A Music Conference in the Netherlands Wants to Change the Way We Think About Music

OK, so we’ve all heard about the impending end of the music industry brought about by piracy. We’ve also been privy to the industry’s reaction, which took the form of PIPA/SOPA and more recently, ACTA. It’s clear how these measures might benefit a few established labels, but how does this help amateur musicians trying to make a living off their music?

A young team of music enthusiasts decided to tackle these issues by organising an event centred on the future of music distribution, which will take place in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The conference is titled M3 Event and set to take place on Friday, the 1st of June, 2012.

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Introducing StudioVox

We’d like to introduce you to StudioVox – The professional social network for creative professionals – and invite all Music Think Tank raders to join our private beta. 

StudioVox (www.studiovox.com) is built from the ground up for creative professionals. It’s not just another profile site. It’s the only social community that encompasses creatives, agencies, industry and fans on a single platform. 

StudioVox offers unlimited music, image and file uploads, so you can express your creativity without restriction.

Here’s our intro video - turn up the volume, set it to full screen and enjoy! 

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Who really gives a shit?

I have never made the connection between ‘making a living from’ and ‘making music’. To me, making music is making art, art cannot be relied on, art is volatile. When it is not, it is mundane. And mundane shifts in vast quantities. But so does the other stuff, the volatile stuff.

I hate the music industry because it is an industry obsessed with youth (i am a youth and i still hate it), it is not possible to grow old gracefully.

The music industry is like this wining child. It’s an immature, baby of an industry.

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Stormy Weather: Does Cloud Computing have a license to kill the music industry?

Piracy was what the (now dormant) SOPA bill was all about, and was never far from anyone’s lips at MIDEM this year. But bored of the same tired arguments against piratebay, bittorent sites and the infamous Megaupload, the industry has turned its attention to those who actually do stay on the right side of the law

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"Are you engaged?" from BRASH! A Music Marketing Blog

Getting involved with your following

When I speak of being engaged, in a Marketing perspective it doesn’t mean to “Put a ring on it”. As we all know, you can be engaged with people by becoming involved whether its in a business aspect or a relationship.  As an artist, you should want to have engaging conversations with your fans, interested media outlets, and industry professionals.  This will help you to expand your brand and exposure in the industry.

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BRASH! Presents Artists With A Chance To Shine

New addition to Music Marketing Blog highlighting artists

(ATLANTA, GA), Jan 31, 2012 - BRASH! – A Music Marketing Blog, developed by Paina B Music Marketing, has now added a new element highlighting artists. The “Artist Spotlight” will give established as well as up and coming talent an opportunity to gain exposure to expand their brand. Each month, BRASH! will post, highlight, and give positive reviews for 1-2 artists. The goal of this new element is to provide a platform for quality artists.

Since this new addition to BRASH! was announced earlier this month, artists have been flooding Paina B Music Marketing’s email and social media sites to find out how they can have a chance to be on the site’s artist spotlight section. “The purpose of Paina B Music Marketing is to get quality artist to the forefront. Instead of making other media outlets take notice and provide features, why not take that step as well and give an additional outlet for exposure.”, says Paina B Music Marketing CEO/Founder, E. Alexcina Brown.

To sign up to be considered to be featured on BRASH! – A Music Marketing Blog “Artist Spotlight”, send music links, bio, YouTube link to PBMusicMarketing@gmail.com.

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Guerrilla Promotion; Building Better MI Relationships

Contacting music industry professionals can be easy if you have the right approach. Unfortunately, many independent artists do not use the right approach and have limited success. The Guerrilla Promotion tips in this post are designed to help musicians that find it difficult to get in touch with or to work with music industry professionals. If you find yourself leaving a lot of message that don’t get returned, or cant get people on the phone, this article may help.

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Competition: Win A Year's Subscription To The IMA Music Business Academy ($181 Value)

Hi guys. I’ve been a long term reader and contributor of Music Think Tank, and thought it’s about time I gave something more back to the community.

As some of you may know, I recently released my course ‘The IMA Music Business Academy’. It’s a course that aims to teach the independent musician the business side of the industry, giving them all the knowledge and practical skills they need to fast track their music career.

The course has received a lot of good feedback so far, and with the door now back open, I want give you the chance to get involved free of charge.

I’m giving away three prizes of a year’s long access to the IMA Music Business Academy (Each prize valued at $181). If you want to win this great prize, all you have to do is:

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Rockin' in the New World: Taking Your Band from the Basement to the Big Time"

Ok, there’s a bit of hype here since this is the title of my new book, but it really is a special book and addresses issues bands face in today’s changing industry. Those of you who know me, understand it’s not a vanity piece about me, instead, just like I did with TCG, it is a platform for helping artists, fostering the arts.

The letters I’m getting from kids in bands testify that it has hit it’s mark head on! 

We never had any resource written by people who, other than being lawyers or academics, actually were veterans of the industry. Martin Atkins’ Tour-Smart is the ultimate guerilla touring guide for today, Jim and Jean Youngs’ book from the 70s had interviews with an assortment of people in the industry including me as cocky a 24 year old manager. RNW includes today’s bands, the websites, the labels, DIY, Indies staff, and pages of resources. 

Check it out, it’s already in public libraries and receiving accolades. We need to support and nurture young artists as they are the future of our industry

Music Isn't Dead........

She’s not dead, but she isn’t well. I don’t want to be like any one of the other Nine Million Music blog posters out there and write about a day gone by like it was perfect, or even that great for music herself. Long ago, music lived in the air, for free, no matter where, no matter what. The only way you could hear instruments being played, is by proximity to a performer, or do it yourself. This is not the time so many seem to sing the praises of. They sing praises of a funnel system, that advocated control of music, and mechanical rights licensing and other dirty words.. They sing of the 50s or 60’s or 70’s or God forbid the 80’s as the hey day for music. I strongly disagree…

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Comparing Song Pitching Services

I wanted to know which song pitching services worked best for musicians and have created a simple to understand comparison chart. This Blog post looks at my experience with early pitching companies and my thoughts for the future.

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Sharing, Streaming and P2P -- The Death of Our Internet's 'Hippie' Era

It was too good to be true. You always knew it. Millions of songs, movies, books, etc., all up for grabs, all of the time. We used to think, ‘Oh they won’t catch me— they may catch the sophomore college fool who seeds hundreds of torrents, but not me.’ Now they won’t have to.

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Top 5 Things to Avoid as a Beginning Band

So you and your friends have gotten together and formed a band.  It seems like the perfect idea.  You write good music, are really good friends, and want to work really hard to make it as a band because who wants to work in a dead end corporate job when you could be living off your dream.  I get it because I’m right there with you.  BUT, if you are serious about this, you need to start somewhere and I write this with the hope of having you start out better than where I was (which was square zero).  So here is a top 5 list (in no particular order) of things to avoid so you won’t have to make the same mistakes that I did

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Industry Benchmarks: Why the Music Industry Finishes Last

1. We are spoiled. Our fans are so passionate about music that we are used to them coming to us and spreading the word. It is simply not good enough to just flier for your shows or treat every fan in the same way.

2. Whose job is it? In most industries, there is a CMO or a Marketing Operations Manager. In the music industry, there are still unclear roles about who should do interactive marketing. Is it the band, the manager, the promoter, the label?

3. Who owns the fan? Who owns the lists? Is is the band, the label, the promoter ?

4. Bright Shiny Objects. We are always trying to be one step ahead of the curve. We have to have a facebook, a twitter, 4square, a great music video, awesome tour dates. ooo and whats that?! We are distracted! We have a ton on our plate and really need to focus on a cohesive multi-channel marketing strategy.

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