MTT Open - Music Think Tank

So I recently was talking to Shane Sauers of Miss Massive Snowflake on North Pole Records about how things are going with his new record as I’d seen in the charts at a few stations. He told me, “Yeah, it’s getting some airplay in Michigan & stuff, but now what am I supposed to do?” Because he’s in Portland, Oregon & the odds of him doing a tour of the scale to get to Michigan is asking a bit much. So I thought I’d throw out some of my general ideas on the subject & things I sometimes do & maybe should always do because I imagine a lot of people are in the same boat.

music business,

music marketing,

music promotion | tagged

Radio,

music directors

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Wednesday

17Mar2010

March 17, 2010

‘Sounds Digital’ Seeks Digital Music Innovators

Kim Childs |

London, UK. March 17, 2010 – Sounds Digital, the digital music event, is calling out for innovators in the UK and international digital music space to apply to join the Sounds Digital Lab, which offers mentoring, proposition development and international networking with some of the biggest names in music, technology and business.

Innovation,

Music Industry,

music business | tagged

Media,

music

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Monday

15Mar2010

March 15, 2010

The Eagles Spring 2010 tour

Sara John |

A few days ago CC Entertainment presented a rock concert paying a tribute to one of the greatest rock bands ever created, The Eagles. The Laycock St Theatre was filled to capacity. Among the guest singers who performed classical pieces like Hotel California, Desperado, Heartache Tonight, New Kid in Town, Tequila Sunrise and Take It To The Limit, were Kevin Bennett of The Flood, Simon Meli of Ooh la la, Steve Balbi of Noiseworks, Robyn Loau, Spencer Jones, Louise Anton and Kristal Collins, and Jenny Morris. Joseph Calderazzo directed the band and clearly enjoyed himself. He shared that all performers love the music of The Eagles and that made the concert so special.

music marketing | tagged

music

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Saturday

13Mar2010

March 13, 2010

Experimenting with new business models

Jimmy Richards |

4 Comments

I’ve spent the last few months desperately trying to figure out new ways to make money through releasing my music online. As part of an experiment, I am trying out a new business model based on the Street Performer Protocol.

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Thursday

11Mar2010

March 11, 2010

The Question of the Decade

Kevin English |

6 Comments

For the last few days I’ve been going back and forth in the comments section of my favorite music industry blog, Hypebot with a gentleman by the name of Jason who owns the little known label called Viper Bite Records. The post we were so passionately discussing was primarily about metrics but also rasied the question of whether or not the full length album was still a relvant business model. The conversation struck a nerve among readers and became so intense that I’ve decided to expand on these topics in a post of my own. Here is an except from the original blog written by Alex Mann of Trendrr called, “With Mixtapes & Social Media, Is The Album So Far Gone?”.

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Thursday

11Mar2010

March 11, 2010

Case Study - First Steps in a Music Start-Up Venture

Kyle Simmons |

4 Comments

Becoming a musician is like starting your own small business; getting off the ground is often the most challenging stage. This first post is a case study on my current situation. I’m gathering information to help guide big, practical decisions that start-up musicians (like myself) will have to make at some point in their career.

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Wednesday

10Mar2010

March 10, 2010

Put a Ring on her Finger- The Social Web & Music Marketing are Married

Guenter Bergmann |

8 Comments

The world is moving at a faster pace than ever, and technology is the cattle driver of the modern world taking us all to magnificent new lands. Innovation is changing the way we live our lives on what seems like a daily basis. The landscape for which/where/how we do business is in constant motion. The challenge is no longer ‘how do we get there’ its ‘teach me how to drive.’ I am a heavy enthusiast for the marriage between tech and business.

independent music marketing,

social media for musicians | tagged

Digital Music Marketing,

Music Industry,

Technology,

music

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Wednesday

10Mar2010

March 10, 2010

How do you like your music served? Subscription, Ad-Supported, Pirated or Downloaded Legally...

scott fetters |

3 Comments

I believe this year marks the advent of real change for the better within the music industry. It’s not just because the year 2010 is the start of a new decade, or that in 5 years Back to the future II thought we would all have flying cars and hover boards- which I certainly wish we had because it would be awesome. It’s that the time has come to let innovation drive the industry towards change. An industry, which typically was governed with few genuine options, will soon have a full-service customizable menu. You can stream all you want, or you can go a-la-carte.

digital music distribution,

Distribution,

Web 2.0 | tagged

download,

piracy

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Saturday

06Mar2010

March 6, 2010

Digital Branding With Music and Mobile Apps

Dexter Bryant Jr. |

Music-based mobile apps are one of the most powerful tools in a musician’s digital marketing arsenal. Apps are a hot commodity with customers, especially the gen-Y market. Beyond that apps provide an avenue for deeper engagement with your audience. But in order to maximize your potential for connecting with audiences, your app must be user-friendly and addictive.

Dexter Bryant Jr,

Distribution,

Future Of Music,

music marketing | tagged

apps,

branding,

digital,

iPhone,

mobile,

music marketing

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Saturday

06Mar2010

March 6, 2010

Rock The Biz -The Movie: Chapter 3 "Selfrelease"

Marc Weissenberger |

In the chapter “selfrelease” european bands, labels and player in the music biz talk about the most important tools, go’s and no go’s if you want to release your music on your own.

Music Industry Crisis,

social media for musicians | tagged

Digital Music Marketing,

Independent Music,

band strategy,

selfrelease

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Friday

05Mar2010

March 5, 2010

2 Reasons to Take a Gig

Ben Coe |

5 Comments

There are two main reasons to take any gig.

1. Exposure - By definition exposure means “the act of subjecting someone to an influencing experience.” No matter what development stage your artist business is in, it will always be important to take gigs for exposure to grow awareness of your artist (or “brand”) in untouched markets. Exposing your band to the right audiences can be worth more than upfront money sometimes.

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Thursday

04Mar2010

March 4, 2010

Who Do We Reward More, The Best or The Most Visible?

Derek Miller |

3 Comments

Since you’ve been reading my blog and know how I roll, you can probably figure this one out. (Read this fantastic post by Eric Barker for the science.)

The most visible are consistently more rewarded than their performance merits.

That’s why Nickleback has sold over 6 million albums. They’re everywhere, whether you like it or not. Magazines, blogs, radio, tv, etc. Pretty much everyone knows about them. Yuck.

So what’s going on here? Why is this? Is this a giant troll that the world is going to unveil in a few years? (a la Andy Kaufman’s style).

Nope. Once again the peculiar human brain is at work.

music promotion | tagged

Promotion,

psychology |

2 References

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Thursday

04Mar2010

March 4, 2010

Screw a New Music Tax – We’ve got our Own Ideas

Dante Cullari |

6 Comments

So by now you’ve probably heard a lot of talk about a new music tax for AM/FM radio stations, that corresponds with the 1995 fee imposed on Internet, satellite, and cable radio, crippling hundreds, if not thousands, of internet radio stations.

If you’re an independent artist, I’m happy to announce that this means pretty much nothing. If you want the real scoop on what all the popular opinions are, and the real truth underlying them, this article is great The Man Can’t Tax Our Music . My suggestion: don’t worry about it.

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Thursday

04Mar2010

March 4, 2010

How Indie Musicians Can Get Started With Video

Greg Rollett |

4 Comments

YouTube is huge. We know that. But did you also know that it serves as the number 2 search engine, right behind the king of search and technically their parent company, Google.

That means there are more searches done on YouTube than on Yahoo, Bing, Ask or any other search engine! Do you know what they are looking for?

Much like the personal branding niche tells us to Google ourselves, musicians need to look at YouTub’in themselves. What videos show up? What channels, subscribers, comments and playlists are on the first page of your YouTube results?

music marketing | tagged

music marketing,

video,

youtube