"Hey Tom, I wanted/needed to e-mail you because I have some frustrating questions in terms of music and the mainstream music business and I just wanted to get some insight from you. Here it goes! Well for years now, besides practicing until my fingers bleed, all I could think about is how do I establish myself as a respectable guitarist and a musician. The thing that bothers me is that someday I would love to release my own neoclassical album, but these days I realize that in the United States high tech guitarists are not as admired as much here unless the music genre magically changes or if it was the 1980's again. But it bothers me that it all comes down to a question of what sells instead of what you like personally and what you're capable of doing in terms of composition and technicality. That ticks me off! I want to make sure that I keep my own musical integrity and show my full musical abilities that have taken me years to perfect, instead of holding back playing re-arranged power chords just to please the audience. For most people, if the music is not played on the radio, they don't want to hear it. I have my very own expectations in what I could do to make a killer song, but because if it's not like Blink 182 material or something like Disturbed it won't be respected. But I just wanted your point of view what you think about what to do in these case scenarios. I mean I am stuck between personal passion and simply what sells and this really sucks."
Your points are excellent and many musicians that want to make music at a very high level (or want to make music in style that is not popular) ask these sorts of questions.
Read more here!
Recently, I came across a message from one of my readers named Tom who posted a simple but profound comment, "But when the entrepreneur is bleeding money and the artist can no longer buy art supplies it's a sad day indeed." I sat with this comment for a few days, until a response finally began to bubble up.
As the festival and event industry experiences continued growth, productions are being increasingly attended by a diverse range of attendees spanning many demographic characteristics. Whether a production is ticketed or non-ticketed, collecting and understanding attendee demographic data provides significant value to organizers in many ways.
The biggest factor affecting your sales is a combination of location of your food stand, the popularity of your product, how your food stand looks and how much competition there is at the event. This issue we are going to focus on securing a good location.
It happened again! I talk to a group of artists about using social media like blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I tell them that this is part of a marketing program and that, yes, it will take time. I warn them not to get sidetracked using social media and forget to go into the studio–that the studio is always the priority. Still, they grumble, whine, and make excuses. (I had spies at the lunch table after my talk!)
When you promote yourself via e-mail or with the words you use on your web site, you have a choice. You can be straight-forward and matter-of-fact (also known as bland and boring). Or you can communicate with pizzazz.
Qualitative (descriptive) data can come from many different sources and is beneficial in many ways. Comments & feedback from attendees, vendors and volunteers, examining foot traffic patterns through the festival grounds, and assessments of festival signage & layout are all great examples of qualitative data. Often, this data is overlooked in lieu of traditional quantitative measures, such as economic spending, marketing effectiveness, and event satisfaction data. Although traditional quantitative measures are extremely useful to festival organizers, qualitative measures prove just as beneficial to their productions. But why bother with collecting qualitative data?
Consumers will be logging on ecommerce sites searching for holiday gifts and deals very soon. The traditional kickoff for holiday buying is Black Friday - the day after Thanksgiving. Last year, Black Friday sales through the following Monday, 'Cyber Monday', accounted for 18% of total online holiday sales. U.S. online sales topped $1 billion on Cyber Monday alone. Perfect your marketing and delivery plans as the year's most lucrative shopping season draws near. Here we have created a few tips to be get the most from this season:
If you think all you have to do is gather a few exhibits, buy some entertainment, advertise what is going to happen... and the folks will bang down your door!
You know the feeling when you are supposed to go to a business or social event, but you're tired, feeling antisocial, have SO much work to do, don't want to go out in the rain.. < insert lame excuse here >. I used to feel this way all the time and for a while I would bail if those feeling crept in. Instead of going to an event that initially wanted to go to, I would stay at home home, put on my pyjama pants and convenience myself that I made the right decision. I would tell myself that I probably wasn't missing much anyway. But the real reason I didn't want to go was because I was scared.
Like it or not, if you're living the life of an independent artist or entrepreneur, you're alone at the helm. Oh sure, you may have a staff of assistants, band mates, collaborators, partners, a slew of advisors, a career consultant and a great coach, however the truth is, you're the architect of your enterprise, the CEO of your world, and the "Don" of your empire. And your personal support team could be terminated at the snap of a finger (yours!) because you alone make the big "risky" choices and the uncertain, frightening decisions in your life and career.
Many people starting a food concession business are unaware of the variety of business opportunities that are available to them. They have a vague notion there is money to be made but cannot imagine exactly how. The business becomes a little clearer knowing most concession businesses fall into one of two categories; stationary and temporary.
GET THERE EARLY!!!
In general, the end of year holiday season is a difficult time for indie labels and bands to compete with the majors and all of their holiday, best of and greatest hits releases. That doesn't mean you can't live it up during the season with a little fun of your own. These ideas may not be big money makers, but they can be a great way to give your fans something special for the holiday season. There are ideas here for bands and labels alike, so everyone can get into the holiday cheer.
The economic impact that festivals & events have upon local communities can be profound. In the industry, the focus is often on "Direct Economic Spending" or "Economic Impact Assessment" in reference to the figure that represents the amount of money produced by the festival or event. In this article, we will explore attendee spending & economic impact assessments to highlight the processes & benefits of conducting this type of research. Oftentimes, the terms "Direct Economic Spending" and "Economic Impact Assessment" are used improperly. The difference between these two measurements is subtle in text but monumental in meaning. Direct Economic Spending refers to the total amount of money spent in a city or county as a result of a festival or event. The total amount spent per person for different types of attendees (most often residents and non-residents) is calculated and extrapolated for the total attendance. An Economic Impact Assessment is far more detailed. Essentially, it starts with Direct Economic Spending numbers and traces how money flows through & impacts the community as it is spent and re-spent.
