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Facebook rallies for Abbey Road.

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.

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.

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.

Are you ready for Myspaces audio ads? Regardless if your ready or not they're on the way. Myspace has teamed up wth TargetSpot to find the right balance between music and advertising that will keep listeners and attract investors. Basically the strategy -Short audio ads, increase overall value. As the exclusive audio sales rep for Myspace Music, Target spot, which represents a network of both internet radio providers and some of the largest radio groups has doubled in reach from 20 million unique monthly listeners to as many as 40 million. Target Spots plan for us listeners who still find ourselves on myspace from time to time is to have a "sensitivity to the space" and ensure a good user experience. I hope this solves all of Myspaces problems, so that they can focus on their next task, helping the musicians of it's myspace music service.

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?

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.

Could this be the future of music creation? DYI instruments, an alien version of the Blueman group. If you are remotely close to Austin Texas this would be something very cool to check out. October 18 is the full event.

Tired of creating songs that sound too much alike? Add a partner to the group. The ideas that a partner can bring to the table and they way that they work through and create songs can bring you all of the orginal flava that your new music has been craving.

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.

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