Madalyn's Blog

Hey everyone,

In case you are wondering why there have been no blog posts since Friday it's because I live in a suburb of Houston, TX and have been severely affected by Hurricane Ike. I cannot tell you what a nightmare it was. The good news is my family and I are okay. We have been without power for 111 hours now. It's unbelievable. Most of Houston and surrounding areas have no electricity. I have not seen the news since Friday evening when it hit us. I don't know what they are reporting but our fair city (the 4th largest in the country!) has been devastated.

Lucky for me I leave in the morning for St. Louis to attend PLAY:stl. It will be nice having luxuries like air conditioning and cold beverages again. ;-)

You can follow me at Twitter by going to http://twitter.com/gogirlsmusic. You can read my account of Hurricane Ike plus I'll be reporting in "real time" at PLAY:stl. It's a really cool music conference.

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar

Labels: Hurricane Ike, music conference, PLAY:stl, St. Louis

by Madalyn Sklar


Imagine business meetings, panels and schmoozing by day and live music, more schmoozing and lots of Bud Light by night!

It was my 5th year to attend and participate in Dfest. It has become Oklahoma's largest music festival and conference, based in Tulsa. Not only do they spotlight some great national acts (The All-American Rejects, Paramore, The Roots and more) but they do an awesome job showcasing emerging artists as well. I was able to easily make my way among the crowd to the Blue Dome District where the venues are located at as well as two huge outdoor stages. Although it was hot, the music was way cool and I especially liked being a VIP so I could cool off in the Bud Light Lounge, drink some beer and enjoy the a/c.

I really enjoyed a rockin' set from local boy band The Effects on Saturday night. I remember them being the big buzz my first year in '04. They were popular then and still a Tulsa favorite. They graduated from smaller venues to the big outdoor stage this year. I was happy for them. They are a killer rock band made up of super nice young men.

I also enjoyed Zappa Plays Zappa and The Roots that night. The crowd is amazing. People are out in droves to be a part of this large festival. The Dfest staff are spot on in this area.

I will admit I missed the big Friday night line-up with Paramore and The All-American Rejects. Some of my friends wanted to go to a casino and it sounded like too much fun so I tagged along. I put in $20 in a slot machine and lost it faster than you can say HOLY CRAP! On the other hand, Tracie my trusty assistant put in $20 and walked away with $240. Huh? I should have made her buy me breakfast the next morning.

The daytime music conference was really enjoyable. GoGirls had a nice presence there with our booth. I talked to a ton of people about our great GoGirls community as well as the work we are doing at Social Networks for Musicians and at IndieMusicCoach. I moderated the Performing Rights Organization (PRO) panel on Friday which rocked. We had reps from ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. It was extremely informative. Then on Saturday I participated in the Blog Buzz panel talking about social networks. I gave out a ton of useful information and even took a picture from my iPhone from the stage and sent it right off to Twitter to show off the power of new technologies.



To recap, the 7th annual Dfest was rockin'. Every year I think, how can they top this? They always do. I'm looking forward to next year!

Copyright © 2008 Madalyn Sklar, IndieMusicCoach

Madalyn Sklar is a music business coach & consultant, blogger, social networks expert and author. She founded IndieMusicCoach and has spent over 12 years working with a wide range of independent musicians all over the world. Her goal is to help indie artists achieve greater success in the music business by working smarter not harder. She is also the founder of GoGirlsMusic.com, the oldest and largest online community of indie women musicians, with a vision of bringing together and empowering musicians from around the world.

Madalyn is available for one-on-one consulting and coaching at affordable prices. Check out http://www.indiemusiccoach.com/ for more info.

Labels: dfest, music conference

I'm off to my annual trek to Tulsa, OK for Dfest which has become one of my favorite music conferences. It's a jam packed event with a great tradeshow, panels & workshops and a hell of a nighttime festival. This year they are bringing in the All American Rejects, Paramore, moe and a ton of emerging indie bands. I'm looking forward to moderating the PROs panel and participating in the Blog Marketing panel.

You can follow my every move via Twitter.

Rock on,
Madalyn

Labels: dfest, music conference, twitter

Dewey Beach is one of my most favorite music conferences. It's the only one that gives away FREE badges to ALL the bands. That is awesome. Vikki Walls has created such a great environment that includes VIP parties for everyone, including the bands. As an industry person, I'm the one who typically gets the royal treatment at these things but I have to say it's nice to see the musicians get the same respect as well as free food and beer!

Dewey Beach is a very small coastal beach town in Delaware that attracts a great local crowd who loves live music. Vikki offers up a fun atmosphere during the day at the trade show that included vodka snocones and a real red carpet for picture taking. I got mine taken with MTV's Matt Pinfield. There were panels and workshops plus our fun speed networking event I do with my friends at Human Factor.

But hey nighttime is an entirely different story. That is where the party and real fun begins. We had two great GoGirls showcases. Friday night we took over McShea's, a super cool Irish pub. Our performers were great. The sounds guys were awesome and fun to work with. How often does that happen?! Saturday night our theme was "What happens in Dewey stays in Dewey!" We had an incredibly wild time at Gary's. The music was great. Many of the performers came early and stayed late. The audience enjoyed the line up. People kept buying me vodka drinks all night. It was one memorable night.

So here's the bottom line about Dewey. No pretentious musicians or industry people in attendance. It's one of the few events that I truly enjoy going to so I can relax at the beach, put on a few awesome shows and meet great people.

See you there next year!

Rock on,
Madalyn Sklar
IndieMusicCoach.com
~providing one-on-one indie music consulting & coaching~
http://www.indiemusiccoach.com/

Labels: dewey beach, indie, music, music conference