You earn the right to release a collection. Yes, your goal is to create a body of work, but the question is how do you build a fan base that is interested in that work, and how do you grow that fan base.

If you are an established act and you are releasing albums essentially as merchandise, continue to do so if this is a profitable venture. The CD is no different from a t-shirt. People see you, they want a memento. The fact that it contains your music is a bonus. Will they play it ad infinitum? Maybe, but you’d be surprised how few do. Furthermore, they’re already convinced, they’ve already been closed…what made them come in the first place?

The key is gaining attention, and how do you maintain this attention once you’ve gotten it?

It’s hard to get people to take a chance. Almost impossible. Reviews mean less than ever before in rock history, which is kind of a head-scratcher, since there are more of them… Maybe, they’re just less trustworthy, or the people writing them are bad writers or uneducated on the issues, or maybe their sheer volume is just overwhelming. And radio listenership declines. It’s not like everybody is focused on the limited outlets that existed before. Everyone’s a grazer, collecting a bizarre group of work on his hard drive. Take a look. The Chipmunks can sit next to Edith Piaf. Someone can like Kenny Chesney and AC/DC. Please file trade and look into others’ hard drives. It’s utterly fascinating. Don’t tell me about what happens in physical retail, about CDs…they are declining, they are not the future. It’s just a matter of when they are completely marginalized.

Do people watch entire movies on their mobile phones? Hell, they don’t even type out complete messages! Texts are brief and in minimalized code/language. People are busy, on the run, trying to make sense of this modern world, overloaded with information. Don’t assume the sixties and seventies still rule. That people are going to buy your CD, sit on the couch and listen for hours digesting it. Will some oldsters do this? Sure. But oldsters are getting older every day. And, unlike youngsters, they’re not impulse buyers, they’re the hardest people to sell to.

Follow a young person’s life. Besides texting, kids are in multiple IM conversations on their computers simultaneously. Each conversation is not at length and in depth. They might be listening to music in the background, but they’ll click through what they don’t like. How do you get their attention? With the killer track. It all starts with the killer track.

No one wants to see the act with one killer track. Oh please, don’t criticize my point here. Rihanna played clubs in the wake of "Umbrella"! You need multiple tracks before you can garner a reasonable live audience. If you’re a newbie, and you’re trying to break live, like a jam band, just put a plethora of material on your Website, complete live shows, tracks, rehearsal tapes…that’s a different culture, it’s one of immersion, of club membership, a badge of honor. Most scenes are not like that. In most you’ve got to earn people’s attention.

How many killer tracks do they have to hear before they’re eager for more?

Come on… After hearing "Take It Easy" did you think the Eagles were going to release "Hotel California"? Shit, took them albums to build momentum. And, once again, the singles from this early period comprise the best-selling album in U.S. history ("Greatest Hits 1971-1975"). People are skeptical at first, they don’t believe you’ve got the goods. Or, there’s mania, like with the boy bands, and they buy the album and then forget the act in minutes.

How can you get people to pay attention and believe you’re real. It’s not by dropping a complete album. The bigger the album, the smaller the number of people who are going to be interested. You want to cast a wide net.

This is not Radiohead. That band is only about the hard core fan. They don’t care about radio, TV… But, they started off with a single, "Creep"! That’s what got people’s attention, got them hooked. But that was years back, when most people checked in with MTV, which still played music. When you had to buy the complete album to hear the single! How are you gonna make it now? How are you gonna grow your audience? How are you going to make your music more than a souvenir of the live show?

By dribbling out killer tracks and letting momentum build, just like it did in the sixties.

People didn’t think Brian Wilson was a genius when they heard the Beach Boys’ first single, "Surfin’". Hell, many people didn’t respect him until "California Girls". The cumulative effect of endless singles eventually made people realize, this guy is great!

I’ve got each and every Beach Boys album. Believe me, the first, "Surfin’ Safari", which I like, would not close almost anybody. It’s an almost amateurish drive into a new territory by a new band. Years later, it’s an interesting artifact. But, if people had to buy it to hear the title track, the Beach Boys’ career would have been hurt. Especially if the formula was resurrected today.

Took multiple tries for the Beach Boys to make a great album, that they could give to newbies and newbies would like. This is Brian Wilson we’re talking about here, one of the foremost musical geniuses of the rock era… Are you really as good as Brian Wilson, did you really emerge fully-formed, instantly?

It’s a new world. It’s not about the shiny initial disc labored over for years, hyped to hell by Clive Davis for a phenomenal first week debut. That formula, if not completely done, is dying. You’ve got to develop, over time. With more and more material. True artist development. You’ve got to get people so excited that they turn on their friends…and believe me, their friends will only be interested if your body of work is great through and through.

If you are great, over time, you’ll assemble multiple great tracks. And that will generate ticket sales. Hell, almost no one from the last fifteen years is an arena act. Not on a consistent basis. So, don’t tell me I’m wrong here. People will go see the train-wreck once… But now they’re not even interested in doing that in prodigious numbers, because the train-wreck does not consume the country, it’s not a national mania… Hell, the Idols tour no longer sells out!

Start small. Very small. Woodshed. Get better. Only let people see your best stuff. Get traction. Don’t overwhelm the audience. Be so good you leave them wanting more! Don’t adhere to the old ways of doing it. That era, like Clive Davis, Tower Records and music on MTV is DONE!