Ever since attending last Saturday’s interview with John Oates, I’ve been talking to folks about the pros and cons of working on albums vs. EPs. There’s a school of thought among music promotion professionals right now that you might not…
Archive
April 2011
Gamification in reverse: a music business where charts mean less
Folks have been talking to me a lot lately about “gamification.” It’s a popular business trend that hopes to leverage the video game habits of recent generations into stronger workplace productivity. Take a set of tasks that would otherwise sound…
Three essential qualities of a successful indie record label
When I ran Handwritten Records in the 90s with my friend Kristen, indie labels still had a clear role in the music business. I was a production geek with access to a studio and a mass CD duplication machine, and…
Five things John Oates taught me about the new music business
The Philadelphia Chapter of The Recording Academy welcomed Temple alum John Oates back to campus last Saturday night, for an intimate acoustic performance and an interview conducted by my friend and former colleague, Gene Shay. Mississippi Mile is Oates’ tribute…
What Rebecca Black can teach you about music contracts.
It doesn’t take long for partners to become enemies when a record “pops” and royalty checks start rolling in. Rebecca Black’s bizarre path to the Billboard charts has generated buzz about what she’s going to do with tens of thousands…