Archive
Monthly Archives: October 2017
Monthly Archives: October 2017
Recently Harman International decided to close its AKG Vienna operation, which was a real shame after 70 years of being an industry leader in microphone and headphone technology (I bet you have at least 1 AKG product in your audio toolbox). Usually a closure like that means that a lot of good people and industrial […]
Continue readingMusic venues all over the world have been having a tough go of it for a while now, as gentrification of neighborhoods has brought much higher rents, increased taxes and insurance requirements, and new noise control laws. London has been particularly hard hit, losing 35 percent of its grassroots music venues between 2007 and 2015, when […]
Continue readingBy now we’ve been conditioned to the fact that most music consumers, especially the youngest ones, have totally converted to streaming and wouldn’t even think of purchasing a download or CD. If you believe that then you’re wrong. A new report from the IFPI entitled Music Consumer Report 2017 outlines how people around the world […]
Continue readingThis blog is mostly about getting along in the new music world without a record label, but there does come a time when having a label is worth considering if you want to jump to the next level as an artist. Record labels are not intrinsically bad, it’s just that you have to weigh the […]
Continue readingDetermining the position of a song or album on the Billboard charts used to be so easy when it was based strictly on sales, but not anymore. Those days are now long gone as music is consumed on a dizzying array of platforms with sales playing less and less of a factor. To its credit, […]
Continue readingMy guest today is Daryl Friedman, who’s the chief government and member relations officer for the Recording Academy. Daryl joined the Recording Academy in 1997 and established the organization’s Washington, D.C., office, where he created The Academy’s GRAMMYs on the Hill initiatives. . There are some major copyright and royalty issues facing artists and songwriters […]
Continue readingEven though Deezer has been available in North America for well over a year, not that many consumers are familiar with the streaming service. In France, where the service is based, Deezer is Spotify’s main competition with almost 50% of the market share. Now comes word that financier Len Blavatnk’s Access Industries has taken control […]
Continue readingOne of the things that has vexed artists and labels in the digital age is how to excite a fanbase before a song or album is released. Sure, you can promote it, but our digital attention span is pretty limited so any pre-release promotion can fall by the wayside before the release actually happens. Show.co, […]
Continue readingIt’s amazing that so many brands (which includes artists and bands as well as companies) don’t have a proper “Press” section on their website that contains all the information that a journalist or blogger might need when writing a story. I speak from personal experience as a writer in that I’m always surprised with what I can’t find […]
Continue readingMusic piracy isn’t what it once was, but it’s still alive and well and the RIAA is trying to do something about it. In a  to Elizabeth Kendall, the acting assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Innovation and Intellectual Property, the industry organization outlined a number of “notorious” platforms that it claims infringes on its member’s IP. These are […]
Continue readingMy guest on my latest podcast is television composer and author Rich Tozzoli. Rich has written an incredible 16,000 music cues that have been used on more than 10,000 cue sheets on 714 television series! Rich is not only a great composer but he’s also a talented engineer as well, and the author of several […]
Continue readingIt doesn’t matter whether you know who Avenged Sevenfold is or not, the Huntington Beach, CA metal band is attempting something pretty rare in the music business that could end up changing how record label contracts are forever written. The band is challenging what’s known as the “7 year rule” that labels have employed in […]
Continue readingBack in the days of physical sales, the actual number of albums sold was as big deal as they are today with streams and views. The problem was that you could never get an exact count of how many were really sold, so there were always a lot of numbers thrown around that sounded good […]
Continue readingWhen it comes right down to it, we’re all selling something. Every day, we’re selling our products, services, brand and our personal selves over and over again. As an artist or band, you have to be aware that sales are a big part of your equation for success. Here are 10 sales tips from my […]
Continue readingMixcloud has announced that it has entered into a licensing agreement with Warner Music Group, and is said to also be pursuing similar deals with both Universal and Sony Music as well. The company is known as a platform for podcasts, DJ sets and radio shows that include celebrity music artists, DJs and publications like Tiesto, Moby, Erykah […]
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