Career Tracks: Chi McClean, Part 2
October 2, 2010In Part Two of my conversation with indie singer-songwriter Chi McClean we discuss the importance of building personal relationships with fans and industry partners and the challenges of doing it all yourself…Chi is currently recording his second record. You can find out more about Chi on his website: www.chimcclean.com and pick up his music at…
Musician Profile: Putter and VR Smith
September 21, 2010Thelonious Monk, James Bond, and a life of music… Jazz bassist Putter Smith and his wife, singer VR Smith, have devoted their lives to music and the arts. The music room in their South Pasadena home is filled with instruments, original artwork, and oriental rugs; a welcoming refuge from the hustle and bustle of Los…
Career Tracks: Chi McClean, Part 1
September 3, 2010Photo by Andrew Keller This is Part 1 of an interview with indie artist, Chi McClean, the latest installment in the occasional Career Tracks series of interviews. You can read Part Two of our conversation here. Chi McClean is a singer-songwriter with an intimate, down-home style and classic California good looks. Originally from New York,…
Can Positive Deviance identify successful outliers in the music industry?
August 6, 2010Positive Deviance (PD) is an approach to problem-solving that has proven to be highly effective at facilitating systemic social change in situations that appear hopeless or intractable. The basic idea is simple: focus on the successful exceptions, not the failing norm. In their fascinating book, The Power of Positive Deviance – How Unlikely Innovators Solve the…
Record Labels & Modern Music Industry Careers
August 3, 2010In the DIY discussions of the last ten years the utopian idea that artists somehow don’t need “record labels” has been promulgated as the beginning of a new era, but how that career management void would be filled has never been entirely clear. In the most general sense, a “record label” is the total, organizing,…
Entrepreneurship and the New Music Industry
July 22, 2010I recently interviewed Jason Fried, co-founder of technology company 37signals for Berklee Today magazine. The article draws parallels between starter companies and music careers. If you haven’t done so already check out 37signals’ great little business book, Rework. Thanks to Mark Small at Berklee Today for making this happen… You can read the full article…
Don’t Go For The Masses, Go Direct-To-Fan
July 22, 2010Reblog from Hypebot.com: Don’t Go For The Masses, Go Direct-To-FanAuthor: Kyle Bylin – www.hypebot.comMajor labels are mass marketing power giants; it’s what they do. Before the advent of the social web, they were the only way to reach the masses. Due to their influence on commercial radio stations, big-box retail outlets, and television, much of this…
Using the "IKEA Effect" to connect with your audience
June 17, 2010In his new book, The Upside of Irrationality – The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home, behavioral economist Dan Ariely describes the psychological effects of ownership and creation, what he calls “The IKEA Effect”. In a nutshell, we tend to overvalue what we create or work on. This phenomenon is well documented and…