Wise Startup Blog » artist

Rob Thomas Made An Appearance in the Grooveshark Office, In Other News..

andrew — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:07:00 +0000

So I guess this whole Grooveshark thing is starting to pan out, eh? Well, Rob Thomas felt it necessary to stop by Gainesville on his way to Jacksonville today, and got the obligatory tour, complete with mention of ping-pong room, and pieces of chair.

Please excuse Rob’s expression, I think he was as surprised to be here as we were…

Startup: Techniques on How to Interview Anyone

andrew — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:41:37 +0000

I hope the title isn’t misleading, but this is a post on how to interview anyone, an artist, band, executive, startup, etc.

Taken from a list by Jeremy Shoemaker of Skills to Pay the Bills:

The DO NOT list:

DO NOT email the person asking if you can interview them. This is a waste of time. Instead just send your questions.

DO NOT list all the other people you have interviewed and try to “con” the person into participating in your interview. I do not know why but this seems to have become a popular technique. Odds are people either 1) do not care or 2) do not like the other people you are interviewing.

DO NOT miss spell the persons name you are trying to interview.

DO NOT ask questions that can be easily answered by reading the persons about page. People put those pages up for a reason and its very annoying when people ask you those questions.

DO NOT expect the person will link to the article.

The DO list:

DO a VERY brief introduction on who you are, the context of the interview, and where the interview will be posted.

DO let the person know you have already collected some basic information on them and will post that prior to the questions in the interview.

DO a search for the person’s name you interviewing in Google like “Jeremy Schoemaker interview” and see what they have said in other interviews. Try not to ask the same questions others have asked.

DO try to ask something the person would be interested in. Ask about their latest project or something they are excited about. This also shows you are not just firing away the same email to as many people as possible.

DO ask controversial questions. Everyone has opinions and most of them will share them. Its quite possible you are giving the person a stage they have wanted on a issue they have wanted to share their opinion about. I respect people that ask hard hitting controversial questions. It also usually shows they have taken the time to know what makes me tick and what I am passionate about.

DO a follow up email with the URL and thank the person for their time.

Startup: Grooveshark Direct Downloads Replace CDs

andrew — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:20:32 +0000

Part of our Grooveshark Labs, our team is developing Grooveshark Direct Download cards that are designed to eliminate the cost of printing and, even carrying CDs for the artists, and they allow artists to easily sell their music, and make a lot more money on each sale.

A lot of people aren’t buying CDs any more, so instead of selling your fans a CD they’re just going to rip to their iPod, why not cut out the middle man and give these guys just what they want – the mp3s? This saves the artist cost in printing, and also makes their fans a lot happier, as well as being eco-friendly

For those fans that still buy CDs, great, still keep some CDs on hand, and charge a premium for those, but for the rest of your fans, sell em the Grooveshark CD cards.

Here’s how it works:

1. Artist uploads their content to our server
2. Artist sends in artwork and we design the cards
3. Artist sells their CD cards at shows
4. Fans go to Grooveshark.com/CD to download the tracks

As this is a pilot, we’re starting off with 100 cards free, and maybe more, if you ask, to get an idea of what kind of response we’ll get.

We’re still building this, so the site isn’t up yet, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted once it’s ready to go.