When You Make A Mistake – How Fascinating!

Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, treated the Pop!Tech audience (and Nikolai, his lucky student) to a transformative music lesson. Now you can view the Pop!Cast and watch as Ben coaxes the magic out of his student, who before our eyes infuses his playing with more passion and joyous emotion then you would think possible from a fifteen-year old. Zander, a long-time advocate for...

How Do You ‘Unleash’ Your Talents?

by Bob Baker Let’s talk about artist empowerment — one of my favorite topics lately … Not long ago I presented one of my first Unleash the Artist Within workshops. While promoting the event, I discovered that different people have different interpretations of what it means to “unleash” themselves as an artist. Many people assumed at first that the workshop was about developing your...

Be Committed! You’ll Never Be Famous If You Don’t Show Up!

By Sheena Metal Everyone wants to be famous: live in a mansion, drive a sports car, tour the world in your private plane, date a model, float around in the pool while collecting royalties for CD sales, and drink beer right out of your private tap. But not everyone is aware that, with any career that has the potential to end in a bounty of riches and beautiful babes, climbing your way to rock stardom is very hard...

A Data-Driven Artist and Fan Perspective

By james.lamberti I was fortunate to attend the Digital Music Forum West conference this week and help set the table for 2-days of discussion with Eric Garland from Big Champagne and Russ Crupnick from The NPD Group.  In only my second speaking gig with Topspin, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Frankly, the industry has an appropriate fascination with what we are up to, but an unrealistic view on how quickly our...

The Difference Between You & an American Idol

by Kevin English I speak to musicians everyday who desperately want to become famous, sell millions of records and pack arenas. Once in awhile I have a chance to chat with entertainers who have been to the mountain top only to look down at how far they had to fall. The space in between is reserved for those who live a “normal” life, but I’ve always been curious to know what it feels like after the crowd has...

How To Survive The New Music Industry

by Kevin English Every time you crack open a new book, read an indutstry blog or attend a music business seminar, you hope that something will be said to make your life as a musician better. Unfortunately, nothing ever seems to work and artists are left looking for answers. Wait. What’s the question? As I sat through the sessions at last week’s CMJ Music Maraton Film & Film Festival, I couldn’t help...

Loyalty and the Music Business

Written by Jennifer Yeko True Talent Management For some reason, loyalty is a word not often written about in the music business. No, the sharks in the music business (and many folks that work in the entertainment industry) seem to live and breath by the concept of placating one’s own ego and doing whatever it takes to succeed, as long as it isn’t illegal. And sure, I bet a lot of those people make more...

Attending a music biz conference? The REAL way to do it.

Attending a music biz conference? Here’s the REAL way to do it… by Derek Sivers sivers.org Being the cheap music-biz conference slut that I am, I’m often asked my advice for attending a conference. Here it is: The Tao of promotion: it’s about them, not you You know the way to be interesting to others is to be interested in them. (Why is this so hard for self-promoters to understand?) So, the week...