I recently asked a forward-thinking indie media company friend of mine what artists needed to do to get noticed.  He said it's not enough to have a website and a myspace page and music available on iTunes, that you need to shoot for content and links on hundreds of pages.  Marketers talk about "impressions"; think about it - when you play live you make an "impression" on a potential fan, it's your best shot - if it's strong enough it will stick with them for a while.  Internet "impressions" are less strong, even with "mixed media" (video,audio, etc), so you need multiple impressions to make and keep fans - the more, the better; your "public" has a short attention span and a shorter memory.

Most of us don't have a marketing department and a publicist sending out press releases and working the phones and the links, so how to you accomplish this?  

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Broadcasting an event over the Internet (so-called "webcasting") used to be a huge deal. Getting live video and audio distributed to a larger audience required the ‘caster to have a big “pipe” to serve many streams at once. Now days anyone with a decent high speed connection can get it out to any and all with one of the new services like ustream.tv.

This is a pretty revolutionary tool, a great example of how you can leverage the infrastructure of the internet, meaning somebody else built it, but you can use it for free, practically.  We first heard about it from singer/songwriter+ Erin McKeown who did a series of house /yard concerts this past summer. She charged admission, maybe even made money without leaving the house. efolkMusic wants to help artists and producers get the word out when a concertcast of interest to our users is happening, so please write us and we’ll let our 9,000+ newsletter subscribers know: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

This fall bluegrass musicians will have an opportunity to pick with master musician Don DePoy and his wife, Martha Hills. Their “Instructional Bluegrass Slow-Jams” are coming to Picker’s Supply in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Starting on September 12th, and continuing on the second Saturdays for October 10th, November 14th and December 12th from 12:30pm to 3:30 pm. These Instructional Bluegrass Slow-Jam Workshops focus on teamwork and building musical and personal confidence where the atmosphere is fun and noncompetitive. Beginners to intermediate can learn to play by ear in a group while working on their individual instrumental skills. Don draws on his over 50 years experience as performer in a number of bluegrass bands. DePoy and Hills travel internationally to perform and teach music workshops that encourage music making with others. The slow-jam format introduces some of the more typically songs heard at local bluegrass festivals. Musicians just learning can join in at the slower tempos and play along. Topics covered in the 3-hour jam include: playing by ear, arranging a song on-the-fly & arranging songs in general, singing on pitch, working out vocal parts (lead and harmonies), creating your own solos, learning performance skills: playing vs. making music, stage jitters, playing under pressure, connecting with your audience, how to transpose and use a capo, stepping into a group and jamming pointers, hearing chord changes and learning chord structure, taking solo breaks, runs, fill and back-up licks, jam etiquette, instrument care and when to change strings, buying an instrument when you out-grow your current one.

For more information about Me & Martha’s Instructional Bluegrass Slow Jam and make your reservations call Picker’s Supply at 800-830-4669 or Don and Martha 540-209-3540.

The folks at FolkProject.org are always looking for performing artists to feature on their cable tv series, ....Horses Sing None of It!, a 3-time winner of Hometown Video Contest with over 500 1/2 hour shows taped. They tape one or two weekday nights/month in northern New Jersey about an hour west of NYC. For more info, artists can go to www.FolkProject.org.