Hey, it's Alan, and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing

history of new music early and ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime.

There's more music out there than ever before. At the same time, our attention spans

are shorter than ever before. And then we have to consider how the music industry is changing. It's not enough

just to put out an album and let a record label sell it for you. It's getting tougher and tougher

to reach the music consumer. Artists are competing with the distractions of the internet, games

like rock band and guitar hero, other video games, DVD, on-demand, television, cell phones, movies, radio, just goes on and on.

There's all these new choices for consumers.

But consumers only have so much time and only so much money to spend.

Competition for their attention and their money, not to mention their energies, their affections and emotions,

they're running pretty damn strong.

At the same time, record labels have been forced to cut

back on how they do things. Budgets are much more limited. And even spending wads of cash

on making a music video just isn't cost effective anymore. So, what's a band to do? You can only

shout so loud before you become annoying, and then you're guaranteed to be ignored.

In other words, how does a performer gain attention in this ever-changing world in which we live in?

In case you didn't know, it's a horribly mangled lyric from Paul McCartney's Live and Let Die.

Every time I hear that song, I'm stunned at Sir Paul's wanton destruction of the Queen's English.

But anyway, back to the point.

As an artist these days, how do you get heard?

Well, for starters, maybe you don't need a traditional record label at all.

No, no, I'm not crazy.

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