Axl Rose of Guns 'N' Roses.

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 and they just can’t seem to understand why their message doesn’t seem to be getting through anymore.

“My songs haven’t changed, so the people must have. The world is clearly going to hell.”

Or worse, the would-be rockstar-poet. That’s the guy (or girl) who’s message is so personal, obscure or ‘deep’ that no one gets it in the first place.

“I’m so misunderstood… The world isn’t worthy of my Rock.”

Axl Rose and ‘Chinese Democracy’

Speaking of the former, however, there was an entertaining bit in a recent Lefsetz letter that I wanted to share. Lefsetz shared an email that he received in response to something he had written about the latest Guns N’ Roses album ‘Chinese Democracy.’

If you’re unfamiliar with the album, here’s what Lefsetz wrote on it originally:

What album’s got a title YEARS before release? Isn’t the title usually the last thing?

Axl would have been better off saying he shelved that record, making it an unreleased legend like “Smile”, and then cutting another (or releasing the same damn work under a different name). Because by time it was finally released, people expected something in the neighborhood of “Appetite”, and that was impossible.

But it was impossible for any new work to have the momentum and impact of “Appetite”. It was twenty years later. MTV, the centralizing force, was dead. Radio was calcified. And the audience…was in its forties and had jobs and kids and couldn’t stay at home all afternoon getting high to new music.

Times changed, but W. Axl Rose did not change with them.

That pretty much sums it up. Here was one reader’s response:

When a track from Chinese Democracy (”Better”) leaked in 2006 – the radio stations that were playing it received Cease and Desist orders from Axl’s attorneys.

When Axl tried releasing the same song as a single 2 years later – the radio stations ignored it.

You reap what you sow.

This is a great example of somebody who just doesn’t seem to get it anymore.

Back in the day.

First of all, why was ‘Chinese Democracy’ allowed to sit around for 2 years after that track leaked? The full album should have been sent out that afternoon, as far as I’m concerned. You can do that now thanks to a little device called the ‘internet.’

Instead, Axl held the album close for 2 more years. Perhaps he (or more likely someone working for him) eventually realized that if ‘Better’ had gotten airplay without the record company even trying, it should probably be the re-released as the album’s first single.

Too little, too late.

The damage had already been done and the world had yet again moved on. What’s more, the radio stations had been snubbed. They were eager to promote the track when they first got wind of it, but Axl told them to stop. Two years later that eagerness had long since faded. Maybe they were holding a grudge, or maybe the world had just had enough time to realize that the album wasn’t all that great anyway.

Humility and Flexibility

The lesson here? The world doesn’t owe you anything. The record industry, the broadcasting and the television industries don’t owe you anything. Most importantly, the listeners don’t owe you anything.

If your music, or your business, or your way of doing things don’t lead to the kind of success you want to achieve…. you may not be as good as you think you are. And when you do find your groove and the successes start rolling in, remember – the world spins very quickly these days.

The key is to stay humble, and to stay flexible. Humility allows us to make an honest assessment of what we have, or don’t have to offer. Flexibility allows us to change in mid-course if need be to adapt to the changing marketplace, or the changing creative landscape.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, here is Mr. Axl Rose, Slash and an entire Wal-Mart’s worth of hairspray. Please enjoy – at least until Axl’s attorneys make me take it down.

The album has reigned as the prince of popular music formats for nearly a century. Yet, it’s become unclear how long this reign will last. Digital technology has transformed the way many listeners experience music and fueled a resurgence of the short-form single.

For the past several years bloggers, critics, industry pros and consumers have contributed to countless articles and comments discussing the merits of this transformation. Most of these discussions have revolved around business models and economics. If the album becomes obsolete, what will it do to industry profits? How will artists continue to make money? Conspicuously missing is any thought given to how all of this will effect music as an art-form.

I recently stumbled across an interview between Exclaim’s Vish Khanna and songwriter Sufjan Stevens that approaches the issue from a very different perspective.

For many years Sufjan Stevens was known for his prolific songwriting and ambitious projects. Between 2000 and 2006 Stevens released seven expansive albums. This month he will release two new projects, Run Rabbit Run which dropped on the 6th and multimedia set the BQEwhich will be released on the 20th. However, the last conventional album he released was back in 2005 with Come on Feel the Illinoise.

Many of his numerous fans have been wondering what’s up, and speculation came to a head a couple of weeks ago when Stevens made some comments that some took as an  announcement of retirement.

When Vish Khanna asks Stevens to clarify he quickly dispels any rumors that he is calling it quits, but he goes on to give some insight into why he has waited so long to put out a true follow-up to Illinoise.

I definitely feel like ‘What is the point? What’s the point of making music anymore?’ I feel that the album no longer has a stronghold or has any real bearing anymore. The physical format itself is obsolete; the CD is obsolete and the LP is kinda nostalgic. So, I think the album is suffering and that’s how I’ve always created—I work with these conceptual albums in the long-form. And I’m wondering, what’s the value of my work once these forms are obsolete and everyone’s just downloading music?

What does an artist do when his medium suddenly becomes irrelevant? The pundits are usually quick to urge the artist to simply switch to a new medium, because their concerns are typically focused on the business aspect. Other artists and die-hard fans will generally encourage the artist to stick to his convictions and forget about what the rest of the world is doing.

The pundits are obviously missing an important point, which is that music is not simply another product to be bought and sold. It’s an art, and the album is an art-form. The artists – and especially the fans – often forget that music is also a business and that the artist has to make money if he’s to continue making art.

So what’s a guy like Sufjan Stevens to do?

First of all, the album isn’t dead, nor is it likely to be anytime soon. Blogger hyperbole and personal existential crises aside, nobody ever said Stevens can’t continue putting out full-length conceptual epics for the remainder of his career.

It can be easy to look at the current state of the industry as a whole with all of its transitions and tribulations and lose sight of the fact that each artist and each fan’s experience is different. Just because the market is moving away from a particular format doesn’t mean everybody needs to abandon it immediately or risk becoming obsolete.

Sufjan Stevens’ fans love his work largely because of the way he has used the album format to communicate his artistic vision. If he continues to release in the album format his fans are likely to continue buying and listening to his music that way.

The same goes for any artist. Don’t get so wrapped up in the latest fashions and buzz-words that you lose sight of your own unique offering. If an established career artist like Sufjan Stevens isn’t immune to this I would imagine that many more new artists stumble get caught up in it all the time. You want to put out nothing but epic concept albums? If you can find the audience then I say go for it. You want to write 90 second musical haiku and release it in bundles of 20? If that’s what you’re passionate about and you can find a way to make it work financially, who has any right to stand in your way?

I have come to advocate a model of continual creative output where an artist releases a song or two at a time in shorter intervals for the purpose of increased fan engagement. I feel strongly about this type of release strategy because I believe it gives emerging artists the best opportunity to cultivate a strong base of core fans and keep them connected. I’m not alone in that opinion – the concept has begun to really catch on recently. But don’t confuse any one model’s acceptance with the idea that you have to give up your own vision. Maybe Sufjan Stevens would find success in smaller, more frequent releases. Or maybe he’ll come up with something completely new. But if you can’t really get behind it as an artistic form then it likely won’t work well for you anyway.

Write great music and present it in the way that best expresses what you’re trying to say. If you start there and you are serious about building your career the business models and economics will fall into place over time. Read everything you can about what is working for others and incorporate what you feel will make you successful. But don’t lose sight of your own vision and your own style in the process or you’ll risk stalling your career, in some cases before it really begins.

A lot of great new tracks dropping today, as well as several notable vinyl reissues.

Modest Mouse releases their much anticipated new EP No One’s First, and You’re Next to much rock mag fanfare. Taking a page out of the Creative Deconstruction release strategies article, six of the EP’s eight tracks were released earlier this year as 7″ singles, and have now been compiled along with two brand new ones. (Ok, they probably came up with that all by themselves  - but a man can dream, can’t he?)

The new one from The Japandroids is truly a solid record. Simple, noisy and completely lacking in self-restraint, the punk-rock energy of Post-Nothing quickly gets under your skin and it becomes difficult to get it out again.

The full list of new releases is below, with associate links to download the albums straight from iTunes, or purchase from Amazon in the case of box-sets and vinyl. Let me know what would make this list more complete, or more helpful for finding new music.

Have you been anticipating any of these new albums? Have I missed anything you think should be included here? Leave your comments and let me know what you think.

August 4

  All Tiny Creatures – Segni
  Amanda Blank – I love you (vinyl)
  Anchor & Braille – Felt
  Anjulie – Anjulie
Amazon  Antony and the Johnsons – Aeon
Amazon  AssJack – AssJack (vinyl + CD)
  Bad Veins – Bad Veins (vinyl)
  Beatallica – Masterful Mystery Tour
  Brian Bonz & The Dot Hongs – From Sumi to Japan
Amazon  Brian Wilson – What Love Can Do
  Cale Parks – To Swift Mars EP
  Catie Curtis – Hello Stranger
Amazon  Cornershops – Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast
  Desolation Wilderness – New Universe (vinyl)
Amazon  diskJokke – Discolated
  The Duke & The King – Nothing Gold Can Stay
  The Fruit Bats – The Ruminant Band (vinyl)
  Greymachine – Disconnected
  Helado Negro – Awe Owe
  Holiday Shores – Columbus’d the Whim
  Iron Age – The Sleeping Eye
  Japandroids – Post Nothing
  Joe Pernice – It Feels So Good When I Stop
  Julian Plenti – Julian Plenti Is Skyscraper (vinyl)
Amazon  Kings of Leon – Notion EP
  Lightning Dust – Infinite Light (vinyl)
Amazon  Magnolia Sisters – Stripped Down
  Maplewood – Yeti Boombox
  Marmoset – Tea Tornado
  Medeski Martin & Wood – Radiolarians III
  Miles Davis – The Classic Prestige Sessions 1951-1956
  Modest Mouse – No One’s First, and You’re Next EP
Amazon  Nodzzz – True to Life
  Oasis – Be Here Now (2 LP Vinyl reissue)
  Oasis – Definitely Maybe (2 LP Vinyl re-issue)
  Oasis – Don’t Believe the Truth (LP Vinyl reissue)
  Oasis – Heathen Chemistry (2 LP Vinyl reissue)
  Oasis – The Masterplan The Masterplan (2 LP Vinyl reissue)
  Oasis – Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2 LP Vinyl reissue)
  Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (2 LP Vinyl reissue)
  The Ocean – Fluxion
Amazon  Owen – Split EP
Amazon  Pansonic/Haino Keiji – Shall I Download A Blackhole and Offer It To You
  Pictureplane – Dark Rift
  Plastiscines – About Love
Amazon   Robert Wyatt – Box Set (8-CD box set)
  Sian Alice Group – Troubled, Shaken etc.
  Solillaquists of Sound – No More Heroes
  Soul-Junk – 1960
Amazon  Sunn 0))): Che/13 Crosses 16, Blazin Skulls/Goodbye Darling
  thecocknbullkid – Querelle EP
  Throw Me the Statue – Creaturesque
  The Used – In Love and Death (vinyl reissue)
Amazon  Walter Trout – Unspoiled by Progress
  Watermelon Slim & The Workers – Escape from the Chicken Coop
  We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls (vinyl)
Amazon  Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
  YACHT – See Mystery Lights
  Yim Yames – Tribute to EP (vinyl)
  The Young Accuser – Unsound (vinyl)

This week’s new releases include Amadou & Miriam with The Magic Couple, the Postal Service sound-alikes Owl City with the vinyl edition of Ocean Eyes, and a behemoth 13-Disc Rolling Stones box set.

One release that caught my eye is the new Starflyer 59 Ghosts of the Past. The album is aptly named – before revisiting them with Ghosts I hadn’t listened to Starflyer in years. I remember first being exposed to their material by an engineer at a studio I interned at back in the day, and seeing them perform live at several festivals after that. Ghosts of the Past is another solid offering from the 15 year-old band and worth checking out.

There are a few other notable reissues alongside the Rolling Stones box set, particularly Blur’s Midlife: A Beginner’s Guide to Blur. I’m always surprised at the depth of their catalogue beyond the 90’s alt-punk anthem Song 2, and this collection is designed to introduce listeners to some of their more obscure offerings.

The full list of new releases is below, with associate links to download the albums straight from iTunes, or purchase from Amazon in the case of box-sets and vinyl. I received quite a bit of positive feedback about these weekly new releases posts, which I appreciate. Keep it coming – let me know what would make this list more complete, or more helpful for finding new music.

Have you been anticipating any of these new albums? Have I missed anything you think should be included here? Leave your comments and let me know what you think.

July 28

10 Ft. Gangja Plant – Bush Rock (vinyl)
Amadou & Miriam – The Magic Couple
Anthem In – The Cloudbusting EP
Amazon Bad Secrets – Bad Secrets
Band of Skulls – Baby Darling Doll Face Honey (vinyl)
Amazon Beardfish – Destined Solitaire
Blur – Midlife: A Beginner’s Guide to Blur
Dogs Die in Hot Cars – Please Describe Yourself
Eureka – Shackleton’s Voyage
The Features – Some Kind of Salvation
Gang of Four – Return the Gift (2-Disc reissue)
George Thorogood & The Destroyers – The Dirty Dozen
Georgia Anne Muldrow – Umsindo
Howling Bells – Radio Wars
Iggy Pop – Iggy & Ziggy: Cleveland ‘77
Amazon Indukti – Idmen
Iron Horse – A Boy Named Blue: The Bluegrass Tribute to Goo Goo Dolls
John Adams – Dr. Atomic Symphony/Guide to Strange Places
Kevin Hearn – Havana Winter (And Thinbuckle) EP
Amazon Kid British – It Was This or Football: First Half
Kieran Kane – Somewhere Beyond the Roses
Lou Reid & Carolina – My Own Set of Rules
Madness – The Dangermen Sessions, Vol. 1
Amazon Merzbow – 13 Japanese Birds, Vol. 7
Michael Jackson – The Stripped Mixes
Amazon Morphine – Yes (vinyl reissue)
Neon Horse – Haunted Horse: Songs of Love, Defiance…
The Octopus Project – Golden Beds
Owl City – Ocean Eyes (vinyl)
The Radio Dept. – David EP
Amazon The Rolling Stones – The Rolling Stones Box Set (13-Disc box set)
Starflyer 59 – Ghosts of the Past
Amazon The Trashcan Sinatras – In the Music
Trevor Hall – Trevor Hall (vinyl)
Amazon The Twang – Barney Rubble
Ty Segall – Lemons

Not a lot of big name acts releasing new albums this week, but that certainly doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything worth checking out. In fact, often that means there’s a lot more to check out.

As far as recommendations go, The Starlight Mint’s, The Fiery Furnaces and Wye Oak’s new records are worth a listen, and Bad Veins show some promise with their self-titled debut. Also make sure to check out Electric Co.’s Josephine and the self titled Riceboy Sleeps.

Here’s a selective list of what’s hitting stores today, including  links on the left to download them straight from iTunes or Amazon. What will you be adding to your play-list today? Of course, be sure to let me know if I’ve missed anything that you think should be on this list.

Ana Popovic: Blind for Love
Bad Religion: Stranger than Fiction
Bad Veins: Bad Veins
Bettye LaVette: Change is Gonna Come Sessions
Bill Frisell: Disfarmer
Clint Mansell: Moon (soundtrack)
Decoder Ring: They Blind the Stars & the Wild Team
Amazon Dreaming in Stereo: Dreaming in Stereo
Eyedea& Abilities: By the Throat
Amazon The Fiery Furnaces: I’m Going Away (vinyl)
Floating Action: Floating Action
Florence & the Machine: Lungs
Frank Turner: Love Ire & Song
Generationals: Con Law
Greg Davis: Mutually Arising
He is Legend: It Hates You
Her Space Holiday: Sleepy Tigers
Ian Hunter: Man Overboard
Amazon Jay-Z: DOA (Death of Auto-Tune) (vinyl single)
Jeff Garlin: Young and Handsome: A Night with Jeff Garlin
John Phillips: Andy Warhol Presents the Man on the Moon
Josh Mease: Wilderness
Dave Soldier & Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: Ice-9 Ballads
La Roux: Bulletproof (single)
Amazon Lights: Rites (vinyl)
Maher Shalel Hash Baz: C est La Derniere Chanson
Major Lazer: Guns Don’t Kill People…Lazers Do
Matthew Sweet, Susanna Hoffs: Under the Covers: Vol. 2
Amazon Megafaun: Gather, Form and Fly (vinyl)
Netherfriends: Calling You Out EP
Peter Hammill: Thin Air
Rainbow Arabia: Kabukimono
Amazon Riceboy Sleeps: Riceboy Sleeps
School of Seven Bells: Alpinisms
Sean Bones: RINGS
The Starlight Mints: Change Remains
Amazon Supersuckers: Split 10″ Christmas EP (vinyl)
Amazon Talbot Tagora: Lessons in the Woods or a City (vinyl)
Wheat: White Ink, Black Ink
The Working Title: Bone Island
Wye Oak: The Knot
Amazon Young Widows & My Disco: Young Widows Split Series Vol. 4 (vinyl)
Zak Sally’s Fear of Song: Why We Hide

It’s time again for our recap of what went on in the music industry this week. Make sure to check out anything you might have missed and leave your comments. Know something we don’t? Submit a story.

Most Popular:

How to create a release strategy for the new music marketplace - Capitalize on the new ways fans are consuming music.

Why the music industry still needs taste makers - Sometimes recommendation engines just don’t cut it.

This Week:

Listener value vs. commercial value - What makes music valuable, and who is it valuable to?

Moby’s best selling track? The one he gave away for free - For all those in the music industry who are still not convinced that ‘free’ can play a defining role in an artist’s business model, here is yet another success story.

Animated Moby interviews himself -An animated Moby is asked questions about his new album Wait for Me by Dog, another animated character who is also voiced by the musician.

Number one way to make sure your band fails - There’s no secret formula to insure that your band will be successful, but I can tell you one fool-proof way to guarantee its failure: stop gigging.

Music Video Picks:

No new music videos last week, but check out out the archives.

This Week in Music History:

2002 It was reported that Dr Dre had become the richest music star after earning £62m in the last year (approximately one hundred million in US dollars), £37m from his own earnings plus £25m from his record label Aftermath. (This Day in Music)

Here’s a recap of what went on in the music industry this week. Make sure to check out anything you might have missed and leave your comments. Know something we don’t? Submit a story.

Most Popular:

5 Reasons Why the Performance Rights Act is a Bad Idea – Is this bill really for the artists?

Why the Music Industry Still Needs Tastemakers – Sometimes ‘recommendation engines’ just don’t cut it.

Last Week

Creative Culture and the Growing Copyright Extremism – How the industry is criminalizing a generation, what they could have done instead, and how music fans can respond.

How Creative Commons can Enhance Your Business Model – Demystifying the various Creative Commons licenses.

Big New Album Releases – Several highly anticipated albums dropped last week – Check out a full list here.

How to Create a Release Strategy for the New Music Marketplace – Capitalize on the new ways fans are consuming music.

Music Video Picks:

No new videos last week, but check out out the archives.

This Week in Music History:

1975 – American singer songwriter Tim Buckley completed the last show of a tour in Dallas, Texas, playing to a sold-out crowd of 1,800 people. This was Buckley’s last ever show, he died the following day of a heroin and morphine overdose aged 28. (This Day in Music)

If you are an independent artist or record label I want to challenge you to try something different. The normal course of business for most artists is to spend months or years writing and recording an entire album’s worth of material. Once it’s finished, you hype it as best you can for a few more months, trying to build interest so it will launch with a bang and make you enough to recoup your costs and maybe pay for a new amp or enough gas money to get through the first half of your cross-country tour. You throw a big release party and hope the orders begin to pour in. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. Either way, you’re left to ride that wave for the next months or years until your next album is ready to drop.

Here’s my challenge: do things differently next time. Take a look at the market and respond to the way people are actually consuming music. Create a release strategy that capitalizes on consumers’ preference for purchasing individual tracks rather than complete albums, and that engages fans more effectively than in the past.

Instead of releasing a complete album, release one track. Market the heck out of it, spread it around, give it away, whatever you need to do to get as many people listening to it as possible. Encourage people to interact with it, remix it, shoot videos for it. Let the track promote your live shows, where people can hear more of your material.

A few months later, drop track number 2. Same thing – promote it and let it promote your shows. Give the songs some continuity like series television – a story line, a repeating theme. Leave your listeners anticipating the next track with a good cliff-hanger.

Repeat this process until you’ve released an entire set of eight to ten songs and offer the whole set for sale in special edition packaging. Make it something that people will pay money for – even people who have already downloaded your individual tracks. Artwork, photos, liner notes, lyrics, etc. Release it in vinyl, or on a t-shirt like Mos Def – whatever your unique brand of fan wants.

The idea is to engage your fans by increasing the frequency at which you release new material. Give them a reason to check back in with you early and often to see what you have coming out next. Don’t let them think that you’re just like so many other bands releasing three quality tracks and a bunch of filler – there’s no room for filler if each track has to stand on its own.

There are so many things you could do with this approach. Pre-release one of your songs as un-mastered tracks and create a contest to find the best fan mix to be released along with your own finished version. Release your singles on 7” with an interesting b-side, or on a CD with a bonus acoustic version. Auction off an opportunity to sing backup on the next release, or to create the artwork, or to host the next release party at their house. Get people involved and hold their attention for longer. Get them invested in the process.

Is the album dead? No, I don’t believe it is. Yet as an artist trying to make a career in music you can’t ignore the current market realities. Individual track downloads, real-time culture, constant communication – these have been seen as enemies to the recording industry but you can turn them into an opportunity to build your fan base foster deep commitment.

Let me know if you’re planning on giving this a try. It doesn’t have to look quite like what I’ve outlined above – you’re an artist, be creative. I’ll even commit to doing a feature here on the site on the first band that gets back to me with a report.

UPDATE: Read the follow up to this article How a Subscription Model Can Enhance Your Release Strategy.

‘Backseat’ hails from Carina Round’s new EP Things You Should Know, which was released digitally on May 12th and is otherwise only available at her shows. The track is a quiet lullaby to lost love sung with affection, not bitterness -- “Do I lie in the backseat of your mind?”

The video takes advantage of the lilting style of the music and features a sometimes comical, sometimes beautiful cast of characters who sing along with the vocalist. Each individual seems to have their own reasons for singing, and the seemingly disconnected  faces come together in the end as the music swells and builds to a sad, hopeful climax.

I really like this video. Technically speaking there are some things I would probably do differently -- for example, the static shot at the end would have been better served by some movement. Pulling back and letting the viewer take in more of the crowd would have added a lot to the climax, especially if it found it’s way back to the close-up in the end. But in all, I think this video does the song a lot of justice. Hope you like it -- let me know what you think.

‘Backseat’ was directed by Seth Dalton and Carina Round.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrZLaxSmY44

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone at this point, but album sales were down 17.8% in May over the same month in 2008, and 37.7% lower than May 2007. Hypebot deftly points out that Soundscan released these figures just a day before the NARM music sales convention – the largest retail convention in the industry. Not a great start to the weekend. This is bad news for the recording and music retail industries because there are still precious few within them who have truly begun exploring business models that rely less heavily on the sale of CDs and digital downloads. Maybe, just maybe this will be the kick in the pants the folks at NARM need to begin seriously discussing how they’re going to get through this.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure there’s much the retailers can do. Their business depends on a product that is becoming increasingly commoditized,  and that’s really not a great place to be. One option would be to add a ‘long tail’ to their strategy like the one Amazon.com as been successfully operating under for years. Stock your digital shelves with a diverse inventory that has something for everyone and make your money on one-offs and rarities.

As for the record labels, if the 360 deal is the best they have been able to come up they’re in big trouble. A better idea might be to develop talent that can actually put out something substantial and package it with valuable scarcities. Release singles on vinyl with worthwhile artwork and liner notes and send it out with a coupon to download the track online as well. Give the fan access to something they couldn’t have access to without purchasing the music – give them a reason to buy something that you know they have come to expect for free.

Independent artists should take heart, though. The upheaval that is going on at the top of the music industries doesn’t have to hinder you from being successful. Note that these sales figures are from Soundscan – most albums sold at concerts and gigs don’t show up on the Soundscan reports. Especially albums being sold by independent artists. Independent artists have the freedom to create business models that work for wherever the market is at any given time. Find out what your fans want and give it to them. ‘Part Two’ of Why Free Music was Inevitable will include seven major categories related to adding value (and revenue streams) to your business model, so make sure you check back soon.

It’s not all doom and gloom – the music industry as we know it is being shaken up, but music will outlast the chaos.