Back 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 […]
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When 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 […]
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Mixcloud 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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My guest today is composer/arranger Dennis Dreith, who started in the business playing sax for The Beach Boys but soon turned to composing and orchestrating for commercials, television and motion pictures. Along the way Dennis wrote the scores for cartoons for Hanna Barbara, television movies of the week like Columbo, and motion pictures like A […]
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When it comes to the health of terrestrial radio in the United States these days, there’s a lot of conflicting data. On the one hand we find that radio is still listened to with great frequency in the car and at work, and that it’s still a driving force for new music discovery. On the […]
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You’re probably not aware that Microsoft has its own streaming service called Groove Music, and that’s exactly why the company is now dumping the platform in favor of Spotify instead. The company plans to stop selling subscriptions soon and will completely phase out the service by the end of the year, which probably won’t break […]
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Last week I discussed in a post about how social media is really only word-of-mouth. That’s important to remember because word-of-mouth is really the most important kind of advertising available to us, but it has both on a positive and negative side. That brings us to something outlined in my Social Media Promotion For Musicians […]
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It used to be that if you wanted to be in the music business on the business side of things, the only way to learn about it was by somehow getting a job in the industry and working your way up. That’s still true to some extent, but it’s now easier than ever to get […]
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My guest this week is Grammy-winning producer/engineer J.J. Blair, who has a wide variety of credits that go from Johnny Cash to Rod Stewart to Weezer to the Black Eyed Peas, and many more. J.J. is an avid microphone collector and we spoke at length about his collection, his studio, and his techniques, as […]
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Live streaming music and video was once hailed as the next big thing online, and perhaps it still will be, but so far major interest hasn’t materialized as predicted. There are a number of companies still in the game, but a shakeout has begun as the latest round of company acquisitions has shown. Most recently, […]
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In what may be the wave of the future, a company offering stock in rapper Eminem’s music royalties will soon hit the stock market. The new company owned by Royalty Exchange (a company that brokers royalties) called Royalty Flow filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise between $11 million and $50 million via a […]
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Social networks are now part of the fabric of our lives. Regardless of your age and where you live in the world, chances are that you’ve recently participated in a social network in some way. If we just look at the major social networks, we find that they have an enormous number of users. Facebook now […]
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It’s been a long time coming, but hip-hop is now the undeniable leader when it comes to music consumption. For the first time since Nielsen started tracking the music industry in 1991, R&B/hip-hop officially dominates all other genres, according to Billboard. Hip-hop now claims 25.1 percent of total music consumption, while the #2 genre, rock, can […]
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Frank Wells started his career in the music business as head of technical services at the famed Masterfonics studio complex in Nashville, but then made a left turn when he become editor first of Audio Media Magazine, and then later Pro Sound News. I talked to Frank about some of the things that go on […]
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There are still many artists and musicians that believe that streaming music is the devil, even worse than piracy. The idea is that since the payout for each stream is so small, an artist is just not capable of generating any serious income online. Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” might change your mind about that, […]
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