They’re eager for folks to enjoy the record, and confident that audiences will support them at shows. [ link via Howard ] Track these topics:
Touring = Revenue
As usual, Lefsetz speaks only truth. “The ship is leaking at the bottom” is one great quote, plus the refrain that my clients are used to hearing: audience is built on touring, where you can overcome in merch sales what…
Covers
Gerd has picked up on an interesting thread… Using the coversproject database as your jumping-off point, you cover a song by someone. Then, someone’s got to cover one of your songs. And so on. As hard as you work on…
Pale Beneath the Blue is on FIRE, y’all*.
For everybody that gripes at me about how long it takes to make a recording for an EP or for a full length, check out the session log that Pale Beneath the Blue racked up this weekend. That’s thirteen songs…
The New Tastemakers
Web sites like Pitchfork, Tiny Mix Tapes, and cokemachineglow have made being a passive indie fan that much easier. Track these topics:
Are your street teams doing more harm than good?
I’m almost ready to post the recording of our first Street Team 101 call to the members area, but I want to reiterate something I mentioned on the call: A lot of folks are using the term “street team” to…
INXS Booking Agency (and slick middlemen)
All that posting about Rock Star: INXS has given some folks the impression that my company is the booking agency for INXS. Uh, no. Just a fan. You can stop e-mailing me now. But you can find their current itinerary…
Your Competition IS The Real World
We talk a lot on our member conference calls about the things that you’ve got to do to build an audience big enough to make financial sense for talent buyers to book your band. Remember, there’s no longer (in 99%…
The Shift
Mike Matney realizes he’s buying most of his music in digital form. So do I. So are lots of folks, especially the kind of tastemakers that can spread the word about your songs. So, why are so many independent musicians…
Could Your CD Be the Next “Da Vinci Code?”
Bob Baker has unleashed even more of his most outrageous music marketing ideas, and one strikes me as having tremendous potential for the right artist. Have you noticed the thread in popular culture right now that audiences love looking for…
New Fiona Apple — Was it a triumph of buzz over content? And does that even matter?
The new Fiona Apple record is finally hitting the streets after six years! As we’ve discussed here before, it probably wouldn’t even have seen the light of day without significant support from her audience, even though many of the parties…
Commissioned Songs
If you’ve been listening to any of my recent teleclasses, you’ll know that I’m big on the idea that the centuries-old concept of direct patronage is coming back in a huge way. And here’s another example: commissioned songs for special…