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By Kate Myers, on May 23rd, 2012 | Tips of the Trade  Chances are you’ve heard a fair amount about the success artists have had using crowdfunding platforms. In fact, right now artists like indie queen Amanda Palmer and fan favorite Ben Folds are both running successful campaigns. Before you get started on a campaign for your band, check out these 5 steps to a badass campaign.
Make Fans
If a tree falls in the woods, and there’s no one there to hear it, will it make a noise? Same thing goes with crowdfunding. Even if you set up a sweet campaign, you need fans to find out about it and engage or else you won’t meet your goals (aka raise funds). Spend time building up your fan base online, whether that’s through Facebook and Twitter or through an email list that you reach regularly. These fans (and super fans) are going to make or break your next campaign.
P&B
While we can all use a bit of extra cash, crowdfunding campaigns are most successful when they are . . . → Read more
By Panos Panay, on February 25th, 2010 | Happenings Just back from Folk Alliance (fine, with a detour to France for business).
I love Memphis. If you have not been there you should, especially if you consider yourself a music lover of any consequence. The place IS the birthplace of rock and roll. On the couple of hours that I had in between stuff I took the Sun Studios tour (for the second time in two months) — and no matter how many times I do the tour it still gives me the chills to be in the same small room where everyone from Elvis, to Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Ike Turner recorded all those famous songs. May be the most hallowed music ground in the entire world.
Make no mistake, Folk Alliance is all about the music. That’s why I love FA so much because I get to check out so much of it. For three entire hotel room floors, just about every single room, during every single night, featured maybe 10 groups/artists, playing every . . . → Read more
By Panos Panay, on July 15th, 2009 | Musings The decline of what we now call “terrestrial” radio in the US started well over a decade ago. The reasons have been fairly well documented: obsession with strict “formats”, risk-averse corporations that killed all the personality DJs, gradual cultural irrelevance due to evolution of other media, etc. 
The shocking news from Boston yesterday was the shutting of one of the city’s venerable rock stations, the 40-year old WBCN (in the US all radio stations are named using “callsigns”).
For those not from Boston, WBCN was the so-called “Rock of Boston”. The station was instrumental in introducing US audiences to bands from “across-the-pond” like The Police and U2; and Boston bands like Aerosmith and The Cars got their first national breaks through the station. (WBCN’s annual Rock & Roll Rumble, a 30-year old Battle of the Bands, was also a great vehicle for many young bands to get national exposure).
The truth is, radio lost its relevance to the current generation of . . . → Read more
By Panos Panay, on June 27th, 2009 | News & Announcements Michael Jackson was world-famous because he was supremely talented. He sold 120 million records across the planet because, simply put, he made great music. He was by all accounts an exceptionally hard-working perfectionist; he wrote some of the best-known songs of all time; he was a shrewd businessman; and he pioneered moves that have changed the face of modern dance. 
Michael Jackson was also the last superstar of his kind. He was the last in a lineage that can be traced all the way back to Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra; then Elvis; The Beatles; and finally Michael. They are all entertainers that changed both the way that we listen to music but also pushed cultural and societal boundaries to a whole new level.
Michael Jackson single-handedly gave rise to the hit-driven, superstar-centric music business of the late-70’s and 80’s. If you think about it, when most of us think of the “music business” we think of the one that Michael Jackson created: mega-selling albums; lavish music videos that get . . . → Read more
By Panos Panay, on May 14th, 2009 | Musings I’m a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s writing, even though every once in a while his points tend to be a bit fuzzy (I thought Blink was so-so). That said, he never stops being thought-provoking all the while being entertaining.
This week he has a great article in the New Yorker called “How David Beats Goliath” which I found absolutely fascinating. Basically, beat your opponent by competing on your terms, not his. If you’re part of the indie music scene, be it as an artist, promoter or businessperson, give a read – and take heed.
His point is consistent with his new book “Outliers” which discusses how in many ways, the difference between people who are superstars in their fields and everyone else is sheer effort. Turns out, people like the Beatles, and Tiger Woods, and Bill Gates all put in at least 10,000 hours of “practice” before they mastered their respective subjects.
Practice does make perfect. And beats the opponent. I’m going back to work now.
Panos
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