cool book: good to great

I am reading Good to Great for a class I am taking. Excellent book. Very applicable for the music business.

cool book: the new rules of marketing & pr

I have been doing some research on using social networking sites for marketing and pr for our band, and I just came upon an excellent book: The New Rules of Marketing & PR.

What I like most about this book is that is actually goes into some depth and detail of marketing research and strategies, and does more than just explain how to transform a personal MySpace site into a music one (which I have found a lot of publications do).

cool site: new music strategies

I love this site. I have highlighted part of it before, but this is probably one of the most significant part of the site - so much so that I want to focus on it some more. Andrew Dubber is the Degree Leader for Music Industries at Birmingham City University, UK. He is a senior lecturer and researcher with a particular interest in online music, radio and new media technology. He has written an excellent ebook on The twenty things you must know about music online, which you can download for free, and the entire site is wonderful.

cool site: artistshousemusic.org

Artists House Music: an online, non-profit musicians’ Website where all musicians can receive informational support, guidance, and expert resources to help them navigate the challenges and maximize the opportunities available to them within the music industry.

This is a great site - probably one of the most thorough and informative ones out there. Check it out, bookmark it, use it - you won't regret it!

cool book: the great good place

Another great book - not directly music-related, but very relevant IMHO: The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. In a nutshell, the book talks about the history and function of "the third place" - public gathering places that encourage and foster community. Cafes and coffee shops are prime examples (the bar in Cheers, the coffee shop in Friends), and music can play a very active role in the community life of both.

Worth reading: The Great Good Place.

cool site: the future of music coalition

I got to know these guys last year. The Future of Music Coalition is a not-for-profit collaboration between members of the music, technology, public policy and intellectual property law communities. They host regular summits and policy days and I am lucky enough to live close to DC where many of those take place - I'm actually attending one this coming Monday and Tuesday. But the site has great information in general as well and the Coalition does excellent work on behalf of musicians. Worth checking out!

cool book: getting things done

This is a great book. You can buy it on Amazon for $8.99 (new!) and it really is an eye-opening way of looking at time management. There are lots of good tools online to incorporate this system as well, but I'll leave that for another day.

The book: Getting Things Done, by David Allen.

cool idea: three things

I love this blog: New Music Strategies. And I am going to start incorporating this post.

The basic idea: For now, just pick three things that you need to get done, jot them down — and then do them tomorrow.

Why on a music resources blog? Because this is applicable - especially for independent musicians who also try to be their own booking agents, publicists, managers, producers, and so on, and so on, and so on.

cool podcast: music business radio

Podcasts are a great resource. And in some ways it's hard to imagine that, say, three years ago none of us had ever heard of the word or the concept. Here's one that I really like: Music Business Radio. Artists, producers, publishers, record label executives - every week there is a new installment, and not just any little podcast - each episode is almost an hour in length.

cool music site: mbsolutions

Music Business Solutions is the music business website of Peter Spellman, Director of Career Development at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Peter has written several excellent books about the music business (The Self-Promoting Musician is one I would highly recommend), and the goal of the site is "Helping musicians, songwriters and industry careerists start and grow successful music businesses through vital information and creative management strategies.". It has lots of helpful articles and links and is one of the sites I refer to often.

cool social networking site: reverbnation

I discovered ReverbNation last week and really enjoy it. There are tons of social networking sites out there, and whether you like one or not tends to be highly personal, but this has some features that I really appreciate - the ability to create a custom playlist from songs available on the site, to name just one.

And to give you an example, here is our ReverbNation profile. Still developing, of course.

cool music site: the secret music life of kat

The Secret Music Life of Kat is one of my favorite music business sites - and actually it is one of my favorite sites, period. Kat is a thirty-something stay at home mom who states on her profile "I love music. I love technology. I love business.". She writes about great resources, music promotion, productivity and organization, links to great blogs, and it's all written in a personal, easy-going style that makes this one of the first blogs I turn to on my daily "blog-rounds".

cool music book: the creative habit

To start things off - no website, no podcast, but an old-fashioned book :). This book, The Creative Habit. It was given to me by our band's cellist a few years ago, and it is an excellent book for anyone in a creative environment - whether you're a musician, a writer, a dancer, a chef. It's about creativity, how to foster it, how to release it, and while that may sound vague, it isn't. The Creative Habit (subtitle: Learn it and use it for life) is written by choreographer Twyla Tharp, and it is the type of book that I read again once a year, just to refresh the ideas and concepts, and to remind myself that creativity is something I need to work at and foster.

And by the way, dealing with books and music I will usually post a link to a site like Amazon.com, because that's an easy place to find books and there usually is a decent description and some reviews.

cool music resources

I am a singer, musician, songwriter, booking manager, publisher, marketing manager, publicist - in short, I have my own band and music is my life. It's a lot easier to do all these things, to get your music out there and manage your own band, in this era of the Internet and technology. There are thousands of fantastic websites, social networking sites, blog, books, podcasts, ebooks, articles out there - the problem is not that it isn't there, it is finding the right resource for you. Now, that is probably a very individual process, and on size definitely does not fit all, but as someone who tries to find helpful tools and resources about music and the music business I know that when I find a book, website, podcast that I like a lot usually other musicians love it too.

So.... the reason for this blog? To find and post one cool link or resource per day. It can be a website, a title of a book, a podcast, another blog, an online article - but it somehow has to relate to music and the music business. I'll post it - it will be a nice reference for myself, and a good discipline - and I hope that perhaps some other musicians and music lovers will find this helpful as well.