I'm bringing Christmas In May!

Every year I walk into the mall on a nice fall day and at some point it happens. I start noticing the red and green decorations and find myself humming “Chestnuts Roasting” (Yes, I know the real title is “Christmas Song”. I choose to not use it as I think that’s a cop out title!) Last year, they literally had Christmas music and decorations up the first week of October! Before Halloween?!?! Seriously guys! What’s up with that!?!?!

Click to read more ...

Episode 7: The Music Biz Weekly Podcast E-Commerce Solutions For Bands

Here we go folks, another edition of our weekly podcast featuring Brian Thompson from Thorny Bleeder and Michael Brandvold from Michael Brandvold Marketing.

This week’s topic? E-Commerce Solutions for Bands. 

We discuss everything from getting your music up on iTunes and the Amazon MP3 Store, in addition to options on how to handle your merchandise sales and email marketing campaigns.

What platforms are you using to sell your band’s music and merch?

Be sure to follow Brian on Twitter here and Michael on Twitter here.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and share your own tips and tricks with us!

Brian Thompson

Thorny Bleeder

Musicians Love Facebook, But Does Facebook Love Music? The Data Says…Not Sure

Here are some quick stats about Facebook and music that basically add up to this – Fans and artists love to connect on Facebook, but not for spending money on music related items.

1. Music-related pages are about a third of the top 20 pages on the site (Inside Facebook)
2. Music-related pages are fourth most likely to be “liked” (HubSpot Blog)
3. BUT – there is only one app in the top 50 apps on the site that is music related (All Facebook)

Apps are where money is made on the social network itself, and the music industry needs to learn how to better take advantage of them. Even RootMusic, the one music-related app in the top 50, simply turns into an app what we already knew – that music fan pages were very popular on Facebook.

Click to read more ...

The Science of Becoming a Rock Star

Working with both well-known and unsigned artists for over a decade, I’ve spent a lot of time pondering why some people succeed in music while others fail. And though this might sound strange, there are a few physics ideas that can help you think differently about how great music careers are made.

Rule #1: Quantum Events = Music Success

Building a music career is different than learning how to sing or play an instrument. Practice makes you slightly better with your voice or instrument every day – over years, as you put in your 10,000 hours of work, you steadily move from novice to pro (see Figure 1). To be a truly great and lasting artist, you must master your voice or instrument – a lot of this work is done alone or with bandmates. But mastering an instrument isn’t the same as building a music career, and understanding the difference will improve your chance of success.

Click to read more ...

Google Music Currently Shuts Out Independent Artists

Billboard recently posted details about a proposed music service currently being created by Google. The proposal outlines ways to help major label artists with its tentative format, but there is no mention of indie labels or artists.

The proposed plans are to offer a basic digital music retailer concept with a twist. The company is hoping to provide an innovative cloud-based service where consumers can have their music in a “locker” for $25 per year. Music in the “locker” could be downloaded or streamed by an internet connected gadget.

The proposal seems to be an iTunes competitor and not a game-changer like most music fans had hoped.

Click to read more ...

Are You Really Selling Music?

It is critical in any business to ask yourself several questions before starting. As a performing artist (or songwriter, composer, producer…), one question you must ask yourself at some point is, “What am I selling?”.

One of the biggest ‘light bulb’ moments I ever had was as a senior in high-school, when I learned the story of Ray Kroc. For those who aren’t sure what I’m talking about, let me explain….

Ray Kroc is the man milkshake machine salesman who took McDonalds from being a small,  innovative, fast food restaurant, into the largest restaurant chain the world has ever seen. Before he died, he was asked what was his secret to selling burgers. His reply was simply, “I’m not in the burger business, I’m in the real estate business…”

Click to read more ...

Top 5 Rules To Making Money Doing Music

1) Shows, Shows, Shows

Although this seems obvious enough, many artists miss the fact that performances are critical in earning a living. Even in the prime of the music industry, an artists’ performance income was their main income. And once a week at the same local bar is not going to cut it. Remember the basic rules of sales we all learned in 9th grade…Supply & Demand. If you are in too much supply to one little area, the demand will decrease. Spread your shows out, or at least switch which side of town you perform on.

2) Get Online

If you’ve been doing this long enough, you remember the days of printing up flyers, posters, stickers, sampler CD’s, and anything else you could think of to promote your music. Then you had to go out yourself and pass all that stuff out. Even living in major markets with millions of people, it was time consuming, took lots of money, and you would only actually get to a fraction of those people. Now, with the aid of the internet, you can reach millions of people, in just a few days, with almost no money. The weeks it took to successfully connect with a few hundred people can now be done in a few hours with a few well placed key strokes. It is a utility that can not be overlooked!

Click to read more ...

The Creators Project

The Creators Project is a new network dedicated to the celebration of creativity and culture across media, and around the world. At a time in the history of the arts where digital technologies have revolutionized distribution, democratized access, and completely re-imagined the scope and scale with which an artist can create a vision and reach an audience, The Creators Project is a completely new kind of arts and culture channel for a completely new kind of world.

The Creators Project has two mandates: on one hand it’s a modern day media channel that we will continually identify and celebrate the work of visionary artists wherever they are. On the other hand it is also a content creation studio, an arts foundation of sorts that will facilitate the production and dissemination of new work with these artists and their collaborators.

Click to read more ...

in collaboration | tagged Artist, creators project, music, musicians

Email Article | Permalink | Share Article

Creativity V Commercialism...

I’m a musician, not an actor… Do I have anything against actors? No… What I do feel passionate about is the abundance of heartless musical garbage that clogs the airwaves. So many people singing songs that have very little substance or meaning, the singers sound like they are not even convincing themselves. & even worse, they aren’t even pretending to try their hand at a bit of originality.

Click to read more ...

‘Sounds Digital’ Seeks Digital Music Innovators

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.

Click to read more ...

The Eagles Spring 2010 tour

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.

Click to read more ...

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

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.

Click to read more ...

Is Perfectionism Choking your Project's Music Creativity?

Ah, the Inner Editor of perfectionism…we all have one. Some of us know how to keep this guy in a straight jacket but others seem to let him bounce around the walls of our studio, whining and complaining about every detail until he’s left us tired and uninspired. There’s a time and place to let your Inner Perfectionism have the reigns but when you’re first working on a production or creating new music it is not the time. As creative people we all have to learn the mental personality called the Inner Editor and choose to control him and use him what he’s made for: Editing. If you are not editing but actually CREATING then the Inner Editing should be locked in..

Click to read more ...

The Perceived Value of Music

An opinion about the value of music today, and what factors are contributing as to why music is at this value. Finally, what artists and labels have to do about it.

Click to read more ...