Blog Entries tagged 'Business View'

The Year In Review

drose

2008 was the first full year for KnowTheMusicBiz.com. We are extremely grateful to all the music business professionals and artists who shared their experience, advice and insight with our community. Below is a summary of the most read articles on the site during 2008 by section.

Biz Blog – Business View

The $52.45 Music Marketing Plan
The What Every Musician Should Know About Digital Distribution s [...]

An Overview of Artist Royalties in the Music Business by David Rose

drose

Like almost everything else in the music business, it seems the ways artists earn royalties and actually get paid is confusing and a bit of a mystery. Below is an overview of how the typical royalty streams for musicians are earned, collected and paid in the music business.

Before we get into the specifics of royalties it’s important to understand the difference between a songwriter and a recording artist since royalties for each are often times different.
< [...]

Running Your Own Publicity Campaign by Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan

Randy Chertkow

Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan are authors of The Indie Band Survival Guide: The Complete Manual For The Do-It-Yourself Musician published by St. Martin's Press/Macmillan in the US and Canada and founders of the open and free musician resource ,IndieBandSurvivalGuide.com. They are also lead members of the horn-powered Chicago indie-pop band Beatnik Turtle . Their latest project is the The DIY Music Manual: [...]

So My Music is Fantastic But What About the Video By Caroline Bottomley

Caroline Bottomley

Caroline Bottomley set up RadarMusicVideos.com in March this year. Radar is a network of over 1200 filmmakers worldwide, where labels and artists can commission videos and get them promoted. To date Radar has generated well over 2,000,000 online views for videos made through them.

&n [...]

Indie Record Label Economics by David Rose

drose

It seems the way money flows at a record label is largely a mystery to most artists who haven’t worked in the music industry for an extended period of time. It’s always interesting to lift the veil a bit on an unknown. Let’s take a look at one side of the economics of an indie record label, getting a new release to market. Below is a summary of the actual expenses an indie record label incurred for a new release:

Recording a [...]

Experimenting With Free by David Harrell

David Harrell

David Harrell is the Editor of Digital Audio Insider and has blogged about the
economics of digital music since 2006. With his indie rock band the
Layaways , he has self-released three albums. The latest, "The Space
Between," is now available for free streaming and download from Last.fm.

The
best I can remember, the class was called something like "the
scientific method." A graduate biology seminar, it cons [...]

So What is a Song by Terry McBride

Terry McBride

Terry McBride is the CEO and one of three founders of the Nettwerk Music Group , which includes Nettwerk Productions (Canada’s largest independent record label), Nettwerk Management (artist and producer management), Nettwerk One (publishing), and Artwerks
(graphic and fashion design). Founded in McBride's apartment in 1984,
Nettwerk has corporate offices in Vancouver, Boston, Los Angeles,
Nashville, New York, Hamburg an [...]

Can you Hear Me Here by Steve Spiro

Steve Spiro

Steve Spiro is the VP Marketing at Myxer.com, the leading provider of mobile content. He has over 30 years of marketing experience, having worked at both global corporations and technology start-ups. He spent 15 years at Motorola in various senior management roles both
in the U.S. and Japan, and also helped lead 4 Internet start-ups over
the last 12 years.

Selfish Philanthropy - The New Path to Greatness by Martin Atkins

Martin Atkins

Martin Atkins has a 30 year career in the music business that includes touring with the bands Public Image Limited, Killing Joke, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails and Pigface, owning an independent record label celebrating its 20th anniversary with over 350 releases, and is an instructor at Columbia
College Chicago teaching The Business of Touring, Applied Marketing,
and Indie Label Management. He is also the author of the book Tour: [...]

So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star - Then Listen Now To What I Say by Rob Miller

Rob Miller

Since co-founding Bloodshot Records in Chicago in 1994, co-owner Rob Miller

has dirtied his hands in all aspects of keeping an independent label afloat

in a world beset by American Idol, illegal downloading and a collapsing

economy. Before that he lived in and around Detroit where he was a middling music writer, college DJ and Production Manager catering to the demands of

everyone from GWAR to [...]

What Every Musician Should Know about Digital Distribution Part IV by Peter Wells

Peter Wells

Peter Wells is the SVP of Operations and Customer Advocate at TuneCore. Peter began as a classical pianist, English literature teacher, senior technical writer at Cisco and director of label relations at eMusic, where he built a deep knowledge of the music business.

Part IV: Good Marketing and Bad

Things
get a little tricky from here, because marketing and pr [...]

The Necessity of Touring for Independent Musicians by Martin Atkins

Martin Atkins

Martin Atkins has a 30 year career in the music business that includes touring with the bands Public Image Limited, Killing Joke, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails and Pigface, owning an independent record label celebrating its 20th anniversary with over 350 releases, and is an instructor at Columbia College Chicago teaching The Business of Touring, Applied Marketing, and Indie Label Management. He is also the author of the book Tour:Sma [...]

The Critical Item Missing from Most Music Marketing Strategies by David Rose

drose

There has been tremendous excitement over the past few years about the new technologies and services that help artists directly connect with their fans. I’m personally a huge advocate of this trend and the opportunity it presents for both artists and music fans.

However, I’ve recently noticed just how many artist websites are still lacking the primary thing music fans are
interested in today; downloadable music in MP3 forma [...]

Recording into Pro Tools by David Franz

David Franz

David Franz is a songwriter, producer, engineer, multi-instrumentalist, performer, and educator. David’s production company, Underground Sun, writes, produces and engineers music for a wide range of clients. He teaches production courses online at Berkleemusic, the continuing education arm of Berklee College of Music, and performs with his touring rock band, midatlantic. He is author of Producing in the Home Studio with Pro Tools
(the fi [...]

Music Licensing for Independent Artists by Larry Mills

Larry Mills

Larry Mills is VP of Marketing & Partnerships with independent music licensing company Pump Audio (a division of Getty Images ).

As everyone knows, the music industry is in a state of flux. What we know and what we thought we knew changes e [...]

How to Promote Your Music on Last.fm by Fiona McLaren

Fiona McLaren

Fiona McLaren is a Label Liaison with Last.FM and based in London

Promoting your music online these days is meant to be easy - but due to the sheer number of sites out there it might not always seem that way. This is a brief guide to why Last.fm should be one of the main sites you use to promote yourself, and how to get the most out of it with minimal effort.

The Last.fm music database

First off, yo [...]

What Every Musician Should Know about Digital Distribution Part III by Peter Wells

Peter Wells

Peter Wells is the SVP of Operations and Customer Advocate at TuneCore. Peter began as a classical pianist, English literature teacher, senior technical writer at Cisco and director of label relations at eMusic, where he built a deep knowledge of the music business.

Part III: The Myth of Marketing and Promotion

Aggregators
take a percentage of your earnings, forever, with [...]

The DIY Musician New Release Checklist by David Rose

drose

Artists no longer have to wait for a record label deal to get their music recorded or distributed. Self releasing one’s own material is now a very viable option. However, if you are self releasing there are a few business items that will need to be tended to before making the music available for streaming or purchase. Please note that this information is for USA based releases.

Determine Songwriter Ownership Percentages< [...]

A Closer Look at Musician's Atlas Online by Heather McDonald

hmcdonald

Heather McDonald is a music journalist and press agent. You can read more of her work on About.com's Music Careers website.

Even
for a cliché, the saying “it’s not what you know, it’s who know” is
pretty overdone. In the music biz, however, it’s worth repeating. You
can be sure you’re sitting on the next number one song (or you [...]

An Introduction to Pro Tools by David Franz

David Franz

David Franz is a songwriter, producer, engineer, multi-instrumentalist, performer, and educator. David’s production company, Underground Sun, writes, produces and engineers music for a wide range of clients. He teaches production courses online at Berkleemusic, the continuing education arm of Berklee College of Music, and performs with his touring rock band, midatlantic. He is author of Producin [...]