Of course there will be different reactions ranging from frosty cold to curious. If artists knew they could potentially triple their profits by looking outside of the label for help, they would leave the industry.

I recently came across another success story about a 5-year old band called “Metric“. They recently self-financed their 5th CD. This time, they did so without a label, and their music is doing pretty well, in fact it’s placing in the upper #30s of pop/rock sales, according to Nielsen.

The band manager had this to say:
“Talking gross numbers that come directly to the band, we have made more money already than we have on the last record in four years,” said Mathieu Drouin, the band’s co-manager. “Without any intermediary, we’re making 77 cents on the dollar for every record we sell” on iTunes. Under a label deal… Metric would have earned closer to 22 cents on the dollar

Read the store at The LA Times

A number of slide and presentation techniques are usually useful to know depending on the audience. Understanding your audience can be helpful. It’s not surprising that some people are offering suggestions, as often, different people process information in different ways. Surely this is already known. But overall, presenting data in a way which they are familiar with is often key to gaining buy in.

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand this newer “Lessig-esque” technique, which may work well within academia where this audience is often “trained” for information overload. Thusly, the goal of a student is to better prioritize facts based on the contextual subject matter is easy and works especially well in an academic setting where students know the context going in (ala Course Syllabus).

When speaking to left-brained people such as artists, a Steve Jobs-type technique where your engaging with the audience and sharing genuine holistic thought may be helpful. Expect to spend 2-3 minutes per slide, have narrative for each slide, and use flashy transitions, but keep colors to a minimum. Let your presentation complement, but not overtake the speech. This audience often wants to leave a talk seeking something different than the academic, more holistic in a way.

When speaking with right-brained business types, a technique with many charts and very data driven with facts, bullet points and citations is extremely helpful. In this case, consider allowing 5-7 minutes per slide, and allow your narrative describe the data. Also, try to leave 10% of the presentation time for a question-and-answer session for any clarification.

In any situation, slide titles that begin with questions, and can engage something of a Socratic method, can also be helpful.