Billy said: "I want an honest opinion of the unbiased listeners on that site, and if I invite all of the people who I already know like me , or my music, to vote then I skew those figures in my favor and that defeats the credibility of the ranking. It definitely creates the image that I am popular on every site, but it doesn't really give me an honest evaluation of the public appeal of my music. I would rather have the honesty, than to stroke my own ego by creating an image that makes me look popular."

I truely understand your heartfelt and sincere desire to be true to your art to let it establish a life of it's own. Trust me when I say that, my degree is in art. But, I think you might be missing the point just a little.

When I say missing the point just a little, I mean in the way that says, "There is absolutely no room for this business model."

I think the absolutness of that philosophy is a mistake for a number of reasons. For some people, not all people, music is a product that deserves to be marketed just like any other product seeking perferred shelf placement. Look at Wyland or Drew Brophy, painters not musicians but both excellent marketers.

How do you get perferred shelf placement now? Except for LastFM or Jango, you can't. That's the point, even if you wanted to market yourself in anyway other than by Free to maybe expidite audience recognition, you can't! But, if you could, and people came and of their own accord decided that they liked your product, would that diminsh the value of their appreciation? No, it doesn't!

There are roughly 13,000 radio stations nationwide and in tens of thousands of Internet Radio stations. So, how do you rise above the din of all the rest of the noise? I call it pure dumb luck, but in many cases artists work extremely hard for many hours over years trying to market their product to rise above the din of noise, i.e. the other 17 million artists on Myspace seeking listener attention?

Out of thousands of outlets, why can't there be a place where artists can pay to advertise their product? All I am trying to say is that I think there should be room for this type of service so that if you, by chance, wanted to you could.




Last edited by ArtistPreneur; 04/28/09 01:44 PM.