It looks like U2 may be the next big act that’s leaving the label system and embracing the future. Fox News is reporting that the band is considering jumping ship from UMG and signing a deal with concert promoter Live Nation that would include future record releases. If U2 makes this kind of deal, along [...]

Copied from Sonibids – see site for more details. Have your songs heard by a panel of professional songwriters and other music industry professionals from the Nashville Music Community as well as earn the chance to perform at MerleFest, the Americana music celebration, by entering the 16th annual Chris Austin Songwriting Contest. MerleFest now involves [...]

Well, if you’ve read much of this blog you know that I push the promotion end of the business. You also have probably found that I am not a huge fan of the record companies, because the need for a record company is diminishing by the day. So, I found a link to a music [...]

I just stumbled upon Beat Wire, a service that can distribute your press releases to thousands of media outlets. Now there are several services that will do this, but Beat Wire is different be they’ll distribute your press release to music related sources specifically. This is a great service because if you have a professional [...]

You may have heard that there is an effort under way to make it legal for internet service providers to charge website owners for preferred loading speed; meaning, large companies, who can afford it will have the way faster load times and downloads than small indie sites like this one… and probably yours to. As [...]

As a professional writer and occasional music manager, I often encounter bands and solo musicians that work very hard to attract attention from music management agencies. Unfortunately, a legion of grifters uses the raw desire for success against many smart, talented music professionals. If a representative from a music management agency contacts you, use these [...]

There’s a new trend that’s popping up that’s kind of interesting. It’s called “crowdsourcing” and it’s a pretty interesting concept. The idea behind crowdsourcing is that a band can raise money to record and press an album by going to their fans. In contributing money, the fan buys a stake in the album; in other [...]

Internet forums and discussion boards have become a valuable medium for establishing an online presence, building a reputation, networking with peers, and getting feedback on relevant topics and ideas. With that said, there are many forums and discussion boards on the Internet specific to music artists, musicians, and songwriters. These music forums are packed with [...]

A few years back I read an article that asked several famous and successful people what was the best best advice that they’ve ever received. Most of the advice was pretty cookie cutter; it’s what you would expect to read in an article like that. There was one piece of advice that was pretty good [...]

Here’s a fun article that I found on practicing on the street and getting paid as a street musician and getting paid for it. If you don’t already know, I live just outside New York and have seen street musicians all of my life. A recent development (within the past few years anyway) has been [...]