What has long been a theory of the changing music industry is that “jam bands” – bands that adopt an improvisional style that make each show unique – should have a strategic advantage adapting to the new economics of music.

This is because by adding value to the live show experience, fans would be more likely to pay to see multiple live shows and would be more likely to purchase recordings of those shows (since they are all different). With regular studio albums becoming less of an income stream, such live show value has achieved hightened importance.

As many people know, the “original” rock jam band was the Grateful Dead. And although pre-Internet, their experience and new business thinking for the time continues to be studied, and remains highly relevant.

[Read more →]

For this month’s blog post of the month I picked an article called How To Cover a Song – HFA by Rick Goetz of MusicianCoaching.com.

I like this article because it addresses a very basic business& legal issue that independent musicians should know how to address- how to obtain a license to cover a song.

A while back a musician friend of mine told me about he was recording a cover song. I asked whether he obtained a license. Cause you know, I’m dorky like that and I’m interested in licensing.

And this was his answer- No, but there are compulsory statutory licenses, right? They have to give you a license to record the song, so if the owners of the song noticed he’d recorded the song, he’d just start paying the statutory fees. *insert visual of my jaw dropping here*

In case any of you are nodding your head in agreement right now- Stop! My friend is WRONG!

[Read more →]