Lots of buzz today around the CDBaby.com digital distribution deal. If you hadn’t heard, Derek and his team are extending a program to their clients that takes the hassle out of getting your songs listed on iTunes, eMusic and other…
Three Keys To Great Viral Marketing
Mark Redetzke at ClickZ analyzes the “flash mob” craze in New York, and highlights three essentials of any good viral marketing campaign: 1. Make it worth doing 2. Don’t fear incentives 3. Use a “velvet rope.”
Do You Suffer From Big Cup Syndrome?
Today at the store, I saw something astonishing. The Reese’s Big Cup. My wife, my friends and my casual acquaintances all acknowledge my love for the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. And someone in Hershey, PA clearly believes that if folks…
Fat Chuck’s To-Do List
Fat Chuck’s has a Top 25 To-Do list for independent musicians (which has 27 items on it, but who’s counting?) — I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Yes, Master!
String Cheese Incident, which refined the practice of advance ticket sales to fans, is about to sue the bejeezus out of TicketMaster. Apparently, TM won’t release blocks of tickets to bands unless they’re to be sold to “legitimate fan clubs”…
Tossing The Dough
Did you know that at most modern pizza shops, there’s no need at all to toss the dough? Most professional pizza cooks use equipment that stretches that dough for them. Yet, on a bulletin board for pizza shop owners, I…
DIY Distribution — Better Placement without the Risk
Our friend Chris Standring (writer of Street Team) has posted a great commentary at GoGirlsMusic.com about the right way to get your self-produced album into stores.
That Wasn’t Fear, It Was Independence Day
The rumors are true. The so-called big drop in file sharing use really was just due to holiday vacations, according to Jupiter Research. Traffic is back to normal — and growing. Jupiter says online music sales will only be worth…
Music Licensing Workshop in Nashville
Over your career, it’s likely that your long term wealth will come from music publishing and royalties. Folks in Nashville have a chance to register for a seminar that will take you behind the scenes of “music clearance” — the…
The New Breed of Indie Musician
Thanks to Suzanne at Indie-Music.com for catching this great article in the Denver Post which neatly summarizes the new breed of “indie music” — artists who have been dropped (or liberated themselves) from major labels, only to bite them in…
The Snapster Model
Tech journalist Robert X. Cringely posits a clever model for a legal music sharing business. It’s a surprisingly workable idea, which just requires a whole lot of lawyers and a few million dollars. On the down side, there’s no room…
Does Your Club Owner Sound Like This?
When I first wrote Grow Your Band’s Audience as a series of magazine articles in 1998, one of the things I discovered was that this animosity between bookers and bands was mostly show. Posturing. Folks acting like that was the…