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 [...]
British gospel artists prepare to take on the USA
March 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
In Grow Your Band’s Audience, I wrote about the subtle differences between the US and the UK markets for independent musicians. In a nutshell: US audiences crave familiarity. It’s hard to break in to the music business, but you can do very well once you gain momentum. UK audiences love new sounds and new acts. [...]
Creating a positive culture for your music management agency.
March 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
It’s easy for music management agencies to fall into a stereotype when it comes to corporate culture. Managers often get called cutthroat, rude, angry, or worse. That doesn’t have to be the case. Angela Haines from the Huffington Post chronicles the launch of Market Monkeys, an indie music management agency whose founder had the [...]
Find cheap crash pads for your next tour.
March 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I’m usually the only voice in a room full of musicians and music managers telling folks to slow down touring until you’ve saturated all of the zones in your region. (Understand the Zone Booking Strategy I’m talking about by checking out More Gigs Now.) One of the biggest reasons I ask bands to wait for [...]
Keeping your audience safe.
March 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Depending on who you talk to, SXSW may have hit its own critical mass sometime in the past few years. From talking to folks who went this year, some of the best stuff was actually happening at many of the unsanctioned events, house concerts, and impromptu gatherings away from the main event venues. And that [...]
Where’s your hustle?
March 22, 2011 By 3 Comments
Fred Wilson shares the story behind Airbnb (a great startup that I’ll write a full post about soon), especially the strategy the founders used to raise $25,000 in emergency funds to keep their business afloat. Whenever someone tells me that they can’t figure out how to raise the first $25,000 they need to get their [...]
It takes six months to convince Baltimore officials to stage an acoustic set in a coffeehouse.
March 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Now that the 2011 editions of Music Management for the Rest of Us and More Gigs Now are off to the printer, I’ve started working on the revisions for Host Your Own Concerts. And it seems like some neighborhoods could use house concerts more than others. According to the Baltimore Sun’s Sam Sessa, a set [...]
The Concert Photographer’s Manifesto
March 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A recent post about concert photography on Australian website The Vine resulted in feedback from an anonymous concert photographer who left a so-called manifesto in the article’s comments. The Vine republished the photographer’s manifesto on its own page, in which the photog remarks that fan media have harmed both the business and the culture of [...]
Sharing sacrifice with your fans.
March 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Al Lewis launched into a Wall Street Journal essay on the economy with the phrase: Shared sacrifice follows every disaster. It’s only a matter of deciding who shares it. Thinking about some of the choices Lori and I have been making in our own household, it’s not surprising that there’s a huge slump in ticket [...]
