I think now is an unprecendented time in music. Not only do artists have a means to control their recording/production through the developement/affordablity of DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) and excellent, inexpensive new audio gear, but artists now have the ability to reach out to broad audiences without major-label distribution and FM radio blitzs.

I'm obviously not saying anything new here... but what I would like to add to the discussion is that it's increasingly up to the artist how they discover and utilize this power. Merely writing songs, recording, producing and releasing a CD is not enough. Just having a Myspace page is not going to make people stop by and listen. Playing shows isn't going to draw an audience (other than your friends and family and you don't want to know what Paul Westerberg said about that). All of these things are just half of what being a successful artist is about. The other half is finding new and interesting ways of marketing yourself... the tools are there.

To be more specific, you need to generate interest in your music. Instead of thinking about ways to get a "record deal", think about ways to find and sell your music directly to an audience. Whether that's offering .79 cent downloads straight from your site, ring tones (I know, I think they're lame too until I saw how much revenue they're generating), seeking Internet/Satellite radio-play (the "new" college radio), contacting college newspapers/e-zines/fanzines for CD reviews and interviews , networking with fans of bands similar to your own, or offering your own blog/podcast/e-newsletter (yes, I take my own advice). Make sure your site, name and key words are registered with search engines so that people can actually find you if they're looking (for more info on this http://selfpromotion.com/index.t). It's also not a bad idea to consider having "something to do" for your fans when they go to your site (games, quizes, contests, youtube, whatever). Perhaps you have a song about a particular subject that you feel passionately about... network with like-minded people and organize a benefit concert. Hell, throw a record-release party (Remember those? They use to be fun...). Make your music special... make it an event... and for god's sake, please don't give it away for free. Nobody respects or appreciates something for nothing. (A few indie artists who do an excellent job of these things are: Tara Busch or Octavia Harris).

There's a difference between "selling out" and selling yourself . I know it's not "indie" or "cool" to be ambitious and driven, but just thinking that you or your songs are "too good for this" isn't going to win you any fans. If you can't tell somebody why they would want to listen to your music in a few short sentences or grab their attention in some other way... what makes you think anybody will see your tree for the forest? And that forest is growing...

Hope this helps... -h

How do I get CD text from an orange book CD-R to work in iTunes or Real Player?

It won't. For some reason computer CD/DVD drives don't read CD audio text. In fact, CD audio text is not universally supported. Some consumer players read it, others do not.

That being said, the trick to having your name and song titles come up in iTunes is by manually entering the information and submitting it to Gracenote CDDB (online CD database) BEFORE you've even ripped the disc. It's an option in the iTunes menu under Advanced. Once you do this, anyone who puts your disc in the drive and rips it into iTunes will automatically have the names downloaded to their iTunes via CDDB (assuming their computer is connected to the internet).

I'm not sure how Real Player works off the top of my head, but I believe it uses a similar method through the online digital music service Rhapsody.

That's it. Short and sweet. Feel free to shoot me questions or comments anytime.

Until next month...