The “1,000 True Fans Theory” was proposed by Wired magazine’s “senior maverick” Kevin Kelly back in 2008 and states that all an artist needs is 1,000 true fans to maintain a fruitful, if unspectacular, career, thereby relieving the artist of the need for some of the nastier things in life as a regular job. True […]
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It’s always been hard to be a music artist, but it might be more difficult today than at any other time in recent history. The reason is that the competition is so fierce because there are fewer natural gatekeepers than ever before. Artists, even those with a buzz, really need a powerful helping hand to […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is Ritch Esra, who is the former promotion coordinator for A&M Records and director of A&R for Arista Records, where he worked extensively with the publishing and songwriting communities for material for Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Melissa Manchester, Tanya Tucker, Jennifer Warnes and Jermaine Jackson, and various […]
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The IFPI is the association for the recording industry all over the world, and every year it puts out an interesting report on the state of the business. The RIAA does that too, but it only focuses on the U.S., so the IFPI Global Music Report really tells us what’s happening everywhere. Thanks to digital […]
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Advertising is a necessary evil. We all hate ads no matter what the format, but they help pay for the entertainment content that we consume. Simply put, no ads, no money, no content, and we all pay for subscriptions instead. The marketing industry is always trying something new to get our attention, and the latest […]
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It’s easy to think that some websites and services are huge in terms of visits, but when compared with the most popular, most pale in comparison. The following chart by Statista shows the websites that had the most visits in February, so the data is still pretty fresh. It shouldn’t be any surprise that Google […]
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Almost all music services expect Spotify rely on fully paid subscriber tiers, but Amazon Music may break the ranks soon with a new free ad-supported offering, according to Billboard. This could mean that Amazon is finally making a proactive move into increasing music subscribers instead of worrying as much about its Prime service. The report […]
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My guest on the podcast is producer/engineer Jack Miele, who’s won a Grammy, Emmy, 4 Telly awards and 2 Global Music awards. Based in New Orleans, Jack has a wide range of studio credits that include Rod Stewart, The Roots, Beyonce, Aloe Blacc and the Zac Brown Band, among many others. As a composer, Jack’s work has […]
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iHeartMedia is about to file an IPO that’s meant to pay down its massive debt, but could show what the future of music radio in the United States is going to be. The company, which is the largest station group in the country with 848 stations, filed paperwork earlier in the month for the potential […]
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In 2017 Spotify launched its Ad Studio feature that allowed artists and their labels to share their music via 30-second or less audio ads played to the users on the platform’s free tier. While the short ads proved to be an effective tool, they provided limited data of what actually happened after a listener clicked […]
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PR people seem to think I’m a music journalist because I write for Forbes and two of my own blogs (including this one). Just to be clear, I’m not a “journalist” by any stretch of the imagination. I’m a commentator and provide my personal take on music and audio production news or the big picture […]
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The latest IFPI report that provides an overview of recorded music revenue worldwide is out, and it shows that for the fourth consecutive year the industry has grown. The nearly 10% total growth to $19 billion in revenue comes clearly as a result of paid music streaming subscriptions, which increased by 33% from the previous […]
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My guest on the podcast this week is Kevin Gray, who specializes in vinyl disc cutting. Kevin has mastered music for every major label in every genre, including pop, rock, jazz, classical, adult contemporary, alternative, punk, heavy metal, new age, gothic, world ethnic, disco, dance, soul, blues, and hip-hop / rap. His credits include more than […]
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A few years ago Spotify seemed to have an insurmountable lead over Apple Music in paid subscribers. That lead still exists and is still substantial today globally, but in the United Stated Apple Music has now passed Spotify for the first time. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple Music now has 28 million subscribers […]
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Every artist wants to appear on one of Spotify’s playlists since it adds instant credibility and streams as new people find you. It’s never been easy to crack one of these playlists, and the service is about it make it a little harder with the new “personalized playlists” that it will be rolling out soon. […]
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