The Lava Bot

With the explosion of social networking sites like MySpace, PureVolume and Last.fm the importance of a band having their own website has gone down considerably. Why is this? Well, the number one factor could be that joining these sites is absolutely free. More times than not, a band will go the ‘Free’ route. Free you say? It may all come down to how much you value your time. Think of how much time has been wasted by band members trying to customize their MySpace profile page. If you’re going to take the time to learn HTML and CSS enough to customize the look of your MySpace page, then why don’t you just create your own website! If you are an unsigned band then myspace is a great place to set up a page

Let’s take a look at The Top 5 Reasons Your Band Should Have a Website.

1. Credibility & Professionalism - If you’re in a band and truly serious about making it in the music industry, having your own domain name and website is an absolute must. Nothing is worse than when you hear a new band and all you want to do is check them out on the web, but your only option is to look at an unorganized, cluttered MySpace page. The best way for a band to build credibility on the web with their fans is to have their own website.

2. Marketing & Promoting - Composing great music is the real key to success, but Marketing & Promoting could potentially be the ‘make or break’ of a band. It’s pretty hard to build a fan base when little or no effort is made to ‘get the word out there’. A Band with a nice clean website that is well-branded has endless possibilities for marketing and promotions. Caution: Do not make the horrible mistake of trying to trick potential fans by securing a domain name and pointing it to a MySpace page. Nothing will cause a band to lose web credibility quicker than doing this.

3. Build a true fan base - Although social networking sites do hold value, the goal seems to be for most to get as many ‘fans’ as possible. The question then becomes are they fans that just want to see their ‘friend’ count go up, or are they truly a fan of your music. A band with their own website can have a much deeper connection with their fans and will easily be able to solidify ‘who’ their fan base is. Giving fans the option to sign up for a newsletter or join the forums on your website is invaluable when it comes to building a fan base. Fans want you to have a website.

4. Have the EDGE - This point is pretty easy, but powerful. Let’s say your band has direct competition with another band. Having your own website and all the things that it brings to the table could be a deciding factor in giving your band the EDGE to beat out the competition.

Filed by admin at 12:45 pm under Music Portal
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Sales of Glasvegas’ self-titled debut album have rocketed by over 1000 per-cent since they were nominated for this year’s Mercury Music Prize.

Glasvegas, the Glaswegian four-piece reached number two with their first album only to be kept off the coveted top slot by the hotly-awaited new album from Metallica.

The Invisible, Friendly Fires and Sweet Billy Pilgrim have also benefitted hugely from appearing on the respected music prize’s short list.

Music retailer HMV has tracked the sales of the 12 shortlisted albums before and after all the bands were nominated.

The store has revealed sales of all the albums are up 107 per cent since the shortlist was announced last month.

All the artists have benefitted, but it is Scots favourites Glasvegas who have come out on top of the sales league with a massive 1103 per cent increase.

HMV’s Gennaro Castaldo said: “The impact of the Barclaycard Mercury Prize becomes more pronounced every year, and the award is now arguably the most significant platform for promoting new and independent music amongst the record-buying public.

“Just being shortlisted can give an artist a huge boost in profile and sales, particularly if they then go on to give show-stealing performances at the awards show.

“Previous recipients of the Prize have gone on to enjoy spectacular increases in demand for their albums, sometimes by as much as ten-fold, whilst the foundation for much of Elbow’s amazing success last year was undoubtedly the band winning the prize - which really set them on their way.”

Dan Ford, from the Barclaycard Mercury Prize, said: “We’re encouraged that the uplift in sales seems to reflect the music buying public’s willingness to act upon the Prize’s recommendations.

“There are twelve exciting and diverse albums on this year’s shortlist and it’s great news that the Barclaycard Mercury Prize has the ability to help people discover new music in this way.”

The winner of the Barclaycard Mercury Prize will be revealed at a star-studded bash on September 8, 2009.

Filed by admin at 4:50 am under Music Portal
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I am forty-five years old now and as I’ve grown up I’ve developed a taste for many genres of music. I enjoy jazz, R&B, country, bluegrass, the standards of the 40’s and 50’s, blues, most all kinds of music. But in my heart of hearts I’m still a rock & roll girl. That is the music that I’ve grown up on.

I have often heard or read about the Woodstock Music Festival and thought how wonderful it would have been to have been there. All those hippies, the free love, most of all the music. That whole era has always fascinated me. Alas, I was just a little too young at the time. All through my teenage years I wanted to be just like that. I had long blonde hair, never wore make-up, nor shoes, nor a bra. Always had a lot of silver jewelry. I wore lots of beads and lots of tye-dyed clothing.

These were the years that formed my musical memories. I listened to Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Who and The Band. I listened to the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan.

I am married now with an eighteen-year-old daughter. I have always tried to educate her of the music that is important to me. I have played name that tune/artist/album with her since she was old enough to talk. Her musical knowledge far outweighs that of her peers. As a young teen she would tell people that she was a seasoned concertgoer .I’m proud to say that she has come to love it as much as I do. The three of us still go to many concerts.

The concerts that we went to years ago are pretty much the same as the ones we see today. A lot of the bands that we saw long ago are still touring today. It seems to me that most of the young bands coming up today won’t have the staying power of the bands of my era. It’s rare that I hear anybody that I think will still be playing forty years from now. Bands like the Stones, the Who, Clacton and Dylan, Elton John and Billy Joel.

They’re just not making them like that any more.

Classicrockhere.com is site with lot’s of articles information and resourecs on Classic Rock. Stories from back then and news about the artists today.

Filed by admin at 6:44 am under Music Portal
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It is full of fun to play a drum but at the same time one must take care of the drum set. There are few steps to maintain a drum set and one can easily follow them. The following steps are listed below:

1. One must not forget to detune your drums slightly before packing up, especially in more humid conditions. This preserves the life of the heads and allows them maintain their elasticity.

2. Don’t miss Drum Bum’s drum tab database.

3. When you change your drumheads, write the date in small numbers off to the side of each head. This will help you know how long it’s been since the last time it’s been changed. Remember that there is no specific period of time to gauge when you should
replace your heads. It should depend on how they sound (feel), how hard you hit and how often you play.

4. Simply tape 4 or 5 pennies to the back of a 5″ strip of duct tape (about 1″ wide) and tape it to the bell of your ride. This will allow your cymbal to sizzle as if it had rivets in it.

5. One must remember the local library as a rich resource of information about drums, drum set, miscellaneous drum things and overall percussion. So one must keep in contact with them to maintain a drum set.

6. It is also very necessary to clean the drum set from time to time. It is cleaned by sandpaper. Sometimes comet used for this use. If that scares you, then try dish soap and water with a heavy nylon scrub brush. A cheap old hair brush with thick wiry bristles works great.
Best type of maintenance is always wiping your cymbals down before storing them away. If you still have the plastic bag that your cymbal came in, put the cymbal in the bag before putting it in your case. This helps to keep gunk off the cymbal while it’s being stored and helps prevent the cymbals from wearing each other down as they’re bounced around during travel.

For more more information about drums please visit http://www.learn-to-play-the-drum.com

Filed by admin at 11:05 pm under Music Portal
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A question that is often asked from online music fans is how to get free legal music downloads. The good news is that it is possible, if you know where to look.

Many people search the Internet looking for alternatives to pay legal sites. But when searching online for Rhapsody, iTunes and Napster sites, you’ll get millions of results which can become frustrating. Furthermore, when searching online for music download sites, it can be very hard to tell the difference between legal sites and file sharing sites.

P2P file sharing sites are confusing for many people because they make clear that they provide a legal service - which is true. But although P2P file sharing networks are still considered legal, it’s how these P2P file sharing networks work that have gotten some people in serious trouble with the RIAA and MPAA.

Basically, anyone who is caught downloading or sharing copyrighted material could be sued by the RIAA or MPAA. And in more recent news, P2P file sharing companies, and individuals that encourage illegal downloads of music and movies, are now also being sued.

Furthermore, few people fully understand the hidden dangers and security risks of getting free MP3 downloads using P2P file sharing networks. These risks includes; adware, spyware, viruses, hackers and online privacy risks.

So how do you get free legal music downloads online? There are a variety of legal music sites that give you free mp3 downloads of cutting edge music, Indie music and up and coming new music stars.

Here Are 4 Popular Free Legal Music Download Sites:

1) Epitonic.com - Epitonic works mostly with small, independent record labels. Epitonic provides high-quality music downloads and a searchable database of “Cutting Edge Music” in a variety of genres including; Rock, Folk/Acoustic, Hip Hop, Pop and Jazz.

2) Garageband.com - GarageBand.com is a top independent music distributor and they feature popular free indie music. The site has thousands of Independent songs in their database that you can listen to, download and review. GarageBand’s top songs are promoted by 1,000 radio partners and they featured music from Bo Bice (an American Idol finalist) before he was a big star.

3) eMusic.com - Although the subscription service is not free, with eMusic you can download free legal music when you sign-up for the free eMusic download trial. Emusic features over 600,000 tracks and hi quality digital music fidelity. Emusic provides the hottest legal music download trial online by giving you 25 legal MP3 downloads for free.

4) Amazon.com - Amazon provides free legal music downloads of today’s top musicians. And it’s easy to start downloading, just go to amazon.com and click on the “Free Downloads” tab where you can browse from a wide variety of music selections and popular artists.

Because new music downloads are usually always copyrighted, the sites above will most likely not have the latest new song downloads. However these sites provide a huge variety of free legal music downloads for you to choose from.

Article by Anna Rowe. Please visit her popular free music download site to get music reviews, MP3 download solutions and P2P file sharing facts. Learn how to download music legally and get free legal music trials.

Filed by admin at 12:26 pm under Music Portal
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