360 deals and Colonel Tom Parker

What are the similarities and differences between the modern music business eras 360 deals and record deals of early rock-n-rollers like Elvis; Motown, and Sun Records?

Pirate radio-Only at Disneyland?

I was watching Coal Miner's daughter the other day and there is a a few scenes where Loretta and her husband travelled the mid-south literally taking her 45's to radio stations and asking the PD in person to play the record. In some cases the record actually got played on the spot. Whether historically accurate or not this made me long for the day when radion was truly independent. Where if a PD in your region liked what he heard, he had the freedom to play it. This is no longer the case.

Can you name the 3 corporations that have the celestial radio market in a strangle hold?

Can you name any independent charts?

What geographic regions of the country have the strongest independent radio presence?

Home Depot and the Music Biz

Name one of the top do it yourself acts in the business and discuss what they did to carve out a niche?

What business strategy principles did the artist intentionally or unintentionally use?

Can their approach be duplicated in other genres? How?

Corporate sponsorships-the new record label?

There is a new movement in the music industry where many MAJOR artists are becoming a virtual marketing arm of corporations with their tours (some are even leaving their record deals and striking deals with the corporations to pay for their records).
How could this apply to a regional artist?
· Indentify a strong regional company with a strong brand
· Write a pitch proposal that has a real win/win scenario both in revenue and brand building

The Decade The music Died

“A long long time ago.” The words of the Don McClean song begins about the day the music died. Well the same can be said of the music business over the last 10 years. Ten years ago there were 10 “diamond” records this past year there were none! Not one. Things have changed. So what does this mean? Is the music business truly going to die….???....wait for it? Wait for it? NO. The music business is not going to die, however the larger than life Rock Star’s and their larger than life tours are dying. So if your dream was to be a rack star you may want to adjust. So the challenge becomes how to carve out you own niche, how to rise above the noise.

Can you come up with a true business strategy and plan (using real business strategy principles- cost leadership, premium product; geography, etc.) to discuss how to rise above this noise.

Who knows I might use some of your ideas myself.