I’ve written in the past about the music business major degree programs popping up at colleges and universities all over the United States. While it still worries me that we may be creating a bigger supply of would-be music managers than the business currently demands, a handful of schools have stacked the decks in their [...]
David Barbe to head University of Georgia music business program full-time.
March 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Build an Affordable, Essential Website for Your Band
March 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Over the years, I’ve had plenty of arguments with musicians and with music management professionals about the importance of maintaining a website under your own domain. Their responses often included: * 1996: I don’t need my own domain. AOL gives me free web page hosting, and I’ll always have my AOL account! * 1998: I [...]
Chris Brown gets uncomfortable on Good Morning America
March 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Have I mentioned lately that I love subscribing to the Wall Street Journal, if only because it subsidizes Speakeasy? It’s my favorite pop culture blog of the moment, because it’s got such a wry sensibility while filtering the insanity of today’s entertainment community through the WSJ’s very measured prose. They’ve got a great piece up [...]
My @SproutSocial Experiment: Setting Boundaries on Social Media
March 9, 2011 By 1 Comment
I’ve been teaching some workshops on social media lately, and one of the questions that comes up very often involves how to keep Twitter and Facebook status updates from taking over your life. In the new edition of Grow Your Band’s Audience, I updated my advice about staying accessible and available. To stay focused on [...]
Giving yourself the space to shine.
December 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Pamela Slim writes that it’s easy for creative people to fool themselves into thinking that their strengths can overcompensate for environmental variables. Have you ever watched yourself spiral downward with something that’s usually a cinch? It happens to musicians and to artist managers all the time. It’s tempting to want to get into the music [...]
Make Space to Leave MySpace
November 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The alarm clock woke me up with the news that a senior News Corporation executive hinted about the possible closure of MySpace within “quarters, not years.” Even if MySpace manages to avoid a total shutdown, independent musicians should worry whenever company executives change the focus of a service from “community” to “celebrities.” For years, I’ve [...]
The Orchard Lays off 20% of Staff, CEO Exits
October 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment
It’s hard to read the tea leaves on this one, since this company has survived and evolved through things far worse than this: CEO Greg Scholl is leaving the company, which is also laying off one-fifth of its team. News reports and press releases indicate that this is simply a “cost-cutting” move. As The Orchard [...]
Can Spotify Satisfy American Copyright Laws?
July 27, 2009 By 2 Comments
Lots of friends and colleagues from abroad have hyped up Spotify to me, and I don’t doubt that it’s an awesome service. As we hear more about Spotify, especially involving mobile apps and in-car services, I fear we might be getting ahead of ourselves. Specifically, I worry that users’ fervor for the system overlooks the [...]
