If there’s one thing that we all know, it’s that the more social media platforms you’re on, the more time it will take to check and post to them. That’s why the latest social automation tools can be so valuable, as they save time and make engaging your audience so much more efficient. Take a […]
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We’ve gone through a mighty change in the music business over the last 10 years, and it keeps on morphing and evolving every day. Since these changes are constant, many of the old school rules pertaining to success in the music business no longer apply. Here’s an excerpt from the latest edition of my Music […]
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There are many direct-to-fan platforms available for artists these days, but that doesn’t prevent new ones from launching. Bkstg is a new app that lets artists own the entire experience of connecting with fans in one place. This includes posting videos and photos to selling tickets to selling merch. In many cases, 5 to 10% […]
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It seems that pirate music sites are getting easier and easier to set up these days. Apparently there’s a script that you can buy for just $38 that will let you set up your own cross between Spotify and YouTube. It’s illegal, of course, and will get shut down in no time (especially if you […]
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Where once we lived in a world of pre-recorded video, that’s changing rapidly as millennials increasingly show how much they love live streaming. For instance, Periscope has posted more than 100 million broadcasts since its debut in March of 2015, and Snapchat Live Stories has as many as 100 million users per day, which has […]
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Here’s one for the 1st amendment. Apple has been granted a patent named “Management, Replacement and Removal of Explicit Lyrics during Audio Playback” for technology that can automatically scan a song being streamed and edit out any swear words in the lyrics. According to an article in Business Insider, the technology is different from automatic beeping […]
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It’s been rumored for months, and it’s finally happened. SoundCloud has launched a subscription tier to its streaming service called SoundCloud Go and it’s priced at what’s now become the standard – $9.99 per month ($12.99 for iOS). The fact of the matter is that SoundCloud Go seems like it’s more to appease the major labels […]
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Radio is still a big part of an artist’s success, but did you know that an artist doesn’t get paid for radio airplay in the United States? Songwriters get paid from money collected from broadcasters by ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, but there’s no mechanism in place for an artist to get paid for the same airplay. […]
Continue readingGen Z is coming of age and they have a whole different take on communication than the generations before. Gen Z is generally defined with birth years ranging from the mid or late 1990s through the early 2010s or starting from the early 2000s. A study by the college marketing insights agency Fluent examined the […]
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Many fingers are being pointed at YouTube for not contributing much to label and artist bank accounts despite the enormous number of streams it generates. For instance, YouTube claims that it had 50% of the 317 billion streams last year, yet paid only a fraction of what the paid tier from Spotify paid. How much? […]
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The RIAA has released its statistics for 2015 and, as always, there are some surprises. The things to remember about the RIAA is that it works for the record labels (especially the majors), so some stats you have to take with a grain of salt. Here are some of the more noteworthy data points. There […]
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Last summer I was a thought-leader at David Cutler’s wonderful SAVVY Musician program at the University of South Carolina, which is basically a mini-MBA program for musicians. The program not only teaches you have to think like an entrepreneur, but produce results as well. Here’s a brief branding outline that I gave while there, which […]
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If you’re an artist or in a band then you’re probably on social media to reach your existing fans and to expand your fanbase. There’s a problem though, in that it’s getting a lot harder to do that, especially with the biggest social platforms available. This is especially evident with Twitter, which still has 320 […]
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We’ve all seen clubs and restaurants that were white hot for a while and suddenly petered out after the sheen had worn off. That’s what’s happening with EDM at the moment as the scene is slowly winding down on a number of fronts. Although some big festivals like Ultra Music can still command large crowds, they’re not […]
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This week’s guest on my Inner Circle Podcast is Rick Barker, who helped launch the career of Taylor Swift as her first manager. In the interview, Rick provides an overview of how Taylor became such a huge star, and gives us some insights into how the music business has changed since she hit the scene. […]
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