There is no greater threat to one’s career than playing to an audience that doesn’t want to hear you. A room full of strangers is much preferable to a room full of people that think you suck. It’s part of human nature to be vocal about that which we dislike, much more so than that which we love.

To put it simply, you’ll tell a couple of friends about something you really love, but you’ll tell the whole world about something that annoys you.

It’s like playing rap music in a country bar… If all you see is a crowd of wallets, you’re going to get beer bottles thrown at you. Before you start rapping, those people are just bystanders. Once you’ve given them a dose of something they don’t want, they become a negative PR force actively working against you.

This is the reason I do not sign people up for my email list that didn’t ask for it. I’ll send invites- ONCE -but if they don’t want my emails, I don’t want to send to them. My blacklist is almost as big as my mailing list. Why? Because each person I send an email to is remotely interested in my music. If they’re not, the last thing I want to do is annoy them!

Lately I’ve been receiving auto-DM invites to a music site via Twitter. One invite? Sure. Identical invites from many different people with no way to opt-out? Now I’m never going to sign up for that service. In fact, I’m writing a blog post about it because they’ve ticked me off. I am now a negative PR force working against them, all because they wouldn’t let me opt out.

The lesson? Don’t play rap to a country crowd. No audience is worse than the wrong audience.

If you remember me asking you via email to bug the folks over at Pandora, I’d like to thank you for your efforts. Even though one representative said they couldn’t find the CD’s I sent them months ago, it seems they must’ve found one. Goodbye Planet Earth is now available on the most cutting edge internet radio station, ready to stream!

(By the way, if you don’t remember me asking you about this, you’re not signed up for my email list yet.)

Why is this a slice of awesome pie? Two reasons: First, Pandora pays its BMI licensing fees like any other radio station, so the more my music plays on their system the more likely I’ll actually see a royalty payment (and, therefore, eat). Since the stations are built around a recommendation engine, my tunes will be played any time someone searches for someone famous like Ben Folds or Keane. They don’t even have to specifically search for my obscure name.

Second, since a lot of people will hear my music because I’m similar to the artists they’re searching for, there’s a good chance some of them might become fans of mine. I know more than a few people who have discovered new artists they like because of Pandora. As much as the RIAA likes to ignore it, people do in fact buy albums via iTunes and Amazon from Pandora recommendations.

So thank you, all of you, who helped raise the awareness! Hopefully some more of my albums will appear in their system soon, but for now you’ve really helped me break into a new playing field!

If you’re reading this, chances are good that you’ve become a fan of mine through [tag]podcasting[/tag] or some other [tag]internet[/tag] venue. So it shouldn’t surprise you that I’m following this little debate closely.

In case you weren’t aware, there’s a battle raging quietly about [tag]internet regulation[/tag] that will eventually determine whether or not tiny businesses like podcasters and [tag]indie artists[/tag] can even afford to use the internet to promote and expand.
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