Sunday, July 20, 2025

Music Company Business News (MCBN) -- Reverbnation was Purchased by Bandlab in 2021, Here's an Update...

Reverbnation is an online platform offering artists a place to list shows, present audio tracks and host EPKs. Under the radar, it was purchased from its parent company eMinor, by BandLab, a company headquartered in Singapore, in 2021. On its homepage, Bandlab makes the offer: “Make music anytime, anywhere. Connect with millions. Release your tracks and engage with fans — keep 100% of your earnings.” 


Reverberation’s platform is very artist focused (each artist has their own page with their own content), with some promo tools and distribution features. Importantly, its roots are in a music-making model where bands played instruments. It was started in 2006 by several founders and is based in North Carolina. One of the coolest features on Reverbnation is “Reverb Radio” which is a music player on the site that allows you to search the Reverbnation catalog by genre and discover new artists if you poke around a bit.


Meanwhile, Bandlab’s website offers a truly wide range of services, from mastering and distribution, to a library of sounds and samples. Bandlab is centered on music production in the digital age, where music is made within software. It’s definitely got a clean Apple-type vibe to the layout, with lots of white space, pristine graphics and an array of services that require a whole dashboard rather than just a menu. 


I like the artist profiles on Reverbnation quite a bit. It’s functional and hands-on compared to the sleek feel of Bandlab. At the same time, I look forward to see how Bandlab will steward Reverbnation, and if any new features will be added. I do hope that Bandlab recognizes Reverberation’s strengths in the old school digital age (that's an oxymoron but twenty years ago is OG for the digital age), where the music was about fervor and not convenience. There’s an artistic satisfaction in making something with effort. I am curious about the long-term success of a marketing angle of making music-making easy (Bandlab isn’t the only company that uses this angle, it’s just very front of mind), as it removes the power and satisfaction of self expression that is hard won. 

Friday, July 18, 2025

Exploring

Every musician learns differently. Some learn by emulating artists they admire, mirroring a style, specific songs and even wrestling to transcribe note for note. For these artists, finding their original voice is a worthy challenge, as they carve out a way of playing and sounding that isn't a reflection of their influences. 

However, there is a fallacy in using your self identity as a compass, as it only points in one direction. 

To explore music is to go beyond yourself and who you think you are and make sounds you have never made before. Sing in a way you've never sung before. 

This concludes my ongoing battle against branding oneself, which seems to be the style at the time. To claim you are something is to deny the possibility of becoming something else.

Some musicians start off so independently that learning to play with others becomes a worthy goal. These artists need to delve into charts, and the common language of music theory, whether it's spoken, in sheet music or on lead sheets. The point of these tools is to get everyone on the same page, pun intended. The individual voice can then be shared with other people. Let the irony soak in. 

These artists also may be so into their own work they rarely learn or cannot learn cover songs and they miss the joy of learning songs by other composers.

Whatever your learning style is don't miss the chance to explore. 


Tuesday, July 8, 2025

You're Not a Brand, You're a Stock


In the 1960s, if someone told young musicians that they had to brand themselves, and be more like brands of that era such as Tupperware (food storage containers), Tab (soda), Mary Quant (fashion) or Zippo (lighters), they'd be laughed out of the Gaslight Cafe for being the squarest thing since the cube. (Although to be fair, bands like the Monkeys were nothing if not a brand). I am talking about roots and folk music, the essence of the 1960s. It was politically charged and fervent-- the polar opposite of comfy branding. 

Fast forward to the 2020s. Take one look at marketing strategy of today, and you'll see branding yourself as imperative. Need proof that branding is a popular approach to marketing these days? Let's ask Google. When googling "How to brand yourself as a musician" there's many results, starting off with this screenshot:


The company WIX offers a personal branding guide, check it out here.

The company Looka has a branding kit, check it out here.

You don't need to look far to see that branding is a considered an important, imperative step in marketing today.

Branding is not an end in itself.

A brand is just a brand, a cigar is just a cigar. Just because you are recognizable, and have a color scheme, logo, and fonts doesn't mean your music is any good. It just means your marketing is in place. 

If the corporate mentality has permeated music, so be it. If so, then let's take that a step further. To be more than a brand or flavor of the month, you must have stock value. 

To this end, consider your music as a stock: is it rising or falling? Are you further along than last year? Would people invest in you? Once you start looking at your music as a stock, which has a value, then you're able to make strategic decisions to increase that value. 

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

A Tax on Wit

While in a meeting with fellow musicians, the topic of social media came up. I found myself saying, "artists are what make social media interesting." At the time, it was merely a way of blowing our collective trumpet. 

Then I thought of the power of boycotts. What if all of the artists pulled out of social media? It would be a vapid place. Zuckerburg's pocketbook would go down. The value of the enterprise rests on us, the artists and the people. 

Hasn't Zuckerburg, while watching the online empire grow, unintentionally put a small "wit" tax on us all? Facebook convinces us we are witty, sharing our opinions, pictures and quips. And who is making a proverbial penny off every post? 

With this realization my inner Proletariat reeled like the guy in the Caravaggio painting when he touches a snake, and proclaimed, I shall not be taxed. Zuckerburg isn't going to make a dime off of my wit and creativity. 

To that end, I am off Facebook. Correlation is not causation but I am happy to report I am being more productive than I have ever been on my goals in music and art, not concerning myself with my next scheduled post. 

Not without function, social media has at times helped me kill time, stay sane, share news, and stay up to date, get fans and customers, or maybe just a little ego boost.

Yet ponder for a moment the sheer amount of time you have spent on social media in the last day, week, month, year, or decade.

I am enjoying my experiment of making Zuckerburg 2 pennies less rich by withholding my participation in the centrifuge. I might even keep the penny for my thoughts. Care to join me?