Live on the Web: Matthew Ebel

My Twitter friend and fellow Massachusetts resident Matthew Ebel has been performing a weekly live web concert for some time now, and has been quite successful with it. As further proof of this success, NPR recently did a piece on him, which is a must-read:

wbur.org » News » Live From The Basement: Geek Rock!

Conventional wisdom might tell us that an unsigned artist couldn't possibly garner an audience this way, much less make any money. Kudos to Matthew for proving the conventional wisdom to be wrong!

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Prevent Your Bands Gear from Being Stolen

This is a great blog post from yvynyl, for all my touring friends:

yvynyl - How to Prevent Your Band's Gear from Being Stolen

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Gerd Leonard: How Musicians can Thrive in the "Link Economy"

Berklee Today features an interesting interview with media futurist and Berklee grad Gerd Leonard. His comments are in line with what we have heard from several forward-thinking people, such as Trent Reznor (see his comments here.) I think his main point is that artists need to think in terms of their "brand" rather than their "product." Take, for instance, this quote:

"In the new music economy, you need to build an audience and energize them to act on your behalf and forward your music virally. Later, they can become paying customers. Don't ask them for their money first. Once fans are sold on you, you'll be able to 'upsell' them special shows, backstage passes, webcasts, a live concert download, a multimedia product, your iPhone application, a premium package for $75."

Read the full article here, and you might want to follow his blog as well.

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