Some 20 years ago I was a struggling musician in London playing every shitty venue in town trying to get a ‘deal’. As I look at the music biz from this perspective I’m wondering;

• a) what are the connections between what I learned then and what I see now and
• b) what is the single most important factor in making music in either era?

What I was sure of back then was that without a label or publisher no one could be successful. And barring the odd exception this was true. You made yourself into a killer live band and leave it to the label that was lucky enough to sign you to sort out making a huge album. All you had to have was the talent.

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I’ve become a “super-fan” of many bands that I listen to. There are so many that I consistently talk about to friends and co-workers; whether I burn a CD for a friend, share a link, dedicate a song on Facebook, or drag a friend to a show, I am a very influential in my circle when it comes to introducing new people to music.

They are probably 3-4 other people in my circle that are on my level of music devotion – we pretty much run the show when it comes to what everyone else listens to.

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Just caught this great quote by Fred Wilson discussing a Bob Leftsetz post about the deal AC/DC is making with Wal Mart.

Here is a quote from Fred:

My son Josh loves AC/DC but if it’s not on iTunes, it’s not going to get on his iPod. Clearly AC/DC and/or their manager is in the category of clueless.A VC, Jun 2008

First, check out Bob Lefsetz original post so you know about what’s going on with AC/DC and Wal-Mart.

I agree with both of these guys on why this is a stupid idea.

I am often asked about how musicians can make money off of their talents in a world where I encourage acts to give away their music for free. Many think the concept of giving away the music that they’ve spent so much time working on is crazy talk.

The problem is, most musicians are not business people by default, and I often forget how much knowledge I have about business, marketing, and finance.

Any smart business owner, investor, or already wealthy person will tell you that the key to financial freedom is having multiple streams of income.

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While catching up on my blog reader I noticed an a post from Andrew Dubber of New Music Strategies about a recent Futuresonic event he attended.

At the event, Scott Cohen from The Orchard provided a presentation containing 10 important steps to building a community.

His ten steps have been uttered from my mouth time and time again, and I love hearing them from those with higher profiles in the industry, as it tends to reinforce the things that I have been saying or blogging about.

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