The Future of The Professional Musician
July 25, 2009As the music business continues to shift, the future vision for professional musicians remains a work in progress. By professional, I mean a person who has devoted themselves to the mastery of one or several of the musical arts. This would include instrumentalists, composers, orchestrators, songwriters, recording engineers, educators and producers. Music is a deep…
Impermanence & Innovation in the Music Biz…
June 21, 2009Michael Masnick’s great presentation at NARM 2009 really lit a spark in me. While many of us want to hold onto or modify the old business models in this industry, everything has changed. The supply of digital music far exceeds the demand, and most everything is available in one form or another for ‘free’. The…
Thoughts on the DIY Utopia…
May 1, 2009Reading Paul Resnikoff’s article, The DIY Utopia, struck a chord with me. Jazz musicians and composers have been living under the radar of the pop music biz forever. Typically their ‘art’ is one of multiple music-related income streams. The quality of the music and the musicianship is key. Good music moves people, brings them together,…
How Will MySpace Music make money?
February 20, 2009Courtney Holt at EconMusic Personally, I have never liked MySpace. It’s ugly and I don’t get the brand. There is too much going on. It has become the default bulletin board for musicians, but I don’t hear of anyone making money. With the majors onboard they have an opportunity and Courtney Holt has some good…
Music As a Career, Pt.1
February 12, 2009Over time, professional musicians can lose their spark after years of unexpected challenges in an ever changing and highly competitive industry. The profound love and commitment to the power of music can become tempered by the harsh realities of making a living. There’s an old joke: Q: How do you get a musician to complain?A:…
Where do we go from here?
January 21, 2008Change is the only constant in the world. The bigger the shift, the larger the opportunity. When people are coming from a place of scarcity and fear they hang on to what they know and miss the opportunity to embrace big change with creativity and intelligence. The massive shifts in the record industry are creating…
What happened to all the good music?
January 21, 2008Much is being said these days about the huge changes in the record industry. Future business and marketing models have been endlessly discussed. Music piracy, the drop in CD sales and the bloated overhead of an industry built on an international hit-driven model. The industry sustained itself for years getting consumers to replace their LP…
CD Baby and Snocap
October 24, 2007The story of CD Baby’s partnership with Snocap struck a real chord with me.Technology has played a powerful role in the transformation of the music industry, starting with wire and tape recorders, the phonograph, and the electric guitar. In the 1980s other musicians and I would joke about “phoning in our parts.” It’s not a…
US Copyright Board Ruling
April 17, 2007The recent ruling by the US Copyright Royalty Board creates a dire situation for small, independent purveyors of streaming Internet music. I am a composer myself and certainly want to be compensated for my work but I believe this decision is not in the best interest of artists, record labels, or the audience. The music…