Twenty Questions for New Artists by: John Snyder
by Chris Castle and Amy E. Mitchell
You’ve decided to form a band. Let’s get your business in order.
What are the most important things you can do to make sure that you don’t trip
yourselves up down the road? What can you do now to make sure that when you hire lawyers
and accountants you don’t have to pay later for them to fix business mistakes you could have
avoided? Here are 20 questions to ask you...
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Funding For Artists House by: John Snyder
Artists House has been funded by the Herb Alpert Foundation for the past four years. We are now attempting to apply for other funding from various governmental and private foundations. Here is our recent application to the Kauffman Foundation . We are asking our community for their suggestions and advice regarding possible funding opportunities. Please let us know what you think about our approach and if you have any suggestions concerning to whom we...
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Governor Jindal and Small Business Development by: John Snyder We are all familiar with the Governor's commitment to developing the business community in Louisiana. His determination to bring about ethical reform in all areas of government and civic life have set a standard in the nation and built a necessary foundation for this business development.
The Governor's recent comments about arts funding are depressing to some but not to me. Because to me they indicate a change of attitude that is much needed in the music and arts communities. It is t...
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Expert in Business Planning and Entrepreneurship Comes to Class by: John Snyder
I invited a guest speaker to class the other night and he showed an old video about entrepreneurship. It was structured around the eight characteristics of an entrepreneur:
* Wants to work for themselves, doesn’t want to work for someone else
* Can communicate and is organized about it
* Isn’t afraid of taking risks
* Sees opportunity and takes it
* Understands the need for innovation and innovates
* Overcomes adversity, doesn...
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Barack's First Failure by: Ben Snyder Inauguration day was coming to an end, another dozen balls and the first couple could finally call it a night. Throughout the day, a nation buzzed with happiness over the end of the rein of Bush the Younger and the beginning of America's 12-step program back to fiscal and national health.
But before the day gave way to celebration and eventually arguments about a stimulus package and appointees with tax issues, Aretha Franklin had to get her singin' on. Unlike the perform...
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iTunes Drops DRM – So What Does it Mean? by: Mike King It just got a whole lot harder for online music retailers to compete with iTunes. Although I stop purchasing music from iTunes years ago and buy only DRM-free music (I settled on a monthly subscription with eMusic – which will still be my jam for more obscure left-of-the-dial music for the time being), the announcement by Apple on Tuesday that they are immediately dropping DRM (Digital Rights Management) from 8 million tracks changes things slightly. Here’s what this announcement means ...
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Diversification and Niche Marketing by: Mike King
Some really interesting comments in the recent NYT article on Atlantic Records statement that their digital sales are surpassing their CD sales. What really struck me was how Atlantic is going about increasing their digital sales. Good quote here:
“I think we’ve figured it out,” ...
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Online Marketing: Don’t Forget About The Personal Connection by: Mike King It takes about an hour for a musician to get started with basic online marketing. Setting up an account with MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, uStream, Flickr, Reverbnation, OurStage, Fanbridge, and the dozens of other options is simple, and an excellent first step. But I tend to think that some bands lose sight of the fact that online marketing is not an end on to itself. The mos...
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Mercury Rev Using Free Music to Connect with Fans by: Mike King
Of course giving away a free record is nothing new – huge bands who’ve had major label support throughout their careers (Radiohead, Prince, Nine Inch Nails, etc) have the luxury of releasing free music to their massive fanbases with the understanding that doing so will fill the seats in the stadiums when they are on tour. But how does a band capitalize on free music when they don’t have this built in com...
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