A quick sum up of what a music blog is: a blog about bands and music.

Comments are welcome if you have additional ideas and thoughts.

Okay, let’s get started:

1. Promotion
Music blogs are amazing promotional tools for bands. They are their own mini buzz machines. If the blogger likes the band they’re writing about great, if not they’ll still probably link to the band for readers to check out for themselves and at that point, readers and potential fans can make their own minds up.

2. Links
As the population on the internet continues to grow, it becomes more difficult for new up and coming bands and artists and their music to be ‘found’ by potential fans. When a music blogger adds links to bands either in a blog entry or on their sidebar, this helps expose the band more to the public eye.

3. Music
Music bloggers writing about music on a daily basis will most likely be linking to the band website and/or adding mp3s for readers to hear first hand what the blogger is writing about. If they are adding mp3s to their blogs, hopefully they’re getting permission from bands to do so.

4. Videos
For bands with videos, websites like Myspace and YouTube have made it easy for bloggers to embed video codes onto blogs. Videos are excellent on music blogs as the reader not only gets to read about the band, but can also hear the band and watch their video.

5. Fans
If a particular band is being written about favorably by influential, popular and/or trusted bloggers then there is a great chance that new fans will be made from readers of music blogs. As mentioned before, even if what the blogger is writing isn’t favorable, then there is the chance the reader simply won’t agree.
6. Community
There are quite a few music bloggers out there who dedicate blogs to specific bands and music styles ranging from jazz, blues, rnb, country, folk, punk, rock and more as well as blogs with various music topics. This can create a community of dedicated readers, subscribers and commenters who visit the blogs frequently.

7. Sales
Numbers 1-6 above could all lead to sales of music for bands and artists. Whether music blogs have direct links to artist downloads and online CD stores or if a reader decides to go out to a music shop to buy a CD after learning about a new band or album/single release after reading about it on a blog, then the music blog was indeed influential to the sale!

8. Live Show Dates
Fans are always interested to know when their favorite band will be playing live in their hometown. Music blogs help to keep the reader informed and reminded of tour dates, shows, gigs and live music events.

9. Opinion
Music blogs are great places to go for readers to find out what other people are thinking of a certain band, musician, singer. A blog search in Google or Technorati for “music blogs” can result in hundreds of current conversations taking place.

10. Easy Access
It’s so easy to find music blogs by doing a search on Google or to go to blog directories and browse their music categories. Music blogs also tend to link to and recommend other blogs on their sidebars.

Bonus:

11. Free
For now, most music blogs are free (hopefully it stays that way). The information about bands, opinions, music, videos and podcasts are free for music lovers to devour!

Bands who want to request a review from a music blogger can usually get in touch by contacting them via an email address provided on the blog or a contact page.

BandWeblogs.com adds a twist to all that is written above. Bands and artists can come here to promote themselves, in their own words as Guest Music Bloggers. PR companies, record companies and management companies can also send in formal press releases and reviews of bands for publication on Band Weblogs. I also like to write about bands and music here, from a singer/musician point of view.

Sign up as a Guest Music Blogger to add entries and promote music at Band Weblogs!

By: Jenny May

“Musician” items on amazon.com

“Musician” items on amazon.co.uk

This list isn’t in any particular order because some of the items might be more important than others depending on the musician. Also, be sure that the musician doesn’t already have the item if you are thinking about buying it for them – and it may be worth consulting with them about certain gifts before you buy, such as guitars. Keep in mind, this is my personal list of Christmas gift ideas!

Okay – let’s get started.

1. Acoustic guitar with a built-in pickup
Awhile back I had a Fishman pickup installed on my acoustic guitar and that was one of the best things I could have done. However, had I thought about it before I bought my guitar, I probably would have instead bought an acoustic with a built-in pickup. This means that a musician can play their acoustic guitar either unplugged or by having the pickup installed on the guitar, it can also be played plugged in which is great for recording as well as playing on stage with an amp. With the built-in pickup the option is there.

2. Small Acoustic guitar amp
A small acoustic guitar amp is great for playing in small spaces like bedrooms, open mic stages, gigs etc.

3. Apple Mac
I bought my Apple Mac a couple years ago – one of the best things that I could have done for myself. Because…

4. GarageBand
A musician won’t have to spend time figuring out which is the best recording software to use for recording music because it’s already installed in the Mac. GarageBand has got to be one of the easiest and yet most powerful tools for any musician. There are drum and percussion loops, guitar loops and more already installed in GarageBand with thousands at your disposal if more are purchased. Plenty of effects for vocals and guitars. GarageBand is also a great tool for recording podcasts.

5. iTunes
Again – already installed in the Mac. If a musician is using GarageBand to record music, then iTunes is necessary. The newly recorded songs get imported into iTunes which can then be converted to mp3s. This is very important if a musician wants to promote their songs on the internet! Songs can also be burnt onto cds via iTunes.

6. Midi Keyboard
One of the best additions that I’ve made when it comes to recording with GarageBand. With the midi keyboard, the options are there to change the effects on the keyboard’s sound to organ, grand piano, electric piano, horns, drums, synths, guitar, bass and more when using recording software like GarageBand.

7. Shure SM58 Microphone
The Shure SM58 microphone is one of the most used and hardiest mics out there. Good for recording at home and great on stage. Works well with GarageBand. If vocals are a bit hot on the mic, just use a windscreen.

8. Guitar Strings
Now, the important thing about buying someone else bass or guitar strings is that you need to find out what their gauge is. In other words – what size and type of strings do they use? If there is an empty guitar strings package lying around the information is there. If this isn’t an option then there are also ways of going about this during a conversation. The musician in your life won’t suspect what you’re up to. Musicians like to talk about their craft, so if you ask them casually about what type of strings they use, most likely they’ll just think that you’ve taken more of an interest in what they’re doing and will appreciate you the more for it.

9. Earplugs
Whether playing at their own gig or attending a loud concert, earplugs are beneficial for musicians in helping to prevent hearing loss. Drummers wear them, guitarists wear them…you can show a musician that you care – buy them earplugs!

10. Spinal Tap
Every musician understands Spinal Tap – and if you know one who hasn’t seen it – buy it!! One of the funniest movies ever made about musicians’ lives. Even if they already have the movie on VHS tape, buy them the This Is Spinal Tap (Special Edition) DVD which has extra footage, commentary and an interview with the director, Rob Reiner.

Spinal Tap on amazon.com

Spinal Tap on amazon.co.uk

Hopefully this Top 10 list will help with gift ideas for the musician in your life. I had fun making it.

Remember to support your local guitar shop and buy what you can from them!

By: Jenny May