“I have known Chuck for many years. He’s still one of the finest guitarists on the planet. Glad he is back on the scene”.

-Jimmy Bruno, Internationally Renowned Jazz Guitarist

For the past 8 months I’ve had the pleasure of working with one of the world’s greatest teachers and composers of the jazz guitar, Chuck Anderson. We’ve really come a long way over this period of time and chuck is using his blog and social media to spread the word and teach the word about his unique teaching methods. He’s even given me inspiration to finally get off my butt and pick up the guitar for once and for all, and I look forward to our future Skype lessons! Here’s a little background info on Chuck and links to his works, where you can see some of the work we have done together.

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I’ve has the pleasure of working with a number of artists over the past year or so, whether it’s having a conversation over beers, teaching them through Label 2.0, or actually working for them. Below is a list of the latter, artists who have hired me to create a killer web presence. While a lot goes in to their development, I’ll let my work speak for itself.

Oakland, CA’s MC Azeem

John Gillette & Megastar Records

Brent James Rock

Learn Jazz Guitar with Chuck Anderson

Fudge Rock Band Devi

Hello students & clients of mine – whether you’re just jumping on board the Evolvor train or have been with me for a few years, I hope I’ve proven through working with you that I have the knowledge and ability to help you in your music endeavors. It’s a tough, tough world out there I know, and without a zillion dollars to dump into marketing and advertising, trying to “make it” seems near impossible. And I would agree that it is.

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Continuing our live education series, we are very excited to announce that on Tuesday, March 2nd, we will have Steve Gerstman of CutMerch and Greg Rollett from Gen-Y Rock Stars talking about merchandise for artists. This is a free call and will feature an inside look at all aspects of band merch from:

• What types of merch offer the biggest bang for your buck
• What sells better and at what price points
• How to order – from bulk to print on demand
• How to position your graphics
• How to find graphics, logos and designs – from outsourcing to finding artists at your local colleges

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Everyone’s talking about how the Internet is changing the music industry by empowering artists with all the tools they need promote themselves. While this is true, going from playing house parties to becoming a full time musician isn’t going to happen with a MySpace page and few live videos. It’s going to take time, hard work, enthusiastic fans willing to help you out, and a ton of different tools and services in order for you to take things to the next level.

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It’s been a solid 3+ years as a blogger here at evolvor, and because of that I’ve earned a ton of experience not only in the content development side of things, but also in the PR department. As I’ve continued to grow as a respected mind in the ever evolving digital music landscape, I’ve noticed that many still approach sending out press releases in the same fashion that has been used for years. And that approach, in my mind, is rather stupid.

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Thirty Seconds to Mars set out to do something that had yet to be done when it came to releasing their latest album, This Is War. Jared Leto and fellow band mates asked their fans to send in pictures of themselves for a chance to be displayed on the cover of their new album.

The forward thinking of Thirty Seconds to Mars has enticed fans to purchase the album not as another CD, but as a collectors item. Fans have been swapping the new Thirty Seconds to Mars album ‘This Is War’ the way people used to trade beanie babies or sports trading cards. Jared Leto told Spinner Magazine, “I heard that one was selling on eBay for $2500 or has already sold.”

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One of the hardest things about working in this business is trying to explain to people what exactly it is that I do. People are always thinking that marketing online is a “magic button” service that they can just pay $50 for and see results.

I worked on creating a new sales page over the weekend and now present to you with the Evolvor music marketing “methodology”. I hope the explanation is clear enough for those who contact me for my services; any input from you the reader would be helpful.

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you no doubt have heard about ReverbNation or at least stumbled across an artist using its tools and services. Simply put, no one is helping musicians out more in promoting their work then Reverb is, and here are 16 reasons they’re going about making it happen.

1. Ability to share high quality files, fast and cheap.

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Atreyu’s new album drops tomorrow. In addition to checking out their latest webisode, I got a chance to ask bass player Marc a few questions about how they’re label is Congreation of the Damned.

What is your Label doing to market your new album?

They’ve always been on top of the game as far as radio/internet go, and I know that they’re putting ads in the magazines of our genre. They also got us a $3.99 price for the album on the release date through Amazon, so make sure and buy it then!

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After reading the Word of Mouth Manual: Vol. II by Dave Balter, I have some interesting marketing ideas to share with you.

Home business owners need cost effective ways to market their products and services. Word of mouth is particularly effective in persuading customers to buy, much more so than advertising and other traditional marketing methods. Word of mouth marketing harnesses the power of word of mouth to produce powerful market dialogue for businesses.

If you had a group of passionate brand evangelists who are not on your payroll promoting your products, what could be a more cost effective marketing solution than that?

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The Flaming Lips are currently on tour in the U.S. and there’s a nice incentive for buying tickets, beside witnessing one of the coolest rock spectacles ever.

When you buy tickets online you’ll receive a code to receive three new songs, three B-sides and a copy of the show you attended. Seriously, what more can you ask for?

Yeah, getting a lot of free stuff is awesome, but here’s what makes the Lips ticket bundle stand out.

Previewing New Songs

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So Label 2.0 is up and running, and we already have members applying our tactics and participating in the forums!

What’s also cool is, a week into our launch I’m already digging some of our members’ music; this week I’ve been listening a lot to Andrew Hand’s “Slow It Down”, and learning about his “Songs For Oprah” project.

We have some wonderful new content this week for Label 2.0 members:

How to Be a Google Rockstar: An Introduction to Search Engine Marketing

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Photo taken by rock star photographer Brook Pifer at the 2009 Florida Music Festival I attended in May. Click the photo to check out Brook’s excellent portfolio on her website.

The digital age of the music business is in full effect. The remnants of music business 1.0 are rapidly being replaced by a new structure that empowers the artists, not the labels.

Music 2.0 is here.

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