Dave Kusek is a teacher, consultant, entrepreneur, digital music pioneer, author, speaker, mentor and Senior Partner at Digital Cowboys and New Artist Model. Dave was Vice President at Berklee College of Music in Boston for 14 years, where he created Berkleemusic.com, a hugely successful online enterprise for Berklee. Berkleemusic has since become the world’s largest music school reaching over 20,000 students in 170 countries.
Prior to that, Kusek helped develop the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), was co-inventor of the first electronic drums called “Synare”, and founded the first music software company in 1980, Passport Designs, which made it possible for musicians to record and produce their music at home with its award- winning software. His efforts, along with others, set the stage for the multi-billion dollar digital music market that exists today.
In 2005 he co-authored the best selling music business book “The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution” which predicted much of what has happened in digital music, including the iPhone, Apple’s SIRI, Spotify, streaming music and the decline of the recorded music industry.
Kusek was a faculty member at Berklee College of Music where he taught music business and a founding faculty member at Berklee Online where he taught The Future of Music and the Music Business.
Kusek has written for or been featured in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Billboard, Wired, Christian Science Monitor, Huffington Post, Associated Press, Boston Business Journal, MTV, CNBC, SF Chronicle, Forbes, NBC-TV, Nightly Business Report, NPR, Financial Times, and the Guardian. Kusek has been a speaker at Midem, Music Hack Day, Digital Music Forum, NAMM, AES, IEBA, MacWorld, Comdex, SXSW, ADISQ, Digital Hollywood and a featured guest on radio and television stations around the world.
Last week, Dave Kusek did a keynote presentation at the ADISQ conference in Montreal, Canada. He spoke about current effective marketing strategies for musicians and artists in the digital age. Business models for success. Here’s the presentation.
Here are a few ideas for making the most out of HootSuite and managing social media as a band. If you are going “DIY” on your promotional campaign, things like pre-scheduling important tweets in advance of hitting the road can be a big help. The music industry has changed so much in the past decade, […]
Here is an interview with the great Phil Ramone, recorded at his home in Connecticut. Phil discusses making hits, songwriting, music production, the music industry, the listening experience, working with artists, the studio, spare parts, preparation, working style and gives his advice for artists and writers. A true master, he gives us a glimpse into […]
Marcus Taylor, founder of Venture Harbour, has compiled words of advice from 30 entrepreneurial leaders in the music industry. Here are some of our favorites. Focus on what works now “We are no longer subject to what was, only to what works. We can honor what came before us, but at the same time we […]
Alex Day has proudly made his way in the music industry without the support of a major label by building his fanbase online. Here he recounts a hilarious meeting with an A&R person and why he left the meeting unsatisfied. He doesn’t tour either and doesn’t see the need to: Typically I make around £3500 […]
The Atlantic published this awesome map, which plots the geographical origins of indie bands who played at SXSW last week. The data is not perfect in the sense that it does not include unofficial showcases but it puts Austin in the lead, trailed by New York and Los Angeles. Nashville and London just about tie […]
Here’s a recap of some of the key trends and topics that marked the music business in 2012. As we move forward, it’s good to look back, especially amidst the music industry’s chaotic, shifting paradigms. As the music industry’s traditional structures continue to fall away, new models are building upon unsteady foundations. Some of the […]
Casandra Govor of the music and tech think tank, Sidewinder.fm, shares her reactions to the 2011 UK PRS report “Adding Up the Music Industry”. In a time when the live music sector represents an increasingly important revenue stream for musicians, it is important to examine the causes and contexts behind the statistics. The downward trend […]
Technology investor and managing director of The Foundry Group, Seth Levine, shares his thoughts about the changing trends in entrepreneurship over the past few years. He points to several factors that have recently contributed to shifts in the way people consider and approach entrepreneurship including the breaking down of geographical barriers and a decreasing emphasis […]
While the recorded music business continues to suffer, the live touring business is holding up rather well, propelled in the short term by legacy acts, but moving forward with smaller bands and festivals well poised to fill the shoes of the legendary bands as they retire. Here are some excerpts from a great piece by […]
Here is a presentation developed for clothing manufacturer Carhartt as they try and capitalize on the popularity of their products with the youth market. Interesting trends and stats posted by students from Parsons The New School for Design. “By identifying the forces at play in the world of music and the behaviors that are driving those […]
Here is a fantastic compilation of posts and articles from 2012 about managing startups from Tom Eisenmann Professor at Harvard Business School who studies lean startups, entrepreneurship, platforms, and network effects (Twitter: @teisenmann). This is so much information and wisdom here for anyone starting a new venture or trying to make their startup successful. As Tom says […]
The music business has been utterly transformed by technology. New music apps such as Pandora, Spotify, Soundcloud, Shazam and Songza among hundreds of others are driving new music revenue and employment opportunities for technically oriented musicians. Olivia Leonardi over at Online Computer Science Degree has written an article about the intersection of music and software development […]
Music is a much smaller and less significant part of many people’s lives than 10-20 years ago. There is more competition for our attention and the value of music has declined precipitously. This graphic shows the rise of digital against physical music, and the overall impact of piracy, widespread distribution and digital media on the […]
After 30 years, the inventors of MIDI are being recognized by the Recording Industry with a pair of Grammy awards. My friends Dave Smith and Ikutaroo Kakehashi are both receiving the awards during this year’s ceremony for the creation of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface. These guys were the true pioneers who set MIDI in […]
EDM is really just short for “Event Driven Marketing”. At last week’s Billboard Futuresound conference in San Francisco, Deadmau5 aka “Joel Zimmerman” gave a candid interview which you can listen to here. He talked freely about his career, the current EDM scene and where things are heading.
Ale Delgado wrote this great recap of our CMJ panel on merchandise last week. Thanks Ale! Here is most of it. Visit her site for more: Considering that I’m always looking for the next big thing, I knew I had to go to CMJ’s “Modern Merch: Beyond the Tour T-Shirt” panel. See, merch is a $2.2 […]
Here is a great infographic from Killer Infographics. Thanks Jessie! If you are a musician starting out, contemplating a career in music, building a team, starting a label, deciding on a marketing strategy, social media, etc. then this one’s for you!
For artists struggling to make a living in the digital age, a strong merch strategy can be the difference between living life as a starving artist and making a comfortable living. Yet compared to the recording, publishing and ticketing businesses—which have felt the full effect of technology and the Internet— the merch business today is […]
Gotta love it. James Taylor is suing Warner Bros over digital royalties seeking $2m in compensatory damages from his former label for past MP3 sales. The Guardian reports that singer-songwriter James Taylor has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against his former label, Warner Bros, claiming they have underpaid millions in royalties on downloads of his songs. As […]
As the saying goes – when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. And as we face the reality of the digital music business today, many are finding ways to make digital lemonade. This is the first in a series of posts about creative thinking in music. In the face of declining recorded music sales, […]
I was reviewing this fascinating data from Mary Meeker over the weekend again, and thought I would share it. Meeker, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers describes what she calls “the re-imagination of nearly everything” powered by mobile and social. For example: News outlets are reimagined on Twitter, note-taking is reimagined on Evernote, […]
This video from James West and Len Henriksen shows that the consumption of music has come along way since the days of vinyl records. But now with all the digital variants of music available to anyone with an internet connection, what has become of the stability of the industry and the ability of artists’ to make […]
Netflix — the poster child for premium Internet video services — was birthed by iTunes and other online music services before it. Yes, movies and music are fundamentally different forms of media, but the online video guys can learn a lot from the transformation of the music business. What works and what doesn’t. Peter Csathy […]
Roger McNamee is probably the coolest investor I know. He has called it right so many, many times and just did it again with Facebook. You have to pay attention to him. I have been “schooled” by him on more than one occassion and for that I am eternally grateful. Here are his thoughts on […]
Here are some sobering stats that I found on the Smart Money site and a great infographic that sums them up. The most frustrating thing for everyone in the music industry these days is the reality of digital music sales. As you can see in the graphic, digital sales have not replaced the revenue from the […]
I am often amazed at how much today’s musicians can learn from the past. We all think that we are in the age of digital music and the old rules no longer apply and that there are only new models to develop and pursue. Wrong. Instead, we can all learn a whole lot by looking […]
My buddy Bruce Houghton at Hypebot, caught me last week for a quick interview before Rethink Music. Here is an except from our discussion: HYPEBOT: Your new focus is on consulting and investing. Are there any sectors, particularly within music and music tech, that particularly interest you or where you see the most room for growth? […]
Hypebot reports: Technology has changed a lot about how concerts are marketed, ticketed and produced since Woodstock. Recently, the greatest driver of change – particularly from the fan perspective – has been the smartphone. From taking photos to texting friends and song requests, smartphones are changing how concerts are consumed and remembered. But early glimpses of […]
All markets are not the same. Most people in India have not had access to high-speed Internet or a PC. The wired broadband penetration of India stands at about 13 million subscriptions and there are only 50 million PCs in the country. Very few Indians have broadband or a PC of their own. 3G expands […]
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