cool site: e-chords

If you play guitar, you may very well be familiar with this site – E-Chords. If not, you may not have a reason to…. since the site mainly deals with guitar chord charts. But, just in case you do play guitar and don’t know the site, it is definitely worth checking out. 12,000 charts with over 200,000 tabs including chords, tabs, bass, and drums. Most those are available for free – for $24.45/year you can become a member, get rid of annoying ads, and – much more importantly, transpose any song to any key you want. I love this site. It’s not always correct – the site is very-Web 2.0 in that it relies on chart submissions by lots of individuals – but at the very least it usually gives me a really good start on a great chart for a great song.

cool book: making music make money

Making Music Make Money is the best book on music publishing I have read. And I have read quite a few. Music publishing can seem complicated – especially with new technologies emerging seemingly weekly – and Eric Beall does a fantastic job explaining and categorizing. This is a book everyone who has ever written music should read.

cool blog: ariel publicity

I signed up for Ariel Hyatt’s newsletter several months ago. And today I discovered she has a blog as well. Ariel’s specialty is music publicity, and both her blog and her site are packed with resources for independent musicians. You should check it out, and I can pretty much guarantee you’ll be back for more.

cool blog: 101 public relations

I just came across this author, Don Crowther, and his blog yesterday – and while a there’s a lot of sales promotion on his site, there are also some very helpful tips.

cool blog: ari hest

Another cool site, and concept. Ari Hest is a songwriter/musician who will release one new, original song per week for all 52 weeks of the year 2008. He just started this past week. You can subscribe to all 52 songs for $20, and if you pay more you get all kinds of extras. Of course Ari is going to be blogging about his efforts as well, and I liked the first song “One Two” as well as the concept enough that I am subscribing.

cool site: zen habits

On the one hand, I love the new year. On the other, I make so many lists that I can get overwhelmed. That’s why I love this site, Zen Habits. The writer is a father of six kids who lives in Guam. Zen Habits is a site devoted to achieving goals, productivity, being organized, GTD, motivation, eliminating debt, saving, getting a flat stomach, eating healthy, simplifying, living frugal, parenting, happiness, and successfully implementing good habits. A whole mouthful, but it’s a great site, and it covers pretty much one topic at a time. It makes me happy when I get the latest post via RSS feed.

cool blog: Madalyn’s Music Biz Blog

Madalyn Sklar is the founder of GoGirlsMusic.com, the oldest online community for independent women musicians, and she also hosts a very cool music business blog that is both informative and inspiring – which is a great combination.