Okay, we get it. It’s not an entire Macbook crammed into a single slate. It doesn’t have a 1080p color e-ink touch screen with backlighting, portal technology, and holographic projection. You hate it, fine. It’s not like I’m camping out to buy it once it finally ships. But before you divert your bored hours at work from Farmville to flaming the fanboys on every Apple message board you can find, read this and try to think about long-term strategy.

I’m a musician, so I have to think long-term. The entry-level position for most business is either mail room, receptionist, or dishwasher. For musicians it’s playing hours of classic rock tunes in bars where people are annoyed that you’re interrupting the football game. It’s spending thousands on an album that might just sell 50 copies, if you’re lucky. It’s setting up message boards on your website and talking to the same 3 friends who are bored at their day jobs playing Farmville.

If musicians only thought short-term, nobody would go into this business.

Apple’s new iPad is a lot like a new indie band. (more…)

I just listened to a retrospective post from the talented Slau, the guy that produced Podsafe For Peace and I’m suddenly remembering what it felt like to be excited about podcasting again. If you were around for the birth of New Media (or if you’d just like to know what it was like working with all the other big names in New Media Music), you’ve got to take a listen to this. Slau released this as the latest edition of his own podcast, Sessions with Slau.

And yes, the Podsafe For Peace song is at the end of the episode!
Download Episode

I am asked this question quite frequently by new musicians looking to expand their presence on the web. I don’t blame them; the legion of music sites are both numerous and constantly changing. Ten years ago I would have pointed you straight towards the great behemoth that was MP3.com, but we all know how badly that turned out.

If you want a small sample of the sites that feature my music, hit my Contact Page and check out the grid. Do I visit these sites regularly? Hell no… but some people do, and I need my music to be there. With so many options, how do you choose which sites to hit and which sites to ignore?

To be honest, most music sites are a waste of time. Unless it’s iTunes, Facebook, or Amazon, the only people that visit the site are other musicians. Not fans, other musicians. If you’ve ever played an open mic night, you know how this works: You’re onstage baring your heart and soul for a crowd of people who are disinterested and just waiting for their turn to do the same. Posting your music to these sites would be like trying to sell time-share condos at a telemarketing convention.

My advice, for the curious, is simple: Go where your fans are. I say “your” fans, not “the” fans because there are so few “music fans” and so many “songs about robots” fans or “electric bluegrass” fans. If your fans are into manga comics, go post your music on art sites that feature manga comics. Are you an activist? Go post your music where people are supporting the cause. If you don’t know what your fans are interested in, that should be your first step: ask them.

It’s so much easier (and effective) to spread the word in communities you’re already a part of, rather than trying to build a taller billboard than the band next to you.

I give Nickelback a lot of crap, I know. I also know that 3.7 gazillion people love that band. I hold up acts like Nickelback and Miley Cyrus as shining examples of boring, tepid major label waste product (which they are). Is it because they’re not edgy enough for me? No, there are plenty of bands that are edgy to the point where I can’t listen to them. The entire punk genre, for example, or some of Ben Folds‘ earlier work. Just because something is too misshapen to fit in the focus-group approval box doesn’t mean it’s good either.

I propose that music is like any other recipe; there are main ingredients and there are accents. A plain lump of chicken breast (Nickelback) is not, by itself, a meal. If all you ate were plain chicken breasts your taste buds would most likely atrophy and fall off your tongue. On the other hand, a diet consisting entirely of black peppercorns (punk) would burn your mouth and leave you starving to death.

This, I believe, is an oversight on the part of most major labels and some indie artists. So that mellow, 90-bpm rock song sold 20 million round discs. It’s a good cut of meat, sure, but it’s only one part of the meal. You don’t want the entire album (or the band’s entire catalog) to sound like that one market-ready radio-friendly überhit ’cause the fans will get bored.

Here’s a secret: The artists will too. Most artists (songwriters at least) have a diverse range of output. This is what drives guys like Garth Brooks to become Chris Gaines or George Carlin to be Mr. Conductor. An artist’s output should reflect their humanity as a whole, not just the radio-friendly side or the dirty underground side. An album, especially, should sound like a well-balanced meal tastes.

If you don’t believe me, open up a restaurant that serves only unflavored pasta and chicken. Let me know how that goes for you.

So the economy is bottoming out. We’ve finally discovered as a nation (I hope) that an economic plan consisting of

• Buying cheap plastic junk from China
• Driving the most inefficient vehicles ever designed by man
• Taking out loans for things we know we can’t afford
• Fueling our entire transportation system with a substance whose price is controlled by a tiny group of people who don’t like us very much
• Letting our government spend money without telling us what it’s buying (Halliburton, anyone?)

is not exactly a plan for success. Excellent. Now we can start rebuilding from the ground up, right? I have a simple plan, and there are two sides to it:
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