Now that I have been working on the blog steadily since October 1, 2007, I want to say a couple things I have learned about writing, and I want to note a few decisions I have made about blogging.

Repetitive Information
I often repeat things I have stated in prior posts.  I am going to continue this practice; albeit, I will attempt to put the repetitive information in a clearly marked section at the top of each post so regular readers can skip it.  I restate information so that each post / article can stand on it’s own.  Over 50% of the visitors to this blog each day are new visitors.  My goal is to help each new reader understand the evolving assumptions I operate under.  

My Target Audience   
My target audience is people operating or working in businesses where their incentives are aligned with artists.  If your incentives are not generally aligned with artists, or if you are in a business that consciously or unconsciously takes advantage of artists, you probably will not like this blog.  

Not Writing For RSS
I don’t write to make my RSS feeds short or concise.  My posts are occasionally long.  As I said to a friend last month - If I were advising you on how to remove a kidney from your horse, you wouldn’t want the information delivered in short, tidy bursts over several weeks; you probably need the entire chapter delivered in one click.  

Personally, I appreciate finding detailed articles written by others that I can print and read anywhere.  I believe when you are writing to be informative, you should supply all of the information needed (using minimal hyperlinks).  When you are writing to be entertaining, then perhaps you should consider writing in short bursts.  

Breaking Posts Apart
However, while I am on the subject of long posts… I am learning to logically break things apart.  When you realize that you are going to write something tomorrow or next week, it makes sense to split things into separate presentations.  Up until recently, I heaped everything into a single post like it was the last supper.  Now that I am sure that I will be writing tomorrow, I am realizing that I can save some for another day.

Non-Condescension
I have been a father for 14 years.  I have to remember not to write like I am talking to my kids.  I am going to try to substitute phrases like “you should” or “you must” with “you may try” or “I would consider”.  This may take a while to get a handle on.

Advertising
This entire blog is about helping unsprung artists.  I look into and write about business models, and I look into and write about everything I learn about things like Google ads, advertising in general, Amazon and other affiliate programs.  Trust me, I don’t make my income from my ads.  If one of them starts to generate a lot of revenue, you will know about it.

Bullshit
I keep my bullshit to a minimum.  If I have not done it, experienced it, or if I am not attempting to do it soon, I will not make a claim about it.  When I write about things I have no experience doing I will introduce an obvious disclaimer. I will though, reserve my right to evolve and change direction.  If I intend to do something, it doesn’t mean it will always get done.  The expression “shit happens” applies here.  The best intentions are sometimes derailed by life.    

I gave this interview to freelance write John Ingham last year.
 
What trends in the music industry do you see already happening that will continue to grow in 2008?
Acceleration To Vertical - When the labels had distribution locked up, the industry was like a stack of pancakes.  Artists were the bottom pancake, managers second, labels third, publishers, producers, studios, promoters, tour operators, concert venues, merch, radio, etc.  

Fast forward to 2008 and the industry is turning into a cup of toothpicks.  Everyone is going vertical – as in vertical integration.  You can see it all around: artists becoming labels, concert operators signing artists; labels buying venues; managers becoming labels; merch, ticketing and digital music going under one umbrella; management, radio, touring and TV clustered around a demographic (Disney), etc.  It’s hard to open Billboard these days without seeing some form of vertical integration occurring.

I believe we are going to see more and more consolidation, mergers and acquisitions – where the purpose is to build entertainment ecosystems and music keiretsu around geographic areas, around demographic segmentation and around broad category genres.  This isn’t the smartest way to consolidate, but it’s happening.

Do 360 deals make any commercial sense? What advantage does it give the artist?
Four years ago I read my first record contract and I almost fell over; I thought to myself, why would anyone sign something like this?  And, the attorney said it was “artist friendly!”  

My first inclination was to put the artists we were working with into separate corporations, have all of the revenue streams pledged to the corporation, stipulate a salary cap, agree on operating procedures, and then make an investment.  That’s way simpler for everyone to fathom.  A band becomes a startup; it’s venture capital for bands; everyone owns stock; everyone’s interests are aligned; and it’s win-win all around.  I can’t envision working with an artist under any other scenario.    
 
There’s a lot of talk about the artist in effect being his own music label and distributor.  Apart from the fact that artists are usually terrible businessmen, what other flaws are there in this view? Or is it correct?
If an artist sings a song, and nobody’s there to hear it, does he make a sound?  Has anyone ever heard an artist that does not have some sort of businessperson appendage?  There’s no such thing.  Every artist works with some sort of team; that team may or may not include the artist, but rarely is the artist an island of himself; he either has a business apparatus or an able uncle.  Anyone that claims to be flying solo is getting some help in other areas of life, or on the creative end; it’s too hard to go it completely alone.  
Moreover, the problem with the go-it-alone approach is: there are literally three million artists in the English-speaking world that are trying and DOING the same things.  If you’re famous, maybe you should file for free agency and do it all.  If you’re unsprung, then cutting through the noise is still your biggest challenge.  You can try strapping yourself to the Brooklyn Bridge for attention and playing your guitar for oncoming traffic, but most artists will be better off with a caring team of seasoned professionals.
 
You’re an advocate of giving away recorded music.
I am actually an advocate of giving away MP3s when you are unknown.  You need spins to sell music right?  If everyone is using iPods then you need to be in the freaking iPod to sell music!  It’s a chicken and egg dilemma that’s easily solved.  The people that have the time to hunt for free music – the early adopters, they’re not the same people that buy music. When the early adopters anoint an artist as the second coming of the Beatles, the rest of the world, the time-starved masses, they will buy the Second-Coming’s music at iTunes out of convenience.  

By giving away tracks to the early adopters an undiscovered artist has everything to gain and nothing to loose.  Furthermore, just about every early adopter joins the ranks of the time-starved masses at some point in life; that’s when convenience becomes more valuable then the time it takes to hunt for free…

How do you think that it will once again become an item of paid-for value?
I say this to everyone that listens… Time is money.  Humans are spending more time hunting, collecting, organizing, sharing, listening, and promoting music then ever.  The recorded music industry has failed to convert this time back into green money.  Five other segments and fifty other companies are figuring it out; the sky isn’t falling; established artists are still living large; new artists are popping up every other month.  Stop reading the CD sales charts and look at the big picture.  Music is valuable and artists will make money

Talking to managers in the UK, they find it very hard to make real money from live performance because promoters, agents, booking agencies and very other guy in the process is trying to get as much money out of it as possible.
That’s odd; Live Nation’s net operating margin is 4%.  They make all their profits on beer and bullshit; the brunt of the money goes to buying the talent.  If agents, agencies and promoters are squeezing artists in the UK then that sounds like a business opportunity.  Sounds like it’s a buyer’s market?  

Can live performance replace the loss of recorded music income?
No.  The RECORDED MUSIC industry needs products that generate high-margin, reoccurring revenue to prosper.  Everyone would like to know that they can stop touring and the money will still roll in.  If I have it my way, the products the industry needs will be built and everyone will be happy.  For example:
http://www.unsprungartists.com/fat-decks/
 
How would you describe your role and input with the band you’re advising?
The truth is, my company may end up spending millions on marketing over the next few years.  I thought, why not have our own artist(s) to use in every single example, showcase them in all of our software, feature them in adverts, etc, etc.  This is what I do on my blog now.  Every time I push something, I push Jediah.  It’s win-win they get exposure and I learn.  I also get two bangs for every marketing dollar I spend.  

I’m actually looking for more artists to work with; they have to be subjected to my radical ideas and be willing to give away their MP3s – for example.  
 
Where you’ve experimented, what has worked and what hasn’t?
The experiment just started; ask me in five years.  I can tell you something that I screwed up last December through January.  I sent 500,000 people to a page on Jediah’s (old site) website in two months; Jediah’s (jediahband.com - now jediah.com) site was scoring higher on Alexa then DMB and Coldplay; 70,000 people clicked the button to go to iTunes to buy the song Butterfly – so we thought…  When we got our sales numbers back from Apple 45 days later, you could hear the air coming out of our balloons from the next state over.  It turns out that we were the victims of click fraud and our own stupidity.  We should have noticed when were ranking as a top site in countries like Iran and Turkey during that time period.  Digital music is a novelty in other parts of the world, and our keyword-marketing program generated a lot of curiosity – and that cost us money…  

Jediah is currently not a touring band.  We have some plans for promoting their new album in 2008 – stay tuned.  
 
What excites you?
Being one of the toothpicks.  Working with bands on a song-by-song basis.  Helping artists realize their dreams.  I love to be in the recording studio - even though I can’t play an instrument.  The thought of being responsible for bringing profitability back to recorded music.  

Another truth – I never thought I would be involved with a single band – traditionally.  I planned (and still do) to be involved with 1,000 bands on a song-by-song basis.  However, nothing would give me more satisfaction than seeing Jediah go to the moon.  That’s coming from a guy that hated the old system and from a guy that wants to revolutionize the music industry – and what’s one of my top goals?  Something as old as the cigar stains on the walls of the record label – I want my artist to be a rock star… Must be something that gets into your blood?