Come out to Disaster Fest at the Dirty Dog September 19th and enjoy an ice cold “National Beer of Texas”.
And also, check out The Dropout table and get hip on the Austin bike zine and scene. The editors will be on hand and you can pick up a great local bike zine. GET ON 2 WHEELS!!!
See you out at Disaster Fest. Check out the ND Shows page for more details… And stay tuned here at News Disaster for any upcoming Disaster Fest 2010 details…
Got this interesting read today from CDBaby, our online outlet for our CDs. The topic, “Has The Internet Really Destroyed the Music Business?”, actually raises a ton of good questions.
There’s no debate that the Internet and its marketing and sales applications has completely changed the landscape of how music gets bought and sold, but has anything really been destroyed?
Many of the sources quoted in the article are multi-platinum selling, ultra-mega-stars of the old world way of the music business (Stevie Nicks, John “Cougar” Mellencamp, Prince). These guys and gals lived in a different era, with different marketing and distribution methods… and they also lived in an era with far less readily available music. But now, things have changed. Anyone can get out there are make their music available to the world… record label or not.
Which brings me to all of us bands forgoing the record deals and striking out into the brave new DIY world of the WWW and what an amazing yet arduous struggle that can be. Being great at being a musician isn’t simply enough. No, you have to take the reigns yourself and expand your skill sets. Now, you have to learn how to make a website (or at least a decent MySpace page), find out how digital distribution works, figure out how to get gigs, book tours, self-promote, and sell your merch and music. That can be a ton of work and the learning curve can be tough.
But every day I see it and every day I get really excited. I see bands like Dirty Penny deciding to let the chips fall where they may and book a tour themselves to the EU because they felt it was finally time to go pay their fans (whom they made using the Internet) a long overdue visit. New bands like Hot Crush hitting the ground running and getting their name out there by using social media and other avenues to show you just how good they really are. Bands breaking ground like The Departed: “…no one gives it to you. You have to take it.” But I say, almost.
