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The Tyranny of Music Genres
As a recording or performing artist, you find yourself answering a familiar question: “What kind of music do you play?” How do you answer? Maybe you have a stock reply — “rock,” “folk,” or “pop.” Or maybe you try to be a little more descriptive — “modern rock,” “folk rock,” or “indie pop.” Or maybe…
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Finding Your Natural Audience
Songwriters, do you know who your natural audience is? Your songs exist at a point within or outside the commercial mainstream. If they fall in the mainstream, they are similar to other songs, and are most likely to be embraced by a pop audience. If they hang out on the fringes, they are discernible from…
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Why Originality Matters
If you’re a musician, you probably get asked whether you do original songs or covers. And as unassuming as that question sounds, it’s actually a hornet’s nest buzzing with speculation on your intent, ambition, and talent. Do you have your own thoughts? Do you have something engaging and identifiable to say? Or do you just echo…
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Building Context for Your Creative Work
Why do you make music? Write books? Make films? You might know, you might not. Either way, you do it for a specific reason. Maybe it’s to explore. Maybe it’s to affect other people. Maybe it’s to inject a little fun and excitement into your life. That reason gives your creative work context. So does your…
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Album & Audience: Q&A with Kowtow Popof
As a contemporary songwriter, are you focused on making albums? Or just singles? Or are you emphasizing your live show, where you can reach your audience more regularly, with greater immediacy? Is creating “proper” albums still a part of your artistic plan? While the album has undergone dramatic change in recent years — the “devaluation” of…
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Friendship Is a Creative Catalyst
Creative inspiration comes from many sources. What inspired you yesterday might not help you today, and what moves you today might spark your thoughts again next week. These capricious windfalls hail from moments of introspection or chaos. They do not promise to come to you, nor do they announce themselves when they arrive. They are…
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Why Facebook Is Not Your Hub
Does Facebook help you in your marketing efforts? Sure it does. If you’re a recording artist or author, Facebook gives you some of the most useful and powerful tools available for communicating with your audience. It allows you to connect with people in all the ways you need to. And it’s free, to boot. What’s…
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Artistic Courage Is Not Optional
Think for a moment about artistic courage. We’re all busy, right? We have a lot to tend to every day — family, friends, home, job, volunteering, watching cat videos on YouTube. We barely have a free minute to pursue long-term goals. The good news is our action-packed calendars ground us in routine. And the bad…
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The Myth of Writer’s Block
Ever decide you were suffering from “writer’s block”? How did you define this mysterious condition? As a mental obstacle? A chronic ailment? A demon bent on tormenting you? Did you use the phrase “if only” in your tale of woe? If you did, stop. There is no such thing as writer’s block. There is no ominous,…
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Hear-Like-Buy: Why Spotify Is Marketing, Not Commerce
You can’t read an article in the music press without tripping over somebody complaining about Spotify royalties. You’ve heard the chorus: Spotify is destroying what’s left of the CD market. It is cannibalizing iTunes. It is ripping off indie artists. And so on. So, you think. Spotify must be pretty bad. But is it? If…
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