For those of you with whom I’ve debated the lack of effectiveness of “paid” street teams, look at the attention that the new Napster is getting for its color-within-the-lines attempt at guerilla marketing.
Indie MMMbop Club
In case you missed it, Forbes checks out the numbers behind Hanson’s move to indie-dom.
The History of the Disc
In all the hoopla around pricing for CD’s versus digital downloads, it’s important to remember that paying for recordings is a practice that’s only been around for a blip of history. Patronage is what fueled much of music’s development in…
Accept Credit Cards on the Road
It’s essential for your future as an independent musician to find ways to sell as much merchandise as possible at your shows. (And it doesn’t always have to be CD’s!) Read how one band is using new technology to take…
Monster Conference Call
David Hooper and I are planning what we’ve been jokingly referring to as The Mother of All Music Industry Conference Calls. Basically, we’re gonna get on the phone and go nuts answering your e-mailed questions about your future music career,…
PayLoadz, Affiliates and Dollar Downloads
Kudos to the folks at Tummy Touch Records, who are using the service our friends at PayLoadz have developed to offer low-cost music downloads right from your site. The REAL innovation is the built-in PayLoadz afflilate program, which lets them…
Music Licensing 101
Some great information on music licensing showing up on Velvet Rope this week…
Performance Anxiety
From New York Magazine, a reminder that you should be looking to your friends and family to populate your FIRST show in the area — after that, you should be building your audience from the friends that those folks brought…
Newsletter Examples
It’s not a music newsletter per se, but this newsletter we got from the Ellen Degeneres show is a really good example of keeping a newsletter short, taking care of business (talking up show dates) and emphasizing personality. What can…
Unto Them Was Born A Street Team
David Hooper, co-author of “How I Make $100K a Year…”, made an excellent point in his newsletter today, that you could look at the Twelve Disciples as the Original Street Team. In case you missed it: while I’m on the…
Are the Stakes Too High?
An interesting discussion at Velvet Rope today, around the idea that one of the major problems in the mainstream music industry today is a glut of artistic sense and a LACK of business sense. Many independent projects are bottom-line profitable…
Joe’s Back
I’m officially back from my mini-hiatus. On the agenda over the next few weeks… mastering our second CD compilation, “Bloom,” shipping the first copies of Host Your Own Concerts, and working with even more of our readers one-on-one at MusicBizCoaching.com.…