Question

Should I use auto-friend-adders?

I get this question pretty much every time I go and speak somewhere. It’s generally about MySpace, but it also relates to anything like the automated friend adders, chat bots, scripts and automatic human being replacements in social networks.

Essentially this is about making decisions about the kind of conversations you want to be involved in.

I’m sure you can already guess that my answer to the title question is a resounding “No” – but this is not about making you do all the hard work so that you have to reap the benefit. Believe me – this is not my serious work ethic talking here.

I’m a deeply lazy individual.

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How long should music copyright be?

This one’s easy. I’ve been saying this for a while now, and it never fails to get me into an animated discussion. I’ve listened to all the arguments, read all the reports, heard convincing arguments about copyright extension and for complete overhaul of the copyright system.

And I’ve come to the following conclusion: The ideal term of both recording rights and composer’s rights is five years.

That’s right: Five. Not 95. Not 75. Not 50 or 25. Five. That number again: 5.

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How can I keep coming up with ideas for my blog?


Blogging: such hard work

Blog inertia is a real problem for a lot of people. You start writing and updating on a regular basis, but even though you understand the importance and benefits of the practice for your music business, sooner or later you just kind of run out of stuff to talk about.

But it can actually be a breeze, rather than a dreaded chore – if you just take a few minutes to develop a bit of a strategy for those down times when the inspiration seems to be in short supply, it can be something you can do easily, quickly, and at times when you just don’t feel like it.

There’s a simple solution, and it’s one that I’ve recently implemented myself.

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What websites should I be on? (Part 2)

Last.Image via WikipediaI used to joke that the way to be successful in the music industry was to look at whatever the major labels were up to, and simply do the opposite. It’s getting to the point where that’s not really a joke anymore. I learned yesterday that Warner Music have pulled their catalogue from Last.fm. This, if nothing else, is confirmation of the wisdom that this is exactly where your music should be.

Now, it’s possible that Warner’s catalogue isn’t benefiting as greatly from Last.fm as an independent might. Last.fm users tend to be quite active music hobbyists – not in the majority, but certainly in greater proportion to most sites. And independent music enthusiasts tend to be disproportionately represented amongst active music consumers.

Put simply, people who are more discerning about their music tend to look outside the mainstream hits. People who are more discerning about their music tend to be more active about discovering new music. Last.fm encourages an active engagement with the process of music consumption.

In fact, I’d argue that more than almost any other music site out there, Last.fm understands how people consume music.

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