Blog posts and interviews on the music industry
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Aaron Bethune Blogs
Charles helps artists, musicians & songwriters create and extend their online presence. He implements strategies and runs campaigns to increase fan acquisition, engagement and create brand awareness. The intent of these efforts are to acquire and nurture a fan base that would help artists build and maintain sustainable careers.
Tom is author of the bookTom Jackson’s Live Music Method and the All Roads Lead to the Stage DVD series, is a master at transforming an artist’s live show into a magical experience for the audience!
He has worked with hundreds of artists in nearly every genre, including major artists like Taylor Swift, The Band Perry, Jars of Clay, and others, along with countless indie artists and bands, giving them a foundation and direction to define their unique voice and style to showcase their talent.
Design is a tremendous tool for improving and simplifying education and learning; creating experiences that are more delightful, functional and meaningful; developing businesses, organizations and initiatives that will have sustainable long-term growth, and a positive effect on the community and environment.
Josh shares a ton of hands on advice in this interview that will be invaluable to building your brand's visual identity.
A musician in his free time, chris has surprisingly good knowledge of the current music industry and has a ton of great comparisons and examples to share.
Chris is a New York Times Bestselling author of books like The Impact Equation and Trust Agents (cowritten with Julien Smith), Social Media 101, and Google Plus for Business.
David helps upcoming artists and songwriters to make more money in the music business. Since 1995, it’s what he's done on a daily basis. Last week David published his latest book "6 Figure Musician - How to Sell More Music, Get More People to Your Shows, and Make More Money in the Music Business. This music marketing book comes with the guarantee that if you follow his recommendations you will make $100,000 or more. It is packed with a ton of great information and best of all it is absolutely free! As you can imagine I was very curious to ask David some of his marketing secrets!
DAVE DOUGLAS is a prolific trumpeter, composer and educator from New York City. His unique contributions to improvised music have garnered distinguished recognition some of which includes a Guggenheim Fellowship, Aaron Copland award and Grammy-nominations. Douglas has developed his work for several unique ensembles with whom he’s currently active including his quintet, electric sextet Keystone, Brass Ecstasy, Sound Prints Quintet, co-led with Joe Lovano. His new Quintet released their debut recording, Be Still, in September 2012 with singer Aoife O’Donovan, the first time Douglas has featured a vocalist on a recording. Since 2005, Douglas has operated his own record label, Greenleaf Music, releasing his own recordings, albums by other artists in the jazz idiom, and continues to prove himself as a forward-thinking leader in the realm of digital music distribution. He served as artistic director of the Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music at The Banff Centre in Canada 2002 through 2012 and is co-founder and director of the Festival of New Trumpet Music, which celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2013.
Ariel is a thought leader in the digital PR world: the founder of a successful PR firm; international speaker & educator and the author of two books on social media and marketing for artists. Ariel’s Cyber PR® process marks the intersection of social media with engaged behavior, PR, and online Marketing.
Today's podcast is with David Das, a sonic architect with a wide-ranging and unique background. He is an active composer, producer, and songwriter based in Los Angeles. His experience covers the range from films, TV shows, commercials, and other media work, over to pop/rock/jazz music production, choral and orchestral writing and arranging, and more. His clients include 20th Century Fox, Coca Cola, Delta Airlines, and Disney, and numerous pop, rock, R&B, soul, and jazz artists.
"You are exactly where you are supposed to be...." This is what my friend Ryan Stanley told me once and it has given me a whole new perspective on life. I don't know about you but I have found myself blaming a situation, or even worse, other people, when things have not been as successful as I had hoped. You hear it all the time, "If I just had more money, or, if I just lost a little weight,... etc... things would be better."
Your Thoughts Create Your Futre crop
My dad always told me "the helping hand you are looking for is at the end of your own arm...", however sometimes it has seemed easier to reach for the arm of another. My whole life he's said, "Your thoughts create your future..."
Taking responsibility for your own actions, and accepting that the present is where you have lead yourself, is not always easy. At times it is even difficult to understand why those around you experience greater success when you have been given the same opportunities.
I have lived my life by the words of my father, that your thoughts create your future. However, when Ryan told me "you are exactly where you are supposed to be...," all of a sudden it became clear to what degree I am responsible for the present I am experiencing. I am supposed to be exactly where I am, and in the situation I am in, because of the decisions and choices I have made in the past. Consequently, I have the power to decide where I am supposed to be in my future.
Once I fully realized the power of the present, the fact that the present will be our past, and that at one point it was the future, I realized just how much control I have of my own life.
If you want to fulfill your dreams, stop dreaming! As long as you dream of them being in the future they will stay in the future. It's like the horse that has a carrot dangling in front of it, no matter how fast it gallops the carrot doesn't get any closer. The future is made up of present moments. If you spend your time daydreaming about what you are going to do, where you are going to be, what sort of lifestyle you plan to lead, etc... when you get to the future and it is not what you had imagined, it is because you never made "right now" count.
Whether you are fulfilling your dreams or not, "you are exactly where you are supposed to be!"
Thanks Ryan.
I thought if we put this into context with the music industry, how many of us start out being told that we won't succeed? That you can't make a living in the business, that you need a real job? "It's just a hobby..."
Wouldn't that be like stacking a tower of paint containers, all the while hoping it doesn't fall? More importantly, if we take the approach of a two year old, and simply believe that we can do what we set our minds out to do, we can stack our tower as high as the sky, that we can create the career that we want?
As you know these interviews are about being heard above the noise. Who better to interview than a publicist for just that reason! Kevin Fetterplace is a publicist whose job it is to get his clients heard above the noise. With grammy award winning clients he is a go to guy for PR in the music industry.
I have recently started teaching a music business course I have developed called "Above The Noise." The idea is to determine what it takes to be heard above the noise! There are a lot of people out there doing the same things you are and ultimately the hardest part is being heard above everyone else. I have established what I am calling the 5 pillars to being "heard above the noise."
This is the first podcast in my series "Above The Noise." The purpose of these podcasts is to find out what it takes to permeate to the top. With the physical ability to listen to only 5% (and that's if we spend 24-7 without breaks) of new music released every week (thanks to Jay Frank for this stat) it is clear that the true task is to be "Heard Above The Noise." The interviews will be with the people behind the music and the people behind the business of this industry. We will be sharing conversations with musicians, composers, marketing and branding gurus, social media experts, industry leaders, thought provokers and music futurists!
When it comes to success it seems that successful people know what they want and don't give up until they reach their goals. Even the interviews I post here have that in common: every one made a conscientious decision to make their career in the music industry and none of them have ever given up.
If you commit yourself wholeheartedly and believe that what you are doing is the right thing, chances are it is! If you know what you want, you have a goal and are committed to obtaining it then sooner or later it happens!
I recently spoke with Jack Conte of Pomplamoose about the couple's incredible success and how YouTube has helped generate a full-time income from music sales. Although the band has recently completed a mini tour of the US's east coast, up until this point the band's success was mostly online. The band created some well edited videos of popular covers and made YouTube's "suggestions" function work for them. They created artistic videos showing the duo recording covers and uploaded them to YouTube. YouTube's "suggestions" function helped draw fans of the original artist to Pomplamoose's versions. Soon enough the videos were getting massive views and the band was adding their original music to the channel too. The point of true success came when they were able to convert their online followers to paying fans. This happened when they released their album "Tribute to Famous People" on iTunes and had 30,000 downloads. Since then the band's success has only grown and now when the phone rings it's Toyota and Hyundai asking to synch their music in commercials. We all know how lucrative that can be...
Work your craft, hone your skills, become the best you can be, get out and play, learn from mistakes,... but do the business too! The reality is, that as an artist you're an entrepreneur and a business owner! If you can't invest time into to all aspects of your own career then no one will!
Something to consider is the fact that if a song is not written by a band member then it is the writers that are going to see no return on the free giveaways. Many bands give their music away with the hopes of generating more fans and consequently more ticket and merch sales, etc... this however does not benefit the writers (except that with more exposure can come more opportunities to license a track).
Here we will be posting our interviews with industry specialists as well as industry news on a regular basis. 
