A friend recently shared with me that he thinks (based on some actual data) that a willfully given email address from a fan costs $1.50.

If I were to take this to a larger scale, I would direct the ads to the artist’s website or MySpace where the “clicker” would be led to hear the music. [...]

Someone recently asked my advice about Twitter, since BusinessWeek magazine just named me one of their “20 to follow” for entrepreneurs. I’m not a Twitter expert and don’t claim I’m one to emulate, but here are my personal thoughts on how I use Twitter:
Twitter is a P.A. system
Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and mailing lists are all [...]

click to view and share the long tail of fans
Photo Credit: ojkelly

Also available in full size A3 poster edition as well. Print and share.
Long tail distribution can be found in many things on the internet, it is especially useful in understanding the economics of abundance. However using it to understand fans can be incredibly useful.
The Pareto [...]

 
And they wonder why no one wants to buy them.
It’s bad enough that CDs are antiquated and overpriced.  But now you want us to pay to be bombarded by advertising?  Hello??  Doesn’t anybody at Island Def Jam read?  That people, especially the younger generation that buys the beat-infused music Mariah Carey now makes, are completely [...]

This guest post first appeared on Colette Weintraub‘s blog Deep Dive Marketing. Colette is a marketing veteran whose done extensive stints at Fanscape, Buzztone and Bono’s (RED).  Now she is marketing/strategy consultant with her own firm Deep Dive Marketing.
It’s been a while since someone in the music business impressed me.  Finally, somebody has impressed me [...]

Perhaps with some tweaking, here’s what current wisdom tells you:

Make music.
Give your music away; it’s your best advertisement.
Organize into a business entity.
Go on tour.
Build an audience.
Sell stuff and a bit of music when you can.
Go on tour again.
Sell even more stuff.
And when you stop touring, your revenue stream will slow to a crawl.

As new interactive [...]

 
Today’s guest post is written by Jonathan Sigmon, aka “Sigs”, founder of Signature Entertainment:
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Many artists and bands looking to take their music careers to the next level are looking for an artist manager. Putting together the right team around your band can be the difference between being a very talented local band or being able [...]

CD Baby founder Derek Sivers has devoted his own chapter two to projects that benefit the indie music community.  In this essay “Barking”, Sivers shares some a bit of advice most of us involved in marketing music (and ourselves) need to pay attention to:
In New York City last week, across from the library, [...]

With the influx of so many social networking sites, and ways to start conversations online it’s sometimes hard to understand what it all means and how it’s helping your music career.
This week I’ve come across some great sites that break down your Social Media Buzz. These sites can give you actual hard numbers/metrics and reports [...]

I’d like to introduce a project that Artists House & many others whom I respect  will be involved with for the next several months. Spearheaded by David Rose at KnowtheMusicBiz.com, the Indie Artist X project will address the current need for some kind of real-world, transparent information about creating a strategy for an independent artist that can [...]