If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!For this week’s link round-up, we’re gonna’ hit music stories, but also look at a few other relevant things I thought were worth sharing that could help readers interested in other types of peripheral entertainment industry careers in film and television for example. So, here we go: For some reason Billy Bragg has been popping up on my radar a lot lately, first as the songwriter/performer for a good number of tracks on the recent film, “Momma’s Boy, and then again this morning I was pleasantly surprised to read about his comments regarding the changing landscape of radio which tied in nicely to yesterday’s article about its supposed demise. You can read more about Billy’s comments on Canada.com’s The Gazette. I found his mention of how people find out about him rather interesting, particularly since the only reason I knew it was his voice behind some of the... Read the rest of this entry »
You bet your Casey-Kasem, Rick-Dees lovin’ asses it is. Without a doubt, radio is still is among one of the more powerful mediums for introducing the majority of people throughout the world (don’t forget media exists outside the US, folks), to new music, news about musicians and bands on tours, and general entertainment industry revelry. Its almost always free, and accessible just about everywhere humans tend to populate. (Heck, even my phone, a Sony Ericsson, is a phone/walkman. So, I can get radio on my cell phone, and I didn’t have to pay a friggin’ dime more for the privilege, unlike other carriers who offer a fancy download plan that, in my opinion, just serves to add yet another monthly bill to your cash outlay.) Despite all those that claim radio is as dead as they claim the entire music industry to be, radio is very much alive and well. It’s different, of course, than it was ten years ago, but it’s still there, and I can’t forsee it disappearing... Read the rest of this entry »
Anthony David – “Words” featuring India Arie Today’s “New Tunes Tuesday” brings us this beauty by MySpace star Anthony David. If you’re a fan of Mr. David, then you’ve no doubt heard this song before as its been around for a bit. Of course, that doesn’t always mean the rest of us have heard it, and given the amazing ability of the Apple music department to pick super-ass hits no one ever played on radio, I feel I’m somewhat safe in “introducing” this one to musicbusinesspage.com readers here today. It’s a really great song, that I’m sure you’ll enjoy! His album Acey Duecey drops June 24, 2008. Pick it up whereever you by your records, cds, itunes, etc. these days. Also, if you happen to be lucky enough to live in/near Atlanta Georgia, he’s playing at the Apple Store, Perimeter at 4400 Ashford Dunwoody Road TODAY, June 17th at 7pm Three things you need know know as an entertainment industry... Read the rest of this entry »
If you’re at all inclined to consider a career in the music industry, you should take a look at some of the music and engineering schools that are geared toward helping you get started in the entertainment business. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, getting a degree in music is certainly not a necessity to forward yourself up the career ladder in music and entertainment, but what a good school can do for you is help you snag good internships. And, that is not something your typical career counselor at your typical 4 year college will have the first clue about. Trust me, I was one! For some people, getting a great internship is part of the hustle involved in getting started in music, for others not yet attuned to how to get ‘em and keep ‘em, a program like the one at Full Sail can help. Here are two videos with Full Sail’s President Gary Jones that might provide some insight into the program. Full Sail Interview #1 with Gary Jones, Full Sail President (this... Read the rest of this entry »
This week’s music business link round-up features a few new blogs and one you’re probably quite familiar with, I’m sure. So without further adieu, here are some of what I thought were great reads from around the blogosphere this week: Fellow music-crazed writer, Heather McDonald over at musicians.about.com wrote a bevy of posts this week about a number of topics that might be of interest to you, including: the first part in a series about Long Lost Record labels, this year’s In The City music expo/conference/jam in the UK that offers a good excuse to hop on a plane and visit Europe this fall, and an interesting story covering feedback from users of Sonicbids. A bit of interesting news about a company named Music Video Games, or MvG, that will address the growing notion of delivering some forms of music for sale on and in video games. I’m not sure what in the heck this is really going to be as of yet, but it caught my eye enough for me to bookmark it. Rap... Read the rest of this entry »
The Fratellis – “Mistress Mabel” Okay, so today’s New Tunes Tuesday is a day late, but what the heck, this song is super cool anyway. This’ll be a new feature around here. . .all sorts of music will be featured. It’ll be a genre-busting specialty show of sorts, that’ll aim to keep you up on some of the new stuff being released every week in the world of music. Three things you need to know: They’re Scottish They won the BRIT award for Best British Breakthrough Act in 2007 They apparently took their name from the movie “The Goonies”, and each member shares the same last name (kinda’) ala the Ramones Here are a few links to keep you busy if you dig this track: Buy the “Mistress Mabel” single at Download The Fratellis Ringtones The Fratellis Website ads from Shopzilla SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "New Tunes Tuesday, The Fratellis – “Mistress Mabel”", url: "http://musicbusinesspage.com/2008/06/11/new-tunes-tuesday-the-fratellis-mistress-mabel/"... Read the rest of this entry »
If you haven’t heard the recent hubbub about how Jay Z’s wallet just got about 150 million dollars thicker, then you may want to check out a bit last month’s entertainment news surrounding his signing with Live Nation, the largest concert and tour promoter and organizer in the United States. The deal puts Jay Z in a great place not only financially, but creatively as well, lending him even more control over his career than he may have had as president of Def Jam records. What readers of the page should note, though, is that Live Nation is absolutely not (at least at this time) a record company. What they are, is a huge entertainment conglomerate with a ton of money, its pulse on the music industry, leadership known for being smart business-folk as can be seen in their relationship-split from Ticketmaster last year, and, apparently very much innovators with some real leverage in the music industry. Heck, they’ve even got their own Facebook application page! So... Read the rest of this entry »
I thought I would start off this week with a bit of history, although it amuses me to think music that still seems so fresh to me could even be considered “classic”. If you’re not familiar with Darryl Hall & John Oats, they’re a group of cats who produced tons of hit records for themselves as well as others during from the 70′s and 80′s. They were a “pop” band for all intents and purposes, but that was at a time when the lines between rock and pop were so blurry, such a designator hardly mattered. What did matter was that they made cool music. After all, Carole King has been recognized as having one of the best “rock” records of all time, and Carole King, in my mind at least, is far from a rocker. Anyway, the reason for posting this video, which I recommend checking out is for you to notice a few important things. They are: That great music is timeless. The highest caliber musicians of ALL genres are inspired by so many... Read the rest of this entry »
Time for a link round-up of sorts. I’m going to aim to do this once a week, to help introduce everyone to some of the other cool articles out there on the web. Some people are quite prolific in their writing, and always saying great things you can learn from, so you’ll no doubt see some of the same names and sites repeated as time goes by – but that’s the nature of writing and writing well. You should get to know these folks as they’ll help you stay on top of your game throughout your entertainment career. Here are a few posts that I really liked this week: David Hooper has some great things to say about the power of just a “wee bit” extra effort for musicians and other folks interested in the music business at his Music Marketing [dot] com Blog. Dave Kusek, VP at Berklee College of Music shares some interesting tidbits regarding the power of guitar games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, in his post at The Future of Music. One reason why posts... Read the rest of this entry »
Check out our new Music Industry Jobs and Internships board at MusicIndustryJobs.com It’s FREE! These days, getting started in music has never been easier. So if you’re in high school, and want a career in entertainment, you’re possibly in the best position ever to get the experience your going to need to work in the music business someday. I’m not kidding. And the reason is, that due to advances in technology and the insane rise of street teams and product ambassador programs, the marketing of music has almost taken on a life of its own since the late 80′s when I was in college. At that time, hardly anyone knew what the heck a campus rep was, or how to get a job as one, and it took an article in Rolling Stone magazine along with Shelly Field’s Career Opportunities in the Music Business to bring the job to light for me as well. But that was college, and I’ll reserve some of that talk for my next post. By the way, if you haven’t already... Read the rest of this entry »
