1. Excellence If it’s not great, don’t release it. Put it up on YouTube, not the album, if you’re trying to get everybody’s attention, make sure your music deserves it. 2. Availability Put your complete album on YouTube and all streaming services. That’s where people discover your music. Your hard core fans will buy it, […]

CALIFORNIA Oh, it gets so lonely When you’re walking And the streets are full of strangers There’s no loneliness like the one you feel in a foreign country. It descends like a curtain, when you enter your hotel room, when someone brushes by you on the sidewalk, you don’t fit in, you don’t belong, life […]

When you’re really depressed, you don’t want to hear anything, no music will work. I learned that in William Styron’s account of his fall off the edge, into a mental hospital, “Darkness Visible.” And that’s true. It’s like you can’t handle the noise. And you don’t want to be lifted back up, you need to […]

MILES DAVIS Used to call Nile Rodgers on the phone every night, saying “Write me a ‘Good Times.’” Nile’s point being we all want mass success. Nile used to be a jazzer, but then his mentor said “You’re too good for pop?” If millions love it, it can’t be bad. And Nile went home and […]