Not surprisingly, many executives in the TV and film industry are interested in working with independent musicians, for a few reasons: (1) it is easier striking deals with indie musicians because there are less management and label hurdles, (2) their music can be licensed for less money than signed acts, and (3) there is a [...]

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A recent post from Bob Baker’s music promotion blog lists out the most popular services that assist with fan-funding of your musical endeavors. Maybe they could be used for to help to get your new studio album produced or help pay for touring costs.

The most immediately helpful advice in this piece involves adding a donation button next to any free downloads.

You don’t have to wait until you have a big music project to ask your fans for help. Just put a donation or “tip jar” button or widget on a page where you offer free downloads.

For bands that like to highlight their live performances, these donation buttons could be next to their website’s links to live archive.org recordings.

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A recent report issued by the Jewish Moms For Independent Musicians (JMIM) stated that 9 out of 10 Jewish moms support the “pay what you want” model for selling music online.

“We think it is a good application of the morals we like to teach our children,” says Stacy Schwartz, President of JMIM and mother two young musicians with myspace pages. “My kids put a lot of time into their music. Right now they are giving it away on myspace. But they should be compensated for their time and effort like anyone else. The newspaper delivery boy gets paid for delivering the paper every morning. My kids should get paid too.”

Added Lauren Gold, Vice President of JMIM: “If you can’t get someone to do the right thing, guilt is always a great last resort.”

Okay…. enough of my attempt at an Onion style article. The truth is this model seems to be working.

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True for both music and web startups, don’t let the fear of things not working keep your from starting.
Trying and failing is a far more productive strategy than not trying something in case it doesn’t work. In fact, if you want to be successful – fail early and fail often.
- NewMusicStrategies

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Every month we will highlight the blog posting that stood out to us the most from the previous month. This past month it was MusicThinkTank’s What Successful Internet Marketers Know and What Musician Marketers Don’t.

This article represents an important reminder of the fundamentals of marketing in the current digital age.

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I am still trying to figure out if I can glean a lesson from this news to pass to our readers.  Haven’t come up with anything, yet.  Nevertheless, any Spinal Tap news is special to us…

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