The big news perking through the indie music world is that Bandcamp will start charging musicians to provide free downloads. When you read a bit deeper, the company needs to cover the costs associated with providing a fully featured free toolset that was developed and adopted by a massive...

Back in college I waited tables.  I’m fairly certain it goes hand-in-hand with attending music school.  One of those establishments was The Cheesecake Factory.  Being there 40+ hours per week got you very familiar with the menu.  While that may have been a detriment to my overall and...

I get asked a lot of questions, but lately this one has risen to the top:  ”Can you recommend a good/cheap/fast place to get shirts made?”  Every single band feels that after they’ve recorded some tracks and booked a few gigs, they need to have t-shirts to sell.  And while...

I wanted to come up with a more profound title, but I couldn’t.  Although, a declaration of true love seems pretty emphatic, don’t you think?  Staying up with the trends in the music industry is important to me.  In particular, I remember the brouhaha surrounding Qtrax.  They...

I had an interesting conversation today. While the topics ran the gamut of marketing “disciplines,” the recurring concept being debated is that of appropriate voice. And I have to admit, the debate continued long after the conversation ended. Because it was somewhat of a lazy...

The other day I accepted an offer to do a guest lecture at NYU. More specifically, it’s in the “Clive Davis Dept. of Recorded Music” of the Tisch School of the Arts. For me at least, that’s all kinds of impressive. I’ve guest-lectured a bunch of times at...

While this might come across as something, I’d carve into an oak tree during the last week of summer camp, it’s really more of a professional statement.  In a recent Digital Music News post, I read the following: “80 percent of all records released are just noise —...

I’m a fan of lists.  For no good reason I love hearing the best, worst, most likely to, or things you’d bring onto a desert island.  It’s less about what’s on the list than it is about the process of deciding what makes it and what doesn’t.  I swear I could...

Here at Nimbit, we were challenged to come up with a 5 minute presentation on “a day in our life.”  As a marketer, and someone just a bit on the competitive side, I wanted to do something a bit unique, and maybe even a little special.  Here’s what I came up with … and...

There’s a lotta folks talkin’ shit on the Interwebs, but often I wonder who’s actually DOING stuff.  In other words, if you work in this industry, shouldn’t you actually be doing something instead of just pontificating on your blog? Here’s what I’m up...

Direct-to-Fan is the dominant trend in today’s music space. Whether it’s Trent Reznor telling us, or anyone else, the ability to engage with fans and provide unique, compelling offers is tantamount to success. What’s disturbing though, is that you’ve labeled Tunecore as a frontrunner in the direct-to-fan space. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As Facebook eats the lunch of just about every competitor, I have to wonder -- what happened to MySpace? Are they the spurned middle child between Friendster and Facebook? Do they have a Jan Brady complex that causes them to sit in their bedroom dreaming up imaginary boyfriends?

I was in the audience for John Mayer’s interview at last week’s ASCAP Expo in Los Angeles.   And in his follow-up post, he challenges folks to respond, repost, and continue a conversation (in more than 140 characters).   Listening to John speak, I was mostly impressed with the...

Anytime you give a track away, people should be buying it -- and the currency of choice is an email address. Second to that, let them pay with a tweet, by becoming a Facebook fan, or creating a post about your music. Any of those currencies may actually be more valuable than the 99 cents they may (or may not!) want to spend.

While I spend plenty on iTunes and AmazonMP3, there's something to be said for the experience of seeking music out in the store, looking at the cover art, and waiting 'til you get it home to open, listen, and savor the music.

…and they’re singing “Vehicle”  :) The best-est part of working in radio was being able to play amazingly topical music.  Specifically, March 15th meant the one time we got to play “Vehicle” by the Ides of March.  A personal favorite tune, it’s a...

In the process of creating some marketing collateral, I received the following piece of advice:   “Don’t let grammar stand in your way.”  I understand the concept — saying what you want is often more important than saying it correctly.  But have we, as an...

According to SoundScan, the top 10 albums in 2009 sold a total of 21 million copies, and the top 10 tracks totaled 36 million paid downloads. But the top 10 albums in 1999 totaled 55 million in sales. Even with digital track sales factored in, those top sellers fell by more than 50%...

I spent a good portion of last week delivering guest lectures to the “Creative Promotion in New Media” classes at Berklee.  For the class, I offered up some slides which helped explain both what marketing is about along with a few examples of sites that were good, bad, or at least...

During my own time at Berklee, I took advantage of everything I could. As a piano player, I spent most of my time playing Hammond B3. While I didn't plant on being the next John Medeski, I welcomed the opportunity to play an instrument I'd like never own on my own.

Here's the rub: no one knows what to do, no one dares risk giving a definitive opinion, and everyone thinks that the major labels are out to get us. No, really. That's what's going on here. Gotta love the music industry!

Internet-only broadcasters will soon be on equal footing with their FM brethren. In order to be successful, the quality of what's being broadcast on the Internet needs to equal or exceed what the big guys are coming up with. Here then, from my experience, 10 Commandments for successful Internet broadcasting...

So as Ian and I discussed the state of the industry, its cast of characters, and what kind of artists should be using Topspin (or Nimbit ... or Bandcamp ... or Audiolife ... ), it all became re-enforced by what I saw on the tv last night: style over substance, instant over earned, easy over challenging.

Sometimes the best laid plans of musicians and men often go awry.   As a music industry veteran (and still under 40 years old!),  I’ve seen lots of artists and companies emerge with huge plans to revolutionize the industry only to see reality come crashing in.  Most of the time it’s...

OK, maybe stripper isn’t exactly the right word.  I think “dancer” is the preferred terminology.  Either way, I spent a couple weeks in southern Florida, and the cast of characters I encountered were a unique bunch.  One in particular, a young gentleman named Blake, taught...