next2friendsblog.com

So, this case of the British teacher who allowed her class to name their teddy bear “Mohammed” has got me wondering: What is a “Mortal Insult”, or rather, what is something so offensive that you deserve to die for it? 600 Sudanese protesters are calling for her execution and I am truly baffled.

Now I understand that there is a cultural divide probably so vast that no amount of thinking could bridge it, but I am trying, for the life of me (no pun intended), to figure out what insult would be so terrible that I think someone should die for it.

So let’s start with the single most important thing to me, which to those in Sudan calling for the teacher’s death I have to assume is their Islamic faith. My life and my love for my family are probably the most important things to me. Now what could someone possibly say to slander either of those to the point that I would wish for their death? I think the only thing that could come close would be for someone to threaten the existence of my life and my family. If I had reason to believe they were capable and had a plan to carry out our deaths, why then, yes, I would wish for their death. But I can’t guarantee that I would actually try to get them killed. I probably wouldn’t in fact.

Further, what are insults anyway? Do words really matter? Does it matter that someone agrees or disagrees with or maybe even hates your deepest beliefs? Deepest beliefs should be unshakable, shouldn’t they? If you’ve found something so pure and compelling that has made a profound difference in your life, indeed, something that gives you deepest understanding of the meaning of your life, is there anything anyone can possibly say to take away from that? I can’t possibly see what would. Nothing outside of you, not insults or opinions, would matter because you have found the meaning inside of yourself. It’s value would live in you.

Now, maybe I’m just pontificating from a western individualistic cultural perspective that places the highest value on the actualization of the individual (Maslow’s Higherarchy of Needs). Perhaps if I lived in a more collective culture I’d understand how an insult to the core of that culture is indeed an insult to everyone. And maybe I’d even understand how one person’s life is really not that important in the grand scheme of things when the ultimate goal is to be a part of the collective. But if that is so, I’ve got a long ways to go, and I have a feeling that half the world does as well.

Hans Erik
Content Marketing Director
Hans@Next2Friends.com
www.Next2Friends.com

So it appears cell phones have racked up their first homicide. From CNN this morning:

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An exploding mobile phone battery apparently killed a South Korean man in the first such known case in this gadget-obsessed country, police say.

The man, identified only by his family name Suh, was found dead at his workplace in a quarry Wednesday morning and his mobile phone battery was melted in his shirt pocket, a police official in Cheongwon, 135 kilometers (85 miles) south of Seoul, told The Associated Press.

“We presume that the cell phone battery exploded,” the police official said on condition of anonymity.

The official said the phone was made by South Korea’s LG Electronics, the world’s fifth-biggest handset maker.

LG Electronics confirmed its product was involved in the accident but said such a battery explosion and death was virtually impossible. - November 28th, 2007

I think it’s a pretty well documented fact that batteries can explode. Look at the rash of product recalls that have swept through multiple industries for the past decade. So now that exploding batteries have claimed their first life I thought it would be good to learn how to keep from becoming the next victim of technology.

Here are some steps taken from Hardwaresecrets.comto ensure the safe and long life of yourself an, yes, even your batteries:

• You can recharge a lithium-based battery frequently, but you shouldn’t recharge it more than it’s necessary. You use to recharge your cell phone for hours? Forget it!
• If the device needs to be kept stored for a lengthy period of time, keep the battery in a cool place at 40% state-of-charge. The website http://www.batteryuniversity.com stated that a Li-ion battery stored for a year at 40% charge loses 4% of its permanent capacity, and one stored at 100% charge loses 20% of its capacity.
• Keep your cell phone away from water, sand, dust and humidity. Short-circuiting can also explode your device.
• If your handheld gets wet, remove the battery and let your cell phone dries before put it back.
• Do not freeze the battery. When the battery gets warm again, it can be humid and cause damage to the battery’s circuit.
• Do not place your cell phone in a hot car.
• Do not carry your cell phone in your pocket.
• Do not use plastic cases to protect your cell phone. They can overheat it.
• Do not open the battery. Do not even try it!
• Prefer original and authorized accessories and batteries.
• Keep the battery away from metallic objects. It can short-circuit.
• Lithium-based batteries are used not just in cell phones, but also in many kinds of electronic devices, such as MP3 players, digital cams and laptops.
• If despite all these warnings your device gets overheated, contact technical assistance.

Good luck and safe keeping to you and your family!

Hans Erik
Content Marketing Director
Hans@Next2Friends.com
www.Next2Friends.com

The internet is responsible for many facets of today’s lifestyle, it shapes where we shop and eat, what music we like, but now apparently fatherhood needs to be tacked on to the long list of the internet’s achievements.

From the BBC:

“Nearly half of all teenage pregnancies in the wealthy Chinese city of Shanghai have been blamed on increased access to the internet.

A doctor who runs a helpline for pregnant teenagers in the city reports that many of the girls said they had met the boys they had sex with online.

The news will disappoint China’s ruling Communist Party, the BBC’s James Reynolds in Beijing says.

The government has made policing the internet a priority.

It is concerned about people having access to internet sites that might be deemed harmful to the morals of the Communist state, our correspondent adds.

Dr Zhang Zhengrong has run her helpline in Shanghai for the last two years.

She said that 46% of more than 20,000 teenage girls who had called during that time said they had sex with boys they met on the internet.

Most of the boys did not stick around after learning about the pregnancy, she said.

And many of the girls did not understand sex and considered abortions to be harmless, she added. About 10% have had as many as three abortions.

“There were some who were unaware they were even pregnant until very late,” she said.

Dr Zhang has appealed to parents and schools to pay more attention to sex education.” — July 10th, 2007

I think it goes without saying that the internet has had a far reaching impact on how we live, work and play but here is further proof that for generations to come the internet will be the hub that binds society together, in fact it could become the very means that our species propagates…well, I guess it already has!

Frankly, I don’t think the internet is to blame. It really is just the means through which teens in Shanghai are accomplishing what most teenagers are trying to accomplish: meeting other teens and experimenting with themselves. The Chinese government blames the internet instead of it’s own social policy. I’m not surprised however. It seems people and governments are always finding the nearest scapegoat without addressing the real problem. Well, the Chinese government should brace themselves for their next biggest problem: Next2Friends in the hands of every teen on the planet!

Hans Erik
Content Marketing Director
Hans@Next2Friends.com
www.Next2Friends.com

“Against the canvas of the night,
Appears a curious celestial phenomenon…”
-Mos Def, Astronomy (8th Light)

Is the night sky really canvas? No. When you read this line do you suddenly see the sky as a thick black material arching above you? I do. This is the power of metaphor. Metaphors are mainstays of good lyric writing and creative writing as well. In their simplest sense, metaphors are the collisions of ideas or things that don’t belong together. Metaphors must not be a physical reality. Like we said, the night sky isn’t literally canvas, it’s just a bunch of atmosphere without sunlight. But what if you look up in the sky and see, as Mos Def probably did, something thick and black with stars almost painted on it? Now the sky can seem like a canvas against which curious celestial phenomenon appear.

Humans are endlessly capable of weaving seemingly unconnected ideas into something with meaning. Metaphors are perhaps the greatest example of this. Let’s take a look at some ways to generate metaphors.

The Connecting Idea

Metaphors work and often arise from one simple principle:

Something has a quality, in the case of “the night” it could be thickness, or blackness, or even the fact that the sky can look like a surface.

Now, something else shares one or more of those qualities, in this case it’s canvas. Thickness, blackness or surface all connect “the night” to “canvas”. They are the connecting idea. Metaphors that couple two nouns like this are called Expressed Identity. Expressed identity metaphors come in three flavors:

One is “X is Y” (as in the night is canvas)
Another is “The X of Y” (like the above example, the canvas of night)
The last is “X’s Y” (as in night’s canvas)

Another kind of metaphor is called a Verbal Metaphor. These involve conflict between the verb and its subject. His cut was crying blood. Cuts don’t really cry, but by taking one characteristic of wounds, that they bead up and drip, and using an unusual verb that also describes this phenomenon, crying, we have created a collision. The connecting idea in this case is beads up and drips. In one case it’s blood and in another case it’s tears, but both bead up and drip.

The last kind of metaphor is called a Qualifying Metaphor. In this kind adjectives qualify nouns and adverbs qualify verbs. Examples of this could be a furious storm or laughing blindly. Storms don’t have emotions nor can laughter be blind but qualifying metaphors use an unrelated adjective of adverb to infuse some new meaning into a noun or verb.

Good luck and I hope this helps you on your way to better writing with metaphor!

Hans Erik
Content Marketing Director
Hans@next2friends.com
www.Next2Friends.com

Lyrics are different than poetry in one fundamental way: They are meant to be heard, not seen. Poets have an advantage over lyric writers in that their words stay in one place, on the page. It’s on the page, held and looked at and read that they have their impact. But lyrics have no physical form like poetry in that they are meant to be sung or spoken. So what can lyric writers do to have an impact on people? The answer is rhyme. Rhyming words are the signposts of lyrics. Repeated sounds are musical to the ear. Just think of your favorite song. If nothing repeated it wouldn’t be music, from the melody lines right down to the drum groove. The same is true of lyrics. Repeated sounds make music. And that’s all rhyming is: Repeated sounds. Let’s dig deeper.

Perfect Rhyme

Now, there is nothing really perfect about “perfect rhyme”, in fact it often is a bit boring and cliché, but it is just one type of rhyme that lyric writers work with. A perfect rhyme is one in which both the vowel sound and the ending consonant are the same. This is easier to show through example than it is to explain:

Take the words “beer” and “near”.

They start with different letters but end sounding exactly the same. They are perfect rhymes.

Family Rhyme

Now it begins to get a little more interesting. Consonant sounds can be said to belong to “families,” grouped together with other consonant sounds that are similar but not exactly alike. Rhymes using these sounds can be said to be family rhymes. Some people call these, Slant, Near, or Sprung Rhyme.

Here is a chart of consonants that are part of the same family:

So here are some examples of family rhyme for the plosives:

blood/bug/tub/struck/putt/cup

Here’s some for the fricatives:

grease/beef/sheath/screech/grieve/breath/breeze

And last, some family rhymes for the nasals:

some/among/bun

Don’t be scared by the terms. Voiced simply means you have to make a sound with your voice to make the sound as in “b” or “v”. Unvoiced does not involve making a noise, it’s just air being stopped or modified. Say the ”p” sound. Did you have to make any noise in your throat? You may have but you didn’t have to. The “p” sound is created by obstructing your airflow with your lips and letting the air pop out, that’s all. Whereas the “b” sound uses the exact same obstruction with your lips but adds a little grunt as you do it. Hence the difference between voiced and unvoiced. One actually uses your voice and one doesn’t.

I hope this is helpful. Good luck rhyming!

Hans Erik
Content Marketing Director
Hans@Next2Friends.com
www.Next2Friends.com

It was right around the time that the Mac Pros came out. My tried and true Mac Dual G4 just wasn’t holding up to the demands that I was putting on it for my audio production work. As I pondered the specs of the new Mac Pro it made me dizzy imagining all the tracks, plugins and software synthesizers I could use simultaneously. But despite how good a deal it was comparatively, I couldn’t even come close to the $2500 price tag. So for a devoted Mac user I did the unthinkable: started pricing PC’s!

I switched to Macs 5 years ago, having grown tired of all the crashes and hardware conflicts that my older Windows 98 machine encountered. And it really was better. I could plug in audio gear or install drivers without, say, the colors of my screen suddenly going berserk, or the entire system crashing because I added a trackball mouse. But all this was predicated on my working at a Mac-only school that lent me the use of a great dual 1.25 G4 computer for my home use. I didn’t have the money even then to buy a Mac. So fast forward to now (6 months ago) and the quandary was very clear. I had to do something to handle the increasing demands I was putting on my computer and I had to do it for as cheap as possible.

Macs don’t “sound” better than PC’s. In the world of audio nearly every variable that goes into capturing a musical performance digitally effects the sound EXCEPT what computer you record, mix and master on. This was the first thought that eased my mind. The second realization that pushed me over the edge was that Ebay was flooded with PC components and they were CHEAP!

So I began quietly bidding on all the pieces I would need to put together a very fast PC. I decided to go after “slightly behind the times” technology, meaning that if dual 3.0ghz processors were the fastest thing out there, I would bid on 2.6ghz processors because they don’t have the tremendous markup that the “fastest in their class” had. I also was seeing a great deal of benefit from the fact that AMD was falling out of favor with PC enthusiasts upon Intel’s release of their Conroe processors. And to finish it off, I seemed to have perfected my “blanket bidding” technique where I determine, say, 20 identical items for auction and I low-ball bid on ALL of them. Most of the time I would lose, but every once in a while I would actually win the item for real cheap. And a few times I won several of the same item so I sold off the extras, every time at a profit! (Maybe I took better pictures:)

Either way, in the end I had an AMD dual 2.6ghz processor that I had gotten for $96, a 400gb SATA II hard drive that I had gotten for $86, a motherboard, power supply and graphics card for $69, and finally 4gb of RAM for $228. The ATX case I had gotten out of the trash. So all said, I spent $479 (including the shipping I paid) on my new PC.

So I’ve been writing and recording on my new PC for about 6 months now and really don’t miss my Mac all that much. While I had gotten pretty used to Apple’s Logic, I’ve always been a decent Protools user so I switched to Protools for audio production work. Sure, I had a few problems getting everything to play nice together but now it’s running stably and consistently. I’m not going to try to compare 5 year old Mac technology to 1 year old PC technology, that wouldn’t be fair. But my new machine screams through audio at least as fast as the dual G5’s I used at the school. Maybe one day I will have enough money to keep myself “in” with the newest, latest, greatest Mac, but until then I’ll probably just keep building myself slightly “behind the times” PC’s for a fifth of the cost!

Hans Erik
Content Marketing Director
Hans@Next2Friends.com
www.Next2Friends.com

OBJECT WRITING: Digging Deep, Awakening Your Writer

Have you ever looked at clouds in the sky with a friend and been completely amazed that they couldn’t see the “turtle” floating by? I mean, there’s it’s head, there’s it’s shell and that wisp right there is it’s tail. Right? But they couldn’t see it. That’s because every one of us is a unique individual. There has never been, nor will be, in the history of the world, someone who thinks, feels and perceives the world exactly like you. Many beginning writers worry that they don’t have anything original to say but the truth is, you have a world inside of you that is uniquely yours and the key to that world is your senses.

Object writing is an exercise that enables you to dig deep into your senses. It works like this: Pick an object, at first it must be a real object, something you could touch or hold. Then write about that object with as many of your senses as you can. Most of the time when asked to describe something we use just one of our senses: sight. But the purpose of this exercise is to activate all of our senses. How does it feel? Rough? Smooth? How does it smell? Does it make any noise? What would it sound like if it were dropped? What would it taste like? (I know that seems silly but it’s not). And to your five senses of touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell I’d like to add two more for you to write with. Your sense of motion, both inside your body and out, and your sense of emotion.

Let your mind wander. There is no where you can’t go. The object is really just a starting point. Pushing the shovel into the ground the first time as you begin digging into your experiences.

Example

Here’s an example of what I came up with for the word car:

A car comes sighing toward me. Chipped radiator grill like a broken tooth grin. Rubber tires grip the road tight. They have to be able to haul that weight up the hill. Probably a half- ton of steel and rubber and aluminum and plastic. Amazing to look at a car engine running, to see all that rubber, iron and steel churning, and to think that tiny explosions are happening several times a second inside that black hunk of engine block. All those tiny explosions adding up to enough power to send this thing up the hill by my house. Sucking gas into itself to explode. Drinking gas to spit exhaust. The slight aluminum taste of exhaust in the air when a bus passes you. A trail of bitterness in it’s wake. Faint waves of grey smoke that choke me, my esophagus closes and I’m forced to cough just to be able to breath again, my eyes water.

How did I go from a car to choking? Strange. But that’s the beauty of object writing. Its 100% you and where you’re particular experiences take you. Let’s look at the sense information for car.

Sight: chipped radiator grill, black hunk of engine block, faint waves of grey smoke
Sound: sighing, churning,
Taste: aluminum, bitterness
Touch: (oops, didn’t quite get to that)
Smell: smoke, exhaust
Motion: grip the road tight, haul, churning, explosions, sucking gas, drinking, spit
exhaust, choke me, my esophagus closes, cough, my eyes water.
Emotion: (maybe) choke me

So there it is. Heavy on the motion because for whatever reason my mind went with the motion of cars. I completely left out touch which is too bad, there are a lot of textures in a car; the fabric of the seats, the smooth paint etc. So give it a try. Just one rule:

10 Minutes-No More, No Less

Most people can commit to something for 10 minutes a day. 20 minutes, a half hour, that’s pushing it. The other benefit of keeping your object writing down to 10 minutes is that an amazing thing happens when you cut yourself off in the middle of an idea. It’s kind of like when someone turns off the stereo in the middle of a song, that song might play in your head for hours. The same thing happens with writing. You will be stuck in your writer’s mind for hours after, just sensing and perceiving, and by all means, write down the fragments that come to you throughout the day. Good luck and I hope this helps!

Hans Erik
Content Marketing Director
Hans@Next2Friends.com
www.Next2Friends.com

Booking shows is no small task. It takes a lot of patience and “gentle persistence”. It often turns on relationships and, sadly, money. Remember why bars are in business: to make money. And remember why a bar should want to have anyone perform at all: to bring people in…to make money. So forget the idea that a particular place just loves music and wants to create a space for musicians to perform and prosper, if they wanted to do that they would be a non-profit theater or something. They want to make money and they want you to do it for them.

So how can you use this fact to your advantage? By talking numbers to them. But before you can talk numbers you need to get them interested in you. Here are the steps you need to take to book shows at clubs and theaters:

1) Contact the club and politely ask who does the booking and how they like to be contacted. Make note of this and FOLLOW IT EXACTLY! The quickest way to get ignored is to not follow their directions.

2) Put your CD along with your One Sheet and possibly a cover letter addressed
to the booking person into a padded envelope and mail it to the club, again, addressed to the booking person.

3) Wait at least one week after you mail it.

4) Begin contacting the booking person IN EXACTLY THE WAY THEY LIKE TO BE CONTACTED and ask if they got your submission. If so, had they had a chance to listen to it? And if they listened to it, what did they think? Now if the answer is ‘no’ to any of the above questions, politely ask when they think they’ll be able to get to it. If they say one month, DO NOT BOTHER THEM FOR ONE MONTH. Often at this point they’ll tell you when it’s ok to check back with them, and by all means, DO NOT BOTHER THEM BEFORE. Ok, you get the idea? You’re doing exactly as they say, remaining polite but persistent. And if they tell you when to check back with them, make sure to do it. If you forget they’ll assume you’re not really serious and just let your submission sit.

Keep in mind that it can take months of “gentle persistence” to book one show. Sometimes sooner, sometimes longer. I have worked with booking people who genuinely liked my music and it still took a year to nail down a date that would work, so don’t give up. And in all of that time go ahead and build a relationship with the person. If they mention that they’ll be out of town in a week ask where they are headed. Take an interest in them. Remember, business is built on relationships. The more time you spend with them on the phone or chatting via email the more you will get stuck in their minds. Now, if you perceive that they want to be done with the conversation or they don’t respond to your personal questions, just let it be. Don’t pry or keep them on the phone longer than they seem comfortable with. But you’d be amazed what the right joke or comment at the right time can do for your chances.

The Numbers

So, let’s say that you have had several great conversations with a booking person and they want to book you. I said in the beginning of this chapter that, ultimately, clubs will only book you and continue to book you if you are making them money. Even though the booking person and the owner might love your music, and your drummer might date the manager of the bar, if your numbers aren’t up, they can’t continue to book you. So, talk numbers to them. Don’t lie. Don’t say you can bring in 300 people when you really can only bring in 50 people. But be cautiously optimistic. If you know you can bring in 50 people then use 50 as your low estimate and, say, 100 as your high estimate. Speak in ranges. Saying, “we bring between 50-100 people in, ourselves, on a Thursday night.” And continue, “but if you book us on a Saturday night we could bring in more like 100-150 people.” Again, only say so if it’s true. If you’re numbers are way off of what you say, it could easily cost you future bookings there.

Now the other way to a booking person’s heart is to do their job for them. Putting together a night of music is a time consuming job. I’m not going to say it’s hard, it’s just time consuming and often the people who book music are also the bar managers or the owners or the janitors of clubs, so anything you can do to lighten their load will help you. After a booking person expresses interest in having you perform be sure to ask them, “do you like to put bills together or would you like me to put a bill together?” (a bill is just a night of music). If they tell you that they like to put bills together you just keep up with them and let them throw dates at you. If they like you to put bills together then you have to be prepared to step up to the plate and put a bill together.

Putting Bills Together

Now, putting bills together is a bit riskier than just playing a show. When you put a bill together you are responsible for the whole night at the club. If you fail, the club loses money. Some places won’t take that kind of risk on a new act, but some will. If you are putting the bill together you suddenly have to think like a bar owner. While it would be great to just book all your friends, you need to think about getting bodies in the door. One great way to do this is to ask the booking person if they have any acts that bring in good numbers that you could approach to play on your bill. Now your friends will still show up AND the friends of the act you book. This also exposes you to people who may not have ever heard you, which is always a good thing.

Having said that, if you know a pretty broad network of musicians and fans then go ahead and pitch a whole night to the club. But only do this if you’re fairly certain of the numbers you can do. If you know you can put a bill together of similar acts to you that will draw well, then, by all means, pitch it. Remember, the price for being wrong can be pretty steep and can sometimes even affect your chances with other clubs in town, so be pretty cautious with this approach. Again, say what you can honestly do and let the club decide if they want to take the chance. Honesty will get you much farther.

Hans Erik
Content Marketing Director
Hans@Next2Friends.com
www.Next2Friends.com

As an independent musical artist I’ve been scratching my head a little lately. So, I know why I make music, that’s not the problem. The problem is I haven’t been sure what to do with all this recorded music I create. Now, for a while, the answer that has been bouncing around my head was to just give it away, recorded music is free now anyway. But what about the dream of making a living as a musician?

Well, I’ve been pleased to discover that at least someone is trying something that could help. A joint venture by Downtown Records and Peter Rojas, RCRD LBL launched yesterday, and by my estimation, looks like at least one answer to how musicians could possibly make money in today’s free music market.

What I liked immediately was that the site was fairly easy to navigate. I’d give it about a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. The Artists were prominently displayed. It took me a minute to understand that the tabs at the top were for the labels represented, but I figured it out eventuallys. I understood immediately what the widgets on the side were for and how to use them. Further, you could “Grab” any of them to your iGoogle or Dashboard or other web application, probably the coolest feature in my opinion. It’s a great way for fans to keep tabs on an artist and also for an artist to broadcast their moves. And finally, I appreciate how the advertising sponserships are minimized. There was no confusion between RCRD LBL content verses advertising content. In fact, ads are just part of the widgets.

I understand that they are touting this as a blog and perhaps that is what drives my criticism of the site. It doesn’t look very sophisticated, but then again, it probably isn’t. It seems to carry several blog type-characteristics like the swelling or shrinking words to represent how often different genres of music are represented. But perhaps this is also due to the fact that they are spending their money where I think they should; on the artists. Artists get between $500 to $5000 per song that is made available. One drawback is that this fee is paid one time, up front, thus making it impossible for a band or artist to generate a great deal of money off of a “hit” on the site.

I don’t know if this is the answer but personally, I am for anyone willing to try something different in this shaky world of music making. The dream of supporting oneself creating original music definitely got harder with proliferation of music downloading, I understand that, but I applaud RCRD LBL for giving something new a try. I’m anxious to see if it takes hold!

Hans Erik
Content Marketing Director
Hans@Next2Friends.com
www.Next2Friends.com

The music industry finally has no where else to go. Warner Music boss Edgar Bronfman conceded that the music industry is partly to blame for the proliferation of illegal music sharing. He further went on to say that those in the mobile phone industry could learn a lot from Apple and cautioned against ignoring consumers the way the music industry did.

With no where else to turn, many in the music industry are looking to the only bright spot on the horizon, or rather the only company apparently clever enough to make money on music: Apple. So what did Apple do that thousands of people in the music industry couldn’t seem to wrap their heads around? They figured out how to capitalize on what people were already doing.

There was no need for market analysis at the end of the 90’s. Consumers had already spoken. They wanted easy access to songs they liked. Most didn’t care to have entire albums, they just wanted to hear music they liked and they didn’t want to have to work hard to get it. Enter Apple with it’s extremely easy to use iTunes and moderate pricing scheme coupled with a mobile player that interfaced seamlessly with the software and suddenly they had a hit. Wow, someone please write that one down because it seems to be at the crux of Apple’s success lately.

Anyhow, is this enough to keep a bloated industry afloat? Well, yes and no. Edgar Bronfman is looking in the right direction. Apple seems to have a knack for identifying and delivering what people want, but it is going to take more than even iTunes can provide to make music the money machine that it once was. Look at the lesson of Radiohead’s recent release, where fans were allowed to “pay what they wanted”. Despite people’s ability to directly download the album for free, something like 70% of the distribution still took place through illegal file sharing. The free sharing of music is truly here to stay.

So is there any way to make money in music? Of course there is. Will it look like anything we’ve seen before? Of course not. Musicians and the music industry must take a long hard look at what they have that people want. Consumers want music. Brands want the attention of consumers. Advertisers work to promote brands. Hmm…the possibilities are endless. Wait a second, maybe we have seen this before…rich patrons commissioning art and music to promote their causes…sounds like the arrangement that nearly ALL western music was created under for the past few thousand years. Maybe Edgar Bronfman needs to pull one from Bach’s playbook.

Hans Erik
Content Marketing Director + Another Musician Seeking a Patron
Hans@Next2Friends.com
www.Next2Friends.com