Kokopelli Times » entrepreneurship

Jay-Z’s Empire

Erik Rostad — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:25:37 +0000

The Wall St. Journal recently wrote about where Jay-Z has been and where he is going with this entrepreneurial activities. Click the link below for the full article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304741404575564092478617462.html

Nancy Pelosi and Musicians

Erik Rostad — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:55:04 +0000

Nancy Pelosi recently made the comment that musicians will be better off under Obamacare. They will be able to quit their day jobs and focus all their attention on their creative side. Here are some of her comments:

“We see this as an entrepreneurial bill, a bill that says to someone, if you want to be creative and be a musician or whatever, you can leave your work, focus on your talent, your skill, your passion, your aspirations because you will have health care.”

As a musician, being sure that medical bills will be paid for is a nice luxury, but not necessary to creativity. The assertion that musicians will be better off focusing all of their creative energies on their music without having to work the day job seems a bit misguided. Oftentimes, creativity is sparked during times not devoted to music writing.

Most musicians I know who don’t have a day job waste a lot of their time on non-productive activities. Most musicians I know who have day jobs prize their gigs & time for writing more and end up using their time wisely.

I’ve also seen a few musician friends in Atlanta who have been in accidents that required major medical expenses. They didn’t have health insurance, but what happened is the Atlanta music community gathered together to raise funds through concerts and fund raising.

Also, there are a number of inexpensive alternatives for health insurance ranging from $100 – $500/month. As a single male, I paid around $100/month for health insurance. Musicians should be able to afford $100/month with or without a day job.

I’d love to hear your comments below…

How to Raise Money as a Musician

Erik Rostad — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:03:00 +0000

So, you have a big project coming up. You’re recording an album. That means your burning cds, printing album covers, touring, feeding yourself during this whole process, and keeping up with strings and equipment purchases. How do you do it? What happens when you are so tapped out that you can’t dig any deeper into your savings account or maxed out credit card?

A new website, Kickstarter, is here to help you with your financial necessities. Kickstarter is glorified pan-handling. You put together a project, say – the recording of a new album. Then you send this info to Kickstarter HQ for approval. Once you have their blessing, you go about raising money.

So, say you want to raise $4,000 for a new album. You put together information, perhaps a funny video, and describe what you are doing to your family, friends, and fans. The kicker is – you only get the money if you raise the total amount. The people who pledge the money only get charged if you raise the entire amount.

But, what a great idea for musicians in need of some seed money to get to the next level. And the best way to utilize this is to send this to the fans you have built up on the social networking sites. You’ve probably already maxed out your local friend’s checkbook by inviting them to every show. But, what about the person following your music every time you post of YouTube video? What if they donated $5 to your next album? It would all add up.

So, don’t be discouraged as a starving artist. The music industry has changed so that every band has to become an entrepreneur out of necessity. The artist is not going to get a million dollar check from the label anymore to go and record an album. The artist will need to raise this by themselves, just like a new business owner would need to do. Kickstarter seems like a good tool to raise seed money.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com
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