Spotify: Music isn’t that Social

The new features announced by music service Spotify on Thursday constitute its biggest and best product upgrade since launch, plugging its worst, most lingering hole with exciting aplomb after several unimpressive attempts. But, whilst the new functionality helps solve Spotify’s music discovery problem with features familiar to “social” platform users (and executes an enhanced version of iTunes’ recently-retired Ping service more effectively),

How Labels Screw Bands using Jurisdiction and Venue

In this video entertainment lawyer Marty Frascogna describes how labels will using contract language to get one over on artists. There are many ways, but specifically we are discussing Jurisdiction and Venue. It is possible to get these changed in contracts. It never hurts to ask, but more than likely you won’t win this fight unless you have some negotiating power behind

What Happens to your Digital Goods When you Die?

With the proliferation of digitally distributed content, the question of ownership is always looming overhead. Part of that question is what happens to it all after you die. In the physical realm, any books, movies, games and music you purchase throughout your life can be left to your children and other heirs. Things aren’t so simple for ebooks and iTunes files that

What Seth Godin Can Teach The Music Industry – Part 2

Social Media Strategist Ariel Hyatt interviewing Seth Godin on his new book We Are All Weird and what the music industry can learn about marketing and promotion from him. Part 2

What Seth Godin Can Teach The Music Industry – Part 1

Social Media Strategist Ariel Hyatt interviewing Seth Godin on his new book We Are All Weird and what the music industry can learn about marketing and promotion from him. Part 1

Insane Clown Posse Reviews – Call Me Maybe

Here’s ICP and their interesting comments about Carly Rae Jepsens’ “Call Me Maybe”

Name the guitar players

Can you name the guitar players in this picture? Paste your answers in a comment. Highlight the paragraph to the left of the image to see the answers. 1) Frank Zappa 2) George Harrison 3) Slash 4) Jimi Hendrix 5) Keith Richards 6) Jimmy Page 7) Stevie Ray Vaughan 8) Eric Clapton 9) Mark Knopfler 10) Brian May 11) Johnny Ramone 12)

RECORDING A COVER SONG

Recording a cover song can be a great marketing tool—providing artistic interpretation on a song that your audience may already be familiar with. A cover can also bring notoriety to your art from people who were previously unfamiliar with your work. However there are legal implications to covering a song even if you are giving it away for free. Copyright Basics Let’s

Radio Airplay 101 – Radio Compared To YouTube and MySpace, part 1

The newest (and by far the biggest) red herring to hit indie artists yet is here now. (A red herring is a "fake fix" to a problem, which distracts you from finding the real fix). What is it? YouTube and MySpace.

Give Your Fans What They Want – Free!

I'm having a little hit record right now. Well at least at radio, time will tell whether this song will really translate into sales. But at radio right now, as I write this, "Love & Paragraphs", my 5th solo album is at #2 with a bullet on the Radio & Records national contemporary jazz chart and #7 at Billboard. I am particularly chuffed (as we say in the UK) because as you might know, I started my own independent record label "Ultimate Vibe Recordings" (and no we are not looking to sign artists right now!) and to have some success whilst competing with major labels and established labels is quite an encouraging thing.

Songkick Launches New Concert Recommendation Site: Recommends live shows and provides one-click..

Songkick, a startup focused on providing resources and recommendations for live music performances, today unveiled the industry's first comprehensive live music recommendation site targeted at the live music events market. Songkick scans the web, blogosphere and a user's music library, and alerts users whenever a band that they like or may like is playing in their area. For every concert listed, Songkick provides one-click access to ticket vendors, providing convenient price comparison for music fans. (Billboard Publicity Wire Mar 18, 2008)

Read the full story at http://billboard.prweb.com/releases/songkick/music/prweb786214.htm

Record labels: Survival Of The Fittest

We all know that the record business is in major transition, has been for a few years now. Still, major labels and independent labels are trying to figure out what the new model is. But the real problem with most labels is that they still want to be in 'big business'. This is the first real issue labels have got to deal with. Because CD sales are on the downturn, record labels are cutting back on staff (hence the EMI shake up recently). But I have my own opinion about this. I firmly believe any existing record label that has an office staff on salary is now doomed to fail. And the old model where labels had one or two successful acts in order to 'fund' 80% of their other failed acts, absolutely needs to go. Any label existing today thinking that this is something that even has a chance of working has its days numbered.

What is an ISRC Code?

An article about the ISRC code and how it is used. The ISRC code is a lot more common these days especially for Indie artists wanting to sell digital downloads.

What is Indie?

In popular music, indie music (from independent) is any of a number of genres, scenes, subcultures and stylistic and cultural attributes, characterised by perceived independence from commercial pop music and mainstream culture and an autonomous, do-it-yourself (DIY) approach.

RADIO AIRPLAY 101 – Investors, Part 3 of 3

Here are the amounts of money to ask for. Again, the preferred angle is to convince the investors that they are investing in building your awareness (and charting), and that they will benefit by being attached to you. It is too difficult to try to generate a profit (and guarantee your investor a profit) on your very first release. And remember, we are talking here of commercial regular rotation (10 to 100 spins/week/station) on well known commercial stations... NOT specialty or mixshow, NOR non-commercial, college, public, web, NPR, or other campaigns. Here we go...