Are there any companies who stand out to you? Or does it depend on who you are trying to reach?
I think that the market place for music services and music products is very diverse and constantly changing and new things are coming up all the time. It is so hard to recommend one solution to someone in the vacuum without knowing what that artist is about or what they are trying to achieve.
On the other hand, there are some basic tools that you need to put together. You need a web presence. You should have your own website. If you are using MySpace or Facebook or YouTube or Twitter or any social media platform - that's fine but that should be used to drive people to your website. At your website, you should be collecting information about you audience - email addresses, cell phone, physical addresses, what they like, what they bought, what they said about you - you want to collect that information. You don't want to give it to Apple or MySpace. You want to have those relationships so that you can develop the relationships with that fan base over time.
So, you need a website and if you need a social tool to drive people to your website, you can use any of those companies - Nimbit, Topspin, ReverbNation, Bandzoolge - there's a hundred of them. You need to decide what it is that you need, find the resources - there's lots of things available - and put together your website. You can use touring tools to help you promote your tours so you create widgets that you put out on social networks - it is just constantly changing, and your business partner needs to pay attention to what is going on and put together the best set of tools for what you're trying to achieve.
Is there anything you particularly wanted to talk about that we haven't touched on?
I have a project that I have been working on as an extension as the future of music book. The Future of Music book has been out for five years now, and a lot of people have asked: are you going to update the book or do a new book? What I've done is create a network called musicpowernetwork.com. Music Power Network is a resource for people who want to understand what is happening in the music industry today, to get advice from a lot of different people I have interviewed around the world about what is working.
There are some branding tools in there for creating a business plan for yourself, creating a strategy - answering a lot of the questions we've just talked about, so you have your own plan. There is a database there of resources - several thousands of them - that you can search. So you know, you can say, "I need managers…web developers…merchandising companies," whatever it is that you are looking for to help build your team, you can find a lot of that there. Music Power Network is a way for people to apply the principles we've talked about in the Future of Music book to their own career and get advice from a lot of very smart people that I've talked to.
Learn more about Berklee College of Music online classes and Music Power Network:
