Management

I try to listen to The Daily podcast by the New York Times every day. Mostly I’ll put it on at the gym or in the car. I’m all about multi-tasking. Who has time to do just one, singular thing anymore?! The Daily is a really good, in-depth look at the top stories of the day. Of...

Because of my digital distribution comparison piece, I act as de facto customer service rep for all 16 companies I reviewed (yay me).I lovingly try to let these artists and managers know that each company has their own customer service department at their disposal. But if they do...

It seems every artist is trying to figure out how to get their songs licensed to TV shows, film, trailers and commercials. And rightfully so, there can be a lot of money in it. But it’s not easy. And there are only so many placement opportunities. Only so many songs each TV sh...

Over the course of my 600 shows I've hired 9 drummers, 9 bassists, 7 guitarists, 5 keyboardists, 5 singers, 4 trumpet players, 2 trombonists, 2 saxophonists, 2 cellists and 3 violinists. Not to mention the various session players for recordings.I've also been hired as a trumpet p...

I’m still about 300 emails behind from what I missed at SXSW. I completely forgot to turn on the vacation responder when I left. Only a couple people freaked out at my delay. When I'm at a music conference it's impossible to keep up with any work not pertaining directly to the...

There’s a moment that every musician experiences when you get what you think could be the final masters back from the mastering engineer. You sit in your car with extremely close friends. And you confide in them that this is your new song off of your new album. You spent the be...

I just left the studio last week where we finished the final tracking for my new funk project's debut record. For the past 8 months or so I have been working on this record on and off. My producer, co-front person and I tracked (mixed and mastered) one song to figure out if we we...

Giving away song downloads used to be the standard incentive to get people to sign up for your list. Now that fewer and fewer people want to download music, you have to come up with other incentives to get them to sign up. It's best to list on your website what the fan will get i...

You know how everyone comes up to you after your shows and they tell you how great you were? That feels nice doesn't it. I sure love it. But how many of them are being genuine or just being good friends? Because I remember talking to a drummer buddy of mine who was so excited aft...

It's always been one of the biggest difficulties for an independent musician: how to get their music heard by 'important people.' Influencers. Industry people. Celebrities. Bloggers. Radio DJs. Music supervisors. Promoters. Booking agents. Managers. Labels.The issue has always be...