Photo taken by rock star photographer Brook Pifer at the 2009 Florida Music Festival I attended in May. Click the photo to check out Brook’s excellent portfolio on her website.

The digital age of the music business is in full effect. The remnants of music business 1.0 are rapidly being replaced by a new structure that empowers the artists, not the labels.

Music 2.0 is here.

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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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This is a guest post regarding a question I posted my readers earlier this week – What’s the most important thing to becoming a successful musician in 2009?

Your average person might think the above question was a simple one with this simple answer: good music. Your average person would also be dead wrong.

With the way technology is advancing, social networks are evolving, and the music industry is crying over the spilt milk of lost revenues; the most important thing successful musicians can possess in 2009 is integrity.

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The other day I sat down with some friends of mine who just dropped their debut album and are getting into marketing mode. For months now I’ve been telling them to get their asses on ReverbNation, and they finally were ready to listen.

We were going to sit down at the local Central Perk (yes, it’s really called that I know lame) but the students had overrun it with their usual Sunday study-cramming, so We decided to walk back to my place. The whole time their drilling me with questions about Reverb. What is it exactly? They do the same as Tunecore? And manage your email list? What about – and I cut them off. I told them that they needed to just see it for themselves and that they’d “get it”, and would be preaching about how cool the tools are as soon as they saw them

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