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June 23, 2009 The best way to keep track of what you have and haven’t done is to keep everything in one place and keep updating it.
It certainly doesn’t need to be complicated.
Start building your own band Contacts database or spreadsheet.
Put everything into one simple spreadsheet and give the pages the following titles.
June 21, 2009 An ingenious idea to combine music with fashion came to a head this week, when Actor/Rapper, Mos Def announced plans to release his upcoming album via a unique download code on the hang tag of a T-shirt. How much would you pay for this?
June 4, 2009 With all the doom and gloom present in our news today, I try to stay positive and buck the trends here on my blog. It's not so much that I'm oblivious to what is going on around me. I'd just rather find whatever silver lining is left. Author, Frank Tyger says that "Opportunity's favorite disguise is trouble". I feel that to be true in the business of music as well. Yes, the record labels are folding under the onslaught of free downloads, but that doesn't mean, you as the artist should stop making music. Here are 4 reasons to continue being creative, no matter the economic climate.
May 29, 2009 
**Readers!!! Today's post is interactive. I'm going to teach you how to manage multiple social media profiles for labels and artists. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to follow my links and instructions.... I promise there's a pay-off!
I can tell you for a fact that one can and should effectively have and manage as many social media sites as possible. A lot of industry peeps and bands have complained that there's too many social media sites and not enough time to effectively manage them all. A main staple of my New Media Plan is effectively managing social media in a span of 5 minutes. Yes... 5 minutes.
For this exercise, you'll need profiles on Ping.fm, Twitter, Myspace, and Facebook. Follow the links above if you aren't on the aforementioned sites.
First let's discuss Ping.fm. Ping is a brilliant and revolutionary site! Everyone in new media and otherwise should be a member. Ping.fm gives users the ability to manage 30 or so social media sites from one place (or in my case via text message). With the click of a button labels and artists can post news and links all across the internet. 
Most importantly, one post can simultaneously update your website (provided you were smart enough to embed an RSS feed), your Myspace blog, Facebook status/news, and your Twitter updates.
Now that you've gotten all your profiles in order. Go to Ping.fm and log in. You should find yourself in the "Dashboard section. Go to the middle of the page and click on "Add More Networks."
We'll start with Twitter. Find the Twitter icon, and click "Add Network." You'll be prompted to enter your username and password from Twitter. Enter the login information, and select the appropriate boxes under the "Use For" section on the right. (Check whichever box or boxes you feel are appropriate.)
Repeat the process for Myspace, Facebook, and any other sites you happen to have profiles on.)
Now... you have 3 different social media profiles set up on Ping.fm. Great! I'm going to explain how to make it all work.
Option 1 - Using the Ping.fm site to update your profiles.
Go back to your Dashboard. You'll notice a giant white box. Click the drop down menu and select "Status Updates." Type a short messge and a link to a website (preferrably yours if you're an artist). Viola! You've just updated your status on Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter.
It's also possible to update your blog using the "Blogs" option, your Myspace blog using the "Micro-Blogging" option, etc. The sky is the limit. Just be sure not to use the same update for "Statuses" and "Micro-Blogging."
Option 2 - Updating via text message, e-mail, iPhone or Blackberry.
Updating by E-mail Quite the useful function if you're a publicist with a Blackberry or iPhone. You can write a blog article in full HTML and update your sites by sending a simple e-mail. Each Ping.fm user is assigned a unique e-mail address to send updates to. To find yours go to your Dashboard and click on the "E-mail" link just below where it says "Services/Tools."
Updating by Text Message If you're a band on the go and you want to be able to update your sites without being tied to one of those pesky laptops, this option is for you. Go to your Dashboard and look for the "SMS/Text Messaging" link under the "Services/Tools" section. You'll be asked to enter your mobile phone number. Once you've entered the number and established your phone, save Ping.fm's posting number into your phone. When the urge strikes, text the number your news, and it will update all your statuses.
Updating Via iPhone or Blackberry Use the internet as you would on your computer. Or... Get one of the apps found here. Congratulations, readers! Go out and "network."
Jim Markunas is a music industry futurist and editor-in-chief of Chicks With Guns Magazine. Jim has a decade of new media and music industry experience, he's run highly successful new media campaigns and has worked with James Brown, Miles Davis, The Walt Disney Company, Truckee Brothers, Mick Fleetwood, and Minty Fresh Records. Currently Jim's focus is monetization strategies for record labels and digital business development. He's a free agent available for hire.
Find Jim Online: Twitter - Linkedin - Facebook - Website - E-mail Jim
May 26, 2009 Day after day we tell ourselves that tomorrow we will take the next step to reaching our goals. We continuously pace back in forth in our mind, juggling tasks, making promises; encouraging ourselves to progress. Yet and still, we look back year after year only to discover that what have achieved is nothing much to speak of. Many of us think that our accomplishments will come to us magically over time. The successful members of our industry have realized that in order to truly move forward, something has to be done every day.
Music biz entrepreneur, Derek Sivers, creator of CD Baby, said this week that true goals live in the present. If you feel as if there is something that you would love to do, but have never gotten around to it, that probably means it's not a good goal at all. Instead we should contemplate what we really want to achieve and restate our goals into something that forces us to begin working on it immediately.
As a recording artist it is important to know what goals need attention and strive daily to achieve some variation of these milestones. Here are seven suggestions you may use to move forward in your musical career, one day at a time.
Monday - The official start of the work week. Whether you are a singer or a bass player; use this day to jump start the week ahead. A musician's primary job is to play great music, so take this day to PRACTICE your craft. Daily repetitive action is the only way to get better. Starting this ritual at the beginning of the week will allow you to move on to Tuesday, guilt free, with a clear direction on what you need to accomplish in the week ahead.
Tuesday - Now that you have settled into the week with diligent practice, today is a perfect day to revisit your PLAN. Decide on what actions will be most beneficial at this point in your career and rework a plan on how you will enthusiastically address each goal.
Wednesday - The week is in full swing and most of your business contacts are ready and willing to talk to you by Wednesday. Use this day to get on the old horn and MAKE SOME PHONE CALLS to your targeted contacts. Determine which market you will hit, grab the contact names and phone numbers of the Publicists, Program Directors, DJ's, Club Owners and Distributors off the net and go to town. Imagine after a full month of this practice how many return calls and potential leads you will receive.
Thursday - As the weekend approaches, this day is an excellent opportunity to send as many EMAILs as possible. Develop your own press list of blogs, magazines and newspapers and ask that they review your latest single. Use the first few weeks to do your research on the appropriate writers and editors and their submission process. Once you prepare your press kit (Bio, One Sheet, Press Pics and MP3's) and press list, this process will get increasingly easier.
Friday - Now that the weekend is here and most of your fans are checking the web for something to do, today is the right time to UPDATE YOUR SOCIAL NETWORK PROFILES. Add new music, pictures or news about your band to ensure that every time your fans look you up, there is something new to see. There is nothing worse that clicking on a link of a band you love, only to see that they haven't updated their profile since Christmas.
Saturday - Most people are off of work and looking to have a good time. Scout out bars in your local area that support live music and approach them about playing at their venue. Although you may have to perform for a few beers at first, PLAYING OUT as much as possible will provide a connection to your fans that cannot be achieved in any other way. Take this day to capitalize on your market and give the greatest show of your life. Your fans will go back to work or school talking about your excellent performance, and that's the best marketing that you can ask for.
Sunday - You cannot remain at your very best unless you REST. Why not fall in line with the majority of your fans and use this day to rest and reflect on the week that's past? Sit on the couch and think about the things that went well, as well as what you will like to change about your strategies in the week ahead. Take in a movie or hang out with friends, because after all, these off days with the people we love is a large part of what inspires us to continue striving towards our goals, day in and day out.
Kevin English is a marketer and student of the arts, who blogs about the skills and strategies necessary to get the most of your musical career at http://eleetmusic.com or on Twitter @eleetmusic.
May 26, 2009 You need to professionally present yourself, your music and your career. Your recording, promotion, marketing as all your soliciting materials and legal materials need to be done the right way. A strong professional package and promotional presence goes a very long way while a fake or weak presence will hurt you more than you know. Too many bands out there are trying to paint a picture they can't live up to and it is hurting much more than helping them.
May 18, 2009 
I was reading Spin Magazine's April article on U2 (What Makes U2 Run?) and came across this quote from U2'S bassist Adam Clayton:
"Think about the big bands, the big orchestras that used to tour," he says. "Then the stock market crash came and they slimmed down to quartets, because that was cheaper."
His comment was in response to a discussion about music's relationship to outside economic forces as a constantly mutating cycle.
So if at some point big bands had to reduce their numbers from 20+ to 4 to become financially sustainable, then are we now seeing a time when 4-6 member bands will need to be reduced to solo musicians to make touring financially viable?
After all, pay split one way sure works much better. So, especially for unsigned musicians, is one > five?
________________
Matt is a co-founder of Volume Eleven LLC, a music management company that also runs a website dedicated to helping independent musicians better realize the potential promotional and money-making opportunities of the Internet (VolumeEleven.net - Music News for Music People).
May 11, 2009 
Written By: Jim Markunas
Photo Credit: Thomas Northcut
The revolution has come and gone, now it's time to talk about money. In this multi-part series, I'll be focusing on positive solutions to the music industry dilemma.
My first discussion is how to maximize DIGITAL touring income.
"What's digital touring income?" you ask. Good question!
We're all familiar with traditional touring income, yes? (Band goes on tour, sells tickets to fans; said fans purchase tickets, money trickles to band, promoter, venue, label (if applicable under 360 deal), etc. Maybe said band also secures some sponsorship dollars from Vans or Winterfresh gum as well - This is how it's been done since the beginning of time, and the model still holds up today.
I'd like to discuss how the digital sphere plays into touring income.
Traditional New Media - In the internet age, the press has moved from print to online. New Media departments, in addition to securing band and record release write-ups on blogs, zines and social networks, are now able to post tour dates in real time with links to buy tickets from Ticketmaster. This has been going on since the inception of the artist website and is nothing new. It's effective (more so than sending fans to the venue to buy tickets) and makes ticket purchase easier on concert-goers.
How we can add to this...
New Spheres of income - What if tour dates could be further leveraged to generate digital income? Bible-belt band, Hinder, came up with a physical way to leverage tour income - They record their live set from the venue's sound board and offer a free burned CD of the live show with purchase of their $15.00 UMG release. Brilliant!
It's a "free" (but not really) give away that stimulates sales. However... physical records are pretty much dead. Therefore, bands should use this same concept in a digitally appropriate way.
Let's say Papa Roach decides to do the same thing: They record their live set via the venue's soundboard; they've also brought with them a few computers with iPod docking stations. The deal then changes to: Fans purchase a digital download of P Roach's live performance for $10.00. The performance is put onto the fans iPod right then and there along with a free copy of "Metamorphosis."
Global Broadcast - What if I live in Guam and I want to see Papa Roach perform in Los Angeles? Better yet! What if I'm in Chicago and I want to see Papa Roach perform in Los Angeles? I'm basically screwed unless I wanted to pay for plane tickets to L.A., hotel, and car rental fees. Bummer, right?
Picture this... Papa Roach goes on tour, as usual, but PRoach Riot members (members of Papa Roach's fan club) have the option of purchasing what's called a "digital season pass" that allows them to see every Papa Roach concert appearance via the internet in a live and/or "on-demand" fashion.
This would be uber-cool on many levels! Imagine never missing a single show from your favorite artist; you would be in heaven. This transforms a local concert in Los Angeles to a global concert across the world. As an added bonus, this solution will enable labels and artists to squeeze yet more money from sold out concert dates.
Yes, this solution can significantly increase your profits bands and labels. You're very welcome!
Jim Markunas is a music industry futurist and editor-in-chief of Chicks With Guns Magazine. Jim has a decade of new media and music industry experience, he's run highly successful new media campaigns and has worked with James Brown, Miles Davis, The Walt Disney Company, Truckee Brothers, Mick Fleetwood, and Minty Fresh Records. Currently Jim's focus is monetization strategies for record labels and digital business development. He's a free agent available for hire.
Find Jim Online: Twitter - Linkedin - Facebook - Website - E-mail Jim
May 5, 2009 Can a team of 25+ world class like genre artists coupled with big brands like Lays or Doritos end a social travesty and possibly change the future the music industry?
I have blogged here at MTT on the power of private concerts (posts at end of blog) and have spent thousands of hours working towards this model. In advance I look forward to and value extremely each and everyone's comments to make this model better until it is as perfect as possible prior to the official roll out. Below is the model of which I will explain at a very high level and get into more detail once I get feedback;
Bruce Warilla posted about the power of coming together as one team and that inspiration played a pivotal roll in this model. The power of private concerts can be found in my previous posts on MTT so I won't get into how they bond artist to fan better then any other medium. The model;
Step 1: Bring 25+ like genre musicians together and form a team in its truest sense all in one location on the internet where they will share their entire 'art' and total content for FREE to their 1,000 'true fans' that has been discussed many times before along with the other 24,000 that combined build one team. The scale of 25 artists will significantly cut down on total costs by leveraging that scale to get better prices all along the touring 'supply chain'. This community would at first be limited to 25,000 fans that will take part in the mission and become one loyal community to both the artists and participate in ending the travesty of 1.7mm homeless children in America.
Step 2: The 25,000 fans would join as one and put on 'fan driven private concerts' 12-15 times per year per artist along with total 'team' events of 3-5 bands/artists in larger events all done through a turn key booking site called Live Music Machine. The concerts will be official 'Red Cup' concerts with toolkits, similar to Oxjam, for the 'lead fan' to easily put on a private concert in a number of 'spaces/venues' throughout their community.
Step 3: The Red Cup artists would play an intimate concert filled with many different entertainment aspects such as video to educate the fans of child homelessness along with constant personalized artist give away's and other newly thought of ways to make these concerts the most engaging, entertaining and inspiring. Fan video, pictures would be posted all of which will be holding a classic 'Red Cup' to symbolize the team all of which would have a 'One team, One team' bracelet as their ticket to get in for FREE. A large Red Cup would be passed around for donations in which the fans would have already connected with many people in their community to get donations for the cause . In the 5 Red Cup concerts I was apart of to prove out this concept we raised over $50,000 which in certain states is 'matched'.
Step 4: The money raised at Red Cup concerts would go directly to 'Project Equip' which is a newly developed 'vaccine' developed by Interfaith Housing Coalition to end child homelessness by lifting up fragile families before they fall into the doom loop of homelessness. With $2,000 to cover the tragic life event (job loss, illness etc) that is catapulting them to homelessness coupled with a 'circle' of people (3-5) to surround and support the family they are put back on track and the team will effectively end 'situational homelessness' and give every child, every night a home and a hope.
Step 5: Here's where the model gets interesting for artists. We will then bring in 3-5 large corporate partners to be apart of the team and give the artists a corporate 'sponsorship' match of the money raised by the Red Cup artists to enable the emerging world class artists to sustain a life making and promoting their music. The proof of concept suggests that each artists could make between $30-$50k per year if they work hard with their fans and take full ownership over their career and truly work as one team with one dream. The artist would retain 100% ownership over merchandise, CD, and other potential revenue streams.
The revenue opportunities online are endless with the potential to charge a donation 'membership' fee to the fans to have access to the inner circle of the team along with all of the FREE content and personalized merchandise.
One team of artists, sponsors and fans ending the greatest 'hidden travesty' all while enabling artists to make a career of making and playing music.
Andy Malloy
Previous posts on the power of fan driven private concerts for context;
3. http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/fan-driven-private-concerts-the-next-big-thing.html
May 4, 2009 My wee little engine-that-will company, The Hector Fund launched 5 days ago.
Our most notable artist - UK Folk Legend, Linda Thompson has posted exclusive to The Hector Fund a free and previously unreleased track, co-written and co-produced by her very talented son, Teddy Thompson.
We don’t claim Artistfunding as an original idea - we first heard of Mieka Pauley doing it a couple of years ago and since then Josh Freese has taken it to a whole other level.
We’re simply Artistfunding agents. We offer this as a service to artists. We develop, host and market the campaigns for the artists and administer the fullfillment of purchased tangible goods and merch to their fans.
Have a look. If you like what you see, help spread the word.
Peace,
Jake Brennan
CSO - The Hector Fund
In accordance with MTT's request for a bio blurb, follow this link to my linked in profile.
April 28, 2009 
Every working system must have standards. Standards are tested examples of behavior, measurements or conditions which allow for an expected result. For example in a hospital environment it is a standard recommended by the CDC for patient care staff to wash their hands before and after patient handling. This reduces the spread of infections and other subsequent factors. Also in film, there are a number of standards. Dolby originally proposed a standard loudness measurement of 85dBSPL at 0VU in the 1970s. It was a unit of measure that allowed dialogue, music and special effects to fall in nicely with audio soundstage of the film. This standard has stood the test of time and is still utilized today.
However, this is not the case for popular music in media. There are no loudness standards in the record business. Which makes the result unexpected for the audio listener. This is one of the reasons the iTunes and iPods are equipped with the "Sound Check" feature. In the 1990s music and media production professionals began to notice the average loudness of CDs increasing at a rapid rate. The use of powerful compressors and limiters enabled mixing and mastering engineers to produce music with an average metering level that was the same as the peak level, typically called "brick wall limiting".
Some believe this was the result of digital recording, which has a much larger signal-to-noise ratio than analog tape recordings. I believe it is a combination of many factors but perhaps the most consequential was the abandonment of the VU meter. The VU meter was an averaging meter and allowed a mixing or mastering engineer to view the overall loudness of a recording with some accuracy. In the digital age we have traded in the VU meter for Peak metering.This shows us the highest point which signal can reach before distortion. And keeping music just under 0dBFS and extremely compressed has become the target for many music producers and engineers alike. In the days of the VU meter the peg and LED would alert the anyone watching far before the digital Peak meters read-off.
The Solution to the Loudness Race
Today, lack of a metering standard in the record business has allowed the audio soundstage of popular music to become boring and monotonous. And the loudness race has developed into a bonafide problem for music listeners, whether they know it or not. Bob Katz of Digital Domain has proposed an integrated approach to metering, monitoring and leveling practices that makes sense. It is called the K-System.
The K-System was developed with the idea that, "the medium is not the message". Therefore, when monitoringwe are considering the musical content and artist expression of the music to determine its overall loudness and not just insensitively crunching numbers to get the loudest result possible. And like the film industry, the K-System is tied to a calibrated monitor gain where the averaging meter's 0 equals 85 dBSPL. And while the metering system does show a linear-decibel reading, with peak values, it has dual characteristics where the VU level is the dominant part of the display.
More can be learned about this system in Mastering Audio: the art and the science 2nd ed.
Hakim Callier (@hakimcallier) is a music producer and audio engineer in Harlem, NY. He is the eldest son of Rick Callier, music producer and arranger for DeBarge, Fred Hammond & Marvin Sapp. Hakim graduated from the Institute of Audio research and studied Information Systems at New York University. He is currently working on music for media productions and freelance engineering sessions. You may contact him at (646) 377-3926 or info@hakimcallier.com
Information | tagged Bob Katz, Dolby, Hakim Callier, K-System, Media, Post Production, iPod, iTunes, music April 24, 2009 In January Georgia Wonder threw its five track debut EP into an ocean where it smashed into tiny pieces and reassembled itself in the fishing nets of those who knew it’s name. Unlike normal wreckage anything thrown into this particular ocean lasts for as long as people want to fish for it, becomes as abundant or scarce as demand requires and by the time it is pulled onto dry land it has assumed it’s original form. It is a modern day miracle of supply and demand and of course it is the ocean known as the internet, and our songs are simply files that swim in it.
BitTorrent, the technology behind the ebb and flow of much of this new media ocean has been in the news a lot lately, especially surrounding the trial of The Pirate Bay, one of many websites that enable people to keep track of what’s floating around ‘out there’. Unless you’ve had your head in the sand you will know that the four people involved in The Pirate Bay have recently been dragged across the beach, with sentences of a year each and fines totaling £2.3 million.
However, the BitTorrent network still exists and The Pirate Bay is still running. If fining some of the most famous ‘pirates’ in the world and putting them away for a year won’t change anything then it looks like the pirates are anything but washed up. So why bother going after them?
To understand what this is all about, one needs to accept that file sharing has become a mainstream activity. The idea of it being an underground pursuit, ten years after itʼs conception, is absurd. File sharing has become a part of music discovery, as much as Top Of The Pops or chart radio ever was. We have a generation who sees file sharing as a birthright, and the internet as a necessity. Are these people pirates or henchmen?
People old enough to remember the ʻhome taping is killing musicʼ era can probably recall buying knockoff cassette tapes from strange men on holiday islands where piracy was part of the experience. In this case piracy was about organized gangs mass producing copyright material to sell for profit. Buying a dodgy cassette tape never morphed anyone into a pirate back then, although I have known people feeling raped and pillaged when their Elton John bargain turned out to be a full 45 minutes of Turkish polka music.
The music industry has spent the last decade promoting the concept that sharing music on the internet is piracy, and uses cases like The Pirate Bay trial as part of a larger arsenal of online bullying in an attempt to create an atmosphere of fear and mistrust. But if sharing music on the internet really is piracy then it stands to reason that all oceans must be the same and ‘music pirates’ should have a lot in common with ‘real pirates’. So let’s talk about some ‘real pirates’ for a moment.
Some ‘real pirates’ boarded an oil tanker recently and held it for ransom off the coast of Somalia. There was only one oil tanker and it belonged to someone else, and it’s uniqueness (and therefore value) gave the pirates negotiating power and they demanded a ransom. If the real ocean acted in the same way as the oceans of the internet then the oil tanker would have replicated as soon as the pirates boarded the vessel, unaware that by their very involvement they had created another one, and while they screamed ransom at the original owners their voices would have been lost in a sea of identical oil tanker clones, while the originators simply thumbed a lift on the nearest oil tanker copy and sailed home.
To my knowledge this has never actually happened in real life, but in the demand driven world of the internet the more people want something the more of it there is. Peopleʼs music habits have changed in line with technology, naturally following the path of least resistance to get what they want. According to one set of research results, last year 40 billion songs were shared online (40,000,000,000). About a quarter of the people in the world (1.5 billion) are connected to the internet meaning that on average, every home with an internet connection shared an average of 27 songs last year - equivalent to roughly three albums worth of material.
If you live alone with only your broadband connection for company then your Broadband Pirate Intake is probably much higher than 27. But if these 40 billion songs had been paid for at the current iTunes pricing (79p each) they would have generated over 31 billion pounds in revenue, roughly fifteen times the gross domestic product of Somalia. It seems that using the pricing from an era where people’s media consumption was totally different from today’s gives wildly inaccurate results of a song’s true retail value and it is safe to say that downloads don’t equate to sales by a colossal margin. It’s try-before-you-trash nowadays, and the game now as an artist is to try and be heard and then try even harder not to be deleted.
While iTunes, Spotify and a host of other music startups are innovating in an ocean of opportunity, the major labels have been firing their canons indiscriminately into a sea whose ports they used to control in an attempt to hold back the tides of change using methods more akin to King Canute than Sir Richard Branson. They're waving their fists not just at the so-called pirates but at the oceans themselves, conveniently forgetting that the unbundling of the song from the album has done more to downsize the industry’s value than any other single factor.
The pirates are an impotent myth at best, jumping to order while music lawyers shoot at their imaginary feet.
Unfortunately this swashbuckling fairy tale has been recounted verbatim in the corridors of power to the point where some of the politicians are starting to believe it. There is a chance that the previous rulers will get the go ahead for their war on terror and once they’ve finished taking out targets left, right and center under the auspices of hunting down Pirate Bin Laden there will be nothing left but military rule in a cultural desert where the only water is bottled.
Julian Moore
***
Georgia Wonder are a two-piece band from the UK - Stephanie Grant (vocals) and Julian Moore (music). Their debut EP ‘Hello Stranger’ was the only release from an unsigned artist in the Pirate Bay top 100 music chart for a week in January after climbing to the 14th position in five days following a free promotion on Frostwire. You can find the torrent by doing a Google search for ‘Georgia Wonder EP’ using your favourite internet provider.
Georgia Wonder Website
http://www.gwonder.com
***
References / Further Reading
Pirate Bay Trial Verdict
http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-trial-the-verdict-090417/
Music Like Water
http://gerdleonhard.typepad.com/the_future_of_music/files/music_like_water_gerd_leonhard_jan_8_2005.pdf
1 Billion Songs A Day Shared Online
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/11575
P2P File-Sharing on the Purchase of Music: A Study for Industry Canada
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ippd-dppi.nsf/eng/h_ip01456.html#table
Serving Your Fans - The Trent Reznor Case Study
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njuo1puB1lg
Unsigned Band Breaks Into Top 20 Most Shared Music On The Planet
http://www.prlog.org/10171331-unsigned-band-breaks-into-top-20-most-shared-music-on-the-planet.html
April 23, 2009 
1. Heart -This is the single most important attribute that every "true,"great artist must have. Without it, great music cannot be felt, imagined or created. It is the essence and spirit behind one’s own art. It is the powerful force behind the drive, perseverance and originality that brings art to life and creates the charisma that bonds great musical artists with their fans.
2. Conviction – In the context of making music, this is the total and absolute belief in yourself as an artist and in your ability to write great songs. If you don't believe in yourself, no one else will and greatness will always be just one step too far away.
3. Drive –This is what fuels an artist's belief that their music is great. It’s the unrelenting force that makes everything an artist needs to do to succeed a realistic possibility.
4. Perseverance - Over time, this is what permits an artist to become successful. The amount of it that is required to succeed is different for every great artist. No one ever knows how much perseverance will be necessary before their music becomes accepted by enough people to make it really matter. You just have to hang in there until it all comes together. Those who do hang in win big.
5. Originality - It is the game-changing quality that embodies an artist's persona and music. It’s what separates great music from the music everyone else makes and allows it to stand apart from all the rest.
6. Great Songs – A great song is made up of words and melodies that embody the artist’s spirit and soul. Together they forge a sound so special that those who listen to it are moved to emotionally bond with it and ultimately own it in some fashion. Some artists write one great song and live off the proceeds for the rest of their lives. Great artists never stop trying to achieve a musical high by challenging themselves to constantly raise the bar and write better and better songs. If they could do it, great artists would roll this feeling and smoke it 24/7.
7. Appealing Image - Create and develop an appealing image that is comfortable for you yet edgy enough to define and differentiate who you are as an artist. You must have the confidence to live your image and explore it in every way you can. Great artists evolve their image and eventually it becomes a brand unique only to them. A true image can not be contrived or forced. It comes naturally, feels right and fits you and your artistry. Most importantly your image must be one you can convincingly sell to your fans both on and off stage. Ultimately your image must become a part of who you really are and is the visual link that connects you with your fans and they back to you.
8. Great People Skills - The ability to communicate with your fans one on one as well as connect with a large audience has become more important than ever. Be passionate about your music both in the studio and live. Retain your fans by including them in your creative process and doing things that make them feel exclusive. Ask fans to create graphics, videos, lyrics or mashups that require your feedback. Every artist should personally host exclusive chats, videos or live performances. To make either of these tools truly effective requires your hands on communication. It's never the same when others do your talking or communicating for you. Somehow people can figure out it's not you regardless of the medium you are in. Your honest communication only strengthens the connection you have with your fans. You can practice what you say to your audience at a live performance until you feel so comfortable that talking to your audience becomes second nature. Don't be self conscious about how your fans will perceive you. Be real and be yourself. No matter how many mistakes you make, a true fan will love you for who you really are.
9. An Accomplished Live Performance - The greatest musical artists combine incredible music with a compelling performance. Of course, a great song can stand on its own without an accompanying live performance. But great music played live by a powerful, exciting, charismatic performer gets taken to a much higher, more memorable level. Some people are born to play live and others have to work at it to be good. Work through your fear to perform if you have any. Practice until your vocals are flawless and your instrument becomes a part of your body. Fearless execution is the goal. Work on integrating your chosen image carefully with your live performance until it is seamless. Deliver the same high caliber performance whether there is one person in your audience or 10,000. Live music connections are all important and almost singlehandedly drive every aspect of an artist's success financially and otherwise.
10. Understanding the Ever Changing Music Business Environment - The art of your music should never cater to commerce but it should always be aware of it. As technology and innovation constantly change the channels of music distribution in our world, embrace these changes, and never turn a blind eye towards them. Always remain on the cutting edge of this change and never allow yourself to be co-opted by whatever system is in place. Always be flexible. Dare to be different, keep your sense of humor and most importantly keep things simple. Life is just never meant to be that complicated nor is the music business.
April 3, 2009 Hi all. We'd like to invite you to check out our website. We're interested always in B2B partnerships for the purpose of visability for select artists across the world. We're still building our site but we welcome any comments you might want to share!
Cheers,
Cat