When Clear Channel controls the radio and the monopoly newspaper doesn’t like you, how do you win over new audiences?

The good news: there are many, many ways. Here are ten of my favorites.

1. Approach a local college or alternative radio station or community access cable TV station with a programming idea, like a live songwriter showcase. Other musicians will want to be a part of your show, and you’ll build an audience for your own music–and theirs.

2. Write CD or concert reviews for a local alternative (or mainstream) paper.

3. Give copies of your CD away to public radio and TV stations for their fund drive premiums.

4. Organize, publicize, and perform at charity events for your favorite causes.

5. Lead songwriting or performing workshops in the schools (these are usually paying gigs, and all the parents hear your name). Invite some of the kids to perform with you; they’re sure to bring a bunch of relatives along who will pay for their tickets and maybe buy a CD.

6. Announce your gigs in every community calendar. Newspapers, magazines, radio stations, community web sites, cable TV stations–they all run event listings. Type out one paragraph that includes a tag line about what you do, such as Sandy Songwriter, River City’s ‘Homegrown Bono,’ will perform labor songs and love ballads at The Trombone Shop, 444 4th Street in Downtown River City, Wednesday, January 15, 7 p.m. If admission is free or there’s a charity connection, say so. Include contact phone number and e-mail.

7. Find Internet discussion groups related to your cause. Whether it’s immigration, voting reform, peace, safe energy, the right to choose…there will be discussion groups online. Post responses and include a sig–a short on-line business card. Use different sigs for different purposes. Here’s one of mine (in a real e-mail, it would be single-spaced):

Shel Horowitz, mailto:shel@frugalfun.com, 800-683-WORD/413-586-2388

I make the world INSIST on learning why YOU’RE special

News releases, brochures, newsletters, ad copy, web copy, resumes, etc.

http://www.frugalmarketing.com * http://www.principledprofits.com

8. Set up a simple low-cost website. Include a couple of sound clips, pictures of you performing, a place for people to sign up for your fan newsletter, a link to your favorite musicians, and, of course, your tour schedule and gig availability.

9. Get exposure on other people’s websites. Write CD reviews, endorse their music with a blurb, submit articles on the local music scene…and always include your contact information and a statement that encourages people to visit your site.

10. Use the letters columns. Call in to talk shows. Post messages to Web forums…in short, use every feedback tool you have to spread the word.

Copywriter, marketing consultant, and speaker Shel Horowitz is the author of six books and publisher of five websites, five webzines and three ezines. His two most recent, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First (http://www.principledprofits.com) and Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World (http://www.frugalmarketing.com) have both won awards. He’s currently engaged in a campaign to get 25,000 people to sign–and spread–the Business Ethics Pledge: http://www.principledprofits.com/25000influencers.html

There once was a time when you would hear a song and immediately be taken in by the poetical pictures the songwriter created. The great poets and lyricists like Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, Justin Hayward, James Taylor and many others, seem to be a dying breed. Listening to music nowadays, you’d be hard-pressed to hear any artists that believe lyricism is an art form. Yes, the words usually rhyme and have a semblance of meaning, but for the most part, words are thrown together just for the SAKE of rhyming. With the explosion of internet radio and music sites and armed with an inexpensive digital recorder, anyone can upload their music, regardless of the musical ability they may or may not possess. And with all the millions of songs flooding the net, originality has taken a back seat to being seen and heard. It’s as if independent music sites are nothing more than blog sites. They are certainly becoming one and the same. Anyone can have an opinion and it seems that anyone can upload their music today. Right or wrong. Good or bad.

But there is some hope! I happened upon yet another site that promotes independent/unsigned artists and much to my surprise, I found a few of artists who were not only great songwriters, but they were artists that I would call bona fide poets. The songs that really made me feel and think the most were those of Jerald Wolf. His first solo CD entitled Winter’s Emptiness is an emotional journey of heart-felt songs that are deeply thoughtful and a well textured mix of acoustica nd electric. The first song I listened to was You’re Gone. I was immediately taken in by the descriptive words and hypnotic tune. The opening lines are:

Last night when I called you, you were gone; Gone back to a place you once called home. You went trying to find the pieces of yesterday’s life; Trying to find somewhere to call your own.

From that point, I clung to every word. Jerald Wolf has a diverse and rich voice, full of emotional colors. The twelve song CD Winter’s Emptiness is the emerging of a new songwriter/poet. The songs are as poetical as they are raw and sometimes cold. A great CD in all respects. Other new songwriters/poets to watch for are Anne Davis with her Temple Of Contradictions, V.K. Lynnes’ Black Halo and Deron Wade with his CD, Somewhere Out There. These three artists also show signs of being the next generation of the poet/songwriter. We will always have Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie, but it’s refreshing to hear artists like Jerald Wolf, Anne Davis, V.K. Lynne and Deron Wade and to know that true talent exists outside of the major labels.

Today, anyone can give an opinion or have their music on the internet, but there are only some that desreve to be heard.

Bob Ollman is an freelance, online music critic in NYC.

When Clear Channel controls the radio and the monopoly newspaper doesn’t like you, how do you win over new audiences?

The good news: there are many, many ways. Here are ten of my favorites.

1. Approach a local college or alternative radio station or community access cable TV station with a programming idea, like a live songwriter showcase. Other musicians will want to be a part of your show, and you’ll build an audience for your own music–and theirs.

2. Write CD or concert reviews for a local alternative (or mainstream) paper.

3. Give copies of your CD away to public radio and TV stations for their fund drive premiums.

4. Organize, publicize, and perform at charity events for your favorite causes.

5. Lead songwriting or performing workshops in the schools (these are usually paying gigs, and all the parents hear your name). Invite some of the kids to perform with you; they’re sure to bring a bunch of relatives along who will pay for their tickets and maybe buy a CD.

6. Announce your gigs in every community calendar. Newspapers, magazines, radio stations, community web sites, cable TV stations–they all run event listings. Type out one paragraph that includes a tag line about what you do, such as Sandy Songwriter, River City’s ‘Homegrown Bono,’ will perform labor songs and love ballads at The Trombone Shop, 444 4th Street in Downtown River City, Wednesday, January 15, 7 p.m. If admission is free or there’s a charity connection, say so. Include contact phone number and e-mail.

7. Find Internet discussion groups related to your cause. Whether it’s immigration, voting reform, peace, safe energy, the right to choose…there will be discussion groups online. Post responses and include a sig–a short on-line business card. Use different sigs for different purposes. Here’s one of mine (in a real e-mail, it would be single-spaced):

Shel Horowitz, mailto:shel@frugalfun.com, 800-683-WORD/413-586-2388

I make the world INSIST on learning why YOU’RE special

News releases, brochures, newsletters, ad copy, web copy, resumes, etc.

http://www.frugalmarketing.com * http://www.principledprofits.com

8. Set up a simple low-cost website. Include a couple of sound clips, pictures of you performing, a place for people to sign up for your fan newsletter, a link to your favorite musicians, and, of course, your tour schedule and gig availability.

9. Get exposure on other people’s websites. Write CD reviews, endorse their music with a blurb, submit articles on the local music scene…and always include your contact information and a statement that encourages people to visit your site.

10. Use the letters columns. Call in to talk shows. Post messages to Web forums…in short, use every feedback tool you have to spread the word.

Copywriter, marketing consultant, and speaker Shel Horowitz is the author of six books and publisher of five websites, five webzines and three ezines. His two most recent, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First (http://www.principledprofits.com) and Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World (http://www.frugalmarketing.com) have both won awards. He’s currently engaged in a campaign to get 25,000 people to sign–and spread–the Business Ethics Pledge: http://www.principledprofits.com/25000influencers.html

More articles at www.articles-host.com

As an amateur songwriter, who struggles with a computer far from powerful enough to run the necessary software to record vocals of good quality, I have looked for good solutions.

And I’ve found a few.

In a short while you will hear songs that are totally computer made – including the vocals. Yamaha made the technology, and licensed it to various companies. Vocaloid is the name – remember it if you like music!

I have had the pleasure of testing Leon, the Virtual Soul Vocalist, from www.zero-g.co.uk. The complexity hid behind the seemingly simplistic interface is astonishing. I hardly had to look at the manual at all while exploring – quite atypical for music software.

You draw your vocals using the mouse, and then add lyrics on top. Then, add harmonics, vibrato, attack etc. as you want, tweak the phonemes (your words are automatically converted, and you can edit them as you wish using the reference guide in the manual) and go. Record the vocals as WAV and import them into your favourite sequencer to add music, or use the program as a VST plugin.

On their site, Zero-G describes Leon: LEON is a virtual male soul vocalist modelled on a real professional singer, and when he is installed into your PC he will literally allow you to create singing of superb quality and realism. LEON will sing ANY words you ask him to in English – literally anything – be they beautiful lyrics or comical trivialities, Monteverdi madrigals or manic chants. You can create vocal tracks of soulful singing in any lyrics you want. You just type in lyrics, and synthesize. Then add expression to taste. LEON is under your total control, and the really mind-blowing thing is – he can truly sound like a professional singing voice. With very little practice the results you get from LEON will completely fool your friends – they will believe they are listening to a real singer performing. The question you will hear will always be "WHO is that?", and not "What is that?".

I quite agree. Leon is astonishing. You need a powerful PC to run the Vocaloid programs. My 1 Mhz AMD Athlon with 512 Mb RAM had problems. (Windows XP, Pentium 4, 1.7 GHz , 1 GB of RAM or more is recommended).

But still – I was able to use the program – and the night I received my copy, I didn’t get to bed until 4 am…

You can find a distributor for the Zero-G range at www.zero-g.co.uk. The retail price for both Leon and Lola is $329.95/£199.95/€289. More info on the technology can be found at www.vocaloid.com and a link to raving reviews in various magazines and newspapers (among them one from the New York Times titled Could I Get That Song in Elvis, Please?) are linked to from both sites.

I am now about to enter the vocals for one of my songs using Leon. Gotta go. Drop by http://www.haakon.nu to listen to the results!

Essential software for songwriters: Band in a Box is the perfect companion to these plugins. Enter your chords, select the style (from hardrock to soft ballads and classic Mozart) and generate your music.

Read more at www.bandinabox.com and buy it for $88 ($249 for the MegaPAK with a multitude of styles). BiaB 2006 also allows you to record vocals and to harmonize them – in addition to a great variety of other features. If you wish, you can have BiaB 2005 create your whole song.

Haakon Rian Ueland is a former columnist of the Mensa International Journal, where this article was first published. smartsoftware.org is dedicated to content (ringtones, themes, backgrounds, 3gp videos) for various Cellphones and to his column. You can contact him at hueland (at) gmail (dot) com.

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