Amazingly, the technology held up pretty well over the three hours, but for this podcast I pared down the audio to one hour of the best discussions. Joining our talk locally was Lisa Hoag of Lisa Hoag Designs. We kick off the audio via some discussion of what “freemium” means to artists, and then Noel presents on crowdfunding and how musicians have used these tactics. Some of the topics we dig into include:

- whether “free” has helped or hurt artists
- why it makes sense to build a brand before crowdfunding
- why the “Free” digital economy has helped content aggregators (Google) more than artists
- the pros and cons of giving away creative content to build a brand/business
- are we entering a new age of “artistic patronage”?
- why Chris Anderson’s “Free” poses dangers for artists
- targeting narrow audiences versus building a broader platform
- the role of social media in tapping into new audiences
- how “the gift economy” is different than “free”
- the extent of the “content piracy” threat

So check out the podcast and let us know if you have any feedback:

We’re likely to do another installment on this event in the future, looking more closely at the social platform aspects. I may also be presenting a version of this “artists in the free and social era” for the Los Angeles 2011 Independent Music Conference, which is coming up about a week from now.

Neal Hutto was a brilliant musician who wrote the soundtrack to his life. Perhaps in a way he was haunted by the urgency of his own songs. He didn’t record much of his work – those who were lucky enough to experience one of his extended jam sessions form the bulk of his legacy. But Neal did record a tape called “Riverside Drive” which I was able to get my hands on, thanks to Will and Mike Hurewitz. It took me a while to get the songs in the format I needed them, but I always had in mind to try to record the piece I wrote for Neal over his own music.

This weekend, I was able to pull that together, so now you can hear me read my piece, simply entitled “For Neal,” with Neal’s song “Descent” in the background. With my admittedly limited sound editing skills, I reworked the song by ear to match the rhythm of what I intended to read. I didn’t know what it would sound like over my own voice, but as it turns out, one take was all it took. The equipment I used for this experiment was bootstrapped, but I think Neal would have appreciated both the cobbled together approach and the pretty decent sound I was able to get regardless.

When you create things, you get used to all the times when you are grinding it out on your own, and those rare, magical times when you are not. I won’t get mystical on you here, but when you listen to the recording, I think you’ll understand. There’s so much I want to say about Neal, about the tragic perfection of our reckless youth, about how my own adversities brought me closer to him and the existential struggles he faced, but I don’t know if I can do it.

But last fall, I found the words, and now I’m able to pay a proper tribute to Neal Hutto, artist, adventurer par excellence, shaman of laughter, and friend for all time.

Additional notes: I taped another short recording (right-click to download) over a different song of Neal’s (“Pound for Pound”), describing a bit more about what I did to tape the piece and how shocked I was that the rhythm of the music perfectly matched the recording the very first time I read it. Oh, and I recommend listening to the tribute piece with a good headset, that will give you some additional depth to the sounds on the recording. There’s another tribute to Neal from his friend Dave here. Will Katz has a YouTube music channel of his own work, as well as his terrifically creative bluegrass covers. If you want to know more about Neal, I recommend Will’s extraordinary eulogy that he delivered at the memorial service. Finally, my high school class is having not one, but two reunions this summer. Looks like I’m not going to make it this time, so I hope you all will take this piece as yet more proof that I’m still, as always, yours. Next time…

On the plus side, you’ll get a bit more content this way, plus a deeper view into some of the motivations and subversive ideas that inspired the site in the first place. I’ll let you be the judge if you enjoy this content. I’m not sure if a clear theme will emerge. I plan on doing some podcasting here from time to time because the site handles that well. Perhaps some key themes will emerge as we go. I’m hoping to do more with music journalism and the adventures of artists in general as they attempt to grapple their way in a global economy that doesn’t exactly bestow money on content creation for its own sake.

Free free to unsubscribe now if the content you get from here on out doesn’t resonate. I sincerely hope it does. As always I will strive for originality and excellence, quality over quantity, and slow-cooked creations.

As I recorded this one, I thought about my many friends who truly enjoy sprucing up their homes as a lifestyle. I’m not criticizing that way of life as long as it is not cloaked in easy rationalizations about improving the value of the underlying asset. And as long as there is a well thought plan for income stability beyond “I hope my job holds out even though my company is going to be acquired” or what have you.

I also think that real estate can be overrated as an entrepreneurial path – if you don’t have a passion for mastering a particular aspect of real estate, then your chances are limited to the hopes of riding a bubble. I once enjoyed real estate but time has sharpened my focus. Hear the chapter for more.

Download and subscription options: you can download (and subscribe to) all the chapters in the audio book (free) either in our iTunes store or with our audio book RSS feed.

During the recording of this chapter, I was reminded just how much I have seen people separate themselves and increase their relative job security by taking a different mindset into the workplace, thinking more like owners and less like employees. Of course, you can’t delude yourself into thinking you own things you don’t, but you can certainly find more strategic ways to further your interests on and off the job. This book gets into that in more detail. I also take stock of the book so far in the first of several “gut checks,” this one coming at the end of this recording.

Download and subscription options: you can download (and subscribe to) all the chapters in the audio book (free) either in our iTunes store or with our audio book RSS feed.

Of course, the catch is that the real home runs in terms of wealth often come from these devil-may-care projects that appear to have no market value now or in the future. So by all means, if you find it freeing, pursue it – but it’s good to respect the balance between our passions and what is marketable. The feedback loop with our audience will help us a lot with that, and I get into that concept later in the book. So when I classify techo jams and knitting as hobbies, take it with a grain of salt. In my own town, there is a successful knitting store. But I doubt there could be four of them.

Download and subscription options: you can download (and subscribe to) all the chapters in the audio book (free) either in our iTunes store or with our audio book RSS feed.

There’s a “no excuses” mentality that comes in here, as we realize that this approach to creating assets not only works, but it works when all our friends would surely pat us on the back and say, “Don’t give yourself a hard time, you’re way too busy to do something like that right now.” That kind of reassurance can be comforting but in the end, we are not heading in the right direction when we allow those comforts to excuse us for fighting for our asset creations – and in many cases, fighting for our solitude. Not to mention our belief in ourselves.

Download and subscription options: you can download (and subscribe to) all the chapters in the audio book (free) either in our iTunes store or with our audio book RSS feed.

I get into why that is in this chapter, and also cover a bit of the “Jon Reed keys to time management,” which are nitty gritty things that make a difference for me, and set the table for more powerful and advanced concepts about time that are to follow later in the book.

Download and subscription options: you can download (and subscribe to) all the chapters in the audio book (free) either in our iTunes store or with our audio book RSS feed.

As I recorded this chapter, I realized there was a slight contradiction in my own story – advising readers that any space will do, but using an example where I wanted to use my dining table to start my own business and then got more ambitious by renting my own space – going against some of my advice on taking excessive “speculative” risks. In this case, I had no other lower risk options, so in that sense, I too the lowest risk that allowed me to move forward. Sometimes that’s how it goes.

Download and subscription options: you can download (and subscribe to) all the chapters in the audio book (free) either in our iTunes store or with our audio book RSS feed.

Most books of this kind push one kind of asset, such as real estate. The problem is that if you have no passion for the real estate business, it should not become your life’s work. So the decision on asset creation should strike a balance between passion and marketability, invoking the “feedback loop” whenever possible. I put my own book through these hoops in the chapter also.

Download and subscription options: you can download (and subscribe to) all the chapters in the audio book (free) either in our iTunes store or with our audio book RSS feed.