A long time ago, I didn’t know who David Bowie was. I was young, foolish, and in 8th grade. Without a drivers license, and desperate to “spread my wings,” I learned how to navigate the subway system. Now all of Boston was at my disposal, and I slowly mastered the city. My favorite place was a poster / merch shop called “Stairway to Heaven.” Incidentally...
Doing Business
The other day, I went to a grocery store. In an attempt to start eating healthier, I noticed they had wild-caught, Sockeye salmon from Alaska. Fish being healthy, and brain food, I decided that was going to be my dinner. I got a lovely filet and proceeded to the checkout line. When I got to the cashier, she told me that my fish was $18.49. I told her I was a musician, and didn’t have a...
But seriously, folks…
Lately we’ve gotten a ton of calls from potential clients wanting to work with us. And there’s nothing we love more than clients who want to pay us tons of money. Unfortunately, client expectations often exceed things like … reality. Here’s an example: Client calls in, says they need to make more money from their music. I ask them to send along links to their website...
Fun With Banking
After verifying my info for the third time in 10 minutes, they explained that yes, they had received the letter of termination, but no, they hadn't terminated the account. Why, I asked. I mean, it seemed like a logical question considered they'd received and acknowledged verbal and written requests to terminate the account.
Gee, they said, we don't know.
Authenticity
I got into a pretty heavy “discussion” with a friend the other day. He works in content marketing, and his job is to create content around a brand that helps drive focus and awareness. Ultimately it’s what all marketers do, but his specialty is in content creation. Sometimes it’s good content and other times, the cause of my distress, it’s just noise wrapped...
Tits too.
Amanda “Fucking” Palmer raises over a million dollars on Kickstarter prompting her to scrawl the fact across her naked torso. There are her boobs for all to see. Oh, you rebel. Oh, you cutting edge, avant garde-ist, you. And golly wow, you’re really pushing that envelope. There were gasps from here to Williamsburg, from Lexington to Concord, and from PayPal to pocket. But...
Good people
Last year, my company (D.I.-Why) sponsored the New Music Seminar. It was our first sponsorship ever as a company, and we were a bit nervous about what could happen. Having worked in multiple marketing departments over the years, it’s far more fun to spend money when it’s not actually yours. But when it’s your company, and your money, you toss dimes around like they’re...
SXSWhatever
I held off on writing a SXSW post because everybody else is. Who wants to be a sheep, right? When March rolls around, every musician and music industry hack starts frothing at the mouth. SXSW is a big ol’ schmoozefest accompanied by bbq. All things considered, it’s right up my professional alley. I’ve attended SXSW a bunch of times in the past as a rep from whatever company I...
Sponsor me?
I’m gonna say it: I hate Kickstarter. I hate the fact that they make it easy for anyone to ask you for money. That’s not to say I’m a total Scrooge, but I keep getting hit up to back people’s projects. Somehow, it seems fundamentally wrong for me to “invest” in your project without getting a return of some kind. And yeah, I know you get a copy of the CD, a...
Enough, ok?
Over the last few days, I’ve received 73 Facebook event invitations. It’s not because of my incredible popularity, subtle wit, or boyish charm that people want me at their event. Shocking, I know. Instead, they overutilize the tool so much that it becomes noise — and therefore irrelevant. As a marketer and promoter, you want to hedge your bets in the best possible way...