One of the byproducts of the digital age is that our collective attention span is a lot shorter than it ever was before. If something doesn’t grab us immediately then it’s highly likely that we’ll skip right to something else that does. This is outlined by a recent study regarding skip rates of songs played […]
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Those of us who grew up with rock tend to remember the stadium concert as a bastion of the legendary rock performers like The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Black Sabbath among many others. While those bands and more from that era still manage to play stadiums (at least before they retire), that part of […]
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As I’ve said many times here and in my book Social Media Promotion For Musicians, just being on a social network doesn’t mean that you’re using it effectively for promotion. There’s a mindset that’s needed before you can use any network as a promotional tool. That said, we see many celebrities, athletes and politicians get […]
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Throughout the digital age, artists have learned to game the system in an effort to move their careers ahead. It’s easy to buy fake YouTube views, Twitter followers, Facebook friends and followers, playlist rankings, and just about anything else where the number seems to validate the artist’s popularity. It’s gotten to the point where labels […]
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My guest today on the podcast is one of the most revered recording engineers in the world today. Al Schmitt has won 22 Grammys, worked on 160 gold and platinum albums, and even received his own star on Hollywood’s famous Walk of Fame. Al has worked with so many of the real legends in the music business, including […]
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All the focus has been on streaming music the last few years, with the comeback of the vinyl record getting much attention as well. Meanwhile the once mighty CD has been pretty much written off as a relic of the past. After all, who needs a round plastic souvenir when the same music can be […]
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While artists have long felt that they’re not making enough from streaming, songwriters and publishers have it even worse, making as little as a tenth per stream as that of an artist. Although the rates may not change, Spotify is at least attempting to provide more info to publishers to help them understand their payouts […]
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Artists and bands need to make their fan base aware of any upcoming gigs. A single email isn’t enough to get the word out, but many artists are afraid to send out more. Here’s an excerpt from the second edition of my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book that outlines a gig reminder strategy that has proven […]
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It’s not uncommon to day to find an artist that will spend a great deal of time, energy and even money to get a placement on one of Spotify’s major playlists. The current consensus in the business is that a playlist appearance can make a career, but is that really the reality? An example that’s […]
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My guest today on my Inner Circle Podcast is one of my oldest and dearest friends – Los Angeles studio bass player Paul ILL. Through the years Paul has played with a wide variety of great artists both in the studio and on the road, including Tina Turner, Pink, Gwen Stefani and Alicia Keys, and […]
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There’s good news for Spotify on a couple of fronts, but it may not be as cheery as it looks. Spotify reported that it has grown its paid subscriber base to 87 million, and actually made $56 million in Q3 of 2018. On the surface this looks great but underneath the numbers there’s a reality […]
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When artists and bands think of “music cities” the ones that immediately come to mind are the big 5 – New York City, Los Angeles, Nashville, Seattle and Austin. There are other cities that have great scenes that don’t come immediately to mind though. Flypaper put together a list of 10 and ranked them, although […]
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What good is making a video if no one sees it? Regardless of how well-made your video is, that’s what can happen if you just post it without thinking about how to optimize it first. Here are 10 steps to optimize your video on YouTube so it has the best chance of being seen by […]
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In this era of big business its seems to be the norm when the contract terms favor the company rather than the user, even to the detriment of the user. Usually we blindly accept those terms, but if the latest SoundCloud kerfuffle proves anything, it’s that fighting back can sometimes bring about some needed change. […]
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This week I’m going to do something totally different on the podcast. I get a lot of questions about how the Inner Circle Podcast works, so I’m going to answer them all and more. No guest, no news, just pure behind-the-scenes. We’ll cover the almost accidental nature of how the podcast began, why it stays […]
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