Living on Gigging

There are a bajillion articles, courses, and books on making money in the music industry. Heck, even my mastermind course MX4 covers this broad topic simply because we have to talk about it.

All of the different ways to make money- from house concerts to monetization to Spotify playlists to merch – can be overwhelming. I sometimes feel like I’m not doing enough, not tackling enough areas, not following the current trends. It’s information-overload in the scariest form- fear of missing out on an opportunity that can change the course of your music career.

The truth is, there may be a different perspective to take around making money in music. The most successful independent musicians I know are ones that are wearing multiple hats with different sources of income. Each hat is something that inspires and motivates them, gets them excited to get out of bed in the morning, and something that fulfills them. When what you are doing is fulfilling, the money becomes a secondary conversation. Continue reading →

(First published on The DIY Musician blog.)

Musicians are master procrastinators; here’s how to stall like a boss.

If you’ve ever done gymnastics, one of the things you learn early on is how to fall. Not because the coaches and teachers want you to fall, but because you’re going to fall. You may as well learn how to do it without hurting yourself. I take this same view with procrastinating. It’s inevitable. So why not develop some skills to procrastinate like a boss?

We procrastinate from doing The Thing we know we need to do for a variety of reasons that can usually be rolled into two categories: The Fear or The Overwhelm. Continue reading →

Oh email lists. They’re like websites. They’re this tool we know we should be using, yet to update it and keep it current takes so. Much. Work. This year, I’ve been studying email strategies and have found a few that are sure-fire ways to keep time spent down and impact up. Below I outline my favorite 6 ways to making the most of email. Continue reading →

Last year, around this time, I was just moving into my new house. The second house I’ve lived in, the third abode with a home studio space. I wrote about this process of making design decisions here. And then I realized I was out of my league, energetically speaking, and hired my good friend Emma to help me optimize this new space.

You can read what I wrote about Clearing The Energy, and Why You Need An Emma here.

I lived with my home studio, set up by Emma, for almost a year. (And still included the original sound treatments I made myself, which I wrote about in 2010 – read here!)

And recently, my husband has been home a lot more. I mean, we share that workspace like it’s a real live workspace, minus the espresso machine. Continue reading →

Half a year ago, I hosted a webinar for musicians about communicating your brand with the help of DiscMakers (maker of CDs and merch for indie musicians). The people who signed up for the webinar ended up on my mailing list. Not the mailing list for my music fans, but the one I have for musicians who are interested in growing their careers and may be interested in what I have to say.

After all, they signed up to listen to me talk for an hour. Continue reading →

I always knew being a woman in the music industry would mean having to fight harder, avoid creeps, and stand for myself in a way I wouldn’t have to in other industries or jobs. A few weeks ago, the topic of women in the music industry came up again as I read this article called “Dear Creepy Men of the Music Industry, Please Stop” written by my friend and collaborator Ari Herstand. I left a comment on the Facebook post… summed up, I stated why the article was hard for me to read: there was no real-time responsibility taken. We can complain about how men treat women in the music industry, but in reality, we are not taking the right actions to shut it down. Continue reading →

If you’re a musician, you’ve probably thought about going to the Grammys then wondered “How do the Grammys work?”. Whether you’ve watched them for the performances or for the awards, whether you’ve dreamed about winning one, or simply wondered what it’s like to be there in the presence of the top musicians in the country, then you’re not alone. I’m all of the above. Continue reading →

Permission is a funny word. Like I’m some little kid asking permission to go to the bathroom, or to have a cookie, or to stay up late. But we are often stopped in our own cycles of self-defeat and self-doubt, usually because we haven’t granted ourselves permission to actually break the cycle, moving out of our comfort zones.

It sounds almost obvious, like the advice you got years ago that you shrugged off until it came back to bite you in the ass and really sunk in. This happened to me last week and it’s why I’m writing now. Because Permission (with a capital P) can come from an unexpected source, so maybe, just maybe, I can be that for you. Continue reading →

About once a year I get into a deep funk. God knows why, but it’s there. And luckily, three years ago, I rediscovered my love for musical theater and allowed it to cure said funk. And it works. Every. Single. Time.

In general, I am a ham. Additionally, I was the co-president of my drama club in high school. I had forgotten all about that until I got married and moved from Manhattan to an outdoorsy town north of the city. One day, looking out my studio window to see if my neighbor was getting her mail [so I could time the retrieval of my own mail to overlap with hers and thus have human contact], my husband said “in the city, that may be people-watching, but here, it’s just creepy. You should go make friends”. By doing what? Going to a yoga class? Hang out at a coffee shop and approach strangers and ask them to be my friend?

And then I saw them… Continue reading →

I’m on the Grammy’s ballot…

And now for the first time in my life, I’m reaching out and pitching my new record… not to my fans, not to music supervisors and film producers, but to my colleagues requesting they consider my music for a Grammy. Other Recording Academy members. Music producers, songwriters, labels.

I always wanted a Grammy. Up until I was 30, that was THE dream, and the only dream. And I knew it was a one-in-a-million kind of dream. All of my passwords were along the lines of “grammyorbust”. When I turned 30, lots of stuff shifted and I realized this industry and this career is a process and if I don’t enjoy it soon, it’s gonna kill me. So I let go of the Grammy dream and started being a real working musician, and loving it Continue reading →

Living On Gigging

Women in the Music Industry and #ShutItDownRealTime

What’s in a Gig? Letting Curiosity Lead

What’s The Best Business Branding Tool? Female Empathy.

A Day In The Life of A Music Maker

16 Quotes To Get You Outta Bed

The Balance Act: A Different Angle On Making Money with Music

Becoming A Master Procrastinator

Musicians are master procrastinators; here’s how to stall like a boss.

6 Ways to Make The Most Of Your Email List

Home Studio Workspace: an Update

That Time A Hater Called Me “A Pathetic Rip Off”

Women in the Music Industry and #ShutItDownRealTime

How Do The Grammys Work? Here’s a look inside.

Give Yourself Permission

How Musical Theater Cured My Funk (and why every singer-songwriter should try it sometime)

Grammy or Bust

I’m on the Grammy’s ballot…