Small Business Saturday

If you have grown up in the US you are well aware of what I call the consumer related holidays,

Holidays that were invented to give consumers REASONS to buy cards, gifts...

BLACK FRIDAY was one of those days, so named by the shopping frenzy that takes place the day after Thanksgiving.

 The resulting sales were hoped to get the company "in the black" from a accounting standpoint.  This was a marketing gimmick that has resulted in billions of dollars in the big business market.

If your like me, your pretty tired of the big corporations clammoring for all your hard earned money with little in return.  This year you may have heard of SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY  This is a terrific way to support the small local businesses, restaurants, and services you love and who do not have access to "bail out money" to help survive these crazy economic times.

These are wonderful opportunities to look toward your local art community for your entertainment and gift giving solutions.

Check out these recommendations I have for your gift giving:

WOMEN OWNED BUSINESSES 
THAT GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY:

 SOL Physical Therapy        

5297A College Ave.
Oakland, CA 94618
P: (510) 547-1630  

Purchase gift certificates for Personal Training sessions, Pilate's, Massages. This state of the art facility and staff has something special for EVERYONE!  Weekend warriors to Olympic / Professional athletes.
One session at this clinic and you will see why it's winning awards year after year as the BEST place for performance and rehabilitative care.

La Peluqueria Hair Salon - Patricia Lewis

1600 Shattuck Ave,  Berkeley, CA 94709

510-601-0102

• I have been a client here for YEARS, Patricia is AMAZING!! 

Purchase Hair cut, color, waxing appointments / gift certificates.

Tierra Tech Corporation Lucy Perry  Owner                                

Web design, quality assurance, business support svc. 

If you have been holding off on getting a "real" website or support services Tierra Tech is the best!

Blue Water Ventures:  

Kim Powell, Owner                   

 Santa Cruz, CA 

During the holiday months trying to figure out what to do with

the family?  Call or email Kim she can put together a very affordable fun event (in locations here and all  over the world!!!) that everyone will be asking for!  OR buy gift certificates for later in the year!


Caryne Mount- Zesty Scraps
Designer- Zesty Scraps and so much more, Caryne designed two outfits for me for the Grammy awards, she's done costumes for the Diablo Valley Ballet Nutcracker.
This season she is offering super affordable fun bags, that are perfect for yoga, the studio, or shopping!  (email her she can send you pics)
AND you can commission her to do just about anything that involves a needle and thread and she is a genius!

OTHER BUSINESSES  I RECOMMEND YOU SUPPORT

My sponsors are here:  NOTE: when you click on the links in my website and you get bigger savings!

INDIE ARTISTS


Giving CD's is always a easy inexpensive gift.  This year I suggest  you  book these artists for a upcoming living room concert!  it is very easy and affordable!

Jason Cale:  (Amazing emerging artist, producer you will be hearing alot of, toured w/ John Popper, Doobie Bros and more, big bands to acoustic he can cover it all!)

Savannah Jo Lack  (Amazing Award winning artist who you have heard on Alanis Morrisette, Rod Stewart, and many Nashville artists who are too many to name! Catch her while you can she is JUST back from her Australian Tour)

Coyote Grace  Americana harmony based duo fresh back from tours w/ the Indigo Girls & Girlyman, one of my very favs! )

Ruth Gerson (You have seen her in your living room on Conan, Letterman, and Craig Ferguson Shows, one of the biggest hearts and voices around!).

When contacting these artists and businesses make sure and let them know I recommend you! (it helps manage our small business more effectively when we know where our business is coming from!)


Please post your comments after you have experienced these incredible businesses, & artists let me know your thoughts!  


And know that buy supporting local artists your are helping support local communities!
what a wonderful gift that is for us all!


Happy giving and receiving, 


=Tamra=


Providing business solutions for creative minds
www.tamraengle.com

References:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)

http://smallbusinesssaturday.com/
http://www.scribd.com/doc/975919/HOST-A-HOUSE-CONCERT
http://www.bluewaterventures.com
http://www.solpt.com/
www.reverbnation.com/jasoncale
http://www.savannahjolack.com/
www.coyotegrace.com
www.ruthgerson.com
http://caryne.snappages.com/home.htm

Final Curtain for RockBand?

 ROCKBAND has promoted its’self as the “next generation of the ultimate social and interactive gaming".

I caught up with them  at this years AES Convention in San Francisco.

 A game audio track Titled  “Rock On”  “The Rock Band Network Demystified”  was promoted as a session targeted to engineers, & producers, to provide musical content for the RockBand Network (or RBN)

RBN currently has 6500 registered users, 

with approx. 40 new users per day w/ 1300 songs in their current catalog.

Rock Band got a huge publicity push in Sept 09 (09-09-09) when they released  the Beatles rockband .  

Admittedly I am not a gamer,  but I am a huge fan of the Beatles catalog, and thought  this would be a big money maker.

Not even the Beatles can save RBN from themselves, I read today that

Harmonix the maker of Rock band is up on the Chopping block By their parent company Viacom.

Expensive add on’s – for plastic guitars and partial drum kits- and poor business strategy has caused the brand to flounder, and continue to lose money.

GETTING YOUR MUSIC ON ROCKBAND

RBN "executive producer" Jim Marshall Hosted the T-mobile sponsored session detailing how engineers can offer their clients the opportunity to have their original music to sell on the RBN.

  There are currently 43 studios that offer to get your tracks on RBN, and they would like to increase that number significantly, so the RBN team (Jeff Marshall & his partner) are hitting the AES circuit to sell the idea to the engineers.

During a quick google search I found studio’s charging between $500-$1000 per track to upload your song.

HOW IT’S DONE

What steps are necessary to get your track loaded into RBN?

 It’s not as easy as simply uploading the track.

 Create Playtest Review

·      Intense instrument programming is required  you create a MIDI chart for each instrument. each little block has a hand movement, head turn, lip move, strum pick move fingers, which drum or cymbal to hit,  go to a  solo…you get how detailed this is). And this needs to look real, for the gamers to approve the tracks that aren’t realistic looking.

·       Select a venue and setting (you have a few “skins” to choose from, and you get the house band that is programmed in that “theme skin”. There is NO option to pick and choose the gender or number of players in your band.

·      Once the programming is all done THEN you can upload the song for play testing and feedback within the “creators club community (which costs $99/yr to join).

·       During this phase if you expect to get out of the “play test phase” and into the store to sell your song, as a song submittor must also play test and give feedback on other’s songs loaded into this testing environment.  Per Marshall, "If you don’t interact and give feedback don’t expect your file to be tested and given feedback for approval".  This Playback session allows you to correct any programming bugs before the final upload.

·      When your song is ready for final upload, it 1^st goes into a “holding pen” where 8 other RBN creator  club members must play test it and approve it for final release.  Once you get the 8 RBN member approvals; your song can then go live and be available for sale.

·      Songs that are approved for publication are then loaded to the RBN store.  Song in the store  are priced to sell at $1-$2 *NOTE: whoever submits the song for peer review is who gets paid from Microsoft after setting up a XNA creators club profile.

·      Here is a FAQ for artists to read before they consider having their music submitted to RBN.  Read it- it answers all your questions about how payments and reporting are provided for the RBN creator and NOT the artist, As the artist YOU have to go to the expense of hiring a legal expert to draft  a contract w/ the engineer doing the song uploading to forward the payment and any sales reports you.  You will end up spending about $1,000 to simply get the song programmed and tested and hopefully approved to sell in the store ONLY to  see nothing for it.

   Marshall took questions at the end of the presentations, and responded by laughing and  and asking  for “next questions” when audience members asked the following questions:

 if the “Has the RBN song search been improved?” 

"How long the process of programming and play testing on avg took"

 and "how artists got paid".

It appears to be the final curtain for RBN. 

For artists, even if the RBN product future was solid, I would advise you to pass on asking your favorite studio to load your tracks up on RBN- that money is much better spent on investing in strategies that will give you a return on your investment. 

If you need help figuring out what makes the most sense for YOUR career, then let’s talk!

Tamra Engle is a performing songwriter and business strategist who offers business solutions for creative minds to help them succeed in the evolving music and entertainment industries. As a performing singer-songwriter she has worked as a studio musician in Los Angeles; toured the U.S. and enjoyed the placement of her songs on television and nationally aired commercials. Her recent album was on the final round ballot for the 2008 Grammy's in the Best Contemporary Folk Album category.

 References:

http://www.thebeatlesrockband.com/videos/tvcommercial

http://creators.rockband.com/docs/FAQ#Bands.2FArtists

http://creators.rockband.com/docs/FAQ

5 QUICK TIPS- Make the holidays work for YOU

If your like many, the holidays seem to sneak upon you, with little warning, you suddenly find your inbox and social media friends announcing cool shows, and you feel like your left out in the cold? 

Here are 5 quick tips to help each of you "Make the holiday's work for YOU!

1) Book Your Holiday Shows Early 

 There are plenty of high-paying holiday events that need live music.

Get in on some of that easy money, or host your own show. It doesn’t have to be holiday related, either.

December is a very slow month for music journalists and they tend to have far less interesting news to cover, so it is also the perfect month to book a big CD release show and get some press coverage while you’re at it.

  2) Record a Holiday Single  This is a terrific way to stay connected

With your fans, (and exercise those songwriting chops).

It also makes a nice gift for your fans.

*You can participate in a free promotional contest like this:

http://on.fb.me/dw5f8Z

|    3) Download Cards Make Great Gifts What’s  green, small, inexpensive, and come customized with your album art ?  CD DOWNLOAD CARDS ! 

     You can pick up 100 cards for under $60.00 what are you waiting for!

There are also  a number of promotional uses for your download cards. 

You could do a Twitter contest and use them as prizes to generate excitement for your music around the holiday season. 

Give them to particularly awesome fans- Spread the gift of YOUR music!

4) Leverage Social Networks Social networks are the perfect place to get people talking about your music. Share some of your own personal picks for the season. Stir a little excitement with a giveaway contest. Encourage fan involvement. Remember, social networks are most effective when you converse with your followers, so don’t just shout at them like a desperate street vendor.0

5) Holiday gift bundles: Limited-time only sales!

Bundle your cd with Tshirts, stickers, or other merchandise items to create holiday “gift packs”.

(price them to sell- ie: buy my Tshirt gift pack and get my EP for FREE)

Promote this on your social media sites and in your monthly newsletter to fans.

Are your interested in having consistant results creating more awareness, and selling more product ?  Then let’s talk!

Tamra Engle is a performing songwriter and business strategist who offers business solutions for creative minds to help them succeed in the evolving music and entertainment industries. As a performing singer-songwriter she has worked as a studio musician in Los Angeles; toured the U.S. and enjoyed the placement of her songs on television and nationally aired commercials. Her recent album was on the final round ballot for the 2008 Grammy's in the Best Contemporary Folk Album category.

Holiday Song Contest | Local Music Vibe

Holiday Song Contest | Local Music Vibe

guitartam

11/10/2010 - 11:51am

CLICK HERE TO PARTICIPATE

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During November I will be posting Holiday themed songs/spoken word/ video's from each of you. (to enter your own compostion or to vote)
This is a fun way to showcase your work and get some free promotion to new fans.
The winner- will also receive a FREE one hour business strategy consultation with me.

TO SUBMIT A SONG/VIDEO/SPOKEN WORD:
Submissions accepted Nov 2nd-Dec 3rd at 12 noon!!
Voting ENDS on SUNDAY DEC 5th at 5pm!!!

1) Click on the event link and RSVP that you are ATTENDING

2) Email me @guitartam@gmail.com
Email Subject: Holiday Contest

4) Include the link to your video or mp3 to your song in the email.
(In a format so I can post it on the event FB wall )

5) Send this event invite to your creative friends to enter & Fans to vote on your songs (post it on your wall)
*have fun with this, and engage your fans to participate!
Remind them they will win a free play list by rsvping YES and voting for YOU!.

IF YOU ARE VOTING: RSVP YES

to vote LIKE next to the submission
Each LIKE counts as a vote, and the MOST LIKES WINS!

I will post a song/video and everyone can vote on their favorite.
The songs will be put into a Holiday playlist everyone that RSVP'd YES will get a link to.

This is a great way to stretch your songwriting / spoken word or video chops / get free promotion! (collaborate with another songwriter and see what happens!)

The selected winner AND 1 VOTING PERSON will win 1 hr Artist Consultation w/ me-

I am really excited to hear your submissions, and what everyone thinks of the songs!!!! HAVE FUN

More info about my services at:

www.tamraengle.com
"providing business solutions for creative minds"creative minds"

AES Exhibit Highlights

On the heels of the  SF Giants World Series victory celebration.

 Professional and student engineers gathered in droves to San Francisco’s Moscone Center to kick off  the  129^th AES (Audio Engineer’s Society)  annual convention

 I  attended for 3 days Thurs- Saturday and felt like the conference was well attended, yet you could get seats, you didn’t have to wait in line for more than a few minutes to get food, and you could easily find a place to plug in.

In this posting  I am going to highlight  a few products that  were on exhibition that stood out to me as products worth owning or looking at more closely.

AVID’s Protools 9:  This was the stand out demo of the exhibition hall:

 What’s New for Pro Tools LE and Pro Tools M-Powered Users?

Pro Tools LE and Pro Tools M-Powered will no longer be developed.

 You can read more about what new in all it’s technical glory in the WHAT’S NEW in protocols .pdf here: http://bit.ly/cEaMuh

Comparing PT9 to PT 8

192 voices  vs  48

32 tracks audio recording  up from 18

128 instrument tracks up from 32

256 busses vs 32

64 video tracks vs 1

What’ s new?

A new playback engine- this was shown off blasting the crowd with a satillite / live performance.

Support for Core Hardware (including Mac built in Audio)

The big feature being showcased was highlighting the multi-location sessions via satelitte.    Cool for a conference but are you using it in your studio day to day?

Korg MR-2:

High res. Audio recorder-

•   Multi-format recording and playback

•  Capable of rotating 210 degree’s

•  High-performance analog limiter, low-cut filter, and bass EQ are provided.

•  40 Recording Setups call up specific mic sensitivity, limiter, low-cut filter, and bass EQ settings to suit a variety of situations. Ten custom user settings can be memorized.   (This was really cool for a non engineer)

•  Records directly to (and plays back from) SD or SDHD cards. 


•  USB 2.0 (Mini-B type USB connector) allows high-speed data transfer to and from a computer. 


Convenient, high-performance KORG chromatic tuner is built in.

A added bonus was to add connectors so you can attach it to a video camera tri-pod.

This is selling for $699 which feels a bit high to me, then you hear the recording quality, and it’s a useful tool for updating live performances directly to your fans.

DPA Instrument Mics:  These live instrument mics  are amazing and worth trying out- 
Lots of gain before feedback: Wireless compatiable & you can put it on with one hand! It’s is beautifully simple. 

Avenson Audio DI’s

Small Di  only $99  Flat 100kHz bandwith  small active phantom power the size of your lipstick container!

Iso DI around $150  Add’s  2 optional  isolation stages allowing you clean clear signals while having true ground isolation and STIll run Phantom power, and you can connect it to your wireless belt pack!

Gefin TV auto volume- 

Imagine eliminating the loud volume spikes you notoriously hear during TV commercials, programs and cd’s.

The model I saw also has the ability to decode Dolby 5.1 digital audio and output as a two channel L-R audio.  It was a great product for home OR commercial use.

  

News Corp may axe MySpace

In the growing sea of social media, knowing which sites  to use  can be intimidating, So you sign up for them all.    Keeping up to date on all your social media sites can be a full time job.

As a artist, which sites make the most sense for you to use?

Twitter, Facebook, BeBo, Reverb Nation, Ping???the list goes on and on.

My mom always said, never to put all your eggs in one basket. And quite honestly, there isn’t a decent social media site out there to support the world community, so you need to ask yourself 

where are my fan's hanging out?  You don't know? 

 Let’s look at the number of SOCIAL MEDIA  NETWORK options  out there:

27 top sites  w/ more that 1 milllion in the US

61 Video sites in the US  (some are highly specialized, and not all relevant to your needs)

31 press release sites in the US

171 article sites in the US (see my comments on the video sites)

·      Facebook has 500 million active users & growing.

Within FB  300,000 businesses have pages.  

Whether you love or hate Facebook, those are some pretty  amazing numbers!

• Twitter 175 million active users

• Myspace 100 million and shrinking.  

You read it right. Shrinking.

MySpace  has had a $70 million drop in revenue, and traffic is plummeting.

Several factors I think contributed to this.

• Facebook’s success
• Over saturation of Ad’s  on MySpace.

(when you are  logged on to your Myspace page you feel like your being assaulted by ads).

Myspace in a failing effort to bail out the sinking ship, has announced they will FINALLY intergrate status updates to Facebook and Twitter.

I think despite efforts to revamp the site, and late to market integrations, you can soon say goodbye to Myspace.

LOSING ALL YOUR FRIENDS?

So what are you going to do when 1200 of your closest friends disappear forever?

Do you have their email addresses? I hope so.

  I would direct my fans AWAY from MySpace

And onto YOUR website, and onto your mailing list  so YOU can control your content, and viewer experience.  Do you really want your fans blasted with ads on how to bling their page so it runs even slower?

WHAT ARE THE SITES TO WATCH?

What’s the next thing, (wish I knew, I would be rich!)

Focus on the sites that will give you the most bang for the buck, and integrate them to your website ( click on the word website- you wil note on my home page I link to my twitter / facebook accounts, and have a blog feed).

Reverb Nation, Ping, ??? the later, Apples network. it’s a unknown right now, do you use it? what do you think?  Tell me what other social media networks are working for you?

(give me your thoughts in the comment section)

WHAT ABOUT YOU?          

Every artist has a uniqueness about them. A quality that makes them like no other, I like to draw attention to your uniqueness,  along with the familiar thing so your friends / fans have a connection to you.

When “your brand”  and your messages to your “friends”/ fans are clear THEN you start seeing the benefits of social media.  We will discuss content in another post.

if you need help defining  or refining your social media  strategy,  then lets talk!

=Tamra=

Providing business solutions for creative minds

www.tamraengle.com

References:

http://guitartam.blogspot.com/

www.tamraengle.com

Electronista:   http://bit.ly/9FYYQo

Bobby Owsinski –www.Bobbyownsinski.com

http://www.techxav.com/2010/03/19/if-facebook-were-a-country/