"Audiences for Musical Arts" An Interview with Chris Anderson

The Theory of The Long Tall, which was the main topic of this interview is according to Chris, "that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from focus on a relatively small number of 'hits' (mainstream products and markets) click to continue

The Incredibly Small Number of 'Breaking' DIY Artists

Just how many DIY artists are really breaking into this market? Tough question, though Tommy Boy (and New Music Seminar) founder Tom Silverman recently investigated the issue using 2008 sales figures from Nielsen Soundscan. Silverman counted 105,575 new album releases that year, and found that just 225 of those were new artists surpassing the 10,000 unit threshold for the first time. Of that, just 14 were do-it-yourself artists, unaffiliated with a major, indie, or other entity.

"What does this say about the Chris Anderson 'Long Tail' promise?" Silverman blogged in Musician Coaching. "Clearly the ease of making and distributing music does not benefit 'breaking' music. More at digitalmusicnews.com

Why I Gave Away My Company To Charity

"Having too much money can be harmful. It throws off perspective. It makes people do stupid things like buy “extra” cars or houses they don't use - or upgrade to first class for “only” $10,000 so they can be a little more comfortable for a few hours."

So I didn't need or even want the money from the sale of the company. I just wanted to make sure I had enough for a simple comfortable life. The rest should go to music education, since that's what made such a difference in my life. Click to continue