iTunes
Apple’s program which allows you to download music within the application through its own online store is the most well-known music downloading site. You will surely love this site because of its attractive layout and easy to use design. You can easily open Itunes application right in your computer or download it for free online. Once you are in, you can search from a huge selection of all genres of music. iTunes also offer help and support from those who encounter technical problems.

Napster
One of the best music downloading site around. Downloading in the site will usually cost you 99 cents or up, although there is monthly subscription you can choose as well which will cost you $12.95 per month.

Amazon MP3
If the song you are looking for is not available in iTunes and Napster, then Amazon might have it for you in a much lesser price, 89 cents per download. The site also offer excellent help and support if in case any technical glitches occur.

This risk had proven to be a successful gamble for her, and now shines as a big possibility for many other artists out there. Could this be the death of the recording label? No one knows for sure, but this could well be the future of the music industry.

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Tata Young- One of the most famous female pop singer in Thaland. This pretty lady is a half Thai and half American. She is a real talented singer of the new generation. Among her album that is worth buying are the CDs like I believe or Dangerous Tata.

Endorphine- A popular Thai band that consists of four members: da, kia, Bird and Bomb. Their music is a mix of great pop beats, catch tunes and high-energy performance. Add on your Thai music collection songs like Tur Bok Hai Leum (You Told Me to Forget) and Nam Dtem Kaew.

Bird Thongchai – A cute male pop singer that is going to be love by everybody forever. Thongchai is known for his string pop music. His songs are romantic, he’s gorgeous and he’s also acted in a fair few Thai movies and Thai lakorn series. He is undeniably a man full of talents.

I am pretty sure that you will be hook up with these artists and their songs even if you are really not good in their language. You will love simply the music and sound itself, just like I am.

Let’s pretend I bought a band shirt from one of my favorite local bands. This doesn’t just mean I end up getting a shirt – it essentially means that I send money the band’s way as a show of support for their music. A vote with your money is a vote for how a person lives and creates art, after all, and this is one of the best examples of this aphorism in action.

Band merch also is a way of showing how much the band values their fan base. Aside from my (undying, eternal, ever-burning) love for the band, there’s a good chance that I also find the shirt design really cool. A great band shirt design and art not only expresses the band’s personality and identity, but also is a way to give the fan a certain level of coolness. A great shirt design can catch attention, start a conversation, and in turn, be a way for the fan to talk about the band. Instant promotion!

This is why it pays to put a lot of attention and love into your band’s merchandise. This is love to your fans from you, and apart from the screams, singing along, and randomly-thrown objects of devotion onstage, this is another way for your fans to love you back.

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Social media is one of the best ways to create interest among potential fans and listeners, and to create a following while you’re at it. If you have a Facebook page or a personal twitter account and have a ton of friends who follow your activities, so can your band. Twitter is great for generating buzz in real time while being a sounding board to some of your potential fans who tweet about how much they like your music. Retweeting their tweets means a lot, and shows credibility. Having a Facebook page will let your band break any particular news in more than 140 characters. You can post gig dates and venues, tour dates, and even appearances on TV. You can also give your followers sneak previews or listen-ins to some of your singles and some behind-the-scenes footage to make them beg for more. Using social media is a good way to go beyond your music and give your band a specific personality beyond stage presence.

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However, you begin to feel that this might just not be enough. When you play your music, it seems that people love the sound of it, but just can’t seem to keep their attention on you, or throw their focus to something else. Have you ever felt your stage presence was lacking? If so, then it’s high time we do something about it.

Part of stage presence is engaging the audience. Remember – playing as a band isn’t just about you, but it’s primarily about being there for your audience and showing them what a good time is all about. As the lead singer, you are in the best position to make contact with your audience, and make your band memorable.

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You and your band manage to book a gig at a local bar. Open Mic Night! Bravo! Splendid! Good for you! You and your mates create a lineup of tunes to play for the evening, rehearse together as often as you can, and make sure your instruments are at top performance level. Now, on Performance Night, did you also remember to brush up on your etiquette?

1) Wherever you go, always keep clean. Whether the bar provides you with a dressing room all to yourselves, or has you start setting up right there on the stage as soon as you get in, always pickup after yourselves. Besides doing your part to keep the bar clean, this also ensures the safety of your band mates and the bar-goers.
2) Should you be welcome to free drinks at the bar, drink sparingly before the performance. If you need a drink to get your mojo on, that’s fine. However, don’t take the welcome to mean you get to drink the whole night long. Besides the possibility of botching your own riffs or solos, the manager might not be too keen to invite your band for a second performance.
3) Thank the bar manager for having you and your band over. Managers always like a band with good manners, and will more likely call on you for a second performance, or even make you regulars.

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To be able to obtain more gigs for your band, consider playing for open mic nights at your local clubs or party places. This will provide you with an actual set of audience and obviously increase you experience on stage. This is a great way to start off your band. Many open mic nights are established by more popular local bands. By playing on an open mic night, you will increase your connections or contacts with the hosting bands for future gigs. It is also advisable that you check your local newspapers or music sites to find essential contact information

There are many bands out there that start out with a dream, a six-string guitar, and few songs under their belts. They rehears whenever they can in their garages, compose songs in their downtime, and create beautiful posters and cover art for their dream debut album. They make an effort to market themselves to different bars to get their first gig in hops of reaching a wider audience. Sounds like your band? Good, you and your band are putting in the work needed to make it big.

However, what sets you apart from the all the other fledgling bands out there? It’s a good thing that you believe in your sound, that that you’ve been raised on the rock classics. However, to move forward and to grow as a band, you need to have a sound that’s distinct and recognizable from everyone else. What new thing will you bring to the music table?

That’s why it’s important to constantly widen your horizons, and listen to all kinds of music. We’re not just talking about pop or rock or the tunes they play on the radio. Don’t be afraid to immerse yourself in classical or traditional music every now and then, or to learn to play an unusual ethnic instrument. It’s these distinct aspects and spirit of experimentation that have helped popular and well-respected bands be where they are today.

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You’ve just come together as a band and you’re ready to gig. But when you approach clubs to play they want to know where you’ve played in their market before and what kind of draw you usually bring. (Draw means how many paying fans usually come to one of your shows.)

If you’re a new band then your answer would be “we haven’t played before so we don’t really know how many paying fans will come.” And you know what will happen with that answer. They’ll tell you to come back when you have a fan base.

You’re thinking, “Yeah, but we’re such a great band your customers will love us.” The reality is clubs don’t have customers, bands have customers. People go to a certain club to see a certain band. They don’t go to the Club X instead of Club Y because of the club; they go there because of the band that will be playing.

When you ask a club to book you, you are asking them to INVEST THEIR MONEY in you. It costs them money to open their doors. They have rent to pay, electric bills, payroll and the cleanup crew at the end of the night. They buy advertising promoting the bands that will be there because they know it’s the bands that are the appeal; not their club. So a club needs to know you have a following in order to book you.

The hardest gig to get is your first gig. And, as a wise businessman once told me when I was envisioning how big my new company could become,”you have to make your first sale before you can consider how you’re going to spend the money from it.” What this means for you is that you can’t think about gig number 2 until you get gig number 1 under your belt.

So, here’s the secret to getting the first gig that will make it easier to get number 2 and number 3 and so on.

Throw a Private Party. Of course, you’re not going to call it that, but for all intents and purposes, that’s what it is.

Create a guest list with your band mates. Write down EVERYONE you know. What’s the total number? Let’s say you have a four piece band and you each come up with 100 names. That makes your guest list 400 people. Statistics will tell you that only 20%-30% will come. (Hey even though your new band is the most important thing in your life, it isn’t the most important thing in your friends’ lives.) 20% of 400 = 80 people.

Determine what you can afford and select a club that fits your budget. Create a list of 10 clubs you want to play in. It’s more important to pack a club that holds 80 people than it is to perform your first gig at a well known club that looks empty. Keep this in mind as you create the list of clubs you want to check out.

Call each club and ask what it costs to rent their venue. Check weekday rates and weekend rates. A weekend is preferable but perhaps a Thursday night at a high profile club is better than a Saturday night at a less popular club. When you call the clubs be sure to ask if they have backline (backline is the industry word for the gear and equipment that the club has on hand for musicians to use) available or if you have to bring your own equipment. Also ask if the soundman is included in the quote or if that’s additional.

Venue’s Website and Advertising. Because you are booking this with them as a private party, they will not think to list your gig on their website or in their ads. When you’re negotiating to rent the space, ask them to list it just as they would any other gig in the house.

Book your gig at least four-to-six weeks out. Every bone in your collective bodies will want to book your show for this weekend; next weekend at the latest. DON’T DO IT! You need to create some excitement and buzz around it. AND you’ll have more choice among clubs when you book further out

Become a show promoter! Once you decide which venue you want to rent, and you finalize the rental with the club, the real work begins. Now you go into show promotion mode. DO NOT expect all your friends to come just because they said they will. If you do not do these steps, you will not have a successful show and the impression you’ll create with the venue is “Mental Note: NEVER book that band. They can’t even get people to come watch them for free!”

Create a theme. Make posters and flyers, print tickets, post your gig on any and every social media site you know of. Write a press release and send it to your local media – radio stations, TV stations, newspapers. REMEMBER your local college media! Your goal is to PACK THE CLUB. Keep in mind, for every 1 person you expect to show up, you need to put tickets in the hands of 5 people. Not only for those who say they’ll come knowing full well they won’t but don’t want to hurt your feelings but also for people who plan to come but have last minute changes and aren’t able to make it.

Create a theme. Many bands will call this a “CD Release Party” or a “Tour Kick Off.” But your theme can be as simple as “Band Name: Live At The Venue Name” or “Band Name Rocks The Venue Name.” It’s this theme that you want to incorporate in EVERY MESSAGE. An advertising rule of thumb is that a message needs to be seen at least SEVEN times for someone to remember it. So you need to create AT LEAST seven points of contact for each of your 400 friends.

Print Band Stickers. Stickers are one of the least expensive promotional tools you can invest in. Give one to everyone you know. Make them big enough to be seen (no 1″ x 1″ stickers). Just your band name or logo if you have one. Your goal with stickers is simply to create awareness so after someone has seen a sticker the name will ring a bell when they see a ticket or a poster or a flyer or a posting online.

Print tickets. Since this is a private party in the eyes of the venue, they will most likely NOT have an employee in their ticket box. You’ll want to ask a friend to sit at the front door to collect tickets and stamp hands. Even though this is a private party for the venue, this is a gig for you. And when was the last time you went to a gig that didn’t have tickets – or at least stamp hands at the door? By printing tickets and putting them in people’s hands, they’ll be more likely to REMEMBER your gig. The tickets should have the THEME, date, time, venue, age (if the club is “21+” or “18+” or “all ages”) and price on them. Yes, you should put a price on the tickets – even though you are giving them out for free. That price should be what you expect to charge for future gigs. This is how you set the expectation for what people will be asked to pay to see you play in the future. You can buy blank ticket stock at Office Max and print them on your own printer at home. Do NOT print these tickets on anything other than ticket stock. You are a professional band. If you want to be taken seriously you have to look legit.

Posters and flyers. Take your lead from the most successful bands in your market. Visit their MySpace and Facebook. Go to Guitar Center and look at the posters hanging on their bulletin board. Are most of them dark? If so, maybe you want to make yours white so it stands out from the rest when you hang it up (yes, once you print your poster you’re going to find EVERY free bulletin board in town and hang it up.) Also, what size are most of the posters? Are the no-name bands hanging 8 1/2 x 11 and the big names in town printing 11 x 17? Is the paper regular printer paper or is it heavier stock. What league do you want people to think you’re in? My guess is 11 x 17 and heavier stock. On the other hand flyers are usually 8 1/2 x 11 printer paper cut in four. For these you might consider buying bright colored paper and printing with black ink.

Street Team. It’s time to call in best friends, girlfriends, brothers and sisters, moms and dads. You need an army. Ask each one of them to hang up 5 posters. Ask the venue you’ve rented to hang up your poster alongside all the other bands playing there. (Be sure to tell the venue that your party is open to the public.) You, the band members, have the honor of handing out the fliers. Go to college campuses and hand them out. Go to concerts of similar music when people are leaving and hand them out. Ask an independent music store if you can set up a table outside their door one Saturday and hand out fliers. This is usually easier if you are a customer at their store. (Big stores like Guitar Center and Sam Ash usually don’t allow this.) You must put them in people’s hands. I know. Every band HATES this. But you must get over that. You’ll be doing this for a very long time.

Social Media. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Zvents, Craigslist and wherever else you know of. Be sure your gig is posted. On sites like Craigslist, MySpace and Facebook – be sure you’re reposting every week or, as you know, the event drops to the bottom and no one will scroll down far enough to see it. If you’re using Twitter, be sure you ask your followers to retweet about your gig. Research shows that people retweet more when they are asked to rather than simply doing it on their own.

Photography. Now is not the time to ask a friend to take pictures at your first gig. Hire a photographer. Be sure you hire a photographer who has experience shooting live bands. Ask to see samples of their work. The changing stage lights and movement of band members requires a special photography skill. You want band pictures AND you want crowd shots. Your goal, when the night is over, is to post photos that portray you as a professional band that packs a house.

Door count. Whomever you’ve asked to work the door needs to keep track of how many people show up. Those with tickets are easy to count. Rip the ticket stub and save them to count later. But the hand stamp requires a counting system. Perhaps one of those silver “clickers” or just good, old fashioned paper and pen.

All of this then gives you the information you need for gig number 2.

Booking Gig Number 2. You should be on the phone the Monday after your gig with every club that has a capacity the size of the crowd you brought in on your first gig to book gig number 2. When asked,”Where have you played in this market before and what kind of draw do you usually bring?” Your answer will be, “Well we played this past Saturday at Venue Name and we had 80 people” (or however many your door person tells you.) You should also know that clubs are used to bands lying about their draw, so they will automatically cut whatever you say in half. Therefore, you should add to your statement, “So I feel 100% comfortable guaranteeing you that we’ll draw at least 50 people to your club. And we are willing to guarantee that draw with money.”

This is how that works. Let’s say the going rate to see a band in your market is $5. If you guarantee 50 people, then you are guaranteeing the venue $250 in ticket sales. They also expect everyone coming in will buy two drinks at $5 each. So the venue expects a MINIMUM of $15 from each person who comes to see your band. Let’s say 40 people show up to Gig #2 and you’re guaranteeing 50 people. You owe the venue $150. (The 10 people you guaranteed x the $15 per person the venue expected.) This might scare you, but this is the way you build a solid reputation in your town. Venues like working with bands with this business acumen and approaching venues in this manner will get you more gigs than bands who don’t offer guarantees. This also puts a burden on you to get out and do all the promotional things for gig #2 that you did for gig #1. Only this time, people will be paying at the door rather than having free tickets to get in.

Your band is a start-up business. You must invest in your business. When I opened my first music school I had to invest in renting a building, buying equipment, paying staff and marketing. You are doing the same thing. Your guarantee to the venue is your rent and your staffing.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Yea but we need to make money too.” At Gig #2 your chances of being paid to play are pretty slim. However, you might be able to negotiate a percent of the door OVER your guarantee. Let’s say the split is 50/50 over the guarantee. Let’s say you guarantee 50 people and 80 people show up. You would get 50% of the revenue generated at the door for 30 people. (80 people – 50 people guarantee = 30 people.) The ticket is $5. Split that 50/50, you get $2.50 x 30 = $75.00. Even if the club says “no” they’ll see you as professionals and respect that. In your conversation ask them what your draw would need to be in order to split the door with you. Then you know what you’re working towards.

Check any business book and it will tell you most businesses don’t make money in the first year. Your band is a business. It might be a while before you make a profit…or even get paid to play. If you don’t believe in yourselves enough to invest in yourselves, why should the venue?