LA, and more studio material coming soon. If you're in NYC, come down to the Lower East Side and check it out:

Lauren Zettler @ Rockwood Music Hall
7pm - 8pm

Rockwood Music Hall
196 Allen Street (between Houston & Stanton)
New York, NY 10002

Visit my calender to see more of my performance schedule.

I beg to differ...

Whoever said there are no stupid questions what just trying to be clever when somebody was scared to ask one.

You should never be scared to ask questions, but you should try to find the answer first. If you're asking a question out of laziness, then it's a stupid question. I'm generalizing a little, but I have a point.

Nobody can fill your brain with knowledge except you.

When I think back to my guitar lessons, the weeks I asked fewer questions were the weeks I learned the most. If I showed up prepared, we'd go over the material and then I'd get exercises to help further round out my playing, based on what I'd just demonstrated to my teacher.

On the other hand, when I wasn't prepared I'd fill the time by asking questions like, "How do you voice this chord with the third on top?" If I actually took 10 minutes to think about it over the week, I could have come up with plenty of solutions, but I was lazy or more often just used the excuse that I was busy. Deep down, I knew I was being lazy.

When you do ask questions, I've found the best questions to ask are always those that stress the you and not the do.

How do you do ____?

If the question is about finding specific, personal approaches to something like music, the answer is always more fulfilling.

Fan Mail Gets Dear John Letter

Yesterday I read a short news story about Ringo Starr posting a video on his website asking fans to not send any fan mail or "objects to be signed" after October 20th. It will be tossed. The 68 year old has too much to do.

I can only imagine. Even if he didn't, the guy is allowed some peace and quiet (and love), right? He's almost as old as John McCain for Pete's sake. He's almost as old as the phrase "for Pete's sake."

Of course he comes from an entirely different generation. The Beatles were like nothing we've seen before or since. The way they interacted with fans in the early days probably set the tone for modern super star bands having so many restrictions and security surrounding their shows, or any public appearance. It comes as no surprise that Ringo would still be getting loads of fan snail mail. It also doesn't surprise me that he answers it, and now that he's made the decision that he can't do it anymore, he has some feeling of guilt so he posted that video.

But bands today interact with fans differently. Blogs, websites, videos, contests (by the way, all of these things exist on ringtostarr.com), all give the fans some extras to go along with the music. It's all about the experience, but today it's all about instant experience.

I wonder what will happen 40 years from now when a band decides they don't have the time or energy to do these extras? How will the next generation interact with their favorite bands?

Songwriting Diagnostics

There are two things I've been doing a lot lately: Writing music and watching House reruns.

When I'm composing, I tend to get in this zone and write a lot of material in long spurts. I've never been able to successfully schedule too many writing sessions. Similarly, I've never been able to successfully watch a TV series. Something about committing every Tuesday night at 8 to the TV has never been appealing. Instead, my wife and I wait until it hits Netflix or some other network picks up the reruns and does a couple marathon sessions.

One thing I like about House is that every case is a puzzle. Sometimes the diagnosis is a rare disease, but often it's something fairly common presenting itself in an uncommon or unexpected way.

Sometimes when I'm writing music, I run into a problem. The song just isn't working right. Kind of like it's sick. Sometimes, the tune is just no good, but usually I'm just approaching it wrong.

House approaches each patient with a certain lack of trust. He assumes anything is possible.

That's a good way to approach a song. Don't trust convention. Don't assume the obvious harmonic or melodic solution, but don't rule it out just to be exciting. Follow your gut but use your head.

Don't Overestimate Free, Part 2

Earlier I talked a little bit about why free doesn't work. One thing that might not have been clear is that it's not that free never works, and by 'works' I mean helps a musician maintain a career playing music, it's just that it's not as easy as a lot of people think it is. My point, in my typical long-winded fashion, is that simply making all your music available for free is not going to give anybody any incentive to take it. You must position it so that it's relevant and valuable. Otherwise it feels more like picking discarded CDs out of a dumpster.

Hugely popular artists seem to do well despite, or arguably because of, widespread free downloads of their music. In this past year, Coldplay, Lil' Wayne, Usher, and Metallica all sold over 500,000 CDs in the week following the release of their latest albums even though people could get their hands on the albums for free before the release date.

For guys and gals like me--independent, developing, or niche musicians--it's entirely different. I doubt anybody is scouring the internet looking for free music by Cameron Mizell. In fact, here's a link to a track for you to download. On the house. If you're reading this, you're probably a lot more interested in hearing it than someone that randomly finds it because you're connecting it to a person, or at least the person you imagine me to be based on what you can find out on the internet (hint: there's more than one Cameron Mizell on the internet... I'm the one with the hat and glasses).

More importantly, I actually make most of the money from the sales of my music, and it's what helps keep me on my feet. I currently use CD Baby to distribute my music to digital retailers. When you pay $.99 for a track on iTunes, I get $.64, and likewise $6.37 per $9.99 album. Those are good margins. Granted, I'm not selling boatloads of music, but it always does sell. I'm currently generating income from seven albums on iTunes. Some of these are with other people, so I'm splitting that profit. Even so, it's a nice steadily growing revenue stream.

This isn't to say I don't offer some free music here and there. Every time I finish an album I make two or three tracks available for free across a few different websites. I choose sites where people that listen to my kind of music hang out. I also don't mind if people burn my CD for their friends, or email MP3s. Just don't act like you're helping me. If you've gotten this far, you know that each sale actually makes a difference to my bottom line. Plus I'm not selling that much music, and I still need to buy groceries and pay rent. Not to mention, freelance musicians, like most small business owners in America, can't afford health care (cough, cough).

It's very possible that a day will come where I give away all my music. Revenue streams shift or dry up. But as the industry changes and trends for buying music shifts, independent musicians like myself have the flexibility to quickly adjust.

Collective Pursuit tonight @ Lucky Cat

Tonight I will be performing with Collective Pursuit, an 8 piece jazz ensemble packed with talented players. We're playing some of my music as well. If you're in NYC, come to Billyburg, Brooklyn to check it out:

Collective Pursuit @ Lucky Cat
8pm - 10pm
No cover! Featuring Cody Brown (d), Craig Akin (b), Assaf Glizner (p), Cameron Mizell (g), Luke Malewicz (tb), Michael Eaton (ts), Jackie Coleman (tp), and Kt Chauvot (tp)

Lucky Cat
245 Grand Street (between Driggs and Roebling)
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Visit my calender to see more of my performance schedule.

Globalized Fan Base

How do you build a fan base when the hundreds or even thousands of people listening to your music are spread out across the world?

Have you ever seen that "Demand it!" widget on MySpace? Whenver I see this on a band's page that might have 10,000 'friends' and rack up a ton of plays, I usually see small tallies of people in many, many areas. This would make for a 150 date U.S. tour with an average draw of what, five people per gig? Even if there's a $20 cover and everyone buys two t-shirts and multiple copies of all of your CDs, you can't afford it!

This is something I've been trying to figure out. I don't really have the answer, but here's how I see the situation:

By looking at a site like Last.fm, there are about 900 people that listen to my music with about 3,600 plays recorded. On Last.fm, listeners are added up when either somebody with the Last.fm software listens to one of my songs on their computer or somebody streams my song on the Last.fm site. Whether a person listens to only one of my songs once, or plays all my music repeatedly, they still only count as one listener. Let's assume about half of these people stumbled across my music unintentionally, heard one track, but probably won't be repeated listeners. I can't consider them fans. That leaves about 450 listeners with maybe 3,000 plays, which is less than 7 plays per listener. There's a lot of room for error, so I'll just assume 100 of these people are actually fans. Sounds kind of bleak, but then again, do you use Last.fm? Most people don't, so it's a pretty narrow poll.

What's more important is that most people that use Last.fm live outside the U.S., and the vast majority of my music sales are to people in this country. Plus I only really perform in New York City, so the fact there are 100 people around the world that are into my music is actually pretty cool. Really, the fact over 900 people have heard my music around the world is pretty cool. If I factor in all the music I've sold, I'm comfortable saying that worldwide, there's probably 1,000 people that are fans of my music. Probably more depending on how widely available my music is on P2P sites.

One reason the internet and all these social network sites are so great is that it allows me to interact with my fans in Chicago, Portland, Madison, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, not to mention London, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo... should I go on? Even if there's just one person in Lynchburg, VA that bought my album, they have the same access to me as anyone else, with the exception of seeing live shows. Hopefully my new digital camcorder and YouTube will help change that.

It's difficult to nurture both the local scene, where I book and promote gigs, and also the global scene. I've sold more music in New York than any other single city, but it still makes up less than 10% of the total sales. So I can't ignore the bigger picture. It's just difficult to find the balance.

Octoberfest

My wife just brought home some Sam Adams Octoberfest, possibly my favorite of their seasonal brews. Now that my hometown brewery (I'm from St. Louis) has been bought out by Martians, I think, my loyalties have fully switched.

Anyway, it's going to be a nice night in this corner of Brooklyn.

Don't Overestimate Free

There's a lot of hype about just giving your music away for free.

"Think of the exposure! So many more people will hear it and buy your concert tickets and t-shirts! They'll all want to buy your albums in the future!"

But this is false. It works well in theory, seems to make sense, so it gets all that hype. Using a completely unfounded statistic based on zero research other than what I've been reading by music industry theorists, I've concluded that 99.9% of those that hype the "Power of Free" are not musicians trying to break through obscurity.

Everyone can think of a time they turned down something free. Why'd you do it?

- Free doesn't work because there's no such thing as free. First, people assume you want something in return. Even if you don't, your music will occupy space on their shelf or hard drive. They have to invest the time and effort to listen to your music. And more often then not, people don't want free things because they have to figure out how to get rid of it if they don't like it. Even throwing it in the trash seems like a chore. People on the street wouldn't take the samplers because they would have to carry them around all night knowing they'd probably just throw it in the trash later.

Sure, people have huge appetites for music. My iTunes folder has 6,267 tracks--which is apparently 21.4 days worth of music. But there's a Public Enemy track on here that hasn't been played since December of 2006! Do I even like that song? If I'm not listening to some of the music I paid for, give me a good reason to listen to yours!

Along similar lines, people who might scoff at the size of my collection are likely people that just horde music (or they're trying to compensate for some other insecurity). There are people who will take anything and everything that's free, but that doesn't mean they're going to be your fan or even listen to your music. And it's highly unlikely that they'll buy anything from you, music, merch, or otherwise.

- Free doesn't work as a solution to massive distribution and exposure because it is too random and not focused on a particular group of people. Specifically, it's not focused on the people that would like your music. Giving away your music to 100 random people does not mean any of those people will like it, or even listen to it. But if you use a piece of criteria to find 100 more specific people, your music ends up in the hands of someone that might actually listen to it. My favorite piece of criteria is a similar but better known artist. You like the Meters? Then studies show you'll like my music! Which takes us to the next point...

- Free doesn't work without a trusted reference helping your target audience feel comfortable taking candy from strangers. Why do you think grocery stores use ladies that remind us of our grandmothers to hand out free samples? Because we won't suspect the poison. Similarly, this is why tracking "twinsumers" online is so helpful. The whole "listeners also bought" idea gives us a since of trust and direction as we browse online.

People need to feel their time, space and energy is worth your free music. Free suggests no value, and that's unattractive. That's one reason I think people are still buying music. But there are alternatives to creating value other than money. You can give away music in exchange for another product or service. You can ask for email addresses. You could even ask for people to spread the word. In fact, somebody needs to create a widget that gives away free music after the user forwards a note to 10 friends recommending that they check out your music. That idea's on the house, but let me know when you figure it out.

Placing some value on your music is key. It helps the right people find your music and let's them do something they're comfortable with in exchange. Sometimes it's give you money, but sometimes it's something entirely different.