Excellent advice for comics from Brent Morin, who released an excellent Netflix special not long ago: Get up every night. Bar shows and coffee shops apartment shows etc. avoid comedy clubs for a year or so. https://t.co/eVk05M7xqp — Brent Morin…
Stop worrying about ticket scalping bots. Make an even better show.
Nathan Hubbard, former CEO of Ticketmaster, dropped a scorch-the-earth essay on the state of concert ticketing on The Ringer. Lin-Manuel Miranda, who’s about to haul away a whole bucket of Tony Awards for Hamilton, penned an op-ed piece for the…
Caring for your core.
I’m posting some early chapters of Audience Supported for spinme.com members… It doesn’t matter if you follow every other step in this book to the letter, and it doesn’t matter if you benefit from the best coaching and mentoring you…
Powers of Ten (What are the “right ears” for your music?)
From our “Ask a Question” mailbag, Joey M. writes to ask: “I guess my query is the same as many others. How do I get my music to the right ears?” I think there’s a deeper question behind that question.…
Under new management.
I’m posting some early drafts of chapters from Audience Supported just for supporters of spinme.com… The new boss looks a lot like the old boss. We’ve only been handing out Grammys for about six decades. The Oscars started about twenty…
Finding corporate sponsors without sacrificing authenticity.
I’m posting some early drafts of chapters from Audience Supported just for supporters of spinme.com… Elvis Presley only recorded one commercial in his life. It was for Southern Maid Donuts, a Dallas chain that advertised fresh, hot donuts at 4pm…
Playing the money game for musicians.
I’m posting some early drafts of chapters from Audience Supported just for supporters of spinme.com… “You don’t need a hit to survive.” That’s the crux of the argument Kevin Kelly made in his 2008 essay, 1,000 True Fans. Kelly’s influence…
Surviving the squeaky-clean NACA convention
I caught a little bit of the dust-up on Twitter today about this article in the Atlantic that targets the—shall we say—sanitized nature of the National Association of Campus Activities conventions. Today’s college students can’t seem to take a joke…
What’s your perfect day?
I’m posting some early drafts of chapters from Audience Supported just for supporters of spinme.com… David Berman has worked with everyone from IBM to the United Nations. He specializes in designing things (like forms, posters, and websites) that serve practical…
What makes you happy?
I’m posting some early drafts of chapters from Audience Supported just for supporters of spinme.com… Much of what follows in this book involves learning how to make your audience happy without compromising the artistic integrity of your work. It’s a…
Solving donor fatigue with doner kebab
Here in Philadelphia, a core collection of 160 “arts and cultural groups” has issued an urgent plea for $1.4 billion in philanthropic funding. This, only five years after a report noted the challenges of making significant social impact when creative…
Brands are the new bands
Maybe it’s a sudden wave of nostalgia, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my senior year of high school. At the time, I was taking piano lessons and thinking about film school. So I picked a college where…