When I started in college radio, my friends and I would jockey for position by the mailbox on the day when R&R would arrive. Two decades ago, trade magazines were the only way you knew what was happening in markets…
Author
Joe Taylor Jr.
“Help, I Need to Buy $1,200 Jonas Brothers Tickets”
Here’s a coda to last week’s kindie rock story: Salon contributor Kenneth Rapoza flashes back to his Bon Jovi youth and wonders how cool it would be to treat his kids to VIP tickets and a meet-and-greet at a Jonas…
Did the Live Concert Business Push Jane Wiedlin Off That Hill?
Lori and I just came back from a family vacation at the Jersey Shore. We snuck away for a night to Atlantic City, and we’re either the worst gamblers or the best gamblers ever, because we ended up spending about…
Keep Your Eye on the Goose
Now I know the music business has turned upside down, since I just learned about an OK Go video from a science magazine. (I probably would have been on this way sooner, but I’ve been on vacation!) Discover Magazine’s blog…
Climbing Aboard a Sinking Ship
Run into any burning buildings lately, even though you’re not a firefighter? So why are you so worried about getting your song on the radio, getting your band signed, winning that battle of the bands? Every week, I get e-mail…
Music Management Skills: Connect with Your Passion
Andy Wibbels just floated a great quote from John Waters about finding something you love and making it your life’s work. And while you may need to dabble–against John Waters’ advice–to really discover whether a passion is worth pursuing, it’s…
Kindie Rock
Have we all been using “Kindie Rock” to describe hip records for families for a while now, or is the term bubbling up from Anne Hart’s great blurb about the genre in the Savannah Morning News? Like most overnight sensations,…
Monday Morning Link Love
The Trash Can Sinatras kick off their U.S. tour at a fan’s house. House concerts are becoming the norm for a lot of small-to-mid-range acts. It’s no longer a matter of, “OMG, you’ve sunk to the point of playing a…
NACA Schools Block-Booking Live Music
Every time I write about booking shows on college campuses, I get two kinds of e-mail. One burst of e-mail comes from artists who are so frustrated about how difficult it is to nail down dates through college activities boards,…
Forbes: Jill Sobule Raised More Than Public Enemy
Katie Evans uses her entertainment column in Forbes to explore some of the ways that bands raise money from fans beyond traditional CD sales. (And, as I’ve been writing about for the last ten years, CD sales are just about…
$1,875 for Front Row Seats, But You Get to Keep the Chair
From this weekend’s New York Times, Ben Sisario covers the growing trend of large concert promoters offering special perks and souvenirs to help justify the prices of VIP tickets to this summer’s hot tours. The article’s centerpiece: Bon Jovi fans…
The World Can’t Go On Without CBGB’s Bathroom
If you saw any of the live seminars I’ve staged in the last decade, you’ve probably seen me reference CBGB’s bathroom as everything great about rock and roll–and everything wrong with live performance venues. Long before YouTube comments, there was…