I spent July in NYC to explore its music scene as much as I could: playing open mics and gigs, going to concerts, and soaking it all up. I want to keep a list of all places and situations I discovered and decided to make it a blog post for other people that want to do the same.

Considerations on the city from a Londoner New York City is buzzing with energy and excitement at all times. It is so alive that it blew my mind! ‘The city that never sleeps’ indeed: always on, multi-cultural, and yet with very strong American roots, it made me feel alive andhome!

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Nobody looks at you funny if you ask for a table for one or drink pints alone at the counter. People have a gracious way of striking up a conversation and without being creepy finding out who you are, what you do, what you think, what you like. Life through the glass! Music is such a big part of New York City: you see people singing songs aloud whilst listening to their headphones (and nobody turning around to watch themI saw it so many times that I decided it must be normal); cars blasting out music, streets bursting with clubs, bars that pump out loud music, and heaps of venues offering live music. NYC still makes you feel you are welcome, a place where you can explore being your true self and evolve. If you decide to share your ideas in front of an audience you will find one and people will listen! New York is freedom.

I never felt so free in my life as I did in the Big Apple. Public transportation runs at all times so you never have to worry over how to get home! My list of venues for open mics and gigs I have played five open mics and two gigs in the past month. In general, open mics situations tend to attract decent amounts of people if compared to London and the audience respectfully listens to you; a piano is generally available; and it is really easy to make the acquaintance of other artists. This is the list of open mics I played at, in order of my preference: •, Williamsburg (on Sundays): one of the historical open mics in NY, hosted by Bruce Martin who is a force of nature, the open mic is super chill and fun, the sound is good and the place is nice; you get to play 1 song; I went twice. •, East Village (on Mondays): hosted by Somer who disposes of infinite patience and sarcasm; at least 40 – 50 people show up on a weekly to play; she runs a lottery to assign you a slot, so if unlucky you might pick up number 44 and have to wait until midnight before you get to play; the sound is good; you get to play 1 song; I was asked to play a gig after the open mic.

•, Bushwick (on Tuesdays): hosted by Joe Crow Ryanthat man is a living legend; raggedy madness, underground feel and definitely a whole lot of genres all together; it is a messy open mic but really unique and fun; the sound was good then bad then good again then bad but the good vibes make up for the technical unreliability; you get to play 2 songs. •, Williamsburg (on Mondays): about 10 people show up to play and some are regulars (some of the finest musicians I’ve ever seen playing an open mic); the sound is good; you get to play 2 songs and if time allows it, you can play again at the end. •, between Greenwich Village and Lower Manhattan (on Saturdays): the stage is huge, the open mic starts early in the afternoon, it is pretty chilled and a nice environment; the sound was good; you get to play 2 songs; I believe that if you enquire you could probably book yourself a gig there too. Talking to people at open mics I was also recommended the following ones which I did not get a chance to check out: • Mondays: Cafe Vivaldi, Park Side Lounge, Prohibition • Tuesdays: Under St. Mark’s, Topaz, Park Side Lounge • Thursdays: The Sugar Bar, Music Inn I played two gigs.

I landed the gig after playing at their open mic; I was the last person on stage at the gig; the sound wasn’t amazing and luckily one of my people stood up to tell me to turn down the volume of the guitar after the 1st song. The set was 45 minutes. A bunch of my NYC friends showed up and also two groups of people having drinks next door decided to come in and watch. The gig came about after I sent them an email at the end of April asking if I could play there.

I was the last person on stage with everything running late. The quality of the two bands I saw playing before me was really high, probably the highest quality venue I have played thus far (a part from Scala in London). The sound engineer was really good and always listening. Too bad everyone left just before I started to play as it was almost 1:00am on a Wednesday night. These are three more venues to keep on the radar to play gigs: • The Silent Barn, Bushwick • Baby’s Alright, Williamsburg • Pine Box Rock Shop, Bushwick I feel everything is possible in New York City and I will make sure to go back there.

I went to the last week and absolutely loved it. Loved Lisbon and spent a total of 10 days there. I attended all three days of the conference. The 3rd and last day was the one that interested me the most, with a stage entirely dedicated to music called ‘Music Notes’. In this post I share my take over the music industry trends that emerged at the summit, then a quick snapshot of each of the music panels I attended. Music industry trends The new giants and decision makers in the music industry are the streaming services. Through their playback algorithms, mass-customised playlists, artists features and social mechanics they greatly impact which songs/artists get discovered.

Artists have started sucking up to them and some are already striking deals with them; whilst labels seem to keep at their merciless fall, further losing their negotiation power. The music industry is growing ($$$) but the economic model hasn’t been pinned down. Different panelists affirmed that 2016 has seen the aggregated turnover of the music industry grow compared to last year, and firmly believe that the $$$ will continue increasing in the years to come. Despite that nobody knows what shape the music industry will takeartists don’t, streaming services don’t, indie labels don’t, big labels don’t, managers don’tnobody does.

Really, nobody does No safe bets ahead but the recognition that streaming is huge. Artists: independent!

There is no one-size-fit-all here but the gist of it is that if you already have a big-enough audience then it does not make much sense for you to partner up with a label and share profits; whilst if you are building a following and seeking to boost your audience size, then partnering with a label could be a great next step, with the idea that once you are big-enough you will go back controlling your own brand, independently. The panels I attended, in order of interest ‘What’s an indie label to do these days?’ Bruce Pavitt (Sub Pop Records) and Jim Carroll (Irish Times) Bruce Pavitt people! He ran a remarkable panel telling it how it is; stay independent if you can or use labels as an accelerator for your career to then go independent again; Macklemoore, Chance the Rapper (possibly the most nominated artist throughout the day), and more are not signed to any label, hence maximising their own profits. Bruce is also working on the, really worth checking out.

I applied to get my tracks re-mixed on his platform, wait and see! ‘The truth about the music industry’ with Tinie Tempah (musician), Hans-Holger Albrecht (Deezer), Eric Wahlforss (SoundCloud), Ne-Yo (musician), Andrew Flanagam (Billboard) Old school musicians do not feel they are getting properly paid for their work as performers and songwriters; where 1M streams pays off roughly $90 (figure came from Ne-Yo and wasn’t disputed during the panel); ‘new’ musicians like Tinie Tempah seem to have a lesser sense of entitlement to bigger earnings and are personally managing their career 360 e.g. Music production, social media, merchandising ‘The new festival experience’ with Marian Goodell (Burning Man Project), Jonathan Mayers (Superfly), Gabrielle Korn (Nylon) There has been a continuous sprouting of more and more festivals but only a few good ones; Burning Man and Superfly mobilise people by the tens of thousands and apart from music, they see themselves as promoters of community values but not responsible to run political agendas. ‘The building blocks of musical experience’ with Roland Lamb (ROLI), they call it the democratisation of making music. Demo of a very cool product that will soon be distributed in Apple stores; I found it all the more interesting as I was already fascinated by the Oceanboard which I started to mess with starting in 2014 at the Silicon Milkroundabout in Bricklane, London. ‘Thoroughly modern manager’ with Tishawn Gayle (Compound Entertainment), Ted Chung (MERYY JANE & Stampede Management), Lily Mercer (Viper Magazine) The role of the music manager has changed as music consumption did: moving money from one pocket to the other, with smaller margins for parasites and waste of resources; demanding increasing resourcefulness for those that try to stay in business.

The guys on stage weren’t smart, they were extra-smart, out of the norm individuals, entrepreneurs. The role of a manager might change shape and there might be less artists that can afford one but those that know how to do their job will ultimately be any artist’s key to success. ‘Evolved entertainment booking’ with Ja Rule (Fyre), Billy McFarland (Fyre), MDavid Low (FyreBookings.com), Michael Hirschorn (Ish Entertainment) is changing the world of artists booking by trying to help private buyers and artists communicating directly. Ja Rule and his team are working on yet another type of disintermediation in the music industry; getting rid of the middle-men that for too long have taken advantage of the communication gap to take their stake in all booking transactions. ‘The art of the hussle’ with Tinie Tempah (Musician), Dumi Oburota (Disturbing London), Andrew Flanagain (Billboard) Tinie Tempah and his manager (and friend) Dumi shared the story of how their act came about, the continuous hussling for a few years, the breakthrough, and their business today. Nice guys, genuine talk and all interesting to hear for musicians like me.

‘Music production on the road’ with Thomas Gold (Thomas Gold), Gabrielle Korn (Nylon) Thomas shared how he goes about producing his music when he is on the road. Interesting term of comparison if you produce music yourself; in a nice way, but he seems to be a backup freak as he explained how he backs up his files in 3 different places because of one instance when his computer was stolen and it took him weeks to re-work on just a little fragment of all his stuff.

‘From the roots’ with Eric Wahlforss (SoundCloud), Eamonn Forde (Music Ally/The Guardian) I didn’t find that much was covered or ‘uncovered’ with this talk possibly because Eric had already been on 2 other panels that I attended that day. ‘Innovate or die’ with Arabian Prince (NWA, iNov8 Next), Ravi Rajapakse (Blackfire Research), Eamonn Forde (Music Ally/The Guardian) ‘Talk to me’ with Ryan Leslie (SuperPhone), Nora Rothrock (Rothrickdigital) ‘Listening to change’ with Jonathan Levine (Master & Dynamic), Olly Mann (The Media Podcast) ‘Master of your own destiny’ with Ray J (Raytroniks), Billy Jones (Raytronics), Lily Mercer (Viper Magazine). I spent the last couple of hours (not always easy to retrieve the numbers) trying to figure out whether with music I am at a financial loss, or not.

There are only two sources of cashflow at the moment: releases and gigs. The final balance shows +£0.13 in close to 2 years. Releases Since I started taking music TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL (for me) I produced 2 releases: • (album, 11 songs), released on 02/06/14 • (single), released on 17/11/15 Being 100% DIY at this stage, the only costs I incurred** were those of the aggregator that I used (Record Union). The album distribution cost me $60 (2 years of distribution + one-off fee) to date and the single $10.42 (1 year distribution + one-off fee). For a total of $70.42.

So how much did I earn for my 2 releases? Look at this table; it is the export from my account on Record Union. I got $66.26. Making a loss of $4.15, today equivalent to £2.87. Gigs I started gigging July 2014 and by September 2015 I had played 31 gigs. Assuming that I buy a couple of drinks (hihihihi) and take the tube every time I play I could roughly estimate having spent about £248 (£4 X 2 X 31) for alcohol and £148.8 (£2.4 X 2 X 31) for transportation. A total of £396.8.

Being a registered member at, which is an institution that helps songwriters and composers earn money for their music, I can log all my gigs and claim some royalties for having played them. 31 gigs got me to earn £149.80 from PRS. On top of that I remember getting paid £50 once and will estimate a generous £20 for other 10 times which will skyrocket me to having earned a total of £399.80.

Making a profit of £3. Final considerations Taking my loss from the releases (£2.87) and my gain from the gigs (£3) I made a profit of £0.13. If I had made a shit-load of streams on Spotify, say 1 million, I’d have made $6,933still not that much! I conclude that at my level it is really really really important to keep costs down and in check; together with having A REAL source of income (aka another job). **For simplicity, I have taken N assumptions and disregarded a number of costs: my house, my gear, my time. Technically you could say I am at a loss then BUT I would argue that I would have spent most of this money anyway.

I recently spoke to a musician-friend of mine (check her out ) and promised I would send her the list of all online resources, tools and services I make use of. As I’m at it, I thought it might make an interesting blog post for other musicians like us.

This post is about sharing what I am doing and NOT about teaching anyone anything. I do NOT know if what I am doing is right, so take it as it is and please share your views based on your own experience and guts. I am 100% DIY at the moment and here’s how I am currently set up.

MY APPROACH Music comes first. Because it’s fun and because it makes me feel good.

All other activities to package, to market and distribute my music are less interesting to me so I try to minimise the time spent on them and be as organised as I can. I invest my time, not my money. Trial and error. I open accounts generously then see what works for me.

There is no silver bullet. WEBSITE WORDPRESS Free It’s the blogging platform that powers my website. You can choose a template you like and be independent in the creation and management of your website. One drawback: I cannot use all the integrations and widgets available online (this is because the platform prevents me from using any Javascript).

SOCIAL & ONLINE PRESENCE SOUNDCLOUD Free I use it privately to upload and share my music before official releases. I use it publicly to upload demos I want to share, older material and also my new releases.

I like to interact with people on the platform. FACEBOOK MUSICIAN/BAND PAGE Free I mainly use it to organise gigs. Also to share photos, some updates and to shortish/not-necessarily-perfect videos.

I like to interact with people on the platform. YOUTUBE Free I posted a few videos of a live set in a rehearsal studio.

I also use it to post my songs playing on a still frame image because heaps of people consume music from that platform (especially younger peeps). I like to interact with people on the platform. Php Mysqli Extension Is Missing Windows System32.

TWITTER Free I use it to share some updates, photos and details for a gig. I mainly use it as a ‘broadcast’ tool. BANDPAGE Free I have an up-to-date artist profile on it and use the audience widget to collect email subscriptions from my website. It was recently bought by YouTube so something low maintenance and worth watching. It offers a range of integrations and widgets to manage your online presence.

BANDCAMP Free I have an up-to-date artist profile on it and have uploaded all my music on it. Seems to be a platform of reference for some venues, festivals, and others in the industry. It offers a range of integrations and widgets to manage your online presence. REGISTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION PRS One-off membership fee: £30 I am registered as a songwriter. I register my songs there and this ensures I receive payments if the songs get played anywhere (any channel and any geography).

Also, when I play gigs I am recognised a £6 to £8 for each one. RECORD UNION You pay per release Aggregator service to distribute my music on all relevant players: Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Tidal, etc. Across all geographies I select and am willing to pay for. On the basis of my streams they pay me what I am due. I am considering testing a new aggregator for a future release. ONLINE TOOLS SONGKICK TOURBOX Free It allows me to record future gigs and automatically sends push notifications to anyone using Songkick and listening to me.

It integrates with Facebook but unfortunately not with my free version of WordPress. THE UNSIGNED GUIDE Monthly, quarterly or annual fee It’s the online directory of all music industry contacts in the UK: venues, festivals, blogs, magazines, radios, etc. I use it to find email contacts to arrange gigs or to promote my recordings.

MAD MIMI Free It is an email marketing tool. I use it to send my newsletter and to keep my list of subscribers organised. Whilst Mad Mimi does the job, I am thinking of reverting to using MailChimp as I like its templates better. GODADDY Pay per domain It is the platform I have used to register my domain. PAYPAL It collects fees based on how you use it I opened an account to be able to easily collect payments online. GMAIL Free My email provider of choice, together with Google Inbox to manage my emails.

SERVICES I USED LANDR Pay per master depending on the file quality you choose Online mastering service. I have used it for my soon-to-release EP Burning Milk. I feel it is a great service for people with no access (£££) to top engineers and mastering studios at a fair price. MOBINEKO See pricing online I chose them to print the vinyl of my soon-to-release EP Burning Milk. I am still waiting to receive the final product so cannot comment on quality of service yet. OTHER ACCOUNTS These are all accounts that I opened but that I am not actively using at this very moment. I use some of them from time to time and some other might come handy at some stage in the future (or maybe not).

LASTFM BBC INTRODUCING PERISCOPE LIVAMP WIX SHOPIFY MUSICBRAINZ TRADIIO PATREON BOOKYA ELANCE & ODESK MUSICGLUE GIGMIT.COM DELICIOUS VEROMUSE BOX GOOGLE+ VINE TAD If you got to this point you probably play as well:). I hope you find this post useful. Download Free Software Guitar Pro 5 55294 Tablatures De Ukulele. Please, reach out seretrouble @ gmail.com to share your thoughts as I am really keen to find out about better ways to “do this”. Sere Trouble.