Bestselling author Robin Sloan wonders why and how we became so rigid about the works we create, as he undertakes a new edition of his best-known work.
Web/Tech
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How we’ll fight the platform war against Big AI
“Users, and especially users who are developers have an enormous amount of leverage to control where AI goes. And if those communities of users can coordinate, they can put power back into the hands of the people.”
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Build an Affordable, Essential Website for Your Band
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…
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My @SproutSocial Experiment: Setting Boundaries on Social Media
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…
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Make Space to Leave MySpace
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…
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Can Spotify Satisfy American Copyright Laws?
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…
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LazyWeb: Gig To-Do Macros + Gig Matcher
Scott Andrew and Bill Wilson are riffing on some tools that we could use in the independent music community to get more meaningful artist promotion work done. I like Scott’s idea of automating gig swaps — the kinds of things…
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Make Make a Pancake
Are you having this much fun making videos? If not, you should: I think I’m gonna have some pancakes for breakfast today. Also, make sure you watch past the credits. [ via Natalie Dee ]
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Just press play? (How the marketplace is forcing the music business to consider on-demand music.)
Mark Cuban notes in an e-mail to Nancy Baym that if YouTube had sprouted up two or three years earlier, the RIAA would have toasted them for s’mores in a heartbeat. (Those are my words, not his, because it’s getting…
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How to use unconventional musical instruments to make a classic sound, or vice versa.
While technology lets you do some amazing things on stage, the power of your songs can sometimes be muted when your audience focuses too much on the gimmick. It doesn’t sound like this is the case for Pamela Z and…
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How to Change Your MySpace URL
Basically, once you pick that username, it’s yours to keep. If you want a different one, you’ll have to sign up again However, you don’t have to be stuck with giving out a MySpace URL you don’t like. Get your…
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Stay safe on the Web!
Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself that, for a lot of musicians, the Web is a brand-new place. And with more and more indie musicians trying out services like eBay and Paypal to sell CDs and merch, a…
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Preparing your Flash website for IE7
(This post contains more web-geekery; if you’re unfamiliar with things like HTML and JavaScript, you’ll want to get your webmaster or a web-savvy friend to help you out.) I was messing around with my website a few days ago when…
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More on Flash players and visitors without Flash
(Warning: this post gets a bit geeky, so make sure you involve your webmaster if you’re unclear or uncomfortable making changes to your music website.) Yesterday I mentioned that if you’re using a Flash music player on your music website,…
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Free Flash music players
For embedding streaming audio into webpages, I prefer to use a Flash music player. The main reason for this is compatibility; I don’t have to worry that the listener doesn’t have a particular audio player installed, and the Flash plug-in…
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Tip for better MySpace searching
Bob Baker has produced an e-book on using MySpace as a music marketing tool. Lots of interesting ideas, from how to set up a MySpace profile to tips from musicians in the trenches. (Disclaimer: I’m one of them, and quoted…
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Fool me once…
It’s worth noting that Sandi Thom, whose webcast concerts from her basement caught the attention of RCA/SonyBMG last week, had a publicity company working the press angle. That’s not to say her story isn’t legit or success is undeserved, but…
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Global gigging via the Internet
If you’re weary of hauling equipment from gig to gig and pouring your money into repairs for your tour van, you can always try what Scottish singer Sandi Thom did: set up a webcam in her basement. In a packed…
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iTunes finds success in online market
Created in 2003 to prevent the music industry from losing money on illegal downloading, iTunes has since sold one billion songs on its online music store. It offers individual songs for 99 cents, and, curiously, after paying off its partners,…
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Craigslist as an unhelpful (?) tool for music promotion
You can find a lot of things on a lot of websites. In fact, there’s unlikely to be anything you can think of that doesn’t already have information about it on the web. (Give it a try, if you have…
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How people really use the Web
A little something for your webmaster… Even if you don’t care to read through the entire text of Steve Krug’s excellent book on website usability Don’t Make Me Think!, you should at the very least read this one free sample…
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A digital divide
I remember the days of record players. Then there were cassette tapes, and then CDs. And now, it seems, everything has gone digital. Has everyone gone digital, too? When you download songs off of the Internet, do you tend to…
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Pandora: not just another jukebox
Pandora has been building a buzz in indie music circles lately: Pandora is a music discovery service designed to help you find and enjoy music that you’ll love. It’s powered by the Music Genome Project, the most comprehensive analysis of…
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14 Songs In 28 Days?
Tomorrow is the first day of February, and the first day of the 3rd annual February Album Writing Month (FAWM). What is it? Sometimes we need a kick in the pants to “show up and get busy.” [FAWM] is an…
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Black is Back
Cafepress is finally rolling out one-off black t-shirts. Track these topics:
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Band Practice Without the Funky Aroma
Apparently, folks are now using Skype to telecommute to band practice. Track these topics:
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Nobody cares about your band’s ringtone.
At the risk of coming off a little peevish today… I have been BOM. BAR. DED. with companies wanting me to plug their “we make ringtones for unsigned artists” services. And I have turned down every single one. Why? Nobody…
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If You’re Using a Free Web Host for Your Band’s Website, Your Fans Won’t Find You
I’ve written before about the phenomenon of bands relying solely on a MySpace or a Soundclick website to make information accessible to their fans. Today, there’s more news to discourage you from relying on free hosting sites. Specifically, if you’re…
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Some good ink for GarageBand.com
Right now, the latest iteration of GarageBand.com is a great way to connect with other musicians, but very few members of your perfect audience use it. That’s because so few American audience members actively seek out new music on their…
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Cubase Tops the Pro Audio Shootout
The Digital Music Doctor unveils his latest Pro Audio Software Shootout, and the $599 version of Cubase comes out on top. If you’re inclined to whine about the $599 price tag, remember that it was only about ten years ago…
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Is MySpace GONE?
Uh, no. They simply had the misfortune for their servers to be located at a web host that was affected by the power outages in Los Angeles yesterday. If my inbox is any indication, it got a lot of folks…
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MySpace To Start A Record Label
Everyone who counts “Tom” as a friend might start seeing some other common groupings when MySpace starts their own record label imprint later this year. Makes sense: MySpace is turning into a one-stop shop for A&R and promotion, though talent…
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Music-Space Wikipedia
Chris at the Long Tail wonders why we don’t have a definitive music industry equivalent of the IMDB or Wikipedia. Folks in the comments posit that the big data players (i.e., Gracenote) might have too much to lose.
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Proof of un-serious indie rock
spinme.com member J’Ae from the band Lokata sent me over one of their webisodes. It’s a fun video clip that looks behind the scenes at their recording process and other stuff they spend their time doing. (Are those pie plates…
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SoundClick went down and my phone lit up…
At upcoming speaking engagements, I reserve the right to attach this post with a staple gun to the forehead of anyone who asks me why they should pay a few bucks a month to host their band’s site when there…
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RupertSpace
To folks who were asking me what could possibly happen to MySpace… um… FOX could always buy it? Fox Buys Intermix: Some Background on MySpace (Is it me, or does it feel like 1998-99 these days?)
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Back Up that MySpace Friends List
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…
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Black Eyed Peas Members Web
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’
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…
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Blogs Build Audience Way Faster Than Radio
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
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…
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The Cost of Cool
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
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…
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Opportunities in iPod America
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…
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What the New Powerbooks Mean for Musicians
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’…
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More happy fun e-mail tips…
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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nofollow
At 2NMC, you heard Dave and I talk about the importance of leaving comments on blogs so that your audience can triangulate you — associate you with events, people and issues that impact your music. The side benefit has been…
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Today’s happy fun e-mail tip.
So if you are in a band and you spam everybody in the industry (including yours truly) with a "look at our site" message and someone somehow actually wants to respond to you, why would you ever send it from…
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We Can Work It Out (In Post)
The next time you’re agonizing over your ProTools rig, remember that if you’re writing really great songs, fans will even come to love your "recording anomalies."