An Ode to the CD from CD Baby

Peter Kirn writes: Can music as a physical object have value and meaning again? For many music enthusiasts, that affection has turned back to the vinyl record, not the CD. (How many artists have we seen lately offering vinyl as the “premium” package for listeners?) At an extreme, there’s Alessandro Cortini’s SuONOIO, an album that has its own accompanying custom synthesizer. But while we ponder...

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Dirty Tricks - Part 2: Snakes and Adders

 In our last post about Nicky Kallongis' book Myspace Music profit Monster we investigated  Myspace as a hosting solution and method for reaching more listeners.  Nicky talked about using Friend Adders as a way of generating more "faans"...

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A New Low for Music

This one video has commentators and bloggers split.  The Reclusive Barclay Brothers are gaining lots of publicity by promising to give away £27 to 100 people who listen to their music.  Unfortunately for them, and assuming it's not an internet practical joke, most of the people who've actually heard their single "lonely together" complete with glossy video are commenting on how bad the...

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Myspace Makeover - Is it Dead or due for Resurrection?

Website redesigns are a bit like haircuts. Chop 6 inches, and people will definitely notice. Trim the bangs and add a few highlights, and some never know the difference. And so it is with MySpace Music, which overhauled its front door back in September. That was a much-needed facelift that was obvious to users. Now, the group is tweaking and pruning its look. On Monday, MySpace Music will refresh...

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Engineers with Attitude

Billie Ray Martin has been recording some new music in Berlin recently.  She tells all about the trials of tribulations of working with people passing themselves off as professionals in her new article on the Hospital Club website. It was in the pursuit of this endeavour that I placed two ads on Craigslist Berlin to find a studio and/or sound engineer.Hear my tale: I’m behind in my vocal recording...

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Self Promotion tools for (DJ's) (strike) Musicians

Great post over at DJtechtools.com about self promotion tools for DJ's - but it's equally applicable to Musicians / Bands and Producers One of the dirtiest jobs in the DJ business is marketing and promotion. If you already have a big following, you could probably hire a publicist to do the promo grunt work for you. But how do you get a following without promotion? There’s the catch. While DJing is...

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Dirty Tricks: Myspace, Monsters and Profit - Part 1

The subtitle of this book is "Easy online marketing strategies to get more fans fast".  I imagine this with a plethora of exclamation marks and ones after the title. The author, Nicky (the knife) Kalliongis is apparently a respected...

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