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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.

The Greatful Dead knew a thing or two about business. "A group of stoners who somehow got more things right than the suits running the record industry, radio and even some high powered new media businesses." Some great business lessons that could be learned from this group are sprinkled through an article on indisdemusicmedia comparing their biz model to that of the Radio Industry's. Some of these points should be laser sketched into your brain (if you simply can't remember). According to the Atlantic Magazine article your fans are key to your ultimate success. But not all your fans. As with every musician you have different levels of fans, cater to only your most loyalist fans because their the ones that are going to purchase your music. Get a team together consisting of the band the road crew and and other organization members and periodically rotate the final decision makers. Your not the only one with good ideas on how to run things. Give it away until they buy it. Some things in life are uncontrollable (death, natural disasters and file sharing fall into this category) Don't try to fight against it. Rather embrace it and exploit it for your own benefit. The greatful dead exemplified this by not having an hernia upon the realization that their fans were taping their shows. Instead they used it to increase demand and drive the sales of other revenue streams. The same way that humanity doesn't fight against death but instead uses it to make the quality of life better the same way a musician should approach the death of the CD. Just because the CD has to die, doesn't mean that your career has to go to.

The Music Power Network (MPN), which is the brainchild of Dave Kusek, (Some big instructor at Berklee) credited for being an all-around future music business expert, is coming to a YouTube Channel new you! The MPN will be making some of its educational videos accessible for free to help you achieve success in this ever changing industry. Subscribe to the network if online music business lessons and advice are your forte. Also be sure to check out the songplacements youtube channel, send us links to your songs and we'll add them to our playlists for others to see.

technology should be used to help create new business models

Wow. Someone just hit it the nail on the head with this one. George Howard, thinks business development is the key to success in the music biz right now, and i agree with em.

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!

Learn from the best music video directors and interact with musicians who need and appreciate your talent as much as you need and appreciate theirs. Share your work with the fans and let them help you to become the next big music video director working with some of the biggest names in the music business.

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.

All that studio equipment that you're plunking all of your hard earned cash into deserves to be protected. Nothing shows just how much you don't use all of your fancy equipment like a congregation of dust. CompuCover is a company that makes custom-fit covers for your gear. They've been in business since 1979 so you don't have to worry about them vanishing in thin air when you need a replacement and they're cheaper than the dirt gathered between your Tritons Keys. One custom CompuCover sleeve will set you back a cool $16.95 in comparison to the $50-70 price tag of the competition.

Are The Record Labels Biting the Hand that Feeds Them Radio broadcasters around the country are growing increasingly concerned about the long-standing relationship with the music industry. The record labels are demanding an additional "tax" (not including the hundreds of millions of dollars paid annually to groups like BMI, ASCAP and SESAC, which goes to compensate songwriters and music publishers) on local radio stations for every song played. The music industry must be in panic mode to intentionally put a strain on the over 80 year mutually beneficial relationship that previously had radio promote record labels and artists and generate millions of dollars in music, hospitality, small-business and merchandise sales. Free local radio reaches 236 million listeners/week but record labels seem to not really give a hoot about free promo, pay up or shut down.

Okay so many bands are using protools to record themselves but that doesn't mean that Independent producers should close down shop. Rely on the live scene for some additional income and your studio might be getting more business in the off season than you originally planned for.

Potential Artist Revenue Streams David Sherbow music business visionary has a good outline of ALL POTENTIAL ARTIST REVENUE STREAMS. The list covers publishing, digital sales, merchandise, live performances, sponsorships, endorsements, fan clubs, and the list goes on. It'd be great if this list could actually link to articles that explain how to work the revenue of each stream. Hopefully we'll see this in Potential Rev Streams list 2.0.

The 10 Commandments for getting into the Composing Game There is no magic bullet, i repeat, there is no magic bullet to getting a foot into the composing industry, but what you might be able to find is a healthy formula that when applied - just makes sense. www.scorecastonline.com has posted 10 huge tips on getting into the composing game, and since TV and Film is a large part of our business these tips could definitely help you land more placements. I'll leave you with tip number 9 which i consider to be the most important tip. Don't give up your dreams.

Fact #1 - Youtube is the 2nd largest search engine next to Google. Fact #2 - Many people search for music on Youtube and other online video websites. Now that you know these two facts. The renegade producer suggests there is no better reason for you to develop a business strategy which includes online music video distribution. Now what type of videos are we talking about here, not everyone has the money to shoot a MTV style music video let alone a couple. Well the renegadeproducer suggests uploading not just clips of your band but clips of your brand. You can create clips from the audio, backstage, with members of your tribe at shows or even while having breakfast. Having content that can visually engage your fans while your not on the stage can help strengthen the overall brand. Time is obviously a factor, so for this you should check out TubeMogul that group distributes your videos to many video sharing sites at once, but first you gotta create the content.

Radio tagging is supposed to be Radio's next big thing. The only problem is that currently, most consumers aren't widely tagging and downloading songs. I don't even think most consumers are aware that radio has enabled this feature. Most people are too busy surfing the stations trying to find a song that they haven't heard a begillion times. Radio seems to be naive of this fact, and have been moving full steam ahead with their song-tagging project. It works by using HD Radio and the Radio Broadcast Data System signals to tag songs with identifier metadata, called a Unique File Identifier (UFID) code. iPods or Mp3 players docked to the specially equipped radio can store the song metadata and indicate tagged songs available to download from the iTunes or Microsoft library, once the player is synched with a PC.

In a panel discussion at the CMJ Music Marathon the Path of a Hit Song seemed to be highlight of the event. Those panelists who have had Hit Song success say that radio is key. Mass hits come from mass exposure. READ MORE.

It's Time to Call Your Manager Out. What exactly is the role of your music manager? The reason we're asking is because unfortunately for the music manager there has been a role change that has slowly been taking place over the past couple of years. No longer should your manager be concerning themselves with getting you signed, rather they should convern themselves with developing and unlocking true value for their bands. READ HOW http://songplacements.blogspot.com/search?q=manager+

Have you embraced the free.