Where You Should be Touring/Performing

When it comes to touring, I find more musicians focused with the “How,” “When,” and “Where” aspects but not enough of the “Why.” Of course, touring can be an incredibly important step in most artists’ careers but you should definitely take some time out to create solid goals and a definitive strategy before you decide when/where you want to hit the road. Why do we pick the target areas for touring that we do? Is it because we want to travel there? Because they are big cities? Because that’s what everyone else is doing?

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Major Labels Still Invest in Music (Kinda)

In the graphic below you’ll see how major labels are currently advancing and promoting acts, primarily pop acts, in order to break them to the general public. It’s an interesting refresher in how much major labels are still able to put towards music, albeit music we may not care for. Their options are minimal and their expectations are high. With this still hefty investment, it makes you wonder how successful they could be pushing smaller, touring groups instead of putting all their eggs into one basket.

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MusicThinkTank.com Weekly Recap: Pandora: A Change in Priorities & More

Where

The Music Industry

Thinks Out Loud

• Mark Doyon: Pandora: A Change in Priorities
• Tom Dennehy: You Bought It, You Own It, You Should Be Able to Do What You Want With It.
• Ariel Hyatt: Cyber PR® Arsenal: Killer Apps, Tools & Sites – Tweepi
• Music Think Tank: Join the Music Think Tank Thanksgiving Networking Party!

Join the Music Think Tank Thanksgiving Networking Party!

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Feel free to comment and introduce yourself and network with others in the Music Think Tank community.

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Cyber PR® Arsenal: Killer Apps, Tools & Sites – Tweepi

Twitter offers one of the most widely used APIs (application platform interface)) in the world, allowing other businesses to create apps that will heighten the experience of using the Twitter platform. Among these apps are games, tracking apps, picture apps, and also apps that will better your chances at engaging a larger pool of people.

There is an app out in the ether right now called Tweepi. It has been around for a little less than a year and is still evolving, but it has found a place as the Twitter janitor and also the Twitter stat machine.

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You Bought It, You Own It, You Should Be Able to Do What You Want With It.

The US Supreme Court is hearing an appeal that could change your ownership rights to music.

If you purchase music as physical media or license-free downloads, you are protected by the so-called First Sale Doctrine of the US Copyright Act, which gives people the right to lend, resell, or give away the works that they’ve bought, even if those works contain copyrighted elements.

But the case of Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, currently being heard by the US Supreme Court, could undermine First Sale Doctrine, making ownership feel more like licensing. How could you be affected?

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Pandora: A Change in Priorities

So you’re an independent recording artist, casting about everywhere you can for airplay and exposure. Pandora, the internet-radio service with the taste-smart music library, has just accepted one of your original recordings for rotation. Great, right? Pandora provides access to your music on one of the most talked-about music platforms out there. It’s a step in the right direction, a win.

Except it isn’t anymore.

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MusicThinkTank.com Weekly Recap: 5 Things All Musicians Need BEFORE Starting a Digital PR Campaign & More

Where

The Music Industry

Thinks Out Loud

• Jon Ostrow: 5 Things All Musicians Need BEFORE Starting a Digital PR Campaign
• Francis Mcentegart: Artist Managers Management Contracts
• Jacob Rosati: Alternative Entrepreneurship
• Stephen Carmichael: Has The Quality Of Music Changed?

Has The Quality Of Music Changed?

In a digital world where we have music such as Gangnam Style and ‘Friday’ by Rebecca Black… It’s hard not to observe that the music landscape has drastically changed in the last few decades because of the internet. But, is trying to create the next ‘viral hit’ impacting on the quality of the music of today?

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Alternative Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship yields awesome results — when it works.

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Artist Managers Management Contracts

Music Managers & Management Contracts

THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR

For many artists and bands the first contract that they have to face is the management contract. The manager will have a lot of responsibility and possible control so it is vital to get the right person and the right agreement.

The manager may come from various backgrounds – he’s a friend of the band, works already in the music industry, is an entrepreneur from a different industry or just has heard about the band’s potential and swoops in.

A manager should have one of the following but ideally all:

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5 Things All Musicians Need BEFORE Starting a Digital PR Campaign

For independent musicians, a digital publicity campaign can be a critical component to the overall marketing strategy that will help to:

1. Reach new fans

2. Increase online influence

3. Create new content that can be used to continue to build strength of existing fan base through social media  

While all three of these are important goals for musicians to have, and there is no doubt that a PR campaign can help artists to achieve them, many musicians decide to jump into this too early. Without the proper assets, the likelihood that you will actually achieve these goals from a PR campaign are greatly decreased.

In order for a PR campaign to truly be successful, you must have the 5 following assets:

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MusicThinkTank.com Weekly Recap: 5 Things You Can Learn From Your Day Job & More

Where

The Music Industry

Thinks Out Loud

• Barry Gardner: How Musicians Can Save Money When Buying Instruments
• Ryan Buckner: Tom Hess Music Career Advice Interview And Review 
• Simon Tam: 5 Things You Can Learn From Your Day Job in Your Music Career

5 Things You Can Learn From Your Day Job in Your Music Career

Martin Atkins, touring artist and author of the book Tour:Smart, recently did an interview with CD Baby President Brian Felson where he basically said: keep your day job! 

I agree - it’s important to be strategic about your job so that instead of “quitting” your day job, you can replace it with another career: music. However, as long as you are there, it’s important to pick up as many skills as possible that will be useful to the working musician. Here’s a list of things that you should be learning from your day job:

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