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[guitarman2016us]

7 Best Forums For Music Makers

I’ve been making music for a long time. I played in a bunch of bands, recorded music on my computer and over the years I became involved in the online community. It’s a great place to find knowledgable people passionate about making music. It’s also a great place to connect with listeners.

I remember starting out in music and feeling pretty confused. When I spoke to music store employees their interest in selling music gear far outstripped their knowledge levels. At least that was how it felt. As for the local scene, it often felt like the blind leading the blind. That’s actually partly why I decided to start this blog. I had found a few online communities that actually helped me. Everything from writing songs to performance, recording, music production, music marketing, understanding the music industry and gear selection. Who knows, maybe this blog might help some other musicians learn from my experiences? If so, one thing that could be a lesson learned was the benefits of a good music forum.

Music forums are great crossroads in the online world where songwriters, musicians, music producers and more, can meet each other, exchange ideas and opinions and perhaps unlock the secrets of getting people to listen to their music. The exact focus of music communities varies, and all music communities are not created equal.

There are a load of music forums. Many are now dead, or they are flooded with spam or with cynical old musicians. So I thought I’d do a round up of the best music forums around just now, in 2022.

7 Great Music Forums

1. Songstuff Music Forums

Songstuff is a great all-round music website with an awesome music community with free and paid tiers. I have been a member here for years and really like the community. You will find more than 21,000 members, loads of tips and information for bands & artists, songwriters, recording engineers and music producers. Staff are friendly and involved and you will find a lot of experienced people answering questions here.

There’s a good recording and production section, critique boards, places to air new tracks, videos, read and contribute articles and tutorials. If you are interested in music advertising, there are some great tips here for that as well.

In addition to the community there is a very large music industry glossary and a heap of music related articles. Songstuff also has music portals on most social media platforms too, which it uses to engage with anyone interested in making music.

Unlike any other music forums I found, in addition to promoting member music to it’s own membership, the site has at least two sister sites aimed at music listeners that it uses to actively promote independent music to potential fans. This includes curating playlists and promoting the music of Songstuff members specifically. They recognise that their sister sites have to promote the best of music so that they can build their own following. That way they have their own audience to promote music too. It means your music has to be of a good standard if you want them to promote it. All in all, it’s a pretty unique approach.

2. Sound on Sound - Recording and Music Tech Forum

Soundonsound is a reasonably popular forum. It is good for any gear-related questions or if you’re looking to get some gear related opinions. The quality of information seems to be pretty good and the knowledge level of many regulars seems to be pretty high.

It has over 81,000+ users. It’s associated with a well-regarded, real world recording and music technology magazine.

3. Bandmix Forum - General Musician Forum

The community side of bandvista band website hosting. This is a general musician forum with 440,000+ users. The main usage is members looking for band members, sharing their music, chatting about other bands.

Free and paid tiers. Musicians who subscribe to their forums will often find other members asking you to join their bands.

4. Fender - Guitar Forums

The Fender has a friendly community. Helpful too. I’ve been a guitarist for long time and I’ve been using this forum for years now. For guitarists of all levels this forum is a good place to ask any guitar related questions.

There’s a load of active members ready to answer any questions you might have.

5. Drummerworld - Drumming Forums

Drummerworld is a popular drum forum and one of the most active. Who knew drummers had so many opinions? Ok, well pretty anyone who has ever spoken to a drummer!

There is some general discussion here, but most of it is drum gear or technique related. No real surprise there then! Express your inner drum nerd and you will find plenty kindred spirits here.

6. Taxi - General Music Forum

I use their forums for talking to fellow songwriters more than anything else. The community is pretty friendly.

It has about 44,000 total members and a pretty good level of activity.

Taxi is a little bit different than the other forums on this list in that they offer paid A&R services. There’s no stats available on success rates, that I could find, or even any obvious success stories. Of course, what exactly would qualify as “success” would affect any stats reported.

7. FAWM - Songwriter Forums

A bit gimmicky but can be a fun challenge, FAWM is an online community of musicians. The 50/90 Challenge is a summertime songwriting marathon — 50 songs in 90 days. The 50/90 Challenge runs from July 4 — October 1. The idea being regular writing helps develop your skills. Quantity over quality… the jury is out.

Conclusion

There has been an increase in the amount of musicians using social media to meet and interact with each other. While social media might be great for many things, such as finding listeners, sadly, there are many, many reasons why social media is a terrible place for any musician looking for such important friendships and interactions.

Luckily there are still some great music forums out there and music forums still completely toast social media as the best places to find fellow writers, performers, artists, and music producers. The quality and accuracy of information is far better than anything you find on social media.

So many music forums have been lost over the years. It really is a case of use it or lose it. I can’t recommend music forums enough. The 7 above really are very good. Go take a look at them, join and start posting. You won’t regret it. Remember, what you get out of them depends entirely upon what you put into them. Be active, invite your friends and I hope you will enjoy them and benefit from them as much as I do.

[guitarman2016us]

Singer-Songwriter Playlist on the Independent Music Stage

The Singer-Songwriter Playlist on the Independent Music Stage is pretty uncommon. It is a playlist that mixes mainstream and independent artists in one mish-mash. That said, it is a playlist of brilliant music, and I don't care who made it and if they are indie or not. The choice of songs and the song performances are really good, so I am not complaining. It's nice to just have good music to listen to that doesn't draw a distinction. I look forward to hearing more songs as the playlist grows. Thanks to the staff at SSUK for curating the list!

Song list:

- Gloria, Sofar Vancouver, Luca Fogale- Realize - Live at Her Village (2022), Mahesh - Trusty and True, Damien Rice - Let It Go, James Bay - Cruel (Live), Monica Martin - Falling Slowly (Official Video), Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova - Where Are We Now (Live), Antwaun Stanley - Some Day Soon , Alexi Murdoch - Clarity (Official Music Video), John Mayer - Try (Emotion and Words: Live at Jagriti Theatre), Mahesh - It Takes a Lot to Know a Man, Damien Rice - Villains, Luca Fogale - Hold Back The River, James Bay - Go Easy, Kid (with James Blake) (Official Video), Monica Martin - When Your Mind's Made Up (Once) live at Michelle Records, Glen Hansard - Last Request (Radio 2 In Concert), Paolo Nutini - Forever (Amazon Original), Lewis Capaldi - The Light (Her Hands Were Leaves), Alexi Murdoch - This Year's Love (Live Jools Holland 2007), David Gray - Gravity (GRAMMYs on CBS), John Mayer - Fading Colours, Mahesh - The Blower's Daughter, Official Video, Damien Rice - Bruises, Chris Kläfford - Love Don't Leave Me Waiting, Glen Hansard - Unfolding (Acoustic), Luca Fogale - Passionflower, Jon Gomm - Scars (Acoustic), James Bay - Legacy, Chris Kläfford - Candy (Official Video), Paolo Nutini29 main stream and independent song videos.Here's the playlist link again: Singer-Songwriter Playlist

Support The Independent Music Stage

Like, Comment and Share! Remember to follow the Independent Music Stage on YouTube Read the full article

[guitarman2016us]

Merry Christmas Playlist on YouTube

The Merry Christmas Playlist  is a great mixed Christmas playlist featuring mainstream artists, and Indy artists performing both original songs and cover songs. Just what you need to be warmed up for Christmas! Curated by the SSUK staff for the Independent Music Stage on YouTube, the music featured in the Merry Christmas playlist is fresh and varied.Merry Christmas playlist’s awesome artists and their songs:

A collection of mainstream and independent Christmas song videos. https://www.youtube.com/embed?listType=playlist&list=PLfwUZKFZkrBIEFJHw-dtzmcAlCEMSYkrU  Read the full article

[guitarman2016us]

Noise Gates and Expanders

Noise gates and expanders are for the most part, though not only, noise management devices. Undesired noise is the enemy of all stages of the recording process. Noise can be caused by the recording environment or it can be caused by, or in, the recording/processing circuitry or storage medium. This problem with noise is magnified when you are working with multi-track recordings. Noise on each track is added together, raising the overall noise floor. The volume of noise can go well passed audible and into the really annoying region.It is almost impossible to remove noise once it is part of an electrical signal. If you do remove it you will almost certainly affect the tone of the sound. It is a good idea to manage any signal noise before it gets recorded. It is also wise to reduce the amount of noise contributed to the mix by each track. During quiet sections, if there is no signal content between vocal phrases, then that track is only contributing unnecessary noise to the final mix.Here’s an interesting article covering the basic concept and controls Noise Gates and Expanders. Read the full article

[guitarman2016us]

It’s amazing how many bands and artists are still dependent on friends and family for fans even years down the line. The truth is that the sooner you get out there and find actual fans, the better. Well worth a read!

[guitarman2016us]

Awesome stuff, made to look so easy.

He was featured back in 2016 on Songstuff, and since then has grown in popularity. His second E.P. Is rumoured to be hitting the streets sometime in June. I can’t wait.

Meanwhile he has been the frontman in his ongoing background band project, “Blushing Satellite”.

[guitarman2016us]

[guitarman2016us]

US DOJ Screws Songwriters

It shouldn't be a surprise anymore. The situation for songwriters is becoming desperate. There is no way to make a living as a songwriter these days.

 Pandora, and other streaming services, have been happily screwing songwriters for ages. Take a look at Kevin Kadish's comments on his earnings from "It's all about the bass".

 http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2015/09/24/my-song-was-played-178-million-times-on-spotify-i-was-paid-5679/

 $5,679 total payment from Pandora for.... 178 MILLION plays. Does that seem remotely fair? A quick calculation tells me that is 0.00379 cents per play.

 Only streaming services and the advertisers who advertise there are making money from music. Disgraceful.

 Not happy with songwriters being shafted by streaming service providers, the US Department of Justice has decided to help:

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/brittanyhodak/2016/07/01/u-s-dept-of-justice-deals-crushing-blow-to-songwriters/#5d25bd9a1127

 Decided to help everyone but the songwriters that is.

[guitarman2016us]

Music is not what I do, it's who I am."

[guitarman2016us]

Dave Bradley

My latest find is Dave Bradley... a UK based musician, living in Cambridge.

  Dave Bradley has a day job as a science journalist but he's also a singer-songwriter / rockstar. Dave has played guitar for four decades and writes and performs acoustic and electric in a range of styles and has been likened to a range of artists, including Glenn Tilbrook, David Bowie and James Taylor but according to Songstuff, he really is just a Geordie chancer with a loud shirt and six string... lol

Dave Bradley on Bandcamp

Dave Bradley on Songstuff

I found Dave on and indie music site, songstuff.com. Loads of excellent artists, so I'll be going back there to find more original artists.