I had a bad experience getting my first album mastered.  I did a few things correctly but made a few mistakes that could have prevented me wasting a thousand dollars having to get it mastered again by someone else.  I’m not saying I chose a bad engineer in the first place, I just didn’t pick the one who was right for my music.

With this blog entry I am going to get into what mastering is and does, how to prepare your track for mastering, and how to pick the right mastering engineer.
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One of the most important things you can do as an artist is to have your own domain name. Even if it simply forwards to a WordPress site in which you make a basic layout with sections on where to buy your music, how to book you, videos, and updates. If you ever move your page it is much easier to bring your fans with you if they don’t have to type or remember a new address. It is also easier to remember and type something like jefkearns.com as opposed to jefkearns.wordpress.com

If you not technologically adept enough to create a simple layout as mentioned above have a friend do it.

Now onto what this article is about: how to increase traffic and interest in your website through YouTube. Continue reading →

I went with a friend to see a documentary, Searching for Sugar Man, last night. The small description in the paper intrigued her. A Detroit musician in the 1970s named Rodriguez, who released a couple of albums that did nothing in North America (but unbeknownst to him was selling as big as Bob Dylan in South Africa and practically the soundtrack to Apartheid.)

He disappeared after his second (what he thought to be unsuccessful) album didn’t do anything, and rumors in South Africa circulated that he shot himself on stage, or set himself on fire and died on stage after a series of bad happenings at a concert (sound issues, heckling etc.) It is really quite an interesting and inspiring documentary. Continue reading →

In a previous post on how to improve your website traffic I mentioned that when sharing a video or stream of a song, it should be embedded on your official web page. Sites like YouTube are designed to keep people interested by jumping around from video to video. Attention from your music will quickly shift by something else they recommend. Their aim is not to drive traffic to your site, or to get you a sale.

By linking people to the video or song stream embedded on your site it is much more likely people are going to streamline more of their attention to your material. Continue reading →

It can seem like an overwhelming task to get radio and reviewers to give your album attention. The articles I have read on the subject basically tell you to send it out to every magazine, blog, and college station out there.

If you do not have an investor that can be too much of an expense to think about. And even if you had that kind of money you could very well be throwing it away. Printing the album, then printing a cover letter or press kit, envelopes, and postage on top of that. And how do you know if anyone is even listening to it? (Hint: If you are sending it out without having made an email or phone contact you can follow up with it is probably sitting in a big bin of submissions no one will ever listen to.)

I highly suspect that Continue reading →

You have spent a lot of time and money (or at the very least time) creating a YouTube video to promote your latest single, show your original take on a well known song, promote your tour and so on.

Your initial instinct is likely to copy and paste the video URL from the search bar to every social media platform you are on. Aside from not posting it anywhere it is the absolute worst thing you can do in terms of growing your fan base and interest in your Continue reading →