Song Storage

If you haven't already, do start recopying everything into another form as soon as possible. It sucks when you can't find a reel-to-reel recorder, but that is what you used to record all your old masters. Make sure you back everything up on CD frequently, even if you don't make a hard copy and put these in a safe place--floods, fires and accidents happen, and it's reassuring to know your hard drive on your computer may have died, but you still have printouts, a CD, or a remote file on the Web somewhere. The water from the firehose in the apartment fire may have destroyed both your hard copy and your computer, but you grabbed your backup disc on the way out, and you can dig your hard drive out of the foam-clogged computer and perhaps even plug it into a new tower. Grabbing a couple of CDs or a file in an evacuation order is a lot faster, too, as is quickly sending your files to a friend on the Internet so you have room for important things like water and food. Instruments, papers and computers can be replaced--you can't. Some musicians even keep backup copies with fellow bandmates, a local studio or other place for a small fee, or even at a remote secure website so if the worst happens, they still have their precious work.

So don't let disorganization hurt your music career. Designate that top file drawer, that nice acid-free notebook and your new stack of blank CDs for your music and set a few minutes aside each day to just do a little secretarial work. You only have so many pieces of paper and/or computer files, and it's amazing how much you can get done in a year if you just take the time it takes to down your morning cup to copy one song, or file one or two pages where you can find them later. Before you know it, you'll be caught up. Your next press kit will actually show that nice column inch of copy, you will know where the copyright form is for that third song you wrote fifteen years ago, and you have lead sheets to copy off for your next contest entry already created and ready to ship off. No more spending hours pulling your hair out wondering what box it went into in your last move.

This way you can

Go To Page: 1 2 3