December 2008
38 posts
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Music Business Links - Tuesday Dec. 30
Here are some music business articles that we tweeted out, in case you missed ‘em!
Lala may lead bid for Facebook music service, but questions loom http://ow.ly/1Jf
Labels Think They Can Build a Better Music Video Mousetrap http://ow.ly/1Jd
RIAA Thomas Appeal Denied; Retrial Likely to Set New Copyright Infringement Course http://ow.ly/1Jb
Music Career New Years Resolutions...
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Music Industry Links from the Holidays
Here are some highlights from the music business links we tweeted out over the last week or so, in cased you missed ‘em:
The Fall of Communization and the Rise of the Music Fan http://ow.ly/1E3
EU Prefers iTunes 2 to 1 But Amazon Gaining Share http://ow.ly/1DZ
Keeping Books http://ow.ly/1B6
Today’s Playlist Sites Are No Boon For Labels http://ow.ly/1AT
Music Labels In Talks To...
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Taking the Online Offline
With the plethora of powerful social networks and music discovery tools, it is increasingly tempting to spend all of your band’s marketing time online. After all, online marketing:
is relatively easy
is relatively cheap (often free)
provides immediate gratification and feedback
is easily measurable
is not bound by time or geography
can be done in your PJs at home
A few years ago it...
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Artists House Vault: Terry McBride, founder of...
Terry McBride’s name made the blog rounds a few weeks ago when he reemphasized in an interview how his record label and band management service, Nettwerk Music Group, would be revamped going into the new year. Terry cited fans as the most powerful decision-makers in the new music business. Nettwerk is shifting its focus and business model accordingly. After you watch the videos below which...
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Artists House Community Christmas Compilation
Happy Holidays!
The official Artists House Community Christmas Compilation is here! All of these holiday songs were recorded by musicians who read this blog or interact with us on twitter and were kind enough to submit them for everyone else to enjoy. There are several ways you can enjoy this compilation:
Listen on the streaming player embedded below
Share the player with others and embed on...
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Good Will To All
I came across a post at Doug Ross’ blog last week that I wanted to share with all of you. Doug has graciously agreed to reblog his post here at Artists House. I think he makes a great point for all musicians, especially in the theme of the holiday season. Build good will. It takes integrity, patience, and hard work, but can be one of your most valuable assets in the current music business.
...
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Artists House Vault: Adam Levy on Self Managing
In this video from the Artists House Vault, Adam Levy discussies managing yourself as an artist. Adam Levy is best known for his work as guitarist and songwriter with Norah Jones’ band The Handsome Family. In addition to his work with Jones, Levy is also a solo artist. His most recent album, Washing Day, was released in 2007. He resides in New York City.
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Music Business Links - Thurs. Dec. 18
In case you missed it, here are all the music business links we sent out yesterday on twitter:
Nashville Feels The Pain: Equity Music Group Folds http://ow.ly/19h
Public domain sheet music: when is it copyrighted? http://ow.ly/19q
Mixwit mixtape site shuts down http://ow.ly/19n
Eleven Seven’s Woodworth Tells “What Is Working” http://ow.ly/19m
Live Nation Takes $19 Million...
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Artists House Community Christmas Compilation
If you’re following us on twitter, you probably are already aware that I’ve been soliciting Christmas tunes from all of you who have made your holiday recordings available to your fans!
I noticed a few weeks ago that many of you were doing special holiday promotions. Carla Lynne Hall has been busy recording holiday songs for her fans by just using her laptop and a couple quick &...
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Music Business Links - Wed. Dec. 17
In case you missed it, here are all the links we sent out yesterday on twitter:
Christmas music sales - physical and digital: http://ow.ly/14M
200 digital music startups from 2008 http://ow.ly/12w
Minty Fresh’s Powers Answers “What Is Working? http://ow.ly/12K
Lilly Allen’s fake music leak: http://ow.ly/12J
RIAA Just Keeps On Suing Students: Conversation At The End Of A...
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Great Storytelling Goes Beyond Your Band Bio
I’ve never liked to criticize others for restating/rewriting ideas that have been written already. In my experience, I’ve found that a certain wording or a certain timing can make the difference between the point slamming me right in the face or it skimming right over my head.
This morning I was reading this article, and I was hit in the face. The article quoted Mark Hughes, author of...
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Fans As Customers
I have been reflecting an increasing amount on the fan-artist relationship and how to organize it into a logical framework that can be assessed and improved upon. Music, after all, is an intensely personal experience for a fan, and an artist has to accept and address the fact that a single creative work spawns up to an infinite amount of personal experiences that are beyond their control. At the...
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Music Business Links - Tues. Dec. 16
In case you missed it, here are all the articles we sent out yesterday on twitter:
This isn’t specific to music, but someone out there might find this helpful right now. 100+ places to find jobs online: http://ow.ly/YL Amazon’s First Year in MP3s: Fair to Good http://ow.ly/VT
FM radio, music industry out of tune on royalty http://ow.ly/VS
Bluhammock’s Jaylaan Shares...
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The Importance of Context in Gaining New Fans
I’m excited to bring you today’s guest post from one of our twitter friends, Greg Bates (@GregBates). Greg has been reading some of our articles and got in touch with us on twitter. He has some great ideas and seems to have really wrapped his head around this fan-focused music business. So much so that he is starting a blog called Fanagement. If his writing is anything like what he...
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Music Business Links - Mon. Dec. 16
Here are all of yesterday’s music business links that we sent out on twitter!
Making a record is just one way a band can make money http://ow.ly/Qg
Could CD Quality Downloads Be An Answer To The Sales Slump? http://ow.ly/Q3
MuckWork: Derek Sivers’ personal assistant project for bands http://ow.ly/Q1
New Latin Digital Music Store Preps Launch http://ow.ly/PZ
Thoughts on Warner Pushing...
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Warner Pushes for Blanket Music License
In the past few weeks, Warner Music Group has begun to heavily push the idea of creating an ‘opt-in’ blanket license for schools and universities, allowing students at those universities to download and share music without the fear of being sued. According to the plan, Warner would then have a non-profit group administer the money paid by the universities on behalf of those downloads...
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Use The Web: Squarespace.com
This week in Use The Web, I am highlighting a site that is near and dear to my heart, Squarespace.com. In the interest of full disclosure, I should shamelessly plug say that my personal site SomeAmerican.com is built using this service. As far as WYSIWYG editors go, Squarespace is by far the most powerful implementation of such a system that I have ever used. Literally every aspect of a site...
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In Case You Missed It - Sat. Dec. 13 Links
In case you missed it, here are all the links we sent out yesterday on twitter:
People’s Music Store Lets Anyone Sell Music http://ow.ly/I7
What Do You Mean By Web Presence? http://ow.ly/I6
Good Will To All: http://ow.ly/I5
MP3tunes Files Counterclaims Against EMI: http://ow.ly/I4
The 3 dimensions of the music Long Tail http://ow.ly/I3
Getting and Keeping Band Momentum:...
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In Case You Missed It - Fri. Dec. 12 Links
In case you missed it, here are all the links we sent out on Twitter yesterday:
LimeWire adds friend sharing feature, still looks for music http://ow.ly/EV
Terry McBride Puts Fans in Charge of Bands http://ow.ly/EU
MadonnaTribe.com: Artists, fans, and Web 2.0 http://ow.ly/EQ
Music Industry: So you are on Twitter, now what? http://ow.ly/EO
25 Digital Entertainment Execs To Watch...
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Pulling Your Tribe Together
We talk a lot about community here, and I really believe that in order to succeed as an indie musician today, you need to band together with others to reinforce each other’s efforts and spread the risk and costs. That is why I envisioned new music labels as artist collectives.
But putting together a great community if often easier said than done. As Jim Collins would put it, you primarily...
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In Case You Missed It - Wednesday Dec. 11 Links
If you weren’t able to catch us on twitter yesterday, here are all the articles we sent out!
“The Importance of Networking in the Music Business” on the AH blog: http://ow.ly/Av
Market Assessment and Forecast of Mobile Music: The End of the Beginning http://ow.ly/AC
Wisdom of the day: engagement is king! http://ow.ly/Au
Wholesome Family Music Activites: http://ow.ly/Ar
TV...
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Artists House Vault: The Importance of Networking
You’ve heard it before, and maybe a lot of you who read Artists House are already the choir, but the fact still remains that you’ll find little success in the music business (or any for that matter) without putting some effort into networking.
Personally, the word ‘networking’ has always been a little intimidating for me. Countless professionals and professors told me...
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A Modern Music Business Model That Works
We had an awesome response yesterday to our list 17 Things I’d Love to Pay Musicians For. One of our friends on twitter, Graeme Sacks, caught my attention when he shared a link to Artistshare with me. This is a business I was not aware of, but the idea seems like a good one - Graeme was kind enough to do a writeup to share with all of you - Check it...
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A Modular Label
Here’s a clipping from an article about Modular Recordings, one of the more innovative record labels out there, home to indie acts such as Cut Copy, MSTRKRFT, the Presets, and many more. Although the label has recently posted some big losses (in the 5 million dollar range) this year, I think the thinking behind a lot of their strategic moves makes for a great example of how to innovate.
...
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17 Things I'd Love to Pay Musicians For
Yesterday we featured a guest post about Selling Access to Your Band. We got quite a bit of feedback from all of you (thank you for that!) - most of you loved the idea but were more or less unsure of how to make something like this successful for yourselves.
Being a rather passionate consumer of music, I thought I would briefly share with you some of the things that I would eagerly pay money for...
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Use The Web: Sproutbuilder.com
This week, we are taking a look at Sproutbuilder.com, a website that allows you to generate your own rich media content (widgets, banners, etc.) using an in-browser WYSIWYG editing interface. WYSIWYG stands for “What You See Is What You Get,” and these types of content creation tools are becoming increasingly prevalent in the online space. The appeal is their “pick up and...
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Guest Post: Sell Fans Access to Your Band
We’re starting the week off with a guest post from one of our twitter followers, Will Kriski or @learnleadguitar. He has an interesting proposition that a lot of musicians could (should) be utilizing (though everyone will have to customize this idea to make it their own and something that will work for what they do). Really, this is one very realistic way to act on the idea of selling...
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Artists House Vault: Publicity Tips
Publicity is a big slice of the marketing pie. When trying to gain an audience, you’ve got to get the word out somehow and while you can’t necessarily guarantee it, you can vastly improve your chances by doing one thing:
Tell a story.
In the video below, Bob Merlis talks about the his role as a publicist in helping to tell John Mellencamp’s story.
Now you might be...
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An Untapped Opportunity for Musicians and...
Earlier this week, I wrote a post called Repurposing Your Creative Work which talked briefly about how artists today can find new ways to either increase exposure or creative new revenue from their existing catalog.
I want to highlight another potential opportunity that I have personally been aware of which I have not seen many musicians take advantage of. It’s not for everybody, but it is...
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NPR Interview w/ Planet Google Author
This week, NPR’s brilliant Fresh Air podcast interviewed Randall Stross about his new book, Planet Google: One Company’s Audacious Plan To Organize Everything We Know. In the book, Stross chronicles the rise of Google over the past ten years and explains just the process the company uses to index and organize the web for fastest access. He also poses some tough questions for...
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Under Our Roof: Interview w/ Justin Ouellette of...
For this ‘Under Our Roof’ post, I interviewed Justin Ouellette, photographer, designer, and founder of Muxtape.com, a site that has come to represent the battle between innovation and the RIAA. We touched on a number of topics ranging from the importance of a good design for a web page to how many times he has seen High Fidelity. Check it out below:
Artists House: Tell us a little...
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Reach People the Way You'd Like to Be Reached
I was just reading a great article by one of our twitter friends, CyberPR, called Derek Sivers’ 7 Critical Marketing Basics every musician should know.
All of the points are right on, and each are demonstrated by Derek’s own personal success story, so I suggest you read the full article when you get a moment.
Point #4 stood out particularly to me, however, and I just had to share it...
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LiveNation Has Joined Forces With Blockbuster......
In what amounts to being the latest spectacular example of completely inane partnerships between corporations, LiveNation announced today that it will begin selling tickets to popular events through 500 Blockbuster store locations across the country. The move is designed to challenge online ticket behemoth Ticketmaster, who have a stranglehold on online ticket sales. According to spin from In...
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Repurposing Your Creative Work
Note: I started writing this as part of the Artists House Vault post on Music Libraries, but decided it would work better as a post on its own. As such, some of this post may make sense only in the context of the last!
All of your music has potential. How are you making it available? Do you have songs hiding away in the basement collecting dust? It’s time to brush them off and find new...
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Artists House Vault: Music Libraries
I had the very fortunate experience of working for Alan Ett Creative Group and Opus 1 Music Library for a summer, and while I was there I learned a lot (probably more than I ever wanted to know!) about production music libraries.
Music libraries represent another career opportunity for those who are interested in music but don’t want to be up on the stage and living out of a Winnebago.
...
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7 Abundantly Clear Things About Abundance
Matt Mason is the author of a great book and blog on piracy and the new multimedia market called “The Pirates Dilemma.” In the speech below, recorded during this year’s Pop!TECH conference, he discusses seven beneficial things that are the direct result of piracy (otherwise known as the enabler of abundance). The heart of Mason’s concept is this statement:
If you want to beat pirates, then...
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Reader Profile: Adriana Kaegi
Hey everyone, this week’s Reader Profile is with Adriana Kaegi — solo vocalist, career musician, and educator. She’s got a new album coming out this December on iTunes, eMusic, and Amazon and submitted her song to us using the SoundCloud dropbox on the right. Check out her track:
MP3: It feels like I am dreaming
Could you tell us a little about yourself? Both as a person and a...
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Free Content and the T-Shirt Economy
I read an interesting article recently by Clive Thompson called How T-Shirts Keep Online Content Free.
He talks about the hugely popular Red vs. Blue, an animated comedy series set inside the game-world of Halo. The series was created by four (nerdy) friends, and they eventually made enough money selling related merchandise to quit their jobs and pursue the series full time.
How did they do it?...