This self titled, debut album is a Rock N Roll delight and a musical joy. The songs are strong and very well written. This CD features soaring guitar solos and beautiful warm harmonies.

The lyrics are cutting and thought provoking. This record is modern Rock written in s classic tradition. It’s awash with guitars both electric and acoustic. It’s a Guitar Rock lover’s dream. The song, “Daddy’s Gone Away” is haunting and beautiful, a heartbreaking ballad which touches the heart and moves the soul. It is an expression of love and a loving tribute for dads who have to be away from their families.

Another of my favorite songs from this album is, “Rainbow Angel Girl”. It’s an up-tempo fun love song. It’s full of passion and fire and sweet romance. It’s sexy and warm and full of charm and the music is enchanting.

Aaron Wolfson has created a masterpiece with the music on this album. He wrote all the songs, played all the instruments, except for drums, sang all the vocals and produced this outstanding CD himself. I give Aaron Wolfson five stars. The CD is a must have for anyone who loves music.

This is a video of one of the songs from the album

We have added a new reviewer to our humble site. She is a wonderful writer,  with a knack for getting to the core of musicians and their art.

Please welcome her. She will be helping me catch up on reviews.

Keith Kehrer

There’s no speed limit. (The lessons that changed my life.) | Derek Sivers

There’s no speed limit. (The lessons that changed my life.)

2009-12-01

Whether you’re a student, teacher, or parent, I think you’ll appreciate this story of how one teacher can completely and permanently change someone’s life in only a few lessons.

I met Kimo Williams when I was 17 – the summer after I graduated high school in Chicago, a few months before I was starting Berklee College of Music.

I called an ad in the paper by a recording studio, with a random question about music typesetting.

When the studio owner heard I was going to Berklee, he said, “I graduated from Berklee, and taught there for a few years, too. I’ll bet I can teach you two years’ of theory and arranging in only a few lessons. I suspect you can graduate in two years if you understand there’s no speed limit. Come by my studio at 9:00 tomorrow for your first lesson, if you’re interested. No charge.”

Graduate college in two years? Awesome! I liked his style. That was Kimo Williams.

Excited as hell, I showed up to his studio at 8:40 the next morning, though I waited outside until 8:59 before ringing his bell.

(Recently I heard him tell this same story from his perspective and said, “My doorbell rang at 8:59 one morning and I had no idea why. I run across kids all the time who say they want to be a great musician. I tell them I can help, and tell them to show up at my studio at 9am if they’re serious. Almost nobody ever does. It’s how I weed out the really serious ones from the kids who are just talk. But there he was, ready to go.”)

He opened the door. A tall black man in a Hawaiian shirt and big hat, a square scar on his nose, a laid-back demeanor, and a huge smile, sizing me up, nodding.

After a one-minute welcome, we were sitting at the piano, analyzing the sheet music for a jazz standard. He was quickly explaining the chords based on the diatonic scale. How the dissonance of the tri-tone in the 5-chord with the flat-7 is what makes it want to resolve to the 1. Within a minute, I was already being quizzed, “If the 5-chord with the flat-7 has that tritone, then so does another flat-7 chord. Which one?”

“Uh… the flat-2 chord?”

“Right! So that’s a substitute chord. Any flat-7 chord can always be substituted with the other flat-7 that shares the same tritone. So reharmonize all the chords you can in this chart. Go.”

The pace was intense, and I loved it. Finally, someone was challenging me – keeping me in over my head – encouraging and expecting me to pull myself up, quickly. I was learning so fast, it had the adrenaline of sports or a video game. A two-way game of catch, he tossed every fact back at me and made me prove I got it.

In our three-hour lesson that morning, he taught me a full semester of Berklee’s harmony courses. In our next four lessons, he taught me the next four semesters of harmony and arranging requirements.

When I got to college and took my entrance exams, I tested out of those six semesters of required classes.

Then, as he suggested, I bought the course materials for other required classes and taught myself, doing the homework on my own time, then went to the department head and took the final exam, getting full credit for the course.

Doing this in addition to my full course load, I graduated college in two and a half years – (got my bachelor’s degree when I was 20) – squeezing every bit of education out of that place that I could.

But the permanent effect was this:

Kimo’s high expectations set a new pace for me. He taught me “the standard pace is for chumps” – that the system is designed so anyone can keep up. If you’re more driven than “just anyone” – you can do so much more than anyone expects. And this applies to ALL of life – not just school.

Before I met him, I was just a kid who wanted to be a musician, doing it casually.

Ever since our five lessons, high expectations became my norm, and still are to this day. Whether music, business, or personal – whether I actually achieve my expectations or not – the point is that I owe every great thing that’s happened in my life to Kimo’s raised expectations. That’s all it took. A random meeting and five music lessons to convince me I can do anything more effectively than anyone expects.

(And so can anyone else.)

I wish the same experience for everyone. I have no innate abilities. This article wasn’t meant to be about me as much as the life-changing power of a great teacher and raised expectations.

Kimo knows how much he means to me, and we’re friends to this day. Read his full biography and buy his CDs at his website omik.com.

P.S. On a related note, see my talk to incoming first-year Berklee students.
Kimo Williams

© 2009 Derek Sivers

American Chronicle | Holiday sales plummet for Blind Recording Artists: Access for Blind Net Surfers Blocked by CDBaby

Holiday sales plummet for Blind Recording Artists: Access for Blind Net Surfers Blocked by CDBaby
Donna W. Hill
November 19, 2009
When Mary Sten-Clanton of Dorchester, Massachusetts booted up her computer in early September, she intended to visit the online music store CDBaby and purchase “Unconditional” by easy jazz/easy pop vocalist Lisa Ostrow. Mary had used the site many times to sample and purchase new releases from the independent recording artists who pay CDBaby to sell their music. Once she arrived at Lisa’s page, however, she noticed a problem. She could no longer listen to samples of the songs. Mary, who is legally blind, uses a “screen reader” (text-to-speech software) to navigate the internet. CDBaby was always accessible to her before. She decided that she would buy the CD anyway, since she was familiar with Lisa’s music. She couldn’t do that either.

Mary’s initial e-mail to CDBaby went unanswered. She recently returned to the site to see if the problems had been fixed. They hadn’t.

“I always find it particularly frustrating, and even hurtful,” Mary says, “when a company whose Web site has always been perfectly accessible suddenly takes that access away. CDBaby used to be very accessible. It worked well, and didn’t seem to need a makeover.”

CDBaby is the oldest and largest online outlet for indie recording artists. When musician and circus clown Derek Sivers started the company in his garage in 1998, accessibility was part of his level-the-playing-field philosophy. He sold the company to pursue other ventures, however, and the new leadership redesigned the site in July without regard for its blind customers and musicians.

Lisa Ostrow, a Harvard grad who was born blind, is concerned about her blind fans as well as other blind musicians who count on CDBaby. She worries that this issue will cause blind fans to go elsewhere such as Amazon or CDUniverse. She believes that blind artists, who are now unable to easily update their CDBaby pages, will also lose valuable revenue because they won’t be able to directly impact their own sales presence.

” It’s not only the importance of our blind fans that should cause CDBaby to sit up and take notice,” says Lisa, ” the blind artists, too, are being ‘handicapped’ by the inaccessibility of the site as it exists now. We are not ‘handicapped,’ but it is the inaccessibility of sites like CDBaby that tie our hands and make it more difficult for us to get our jobs done. As for our blind fans, of which there are many, the level of frustration that they encounter when visiting inaccessible sites, is a guarantee that they won’t be back again.”

Contact Lisa Ostrow at: http://lisaostrow.com/

Other blind customers have also contacted CDBaby. A blind country and folk music fan from Buffalo, New York, who prefers to be known only as Cay, wrote to the company shortly after the new launch.

“I first got a response that they had lost all their email and to re-submit,” she explains, “So I wrote again. They didn’t respond to me. I really enjoyed the site. Many years back I recall there was a problem on the site where I couldn’t access it and they were caring. Now they don’t care about blind customers.”

Ken Lawrence is a New Jersey-based music critic. He recently received an e-mail from Girls on Film, an electronic/dance group, announcing that their new release was on CDBaby. Unable to preview the music, Mr. Lawrence, who is blind, wrote to the company.

CDBaby’s response states, “I’m sorry our update removed the functional use for our blind customers. Our programmers are all in house and are looking forward to making it more friendly to the blind. Unfortunately, there are a few other programming issues they need to finish first.”

A few other programming issues? When Mary Sten-Clanton telephoned the company in October, she learned from a customer service rep that sighted customers were also having trouble with the new design.

“Apparently, people are trying to pay for their CDs and getting thrown back to a previous page,” Mary says.

Additionally, visitors to CDBaby – whether sighted or blind — are no longer able to contact the artists.

Mary wonders what “improvements” they were trying to incorporate. Others like Ken are baffled that CDBaby’s “in house” programmers haven’t been able to sort any of this out yet.

Lawrence is a member of the National Federation of the blind (NFB), the nation’s oldest and largest organization of blind people. NFB provides advocacy, rehabilitation services and conducts research through its Jernigan Institute in Baltimore. Ken, who hopes to go into radio one day, fosters relationships between sighted independent recording artists and the blind community. Some of the sighted artists he has reviewed include Laura Berman, Amy Allison and Kathy Phillips. One of his friends, a sighted CD Baby artist, singer-songwriter Jenifer Jackson, wrote to CDBaby on behalf of blind fans. Blind fans can preview and purchase her music at: http://www.amazon.com/So-High-Jenifer-Jackson/dp/B00008BRBO

Jenifer received a response which raises more questions than it answers.

“I am so sorry!” begins the letter, “We are aware that our website upgrade was actually a huge downgrade for the blind. Our site used to be VERY user friendly, and I think that it was overlooked by our programmers. It IS a priority though, and we are working on making a dial up site that will be readable. This isn’t going to happen anytime in the next 2-3 months, but we ARE working on this and it is an issue that is not being ignored! … We were really proud of how accessible our site was before for the blind, and we would love to have this fixed so we don’t loose these customers.”

One wonders how “really proud” they could have been. Apparently, not proud enough for the issue to have entered their minds when their in-house programmers redesigned the site. Furthermore, a “dial-up site?” According to Sten-Clanton, whose husband is a computer programmer, it’s likely to be a separate text only site which will be accessible for mobile phones as well as screen readers. This concerns Mary. She once tried Amazon’s text only site and found that many of the features of the main site were missing.

“In that case, I just went back to the regular Amazon,” says Mary, “Since Amazon is accessible to begin with.”

And, they’ve committed themselves to not fixing the problem for at least two or three months? That’s well over six months from the new launch. This lag means no holiday purchases by blind consumers and no holiday revenue from those sales for struggling blind musicians.

Hit particularly hard are artists with Christmas albums which have a direct appeal to blind consumers. Veronica Elsea of Laurel Creek Music Designs in Santa Cruz, California has her Christmas CD, “We Woof You a Merry Christmas,” performed by The Guide Dog Glee Club, on CDBaby.

“I just can’t understand,” says Veronica, “what they think the actual gain is. I can’t understand why having a mouse hover over something is an improvement over a standard link. My sighted friends don’t get it either. Thank goodness I can at least tell blind customers to come to my web site to buy CDs, but I was really counting on CD Baby as the most accessible place to purchase the mp3 download version of the album.”

Contact Veronica Elsea at: http://www.laurelcreekmusic.com

The holiday pinch is also an issue for the NFB’s Performing Arts Division (PAD), a volunteer-run non-profit. http://www.padnfb.org

The Do It Yourself Record Company by Donald S. Passman (TuneCorner)

The Do It Yourself Record Company by Donald S. Passman

(And if you act right now, we’ll throw in a knife that slices tomatoes paper thin).

By Donald S. Passman, author of All You Need To Know About The Music Business

All You Need To Know About The Music Business on Amazon.com! Historically, record companies held the keys to the kingdom. It took a large organization to manufacture and ship records to stores, meaning things like manufacturing plants, warehouses, sales forces, shipping people, financial controls, etc. Also, in order to really sell records, you had to get your music on the radio and MTV, which took a promotion staff and a lot of money.

In those days, the record retailers were so big that they wouldn’t bother with small players. That meant it was hard to get your product on their shelves if you didn’t come through a record company. Also, frankly, the big record companies paid retailers a lot of money to position their product prominently in the stores. So even if an artist managed to get their records into the retail bins, they’d likely get buried in the back. If, somehow, the records started selling anyway, the retailers would pay the artist late (if at all), since one little player didn’t matter to them. On top of all this, as we’ll discuss when we get to pressing and distribution deals (on page xxx), the artist had to put up the money to manufacture the records. If the stores didn’t sell them, they’d be returned to the artist, who’d lose the manufacturing costs, plus the freight costs in both directions. So it took a big player to absorb those kinds of risks.
Today, things have really changed:
1. While it’s still difficult to get your product into stores (now it’s because they carry so few titles), physical retailers are becoming less significant as CD sales decline. Conversely, digital is on the rise, and anyone can get their music distributed digitally.
2. Radio is still very important for mainstream artists, but it’s become a very narrow channel, meaning it plays only a limited range of music genres, and not a lot of different titles. Because of this, alternative ways for people to discover music are becoming more important, and the Internet (which anyone can access) is one of the keys.
3. A direct relationship with fans is the next generation of marketing, and young artists are proving more savvy in this area than a lot of established companies.

On top of all that, when you make a deal with a record company, you give up control of your recordings (as well as other aspects of your life, such as the ability to do music for films, commercials, concert videos, etc.), and you also give up a chunk of your income from both record and non-record areas (as we’ll discuss in a bit).
So, why would you want a record company? Well, if you’re a niche artist (for example, a jam band, backpacker, or indie rock band), and you’re happy staying in your niche and selling to a small group of fans, you may not need or want a record deal. It’s possible (through outfits like Tunecore) to get your music to iTunes, Amazon, and other digital retailers, and you can make a living doing gigs, promoting yourself directly to your fans, and selling your tracks. Because your genre limits your potential audience, you’ll often make more money by doing it yourself than you will with a record company. For a record deal to make sense, the company has to generate more money for you (after they take their piece) than you would get by selling less product on your own. With niche artists, that’s often questionable.
If you’re more mainstream, such as pop, rock, or country, this is a much tougher question. You can of course set up a killer MySpace page, build a fanbase, and sell directly to them. Since your music has a wide appeal, if you break through, you’ll make far more money by keeping the record company’s share of the pie, not to mention keeping all of your non-record income. But here’s the problem: The same way that it’s easy for you to set all this up, it’s easy for everybody to set this up. There are over four million bands on MySpace, and that number is growing. How’s anyone going to find your music?
There are some “virtual” record companies who can help. These companies, who were started by talented people who lost record company jobs when the industry melted down, will do everything from sales, marketing, promotion, etc., yet let you keep control of your destiny. However, they charge pretty heavily for these services, which most new artists can’t afford. Thus, they’ve mostly been successful with artists who’ve already released a few albums (and therefore have a fan base), but are out of their record deals. For this reason, a lot (maybe even most) mainstream artists are still looking for record deals.
Having said all that, young artists today are working the Internet and new media far better than the established record industry. The future of music marketing is to know who your fans are and to contact them directly. In the past, no one had any idea who went into record stores and bought the multi-million sellers, or who was listening to the radio when they were played millions of times. Today, between the Internet and cell phones, it’s possible to know exactly who likes your music.
Young artists have gotten very sophisticated about building a database of their fans. For example, at their shows, many artists give away something (pins, stickers, hundred dollar bills, etc) to everyone who signs their mailing list. The artists then promote their shows, recordings, and merchandise through email and mobile phone text messaging. Some artists even do lifecasting, where they’re communicating with fans a number of times each day. For example, they might iChat on the way to a gig; blast out backstage updates through Twitter or Kyte; send pictures of themselves on stage; forward videos of themselves in the bathtub with rubber duckies; etc. Even if they only build their fan list with a few more people at each gig, if they keep at it, they can get enough to generate a buzz on MySpace and similar sites.
So these days, more than ever before, it’s possible to build a career on your own. Or if not a career, at least a solid base from which to launch yourself and get the attention of a record company, if you decide to go with a record company.
Now get out there and do it!

Bob Baker’s Indie Music Promotion Blog: 7 Simple But Effective Steps to Reaching Your Music Career Goals

News, notes and ideas on music marketing, self-promotion, artist empowerment and more

November 18, 2009
7 Simple But Effective Steps to Reaching Your Music Career Goals

Last week I posted this question on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites:

What’s the #1 Thing That Keeps You From Reaching Your Music Goals?
I received a flood of great responses, most of which I posted here. I encourage you to look over the list and see how many of them you can relate to. But don’t use the list to get comfortable and think, “I’m in good company when I don’t reach my goals, so I should just relax.”

Instead, use the list to realize that you are not alone when it comes to distractions, resistance, and excuses. People who succeed at greater levels don’t have some secret code and aren’t immune to the everyday obstacles we all encounter.

What they do have is a different mindset and a different approach compared to the masses that get lulled into accepting stagnation as a way of life.

Since this is such a widespread issue (and one I wrestle with myself), I wanted to share my version of the Cycle of Success — a concept I first heard from Jack Canfield. It’s a bare-bones outline of the simple steps you must take to accomplish worthy goals. It may appear simplistic at first glance. But I ask you …

Honestly, how well do you embrace each of these steps … and on which ones do you typically get hung up?

1) Decide

The first step to reaching any goal is to know where you’re headed. The clearer the target, the more purposeful your actions will be. That’s why the first step to accomplishment is to set a specific, measurable goal (or set of goals). “Be a successful musician” is a nice idea, but it’s a fuzzy goal. A more concrete goal would be “Perform four live shows a month that generate $3,000 in total revenue” or “Sell $1,500 a month in live show CD/merchandise sales and $1,000 a month in digital downloads.” Decide what you want and be crystal clear about what it is.

2) Plan

Once you know exactly what you want, the next step is to craft an action plan that will move you toward it. Take some time to brainstorm on paper. Make lists of the different types of activities you will need to engage in to reach the goal. Who will you need to contact, what do you need to learn, and what tools will help you get there? Work backwards from the goal and determine the specific steps you’ll need to take.

3) Start

Now it’s time to dive into the step that holds back most human beings: taking action! Look over your grand plan and ask yourself, “What’s the very first thing I need to do in each category?” Focus only on those initial things and … do them! Don’t worry about the entire project or the immensity of your goal. Just do the very thing that needs to be done today: make a phone call, send an email, design a web page, repair your equipment, or sit down to write a new song (or finish one you started).

4) Continue

Taking those initial actions in the Start phase may actually come easy if you’re exciting about the goal. Your enthusiasm is running high and you’re eager to get busy. But what happens after a week or two, when other life demands grab center stage or when you don’t make as much progress toward the goal as you had hoped? This step is another biggie that trips up many musicians. But people who succeed muscle through the distractions and “continue” taking action, even when they’re short on time and energy. If your goal is truly important, you will find time to chip away at it and make progress — on a consistent basis.

5) Evaluate

If you get this far, congratulations! You’ve accomplished more than the majority of creative people (as sad as that is to say). You have decided what you want, created an action plan, started taking action, and have continued to work toward it, despite many temptations to do otherwise. Now you must take a little time to measure the results of your efforts. Don’t just stay busy for the sake of movement without knowing how effective your actions are. Are you moving closer to the goal, or further away? What has brought the best results? Now is the time to evaluate your progress.

6) Adjust

Once you look at the actions you’ve taken thus far and measure the results (as in number of live shows booked, number of new fans on your mailing list, amount of music and merch sold, etc.), you’ll have a clearer picture of where you stand. Then look over your plan and tweak it. How you do that is super simple: Do more of what’s working and less of what isn’t working. Also, this is a good time to introduce a new goal or strategy that makes sense based on what you’ve learned from your actions so far.

7) Continue

Once again, consistent action and progress is key. So with your adjusted plan in hand, continue to move forward. Another trait that will help you in this phase is the ability to simultaneously see two contrasting perspectives: 1) Keep the big picture vision alive of where you are headed — the specific and measurable goal you have set, and 2) Focus on the micro task at hand and realize where you actually are on the path. There will almost always be a wide gap between where you are and where you want to be. But don’t let that disparity frustrate you. Instead, let it pull you toward the goal even more fervently.

Bonus Step: Repeat Steps 5 through 7. From here on out, your progress will be a series of evaluating your efforts, adjusting your goals and action plans, and getting busy pursuing them again.

There you have it: 7 Simple But Effective Steps to Reaching Your Music Career Goals.

Are you truly incorporating all of the steps? Where do you get hung up the most? Did I miss anything? Let me know in the Comments section below.

-Bob

BY: Bruce Warila

Listen to your music for the first time again.
Examine your online presence as a first-time visitor would.
Imagine standing in a corner watching one of your shows for the first time.

Ask yourself: As a fan or potential fan, what does your stuff, message and existence do for me?  The answer to this question is your ‘value proposition’. 

For example:
All of this entertains me.
All of this helps me to forget.
All of this helps my social life.
All of this makes me socially aware.
All of this informs me.
All of this energizes me.
All of this calms me.
All of this helps me to feel young again.

Artists and songs don’t necessarily compete, but the value proposition(s) you choose to deliver defines the broad (market and product) segment you are competing within.  For example: are you competing within the ‘all-this-entertains-me’ segment or within the ‘all-of-this-energizes-me’ segment or within an overlapping slice in between?

When considering the delivery of a value proposition, consider the following (random examples):

Example: Many artists attempt to compete (unfortunately) in the crowded ‘all-this-entertains-me’ segment of the marketplace.  At any given moment (day or night), consumers have numerous entertainment options to choose from.  If all you are delivering is ‘entertainment’ consider all of the other entertainment options (movies, theatre, comedy, television, etc) people can choose from during the same time slot.  Sometimes, time slot management is as important as delivery.

Example: Chances are, your online presence is NOT at all capable of competing in the ‘all-this-entertains-me’ segment.  A couple of YouTube videos, a pile of your photos and a music player featuring fourteen of your songs is not competitive entertainment; it’s just informative information (about you) and not much else.  Consider which value propositions your online presence is delivering and do it purposefully.

Example: If you truly desire to compete in the ‘all-this-entertains-me’ segment, as well as within overlapping segments, such as ‘all of-this-helps-my-social-life’, consider working with many other artists to form a single online presence dedicated to truly delivering entertainment (50 to 60 selected songs from various artists is an ‘easier’ way to enable the obtainment of entertainment), and a global network of fans that share overlapping values, interests and desires can deliver the ‘all of-this-helps-my-social-life’ far better than your standalone artist-website.

Example: Work tirelessly to deliver other value propositions.  For example: an artist recently said to me: “My music is pretty good…BUT everyone is hooking up at my shows.”  His shows were packed.  Consider what you can do (online and offline) to facilitate the ‘all-of-this-helps-my-social-life’ proposition.  For artists, the ability to facilitate relationships (think about all the video and images you post) should be an easy proposition to deliver; moreover, for those of you that are contemplating unique revenue sources, the relationship industry is highly profitable.

Example: Don’t wed yourself to a single brand.  Compilations are often popular because they excel at delivering unique value propositions such as: ‘all-of-this-makes-me-socially-aware’ or ‘all-of-this-energizes-me’ or ‘all-this-helps-me-understand-love’.  Extend your songs out to other sites and brands dedicated to delivering and communicating specialized/unique value propositions.

Example: Correctly and strongly communicate your value proposition.  All to often, artists will post bios and press releases where they compare themselves to other artists.  Ok, you’re making ‘me’ connect the dots!  Read what you write and ask yourself: what does this do for me?  Are you entertaining me?  Are you energizing me?  Or, are you just giving me a bunch of adverbs, adjectives and comparative information?  Which value proposition are you attempting to deliver?

Example: Recognize when your value proposition is tiring and/or when it needs to be extended.  For example: occasionally artists will drape themselves in social messages (communicating the ‘all-this-makes-me-aware-of-the-problem’ proposition).  Once the awareness message (any issue) hits the mass-market, the awareness delivery proposition tires quickly.  You can either vacate the proposition (which was drawing attention to the social problem) or extend it (combine lightweight awareness with actionable solutions).  The bottom line: monitor (competing alternatives, consumer reactions, social shifts) the propositions you are attempting to deliver, vacate when necessary and/or extend (the proposition) to remain relevant.  The world changes rapidly.

Example:  Asking the wrong question / solving the wrong problem.  I see rap artists asking the wrong questions all of the time.  Do I (the fan) want ‘all-of-this-to-make-me-angry’? (This in an exhausting proposition that usually has a short shelf life.) Contrast the angry rapper propositions to the overlapping propositions that U2 delivers: the sum of U2 entertains, energizes, informs and makes me (the fan) socially aware.  Consider delivering positive, enduring propositions that matter.

There are countless examples of successful and unsuccessful value proposition selection and communication attempts.  As I have defined ‘value proposition’ within this post, what works / doesn’t work for you or others?  When you ask yourself what does this (all your stuff) do for me (the fan or potential fan)? What’s your value proposition(s)?

Note: Yes, this entire post could have been constructed differently.  It could have been about ‘positioning’, ‘market segmentation’, other business/marketing lingo and etc.  I get that. Thanks.

About Bruce Warila

Hello,

In the wake of Lily Allen’s recent intervention in the file-sharing debate, I found myself following the reaction on dedicated sites where peer-to-peer (p2p) file-sharers discussed the FAC and our views on illicit downloading. The p2p community are regarded with suspicion by the record industry, yet I believe that they hold the key to building a new digital music industry in which artists sell their work directly to fans.

Engaging in debate with the users of one particular site, we soon came to the conclusion that what is lacking is a dialogue between artists and p2p file-sharers that seeks to dispel the myths around downloading and overcome the hostility that has been stirred up between us by a record industry slow to adapt to the opportunities afforded by new technology.

To that end, Jon Newton of p2pnet.net and I have co-founded a website that aims to facilitate dialogue between artists and p2p file-sharers. Our debate is based on the notion that file-sharers are not thieves, but music fans willing to support those artists whose work they enjoy, if they can be sure that the money they spend goes straight to the artist.

The site is named artist-to-fan-to-artist dot com and our aim is to explore the possibilities of direct artist-to-fan business models.

I hope you will join the on-going debate at a2f2a.com

Billy Bragg

FAC Board member and co-founder a2f2a.com

Bob Baker’s Indie Music Promotion Blog: 7 Ways to Destroy Your Music Career

7 Ways to Destroy Your Music Career

Everybody wants to know the easy, proven steps to music success. Therefore, every expert offers tips and strategies to help you reach your goals — including me.

Well, it’s time to shake things up and serve a new audience — which explains why this post takes a look at the dark side: How to ruin your music career in seven easy steps …

1) Give Away Your Personal Power

The first step to destroying your music career is to realize that your destiny is in the hands of other people and circumstances beyond your control. Fully embrace the fact that you need to be in the right place at the right time to get your “lucky break” and be “discovered.”

Industry people and music critics must deem you worthy of success for you to have value as a musician. Also, cling to the belief that all the answers are “out there” somewhere and you will be incredibly successful at failure.

2) Turn Marketing, Promotion and Sales Into a Huge Burden

Do you really wanna fall flat fast? Then start referring to marketing as a “necessary evil” quick. Realize that you don’t have what it takes to “sell yourself” and reach more fans. In fact, there’s probably a biological reason you hate promotion: you were born without the critical marketing gene that all those “gift of gab” people have. Therefore, you are destined to live a lifetime of hardship as you struggle with having to engage in the ugly chore of self-promotion.

3) Be Fearful of Being Perceived as a Greedy, Capitalist Pig

Paranoia will go a long way to helping you fall short of a thriving music career — especially when it comes to earning money. Just know that every one of your fans is watching you and waiting to jump ship the second they smell any scent of capitalism. Therefore, if you make any sales pitches at all, they better be so low key as to be barely perceptible.

In fact, it would be best not to even make people aware that you have things for sale. Just wait till they come to you. If they’re interested, they’ll ask. And if you want to score extra points, when they do ask, tell them you left all your CDs and T-shirts at home.

4) Use a Lack of Time, Money and Connections as Your Biggest Excuse

Here’s a surefire way to go down in flames. Have convenient scapegoats based on scarcity. Tell anyone who asks (as well as a lot of people who don’t ask or care) how lousy your career is because of all the lack in your life. Frequently use phrases such as “There aren’t enough hours in the day,” “If I had that kind of money, I’d be a rock star too,” and “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” To spice things up, every now and then throw in an angry reference to “The man.”

5) Market Yourself to the Faceless Masses Using Traditional Big Media

Why spend all that time dealing one on one with fans, when someday someone could just throw a bunch of money (you know, the funds you don’t have enough of now) into a massive marketing campaign? Realize that it takes big bucks spent on radio promotion, retail placement, billboards, and paid display ads in national magazines to succeed. This mass media mindset is your ticket to success … at hitting the fast track to failure.

Bonus tip: Never answer your email from fans, and rarely — if ever — log into your Facebook, MySpace or Twitter accounts. Better yet, don’t even start these accounts.

6) Promote Yourself Sporadically and Only When It’s Urgent

If you have a mailing list (and with sucky email delivery and open rates these days, why bother?), be sure the fans on your list don’t hear from you very often. One of the best “road to ruin” marketing tactics is blasting your fans with urgent “come to my show” or “buy my new album now” messages when they haven’t heard from you in months. Your ultimate goal is have fans read your promotions and go, “Who is this band again?”

7) Know That Everyone Owes You Something Simply Because You Exist

I’ve saved the best way to destroy your music career for last. Simply know that everyone will care as much about you and your music as you do. Understand that complete strangers will indeed listen to every note of your 70-minute concept album and read every word of your 10-page bio. Be sure to send long, in-depth emails and leave lengthy, rambling voice mail messages for the imbeciles who don’t recognize your greatness. Also, be sure to insult anyone who doesn’t get back to you within 10 minutes.

There you have it — the top seven ways to ruin your music career.

So … what are you waiting for? Now get out there and demote yourself!!!

-Bob

Bob Baker’s Indie Music Promotion Blog: 5 Ways Google Can Help Promote Your Music

5 Ways Google Can Help Promote Your Music

If you think this is going to be about search engine optimization or a Google AdWords campaign … think again. Here are five things Google offers that you should consider using to connect with fans and promote your music:

1) Display your live show schedule with Google Calendar. Most people use this popular feature for personal appointments and scheduling. But you can also choose categories on your calendar to make public — and even embed them on your web site … AND make it easy for people to add your events to THEIR personal calendars. Visit this page for more details.

2) Help fans find your gig venues with Google Maps. This popular application is the next best thing to having a GPS system in your car. You can use it to find places you drive to, of course. But a really smart idea is to include Google Maps links to each venue you perform at, not just the club address.

Sure, fans can “map it” themselves. But why not save them a couple extra steps and provide a direct link? Learn more about Google Maps here.

Tip: Look up a venue address on Google Maps yourself first. Then click on “Link” just to the right of “Print” and “Send” to get the code.

3) Turn your web site into a social networking playground with Google Friend Connect. Make it easy for people to join your community of fans using the cool features of this Google tool. Read more about it and watch the video here.

4) Add your albums and merchandise to Google Product Search. It’s kinda like Google’s version of Ebay — but there are no listing fees. Learn more on this page.

5) Power up your communications with Gmail. I’ve been using Gmail for more than four years and love it. Lots of features and gobs of storage space to archive years of email exchanges. You can filter and label messages, send canned responses, and so much more. Go here for more info.

Google has a lot more up its sleeve. In fact, a big one is coming later this month (more on that soon). In the meantime, investigate these five Google features and see how you can use them to promote your music better online.