It happens all the time. You’re having a great night on stage, and somebody slick tells you that they’d love to represent you. In a whirlwind, you sign a contract because they assure you that “it’s boilerplate” and “everybody signs…
When spinme.com launched in 1997, we thought it would grow up to be Pitchfork. It hosted “Daily Digital Opinion,” J.F. Parnell’s album review mailing list, and our original discussion forums. What a precious logo we had when we launched: While…
Ever since attending last Saturday’s interview with John Oates, I’ve been talking to folks about the pros and cons of working on albums vs. EPs. There’s a school of thought among music promotion professionals right now that you might not…
Folks have been talking to me a lot lately about “gamification.” It’s a popular business trend that hopes to leverage the video game habits of recent generations into stronger workplace productivity. Take a set of tasks that would otherwise sound…
When I ran Handwritten Records in the 90s with my friend Kristen, indie labels still had a clear role in the music business. I was a production geek with access to a studio and a mass CD duplication machine, and…
The Philadelphia Chapter of The Recording Academy welcomed Temple alum John Oates back to campus last Saturday night, for an intimate acoustic performance and an interview conducted by my friend and former colleague, Gene Shay. Mississippi Mile is Oates’ tribute…
It doesn’t take long for partners to become enemies when a record “pops” and royalty checks start rolling in. Rebecca Black’s bizarre path to the Billboard charts has generated buzz about what she’s going to do with tens of thousands…
Ed Simons from the Chemical Brothers wonders that aloud, in response to Radiohead’s new album release. In an age of quickly copied digital downloads, turning your album into an artifact can help you preserve sales and reward your most loyal…
At 78, you couldn’t possibly begrudge Quincy Jones the right to slow down a little. “Slowing down” for Q means working on just one album project at a time. This powerful career retrospective and interview from The National reveals some…
Here’s another case study of a college-based music management degree program taking things to the next level: At the University of North Alabama, students in an Artist Management and Touring course have to stage a concert for a final project.…
The entertainment press buzzes this morning with news that Beyonce has dropped her dad as her manager. It’s not unusual for artists and managers to evolve in different directions, but it’s very rare for a successful family partnership to last…
I’ve written in the past about the music business major degree programs popping up at colleges and universities all over the United States. While it still worries me that we may be creating a bigger supply of would-be music managers…
[At the start and end of every week, I’ll reserve one post for a product, service, or sponsor that’s paying to keep the lights on at spinme.com.] Even though I’ve offered a version of Grow Your Band’s Audience as a…
Could your next album qualify for a Grammy? If you’re in the Philadelphia region, my home chapter of NARAS is sponsoring a free “Grammy Awards 101” session for performers, producers, and music managers to learn everything about submitting your recordings…
Artists sometimes ask me why I focus my books on earning revenue from touring and merchandise sales, instead of from boosting album sales. In response, let me introduce you to Arizona State University Economics and Finance major Hasan Siddiqui. The…
It’s hard enough to find music managers you can trust. Once you’re earning enough money from music to think about helping others, you’ve got to find managers from other disciplines who can carry out your mission without embarrassing you in…
From the “problems you probably can’t wait to have” file: Artists at all stages of audience development have discovered that house concerts, private events, and corporate bookings can often result in far more revenue than traditional club gigs. And while…
Young Buck’s not having a great year. In the wake of his recent arrest, we’re learning more of the details about his money troubles, and the feud with 50 Cent over an unpaid $300,000 loan. He owes the IRS even…
Over the years, I’ve had plenty of arguments with musicians and with music management professionals about the importance of maintaining a website under your own domain. Their responses often included: * 1996: I don’t need my own domain. AOL gives…
Have I mentioned lately that I love subscribing to the Wall Street Journal, if only because it subsidizes Speakeasy? It’s my favorite pop culture blog of the moment, because it’s got such a wry sensibility while filtering the insanity of…
In Grow Your Band’s Audience, I wrote about the subtle differences between the US and the UK markets for independent musicians. In a nutshell: US audiences crave familiarity. It’s hard to break in to the music business, but you can…
It’s easy for music management agencies to fall into a stereotype when it comes to corporate culture. Managers often get called cutthroat, rude, angry, or worse. That doesn’t have to be the case. Angela Haines from the Huffington Post…
I’m usually the only voice in a room full of musicians and music managers telling folks to slow down touring until you’ve saturated all of the zones in your region. (Understand the Zone Booking Strategy I’m talking about by checking…
Depending on who you talk to, SXSW may have hit its own critical mass sometime in the past few years. From talking to folks who went this year, some of the best stuff was actually happening at many of the…
Fred Wilson shares the story behind Airbnb (a great startup that I’ll write a full post about soon), especially the strategy the founders used to raise $25,000 in emergency funds to keep their business afloat. Whenever someone tells me that…
Now that the 2011 editions of Music Management for the Rest of Us and More Gigs Now are off to the printer, I’ve started working on the revisions for Host Your Own Concerts. And it seems like some neighborhoods could…
A recent post about concert photography on Australian website The Vine resulted in feedback from an anonymous concert photographer who left a so-called manifesto in the article’s comments. The Vine republished the photographer’s manifesto on its own page, in which…
Al Lewis launched into a Wall Street Journal essay on the economy with the phrase: Shared sacrifice follows every disaster. It’s only a matter of deciding who shares it. Thinking about some of the choices Lori and I have been…
[At the start and end of every week, I’ll reserve one post for a product, service, or sponsor that’s paying to keep the lights on at spinme.com.] Even though I’ve offered a version of Grow Your Band’s Audience as a…
Techcrunch profiled Nimbit, a “band-to-fan” e-commerce platform that seems to roll up all the services from CDBaby, HostBaby, and Fanbridge into a single service. According to Rip Empson, the service has already rolled up $5 million in venture capital it…
Ways to make me feel like an old geezer, #142. What is Jessie J talking about at the top of “Price Tag?” Are these shout outs to people? Is this part of some Illuminati code? Has a sleeper cell been…
Hollywood’s going nuts this weekend, because of a deal between Lionsgate, Groupon, and Fandango, to pack theatre seats for the premiere weekend of Matthew McConaughey’s new movie, “The Lincoln Lawyer.” Here’s how the deal works. In most cities, it costs…
Rebecca Black made it into the iTunes Top 100 this week. While Jay Frank’s analyzing the songwriting mechanics that make Rebecca Black’s “Friday” a chart success, I’ve been getting lots of e-mail and DMs about a new wave of song…
I’ve been teaching some workshops on social media lately, and one of the questions that comes up very often involves how to keep Twitter and Facebook status updates from taking over your life. In the new edition of Grow Your…
The first I heard about the scandal at NPR was a tweet from my former colleague at WXPN, Bruce Warren: That sounds about right. In case you haven’t been following the news, a senior NPR official got pranked by a…
Michael Epstein suggests that microfunding better suits a label model, where funders on a Kickstarter-type campaign can invest in a slate of projects rather than in a particular artist. Scott Andrew notes that sites like RocketHub encourage some acts to…
I love reading the monthly briefings from the Trendwatching team. This year, they called out “Twinsumers” and “Social-lites” as part of their 11 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2011. Grow Your Band’s Audience charts a course for finding “your perfect audience.”…
Mailbag time! One of our readers writes: I am into urban/dance music. This relies on an artist as well as a producer. I’m a producer. Here is what I am willing to offer the artist: -I am willing to allow…
Steve Stoute’s a little angry at NARAS. Every year, folks complain about a Grammy snub. But Steve’s wondering aloud, in an open letter to the New York Times, whether the Grammy voters have consistently snubbed “pop culture” with its selections…
A few weeks ago, I joined a gathering of about a hundred professionals from the arts, entertainment, and creative communities in Philadelphia to discuss the concept of “creative vitality” in our city. The fact that all of these talented individuals…
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Annette John-Hall covers a delicate controversy brewing just a few blocks from my home: Jamaican Jerk Hut–one of the places I thought I’d truly regret leaving behind the second time I moved away from Philly–has a new…
It’s so easy to focus on social media marketing and street team strategies, that we often overlook some of the most basic ways that you can grow your audience. Every day, someone probably asks you what you do for a…
Yesterday, I wrote about how our culture cast Simon Cowell as the villain of American Idol, just because he has the audacity to tell people “no.” We’re so concerned with being liked, with validating everyone’s experiences, and with wanting happy…
If you believe the news reports from the Television Critics Association, there’s “no villain” on American Idol now that Simon Cowell has left for the American version of X-Factor. That’s a shame. American culture has evolved in the past few…
…also known as your fans. While this will sound a little contradictory coming from the guy that wrote two books about audience engagement (with a third on the way), think about the qualities that drew your fans to you in…
If you’re not already immersed in the entertainment e-commerce industry, you could face an overwhelming number of choices. Consultants and web contractors may want to charge you hundreds of dollars a month to develop and host custom solutions for selling…
There’s nothing like hearing your song on the radio for the first time. I’ve been fortunate enough to be around artists who’ve experienced the rush of hearing their beautiful recordings compressed like crazy and popped in-between station “stinger” IDs. But,…
A post by Thursday Bram got me thinking about something I wrote years ago about the relationship between artist and manager. “Musicians get to be the CEOs of their own small companies. And CEOs get to hire staffs.” I want…
I meet too many aspiring musicians who tell me they’re just waiting for that lucky break for the world to discover their talent. In the meantime, they’re usually the same folks watching every episode of American Idol instead of booking…
While revising the site’s “About” page, I realized that it’s been a while since I wrote about one of the most important skills for a music manager to develop: the ability to rally and display support. Bands often get stuck…