If you live on Earth, you have heard about the deal between Country Music Legend Garth Brooks and mega super store, Wal-Mart. Brooks, who has always proved to be a marketing innovator, has inked a deal that is sure to set the music industry on fire. Recently parting from his label, Capitol Records, the deal grants sole distribution rights to Wal-Mart. What can we learn from Garth? First, he's all about the business, his fans, and marketing, something I speak about repeatedly both on my weekly radio show as well as in my book, The Indie Guide To Music, Marketing and Money. While Brooks has not recorded a new CD since 2001, his least successful by Brooks's standards, this marketing genius still captures headlines, creating urgency for his music. How does he do it? Brooks learned from his time in the trenches, when every label rejected him sometimes twice, it's all about the business. Brooks took the business very seriously and handled his contract negations with incredible savvy and skill. One of the most important negations he made was to make sure he owned the masters to his own music. Because ... 

Independent artists and other players in the music industry must have somewhere to go to, not just to gain information about the world that they belong but also to be heard. Belonging to an organization that would cater to their interests will help them keep track on the field where they belong. Fortunately, there is Music Biz, a community site that concerns itself with the music industry in general. It is distinct from other music sites because it is not necessarily all news, gossips, reviews and promotions although it also has that composition. Rather it is mainly a community site where independent artists can learn from0 insider’s opinions and analysis about certain issues and situation going on in the music business. Independent artists learn from them through their written articles presented in the editorials which are the main component of Music Biz. In the same way, independent artists can also contribute articles with the same theme. Article contribution should follow certain standards set by Music Biz so that all articles are reliable and impose certain credibility. Aside from editorials, Music Biz does have news and feature articles. The news is basically taken as a link to the original site where ... 

Get the Hits That Really Count! Here's something to remember: if you receive 1,000 hits a day on your web page, it won't mean a thing if only one of those visitors is interested in your product. Use your time and energy to generate publicity that brings you a meaningful, targeted audience! Don't worry about getting thousands of random hits on your site. It's the targeted visitors who will buy your product that you really want! Internet Press Release Why and where? If you're doing anything worthwhile at your web site, you ought to be sending out press releases on a periodic basis. These press or news releases can be sent to your music fans, subscribers to your e-mail list (covered in detail later), or the music industry at large. However, be careful who you target your press release to. The last thing you want to do is start sending your press releases to people who don't want them. The line between an appropriate press release and spam can be a very thin one. For example, the press release for your band's new CD would not likely be considered real news to the music industry at large (sorry, but unless ...