A carnet (pronounced ’kar-nay’) is a kind of passport for musical equipment. The ATA Carnet (to use the correct name) permits tax- and duty-free import and export of your gear into 87 countries and acts as a ‘bond’. Having a carnet says that you are taking music gear into a different country, and you will … Read more
One of my tips for career advancement in the music business is to know your place in ‘catering’, the area set aside backstage to feed everyone working on a show. On a large-scale show (700-capacity and upward), it is common practice to bring in a catering crew to cook hot, nutritious meals for the artists, … Read more
Touring creates lots of paperwork – contracts, riders, TV performance agreements, hotel rooming lists, etc – most of which has changing content. An example is the technical rider which contains an input list. The input list will change from time to time (the number of channels listed or the sources on stage for instance) as … Read more
The AAA – access all areas – pass is the revered token that denotes hip rock n roll success. You either have one, or you don’t. Having an AAA pass means you are in the band, in the crew, or are so close to the band they deem it necessary for you to have the … Read more
The person employed to set up, run, and maintain the venue’s sound system for visiting acts is the venue’s audio technician a.k.a. the “house sound guy”. If you create music that needs to be amplified—(pretty much any contemporary music) then the house engineer will help you when you arrive to perform your show. Likewise, you … Read more
In this day of Pro Tools on stage, quantising guitars to the beat in the studio, and syncing tempos for CDs, it is easy to forget that a good show, and therefore a musical career, starts with a great performance. And that performance, although coming from the heart and soul, will need a little refinement … Read more
Did you get a loud hum coming through the PA system at your last show? Or is there a persistent ‘zzzz’ sound in your rehearsal room, especially when plugging in certain bits of equipment? If so, you are experiencing ‘earth loop’ or ‘ground loop’ hum. All musicians recognise this sound (especially guitarists) and the way … Read more
Email marketing will help your fans to give you money. I recently read two posts on Music Business Worldwide that tackle the subject of getting fans to buy recorded music and concert tickets. Dave Cool’s post on the mistakes a lot of artists make with their websites is interesting and valid, especially his point about … Read more
Get the gigs you need by reading this article. I have written another article for Music Connection magazine (thanks, Mark!) in which I discuss the need to set goals and do your research when trying to get those gigs. A take-away from the article is the need to show that you can really work with … Read more
