If you wait by the phone for the day that someone calls you and tells you that with a $5,000+ deposit, they’ll make you famous and distribute your music on radio stations worldwide, do your research before signing over the…
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News
Can’t beat piracy? Work with it, instead!
There’s no way to compete with people who are downloading music illegally, so why not team up with the system so the songs that people download could be yours? Indie distributor Jeff Price, who started TuneCore, uses digital distribution to…
Raise the roof, not the volume
Ever hear that iPods and other mp3 players are dangerous ? Well, they are. Or, they *can be* if you don’t know how to use them appropriately. In the news these days: the kinds of headphones that often come with…
Three Degrees of Rap
Nature reports that, despite bloodshed and intense public rivalry, pretty much every professional rapper is connected to every other professional rapper by three degrees of separation. In fact, if you are Snoop Dogg, you are actually caught in a vortex…
What we learned about music fans last week.
Don’t piss off the Deadheads.
Baby Steps on Podcast Music Licensing
Britain’s Association for Independent Music is launching a less expensive mechanical license arrangement for “bedroom” podcasters that opens up access to a small number of current tracks. The biggest problem for podcasters that want to play music is the licensing…
It feels nice to report on something a major label is doing RIGHT.
Have I been drinking the same Kool Aid as the founder of Elektra Records, Jac Holzman? Cordless, his new skunk works project deep in the bowels of Warner Music Group, marks a return to artist development and smart audience growth.…
All your Mac are belong to SonyBMG
I finally have a computer that works, with no creaking hard drive, and has not self-immolated (knock wood) and SonyBMG wants to install backdoors on it? Uh, no. I will not be putting any SonyBMG discs into my pristine optical…
Return of the Monster Music Marketing Conference Call!
Almost two years ago, David Hooper and I hosted a conference call where we vowed not to shut up until we answered everyone’s questions. So, we went for almost SEVEN HOURS. You can see some of the callers’ comments here.…
When you’re dropped from this label, you’re REALLY dropped.
The Inc. (formerly Murder, Inc.) fights allegations of money laundering, shady accounting, hidden files… and one guy that was found in a vacant lot “embedded with nails.” We knew that keeping margins high in the record label business was tough,…
UK Government Support for Independent Music on the Way?
Even though some of my British clients don’t always see it that way, I love to point out that the ravenous appetite in the UK for singles (and the relatively small number of sales it takes to get on the…
Yes, R.E.M. Really Did Reunite Last Weekend
Proof that if you’re a really good guitar tech, your work pays off. And people ask me why I moved to Athens.