Bruce Warila over at Unsprung Artists has just posted a great article introducing the benefits of RSS specifically for musicians and bands.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a simple way for websites to “push” information to readers. Rather than hoping or expecting fans to visit your website, you can instantly deliver information to all your subscribers in a non-intrusive manner.

Click here to read ‘RSS - a Great Tool For Artists’

You can also Subscribe to the Musoswire Blog!

Thanks go to Julie Ellison for alerting us to the existence of yet another social networking site for musicians.

AcousticLife is a new web-based community from Acoustic Magazine - aimed at acoustically minded singer/songwriters, guitarists, etc. It looks interesting, although it is early days - only 139 members at the time of writing!

Why not visit Musoswire’s AcousticLife profile?

If you’re a solo artist, or in charge of press/promotional activities for your band, it’s always useful to know who’s talking about you (and what they’re saying!).

In the old days, that meant either relying on someone telling you about a peice they’d read, or picking up copies of the local press, music magazines, etc and reading them from cover to cover yourself.

There was no easy way out - unless you could afford to pay someone to do it for you!

All that changed with the rise of the internet however. Now you can Google your band name, track your website hits and your referrals (where your website visitors came from), read your reviews on Musoswire or Amazon, and much more.

But what about the gazillions of bloggers out there, regularly posting new content to their own websites? You may not even know they exist, but they could be writing about you.

Introducing Google BlogSearch

Google BlogSearch is a new tool (it’s still in beta) which allows you to instantly search the millions of blogs for any keywords you wish. Ideal for checking out what bloggers are saying about your band. What’s more, you can even “subscribe” to the results, so BlogSearch can inform you when something new is written relating to the keywords you chose.

It’s a fantastically useful tool and I’d definitely recommend doing a search for your artist or band name at least once a week.

Visit Google BlogSearch

I recently found out about a new social network over at Ning.com, setup by funpig records in Canada.

The World Independent Record Label Association (WIRLA) is a social network / showcase for independent labels and their owners.

It’s free to Join (you need a Ning account, which is also free), and you get your own profile page complete with music player thingybob and blog. There are various “themes” you can apply to your page, but it’s not as customisable as many other social networks.

As per any social network worthy of the name, there is a forum, a friends system, and much more.

It’s brand new, but if you’re an independent label, it might be worth setting up a profile - networking, on- or off-line, always leads to something!

Find out more at http://indylabels.ning.com, or visit the Musoswire profile at http://indylabels.ning.com/profile/musoswire.

Andrew Dubber over at New Music Strategies has released his ‘20 Things’ e-book.

The e-book contains 20 articles Andrew recently posted on NMS, detailing his basic principles for new media. Whether your a music company, a singer/songwriter or an independent band - if you understand and apply these principles to what you’re doing, you’ll have a good start in the new media environment.

Download the e-book Now or visit New Music Strategies

I’ve just had yet another phone call from Jim of The Hopper Ward… they’re gonna be on the radio - AGAIN!!

This time they’re gonna be on Trax FM (Doncaster), having a couple of tracks played and chatting to the presenter (he didn’t see who it was).

He’s also informed me that there might be a little competition to win some tickets to their gig supporting The Inspiral Carpets in Doncaster on the 29th.

So that’s Thursday 7th June, on Trax FM - 107.1 fm, sometime between 6-8pm. If you’re not local to Doncaster, you can Listen Online.

I’ve just been chatting to Jim from ‘The Hopper Ward’ - apparently ‘SAD’ (one of the tracks from their recent demo) was played on the Steve Lamacq show on Radio 2 last night. How cool is that?

Thanks to the wonderfulness of streaming media, they (and you) can listen to the entire show again until Tuesday 22nd by visiting http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio2_aod.shtml?radio2/rs_lamacq.

It’s a great bit of publicity for a band who are doing literally EVERYTHING themselves. They really seem to be going places too!…

Check them out at http://www.thehopperward.com/ or www.myspace.com/thehopperward.

Yep - that’s right! Musoswire’s very own rebellious quintet have made it to the pages of one of the UKs most influential rock/metal magazines - Metal Hammer.

The Rebels feature in the Incoming section of Issue 166 (June 2007), with a What/Who/Where style writeup and a mention of their new EP entitled “Just Another Drug I’ve Gotta Kick”.

For more information on the Red Star Rebels, please visit www.redstarrebels.com.

Their PR people are obviously doing a great job, and here at Musoswire we wish them every success as they attempt global rebellion!

And remember, the first Red Star Rebels EP+DVD package “Too Young To Care” is available right now from Musoswire. Order your copy today for the bargain price of £6.99 from www.musoswire.com/redstarrebels!

Well, thanks to Sandman Magazine, you could be in with a chance! Here’s the blurb…

2006 saw the 2nd outing for the Unsigned Stage at the Carling Weekend: Leeds Festival and another triumph. 

Over 30 unsigned Northern bands played over 3 days last year including the likes of Stoney, The Somatics, Vib Gyor, Snowfight in the City Centre, O Fracas, Napoleon IIIrd, The Interiors, Viva High Rollers, Champion Kickboxer, The Scaramanga Six, The Guild, Four Day Hombre, The Bonnitts, Little Ze, The Dirty Dreamers, The Lodger, Mr Beasley, D-Koy and The Landaus.

Next year we’ll be saying how you played the festival alongside the Chilli Peppers, Maximo Park and Arcade Fire - or will we?

Well, not if you don’t send your demo in. It’s simple, send in 2 tracks on CD, (not minidisc, not via email as an MP3, not as a DVD, not on tape or vinyl or any other format you can think of), clearly labelled and with your contact details. We’ll have a listen, whittle them down to a reasonable number and then pass them to independent judges who last year included Clint Boon XFM, Alan Smyth 2Fly Studios, Jane Kitson BBC Radio Sheffield and Dave Sugden leedsmusicscene.co.uk, who will pick the winners.

If you are interested in trying to secure a slot for yourself or your band please send your demo to the address below by Monday 4th June:

Sandman Magazine
LEEDS FESTIVAL COMPETITION
PO Box 3720
Sheffield
S10 9AB 

Please note that due to the weight of submissions expected Sandman cannot enter into correspondence with the entrants.

http://www.leedsfestival.com/
http://www.sandmanmagazine.co.uk/

Good luck to anyone who enters - see you in Leeds!

PRS Guitars has recently launched a competition in association with MySpace.

Called “OurSpace, YourSpace, MySpace”, the competition gives bands/musicians who play PRS guitars and have a MySpace profile the chance to be featured in a PRS ad-campaign.

All you have to do is leave a message with a picture of yourself on stage playing your lovely PRS on the competition MySpace profile. Each month, a selection of winners will be chosen to appear in a PRS print advertisement.

Apart from the great publicity this would give you, there’s also £2000 guitar up for grabs for the best picture submitted overall, plus strings and other promo items.

The comp runs till the end of 2007. For more details, visit www.myspace.com/prsguitarists - good luck!