Why pay for music industry knowledge?

I’m still on the road, but I’ve had a few moments here and there to catch up with my e-mail.

First of all, I want to say a huge “thank you�? to everyone who has joined our spinme.com members area in the past few days. It’s so heartening to know that we made the right move by opening up a private, member-supported, independent music community. Our first live teleclasses are next week, and I know you’ll love what we’ve got in store for you.

A few folks have e-mailed me to ask why they should pay $27 a month to join our members area when they can find other music resources on the web for free. It’s a great question.

Anybody can set up a bulletin board these days, and a lot of folks do. It’s easy to fall back on the old chestnut, “you get what you pay for.�? But the cliché fits this situation pretty well. A handful of folks offer some very good, free resources for musicians. But it takes a lot of energy to maintain a quality community.

Helping emerging musicians is my job. I spend well over forty hours every week, writing articles, researching new strategies, and coaching my private clients. Running spinme.com is at the core of my business, not a hobby or a sideline.

Free bulletin boards are also full of armchair quarterbacks who still believe that “getting signed�? is the only route to true success in music.

I believe that, in today’s music industry, you have to build a solid audience that supports you financially before you become attractive to a label. The power of your audience gives you the power to craft a record deal that works for you, so you don’t end up sidelined by debt and contract disputes down the road.

Over the past five years, I’ve also charted some of the most effective strategies for growing your audience. And they have very little to do with the kinds of things that you hear about on typical music business bulletin boards.

It doesn’t matter how many samplers you give out, or how many industry showcases you play. My clients learn real audience-building strategies that get them somewhere, not the same warmed-over nuggets that were already outdated when they were printed up in 1995.

TCM clients pay $200 and more every month to get access to my vault of resources and to get me on the phone for a few hours. Now, you can enjoy unprecedented access to our resources and to me for less than the cost of pizzas for band practice. If you’re ready to make an investment in your future, join us today.