284 JR Richards – Dishwalla, His Tenth Album Forthcoming, Email Marketing, List Building, E-Commerce, Touring, Adapting To Changes In The Music Business, Spotify Discovery Mode
Release Date: 10/20/2023
300 Find New Fans And Supporters Via Podcast Guest Appearances
The Unstarving Musician
Finding podcast guest appearance opportunities is a cost-effective way to promote your music, share your ideas, attract new fans, and build meaningful connections. It's also a great way to practice for live radio interviews. In this episode, I cover getting started, how to screen podcasts, giving podcast hosts what they want and need from guests, crafting a compelling guest pitch, being prepared for your interview, the importance of familiarity with the show format, post-interview tips, and more. You can apply the principles discussed in this episode to interview prospecting for radio, blogs,...
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299 Selling Band Merch, Music, And VIP Packs To Deepen Fan Relationships
The Unstarving Musician
The 2023 Unstarving Musician listener survey indicated that many Unstraving Musician listeners and Liner Notes subscribers were interested in learning more about selling merch and music and how to do it better. Music royalties are a long game, and most musicians won't earn much in royalties in the beginning. An alternative is direct-to-fan music sales. Physical merch and VIP packs are viable means of generating additional revenue for musicians. Furthermore, merch sales can be a way to deepen relationships with your fan base. It can be an opportunity to create new and better experiences for...
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298 How Musicians Can Create Gigs
The Unstarving Musician
This episode is about how musicians can create gigs. I have written much about finding and booking better gigs, but my perspective has expanded since I started the podcast. If you'd like to read about how I started finding and booking gigs consistently, check out The Unstarving Musician's Guide To Getting Paid Gigs. This episode is inspired a strategy fellow musician Arlene Paculan (featured in episode 112) shared with me and how it has applied to my world. Arlene shared the idea of creating gigs. Her approach lead to Arline performing regularly and winning music awards. I cover...
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297 Leveraging Your Email List
The Unstarving Musician
Whether your art is in music or some other realm, leveraging your email list is paramount. Email marketing is a topic near and dear to my heart. Once you have an established email list, the easiest way to leverage it is by sending regular emails to subscribers. They are your supporters, after all. Begin by considering how often you will send emails. In my experience, this can be a challenging commitment to meet, but you can change the frequency if you initially over commit. Consistency is key. Subscribers will lose interest in you and possibly even forget about you if your emails are irregular...
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296 Julia A. Miller, Delmark Records – The Evolution of Delmark's Business Model, How Labels Can Serve As Business Partners To Musicians, And Practical Advice For Leveraging Your Record Label
The Unstarving Musician
In May 2018, Julia A. Miller became the CEO & President of Delmark Records LLC. That same year, Delmark Records LLC purchased Delmark, the oldest continuously operating jazz and blues independent record label in the United States. Delmark was founded in St. Louis, Missouri in 1953. Julia and company celebrated Delmark's 70th anniversary by releasing a 70th Blues Anthology and a forthcoming 70th Jazz Anthology. In this conversation, Julia shares with me her background in music and academia, the evolution of Delmark's business model, how labels can serve as a business partner, how musicians...
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295 Tracee Perrin – The Evolution Of Her New Single (Poison In The Water), Nashville's Population Explosion, So Far Sounds, Self Care For The Voice, Musical Theater, 2024 Release Plans & Strategy
The Unstarving Musician
is a graduate of the Musicians Institute (MI) in Hollywood, where she learned how to produce and engineer her own music. In 2010 Tracee was accepted into the ASCAP Lester Sill Songwriters Workshop, an experience she says reinforced her desire to build a career in music. Tracee has its roots in the Los Angeles, but now lives in Nashville. She has a new single out called "Poison In The Water," that will be part of a forthcoming EP, her first body of work in over 10 years. We talk about the evolution of her new single Poison In The Water, Nashville's population explosion, her So Far Sounds...
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294 Athxna – Upcoming Releases & Recording Projects, Signing A New Sync Contract, Working In The Music Business, Moving To Nashville, The Blues Music Dilemma, Style Influences, Social Media Strategy
The Unstarving Musician
is a Nashville-based, New Orleans-raised R&B pop singer who started her musical journey on piano at age five. She has a new release coming very soon, recording sessions in her home town of New Orleans, and plans to release more music this year. Athxna has a new sync contract, which she attributes to pursuing a music business education and career. She works for an all female PR firm based in Nashville and has a bachelor's degree in music industry. Athxna is methodically designing a life and career within the music business. We talk about her upcoming recording projects, her new sync...
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293 Ady Parzentny – Home Recording, Production Mentoring, Morocco, Ady's YouTube Channel, History of Mobile Recording, Arc of a Recording Career, Social Inequality and Misconceptions
The Unstarving Musician
Ady Parzentny of has recorded with a mobile studio in the desert of Morocco, and has audio mixing and production course content on PromixAcademy.com. Ady says he does what he does to make the world a better place by helping people make good records, go on tour, and do what they love. As a Mixing Engineer & Music Producer, Ady works with Musicians World Wide in Pop, Rock, Jazz, and World Music Fusions. Ady works with world-class musicians like Nani Vazana that hit #10 on the European World Music Charts, Mehdi Nassouli, and Karim Ziad, who plays with bands like Snarky Puppy. Our...
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292 Terry Carleton – Remixing Vince Guaraldi Peanuts Cartoon Soundtracks, Bones & Knives Recording Studios, Meeting the Mendelson's, and the Arc Of Terry's Music Career
The Unstarving Musician
Terry Carleton of has recorded music for major TV shows, indy films, commercials for radio, and, in some cases, has led to helping clients procure major record deals. Terry studied classical, jazz, and composition on full scholarship. Playing in bands for the better part of 40 years. Has played live with many notables, including rockabilly legend Link Wray, pop and gospel vocalist Maria Muldaur, and jazz B3 icon Tony Monaco. As a member of Daddy-O, Terry helped back The Drifters, The Coasters, The Platters, The Marvelettes, Al Wilson, and Motown pioneer Mary Wells, to name a few. Terry...
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291 Jennifer Roig Francoli – Making Great Music with Ease, Alexander Technique, Getting Stuck, Performance Anxiety, Thinking Less, Over-Doing
The Unstarving Musician
Jennifer Roig Francoli is a violinist, coach for musicians, and Creator of The Art of Freedom Method for Conscious Living and Masterful Artistry. She's had multiple solo appearances at Carnegie Hall and with orchestras such as the Pittsburgh and Berlin Symphony Orchestras. Jennifer is also a former Associate concertmaster and soloist for the Grammy-Award winning baroque ensemble Apollo's Fire, former faculty at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University, a prize-winning medical researcher on Alexander Technique for surgeons published, and...
info_outlineOne of the best voices in rock has been used to describe J.R. Richards. He's the original singer of Dishwalla, one of my favorite bands to emerge in the 90s. Richards has sold millions of records, written some chart-topping hits and has toured globally. Perhaps his most noteworthy accomplishment was writing "Counting Blue Cars," which he performed and recorded with Dishwalla. That song won the Billboard "Rock Song of the Year" award in 1996 and two ASCAP awards for "Song of The Year" in 1997 and 1998.
Richards has also recorded a few solo albums and is on the cusp of releasing his next album, the 10th in his career. I only recently became acquainted with his solo work because I was looking for an acoustic cover of "Counting Blue Cars" for an acoustic 80s/90s covers project. I found an acoustic version, but when I saw the singer on that acoustic version, it occurred to me that it wasn't the original guy. Down the rabbit hole, I went. I don't know who the new singer is. He's good, but I'm definitely partial to Richards' voice. So I found his solo work, website and lots of other info about him that I never knew. I loved Dishwalla, but I'm not what you'd call a super fan. I lost track of the band after they stopped releasing new stuff.
But I am a big fan, so I was stoked when JR agreed to an interview. Speaking with him was kinda weird. The time passed so quickly! I spend most of our time nerding out with him about e-commerce, the importance of email lists and other topics I typically pursue on the podcast. I ended up with several questions that we never got to. The other thing is that he's a 'normal' person, a dad and husband; a very talented normal person, but just a guy.
I don't know what I expected, but I enjoyed speaking with him. Richards is as kind and humble as any other indie musician I've ever had on the podcast. We talked about Dishwalla, his forthcoming record, email marketing, e-commerce, touring, adapting to changes in music, Spotify Discovery Mode, SOME of his work as a producer, what he's got cooking in the near future, and more.
Find everything JR is up to at JRRrichardsMusic.com. Please enjoy my conversation with JR Richards, the original singer of Dishwalla.
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