What’s happenin Make Me Alive folks? I wanted to start this post by thanking Doug and Derek for giving me a holler to write some stuff about the music industry.

We all know the music industry is nuts right now. You have gangsters doing synchronized dancing to get in the spotlight, outrageous wardrobes that take away from the true talent of artists, kids getting music history from video games and labels releasing far less music than ever before. Yet…

…there are more artists, more opportunities and more great platforms to listen to and discover music than ever before.

You buy a Mac you get Garageband. And a webcam. And iMovie to put it all together. All for like $1,500. Hit repeat.

You have kids in college (and post college) that have changed the entire face of the music industry and are looking to change the way people engage and share their music. Example 1 – Shawn Fanning and Napster. Today’s version is Grooveshark, situated in Gainesville, home of the dreaded Gators and one of the best indie scenes in the southeast (No Idea, half of Fueled By Ramen, Common Grounds, etc).

But for all the good that is happening, what music have you listened to recently that gave you the chills? The music that you can’t wear to tear the wrapping off of (or rip from iTunes, whatever)? What music, song or artist made you want to get in your car and just drive, with no location in mind, just to put the windows down and the volume way beyond what your Prius’s manual says is possible?

The answer is usually slim to none.

Then there are the artists themselves, and this is where my background comes into play. There’s a lot of talk about movements, genre-bending music and big dreams. When push comes to shove, they can’t figure out what Twitter is and have a hard time realizing that today’s business is only 50% talent. Maybe less.

Great music that sits in your Pro Tools rig is no better than the tree that falls in an empty forrest.

But great promotion cannot help bad music, just ask 50 Cent.

The audience at Make Me Alive is a really cool one. They are touching on the cool things in our culture that make life worth living, and not watching. I’m all for that.

So today, as I close this little block party out, I really want to know what makes you get out of bed in the morning? What song, or artist or movie or person makes you feel alive? Once you have the answer to that question, you can use that to start kicking ass and taking names and give hope for the future of the arts community. If you are an artist, how can you make someone feel alive this week after they are a witness to your work?

That’s you goal this week! Make us feel alive. Till next week.

This post was written by Greg Rollett. He runs a music marketing company from his laptop in Orlando, FL.

Image above by Leonan Claro