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Why NXNE is Better Than SXSW
Source:
We All Make Music
Mention South by Southwest to any band, and they will know exactly what you are talking about. Mention North by Northeast (a.k.a. NXNE), however, and you might get some puzzled looks.
But for a young band, if I had to pick between SXSW and NXNE, there is no doubt in my mind that I would skip the hoopla of Austin and head to Toronto.
Taking place in late June in Toronto, Canada, NXNE hosts just over 600 bands in four ...
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Are You Building a Band or a Business?
Source:
HypeBot
This guest post comes from Jason Spitz, a marketing & ecommerce expert with a serious music obsession. Follow him on Twitter at @jasonspitz. If you want to make music, start a band. If you want to make money, start a business. It's that simple. Bands and businesses are two different entities with different objectives. If your goal is to play music, by all means, go ahead. But if you want to earn a living from your music, you should view ...
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Rick Rubin: Music Biz Could Be Bigger Than Ever
Source:
HypeBot
Recorded music sales continue to struggle and the leadership at the top of Sony Music is shifting, but Rick Rubin continues to exhibit the Zen master attitude that's helped to make him a legendary force in music both as a producer and recently as co-chairman of Columbia Records. The music industry “could be a bigger business than it's ever been," states an optimistic Rubin. “People...are willing to pay for music." “People love music more than they ever have and ... ...
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The Importance of Knowing What You "Sound Like..."
Source:
We All Make Music
“So what do you sound like?"
Almost every new artist will get asked this question at some point, and yet it is something that many artists resist thinking about. Those same artists will say things like “We do our own thing!" or “We don't sound like anyone else," or “We don't want to be categorized."
However, defining your sound is not about pigeon-holing or limiting your artistic freedom. As a new artist, identifying your genre and peer musicians is an ...
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More Road Music: Canon for Canyon Country
Source:
JazzINK by Andrea Canter
After that 15-hour drive to Detroit last September, I swore I'd never do such a trip again. But the opportunity to explore the national parks of southwest Utah was too tempting, and besides, we were breaking up the drive into manageable segments, round trip from the Bozeman, MT area. I was warned there would be absolutely nothing on radio and it was my job to bring along some music we'd both enjoy. My friend Judy has visited here a few ...
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8 Reasons Why Vinyl is Cleaner Than the Cloud...
Source:
Digital Music News
Think digital is actually good for the environment? Less CDs, plastic, paper inserts, and physical shipping are all positive developments, but digital (and its hyped-up cloud) comes with heavy environmental baggage. iPads, smartphones, and Beatsby Dre headphones all get dumped into landfills eventually, and the cloud is arguably filthy: just a few months ago, Greenpeace gave Apple horrible marks for its space intensive, coal-burning server facilities. Of course, plastic (in all forms) can be tremendously damaging to the Earth as ...
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Is There a Scientific Explanation for Justin Bieber?
Source:
AAJ Staff
Popular tastes in music have long had the power to perplex. What can possibly explain the public's fascination with Madonna; the odd enthusiasm for Milli Vanilli; the stark raving madness over David Cassidy or Justin Bieber? Why does one bit of embarrassing fluff breeze to the top of the charts while a thousand other bits of embarrassing fluff sink into blessed obscurity? Go back 150 years and those very questions were already being asked. “I have sometimes tried, but in ...
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Why Messy Rights = Lost Deals...
Source:
Digital Music News
If only it were about the music, and the music alone! But when it comes to licensing songs and striking deals, music supervisors, publishers, and managers keep telling us the same thing. That is, if artists have complicated rights situations, they can easily lose opportunities to the next band or songwriter. “I shy away from [slotting] any artist with complications," one supervisor told Digital Music News this week. “Sometimes these are long-term projects, but usually I have to find something ...
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