I had the pleasure of meeting David Sherbow in September and October of this year. Firstly at the Dewey Beach Music Conference where he was a panelist, and then again at the Future of Music Policy Summit and Baltimore Music Conference (where he was also a panelist).

David has worked in the music industry for over 40 years, and has been a major player in the hip-hop music market with his independent record promotions companies. He has worked for artists such as Jay-Z, Ludacris, DMX, Ja Rule, Ashanti, Kanye West, Missy Elliott, Mariah Carey, and Pharrell.

David is now busy promoting his latest music industry venture, livemusicmachine.com, which is a pioneering new music booking platform for artists and fans alike. He also runs the insightful music industry blog musicbizguy.com. He kindly answered some quick fire questions for me:

1. What is livemusicmachine.com?

DS: Livemusicmachine is an easy to use online widget which allows every band and artist in the world to be booked simply and easily from virtually anywhere on the Internet, at anytime and by anyone.

LiveMusicMachine’s booking widget can be placed almost anywhere, including an artist’s MySpace page, their Facebook fan page and even directly onto their YouTube videos. LiveMusicMachine has an easy to use feature that gives artists the ability to auction themselves off to the highest bidder. Fans, on the other hand, have the ability to pool their resources to book their favorite band or to make an offer if they can’t handle a band’s price or requirements.

2. Why is livemusicmachine.com so empowering for musicians?

DS: Most artists who look for gigs approach it by looking up the food chain to night clubs and other live music venues. Instead they should be looking down the food chain to their fans, and the thousands of potential house parties, dorm parties, college parties, private concerts, after parties, meet and greets etc. If their fans knew how easy and relatively inexpensive it was to find and book their favorite local, regional and national artists, they would book them all the time.

The LiveMusicMachine booking widget provides bands with a well designed, 3 different view artist calendar from which they can be booked directly by fans and clubs. The widget’s look, ease of use, and utility for artists means it empowers them to be immediately booked by fans and clubs from anywhere online.

I believe that artists will replace their calendars everywhere on the Internet with the LiveMusicMachine widget thereby substantially increasing their opportunities to be booked and make money. Within a few weeks, artist managers and booking agents will be able to manage all of their artists with one user name and password. They will be able to field offers from one place and see all of their artists’ dates individually from a separate calendar or together on an overview calendar.

3. What’s the most inspiring success story you’ve heard recently of an up and coming band breaking through in a creative and original way?

DS: Amanda Palmer.  You can read the good and bad things about what she has done but she is very creative. Although she has done some truly inspiring things, she has also managed to shoot herself in the foot too.

4. What advice do you have for emerging artists who are trying to establishing themselves in an increasingly saturated online world?

DS:Everybody who writes music dreams of becoming a successful money making artist. Before they let this dream run away with them, people need to take a deep breath, sit down and really ask themselves what level of time, resources and commitment they are willing to devote to a career in music. Personally assess yourself. Focus on who you really are and ask yourself if your could really be that person that makes it in the music business.  Dig deep and then answer the question honestly without pulling any punches. If you decide that you really have the music, the charisma and the drive and focus, then put your nose to the grindstone, and work as hard as you can and go for it!!