wax&wires

If you don’t know Derek Sivers, he’s the founder of CD Baby. You can follow him @sivers (and should). None of these PR tips are anything you don’t already know, but they’re good refreshers.

What are you doing to bring an experience along with your songs? Apple Cocktail, Muse’s new album, and more!

EPISODE 4

In this episode:
- Performance Rights Organizations (BMI vs. ASCAP vs…)
- Aqualung
- Parallel and Two-Stage Compression

There has been no shortage of news with regards to the future of the album here. How can artists sell more than just singles now that our culture seems to be so quick to acquire and discard whatever music is “hot right now?” Perhaps the answer is in the App Store.

Singles sales have been crushing album sales ever since the development of the digital marketplace. How do Apple and the big four major record labels team up to combat that?

EPISODE 3

In this episode:
- Skunks
- Royalties, Pandora and the New Deal
- Spotify U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!
- EMI in the troubles
- The Bird And The Bee
- Promoting your band (get off the internet!)

Are you guilty of a PR felony? Bob Baker talks through how to give your CD a better shot at being heard.

Here’s a creative little music video I saw a few days ago that I thought might put you in a happy mood for the weekend.

Guess who just gained exposure to tens of thousands of new listeners that would have never heard his music otherwise?

Trent Reznor just put up a few quick thoughts on how to be successful as an unknown artist.

Cellist Zoe Keating quit her tech job to become a touring musician. Here she offers some advice to those facing a similar decision.

Amanda Palmer, of The Dresden Dolls, has made noise on the internet before and now has written a blog post on how she made $19,000 in 10 hours on Twitter.

Check out thesixtyone.com, a great way to not only discover new music, but get your tracks discovered. You might also have a little competitive fun in the process.

Danger Mouse, most notorious for being half of the Gnarls Barkley duo, is in the midst of a legal dispute with EMI prompting him to release the album artwork for his new album with a blank CD-R in lieu of the album itself.

I had no idea how much Reznor actually made last year. Here, Masnick breaks down why his business model works, and if and how it would work for lesser known artists.