Hey thanks so much for dropping by! As you probably noticed the Checkered Owl site was down for a while after being taken down by hackers. I used that opportunity to
As anyone who follows this blog knows, I spend a lot of time staring at a computer screen. Like most of you a big part of my day is heavily
Next weekend is a big one here at Checkered Owl. Our very own Tasman Jude & Luke Dowler are both playing prominent roles at Australia’s largest All Ages festival. Tasman Jude
Free music giveaways can be an important part of a marketing strategy these days. However if you go this route you are going to want to think through your options
This post is a little different than most, in that it’s straight up promo of some of my favourite podcasts. I’ve been getting deeper and deeper into podcast listening over
Yesterday I hit publish on the first episode of my brand new podcast The Conversation of Art. I’m very excited to explore this new medium and see where it goes.
I don’t know if you know Dennis Yu, but you should familiarize yourself with him ASAP. The man is a Facebook genius AND just so happens to love helping musicians!
The music industry, like much of our society, can become obsessed with what is new: The new better way to sell music, the new way to connect with fans, the
Yesterday I had the great pleasure of guest co-hosting The Music Biz Weekly Podcast with Michael Brandvold. Michael and the Music Biz Weekly have taught and inspired me a lot
As you may be aware, Facebook has decided to make a major play for the online video market and it has the potential to shake things up considerably. They have
I first met Brad Sims back in Jr. High, but then as life goes I hadn’t heard from him or seen him for about 10 years, when suddenly we met
I don’t ever have a desire to write a “Best-of” list after a year’s worth of great music. I don’t feel I’ve possibly listened to a high enough percentage of new records to
Hey Everyone! Sorry for my time away from the blog lately. We have some great stuff planned for you over the next few months including new blog posts, interviews, and
If you work in the live music industry, you spend a lot of time inviting people to concerts. Hopefully you are inviting them with a variety of methods, Facebook events
There are only a few companies in the world that I love. Only a few companies that would cause me to be really disappointed if they disappeared. Apple: if Apple were
Dear Bands, Your friends & fans have no idea how important they are to you. They don’t know that they have more impact on video views or album sales than
Everyone should know at this point that e-mail better be a part of your online marketing strategy. While social media sites can suddenly change their terms of service, re-evaluate their algorithms or lose
Every band wants a great music video, and they are right to. There is no other marketing tool quite as powerful. When people first check out a band, most head
Tasman Jude just released a free EP on Noisetrade. Now this is nothing uncommon, 1000’s of artists use Noisetrade every day. However I felt their twist was worth mentioning. This
I first came across Andy Lykens through his publishing and synch work, but quickly discovered his blog and e-mail list provide great insight for independent artist seeking synch placements. I always
Nothing in this world can save the music business. Not a piece of software, not a fan initiative, no radio station or big idea. Nothing can actually save the music
Over the last few days you may have been reading a lot about a station in Calgary called AMP radio. They have become infamous for a new format they adopted in
A little while ago my friend Chris Seth Jackson (you probably know him from the now defunct howtorunaband.com) told me about a new service he started that automates the booking process
One of the most common questions I am asked by people is how an artist can attract a manager, or, how to best pitch a manager that they are interested
A couple months ago my friend Greg Savage from DIY Music Biz saw a tweet of mine about a common mistake smaller bands often make on Facebook. He asked me to
The big story a couple years ago were the new streaming music sites entering the North American music scene. Spotify, Rdio, Deezer and now Beats have all entered the our
This year for the first time I entered into a 48 hr film challenge. The concept is pretty simple. 48 hrs for you and your team to make the best film
As I write this post I am sitting at my daughter’s piano lessons. It’s her first year and she has a lot to learn; but she has begun what I
Over the past month I have been watching Lauren Mann & The Fairly Odd Folk take part in the CBC Searchlight contest, it has had several rounds of online voting
We all know that as a DIY artist you need to be on Facebook. Social media is THE most invaluable tool for music marketing going. However, a lot of artists
Luke Dowler released a brand new single called “Heart Attack” this week! Crazy infectious song I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since I first heard
A week or two ago a friend of mine who runs a newer YouTube channel that teaches various make-up techniques (you can see it here: http://youtube.com/user/haaleyannne) asked me: “I have
There are lots of reasons not to buy Facebook likes, and many many articles have covered why it’s ineffective, a waste of money and actually hurts your engagement rate. But
A lot of digital ink is spilled everyday on the “future of music”. Streaming vs. downloads, could Google+ ever matter, will EDM eat itself, can crowd funding last…etc. Quite frankly,
Hey Everyone, Just wanted to give you a heads up that I have some openings to make some lyric videos in the next couple months. The lyric video has become
I was recently speaking on a panel at a music conference. We were talking about social media and which sites are most important. I recommended that you need to be
A couple months ago I wrote a couple posts about Canada’s new LMO fees and what they mean for musicians (both local and international). The industry has pretty nearly universally
The other day I received a Facebook message from a friend. He and his band had just launched a crowd funding campaign on indie gogo. It was a good message
Email. For many of us it is the primary method of communication for business. For me I use e-mail to book shows, land deals, communicate with artists, send album notes,
As anyone who has been involved knows, the music business is one of the hardest games going. No matter what level you are at (Promoter, artist, manager, agent) it takes
As you have probably heard, earlier this month the Canadian government made some sweeping changes to the foreign workers program and more specifically added a $275 charge for every Labour
Thanks for the massive amount of support you have all given to fighting this change to the LMO applications for musicians. This morning I have talked to my local MP
We need to act. On August 7th the Canadian Federal Government announced changes to their temporary foreign workers program that will essentially kibosh small to mid-size American bands coming to
Recently I have been quite a few requests from bands who are looking for a manager, most range between fairly new artists and artists that have been gigging for years
“So, what do you exactly do all day?” As an artist manager people ask me this all the time, and it’s always a little complicated to answer. There are a
We recently hired a new intern at Checkered Owl Music! His name is Ian. He is a hard working, ready to learn, guy and also an up-and-coming EDM producer/DJ. When
Thank you. Thank you so much for reading my blog. I know there are over 100,000 tweets per minute that you could have engaged with and yet here you are
Last week I was go down to LA for some meetings. While down there I had the chance to a appear on Renman Live which can be found Monday/Wednesday/Friday at
Lately I have found myself recommending Noisetrade to a lot of friends and colleagues who haven’t yet heard of it. I would now like to take the opportunity to recommend
I have a bunch of meetings coming up with a variety of music industry professionals and, as I was doing some planning, I was thinking through delivering music and the
Checkered Owl is a Canadian media & arts company. We love helping musicians, artists, companies and individuals take their next creative step.