How To Find People That Will Listen To Your Music

Do you ever get this strange feeling that someone is watching you? Maybe I’m crazy (don’t answer that), but I do. I hope they don’t watch me too closely because that’ll get weird very fast. I’ll have to scare them away by walking out to the van in suspenders and a buckwheat hat “HEY YALL HOW YALL DOIN” *van screeches away* The other day I was thinking about getting some hot wings. And sure enough, Facebook gave me coupons to Wingstop. HOW DID YOU EVEN KNOW ME SO WELL FACEBOOK THAT’S A…

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Stage Right: Themes And Life Lessons Learned From The Stage

The stage has been home to countless works of art, passion, philosophy, beauty, religion and creativity. Although the plot and characters change with each production, one thing is consistent and has been since the early days of Greek tragedies: The stage offers poignant life lessons to musicians, actors, performers and audience members. Here are three thematic stage productions that offer modern life lessons to us all.

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A Plea To The Industry: Don't Let Your Hunger For Success In The Music Biz Override Being A Good Person

There’s no litmus test or bar or SAT you must pass to hold an influential job in the music industry that affects the lives of many others. The industry doesn’t require years of schooling or the ‘daunting’ requirements of being psychologically sound and thinking carefully about your decisions. I would even argue that this industry attracts those of us who are slightly delusional, self-centered, under or over medicated, and rebellious. In fact, those exact things could allow you to excel in this industry. That is what makes it a pretty futile environment to work and live in – because being a skeezy asshole could in some cases get you further ahead than being kind and generous.

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Innovation, Our New Job As The Music Industry

I released my first music video, “Rocket to the Moon” today. As a new artist with a low starting fanbase I understood I wouldn’t be able to get much press write up for my music video unless I presented something never seen before. So that’s what I did, I created “The World’s First Portrait Music Video”, and the press followed. It is our new job as the Music Industry to lead innovation.

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Smashing the Music Industry

Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins frontman, believes that the music business model is outdated and takes advantage of artists. Corgan said, “The music business is mostly run by feckless idiots who do not subscribe to the normal tenets of capitalism which when they do, the business tends to work out well and stars tend to rise to the top, everybody benefits, but it is still a parochial business. It is run by thiefdoms way behind the times technologically.”

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Here We Go Again? The Music Business Turns Away From “Freemium”

Will the music business turn away from Freemium? If you’ve enjoyed free, ad-supported services like Spotify, that enjoyment is in danger. Click to read why.

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Warner Music Group Collaboration with Shazam Creates Hybrid Record Label

By Zach Rickers

In February of 2014, Warner Music Group and Shazam announced that they would enter into a “strategic collaboration” in which Warner would have access to Shazam’s user data and Shazam would have access to exclusive Warner content.¹  Currently, when a user hears a song that they like, whether it is at a restaurant or on the radio, they can open up the Shazam application on their smartphone and hold the phones microphone to the speaker which will then analyze and identify the song title and artist that the user is listening to.²  Once a song is identified, the app logs data such as the time of day the song was “tagged”, the song being identified, and even where the song was tagged (if the user has location services enabled).³  This is the sort of data that Warner plans to use not only for A&R, but also for marketing and promotion purposes.

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MINI: Music Business: It's a Dirty Game!

MINI: Music Business: It’s a Dirty Game! FULL COLOR eBOOK & INSERTS! Preview Chapters 1-6 for only $2.99 This MINI version is AVAILABLE NOW at the low cost of $2.99 Direct from www.sevenwestpublishing.com for a limited time! See full color inserts showing firsthand some of the tactics used to deceive the masses and to hide the truth behind decades of abuse. FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF WHY AND HOW IT ALL BEGAN!

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Before You Sign...

What You Should Know Before You Sign the Deal can be found in this book…

Unlike any other book about the music business, “Music Business: It’s a Dirty Game!”,

this book is not a ‘puff piece’ about the glitz and glamour about the music business.

This book takes you on a journey from the excitement of having a music publishing contract with a major music publishing company to the legal battles that followed.

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How to Work With Music Industry Contacts

It’s no secret that often in the world music, it’s more about “who you know” than what you know. The industry generally favors pre-existing relationships, whether you are looking for a venue, a sponsor, a review on your new album, or a slot at SXSW. Like it or not, networking can make or break an act.

Focus on taking a few steps closer to your goal by working on your contacts a few minutes each day. Here are some of my favorite tips on networking:

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(I) Submitting materials: artist one-sheets and college radio promotion.

This is part 1 of an article written from the perspective of a program director/MD focusing on the creation and submission of materials for college radio – as a radio promotion company, and independently – though many of these points can be extrapolated and applied to areas both inside and outside of the music industry.

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Fan Interaction: Why successful EDM Artists and Jam Bands are ahead of the game.

The biggest thing in common between these types of acts, aside from the volume of drugs consumed, is the level of mastery in connecting fans with fans. Let’s take a quick look at three different types of fan interaction:

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5 Ways For The Working Musician to Make Money Online

Musicians like artists, graphic designers, film makers, or ony other type of freelancer as we all well know through YouTube and personal websites, work tirelessly on their online presence. This is now the forum where new artists get noticed, and frelance musicians and composers not only get work but also showcase talents and portfolios. For the archetype of the working musician as a jack of all trades, we all well know that gathering income from many sources is paramount to one’s financial and personal success. With all the work that one puts in to building up an online presence for the hope to get more gigs, more students, more downloads sold or whatever that may be, there is also secondary income sources that one can take advantage of from building traffic and a following, much like the savvy internet maketers strive for in their own commercial pursuits. Here are some approches in and out of the box.

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The Age of Production

ProTools is the new guitar.

We’re in the age of production. –
Almost everyone’s participating!

Live concerts, the recording process, the number of “production” educational programs, electronic music, and much more.

Computers are shaping the future, innovation, culture, art, and more much in the same way rock and roll once did. If you’re a part of the youth, you want…

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