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Inspirations For Songwriters (I F S)
IFS aims to INSPIRE YOU into ACTION
over 2,600 songwriters, music publishers, artists, and music fans
receive IFS
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DIFS/
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Please forward IFS to your songwriting friends

If you want RECEIVE IFS or
CHANGE your email address with IFS
SEND an EMPTY email to

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Be sure you let IFS slide past your SPAM FILTERS.

IFS hopes to help you E N L A R G E your
songwriting ability and results.

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DID YOU KNOW THAT All IFS messages are archived on
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DIFS/messages

Once you're in the IFS archive, if you're looking for something in
particular, you can do a key word search

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IFS READERS who are Singer Songwriters
I would be thrilled and honored if you'd consider covering or cutting
one or some of my tunes.
You can hear much of my catalog at
http://songramp.com/ande
Drop by and have a listen,
if you're interested
Please send an email to
AndeRasmussen@...

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Today I ordered 2 3 day passes to the ACL Fest
prices are fixen to go up

www.aclfest.com

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Last Week I received my Texas Chapter
"The Recording Academy" Voting member card
For several years I've been hoping to become a voting member.
To become a voting member you have to have six credits nationally distributed
CDs

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It's sad that Ray Charles passed away,
In 1984 I saw Ray perform at a Austin City Limits taping session
Do you have a Ray Charles story?
Send it in. He inspired many people

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Drop by here to check out
the latest announcement from
Austin Songwriters Groups
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/ASGInfo/message/119

there's a new ASG scholarship
Miranda Lamber is looking for new band members


SINGERs SEARCHING FOR SONGS

Great female singer in need of great songs for
upcoming self-release CD and performances.
Rock / blues / country
You can Hear me at
www.InstantReplay-band.com
scoopey4617@...
phone 512-282-5697

From: EdwardsIIIFamily@...

I am a singer looking for some original music to record in a studio.  I have
a big show in July in front of 75000 people and I would like to have a
professional CD made with a few cover songs and a couple of original songs to
sell. 
I also send them out to radio stations as demos and also for competitions.  I
am not sure exactly where to go or how to find original music so I looked
online and this email address is what I came up with to begin with.  If you can
send me some information on what it is you do I would greatly appreciate it. 
Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Heather Edwards

here's her rewrite after she read the article I wrote about how to write an
SSS blurb

Ande,

I am a 27 year old mother of 3 beautiful children ages 2, 3, and 6.  I have
been happily married for 7 years now.  I sing preferrably country music.  I
have a twang I just can't seem to get rid of and not that I would really want
to.  I live in Smithfield, VA.  I can email you a clip of some cover songs I
recorded in the studio and I can also send you a pic if that would help you
figure
something to pitch to me or if you just want to put a face with the name.  I
have won many talent shows in my area and I sing in weddings and festivals
also in the area.  I am trying to get my name out there and seem to be doing
pretty well.   In all honesty my family comes first right now, but I am doing
all
I can do to make things happen and keep them happy, but they are being very
supportive.  As I said,  I have a big event in Tennessee on the 3rd of July and
I would like to get in the studio and soon as possible and put some original
stuff on a cd to sell while I am there.  You could email things to me or snail
mail things to me or even fax if you would like.  I will put all my
information at the bottom of this email.  People are always asking my if I have
a CD.  I
will listen to some of your songs and see if anything jumps out at me! 
Thanks for all your help and information. 

Sincerely,

Heather Edwards
14220 Carroll Bridge Rd.
Smithfield, VA  23430

EdwardsIIIFamily@...

FX:  757-357-7111

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IFS READERS,
I believe that every creative person on this planet
should own their own URL. 

The other day I registered
www.AndeRasmussen.com
(I already own www.AndersRasmussen.com)

It was simple,
I went to www.godaddy.com
Signed in,
And got it,
godaddy's prices are the lowest I've seen,
I'm also in the process of transferring
www.andersrasmussen.com from networksolutions to godaddy.

If you don't own your own URL, I suggest you do
Drop by godaddy.com, sign in and register your name.
Do it now, what are you waiting for?
Let me know when you do.

Next
once you've got your own WEB ADDRESS
Do something interesting with it
Put UP your website
As you design your website ask yourself this question

What do I want my website's visitors to do once they arrive?


You might want them to:

Find out about you:
you could offer your Bio, your News, or even a Blog 

Discover your music:
Put music on your site,
put your Lyrics,
Put Links to your other music sites on the web

Look at your pictures:
Gallery

Watch a video

Join your email list:

Buy a song

Buy a CD

What else do you want your website visitors to do?
Decide what you want then design your website to converse and guide visitors

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Procrastination is a killer

There are so many action ideas I've thought of but haven't taken.

There are particular people I need to send particular songs or CDs. 

There are songs I've started that need to be completed.

There are songs that need to be demoed.

There are songs that need to be pitched to particular artists,
producers, music supervisors, and publishers.

There are amazing song ideas waiting to be found.

There are amazing potential cowriters who I need to proposition for
cowriting.

There are amazing existing cowriters I need to start new songs with.

There are priorities that need to be set and deadlines that need to
be met.

The easiest and worst thing to do is to keep on PROCRASTINATING.
DOING SOMETHING IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN DOING NOTHING.

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An email from Louis Meyers manager of the Austin Music Network:

Dear friends,

There will be a special session of the Austin Music Commission this Monday
evening in order for the Commission to make its final recommendation to the
Austin City Council on the future of the Austin Music Network.

We encourage all of you to utilize this opportunity to be heard by your
peers.  If you feel that the Austin Music Network has had an impact on you
or your business, please sign up to speak up now, before it is too late.

The City Council will meet to possibly decide the fate of the Network on
Thursday, June 24.

If you are unable to attend and want to show you support for AMN, please
send an email to the Mayor, Council and Music Commission to let them know
how you feel.  You can also send a letter to us at AMN and we will deliver
it to these fine people for you.

If you are a video producer, local artist, local label, local venue, local
filmmaker, local television maker, then we urge you to attend this meeting.

The meeting is Monday, June 14
at City Hall (Municipal Building)
124 West Eighth St. (just west of Congress)
beginning at 6 p.m. in Room 304.

Thank you for your attention and continued support.  Help keep Austin
Austin!

Louis Jay Meyers
General Manager, Austin Music Network
4209 Airport Blvd.
Austin, TX  78722
louis@...

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here's SongwriterUniverse.com's June 2004 Newsletter
Here are the latest updates regarding this site:

The Winners of the June "Best Song Of The Month" Contest are announced:

Sarah Callaghan of Los Angeles, CA has won the June "Best Song Of The Month"
Contest, with her song "Wake Up." You can now read her story online, and hear
the winning song. Her contact info is also posted, including his e-mail
address & website. In addition, four other, excellent songs have been named the
Top
Five songs of the month. Here are the other winning songs, and the songwriter
credits:

"Going Home." Written by Dmitriy Rybnikov & Bert Carroll, Moscow, Russia.
"Ever Wonder." By Eugenia, Phoenix, AZ.
"Light My Way."  By Dmitriy Rybnikov & Gina C. Simon, Moscow, Russia.
"Father's Day." By Leslie Alexander & John Ellis, Vancouver, Canada.

You can also listen to these four songs online, and visit their websites
and/or e-mail them.

Entries are now being accepted for the next, "Best Song Of The Month"
Contest:

The deadline for the next, monthly contest is June 30. The four, free prizes
for the contest winner are:
(1) a copy of the "A&R Registry" directory book;
(2) a copy of the "Indie Bible" resource book for independent artists;
(3) the instructional video, "Guitar Playing For Songwriters," by top
Nashville session guitarist Gary Talley (who was a founding member of the group,
the
Boxtops), plus a one-hour guitar lesson with Talley (either in-person in
Nashville, or via telephone); and
(4) a free service with musicSUBMIT.com, which is a website & press release
submission service.

New article in SongwriterUniverse Magazine:.

"Richard Marx Records New Album, Wins Best Song Grammy Award for 'Dance With
My Father.'" Richard Marx talks about his first major label, album release in
seven years, My Own Best Enemy. He also tells how he co-wrote "Dance With My
Father" with Luther Vandross, and discusses his songs with *NSYNC, Josh Groban
and many other artists.

"Singer/Songwriter Keri Noble Releases Her Debut Album, Fearless, on
Manhattan/EMI Records." Writer/artist Keri Noble is buildling a solid following
with
her debut album, which was executive-produced by legendary producer Arif Mardin
(Norah Jones, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan).

Post your website & contact info in our two, upcoming directories: 
"Songwriter & Artist Directory" (for the SongwriterUniverse site),
"Singer & Artist Directory" (for the SingerUniverse site);

We will be launching two great new Directories, where songwriters, artists
and singers can list their email and website links. You are all welcome to post
your website & contact info online. Please list which Directory you want to be
listed in, and what genre of music you are creating. Also, please list your
name (and/or or your band), and what city, state and country you live in. You
can submit your info & links by simply replying to this email address.

Another new directory coming: the "Producers & Studios Directory";

Professional producers (including demo producers) and studio owners can post
their website and contact info in this excellent, new directory. This
directory will be posted on both the SongwriterUniverse and SingerUniverse
sites. We
do reserve the right not to list producers who, in our judgment, are not
producing professional, high quality recordings.

Message from Dale Kawashima (Head of SongwriterUniverse):

I hope you're all doing well. Things remain busy on my end, with
SongwriterUniverse, the upcoming SingerUniverse website (it's almost ready for
launch),
and running my independent publishing company. I hope you enjoy reading the new
article on Richard Marx. I believe it's one of the best articles to appear on
the SongwriterUniverse site. As for music industry news, CD sales overall are
still up 7.5% from 2003 sales, although sales the past few weeks has been a
bit sluggish. Legal download music sales may be getting a big boost soon,
because the Beatles are finally in discussions to allow their music to be
licensed
online.

Thank you very much for your interest in SongwriterUniverse. Here is the link
back to the site:

http://www.songwriteruniverse.com/

All the best,
Dale Kawashima
SongwriterUniverse
Los Angeles

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Write on!

Ande Rasmussen
Editor and Publisher of I F S, Inspirations For Songwriters

Contact info is:

Ande Rasmussen
835 Martindale Falls
Martindale, TX 78655
AndeRasmussen@...

You can read my Bio at:
http://www.andersrasmussen.com/


You can hear a few of my tunes at:
http://songramp.com/ande
http://www.soundclick.com/anders

If you want receive IFS or change your email address with IFS
send an email to difs-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

FORWARD IFS to your songwriting friends!

IFS home page is
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DIFS


I F S stands for Inspirations for Songwriters, I F S is an ezine for
songwriters filled with inspirational and practical information about
the art, craft, and business of songwriting. We want to help YOU
become a more successful songwriter.

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
The entire text of
"Inspirations for Songwriters"
© 2004 Anders Rasmussen

Does anyone EVER read IFS to the very end?


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