Web/Tech

Back Up that MySpace Friends List

Jul 18th, 2005 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Web/Tech

I’ve been urging folks for months now to build their own mailing lists instead of just relying on the “friends” feature on MySpace. Even though we’ve seen similar sites vaporize overnight, the MySpace team’s done a decent job getting ad funding, so why worry?

Apparently, it’s not so hard to get data out of the server, [...]



Black Eyed Peas Members Web

Jul 12th, 2005 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Web/Tech and Weblogs

Black Eyed Peas are taking the membership idea even farther, with a weblog-like site that allows members to pay $2/mo for bonus material and even a personalized weblog! Very cool idea.
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Feudin’, Cussin’, & Mailin’

Jun 30th, 2005 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Growing Your Audience, News and Web/Tech

I got a couple of interesting e-mails today. One from a band who added me to their list without asking, which contained some profanity. I grew up in a working class neighborhood adjacent to Philadelphia, so I can tolerate more than my share of blue language. But the very next e-mail in the box from [...]



Blogs Build Audience Way Faster Than Radio

Jun 6th, 2005 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Tips and Web/Tech

Great piece in the NYT about how music blogs are picking up the torch that radio disc jockeys of the 50s and 60s once wielded. They’re tastemakers to key pockets of tastemakers…
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Group funding

May 18th, 2005 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Web/Tech

Lots of folks have been asking me about how to raise capital for recording projects. Fundable is a new website that lets your fans contribute toward a financial goal. If you break down your budget into manageable chunks (say, 100 people @ $50 each), you can make it happen. The cool thing about fundable is [...]



The Cost of Cool

Mar 3rd, 2005 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Web/Tech

Matthew at the always-awesome design shop 37signals takes on band websites that forsake any hope of usability for the sake of looking cool.
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Above/Below The Web for Musicians

Feb 9th, 2005 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Web/Tech

Most of the musicians I meet at workshops want to know how they can generate more sales from their music websites. I wish I had my hands on this great model that Seth Godin points at, which shows how your site is just another piece of your audience-building campaign. It’s supported by lots of functions [...]



Opportunities in iPod America

Feb 2nd, 2005 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Web/Tech

Reading this USA Today story calls up two issues that we discussed on a recent conference call:

Americans are not getting exposed to new music on the radio, and aren’t even expecting to be exposed to new music on the radio.
Americans with MP3 players actively share new music with each other, one-to-one.

So where are you going [...]



What the New Powerbooks Mean for Musicians

Feb 1st, 2005 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Web/Tech

CDM’s got a good look at what the new Powerbook models mean for home studio and project recording. I keep flashing back to the time I authorized a $20,000 purchase for a mixing board with flying faders and a freakin’ Pentium 300 with a 5GB hard drive, to do only about half of what you [...]



More happy fun e-mail tips…

Jan 28th, 2005 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Web/Tech

Bob Baker’s got a great followup to my own e-mail rant from a few days ago. Just don’t be an e-mail idiot!
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