I was helping to produce a seminar for musicians at the front end of the MySpace explosion — this was a few years ago — and a band pitched a booking agent at the event by saying, “we’ve already got…
Category
Grow Your Audience
MP3 Links Generate Album Sales
I’d love to see someone do a formal study of this (not that the RIAA would fund it, or anything), but it’s always been my personal belief that direct links to MP3’s in places like blogs and bulletin boards ultimately…
Mapping Indie Music Around the World
Jennifer Layton posted a great article at Indie-Music.com about the challenges that independent musicians face when playing outside the U.S.A. She covers more than the usual territory about stringing together some pickup dates in Europe and Asia — she digs…
Three Vital Things to Know Before You Can Succeed in the Music Business
We have a lot of new readers rolling through the site this week, so I thought I’d sum up my philosophy on how to make money making music. I just typed out a quick note to one of the members…
Jill Sobule Sings About Net Neutrality
I always use Jill as an example of someone who’s been grinding out a living as a working musician in between crazy label signings. She’s successful because she builds great relationships with her fans and she’s not afraid to pull…
Audio flyers?
Kathryn snapped this photo of a CD-R stuck to a telephone pole: Gotta admit it’s a cool and aggressive way to get your music “out there.” (Via BoingBoing.) My only criticism: there’s nothing on the CD to describe what the…
Spreading the word vs. inspiring action
Virgil Dickerson of Suburban Home Records is asking his blog readers for advice on how to (cheaply) promote a tour for one of his bands. He’s already got a partial list of ideas posted and a few responses (mine included)…
What if your fans don’t want you to get too successful?
I remember the first time Jennie made me listen to Green Day. We were both working at our college radio station, and I was still mostly listening to Paul Weller. I had no clue what to make of them, and…
Is Your Band Getting The Snub?
Speaking of Music Hates You, Patrick’s got an amazing post on his personal weblog that exposes an experience that every working musician reading these pages has experienced at one point or another. The difference between bands that make it in…
More good inbox etiquette
If you use email newsletters to announce gigs and communicate with your fans, you should read Jakob Nielsen’s new article entitled Email Newsletters: Surviving Inbox Congestion. Some interesting revelations from Nielsen’s survey: most people spend less than one minute reading…
Music Business Radio – Street Teams
I’m one of the guests on David Hooper’s Music Business Radio this week, and we talked a lot about street teams and growing your own audience. (We talked a lot about Music Hates You, in fact — the guys have…
New Tastemakers
Back in about 1996, I decided to shift my career away from music programming and toward production. That’s because I simply didn’t have the memory capacity of my colleagues, who can remember everything about every act they’ve ever heard. (A…