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1. The best approach is slow and cautious. Right now, we are in the jungle. In the jungle, you don't rush blindly ahead. You dip a toe in the sand, and see if you sink. We have no hope of predicting which of these services might catch on. We need to move slowly, with very short-term agreements and see what works and what fails. And we need to be sure not to undermine our other business partners while we do that. Which leads to… 2. We should support our allies and punish our enemies. Rob McDaniels for InGrooves estimates that it takes 150-200 streams of one song to equal the royalty income on a single download. Right now, our industry still relies on the sale of physical product (believe it or not, it's still the primary source of revenue) and on digital downloads. Perhaps streaming is the future. Perhaps not. But we would be very unwise to cut ridiculously low-cost rates to a business model that obviously threatens both physical retailers and iTunes. Let's take care of the people paying our bills. At the same time, we should continue to press ahead with legal efforts against things like Pirate Bay- efforts that are finally starting to show some results. 3. We need to recognize that "bundling" and ad-revenue sharing is a marriage, and it works both ways. If we bundle the cost of music access into the cost of a mobile phone or the sale of a computer, we're now not only in the music business, we're in the electronics business. Any economic factors that hurt the sales of phones and computers will now hurt us as well. 4. Most of all, we need transparency in the negotiations and setting of rates, so that everyone in the music community understands what they're being paid and how it's being calculated.

The Great Balancing Act Between Art and Business Both art and music require a great deal of energy and time, the balance is how and where you spend it. There are many different factors that go into creating a successful business around your music, including record keeping and bookkeeping. The insider has a great post about the difference between these two chores as well as some good advice on multi tasking business and music creation. Einstein said that one definition of insanity was repeating your actions and expecting different outcomes, if you wanna try a new approach to being a successful songwriter then all you gotta do is READ MORE.

Forget the Record Deal, What about the Publishing Deal. While labels are understandably trying to mitigate their risk, by targeting artists who are already as "developed" as possible, it seems that publishers have taken on greater roles as nurturers of talent. Taylor Swift go her start by honing her songwriting abilities under the guidance of Arthur Buenahora at Songy/ATV Music publishing. Keri Hilson speaks about having first developed as a songwriter with Universal Music Publishing, and how that experience helped her launch her solo career with Interscope Records. HERE is a full interview with Eric Beale, who began his tenure in the industry as a songwriter, writing songs for the Jacksons and Diana Ross. Hopefully this interview gives you some further insight into the world of publishing and some hints on how you can either get into the publishing business as a working artist or as a career, helping other artists hone their skills!

MXL ASS KICKER the "A-55 Kicker" which is also a visual reference to the phrase "ass kicker" is a dynamic mic intended for use on kick drums. The mic has been making a lot of noise (or should i say picking up a lot of noise) since its last year release. The recordinghacks website has a little break down on the mic, which boasts features such as the lowest mic sensitivity ever seen and tailored EQ. READ MORE.

Came across this article that will definitely increase successful placements. I particularly like the points of saving money with a home studio, building a library, and finding a song writing partner to help compensate for any weaknesses, that you may have.

Tick Tock, The Copyright Act of 1976 is About to Expire. It's always entertaining to me to watch the money traps that the labels set for artists, back before information was freely available, EXPLODE! Welp, that's exactly what's about to go down. The Copyright Act states that an artist or author who sold a copyright before 1978 can take it back 56 years later and If it was sold during or after 1978 they can take it back 35 years later. Assuming a correct and prompt filing of paper work, the record labels could lose sound recording copyrights they bought in 1978 starting in 2013. How does this affect you? If the labels don't wanna lose the contents of their entire library you can make a for sure bet that the new copyright law will be negotiated in your favor. Higher royalties anyone?

Access4Artists is one such tool. In fact, we dare say that a4a may well be the only online tool you need to promote your band, interact with your fans and have a great centralized location online that any talent booker anywhere can access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's like we took the entire process of how to get a gig and made it virtually idiot proof!

Long gone are the days of million dollar advances. Today only a fraction of a fraction of that number is needed to finance and promote a new project. Just take a look at the NYC rock band Kill The Alarm, who recently rose $15,000 in 6 weeks by tapping into their social network and email lists. If fan funding is something that peaks your interest then you might want to take a deeper look at Kickstarter.com.

Here's an interesting one. Remember when the labels were on Apples heels to allow for a more flexible pricing structure than the 0.99 cent that apple had set? It even got so out of hand that _ started removing content from the iTunes store (Like a big baby!), only later to put it all back in, remember this? Well ever since apple conceded in allowing labels to increase popular tracks from .99 cents to $1.29 digital revenue has slowed. Warner saw and 8 percent growth in the holiday quater verses 20 percent the year before while digital album downloads gre 5 percent in december, down 10 percent in the sept quarter and 11 percent in the june quarter. Warner CEO Edgar Bronfman seems optimistic thought saying that the price change has been a "net positive" for warner, but agreed that a 30 percent price increase during a recession probably wasn't the best move. No duh.

If the name Ian Rogers doesn't ring a bell it will soon. Ina Rogers is the CEO of Topsin media, a music client that analysis how your brand is doing online. The data that his company collects suggests that the campaigns that take the shape of a snowball have a much better chance of showing a return on investment. Which as someone cadidly pointed out in the comments is the traditional definition of artist development. Ians 3 points that success seeking musicians should follow are 1. Goal: Have more fans tomorrow that you had yesterday 2. Grow fan connections as well as dollars. Everyday should mean more email addresses, twitter followers, Facebook fans, and MySpace friends and of course dollars. 3. Action: Do something small weekly, something big monthly

Suspend Vocal Technique Momentarily Have You heard those songs when it sounds like the vocalist is whisper-singing and wondered "man how do they do that". It's not quite singing and its definitely not a full blown whisper, its actually a track that a lot of Pop vocalists keep in their bag of tricks. Vocal Coach Judy Rodman has some bad news for you wannabes, the trick can either be executed expertly or poorly. I'm guessing the poor one sounds like somebody choking on a rice grain. To find out more about delivering vocals with authentic emotion rather than just "singing" head over Judy's blog and check out a couple videos.

Myspace dodges Payment to Imeem Artists. Last week we broke the news that Myspace Acquired Imeem and some of its assets. Immediately it was obvious that thousands of listeners would be playlistless, but there was little insight as to how artists were effected. Now wired has a piece on how many artists that were previously owed money from sales would have to line up behind imeem's bank and other creditors. There was some talks about Snocap being acquired as a part of the "certain assets" and I don't know about you, but if Myspace were to release Snocap in another form it would def makes me think a little longer before signing up with a service that snubbed artists of payment once before. So go a head and change your name Snocap, change the look and feel, we know who you are.

Music will thrive in 2010 Jomar, blogger for the musicproducersforum recently wrote a rebuttal to CNETS recent article entitled will recorded music survive in 2010. Kudos to Jomar for getting it right. To sell music this year labels will have to see music as more than just a way get money from the customer. With the record labels struggling for a solution i've never seen so many artists recording music, its as if getting signed is an annoyance for the artists of the future. The leveling is almost here, with every artist gaining access to the same tools, theres never been more of a reason to record music. The less expensive it is for an artist to record music the less money an artist has to make to see a profit.

I can honestly say that watching well over 2 hours of 2010 grammy broadcast actually made me feel a little bit out of touch with todays mainstream music. Gone, was the incredible feeling of wanting to be apart of the celebration, replaced with skepticism and doubt. Was it just me or in a night full of elaborate duets in which the spectacle overshadowed the performance, did it seem like the Grammys were doing a bit too much, for a bit too long? Trent Reznor of the Ninie Inch Nails summed up the Grammys nicely in one tweet "Grammy asshole weekend in LA. Yuck..."

Public Servants Arlene Goldbard raises some compelling ideas about how artists can help the economic recovery. Arlene, a writer and a social activist suggests that in order to help spark the recovery of the economy we have to recovery culturally, and who better to help us do that than the most creative ones in our society, the artists. She reasons that government initiates that put artists and musicians gifts at the service of schools, communities, hospitals and prisons are a good investment that worked in the 1950's to spurn recovery. Follow the link to check out the video, and if these are ideas that you support then there is a petition to support Art & The Public Purpose: A New Framework in the comments.

Seth Godin has a name for the modern day equivalent of ADD on the internet and it's called "Driveby culture". Seth chalks our driveby culture up to being a huge distraction and waste of time. "We're creating a culture of clickers, stumblers and jaded spectators who decide in the space of a moment whether to watch and participate (or not). As an internet savvy musician you now have two audiences to inadvertently worry about. Those that help increase your traffic to your content and those that regularly see your content as valuable to their lives. As an upcoming indie artist, what is more important to you, selling out to the masses, such as the Huffington Post (pushing down thought provoking stories for linkbait and sensational celebrity riffs) or searching for that niche audience that actually appreciate your gift. Don't get distracted on being BIG, your true influence may only lie with a small dedicated group. Make sure that group is well nurtured.

Labels - 0, Songwriters - 1 In a historic deal between labels and songwriters the national music publishers association has come away with a major win in an agreement that will see labels forking out the monies from "pending and unmatched accounts" that are set up in cases where a publisher has not been located by a record label, or an ownership dispute over a song. This is good news for the industry because publishers and labels are finally beginning to see eye to eye.

As someone dies, someone else is born. I'm sure by now you've heard the big news. Aerosmith is now looking for a new lead singer. 50 years later, Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith has decided to pursue a solo career. The announcement follows an interview that the band's frontman, Steven Tyler, gave to a British music magazine in which he said he was interested in "working on the brand of myself - Brand Tyler." If you've always wanted to be a part of the legendary rock group now might be your chance. I have no clue on how the band is preparing to fill the lead singer gap, but in todays media centric world, i'm betting either world wide auditions or a reality show. All i'm saying is be prepared, thats all.

American Idolizes The Money, Not Your Music Eleetmusic's Kevin English had a chance to hear out some of the past american idol finalists at one of the panels held at the recently passed CMJ 2009. The topic, an interesting one mind you, was a look at entertainers who have been to the top of the mountain only to look down at how far they had to fall. Artists such as Kimberley Locke (remember her?) talk about their idol experiences as well as life after the season has wrapped and the cameras have powered down. The gist? Sometimes being an independent artist carries with it the invigorating feeling of carving out ones own musical destiny. At the end of the day you have a pretty good realization of who you are, who your fans are, and you can proudly boast that you aren't just a number in a label of numbers.

The techdirt blog goes for the jugular of John Conyers, not the same dude from the terminator movies, but one of the RIAAs biggest backers of forcing radio stations to pay to help promote music. It all started with John delivered a speech at an event put on by the recording industry lobbyists, Conyers made the analogy that the lack of a performance right mandatory fee for radio stations was comparable to slavery and indentured servitude. Techdirt sheds some light on the old practices of shady labels paying off radio stations to spin records fully knowing the momentum that radio promotion can lend to a project. But that was years ago when (the only way to steal music was to run out of best buy with a stack of cds in hand and hope you didn't get spotted by the surveillance)you actually went to jail for stealing music. Techdirt goes on to say that the argument of the lobbyist groups are completely made up and ridiculous, just an excuse for the labels that are unwilling to actually do something to properly capitalize on free promo. As artists who's arguments are more valid the RIAAs or the Radio stations?