Updated by Melanie Kealey on Feb 03, 2022 in: Website Tips, Music Marketing & Promotion  Posted on Sep 29, 2020  Have you been thinking about recording, releasing, and promoting new music this year? As an important part of the digital music release cycle, it’s a must for all musicians to create an EPK for their music. This is a part of your music website that should stay updated as you release music throughout your career.  With an EPK for your music, you can focus your efforts on adding media that’s relevant to an upcoming album or single release. If you’re not putting mus ..read more

  Ever suffer from paralysis by analysis? Stressed out over a line or a melodic phrase? Easy to get caught up in your song with the smallest of details. If you tend to overthink your song just …don’t.  I’ve mentored a ton of songwriters through the years both online, in sessions, workshops, and writer retreats. Can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve come into a room and found co-writers have retreated into their respective corners and the song has come to a complete halt. I’ll ask them to take me back to the beginning of their co-write and walk me through it. It’s usually a sho ..read more

If you’ve been writing songs for awhile you’ve no doubt heard the phrase “show, not tell”. It’s the art of letting the listener into your world, letting them see what you see. Color and detail are your tools. But how do you go about doing this more?  Think of your lyric writing like a stager.  A stager is the person who goes into a house for sale with the job of making it inviting for the potential buyers. If they cram too much into the house it’s harder for the buyer to picture themselves there. If they were to just take everything out of the house they present a different problem ..read more

  Does Songwriting have an expiration date?  I might just as well ask if songwriters have an expiration date. I coach songwriters all over the world, of all levels and all ages. I’m seeing a surge of writers coming to me for coaching who are coming back to a love of writing they may have put on the shelf for years. Maybe it was the need to focus on work or family. Whatever the reason most put their dream on hold. In some cases Covid provided more time and more focus on being creative and that’s bringing them out.  I love coaching these writers because most are realistic. They k ..read more

    This guest post originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog. Creating an electronic press kit to showcase your music and your online presence has never been more important. Making a music website is key in building your artist brand. Adding your EPK to your website means that you can coordinate content across all of your pages. This keeps your style and substance consistent across both your website and your EPK.  Creating an EPK using a template is an easy way to be sure that you’re including all of the content you need. You might be releasing a new album or single ..read more

  I like digging around in that toolbox when I’m either bored with my approach to writing or  just plain stuck. Some tools are great for challenging you and here’s one that's so simple it’s easy to overthink it.  One word for your title. Think “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, “Cream” by Prince, “Yesterday,” “Royals,” “Beautiful,” “Thriller”…there are a million one-word hits so how can you go about writing your own? Sometimes it’s as easy as taking one of your existing titles and seeing if one word can stand alone. Do you have some song titles that seem to lose power t ..read more

  Today, we’re excited to introduce Songcraft, an online songwriting platform and tab builder. Songcraft combines a beautiful workspace with integrated tools and real-time collaboration to provide you the ultimate creative platform.  Your Editor  With Songcraft, your lyrics, chords, and tabs all live in one place.  Songcraft automatically recognizes chords; it can play them back or show you fingerings on any string instrument.  Working on your rhyme scheme or lyrical structure? Songcraft gives you per-line syllabl ..read more

  I’m pretty excited to share a few days from my new book “ The Daily Song Journal” with you for this blog. I decided to choose 5 random days which is keeping with the spirit of the book, to share 365 tips, tools, and techniques in no particular order. Just made to make you think about one bite-sized idea as well as give you an action to follow up. Might be to listen, read, watch or go. The book is a journal so each day has room for you to write your thoughts.  Here ya go!  January 12, Day 12  Question for this day. “Is there enough of me in my song?” Take one of your ..read more

Posted by Melanie Kealey on Oct 29, 2020 in: Music Career Advice Bandzoogle Blog As a fully remote company made up of musicians, the topic of self-care often comes up around the virtual watercooler here at Bandzoogle. We regularly share tips on how to keep ourselves healthy, focused, and strong, both mentally and physically.  Now more than ever, musicians face unusual circumstances, and more creative people are contained at home. Although the journey towards self-care is an ongoing process, we thought we’d brainstorm and share a few of the things that have been colle ..read more

In this day and age, a music website is a must-have to get your songs out there. But where do you start if you are solely focused in on promoting a single, or an album?  The good news is, you can do both. Making a website for your music is the first step, and as part of that, include an EPK for your music on its own, dedicated page. It should include specific information about your music that is easily picked up by the press.  Wondering what to include in your music EPK? Here are the basics, as well as some EPK examples to really illustrate what’s needed.  What is ..read more