August 2009
1 post
4 tags
What I Learned From A Music Industry Startup
From June ‘til mid-August, I had the extreme fortune of working at one of the music industry’s hottest startups, Topspin Media in Santa Monica. While it was obvious from the beginning that the company is filled with smart—no, brilliant—people, I couldn’t have foreseen how much I’d actually learn from those smart individuals. From day one, when Ty made me scan...
July 2009
2 posts
12 tags
What Artists Should Be Blogging About
As a musician, it’s not enough to have facebook, myspace, iLike, YouTube and last.fm accounts and profiles. To really engage your fans, and the public, it’s essential to have a twitter account and a blog. twitter is great for short form content, sending quick shoutouts to your fans, posting twitpics from the stage and the like. Adding a blog into the mix will allow you to post more...
5 Ways Artists Can Add Value to Their Offerings
Give your music away for free.
This is a notion that has been tossed around in the music industry (among others) for quite some time now, and I had an interesting conversation last night with someone from “a major creative arts agency” about this very notion. (“There’s William Morris and there’s us,” he said.) Anyhow, he was quite adamant that music, in no way,...
June 2009
3 posts
How Indie Bands Should Be Using D2F Marketing
Please note: I’m currently interning at Topspin Media in Santa Monica, which is working with the band mentioned in this post. No confidential information will be divulged and the opinions expressed on this or any other post on this blog are mine and not necessarily those of Topspin. Please don’t ask for specific numbers.
Inspired by Mike Masnick’s recent NARM talk, I thought...
twitterplaylist →
My latest project: http://twitterplaylist.com - an aggregation of radio stations’ live playlists (only 2 at the moment), powered by twitter, that makes it easy for you to buy song heard on the radio on iTunes or Amazon.
This is basically an alpha release in that it’s very barebones. It was more of a proof-of-concept for an idea I had one day. I coded it in about a week and hope to add...
WatchAnother great presentation by Mike Masnick on today’s music business. Reiterates the equation CwF (Connect w/Fans) + RtB (Reason to Buy) = $$$ (new music business model). You can still make a killing by giving away the music for free.
Awesome shoutout to Topspin as well. (See this video of Topspin CEO Ian Rogers’ NARM keynote interview.)
See this video of Mike’s presentation on...
April 2009
2 posts
Photos from my walk in the Boston Public Garden... →
The MusicBizWeekly Podcast →
Please check out my new music business podcast, MusicBizWeekly.
Be sure to subscribe via email or RSS to stay fresh and listen to our episodes every week!
March 2009
6 posts
4 tags
3 tags
3 tags
The Rentals - Songs About Time →
The Rentals is a band led by Weezer bassist Matt Sharp. As part of their “Songs About Time” campaign and their upcoming three mini-album series , they are posting a new photo each day and a short film every week, chronicling the writing, recording and mixing processes. The photographs will form a calendar that will chronicle Songs About Time, and if you are one of the first 365 people...
How To Create Your Own 360 Deal (Legal Paperwork... →
360-deals are all the rage these days among record labels and musicians. But you don’t have to be a major artist to get one of your own. This article explains how you and roll-your-own 360-deal and remain an indie. Shazam!
2 tags
February 2009
30 posts
See-Through Body: Coolest Halloween Costume Ever... →
“By using a travel DVD player strapped to my stomach, with video coming from a digital camera strapped to my back, it creates the illusion that I have a very large hole in my stomach.”
Obama Calls on Senator McCain for a Question... →
Apollo 12 Panorama [PIC] →
The Apollo 12 mission was the second ever to land humans on the Moon. The mission was dedicated to studying the Moon, developing techniques, and developing instruments that could be used in future…
Wait a Second ... that OTTER is Photographing YOU!... →
Professional photographer Enrique Aguirre took this photo of an otter holding a video camera while on a tour of Elkhorn Slough aboard the Elkhorn Slough Safari Boat out of Moss Landing on Feb. 3. The…
Any second thoughts? →
The Surnameless: People So Cool They Have Two... →
I Like Turdles... [PIC] →
‘Scuse me sir but this turdle smells a bit strange…
Madonna the Same Age as New Boyfriend's Grandma →
The Material Girl is the same age as her new Brazilian lover’s grandmother, an ex-girlfriend says. Jesus Pinto da Luz, the 22-year-old blue- eyed model Madonna met on a photo shoot, has a granny who…
See BitTorrent founder's uber geeky explanation of... →
Yesterday, Unix time equalled 1234567890. There were parties everywhere, Revision3 went to document the big party in San Francisco and found BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen to help explain Unix time…
"Beware The Inventor" --- Boston Newspaper, 1865 →
A man about 43 years of age giving the name Joshua Coppersmith has been arrested for attempting to extort funds from ignorant and superstitious people by exhibiting a device which he says will convey…
10 Ways Microsoft's Retail Stores Will Differ From... →
Here are some whimsical predictions for Microsoft’s retail store it announced it would open soon.
Valentine's Ox →
‘Heart,’ an ox was born with a heart-shaped marking on his forehead. His owner admits the timing couldn’t be any better. I
Starbucks Is Not Your Office! [PIC] →
Reader jessettrs sends in this ridiculous image taken at a Starbucks on 42nd and 9th. Yeah, it’s a guy with a Mac Mini and a 15-inch LCD.
Joaquin Phoenix's Bizarre Letterman Appearance →
Joaquin Phoenix made a bizarre appearance on Wednesday night’s Letterman to promote his film “Two Lovers,” in what may be one of his last as an actor, as he has insisted he is retiring from film to…
Best Store Front Ever →
Plus these go to eleven…
It's time to party like it's 1234567890 – 'cause... →
Get your geek on for the one and only 1234567890 day. On this Friday, Feb 13 at exactly 3:31 (PST), Unix time (WTF is Unix time?) will equal ‘1234567890’.
Hello .. Ladies of the Internet | Find the love of... →
Amazing Bonuses.
Ask a Ninja Guys strip at TED →
Douglas and Kent of Ask a Ninja fame jumped on the TED 2009 stage to entertain such dignitaries as Al Gore, Bill Gates, Oprah, and Tony Robins… in their tighty whities.
Radiohead Live at the Grammys w/USC Marching Band... →
You used to be alrightWhat happened?Etcetera etceteraFacts for whateverFifteen stepsThen a shear drop
JFK Shaking Hands with Teenaged Bill Clinton (PIC)... →
Life Images Hosted by Google →
The archive dates back to the 1860s but mostly covers the 20th century with never-before-seen images of any historic topic you can dream up. Marilyn Monroe, NASA missions, JFK’s assassination, past…
Bangkok will be submerged by 2030 →
“Right now, nothing is being done,” says Meteorologist Smith Dharmasaroja, head of Thailand’s National Disaster Warning Center. “And if nothing is ever done? Bangkok will be flooded.” By 2030,…
Last known survivor of 1906 San Francisco quake... →
Herbert Heimie Hamrol was the last known survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, and right up until the minute he died today at the age of 106, he packed every moment as if it were…
Amazing Bird Fishes Like A Human →
This video has stunned scientists around the world as this bird thinks critically just like a human to catch fish.
Bill Gates unplugged →
TED Talks Bill Gates hopes to solve some of the world
Bill Gates unplugged →
TED Talks Bill Gates hopes to solve some of the world
Bulb-Sound-Speaker puts your music in your lamp →
This is a pretty awesome idea. The Bulb-Sound-Speaker, designed by Castiglione Morelli, is, as you might guess from the name, a light bulb that’s actually a speaker. It’s powered in the same way…
Jennifer Hudson Lip-Synched Super Bowl Performance →
Minor explained that he insisted that both Hudson and Faith Hill, who performed “America the Beautiful” before Hudson, sing to the prerecorded tracks the NFL requires them to submit a week before the…
Golden Gate + Dog + Rubber Chicken = Pure Awesome... →
Flickr member Mylerdude photographs his dog Pico jumping over the Golden Gate Bridge… with a rubber chicken in his mouth.
High Life Super Bowl 1-second ads that didn't make... →
Miller High Life opted not to spend $3 million for 30 seconds, instead aired a one-second ad during the big game. Here are a few 1-second ads that didn’t make the cut, and a few outtakes.
January 2009
44 posts
The End Of Alternative Comic Strips →
Earlier this week Village Voice Media suspended publication of all its comic strips across its entire chain of alternative weekly papers in a cost-cutting move. For those who don’t know, Village…
Visualizing Pitchfork Media's Top 100 Tracks of... →
Genre was determined by the first style listed for the track’s artist at allmusic.com. Where that was not available genre was determined by pitchforkmedia.com and/or the artist’s myspace page.
If Everyday Objects Were Designed by MC Escher →
Everyday life would look a lot cooler. Also, nothing would work.
Bush was a dress code stickler; Obama is more laid... →
Pictures of a jacket-less Obama in the White House seemed to signal a more informal culture. Thus did an ironclad rule of the Bush administration — coat and tie in the Oval Office at all times — fall…
Obama and his Mac →
The New York City Subway Map in 1904 (PIC) →
This is beautiful.