It happens all the time. You’re having a great night on stage, and somebody slick tells you that they’d love to represent you. In a whirlwind, you sign a contract because they assure you that “it’s boilerplate” and “everybody signs this.” Before long, you’re “on a roster,” but it seems that all your manager ever does is cash commission checks. Even if you feel stuck, don’t lose hope.Here’s a note I got from a reader:

I have a friend who is in a contract with a manager who she doesn’t even need and she’s trying to examine her options for getting out of it. I had a look at the document, which is 1.5 pages long and it seems like something she can get out of, not only because the guy is not fulfilling his obligations but because the wording of the document seems incomplete or faulty in a certain section. I’d like to forward the document to someone who can quickly tell me whether the contract is shaky enough for her to simply toss it aside.

With the caveat that I’m not a lawyer and that your friend should definitely seek legal advice, here’s how I see it:

No contract is ever permanent. In fact, a professional music management contract will contain specific terms and conditions for who can end the contract, when, and how. The contract should also contain a “sunset clause” that stipulates exactly how much a client will have to pay a manager over a fixed period of time to compensate them for work they’ve invested.

That sunset clause protects both sides. For instance, if I shepherd your career for three years and your record pops, I’m entitled to a piece of the success if you bounce to a larger management firm that takes you to the next level. But that doesn’t mean forever, more like 18 months. And compensation steps down from the usual 10-15%, usually in increments.

If your friend signed a deal without a sunset clause, or if the phrase “in perpetuity” shows up anywhere in the deal, she may not have had the right legal guidance at the time. But, no biggie. Again, it happens all the time.

In writing, preferably with the help of an attorney, your friend can terminate the agreement with a clear explanation of how the manager failed to live up to the expectations of their arrangement. Realistically, the manager’s only recourse here is to sue for damages, for breach of contract, or for lost revenue. Most of the folks I’ve known who operate this way would much rather stay out of court, and out of the headlines.

In my books, I wrote that you’ll need a good entertainment attorney long before you’ll need even a decent manager, and this is why. Call your local chapters of the Bar Association or the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for referrals to experienced entertainment attorneys near where you live.

If your friend’s strapped for cash, you can look for a local chapter of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. Right now, your friend needs legal counsel who can draft exactly the kind of document she needs to end this agreement and protect her future earnings.

As I wrote in Music Management for the Rest of Us, your ideal music manager should be someone you trust and respect, and someone who respects you enough to take you through a long, transparent vetting process that involves partnership with each of your attorneys.

When spinme.com launched in 1997, we thought it would grow up to be Pitchfork. It hosted “Daily Digital Opinion,” J.F. Parnell’s album review mailing list, and our original discussion forums. What a precious logo we had when we launched:

While “J.F.” got headhunted away to a series of larger media companies, I chased conversations in our forums by musicians who wanted to learn how the Internet could help them grow an audience without the help of a manager or a major label. So I jettisoned the music reviews (something every SEO manager on the planet deserves to kick me over) and refocused the site around music marketing and creative development.

It’s been fifteen years since I first signed on to spinme.com. Having spent most of the summer cleaning up the database and getting the site ready for its next fifteen years, seven ideas struck me:

1. A band’s half-life remains about seven years.

David Hooper and I have probably spent days talking about how bands, like most relationships, evolve through seven-year cycles. The most obvious: April 8, 1962 until January 30, 1969. That’s the almost seven year period from the day the Beatles got signed by Parlophone Records until the day of their last public concert, on the roof of the Apple Records offices in London. By most accounts, those were probably seven of the most influential and productive years in the recorded history of music.

Yet, there’s another seven year period to which we don’t often pay attention. Back up to August 1956, the month that John Lennon formed The Quarry Men. It took seven years for John to meet Paul and for all the other pieces of the puzzle to fall into place. The most extraordinary thing about The Beatles isn’t what they did between 1962 and 1969. It’s that they came together and struggled through their artist development from 1956 to 1962, then still chose to take that second spin on the merry-go-round.

You have seven years before you get bored, your bandmates get bored, you run out of money, or your spouses kill you. And if you can make it to the end of your seven-year cycle with enough strength to do it all again, you have a shot. This site’s been around long enough for me to start getting messages from folks about to enter their third cycles as working musicians. They’ll be the first to tell you that they’re not rich and that this life isn’t easy. But they wouldn’t consider doing anything else.

2. Most musicians still hope someone’s going to make them a star.

Way more musicians end up on this website when looking for information about songwriting contest and record company scams—after they’ve already sent away their money. It’s our human nature to believe in fairy godparents. It’s easier to let someone tell you that it only costs $10,000 to get a record deal and guaranteed radio airtime than to hear the real feedback from critics with the power to push you toward making better music.

It’s cheaper than ever to buy airtime, to buy attention, and to buy audiences. When Grow Your Band’s Audience first hit shelves, some critics blasted me for suggesting an “inauthentic” tactic to pay talent buyers for risky gigs. What was controversial ten years ago has pretty much become standard operating procedure at the very best (read: remaining) rock clubs in the United States.

3. Few musicians admit they needed (or got) help to succeed.

Nobody likes hearing a musical origin story that says: “we got lots of hands-on help from smart people like Bob Baker and Tom Jackson so we could hone our skills into something you’d love.” We still like to think our pop stars emerged fully-formed and perfect from day one.

Even the popularity of shows like American Idol and Nashville Star hasn’t made a dent in our collective need for musical mythology. Nobody wants to hear how Lady Gaga spent years honing her craft and studying Andy Warhol’s playbook. Like that of the Beatles, her prologue matters little to her audience. You won’t see the years of work that lead to “overnight success.” Don’t let that fool you into thinking your own success will happen without spilling plenty of tears and blood.

4. Your song still sounds great on the radio.

There’s nothing like hearing your song squished down into a singularity over a heavily compressed FM radio signal, backed up by a DJ you don’t know who’s getting paid to say nice things about you. It’s such an alluring experience, it still drives many artists to spend lots of their own money on promotional campaigns that won’t ever help them convert radio listeners into paying ticket-holders. Only a handful of disc jockeys in the United States still have the power to do this, and most of them work at SiriusXM. The most successful artists I know have held out, allowing those tastemakers to find them instead of the other way around.

5. Audiences matter, platforms don’t.

Lest I sound like an old coot, I can tell you that I’ve lived through so many “industry-killer” technologies and platforms, they’ve all blended together into a single blob:

• Private bulletin boards on CompuServe, Prodigy, and AOL
• MP3.com
• MySpace
• Facebook
• ReverbNation

Guess what? When I write this website’s 21st birthday post, we’ll have probably seen another dozen “essential” web platforms come and go. What remains the same is the need for artists to develop direct relationships with audiences willing to support them by showing up. Making a living making music means getting your fans off their comfortable seats and out into the world where they can interact with you, and with each other. Don’t believe anybody who tells you it can’t be done, especially as new scenes and subcultures emerge every year.

6. The smartest musicians I know maintain multiple bands (or brands).

When I started brainstorming the Zone Booking Strategy I outline in More Gigs Now, I wanted to find ways for musicians to spend far less money on hotels and gas without burning out their core audiences. Watching folks like Rhett Miller and Joe Pernice over the years, I’ve also gained an appreciation for artists who can maintain multiple creative identities. On a practical level, multiple personas let you develop overlapping audiences that don’t always compete with each other. While Lori and I sit in the center of the Rhett Miller/Old 97′s Venn diagram, audiences at those gigs are remarkably different. Bands only last for seven years because our tastes and our skills evolve. Side projects and a strong solo presence, when handled the right way, can keep bands from their usual violent breakups.

7. The experience matters as much as the song.

When I toured behind Grow Your Band’s Audience, I often showed a photo of the bathroom at CBGB’s and claimed that audiences don’t tolerate things that are nasty for very long. That’s why CBGB’s became so well known for breaking new acts. You had to be that good to get people to forgive the building’s inherent biohazards.

Every audience member experiences your music in a slightly different way, and it’s their experience they remember. That’s why television shows like Grey’s Anatomy and True Blood have impacted record sales: tying your song to a compelling experience can do so much more than weeks of repeated radio spins.

Richard Shindell’s song, “The Ballad of Mary Magdalen,” stays in rotation at my house because of what Lori and I experienced during a Cry Cry Cry show at the Keswick Theatre over ten years ago. We still remember sitting in Lori’s car, parked on a residential side street in Glenside, talking about what we had just seen on stage. Relatively people know the song or its writer, but nobody who was at the show that night will forget it.

Not the actual gig, but as close as YouTube will provide:

It’s time for spinme.com’s third ride on the merry-go-round.

If spinme.com were a band, it’d be time for its third lineup change or its second reunion tour. You’ve probably noticed that I spent the summer tidying up and highlighting some of the most crucial information on the site. (Had I instead focused on the most popular, you’d be seeing a lot more about American Idol and Rebecca Black.)

You’ll see new essays here focused on growing your audience, booking more gigs, and managing your music career. I’ll also answer (polite) questions from the mailbag. Occasionally, I’ll dive into popular culture for models of success (and failure) that you can use. Thanks for fifteen great years. Here’s to the next seven.

Ever since attending last Saturday’s interview with John Oates, I’ve been talking to folks about the pros and cons of working on albums vs. EPs. There’s a school of thought among music promotion professionals right now that you might not even want to focus on EPs, choosing instead to release a steady stream of singles. I think that’s too extreme a response for most musicians, and here’s why:

* The opportunity costs of recording are still too high. Even though it’s cheap and easy to lay down tracks, the focus and attention you need to produce something memorable takes lots of energy. If you’re going to get that focused for even a single day, why not lay down as many tracks as you can? They won’t all be perfect, but even a 3-song EP could get you three times as much revenue for the same day in the studio.
* The EP remains the minimum threshold for bargaining with taken buyers. Even though many fans still settle for buying one or two tracks online from a band they love, talent buyers want to hear how you might stretch a set together.
* A series of EPs builds a foundation for your branding and your merchandise strategy. A physical EP works more as a souvenir of a great show than as a recording. Craft an artifact with great packaging, and you’re building a mythology based on quality. String a few together in a short amount of time, and new fans will think you’re extremely accomplished.
* EPs are very spreadable. Lori has a habit of buying 5-6 EPs when we see a band age likes, show she can mail them out to her friends. For the same price as a major label album in a chain store, you can sell a bundle of EPs. It’s like getting paid to let your fans promote you.

As always, it’s important to balance frugality with craftmanship when planning your release. I never advise bands to go into debt when producing records, and I’m a fan of small runs (collectors’ editions!). Think about your release strategy as a 9-18 month timeline, so you always have something new to talk up, plus stuff you’re working on.

Does this all mean I think you shouldn’t work on an album. No. If that’s where your passion lies, and you have the songwriting and production chops to pull it off, go for it. Just remember that audiences’ biggest criticism of musicians over the past two decades has been the lack of depth on most albums. If you’re not ready to compete with the Arcade Fire, don’t sweat it. Remember that the Beatles were pretty much singles-oriented for the first 2/3 of their career, and they turned out okay.

Photo by Thomas Hawk, under Creative Commons License.

Folks have been talking to me a lot lately about “gamification.” It’s a popular business trend that hopes to leverage the video game habits of recent generations into stronger workplace productivity. Take a set of tasks that would otherwise sound pretty boring: making phone calls or filing TPS reports. Then, turn it into a game. Make the scores transparent, so everyone on a team can see who’s about to “level up.”

It dawns on me that the music business went through this trend a few decades early. Our leaderboards? Billboard, R&R, SoundScan…

Except now, thanks to digital distribution and market fragmentation, our scoreboards look a lot more like the back pages of the Wall Street Journal than the leaderboards at the Masters. Digital charts change daily, so does it mean the same to be “#1″ now as it did then? Plenty of strong companies have stock prices that will never land them a feature on CNBC, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to close.

If you’re going to start keeping score, try using some of the metrics that will really determine whether you get to keep making music for a living:

* Number of fans on your mailing list
* Number of tickets sold to your next gig
* Number of gigs on your upcoming calendar

And, unlike games where you’re competing against someone else, all you have to do to succeed is to keep beating your own high score.

Photo by Flickr user joyosity, under Creative Commons License

When I ran Handwritten Records in the 90s with my friend Kristen, indie labels still had a clear role in the music business. I was a production geek with access to a studio and a mass CD duplication machine, and Kristen handled the A&R. It was pretty clear, back then, how we could add value to the artists we signed.

The other day, a colleague asked if I’d ever consider getting back into the label business. Remove the fact that I’m busy with about eight other projects, and I still struggled to come up with a clear way to express the kind of value I could add if I launched an indie label in 2012.

However, after rolling the idea around overnight, I settled on a few reasons why a tightly-run, artist-focused music label could still succeed in the 2010s. After all, I’d never counsel an artist to sell their master recordings (still a standard industry practice), which was the reason why we dismantled Handwritten. (At the time, securing those copyrights was the only way to keep a small label viable. We didn’t have the heart to go through with the deals on the table.)

1. Relieve artists of “promotion and distribution” duties. It doesn’t sound like much work to manage a CD Baby account, but all the fringe “stuff” involved in actually selling albums and MP3s can eat away at an artist’s creativity. A successful indie label handles all the e-commerce and wholesale fulfillment issues on an artist’s behalf, in a way that amplifies fan service.

2. Cultivate in-house production and session talent. Hearing John Oates talk about all the cross-pollination of Philly artists making cameos on each others’ records in the 60s and 70s reminded me that a handful of great labels still do this really well. Signing to an indie label today should feel like gaining admission to a society of peers, ready to help each other succeed. (See: Mumford & Sons.)

3. Curate a stream of “modal” releases. Saddle Creek probably does this better than any label right now, just as 4AD and Mammoth did in the 80s and 90s. A curator-driven label can create a meta-fanbase that carries support across multiple acts. Atlantic had this mojo in the 50s and 60s. Wouldn’t it be exciting if they found a way to get it back?

So if I actually lost my mind and launched a record label in the near future, I’d make sure it hit all three of those points. What else do you think would define the successful labels o tomorrow? Tell me in the comments.

Photo by Steve Hardy, under Creative Commons License.

The Philadelphia Chapter of The Recording Academy welcomed Temple alum John Oates back to campus last Saturday night, for an intimate acoustic performance and an interview conducted by my friend and former colleague, Gene Shay. Mississippi Mile is Oates’ tribute to the songs that shaped his songwriting and performing career, and it lands in retailers tomorrow.

In front of an audience of industry veterans and aspiring students from Temple’s communications program, Oates revealed some candid details about his perspective on the past, present, and future of the music business. Five moments stand out:

1. The album’s dying. Oates acknowledged that audiences no longer invest the time it takes to absorb a whole album, admitting that splitting up the album into two sides during the LP era made it easier for listeners to digest a string of connected songs. Even though that sounds discouraging artistically, the shift frees up musicians to focus on pouring their energy into recording powerful singles instead of weak and watered-down albums. A single bad track can lead to poor reviews and lackluster sales, while a string of “hot” EPs can build real audience support over time, Oates said.

2. Embrace support wherever you find it. Oates recalled how early support for Hall & Oates singles from R&B radio in Ohio spread across the nation, enabling them to become what he called “the first modern R&B crossover act.” A traditional music marketing campaign probably wouldn’t have targeted specialty radio this way, but this grassroots support gave them the foundation to keep making records.

3. Don’t spend too much money making a record. Oates joked that the entire budget for his album was under $30,000, and that half of that was spent on hotel rooms in Nashville. While Oates remarked that he’s in the desirable position of having the means to self-fund the recording, he reminded the audience that working out songs and arrangements in pre-production can save a significant amount of money compared to projects that “evolve” in the studio.

4. Mastery of your craft makes recording so much easier. On Mississippi Mile, Oates hired a producer to enforce a “Dogme 95″ recording style. (It’s not unlike what we used to do at World Cafe in the 90′s.) The rules: lay down the entire album in under a week, with no more than two takes on any track. Recruiting experienced engineers and musicians may have cost more “per hour,” but enabled the team to wrap up recording in less than a week.

5. Never surrender your master recordings. Oates warned emerging musicians in the audience to refrain from signing record deals that include copyright assignments. Although he intended to sell his new album “out of his trunk,” a chance meeting with an executive from Warner Nashville opened up a conversation about a new model for record labels. Taking “P&D” to a new level, Oates’ arrangement with Warner focuses the label’s efforts around promotion and distribution. The label fronts the cost of promoting the new album through its in-house team, but Oates retains ownership of his masters. When tracks start selling on Tuesday, both sides win.

It doesn’t take long for partners to become enemies when a record “pops” and royalty checks start rolling in. Rebecca Black’s bizarre path to the Billboard charts has generated buzz about what she’s going to do with tens of thousands of dollars in royalties from YouTube views and iTunes ringtone sales.

Except, according to news reports, she probably won’t see a dime. The company her parents paid to produce the “Friday” video is what’s known as a “vanity” record label. For a signing fee, which Rolling Stone reported as $4,000, you get access to songwriters, video producers, and enough extra help to hopefully get the attention of a major label.

Like any record deal, a “vanity” deal puts the label’s resources at risk in the hopes of a big payout down the road. Except the label mitigates their own risk by asking you to pay thousands of dollars up front.

Without debating the merits of vanity record labels (let’s do that in the comments), we can learn a few specific lessons from Rebecca Black’s experience:

1. Only songwriters get “statutory” royalties in the United States. Despite the best efforts of performers’ advocacy groups, there is still no consistent guaranteed payout for musicians who don’t share songwriting credits. Play on a track, and you get the cash offered by the producer. (Hopefully in cash, and preferably at the end of the recording session.) 4/11 UPDATE: Music attorney Valerie Lovely reminded me on Twitter that, via SoundExchange, performers can receive some limited royalties for online streaming. However, those royalties are limited to “non-interactive streaming services” like SiriusXM live feeds.

2. Signing a vanity label deal doesn’t make your project a “work for hire.” Unless you’re signing a very specific “pressing and distribution” deal, you sign away the rights to your recordings and videos when you sign a record deal. If you hire a video production company to make a video, you own that video and you keep any revenue it generates. But, even if you pay a label/management company a fee for the same services, they end up owning the work product and they will pocket any profits.

3. Anything your contract doesn’t specifically prohibit is fair game. News reports indicate that Rebecca Black’s never authorized “Friday” as a novelty ringtone. Yet, that’s where the bulk of the song’s revenue will come from. Unless their music contract specifically gives them the right to decline such placement, it’s going to be hard to prove their label doesn’t inherently have the right to exploit the recording in any way possible.

4. Don’t shortchange the short-term. Signing a record deal means trading off short-term revenue for long term success with a supportive audience. The typical lifespan of a band in the U.S. is seven years, and most record deals last for either five years or seven records. That often means praying that you’re going to make more money at the tail end of your act’s most active phase.

Lawyer bear image by Claire Dancer, under Creative Commons License.

Ed Simons from the Chemical Brothers wonders that aloud, in response to Radiohead’s new album release.

In an age of quickly copied digital downloads, turning your album into an artifact can help you preserve sales and reward your most loyal fans. But it’s easy to let the planning of your album release and the development of your audience rewards overtake the process of creating great music.

Do you agree with Simons that Radiohead’s “just ok” and obsessed with marketing? Tell me what you think in the comments.

At 78, you couldn’t possibly begrudge Quincy Jones the right to slow down a little. “Slowing down” for Q means working on just one album project at a time. This powerful career retrospective and interview from The National reveals some things that might make you think twice the next time you want to complain about your workday:

• At age seven, Quincy’s grandmother sent him and his brother out to catch, kill, and cook rats. For dinner.
• At age eighteen, Quincy cried in a Harlem alley after handing over all the cash in his pocket to Charlie Parker, who used it to score heroin.
• Frank Sinatra “hired” Quincy as a bodyguard so they could travel together during the era of Jim Crow laws.

Imagine surviving all that, then still having the strength to make such an impact on music and popular culture. Take five minutes to enjoy this insightful profile by Michael Odell.

Here’s another case study of a college-based music management degree program taking things to the next level:

At the University of North Alabama, students in an Artist Management and Touring course have to stage a concert for a final project. Getting audiences into seats is just one of the factors affecting students’ final grades. UNA’s Music and Entertainment Industry Student Association also runs Singing River Records, and their signed artist is headlining the event.

Learn more about Archie Hubbard and UNA’s “teachable moments” from Sarah Carlson’s report in the Florence Times Daily.

The entertainment press buzzes this morning with news that Beyonce has dropped her dad as her manager. It’s not unusual for artists and managers to evolve in different directions, but it’s very rare for a successful family partnership to last as long as that between Beyonce and Mathew Knowles. Our gossip-crazed culture really wants to find out if there are any skeletons in that closet, but it just sounds like both of them are ready for some new challenges on their own.

“Momagers” and “Dadagers” like Mathew Knowles often get a bad rap in the entertainment business. Too often, parents that force themselves into a dominant role in the career of a very young child can become overbearing and intolerable. Your booking agent, talent buyers, publicists, and record producers would rather not have to pretend they’re in an episode of “Toddlers and Tiaras” to get through an exchange with your manager. Despite the stereotype, it is possible to get success after “hiring” a parent as a music manager:

• It’s easier to train someone you already trust to manage your music career, than it is to find a trustworthy “insider.” A parent and child with a sound personal relationship have a much better shot, statistically speaking, at achieving the kind of success that Beyonce found with Mathew.
• Successful “momagers” and “dadagers” know how to separate business from family activity. I grew up in a very different kind of family business, but the ethic was the same. Once I clocked in at 7am, Dad became “boss.” If I got disciplined on the job for doing something wrong, that didn’t translate to drama at the dinner table.
• It helps to keep everything formal, and to prepare for an eventual end to any partnership. No matter who you choose for the talent management slot on your success team, it’s important to remember that every relationship ends. It might not be family drama that pulls you apart—it will probably be death, illness, boredom, or a need to move to a more established agency later in your career. Keep contracts and deal memos as if you were dealing with a stranger instead of a family member.

I wrote a lot more about navigating the “parent as music manager” relationship in my book, Music Management for the Rest of Us. It’s available in paperback for just $12, and you can sample free chapters by e-mail.

I’ve written in the past about the music business major degree programs popping up at colleges and universities all over the United States. While it still worries me that we may be creating a bigger supply of would-be music managers than the business currently demands, a handful of schools have stacked the decks in their favor by recruiting leaders with strong, real world experience.

It’s great news, then, to see that the University of Georgia has hired David Barbe to take on a permanent role as director of that school’s music business program. When Lori and I lived in Athens, we saw David’s fingerprints on nearly everything positive and upbeat about the town’s professional music scene. He’s been a performer and engineer for three decades, working closely with Bob Mould and other national touring acts during that time.

Those Bulldogs are some lucky kids.

[At the start and end of every week, I'll reserve one post for a product, service, or sponsor that's paying to keep the lights on at spinme.com.]

Even though I’ve offered a version of Grow Your Band’s Audience as a PDF for some time now, it’s not always the easiest thing to read on a Kindle. That’s why I’m so excited that the Kindle version of GYBA is on sale for just $2.99!

Here’s where my head’s at regarding book pricing. Thanks to our great publishing and distribution partners, the print version of the Tenth Anniversary Edition of Grow Your Band’s Audience only costs $20 for us to get into your hands. (That’s $5 less than last year, and $15 less than when it debuted in 2001!) We charge $7 for the PDF, but it’s unrestricted, meaning you can share it with your band mates or your street team leader.

The Kindle version is tied to your Amazon.com account, so it’s only $2.99. (But you can still use the lending feature to share it when you’re not reading it.)

I’m really excited to offer you the chance to enjoy Grow Your Band’s Audience on your choice of device: Kindle, iPad, Windows, Mac, iPhone—all through Amazon’s free Kindle software.

Support spinme.com today by buying Grow Your Band’s Audience for just $2.99!

Could your next album qualify for a Grammy?

If you’re in the Philadelphia region, my home chapter of NARAS is sponsoring a free “Grammy Awards 101″ session for performers, producers, and music managers to learn everything about submitting your recordings for Grammy consideration. NARAS VP Bill Freimuth will be in town to walk you through the changes for this year’s awards, especially some of the new submission and release deadlines. It’s free, even if you’re not a NARAS member, but you have to call 215-985-5411 to get your name on the list.

Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Time: 7pm
Location: Gershman Hall, 401 S. Broad St., Philadelphia PA 19102

Artists sometimes ask me why I focus my books on earning revenue from touring and merchandise sales, instead of from boosting album sales.

In response, let me introduce you to Arizona State University Economics and Finance major Hasan Siddiqui. The school’s newspaper just profiled the website he created, SongCatch.com. It’s a search engine that hunts down free MP3s from any artist you put into it. I clicked on the Google-esque search bar, typed in “The Beatles,” and pretty much the whole catalog came right up. Clicked on “Hey Jude,” and a perfect digital copy’s on my desktop. No torrents or P2P software, either. Just a straight MP3 download.

Forget the arguments around what’s “right,” what’s “legal,” or what’s “fair use.” From a user experience perspective, this is what young audiences have come to expect. A simple search box that lets them grab whatever they want, right now, for free:

“This is a positive because it is more convenient and you don’t have to download it like Limewire, which causes viruses,” business sophomore Daniel Cano said. Downloading the artists’ music is not going to devalue their success, Cano said.

With that attitude growing among young listeners, it’s becoming more important than ever to think about how to turn that initial interest into real, lasting, audience support.

Whether he likes it or not, Siddiqui’s going to end up getting schooled, sued, or worse by folks who really won’t appreciate the simplicity of his code. Hopefully, he’ll tell investigators that it’s just a “proof of concept,” and he uses this to get a sweet programming gig. However, if a college senior can do this in his spare time, how much longer can the music business hold off audience demand for easily found, free MP3s?

And are you going to build a revenue strategy for your own work based on trying to get money for something audiences clearly expect for free?