100 Questions
So I’ve started writing this e-book, and I thought it would be appropriate to just lay out a bit of an introduction that explains where I’m coming from. This is what I came up with.
100 Questions I Keep Getting Asked About Music Online
INTRODUCTION
I do quite a bit of consultancy, teaching, seminars and workshops, as well as have quite a few conversations at meetings, in cafes and at friends’ houses on the topic of music online.
The range of experience and expertise the people I have these conversations with ranges from complete ignorance to total mastery. But I always come away from those conversations knowing more than I did going in.
Usually it’s because I’ve been told something about how musicians and the music industries work, sometimes it’s been because I heard about something internet-related I hadn’t previously been aware of (after all, it’s a big place, that internet) – and quite frequently, it’s because I find myself having to clearly explain something I had long taken for granted and hadn’t really thought through properly until that moment.
I thought it might be valuable to address some of those questions in a form that you can take away and flick through. That way, you can perhaps locate some of the things you weren’t quite sure about and see if my take on them helps clarify things at all. With any luck, the answers to these questions will spark some more questions, but hopefully, the answers in themselves will be useful too.
Of course, there aren’t exactly 100 questions that I get asked all the time. I’ve cut this down from a much bigger list. These are the 100 most frequently recurring, although they are often worded differently. My hope is that the answers here will help you understand the online music environment a little better, give you a bit of confidence moving forward, help you know the terms to use and what to ask for when you deal with web designers and internet-savvy audiences, and hopefully save you time and make you money along the way.
I’m not going to assume any prior knowledge – so my apologies if this all seems a bit rudimentary. I’ve oversimplified a lot of things in the interests of general accessibility, rather than technical accuracy. My assumption is that a) you make, teach, promote, distribute, sell, or are somehow otherwise involved in music. I am assuming you have sent and received email and that you have visited a web page – and maybe a search engine like Google.
With that in mind, let’s start with the basics.
That’s Monday.
Table of contents for Questions
- 100 Questions
- What’s going on?
- Can I avoid the internet and just stick to what I know?
- Should I be worried about piracy?
- How can I sell my music online?
- How do I even start?
- Do I really have to blog?
- Can independent record stores survive?
- Are CDs dead?
- How do I find time for the internet?
- Is MySpace over?
- So what should be on my MySpace page?
- How can you sell mp3s at gigs?
- Is ‘pay to play’ ever a good idea?
- What should the price of recorded music be?
- What websites should I be on? (Part 1)
- What websites should I be on? (Part 2)
- How long should song samples be?
- What websites should I be on? (part 3)
- How can I keep coming up with ideas for my blog?
- How long should music copyright be?
- Should I use auto-friend-adders?
- What’s the loudness war?
- Is the Long Tail good for musicians?
- How can I put my gigs online?
- Is the album dead?
- What file size and type?
- Can the internet help improve my playing?
- What’s the best way to manage a fan list?
- How can I sell mp3s from my website?
- So what’s with all the silence?
- How many social media platforms?!!!
- Should I do something about metadata?
- How can I get a music video?
- Demo on CD or mp3?
- What should I do with all these tapes?
- But if they steal it – how can I make money?
- Can I still be enigmatic?
- Here’s a question nobody ever asks
- Who’s doing this stuff well?
- Has music been devalued?
- Is audio fidelity important?
- Is localism important?
- What’s a Netlabel?
- When should I put my music online?
- What do you mean by web-presence?
- Is Cloud Computing the Future of Music?
- Why give music away for free?
14 Comments. Write a comment or link to this post
colin bradley
Hey Andrew,
I read 20 questions a couple of months ago and loved it! I work in the music business and forward it to every artist I talk to. I look forward to reading your blogs.
peace.
Mar 29th, 2008
Mehdi
Hi Andrew
Great blog, great e-book. Love it. It helps me to give a massive push forward. Thanks. I’ve already forwarded your e-book to a few musician I know and one web-designer. Still waiting for their reaction (probably and hopefully busy reading it).
Since your blog is feeding my google reader, some funny questions crossed my mind and maybe is already on your 100 question list.
It is about success.
If an artist/musician gets really famous, what do you do with your success? Or what could you do with your success? Are there any obligations? Are there any public obligations? What role should play the famous artist? How will an artist know his success? What is the threshold? What is your advice when people are on top?
We hear and read a lot about “going up”, what to do etc. etc. . But if you reach the top of the mountain, should you take a picture of the view and go back to base camp? Or should you stay on top and scan the horizon and look out for other persons who are on top as well? Or boardind the awaiting spaceship which brings me to another time and space (just kidding). I’m looking forward to your thoughts about this.
Cheers
Apr 4th, 2008
Alicia Morgan
Definitely the most sensible approach to the new music paradigm I’ve come across yet. I’m so tired pf people whining about ’stealing their music’, and you make that point very well. Every person who downloads your music is a potential customer of some sort. You now have a relationship with that person. The old business model is completely useless. Those clinging to the wreckage are like stable owners who are trying to ban automobiles because it makes their harnesses and carriages useless.
May 18th, 2008
Sarah Sings
Hello Andrew,
Hopefully you can add the following question “how does an independent artist make a living wage from their music without the big tours, licencing deals, airplay royalties and sponsorship monies offered to major artists”
If you are an independent artist or record label and want to join my “Real Fans Pay” Campaign to stop the tide of “free music” and re-instate earnings for independent artists then then check out my new Myspace page
http://www.myspace.com/realfanspay
Jul 4th, 2008
Mehdi
Hi Andrew
I think I found an answer to which I’ve asked you about success. I found it this morning reading Derek’s entry on
http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/6-things-i-wish-i-knew-the-day-i-started-berklee.html
Being value for other people. I’m already some sort of value for people, but not for my music yet. This is the next step for me to think about it and then get out of the shed.
Mehdi
Sep 7th, 2008
So... What do YOU think?