In part two of my interview with Aloud, Jen and Henry talk about the recording studio, videos and online promotion, and balancing the business end of their music with creative stuff.

Jen de la Osa and Henry Beguiristain have been writing, singing, and playing guitar together since they were young. Today they are the core of Boston-based Aloud. The songs on their sophomore album Fan the Fury are an engaging collection of observations, each expressed with urgency and true emotion.

These days, it seems searching for potential bandmates is much like looking for a new job. Or hiring an employee. Or finding a roomate. Here’s a list of 8 criteria to take into consideration when searching for, auditioning, and playing music with potential or new bandmates.

“Building the brand” is such a corporate sounding phrase, isn’t it? Unfortunately, reading this post is a lot like saving all your gear receipts and keeping track of your mileage – it’s a necessary evil if you’re taking your music career seriously. I know it’s unpleasant….I’ll try to keep it short:

Your band is a brand, whether you have made a conscious decision to make it one or not. Your fans are your customers, and based on things like your music, artwork, website, and appearance, they have a perception of you. This perception is your brand.

I’d like to mention a great workshop event for songwriters and bands happening this week in New York City. It’s workshop taught by frequent Serve The Song contributor, Cliff Goldmacher. This workshop is for songwriters who would like to streamline the demo process, keep their demo budgets in check and maximize the return on their investment. The workshop also provides multiple examples of stripped-down demos that have gone on to become major label cuts.

Welcome back to our series on making money with production music libraries. If you’re a music composer looking to find placements in television, film, video games, and other places, submitting your music to production music libraries is a great place to start. In this installment, we will look at the process of evaluating online production music libraries, and submitting your music.

We’re moving right along with our series on making money with production music libraries. Now that you have produced your music for picture tracks and registered your music copyrights, the next step is to register your tracks with your performing rights organization. Why is this step important? It’s how you get paid. This installment will show you how it works.

In a previous post I proposed 4 reasons keeping a day-job can benefit your songwriting career. This post will tackle the flip-side. Freelancing, or making a living without a steady nine-to-five job can be the perfect support system for the working songwriter. The first part of this post covers freelancing as a career choice. The second part ties freelancing to the songwriter’s career.