On Dec. 9 of last year, the free (ad-supported) live-streaming site UStream.tv released a live video-broadcasting app for iPhone.  I’m sure the data-charges for using it could potentially get really out of hand if you used it over your 3G network, but if you’re within range of a free wifi network there are some really interesting things you could do with this.

broadcast live from backstage before a show, interact with the fans in the audience, …

Several factors have really started to come together to result in a plethora of metrics being applied to music.  Record sales (and download sales) are no longer the only relevant metric for analyzing an artist’s fanbase.  I’ve personally seen an artist play a single concert to a room holding more fans than have bought their newest album in the entire country.  Ticket sales are a good metric, but that data isn’t readily accessible, or accurate …

A friend sent me the link to check out culturejam.com – after poking around on the site for a bit, it seems like they’re doing some interesting work in the twitter-world, with a specific eye toward music marketing.  One of the main things they seem to be doing is providing a twitter-app, that will back-end a download function.  Most of the examples they provide on the site seem to live on a sub-domain of the …

Here is a great website community that endeavours to “help musicians and music entrepreneurs create sustainable careers.”  They’re building a vast wealth of resources that include video clips, articles, blogs, text transcriptions and full-length video pieces that cover a huge range of topics like musician strategy, marketing, production, legal, education and careers in music.  These topics then get broken down into more specific sections like tools/gear, careers, genre, networking, songwriting, publicity, promotion, advertising, retail/distribution, merchandise, …

Here’s something to look into… I haven’t signed up for an account yet, but it looks like the folks at audiolife.com could be on to something really interesting.  They offer full back-end services for bands to sell mp3 albums, physical CDs, ringtones, and merch, and there are two things that are most interesting about their service.
1 – Bands don’t need to create any inventory upfront… all the CDs are done using digital manufacturing, at audiolife’s …

Ping.fm calls itself “a simple service that makes updating your social networks a snap.”  It’s currently in beta mode, which means it ’s free to sign up, and try it out.
Post a message to the Ping.fm service, and Ping then takes that message and distributes it out to all your social networking sites for you… so you only have to send it once.
You tell Ping.fm which social-networks you belong to (they support probably every one …

In the dark ages before the internet, people used to share music physically.  They’d do things like make mixtapes for eachother, or trade albums back and forth, telling all their friends about what bands they’ve discovered.  At house-partys, invariably one person would end up “DJ” for the night… hanging out by the CD player and picking songs to play for the room.
Then, as it always does, technology comes in and makes things more efficient, faster, …

I recently came across this site, which is a community site for bands to network with each other, trade shows, read articles to get some tips on touring, radio, etc. plus bands can sell their music through the site as well.   They’re also affiliated with BYOFL (Book Your Own Fuckin’ Life) and you can search that entire database via this site.  Another thing that’s interesting is the fact they host a weekly online radio show …

As stated on their website:
“Better Than The Van is a couchsurfing-social network created to help touring bands and musicians. It’s a great way for bands and music fans to connect with each other for a practical reason. You can find a place to crash, look for bands to swap shows with or discover new music. Bands, fans, music lovers; all are welcome. You’ll meet cool people and help make touring a little easier.”
Having not tried …

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