Remember Muzak, the music we all loved to hate, affectionately known as “elevator music?” Even though it supplied super-sweet versions of cutting edge hits to businesses everywhere for years, it was actually a good business to be in as it made a lot of under-the-radar money, and Apple now wants a piece of it. According […]
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My guest today on the podcast is Grammy-winning vocalist Darlene Koldenhoven, who’s appeared before a staggering 1.5 billion worldwide viewing audience on PBS as the soloist in Yanni, Live at the Acropolis, coached musicians and singers in the war-torn jungles of Sierra Leone, and sang on hundreds of recordings for films and major recording artists. Darlene is classically trained […]
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One of the ways I used to gauge the magnitude of a hit was if I could walk down a street in another country and hear it blasting from the bars and shops. Since the 80s when I began to travel a lot, this little test has never let me down, as it’s been a […]
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More and more artists and bands are going the indie label route these days, some by choice and others by the fact that the pathways to a major label are perhaps more limited than ever. This is clearly shown in Mark Mulligan’s latest post that reveals that indie labels contributed just a touch under 40% […]
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Your core fans, or your “tribe,” as uber-marketer Seth Godin calls them, crave your communication. But communication is a two-way street, and the artist must be just as willing to listen to his or her tribe as talk at them. This excerpt from the Music 4.0 Internet music guidebook shows 5 ways that you can check the pulse of the tribe to better […]
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The fervor for high-resolution music streaming has died down in recent months, and it looked like everyone has finally settled on the current CD-level quality as sufficient enough for most users. That sentiment isn’t enough to stop hi-res streamer Qobuz from planning a launch for next year though, as the company recently opened up a […]
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My guest today on the podcast is Frank Fitzpatrick, who’s a multi-platinum selling record producer, Grammy-nominated songwriter, social entrepreneur and award-winning filmmaker. Frank started in the business in concert promotion but soon became a protege of hit producer Richard Perry. His eyes were always on music for film rather than hit songs though, and he’s been quite successful […]
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You’d think that after all the recent uproar it would more difficult to buy a bot to manipulate an artist’s Spotify or SoundCloud streams, but that’s not the case, as Hypebot points out. As the article states, “Some bots are run by commercial services selling guaranteed streams. Others come from developers like somiibo which offers bots for […]
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Being an indie artist can be looked at two ways – it’s either a badge of honor for having control over your own career destiny, or it’s someone that can’t get signed by a major label so they’re forced to do it themselves. Many choose the former point of view and prefer to stay outside […]
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Promotion doesn’t have to cost money to be effective and it doesn’t have to be only online either. Here are some ideas that can be powerful tools that don’t even involve a computer. 1. Don’t underestimate the value of something free. Fans love free items, either as part of a package (for example, buy a […]
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When we think of search we automatically think of Google, but that’s not the only one available to us. In the West there’s also Microsoft’s Bing, Yahoo (which is still going strong), and a few smaller specialty ones like DuckDuckGo. In China, Google is eclipsed by Baidu, but the one big search engine that is […]
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My guest today on the podcast is trumpet player and vocalist Mark Pender, who’s played with Southside Johnny, Little Steven and Bruce Springsteen, and, as a member of the Miami Horns, toured and recorded with Diana Ross, Joe Cocker, Robert Cray and Bon Jovi, among others. Since 1993 Mark has been a fixture on late night TV, performing on over 4,000 episodes of Late Night with Conan […]
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It’s probably no surprise that if you’re between the ages of 13 to 24, music tends to be a bigger part of your life than when you get older. Since that’s the case, it stands to reason that social media used by that age group would also be driven by music, as this recent report […]
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Most every Thanksgiving we all have so much to be thankful for, and for you this one might be no exception. There are many people suffering as a result of the devastating fires in California however, and more than a few of them are music figures that you know and love. One is guitar maker […]
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It’s big news that Taylor Swift has left the Big Machine label for Universal Music, but a byproduct of that deal is that the label’s artists would receive all of their share of the revenue from a sale of the company’s holdings of Spotify should it decide to sell. That means that the total amount […]
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