Friends of Irish Music

Write what you know. I know the online Celtic music community. My friendships grow every year so I thought it was about time I wrote a poem or song about it. So voilà!

On a grassy mall, I sat playing songs,
When people started gathering to listen.
They showered me with tapes
Of The Wolfe Tones, The Dubliners and their mates
They taught me new songs to sing.

On the web our music flew.
On MP3.com our friendships grew.
We opened the immigrant door
With Rose, The Rogues, and more.
The music took on new meaning.

I met Bow Triplets and befriended Vicky Swan
The competition I once felt dissolved.
I wanted only to help those who needed me.
So I published marketing tips and wrote a Celtic magazine.
My soul is happier with the change.

Years have passed and the music lasts.
As I record podcasts for friends and fans.
Amidst pints and songs unknown
With Tea Merchants, Doc Grauzer, and Celtic Stone
I find respite in the friends I’ve made.

Current Live Irish Music Venues in Austin

Below are all of the Irish music venues that host music outside of just St. Patrick's Day. If you want St Patrick's Day Party info in Austin, you can check the link. Otherwise, check out these great Irish/Celtic Music venues:

B.D. Riley's Pub
Contact: John Erwin
204 East 6th Street
Austin,Texas 78701
Phone: 512-494 1335; Fax: 512-494 1336
Email: jmerwin@austin.rr.com

Cactus Café & Bar #
Contact: Griff Luneburg, Manager
Texas Union, University of Texas
Location: 23rd & Guadalupe
PO Box 7338
Austin, TX 78713-7338
Phone: 512.475.6515

fadó Irish Pub #
Contact: Clay
214 W 4th Street
Austin, TX 78701-3917
Phone: 512.457.0172

The Kerbey Lane Café #
12602 Research Blvd
Austin, TX 78759-2219
Phone: 512.528.7757; Fax: 512.335.4466

Mother Egan’s Irish Pub #
715 W 6th Street
Austin, TX
Email: motheregans@motheregansirishpub.com

Mother's Café & Garden #
4215 Duval Street
Austin, TX 78751-4341
Phone: 512.451.3994; Fax: 512.459.6447

Things Celtic #
Contact: Lanora Davidson
1806 W. 35th Street
Austin, TX 78703
Phone: 512.472.CELT (2358); Fax: 512.472.3679
Toll Free: 888.921.9529
Email: lanora@things-celtic.com

The Waterloo Ice House
Contact: Stuart Hentschel, Gnl. Mgr.
600 N Lamar Street Ste G
Austin, TX 78703-5400
Phone: 512.472.5400; Fax: 512.472.6414

The Waterloo Ice House 26 Doors
1106 W 38th Street
Austin, TX 78705-1019
Phone: 512.451.5245; Fax: 512.472.6414

Irish Valentine's Day MP3

A few years back, we were in the studio recording our Irish CD. We had just finished a cool recording "Patriot Game" when Andrew started playing this gorgeous melody on the recorder. I jumped and together we created "My Irish Valentine", a beautiful Irish song for Valentine's Day.

We didn't add it to our Irish CD. Since I was compiling our wedding compilation of our most beautiful music. I figured it was perfect for our wedding CD.

Download "My Irish Valentine" from SoundClick.

The Formula: How to Get a Record Deal

Actually, anybody that tells you there is an exact formula you can follow to get signed is lying. The truth is, there is no exact formula that will land you a record deal, period. This may be disappointing for some to hear: I know I was disappointed when I first heard the truth.

Although a record deal can sometimes come about just by being in the right place at the right time, there are several things you can do to maximize the possibility of attracting a major label or production company to get them interested in signing you.

First and foremost, be ready! Make sure your skills are developed to the point that they can compete with the best the industry has to offer. A&R, managers, and the like are subject to hearing some pretty awful stuff. If you can offer something that sounds amazing, it should greatly increase your chances of getting signed. Remember if your stuff is not as good or better than what’s already out there, the only thing your demo will have a good shot at is the office garbage can.

If you have to spend money somewhere, spend it on production and mixing. This can’t be stressed enough. It all boils down to having good product. You can do everything in your power to attract attention to your music, but If it sucks nobody is going to care. Although some label A&R claim they can hear talent through low budget production, in my experience it pays to have the best sounding product you can. Because it is sometimes extremely difficult to get heard at all, it makes sense not to blow it when you finally do get a chance by delivering the musical equivalent of nails on a chalk board.

Now that you’ve got the skills and a tight product, you should be doing everything in your power to create a buzz for yourself. In order to do this you’re going to need a plan and a team to help you carry it out. You should be doing shows, selling CD’s, trying to get some radio support (even if it’s just college radio), and doing anything and everything else you can to get some kind of following.

It helps to have an established following, a good street team, and some strong independent sales when seeking a record deal. The more you do on your own, the less the label has to do, and ultimately the happier they are. In fact, A&R will often seek you out (eg. come to your show to hear what all the fuss is about) if you've done a really good job of promoting yourself.

Next you are going to need a manager. Now you might be thinking you want to manage yourself. Think again. Your buddy that follows you around to all your shows, again, bad choice. At this point, you should be seriously considering seeking out a professional manager. The right manager will make all the difference when it comes to getting signed. What I mean by the right manager is one who digs your music and will really hustle to get you put on. This manager should also have some pretty good industry connections; otherwise the help he can offer you will be limited.

As well as a personal manager, you’ll need a good entertainment attorney to negotiate all your contracts (including the one with your manager) so you don’t get screwed. Also, a good entertainment lawyer (one that actually has industry connections) will be able to help get your music into the right hands as well. Make sure the lawyer you retain is working for you, not the label or your manager!

Ok, so let's recap. You've honed your skills, produced a tight product, created a strong buzz, and got yourself a good personal manager and lawyer. Now what? Well, from this point on your manager will basically put a plan of action together for you and together you will carry it out. You should now be well on your way to your first record deal. This can be a long road, so it’s important to keep a positive mental attitude. Make sure everyone around you (your team) also stays positive. The music business isn’t for the faint of heart! Good Luck!

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Matty G is the creator of The Record Deal Doctor. The best resource for up and coming Hip-Hop, Rap, and R&B artists and producers seeking to further their careers.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matt_Gibbs

But who needs a record label. Better yet, do it yourself. You can learn how by subscribing to the Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine or getting a copy of David Nevue's book, How to Successfully Promote Your Music Online.

Passive Income for Musicians

Recently, there was a discussion on the MusicThoughts list regarding how to develop passive income as a musician. Of course, there are many types of passive income open to musicians, but this discussion in particular involved using affiliate programs to earn money.

For the newbie, affiliate programs are program online that allow you to earn money by selling products or services that you do not own. Companies like Commission Junction, LinkShare, ClickBank offer a variety of a affiliate programs on every subject. While companies like Amazon.com (books, music, and more), MP3DownloadHQ (free music downloads) offer more specific products or services.

Building a successful affiliate income is NOT easy. And as internet companies come and go, they are also not a hugely reliable source of income for the long-term. I prefer to focus on offering products and services for my active websites, but most of my websites were created with affiliates in mind. Consequently, I've learned the affiliate game quite well.


Most people don't like sharing how much they earn from passive income. So finding those stats Will be difficult. But frankly, I prefer helping folks with facts.

So, here's a couple notes on the various passive internet income sources I earn or have earned in the past:


1. Google Adsense.
Google CAN be great, but a lot of it depends on what keywords your site is focused on. Head over to PixelFast offers a great Overture Keywords and Bid Amounts Tool and you can find out how much people bid on certain types of keywords through overture.

Having done testing which got me banned from Google I learned a few things when I was using Google Adsense. I found on the average, I made about pittance on each of my random websites. Some however, did MUCH better. Namely the 'free music downloads' websites.

You'll note at PixelFast that companies bid heavily for those keywords with clickthrus averaging at about 45c per click. Seventy percent of the income I earned on Google was from one free music download website that somehow made it high on the search results. I'm not allowed to say how much I made, but you can do the math when a site gets approximately 500 unique visits a day and has a 5-10% clickthru rate.

The point is if you create and promote webpages with high impact keywords, you will do fairly well.


2. Affiliate Programs.
Since I'm no longer with Google, I've sense learned to find other alternatives using Google style ads. You can those on my Directory of Free Music Downloads as an example.

I've found other affiliate programs to fill the gaps lost by Google through:

• Clickbank. I've focused primarily on free music downloads. The big problem I have with Clickbank is that my Mozilla browser at home doesn't like their redirects. But I still earn about $500 per month from Clickbank.


• MP3Dollars. This is a free music downloads site for MP3DownloadHQ. Their affiliate links are good redirects. So I've made them much more prominent so as not to lose income that might've been lost from Clickbank. The affiliate program is solid paying 50% of the money they earn. So I earn about $500 per month from them. Best of all, it's paid weekly!


• Amazon.com. Usually earns me about $50 a month. And this comes from a lot of heavy referrals from my Celtic MP3s Music Magazine.


• Commission Junction. Their redirects seem to have the same problem as Clickbank. I mainly use them for web hosting services that earn about $150 per month.


• Linkshare. I've used it for years. Earned no money (like the vast majority of affiliate programs I've tried). I did sign up for iTunes earlier this month. And we'll see if that changes matters at all.

I also earn another $100-150 per month from the Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine's various affiliations with IMHO some of the best music marketers out there. Course, I also have a decent online CD sales income, and other artistic projects that earn me money (and I still have a day job for at least another year).


3. The Key to remember when you're making money with affiliate programs is really to blend it into your website.
For instance, if you go to thebards.net. You can download our MP3 "Tolkien (The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings)" on the homepage. It downloads from amazon.com using my affiliate link. So it creates another cookie which hopefully will earn me more income from future amazon.com orders from that customer.

Prominent ads also work like at my Directory of Free Music Downloads. Meaning, Google has really hit upon a great style of advertising. Oh, and Vertical ads out perform horizontal ads.

I'm also a big proponent of creating a website that will earn you income as well as popularity. Again, check out the Celtic MP3s Music Magazine. The site is designed for two purposes:

1. Promote independent Celtic music by luring in signed Celtic music fans of Enya, The Chieftains, etc. It's a technique I learned from David Nevue's How to Successfully Promote Your Music on the Internet and has proved exceptionally profitable, and
2. Promote my music. You'll see a lot of links and information about the Brobdingnagian Bards and my own solo Celtic music recordings.

There is one other aspect I would like to point out that will make whatever you do more money. It's sales letters. Quite honestly, I detest hard sales. I don't typically care for sales letters online. But they DO perform well.

Some of the best-selling webpages are composed of one long sales letter like some of the stuff you'll see at indiebiz.com. I've no doubt that David makes well-over $3000 a month for any of his webpages just from some of his passive income sales letters. By learning about copywriting, you can create webpages to perform just as well to promote your affiliate programs. It's an amazing skill to have.


One Last Important Note: I have NO Faith in most of my internet affiliate income. Sure I think Amazon will be there for years to come. But the passion for 'free music downloads' will die with the next internet fad.

My suggestion is to create a hard product that you can sell. For instance, create and sell ebooks using your knowledge and those sales letters I mentioned. People are willing to pay fo your knowledge of the most mundane things. It's not about being stupid, it's about ease. If you can compile that knowledge and sell it, more power to you!

You will constantly need to fine tune everything. And learn how the search engines work.

Passive money on the internet is not unreasonable. But it's also not easy. It takes quite a bit o'work and a lot of patience because it can take months for search engines to find out if you're website is important.

Hope that helps some folks, slainte!

Valentine's Day Music

I know I should be rather bitter with the approach of Valentine's Day. Afterall, I have no girlfriend, lover, fiancee, or signficant other. I'm single. Yet, I'm still excited about the coming holiday.

I was at Albertsons yesterday. There's a month to go and already the Valentine's Day decorations and candy were out. And it made me happy. I was skipping down the isle if you can imagine that!

You see, I'm a romantic at heart.

I genuinely love Valentine's Day because I am ever hopeful that one day I will meet a woman I will love. While some are gearing up for their cynical anti-Valentine's Day Even icelebrations, I am writing new love songs for my next CD of romantic music.

Course, I have some very sexy memories from Valentine's Day too.

I remember one year I came home from work and found a candle, a boombox and a note on the door of my apartment. It read, "Light the candle and Press Play".

I picked up the matches lying next to the candle. Lit it. Then I pressed play on the tape. A romantic Celtic aire played with a riveting flute solo.

The door opened up. There was my girlfriend dressed in pink saranwrap, leaning against the frame.

Wow! We had an exciting evening.

That was one of those moments that inspired me to record A Celtic Renaissance Wedding. Hehe! I'm still smiling years later.

Valentine's Day. Oh and my Granddad. He remarried his high school sweetheart on Valentine's Day. So many beautiful memories.

I am so thankful to have so many enchanting memories from Valentine's Day that will sustain my pleasure for years to come.

Who Else Wants Garfield & Aslan the Lion to Raise a Pint on St Patrick's Day?

Martin Luther King's Day and the Golden Globes are over. And just like the retailers do for Christmas each year, I'm gearing up for St. Patrick's Day.

I am Irish afterall. And I was born on St Patrick's Day.

Yet this St Patrick's Day holds a secret special something which has me all excited for another reason.

Each year, the Brobdingnagian Bards gain greater and greater notoriety due to our hugely successful CD, Songs of Ireland.

This year, I have something new that is already making people purr. This St. Patrick's Day, the Irish will celebrate with catnip and bowls of milk when they hear my latest CD, Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers.

The album is being played from Dublin to Australia and throughout the United States. I think this is gonna be bigger than fresh DuckyWorld catnip toys!

I'm getting ready for the party with a new St Patrick's Day Party website with info about St Patrick's Day and some great St Patrick's Day music suggestions.

When St Patrick's Day swings around, keep an eye open for Felix the Cat, Morris, Sylvester the Cat, Garfield, the Cheshire Cat, the Pink Panther, gathered around a large wooden barrel of green milk purring and waiting for the bartender to pour another pint. In the corner of the pub are four stray cats decked in kilts playing reels and jigs on autoharp, mandolin, flute, and fiddle.

This St Patrick's Day will be a year not to be forgotten as Aslan from the Chronicles of Narnia takes up the microphone and roars an Irish ballad.

Thinking he was on American Idol, Dr Evil's cat, Mr. Bigglesworth will take his turn at the mic singing cat-styled Irish rebel songs before plotting to take over the world.

Harry Potter's Crookshanks will step up and mew an Irish toast, "Here's to a long life and a merry one. A quick death and an easy one. A pretty girl and an honest one. A cold pint-- and another one!"

A loud cheer erupts in the feline pub. Cat hairs stand on end. Then Tom and Jerry step up. Tom reads the following poem,

"Some Guinness was spilt on the barroom floor
When the pub was shut for the night.
When out of his hole crept a wee brown mouse
And stood in the pale moonlight.

He lapped up the frothy foam from the floor
Then back on his haunches he sat.
And all night long, you could hear the mouse roar,
'Bring on the damned cat!'"

Then he pounces on Jerry. The pub is filled with the sound of tables and chairs crashing over. Tony the Tiger picks up his pint and barely avoids losing his drink.

Yes. This St Patrick's Day will be one to remember!

Ren Faire Podcast Announces First Ever Performer Awards

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RENFAIRE PODCAST ANNOUNCES FIRST EVER PERFORMER AWARDS

JANUARY 2, 2006 (AUSTIN, TEXAS) – Voting is open for the first-ever awards to recognize renaissance festival music and performance. Renfaire enthusiasts can vote online at http://www.renaissancefestivalmusic.com/.

Marc Gun, a world-renowned performer and music promoter, plans to make the awards an annual event.

"Most art forms have awards to recognize exceptional artists," said Marc Gunn, whose weekly Renfaire Music Podcast features musicians currently on circuit, "so it's natural that great renfaire performers should be honored."

Fans can use the online form to nominate their favorite performers, so long as the acts have appeared at a renaissance festival in 2005. Separate categories recognize musical and non-musical performers.

"Which category do bagpipes fall into?" quipped one voter.

Online voting closes on January 15, 2006, so Gunn encourages fans to vote soon and tell their friends. Winners will be featured in a special award edition of Gunn's podcast.

For further information, contact Marc Gunn at (512) 470-4866.

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