If you want people to listen to your songs you better have something they like. Make sure your music is up to the high standard of commercial radio, or whatever the buzz stream is or download. Don’t just record it and assume if you like it everyone else will. Be open to improvements and critiques. Don’t be afraid to rewrite and revise. Hone and refine your craft. Learn from other songwriters and collaborate with them. Do a lot of gigging. Once you get something good then it has to be presented as professional as possible. This means it has to be well written, well arranged, well recorded, and well mastered. If you do not succeed at all these things then your audience can simply listen to something else that fits into the expected format and forget about you. If you’re not that great of a singer then find someone who is a great singer and have them do your songs. If your passion is music then stay the course and become something great. Always believe in yourself no matter what other people say about you.

Build a Website and Start a Blog

Promote your music and merchandise, and sell it on your website. Get backlinks to your website to increase your presence on google. Learn Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Add a blog to your site and post articles on a regular basis. You’ll attract new users when you add good relevant content. Users like to come back to see new stuff that has been added.

Build your website with WordPress. This platform has some great music oriented templates. These templates are free or cost very little, and can easily get you up and running in no time flat. Once you decide on the template you want, the next part of getting your website looking great will be adding the right plugins. WordPress has many great features and plugins you can easily activate.

Use a Mailing List

Use a mailing list to engage your fans. A couple of music platforms that allow you to email your fans for free are ReverbNation and NumberOneMusic. You can also import email addresses from your contacts into your mailing list. ReverbNation has a fan collector than you can easily embed on your website. Once you have collected your fans then send out messages to them on a regular basis. This can be anything like songs releases, promo images, concerts, thank you for your support, etc.

Develop a Social Presence

Social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter allow you to connect and engage with 1000s of users to make your brand stronger. Try to keep the same profile handle across every social network to make your branding consistent. Start by connecting with as many people in the music industry as possible, without looking like you’re following way more users versus having followers. In other words keep your follower to unfollower ratio optimized. When others unfollow you, don’t keep them, they simply aren’t a fan. It’s best to try to have a many true fans as possible. These are people who support and follow you. Use buffer to post and schedule content to all your social platforms at once. Do not just post images about you and your brand, but also post short videos. Users typically engage with videos more than other types of media.

Create Professional Music Videos

Get on YouTube and set up your channel and add your music videos. Have a friend help out. You don’t need to spend tons of money to produce a great video. You can easily use an online service like rotor, which is a reasonable, to create an engaging video in minutes. You simply upload your music, images and clips, and choose a catalog of styles, or you can choose from the thousands of free clips that rotor has available. If you have a decent phone, then you can also use it to create some nice clips, which may be good enough to integrate into your music video.

Another reasonable way to go is by learning how to use a video editor. Wondershare filmora is reasonable in cost, and has a lot of awesome features, and effects right out of the box. It allows you to get a video up and running relatively quickly, and looking professional. One other thing you can do is integrate royalty free images and clips into your music videos. There are lots of these available online that don’t cost you a dime. These types of media are available for downloading for free on sites like Pixabay and Pexels.

Distribute Your Music

Use a service like CD Baby to distribute your music. Do not limit how many platforms where to submit your music. CD Baby distributes to over 150 platforms. I would suggest utilizing them all. What this means is you may be submitting your songs to some free streaming providers. But don’t be concerned about money at this point. The real purpose should be to get your songs heard by as many people as possible.

You can use other platforms like ReverbNation‎ and NumberOneMusic for your music. These platforms aren’t available through CD Baby. ReverbNation is mainly used to network to other musicians, while NumberOneMusic is a great way to gain actual real listeners. You may not make much money using these platforms, but the point is to get your songs heard. Getting your songs heard can open up opportunities. Bandcamp has the capability to connect to your PayPal account. Have all your buy links point to your Bandcamp songs.

Depending on what you want to do, you may also want to join a Performing Rights Organization (PRO) such as ASCAP or BMI. PROs collect public performance royalties. SoundExchange is another organization which collects digital public performance royalties for Pandora, Sirius, and cable music. Note that Pandora is curated, so even if your music has been distributed to them, you must fill out a submission form to get your music added.

Market Your Songs on Spotify

With a distribution service like CD baby you can get your songs on Spotify. Find a reasonable and reputable marketing service to boost your plays. These firms may offer you a platinum plan, but you probably don’t need it unless you can justify the cost. This should only cost whatever your budget can afford and will help you get consistent streams and get on playlists.

Submit Your Songs to Online Radio Shows and Podcasts

To find radio shows and podcasts, do some research and networking with other musicians. It should not cost you money to submit your music. If anyone approaches you to spin your music for money, it is usually a scam. There are some valid promotions out there but you have to very careful since these opportunities are few and far between. Typically you should get an honest DJ’s email from another musician who has already been on the show. This way you know the DJ is not trying to rip you off. Once you have a reputable email then you simply send the DJ a few of your best mp3s.

The post How to Successfully Promote Your Music (For Musicians and Artists) appeared first on Paul Arow.

Before you get going, make sure you have a good computer, with plenty of memory. The more memory you have, the lower the latency.

Whatever you choose for your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), pick something that is commonly used, whether it be Protools, Logic Pro, or BandLab. I use Bandlab for my DAW, which has was originally Sonar. My DAW came with some decent plugins, which I do use in my set up. I mainly use T-Rack plugins, some Bandlab builtin and Antress, plus a few free VSTs. Just a side note regarding free VSTs: only use the good ones or the ones you have extensively tested. The reason being is that most of the free VSTs are not very professional.

When it comes to adding additional plugins to your DAW, I would suggest finding the best bang for your buck. In my case, I started by looking at free ones, of which there are many available.  Keep in mind that most of the free plugins are not good enough for someone trying to produce professional music. However, after doing a lot of testing,  I was able to stumble across a few that I would say are surprisingly good quality. Here are the free plugins I typically use in my setup:

• Antress Modern Compressor
• Antress Limiter
• Braindoc Pitch Shifter
• Synth Edit Auto Pan
• Bram Mad Shifta
• Magnus Ambience
• GSnap
• YouLean Loudness Meter
• Tal Dub III
• Tal Tube
•  Vlag Sound Limiter 6
• 4 Front Bass
• Piano One
• Electro Studio Davo Synth
• Electro Studio Model Pro
• Z3ta+ 1

Along with my DAWs plugins and the free ones I mentioned above, I have also invested in T-Racks 5. Since I am conservative, and I did not have to spend over $100.00 on these, I totally went for it! These plugins are really good for mastering and other things. Once I added T-Racks 5, all of a sudden my songs went to the next level! Here are the T-Racks 5 plugins I am using:

• TR5 Equal
• TRS Classic EQ
• TR5 Classic Comp
• TR5 Classic Multiband Limiter
• TR5 Dyna-Mu
• TR5 Classic Clipper
• TR5 Master Match

The next thing I added was a great set of reference monitors. I am using KRK Rokit 5 monitors.

For my outboard rack mount gear I invested in the following:

• M-Audio Ultra 8R
• Behringer Ultra Patch Pro
• Line 6 guitar processor
• ART TPS II
• AKG perception 220

The final thing I will mention, which I use a lot for bass, keyboard, synths and drums, is a Yamaha MX 49.

Whatever plugins and gear you use in your studio setup, I think you have to find what works best for you. Do not go out and buy everything all at once. Rather, stay on the pay as you go plan. Keep a modest budget, and save money whenever possible, until you get to the point where you can justify paying for that Karma super studio!

The post How I Put Together a Home Studio on a Budget appeared first on Paul Arow.

My main musical influences are Jim Croce, the Beatles, Cat Stevens, and Leonard Cohen.

Jim Croce

Cat Stevens

Leonard Cohen

Growing up, I was mainly a folk junkie, in grade school and high school, and I really related to acoustic music. However, as a child I remember going to see a Beatles movie, where all the girls were screaming so loud it heart my ears. This experience left a lasting impression on me. Of the Beatles my two favorite musicians are George Harrison and John Lennon.

The Beatles

After high school and throughout college, my favorite artists were Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, Jimmy Buffet, Neil Diamond, Tom Petty, The Grateful Dead and Al Stewart.

Bob Dylan

Kris Kristofferson

Jimmy Buffet

Neil Diamond

Tom Petty

Grateful Dead

Al Stewart

When Fleetwood Mac joined forces with Steve Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham it was stellar.

Fleetwood Mac

Check out my albums Life Blood and Old Man In a Modern World and listen for my influences.

Jim Croce Photo Credit Wikimedia Commons, Leonard Cohen Photo Credit Wikimedia Commons, Neil Diamond Photo Credit Ger1axg, Tom Petty Photo Credit Takahiro Kyono, Grateful Dead Photo Credit Chris Stone, Al Stewart Photo Credit Vandonovan, Fleetwood Mac Photo Credit Weatherman at Wikipedia.

The post Paul’s Musical Influences appeared first on Paul Arow.

Paul Arow Wearing Grandfather’s Tie

Here’s the details of the angel story. When my grandfather was young, he was a Presbyterian minister in the outback of Australia. He would preach in bars while riding from town to town. He usually rode a horse to move around on his journey.

Frank West Presbyterian Minister

Once he rented a horse named Satan of all things. While riding at full gallop, the saddle slipped, and my grandfather was being drug, with his foot caught in the stirrup. Thankfully a man on a white horse rode up and helped my grandfather get back on his horse. The man disappeared as soon as my grandfather turned to thank him. My grandfather always felt it was an angel who saved him that day! The Australian outback it is flat and barren, so you can see for miles around.

An Angel Rescued Frank West from Peril

The post Connection to My Australian Grandfather appeared first on Paul Arow.

Please check out the video on YouTube! Please go to Spotify to listen to this song for free! Tell all your friends about it!

The post Spiritual Man (Goin’ Home) Video appeared first on Paul Arow.

Writing a great song requires not only a musical and lyrical hook, but using imagery and bringing into the mix some of your life experiences, as well as adding in your heart and soul. Sometimes a song just comes out as an inspiration or can happen when you achieve a higher consciousness or state of mind. Most of the time you have to write many songs just to be able to get one or two good ones, or rewrite a song over and over to make it a great song. In most cases it takes a lot of hard work to create an excellent piece that will be successful. A great song should have interesting changes, highs and lows, and different sections so as to not bore the listener, but rather excite them to want to hear more. It should be written about a relatable experience to establish a connection.

Paul Arow Recording Studio

The music should be structured with a good range of melody, not with just a few notes. The song should have a sense of catchiness so the listener will keep the melody and lyrics going on after the song has finished playing. Presentation can make or break a great song. When a song is arranged well and performed by musicians who are good at what they do then a great song will be enhanced and will sound more professional. But when a great song is poorly arranged, recorded, or performed badly then it will fall to a train wreck. If you have a passion for music and songwriting don’t give up if other professionals think you’re not good enough. Perseverance and dedication, as well as believing in yourself is as much the keys to success as is following the recipe for writing a great song.

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