Archive for the ‘ LIFE AS A MUSICIAN ’ Category

WHO GETS THE MONEY?

Who really gets the money when you buy a cd in a store, or at a show, or online?

Listen up!

First off – I’m not really going to answer that question, and here’s why:

When you buy an album, or a t-shirt, or a concert ticket, you are making a purchase from a business. A musician has structured his or her business in a way they feel is appropriate, and has entered into binding contracts with people they hopefully trust. Those people are providing services which help the artist to further their career in ways that (again, hopefully) are worthwhile to the artist and worth whichever pieces of the pie they’ve made a decision to surrender in exchange for said services. Why should it be up to YOU to decide which employees of the business get paid? You don’t get to walk into McDonalds’, order a Big Mac and then say “..but I want THIS GIRL to get all the money from my purchase, because this sandwich is the work of HER hands and is going to be delicious.”

Besides, if you DID believe that, you’d be delusional to begin with and therefore incapable of making sound fiscal decisions. Big Macs are gross.

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ARTISTDATA: TAKING THE “WORK” OUT OF NETWORKING

Artists and music industry professionals are busy people. Planning the logistics of touring; making complex business decisions; maintaining inventories and designing products; all these things take time. Oh yeah – and top-selling albums don’t write or record themselves. At least, not yet. (For a scary peek into the possible future of music composition, follow this link.)

Nowadays, artists are also expected to build and maintain a relationship with their fans through their websites, social media accounts and other online forums. The trouble is, building a following on ONE website takes a lot of time and effort; maintaining vibrant communities in a dozen different places requires full-time attention. Many musicians are discouraged and frustrated by the sheer amount of time they spend in front of their computers.

Is this why we wanted to be musicians? To spend hours updating tour schedules, posting status updates and photos on every social network that pops up?

Enter ArtistData. Read more

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MY INTERVIEW WITH DAVID MEERMAN SCOTT

COVERITLIVE

coveritlive rules

I had the chance to chat with author, speaker and blogger David Meerman Scott (website) last week. He’s writing a new book on marketing and technology and wanted a musician’s point of view, so I suggested using technology on my band’s website to conduct the interview live while our fans watched! We used a great “live blog” system called CoverItLive (it’s free!) and we had a great time. Read on for the transcript.. Read more

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21ST CENTURY ROCKSTARDOM

There’s been a lot of lip service paid in the last couple of years to the alleged “downfall” of the music industry. I get asked about it all the time in interviews – how we, as an independent band, view the rocky present and cloudy future of the biz. I thought some of you might be interested in a bit of an insider’s perspective on the situation… at least, the situation as it seems from where I stand.

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