Content we've featured at different times in different in different places
on the site, pulled together for the musicians it is intended for.









The New Music Model
For the DIY Musician and Their Fans
The old model of bands signed by big labels with big wallets for big support is now dying, leaving in its a wake a vague and lawless frontier with no clear guidelines for how artists are destined to proceed. It’s now up to the musicians to take matters (and their music) into their own hands, but it’s a tough road for even the most motivated of musicians. Luckily, there are a wealth of websites out there to help the musician in reaching new listeners, and to assist listeners in finding them. Groovemine contributor—and musician—Neil Levens breaks down the field of players. [read the article]












ArtistData  [website]
ArtistData provides a great platform for managing and synchronizing the broadcast of news, status updates, and show/concert information across the social media stratosphere including MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and many more. They have a Base plan which is available to artists free of charge and gives you the option to have shows submitted to the top concert databases. Their Gold and Platinum packages are $9.99 and $24.99 respectively and give you expanded capabilities.







Swift.fm  [website]
Swift.fm extends the functionality of Twitter for music sharing and discovery. You can share music using Swift.fm by uploading tracks to their servers (great for musicians!), browsing the music that already exists in their library of music or list of links, or by linking to music found elsewhere on the web. Tweet about any piece of music or artist directly from Swift.fm. It has the bit.ly function/app conveniently embedded to shorten URLs.







Music Nomad
[website]

The site is filled with listings of helpful resources to produce, sell, and support your music. It’s a clearly delineated directory of all kinds of qualified organizations offering goods, services, contacts, and other helpful information. It’s very easy to find what you need—think of it as an indispensable yellow pages for musicians.







SoundCloud
[website]

SoundCloud is an online audio platform catering to music professionals, enabling them to collaborate, promote and distribute their music online in a simple, accessible and feature-rich way. SoundCloud allows music makers to upload large audio files, embed those tracks on websites and blogs, share them publicly (including via Twitter) or only to specified contacts, and gives listeners the ability to comment on specific parts of the recording directly from the SoundCloud player.







Kickstarter
[website]

A great way for (struggling) artists, filmmakers, musicians, designers, writers, athletes, adventurers, illustrators, explorers, curators, promoters, performers, and others to bring their projects to life. Every project has a funding goal (any dollar amount) and a time limit (from 1 – 90 days) set by the project creator. Kickstarters (funders & followers) discover these projects and stay up-to-date with those they fund through blog posts, pics, and videos as people bring their ideas to life. Direct communication between the kickstarter and dreamer is even possible.










Morheus Drop-TuneDrop Everything!
Morpheus Drop-Tune, an octave guitar
effects pedal, is reviewed.
Up to three and a half steps? Why yes, with just the flick of an ankle you can take your pitch to dark and brooding places. You might even go so far as to throttle that E string down to the A you've always wanted it...  [continue reading]


Zoom R16 and Zoom H4n:
Did You Hear That?
Two portable products from Zoom make life easier for DIY recording musicians of all stripes.
This time around, we're focusing on a couple of products from Zoom. Each will put you out a few hundred bucks, but the Zoom R16 and Zoom H4n are among the top DIY recording hardware guaranteed make...  [continued reading]