December 18, 2012 How the media affects musicians’ perceptions about the music business and everything you need to forget about the music industry in order to build a successful, lucrative career.
December 17, 2012 Over the last several months, I’ve been helping Ariel to prepare for the launch of her crowd funding campaign (which went live on Monday!). While we were doing our research, we came across article after article saying the same few things about crowd funding preparation that we already knew about:
December 15, 2012 
The Music Industry
Thinks Out Loud
MTT News & Announcements tagged MTT community December 12, 2012 I’ve briefly touched on the importance of Tumblr in other posts, but I’ve yet to dive into what exactly Tumblr can do for your band’s promotion efforts. This ultimate guide will hold your hand through the sign-up process and take you all the way through to a point where you can use Tumblr DAILY to promote your music and gain new fans. Before you know it, your micro-blogging platform will be a major part of your promotion efforts.
December 11, 2012 That time in the evolution of history that we’ve been dreaming about as artists and creative professionals, is. now.
For every sentiment echoed since the birth of civilization that a creative thinker or music maker have ever uttered that went like.. ONE day the MACHINE, the system, the big-guy, the boss, the “THEM” will pay!
For the rest of our foreseeable future a new music industry HAS finally emerged.
December 10, 2012 The world’s leading global communication and measurement company, Nielsen, just released their newest report, State of the Media: The Social Media Report 2012. While the continued growth of social media is no surprise, there are several new trends that musicians should be aware of.
First, there is the idea of “the global living room” or “social tv.” TV-watching has transformed into a new immediate and shared experience. Over 33% of Twitter users actively tweet about TV-related content, making it a shared experience on a larger scale. People especially love to engage real-time during broadcasted events. TV programs are responding by not only taking in the immediate feedback, but writers are adjusting scripts based on what trends, TV shows promote hashtags for viewers, and they sometimes broadcast live tweets (if appropriate for the program).
December 8, 2012
The Music Industry
Thinks Out Loud
MTT News & Announcements tagged MTT community December 6, 2012 “Can we get in Pitchfork?” I’ve been asked this question by many artists who are just starting out, and of course, there is always that chance. However, there seems to be a looming expectation attached to the question that has some troubling residue. One artist advised me that he would accept interview requests from publications like Pitchfork or Rolling Stone, but I would have to get his permission for “smaller publications”. Do you see the issue here?
December 5, 2012 A recent article by Last Stop Booking highlighted the fact that touring is now more important than ever. If you have the time, I highly suggest reading through the article to get a basic feeling for how you should be planning your tours as a band.
I’d like to add some tips/ideas to that post by going farther than just giving ballpark numbers and touring radiuses to go off of and instead dive into a profitable tour itinerary that just about any new indie band can use as a template.
December 4, 2012 Whether they ever choose to regain some of their former financial stature and growth, record companies, majors and indies alike, along with unsigned and unknown independent artists, too, must cultivate and create, as quickly as possible, a SINGLE new digital marketplace. Here competition will flourish and some semblance of reasonable choice and control over the discovery of new artists with original new music will be exercised by whatever is left of the music listening mainstream audience. In this brave new world, record companies will need to collaborate and combine forces with each other and with independent artists at large. They will need to move quickly to consolidate into one place a dynamic customer base made up of the depleting record companies’ sales bases along with the ever increasing independent artist fan bases. The passionate members of the music listening public will ultimately choose to gather in this one place and make quick decisions about new music and new artists.
Music Business Models tagged music business December 3, 2012 Recently, I received an email with two commonly asked questions about sponsorship that I’d like to address:
1) How much can you ask from a sponsor?
2) My project costs X dollars, should I mention that in my pitch?
December 1, 2012
The Music Industry
Thinks Out Loud
MTT News & Announcements tagged MTT community November 29, 2012 Hello again my Think Tank friends, and welcome to part two of my beginners guide to music marketing. If you haven’t already seen part one, I suggest you check it out before going any further (Link opens in a new window). Part one looks at what music marketing is and why it’s needed, the power of leveraging established platforms to get your music out there faster, and types of online and offline platforms you could use to market your music to targeted fans of your genre.
Marketing, Marketing Strategies tagged Marketing, music marketing November 28, 2012 Great news! According to Kickstarter, 54% of all music Kickstarter campaigns are successful. The bad news is that 46% FAIL. How can you avoid these terrible odds?
Over at the Launch and Release blog we’ve interviewed over 60 bands who’ve launched Kickstarter campaigns to help us collect and analyze data that we’ll be releasing in the coming months.
I’ve also launched multiple pre-order campaigns prior to Kickstarter opening it’s doors and I’ve launched multiple successful Kickstarter campaigns in the last two years for my two bands.
Kickstarter | 1 Reference