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March 11, 2010 Becoming a musician is like starting your own small business; getting off the ground is often the most challenging stage. This first post is a case study on my current situation. I’m gathering information to help guide big, practical decisions that start-up musicians (like myself) will have to make at some point in their career.
March 10, 2010 The world is moving at a faster pace than ever, and technology is the cattle driver of the modern world taking us all to magnificent new lands. Innovation is changing the way we live our lives on what seems like a daily basis. The landscape for which/where/how we do business is in constant motion. The challenge is no longer ‘how do we get there’ its ‘teach me how to drive.’ I am a heavy enthusiast for the marriage between tech and business.
March 10, 2010 I believe this year marks the advent of real change for the better within the music industry. It’s not just because the year 2010 is the start of a new decade, or that in 5 years Back to the future II thought we would all have flying cars and hover boards- which I certainly wish we had because it would be awesome. It’s that the time has come to let innovation drive the industry towards change. An industry, which typically was governed with few genuine options, will soon have a full-service customizable menu. You can stream all you want, or you can go a-la-carte.
Distribution, Web 2.0 | tagged digital music distribution, download, piracy March 6, 2010 In the chapter “selfrelease” european bands, labels and player in the music biz talk about the most important tools, go’s and no go’s if you want to release your music on your own.
March 5, 2010 There are two main reasons to take any gig.
1. Exposure - By definition exposure means “the act of subjecting someone to an influencing experience.” No matter what development stage your artist business is in, it will always be important to take gigs for exposure to grow awareness of your artist (or “brand”) in untouched markets. Exposing your band to the right audiences can be worth more than upfront money sometimes.
March 4, 2010 Since you’ve been reading my blog and know how I roll, you can probably figure this one out. (Read this fantastic post by Eric Barker for the science.)
The most visible are consistently more rewarded than their performance merits.
That’s why Nickleback has sold over 6 million albums. They’re everywhere, whether you like it or not. Magazines, blogs, radio, tv, etc. Pretty much everyone knows about them. Yuck.
So what’s going on here? Why is this? Is this a giant troll that the world is going to unveil in a few years? (a la Andy Kaufman’s style).
Nope. Once again the peculiar human brain is at work.
March 4, 2010 So by now you’ve probably heard a lot of talk about a new music tax for AM/FM radio stations, that corresponds with the 1995 fee imposed on Internet, satellite, and cable radio, crippling hundreds, if not thousands, of internet radio stations.
If you’re an independent artist, I’m happy to announce that this means pretty much nothing. If you want the real scoop on what all the popular opinions are, and the real truth underlying them, this article is great The Man Can’t Tax Our Music . My suggestion: don’t worry about it.
March 4, 2010 YouTube is huge. We know that. But did you also know that it serves as the number 2 search engine, right behind the king of search and technically their parent company, Google.
That means there are more searches done on YouTube than on Yahoo, Bing, Ask or any other search engine! Do you know what they are looking for?
Much like the personal branding niche tells us to Google ourselves, musicians need to look at YouTub’in themselves. What videos show up? What channels, subscribers, comments and playlists are on the first page of your YouTube results?
music marketing | tagged music marketing, video, youtube March 4, 2010 In this chapter the interviewed artists, labels and player in the music business talk about advantages and disadvantages of independent- and major labels. You can watch the all 11 chapters for free at www.rockthe.biz
March 3, 2010 This is the first chapter of Rock The Biz, the free documentary about the new european musicbusiness, called “The Music Crisis”.
What led to the crisis in tradtional music business, what went wrong and who is responsible?
March 2, 2010 I want to be completely upfront before you continue reading. This is my first post, and i do want to share a new technology that we launched today of which i am a co-founder. I do promise one thing, if you continue reading you will form your own opinion (whether you agree with me or disagree). However, i believe i have a radical alternative to piracy which we have been developing for the last 2 years. I believe being transparent comes first & foremost, that’s why right now, or forever hold your peace, i offer anyone not interested in reading about our new website, Webceleb.com- the opportunity to stop reading. If you’ve decided to continue reading, great. Let’s begin… I want to make it very clear, this blog post does not touch on everything, otherwise it would be a thesis. This is a quick deconstruction and reconstruction of how the RIAA brought down the self-inflicting hammer upon itself!
March 2, 2010 Podcast franchising holds tremendous value for the customer, the audience, and the service provider/producer (whose reputation, expertise, and music tribe that clients tap into all grow over time). Labels on a tight budget don’t need to cut back on marketing, they just need to divert funds from marketing channels that deliver lackluster results into podcast franchising and new media.
March 1, 2010 Mixtapes hold limitless potential for artists and entrepreneurs who recognize the opportunity and are willing to develop forward-thinking business models around the distribution of free music. Because the commercial exploitation of mixtapes is a fairly new area of business, everything is experimental at this point.
March 1, 2010 The documemtary about the new music business in Europe is now online. 105 minutes with 11 chapters. Watch them for free, download them, share them
Artist Development, Breaking into the industry, Distribution, Future Of Music, Information, Music Industry, Music Industry Crisis, Nine Inch Nails, Realistic Music Careers 101, The Business of Independent Music, Unsigned Bands, Web 2.0, music business, music marketing, music promotion, social media for musicians | tagged Future of Music, copyright, creative commons, crisis, income, independent music business, livegigs, new media, nnew music business, selfrelease, tipps, tricks