Thursday, March 6, 2008

Sharing Resources: contributed by Amber Butler

I often troll the Internet for information and advice regarding the business of music. Last week I stumbled across an excellent little e-book that I immediately felt I wanted to share with the DSC community. The book is targeted directly at the music business but I agree with the author that it shares principles about online presence and marketing strategy that are applicable to all businesses, particularly for small businesses in the arts industries.

Andrew Dubber, a music industry professor at Birmingham City University in the UK wrote “The 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online” as a series of posts in 2007 that turned into an e-book which you can download and share for free. I found his advice very insightful and timely. It’s a challenge to take our selves seriously and take the online medium of marketing seriously.

For example, one of the things I love about this book (besides all the very practical organizational and technical advice) is thing number 1: "Don't believe the hype." Dugger tells us not to buy into the idea that you can just post stuff online and become an overnight success. The Internet is one of several avenues to market your product and you'll make the most of it when online strategies are paired with the offline, more "traditional" ones. This is an important introduction to a book that is all about how to best leverage your online presence.

Check out his blog, New Music Strategies, for other cool ideas.

1 comment:

Joel said...

There's good stuff here for all of us. Thanks, Amber.