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.