Tampa Calling

by Denis Baldwin

This year’s Homemade Music Symposium played out over the weekend at the Ybor HCC campus, bringing together musicians, singer-songwriters, music industry professionals, entertainers, writers, photographers and most every other aspect of the music industry to discuss the state of music, the nature of creating and marketing musicians and give a taste of things to come.

Overall, the symposium was a great success. Saturday opened with “Poets of Popular Song, The Lyrics and Lyric Writers of the Great American Songbook,” featuring the piano work of Paul Wilborn and the 107-year-old Rosa Rio. After their performance, many of the attendees broke for the lunch while the rest of us sat at our tables and handed out free swag and met with people.

More pics after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »

One of the ways people find out about new music is by listening to what their favorite trusted music critics have to say. Whether it’s a local newspaper or Rolling Stone, getting reviewed is very important to bands, especially the songwriters. Reviews provide professional validation and encouragement when they are positive, and derail genius if they are negative or overly critical.

But even knowing the perils, thousands of bands stills send in their CDs to music critics everywhere, hoping that that one person will explain their music in such an accurate and flattering way that fame would be the only logical result from these words being printed. Here’s some advice that may help put things in a more realistic perspective, and why the review doesn’t really matter.

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Mohawk Bomb Records, the award-winning, Clearwater-based independent record label, announces its release schedule for spring 2009.

Soulfound “Live at Zen Recording”: features 5 songs performed live at Zen Recording from their “Is a Rock Band” album, released in September 2008. There are 5 video companions to the songs available on Soulfound’s YouTube channel. The EP will be  available as a digital release on February 17, 2009.

No Lip Vol. 2 Compilation: This 14-song eclectic mixed bag of Rock music anthems is the second release in Mohawk Bomb’s No Lip series. Although leaning towards Punk and Pop Rock, No Lip pulls samples from the Florida, California, Texas, Ontario (Canada), UK and Australian music scenes as a survey course of the caliber of independent music. Profiles on each of the contributing bands will be posted on the label’s Website at www.mohawkbomb.com over the next month. The compilation will be available for sale online after February 24, 2009. Physical CDs will be passed out as free giveaways and sent to music press around the USA.

Mohawk Bomb Records is a new kind of record label, focused on sharing all music with the World using social networking and Web 2.0 technologies.

I have been reading this book about online PR for bands called “Music Success in Nine Weeks” and it rules. At 143 pages, its a quick, workbook-style read that anyone can benefit from. In this how-to guide to self-promotion, cyber PR guru Ariel Hyatt gives bands a step-by-step guide to supercharging your PR efforts, building your fan base and earning more money (getting paid to play music? Hogwash.)

Buy “Music Success in Nine Weeks” from here.

One thing bands must understand that it is not enough anymore to be talented or have good songs. You need to take steps to build your own brand and make your band appealing to labels… Read the rest of this entry »