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Who Needs a Record Label?
There has never been a better time than now to be an independent artist. More easily and efficiently than ever, you can build a digital recording studio in your home, connect directly with fans through social media, and distribute your wares around the world through artist-friendly companies like CD Baby and Tunecore. It’s a DIY world,…
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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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The Artist Compensation Storm
As sure as dark clouds gather in hurricane season, a storm is brewing around artist compensation. Art and technology are at odds. However, it wasn’t always that way. From the advent of cassette multitracks in the ’80s, to the arrival of digital multitracks in the ’90s, to the maturation of digital audio workstations in the ’00s,…
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Internet Radio Fairness Act: Video
The Future of Music Coalition (FOMC) held its annual summit November 13 in Washington, D.C. One of the discussion panels, “Radio-active,” focused on internet broadcasting, artist compensation, and the proposed Internet Radio Fairness Act (IRFA). Sitting on the panel were a commentator on internet radio, an artist, a lobbyist for a technology group, a union…
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Pandora: A Change in Priorities
So you’re an independent recording artist, casting about everywhere you can for airplay and exposure. Pandora, the internet-radio service with the taste-smart music library, has just accepted one of your original recordings for rotation. Great, right? Pandora provides access to your music on one of the most talked-about music platforms out there. It’s a step…
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On Vince Gill and Music Downloads
Nashville guitar legend Vince Gill recently spoke out on the impact of music downloads on recording artists. His comments have been flying around the Interwebs, fanning dissension. Here is some of what he had to say: “The devaluation of music and what it’s now deemed to be worth is laughable to me. My single costs 99…
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An Effective Artist Website in 5 Steps
If you’re a recording artist or author, what do you see as the purpose of your website? To educate? To inform? To advertise? Think again. While your site might do those things well, they alone are not enough. Your site must be a multi-dimensional representation of who you are as an artist. If it isn’t…
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Kickstarter vs. NEA: Paths to Indie Funding
Have an album you’re ready to record and release? A film you want to produce and screen at festivals? How are you going to pay for it? Talking Points Memo (TPM) reported this week that Kickstarter, the popular crowdsourcing platform, will likely distribute more funds to creators this year than the National Endowment for the Arts…
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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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SOPA: Your Role as Artist and Advocate
Some people think the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is about censoring content creators. Others think it is about guarding intellectual property. Either way, the proposed legislation is about the control of creative works. It promises to have a measurable impact on everyone who disseminates and accesses content via the internet. In a (generalized) nutshell, the…
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