SXSW is a whirlwind ten days of music, film, and interactive buzz, with conferences, live events, street parties, guerrilla marketing campaigns and networking events. We headed down for the music portion of the 2011 festival, and managed to see and support some great artists and businesses, new and old. From the Red Bull DJ App launch party with Felix Da Housecat, to the Topspin and Berklee events, to Martin Atkins’ party:smart and more, Austin created a lasting impression, and ignited a desire to delve deeper into the ever-changing music business at a grass roots level, as well as a spark to already start planning for SXSW 2012.

Wondering what it would be like to cram all of the above into a one and a half minute audio-visual overload? Something like this…

by Lee Jarvis.

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Music institution, Berklee, has created a comprehensive resource for the music industry regarding wages for music industry jobs: the Salary Ranges for U.S. Music Positions in Performance, Writing, Business, Audio Technology, Education, and Music Therapy pdf documents a variety of music-linked careers and their respective salary ranges, including orchestra positions, choir director, film score composer, A&R, managers, music attorney, sound engineer, music teacher and many more.

From the original article: “Although Berklee’s collection of music career resources is exhaustive, this type of information wasn’t aggregated anywhere. Peter Spellman, director of the Career Development Center, had the idea to create a chart for advising purposes and to share with Berklee and the larger music community around the world. Providing analysis on the data and trends in the industry, Spellman sees music technology and social media-related fields experiencing growth in terms of job creation. He says, “Students who can both arrange a jingle and advise a small company on how to incorporate Twitter or Vimeo will find more chances to add value in the new music economy.” There is also great potential for those with expertise in digital marketing, new media PR, and micro-sponsorship development. ”

Spellman goes on to say, “There are plenty of bands and artists building loyal followings and making middle class livings who have redefined ‘success’ for themselves.” This is absolutely true of the new music industry. By realigning your ideas of success, i.e. not expecting to magically get signed and sell millions of albums, you can create achievable goals, and with focus and determination make a living from your musical endeavors.

The PDF resource can be downloaded from here

by Lee Jarvis.

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I’m a fan of Berkleemusic, the online school of the esteemed Berklee College of Music, and often read many of the great blogs from David Kusek, Mike King and co.

Berklee recently launched their Winter 2010 term with two new music marketing courses available; Online Music Marketing with Topspin (co-authored by King and Topspin’s Shamal Ranasinghe), and Online Music Marketing: Campaign Strategies, Social Media, and Digital Distribution.

Having studied several of their courses, I know that the Berkleemusic system is a good one, and these new courses have inspired me to sign up again next term.

In the fast-moving, ever-evolving new music industry, I see digital marketing strategies being of huge importance. Artists need to do as much groundwork as possible themselves, and when they cannot, know the correct people and resources to help. Being efficient at selling your music online, and building your fan base with social networking communities is critical for bands and musicians looking to make a living from their music and music-related activities.

Here, Mike King explains some of the Online Music Marketing course details and how you can use analytics to drive your career decisions.

Also worth mentioning is the course textbook, which is a great read even if you aren’t studying at Berkleemusic. Music Marketing: Press, Promotion, Distribution, and Retail is also written by King, and you can sample a free chapter here…

If anyone is taking the course this term, please let me know how you are getting on. If you are signed up for Spring 2010, I may well see you there!

Lee Jarvis

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