Music Business Blog by Jason Feinberg

A blog I read regularly and highly recommend, Social-Cache.com, has posted a ten-item list detailing the steps artists are taking to create a brand, a longterm fanbase, and a sales machine.

01. They have blogs to which actual band members [think executives] post regular updates.
02. They ensure that the blogosphere is alerted to any new and breaking news or important posts.
03. They offer early access to special offers and discounts for their customers loyalty.
…

For the rest of the list (and accompanying article) visit http://www.social-cache.com/2008/07/john-mellencamp-vanity-fair-radiohead-and-targeted-marketing

On July 9th, the National Association of Record Industry Professionals presents Secrets of Online Music Marketing Revealed, a teleseminar to assist with your online marketing needs.

The conference will be hosted by OTMG president and founder Jason Feinberg. He will discuss strategies for creating, implementing, and managing a full-scope online marketing campaign for artists at any level.

In this telesmenar, you will learn:

* Most important parts of online music marketing strategy
* An easy way to begin your online marketing campaign
* Your complete digital toolbox: what you need… and what you don’t
* Branding made simple… and effective
* How to use social networks, blog, MySpace & YouTube
* Sites seeking content – excellent marketing opportunities for you
* How to build a brand and get more fans
* And much more…

WHEN
Wed, July 9th – 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. (Pacific)

WHERE
Near your telephone – call in from anywhere in the world!

REGISTER NOW
$20: NARIP Members BEFORE Friday, July 4 at 5:00
$40: Non-members BEFORE Friday, July 4 at 5:00

The price includes the one-hour teleseminars, the opportunity to email in questions (info@narip.com), chat live with Jason after each session, and an MP3 file of the session.

For more info, visit www.narip.com

I found this article about music managers taking on the role of a record label very interesting.

It hits home very closely as many of my marketing company’s clients are managers who are hiring independent companies to handle the individual functions that a label used to provide.

A few of my clients have left their labels to take this direction and are doing well with it. Their management team has hired us, a publicist, a radio team, a retail manager, and any other indies as needed. It can be a good way to keep all the costs down while ensuring that you are getting each function addressed.

It can also alleviate the syndrome of a label not spending enough time on a release. This, as I have seen from all sides, can be a very common killer of an otherwise solid record – the label prioritizes something else and focus shifts away. If a manager is hiring indies for very specific functions, they either must deliver or will be fired. It’s not that easy when a label has stopped caring and your A&R guy won’t even take your call.

I will add that there are some things a label can provide that a manager and indies cannot – quite often it comes down to infrastructure and budget. But this is becoming less and less relevant as major non-record companies are venturing into this side of the biz (eg. Live Nation / Madonna). As long as someone in the chain is providing financing and oversight, a virtual label can be assembled as separate objects feeding each other core info; if assembled properly this can run an artist’s career as efficient if not more so than many labels can.