Reality TV Killed The Rockstar. But Is That So Bad?

Posted on 14. Jul, 2010 by refe.

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Beyond reality TV is the internet, and the continued development of social networking, blogging and microblogging, which has been giving musicians all around the world the ability to be as little or as overly transparent as they would like. So this brings up a very important question: Is transparency a good thing for musicians to take part in?

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Sell Like a Human: How to Make Money Online Without Acting Like a Tool

Posted on 12. Jul, 2010 by refe.

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Last week, Hypebot asked me to contribute a brief post for their ‘Social Media Day’ feature. You can find it here. The exercise got me thinking, and I’ve decided to expand on the topic a bit here on Creative Deconstruction.
If I were to create a poll to find out the average internet user’s feelings toward [...]

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Ignore the Real World: Blogging the Start Up Experience

Posted on 21. Jun, 2010 by refe.

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“That would never work in the real world.” You hear it all the time when you tell people about a fresh idea.
This real world sounds like an awfully depressing place to live. It’s a place where new ideas, unfamiliar approaches, and foreign concepts always lose. The only things that win are what people already know [...]

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Do Viral Music Videos Sell Records? A Closer Look at OK Go

Posted on 15. Jun, 2010 by refe.

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OK Go had some mild success with their self-titled debut album, but they remained relatively unknown until their first hit video ‘Here it Goes Again‘ blew up on YouTube in 2005. The album was called Oh No, and sold around 200k copies. By contrast, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky has only managed to sell 20k copies, despite not one, but TWO viral music videos for ‘This Too Shall Pass.’

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Win a Free Chance to Transform Your MySpace Page Into Something that Doesn’t Suck

Posted on 13. Jun, 2010 by refe.

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MySpace360Wizard is a new tool designed to help bands brand and optimize their MySpace pages. Find out below how to win one of 5 FREE access codes.
Every band has a MySpace page. Unfortunately, 99% of those pages suck.
When it comes to out-of-the-box usability, MySpace ranks far, far below its more attractive cousins, Facebook and Twitter. [...]

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What does it take to earn a living with digital music?

Posted on 02. Jun, 2010 by refe.

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I’m sure many of you have seen this already, but it’s just too good not to share. Below is a beautiful info-graphi.c that breaks down the amount of music in various digital formats that a single artist would have to sell in order to meet the US minimum wage in a given month.

As you can [...]

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‘Physical Fanatics’ Continue to Embrace Vinyl in a Post-iTunes World

Posted on 31. May, 2010 by refe.

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Even as many in the music world continue to trumpet the death of the physical release format there is growing evidence that these claims have been grossly exaggerated.
There is no denying that digital has taken hold of the music-listening market. Digital sales continue to climb, and new records are set every few months by artists [...]

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Axl Rose and the Importance of Humility and Flexibility

Posted on 24. May, 2010 by refe.

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Change is difficult.
Artists often have the hardest time with change because they can be so driven by principle. The rockstar-poet is the clearest example of this. You know the type – one or even a couple of great albums that receive major critical acclaim (whether under or above ground) and then the world moves on [...]

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Music is Not Our Currency

Posted on 19. May, 2010 by Rich Huxley.

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The new music industries work in a very different way than the record business of the ’60’s. The precious 7 inch of plastic discs of that decade (when music demand far outstripped supply) were rare; clamoured for. Music lovers saved their pennies and tens of them would gather round a single radio to hear the [...]