Recources for Musicians

From time to time I give workshops, write articles, or post rants about the music industry, things artists to or don’t do, and stuff that I wish more people in music knew.  In the interest of being a resource instead of a ranter, I’ve collected the more informative and useful of them here.

Your experience may vary from mine; it’s a big, weird industry.

My Experience in the music industry:

-  Artistic Director/Executive Director of the Peterborough Folk Festival since 2006

- Juno Juror, 2008 Juno Awards,  ‘Roots and Traditional Album of the Year – Group’

- Accredited FACTOR Juror

- Booker/Promoter at the Montreal House, 2004-2005

- Booker/Promoter/Producer in various endeavors, 15+ years

Articles from rootsmusic.ca

Personality can’t be pirated – Changing the focus from creating a brand to promoting your personality.

Ask Candace: Artist Submissions – What’s the best way to submit your music to presenters?

Help Me Promote You – Why it’s essential for an artist to have good promotional amterials, and what it tells me about you when you don’t have them.

Articles on this site:

10 Things I Want Musicians to Know – Pointers for dealing with Presenters and Talent Buyers.

Listening to Festival Submissions – Some thoughts on the process of booking the festival.

Judging the Junos – I was asked to be a juror for the Juno Awards this year, and thought I’d write about it to illuminate somethign that I’d always wondered about.

Creating Promo Packs – The handout from my 2-hour workshop on selling yourself as a musician.  This is the bare bones; while it’s helpful on its own, in the workshop I answer questions candidly and flesh this out with illustrations from my experience.

Advice to Musicians – a collection of thoughts on a broad range of topics, mostly written while I was listening to festival submissions over the past three years, but some reaching back to my days at the MoHo.  Very grouchy, very salty language, but it goes over a lot of common mistakes artists make.  I add to it occasionally.