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Music Industry

5,178 Gigs: Living With Fame and Living Without It

Glenn Paul Manion | Posted 05.24.2013 | Entertainment
Glenn Paul Manion

Even if fame eludes you, recognize that it need not be a death sentence for your career. You may find that you create better music without it.

Delicious Diva Sasha Allen

Yvonna Russell | Posted 05.24.2013 | Black Voices
Yvonna Russell

If you're not watching the NBC's The Voice, you are missing someone special, Sasha Allen. Triple threat talent Sasha is a singer, actress and classic...

5,178 Gigs: Do Quit Your Day Job

Glenn Paul Manion | Posted 05.03.2013 | Entertainment
Glenn Paul Manion

Unequivocal statements are not my style. Nevertheless, I can't overstate this. Your music career will make many unreasonable demands on your life.

JT's Smart Gamble

Katy Hall | Posted 05.01.2013 | Entertainment

Apple's iTunes music store turned 10 last month, marking a rocky decade in the music industry as digital downloads shouldered out physical album sales...

Rick Ross as a Mirror for the Music Industry and Culture as a Whole

Toni Nagy | Posted 05.16.2013 | Entertainment
Toni Nagy

Forcing an apology out of Ross does not address the pandemic of misogyny. This message of party culture and women as sexual objects is constantly perpetuated by the music business.

5,178 Gigs and Counting: How to Have a Music Career in Spite of the Music Business

Glenn Paul Manion | Posted 04.18.2013 | Entertainment
Glenn Paul Manion

What we are is full-time musicians in an age when most of the traditional outlets for musicians to make money have gone the way of the cassette tape. Clubs that pay real money? Rare for unknowns. Wedding band work? Lost to DJs.

Bravery Tapes: Young Courage Amid Mexico's Violence

Jens Erik Gould | Posted 03.27.2013 | World
Jens Erik Gould

Of all the horrors associated with a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Mexicans, the country's children and adolescents are perhaps the greatest casualty.

Is Former Stones' Manager The Ultimate Hustler?

Michael Sigman | Posted 05.19.2013 | Fifty
Michael Sigman

Stein is a colorful record biz icon who has played an integral role in the careers of such superstars as the Ramones, the Talking Heads, the Pretenders and Madonna.

Why Music, Part 7: Beyond Genre

Frank Fitzpatrick | Posted 05.01.2013 | Arts
Frank Fitzpatrick

Although genres in music may be useful in helping us organize our song libraries, like any labels -- racial, cultural, artistic or spiritual -- genres can limit the potential to staying open to more encompassing visions and a greater sense of personal connection.

From The Voice to PBS: Reality TV Might Save Arts Education in America

Chris Mann | Posted 04.30.2013 | Entertainment
Chris Mann

I was halfway through the press line answering questions like, "What's your favorite Christmas song? What was it like singing with Christina Aguilera? What's your favorite holiday memory?" Then I was hit with an unexpected question: "Do you think there are too many singing competition shows on television?"

Freegal: Emphasis on the the Free Public Library of Cool

The Los Angeles Public Library | Posted 04.30.2013 | Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Public Library

I write here about my experience not as an administrator since I am not one of those, or even as a librarian although I am one of those. I offer this opinion only as an impenitent bin rat that has collected songs going back to the original days of vinyl.

The Best Music News Since 1999

AP | RAPHAEL SATTER | Posted 04.28.2013 | Entertainment

LONDON — More than a decade after online file swapping tipped the music industry into turmoil, record executives may finally be getting a sliver...

Eagles Land, Then Soar in New Documentary

Michael Sigman | Posted 04.20.2013 | Entertainment
Michael Sigman

The band reached its highest altitude during the mid to late 1970s, when the single and album Hotel California cemented what Rolling Stone called their "note-perfect Hollywood-cowboy ennui."

Not the Lefsetz Letter

Seth Hurwitz | Posted 03.29.2013 | Entertainment
Seth Hurwitz

Whether it's Rebecca Black's "Friday," or that OK Go video with the treadmills, or Taylor Swift's gaudy parade of tabloid heartbreaks, fans just need the connection. Does your song capture the sweeping terror and fragile brevity of human experience?

The Latest Tectonic Shift in Music

George Howard | Posted 03.05.2013 | Entertainment
George Howard

A quick perusal of both the Grammy nominations and the charts leads to only one conclusion: The music business is in one of its periodic re-imagining phases.

Dearly Beloved, Let's Get Crazy With Amanda Palmer and The Grand Theft Orchestra on New Years Eve in New York City

Holly Cara Price | Posted 12.28.2012 | New York
Holly Cara Price

2012 has been quite the year by all accounts. The music industry -- which is still trying to figure out what happened to its former self -- took a serious blow by the concept of crowdfunding this year. And by concept I mean runaway success.

Huffington This Week: A Battered Borough and a Controversial Merger

Arianna Huffington | Posted 02.13.2013 | Green
Arianna Huffington

In this week's issue, Saki Knafo and Lila Shapiro put the spotlight on Staten Island, telling the story of how Hurricane Sandy collided with one man's version of the American Dream. And Jason Cherkis and Zach Carter write about a potential shakeup in the music world: a controversial merger that would give Universal Music control of 40 percent of the industry.

Hip Hoppers & Occupy -- Are We the Music We Have Been Waiting For?

Jerry Ashton | Posted 12.11.2012 | New York
Jerry Ashton

There is something about the Occupy Movement -- and especially in its recent incarnation as "Occupy Sandy" -- that brings out the best in us. And the best in us is increasingly found in the music we call Hip Hop.

Tips From the Rock n' Roll CEO No. 10: When That 'Oh Sh*t' Moment Happens, Don't Panic!

Jared Gutstadt | Posted 01.30.2013 | Small Business
Jared Gutstadt

Have you ever shown up to a major presentation, or a big meeting, or a conference, or a job interview, only to be overcome with a panic-stricken feeling when you realize, to your horror, that you forgot something huge?

How Are Songs Changing in the Move From Physical to Digital?

David Hunt | Posted 01.20.2013 | Media
David Hunt

The "hit song" is used to quickly leapfrog into another branch of entertainment or advertising -- the edges are scrubbed off of all the different genres and rap and rock and pop and electronic are melded into a vast, marketable mid region.

A Few Too Many Words in Defense of Record Store Day's Black Friday

Ben E. Kessler | Posted 01.19.2013 | DC
Ben E. Kessler

on Friday, November 23 a whole bunch of records are going to come out, and I'm going to buy some of them. Record Store Day and all its appendages remain worthy of our attention, and quite possibly our dollars too.

Good News! Ten Commandments Reduced Now to Only Nine

John Mellencamp | Posted 12.25.2012 | Entertainment
John Mellencamp

The entertainment business has been criminally assaulted by wrong-headed thinking that says we need to keep up with the Internet. No, search engines need to abide and adhere to the laws that have governed this country for over 200 years. It's a moral imperative. Thou shalt not steal.

Why Commercial Hip Hop Is A Joke

Homeboy Sandman | Posted 12.22.2012 | Arts
Homeboy Sandman

Hip hop is hurting, and so are we the members of the hip hop community. It's gotten so bad that the term "commercial rap," has gone from meaning rap that is commercially successful, to meaning rap that is actually a commercial.

Songs of Hope VIII: Helping Those With Cancer at City of Hope

Brian Lambert | Posted 12.17.2012 | Impact
Brian Lambert

Winning this kind of battle gives you great perspective on how you spend your time. I have gained an unusual confidence to prioritize my time and enjoy life (and spend as little time as possible focusing on the negative).

Did the New OneRepublic Song Rip Off Florence + the Machine?

Nico Lang | Posted 12.16.2012 | Chicago
Nico Lang

No one would credit Top 40 for being innovative, but there's a difference between "everything on the radio sounds the same" and "beyotch stole my track." Ryan Tedder's rampant recycling sends a bad message about being successful in the music industry.