There is an old story about crabs that says if you have a single crab in a bucket you need to put a lid on the bucket, otherwise, the crab will crawl out. However, if you have more than one crab in a bucket you don’t need a lid on the bucket to keep them in. It seems that if one crab gains momentum and is starting to make his way out of the bucket, the other crabs in the bucket will pull him back down and not let any of them escape. So matter how hard any of the crabs try, all the other crabs in the bucket will keep even one of them from escaping.

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Funny thing about the crabs in the bucket story is how it often times applies to people as well. Usually, it is disguised as those close to you trying to ‘protect’ you. They say and do things that really aren’t in your best interest but are probably much more self-serving. In some cases, they truly don’t want to see you get hurt or to fail. But often times, there motive is much more selfish in that they don’t want to see you succeed and ‘leave them behind’.

What does this have to do with being a musician?

Well thank you for asking!

It means that you need to be aware. Be aware in the moment and of the situation when you are sharing with those close to you. Take note of the ‘advice’ you get from those close to you and see if there is a pattern that develops. If your best friend is constantly shooting down your ideas, dreams and goals, then perhaps you need to consider whether or not they are becoming a ‘crab in your bucket’. If they are, then you may want to scale back the advice you seek from this regarding this matter and seek counsel elsewhere.

Your closest friends and family should always have your best interest at heart, and this is what makes it tough. Because they are also the ones that are most likely to become ‘crabs in your bucket’ and keep you from even attempting anything new.

Note that this is not an invitation to throw caution to the wind. Rather it is a plea for you to be aware and to look for those people in your life that you can truly turn to with an important decision. Those that can provide guidance in the form of ‘protection’ if you really need it but who will otherwise encourage you to live life and attempt to chase your dreams.

Photo curtesy of strottrot

Unleash your creativity with Figure, available in the App Store for $0.99, by Propellerhead.

What better way to spend your time when you are on tour and enduring miles and miles of road than to explore some new sounds and see what you can come up with?

What steps are involved? Not many.

1. Choose your beat;
2. Set up the synth;
3. If your happy, you’re done.
   If not, adjust 1 and 2 until you are.

One of the current ‘complaints’ of Figure in the App Store is that you are unable to save any of your creations. But I am not sure those complaints are justified.

If you come up with something you want to save, I don’t know why you couldn’t run a line-out from your iPhone to your laptop or computer running Garageband and capture your creation there. Once in Garageband, the possibilities are probably endless.

Note: It is suggested that you have an iPhone 4 or 4s (or iPod 4th ten or higher) to run Figure as it may be very sluggish on an iPhone 3G.

Figure
Garageband

Everyme is a new comer to the social sharing space that seems to have some promise.

Available for FREE in the App Store, Everyme claims to allow you to share as you do in everyday life, “in intimate Circles.”

Everyme allows you to create your own “Circles” or will create “Magic Circles” for you, based upon your contacts.

What is nice about Everyme is that you don’t have to rely on all those you want to interact with to have Everyme installed. If someone doesn’t have Everyme, then they will get an email or SMS of the info you are choosing to share.

We see musicians possibly using Everyme to create Cirles or groups for:

• Band members
• Your management team
• Of course, your personal friends
• And how about your top fans!

Give it a try and let us know if you come up with another way to use it for your career.

Everyme

Snapguide is a fun app that you can pick up for FREE in the App Store that holds some promise for musicians.

Here’s how it works:

• Use your iPhone to capture photos and videos of the project you are describing
• Publish your guide for viewing on the web, iPads, iPhones and other smart phones
• Share your instructions with friends on the usual (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest & more)

You can let your imagination run wild as to the possibilities of using this app. Here are a few of our thoughts as to how a musician might use it:

• Detail your stage plot setup and share it with your ‘roadies’;
• Create a guide of how you like your merch table setup;
• Note your teardown and packing instructions to share with those willing to help out after a show;
• And with a little more imagination, you could probably create a sort of scavenger hunt for your fans that contained several different ‘guides’ as ‘clues’. A great publicity campaign, if you will.

Have fun with this app and let us know how you put it to use.

Snapguide

We’ve written about TinyLetter before (see previous post), just prior to their new version release. Well, the new version is out and it looks great.

Check out this short intro video that gives you some sense of the features it offers:

As we said before, TinyLetter is a great service to utilize if you are just starting out in building your email newsletter list. And for those of you who are already sending out an email newsletter to your fans, it may still be worth it to take a look and see if TinyLetter may work better for you.

TinyLetter
TinyLetter 2 (previously posted)

If you ever thought it would be convenient to get all the band members on a conference call at the same time? Then you should check out CrowdCall, a FREE app available in the App Store.

With CrowdCall, you can:

• Create a free, instant Group Call with up to 20 people anywhere in the world.
  (Calls are free to participants. Originator is charged local minutes by their carrier.)
• Call anyone on your contact list - they don’t need the app to participate.
• Participate Free - a local call to the originator, an incoming call to participants.
• No dial in numbers or pin codes to remember - fun, easy and free (See above).

Pick up a copy of it FREE in the App Store here.

So get all the band members on the line to make sure everything is ready for the upcoming gig. Or get your manager, booking agent, publicist, etc on a call to make sure everyone is on the same page regarding your upcoming CD release tour.

The possibilities are endless.

CrowdCall
App Store link