A Solid Call 2.0

A&R Dos and Don'ts for the Digital Age : I'd like to start collecting items to add to a list of things that Label and A&R types should keep in mind when putting together music that they want to sell digitally. Some of this stuff may seem funny, but it will become more important over time as digital becomes more of a force in sales. I'll kick off the list and people can add more by commenting.

Don't even include hidden bonus tracks. They cause trouble with metadata sources. The long silences ruin digital tracks.

Do better research when naming your band. Even if the name you want was only used by some jug band in the 50's but is not being used now - it will cause problems in searching and databasing. Diesel Boy and Dieselboy? Very, very bad choices. Anastasia? A bad choice. A name like "The Smashing Pumpkins" is perfect.

Don't use a name that requires special characters like / or & or + if you can help it.

Do think about what happens when you type a name into a search engine. Using names like "The Music" or "Houston" is basically saying "I don't wan't my band to show up in Internet search engines, ever."

I'll add more as I have time....