Pamela Slim writes that it’s easy for creative people to fool themselves into thinking that their strengths can overcompensate for environmental variables. Have you ever watched yourself spiral downward with something that’s usually a cinch? It happens to musicians and to artist managers all the time. It’s tempting to want to get into the music […]
Grow Your Audience
Why You Should Own Your Band’s Website
Delicious is dying. And if you’re not a hardcore web citizen, you might not know the reason why so many folks have become so upset about it. In short: a beloved, free service that thousands of people used to automate all kinds of workflows is being placed in a “sunset” phase by Yahoo! Tumblr is […]
Four Rules for Artistic Success
James Danziger offers four essential rules for young photographers to “survive” in what’s becoming a challenging line of work. It strikes me that all four rules apply to emerging musicians and artist managers, too: 1. Have talent. Danziger says, “Talent is not when your friends tell you they love your work, but when people who […]
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 company executives change the focus of a service from “community” to “celebrities.” For years, I’ve […]
Who will your music influence?
There’s a long-running trope about the Velvet Underground that goes something like: “The Velvet Underground only sold about a thousand copies of their first record. But every single person that bought that record started a band.” It’s funny to me that we often get caught up in arguments over how many followers a band has […]
