These days it take a lot lot of business savvy to get noticed in the music world. But of course, ultimately you want to be able to focus on the craft of making music. In our ongoing look at how to make it in the music business today, WalletPop sat down with up-and-coming star Vicky Emerson to discuss how she created her own music business, and how important it is to balance creating music with managing your business.

Frustrated at the hardships indie artists face recording and promoting their own music, Emerson decided to try a different route. After being bombarded with fan e-mails and sometimes even letters offering financial assistance, the young Americana singer set up a series of CD Sponsorship Events around the country, raising $10,000 in four weeks to record and self-release her new album Long Ride. She continues to raise funds to promote her album through the intimate sponsorship parties. Emerson represents a growing trend in American music. If the desire for your product is strong enough, there's always a way to feed the public, especially if you're willing to take the jump.

Crime! Street gangs! Murder! Revolutionary education! You'll find it all in this week's addition of Free Movie Friday as we look at inner city films. These amazing indies are all available free online. So click your mouse and start streaming now.

ACCELERATING AMERICA
Back to school is just around the corner. As schools across the country fight to hold onto falling budgets, take a look at one inner city school in Rhode Island that decides to take matters into its own hands. Accelerating America tells the story of a fearless principal, Robert DeBlois, a quadriplegic who knows how to beat the odds. He revolutionizes the education system by accelerating the studies of youths who are at risk of dropping out of school. It's sink or swim for three students, America, Jason, and Yazmine, and DeBlois is intent on making them succeed in this compelling documentary. Watch it on Fancast.

TGIF is all I can say. After a long week, what better way to unwind then going home and watching a free movie? Of course, no film adequately portrays a case of the Mondays like Office Space, but here are a few ones you may not have seen that address the workplace grind. You'll be ready and willing to face Monday after seeing some of the stress and insanity in these free online films:

Suits
Sunday night marks the Season 3 premiere of Mad Men (woohoo!) and I hope you're preparing for your viewing party with lots of '60s cocktails and apps. But check out Suits while you're at it, Mad Men for the modern age. It's a lively film that follows another war between suits and creative types as two rival ad agencies vie for a scandalous major account. It's a must-see comedy, even if just for the early performance by The Office's Steve Carrell. Watch it for free on YouTube.

Pushing Tin
Remember when Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton were married? Yeah, I don't either. But you can watch their onscreen love in this workplace classic, Pushing Tin, which also stars John Cusack and Cate Blanchett. One place you'd like to be sans drama is an air traffic control room. Fat chance in one of the most highly stressed jobs there is. See the drama unfold in this delicately-played machismo rivalry.

Mr. Laughs: A Look Behind the Curtain
After heading to the theaters to see Funny People, head to SnagFilms to check out this original look at the stand-up comedian industry. Sal "Mr. Laughs" Richards is a tireless worker aiming to gain his place on the stand-up circuit. It's an intimate documentary with testimonials from some of the greats: Sid Caesar, Don Rickles, Red Buttons, Jerry Stiller, and more.

What would you pay to lie eternally on top of Marilyn Monroe?

In what has got to be one of the most obscene gesture yet in this recession, a Los Angeles woman is proving you're not even safe in death. She's putting her husband's prime crypt real estate, directly above the bombshell blonde, up for sale on eBay, with bids opening at $500,000, reports the LA Times. Is nothing sacred?

The Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park cemetery is home to a slew of celebs including Merv Griffin, Natalie Wood, Dean Martin, Mel Torme, Truman Capote, and now Farrah Fawcett.

If you've spent any time in the Lower East Side in New York, you may have noticed a strange boarded up gallery on Essex St., that boasts the Patterson Gallery and Outlaw Art Museum, a dark storefront full of painted mannequins and other odd delights. Or you may have noticed a photographer roaming the streets, sporting a black baseball cap, covered in wonderful iconic embroidery. You've just encountered the legendary Clayton Patterson.

No one documented the Lower East Side in the 80s better than Patterson, through photography and early videography. Whether it was the Alphabet City squat riots, the battle of Tompkins Square Park, or just the day to day life of punks, trannies, artists, bikers and boarders, Patterson was there to document it all. And through the amazing documentary Captured, you'll see his story through his own eyes. It's a must-see portrait of the historical LES.

WalletPop is teaming up with Cinetic and Dailymotion to give away 10 free pairs of passes to a special screening this upcoming Wendesday, August 12 in New York. For your chance to win, e-mail events-us@dailymotion.com with the subject line "WalletPop." Ten lucky winners will be chosen at random.

Not in New York? Don't fret. You can watch Captured for free, beginning Friday, August 14 at Daily Motion.

CAPTURED

Wednesday, August 12
7pm Cocktails, 8pm Screening

As a pharmaceutical sales executive, Mark Anderson was constantly traveling. He had trouble meeting women, and decided what any reasonable man would do: master the art of online dating. Problem solved.

Except the process became way too time consuming. So he decided to outsource the task to his virtual assistant, who was already paying his bills, managing his schedule, etc. Hey, it beats having your real assistant set you up on blind dates. Um, embarrassing.

Mark Anderson wanted to get in on the action of online dating. He joined forces with his longtime friend Scott Valdez to form Virtual Dating Assistants.

Pandora is the brilliant brainchild of Tim Westergren, who founded it to satisfy the need for Internet radio through the highly scientific music genome project. And up until recently it was free. Many fans were upset that the site is now charging its users. But Westergren maintains that they created a model that works for everyone.

For the user who doesn't want to pay anything, they're allowed 40 free hours a month. For the user who might listen more than this, but doesn't want to sign up for anything long term, they can pay 99 cents month-to-month, for unlimited listening with advertising.

And the third option, is Pandora One, a $36 per year subscription program for people who want to either support Pandora, or want to pay for a higher quality experience with added features and no advertising.

Today Pandora is doubling in size annually, and also doubling in revenue annually. They have built a team of 50 in advertising sales, and are really banking on their existing models, as well as serving as innovators in online advertising such as audio advertising.

This week's addition of Free Movie Friday brings you a few online flicks with one thing in common: heroines with embeddable girl power. So gather some gal pals, pop some corn, and huddle around the screen for your weekend of free empowering female films online.

What's Your Point Honey?
Whoever said woman can't succeed in politics? This pointed documentary shows that while one woman may have put 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, it's still a tough world out there for women in leadership. The film follows seven possible female contenders through their political ambitions, revealing that the grass ain't so green on Capitol Hill for the female sex.

Talk about bad marketing.

As the recession wanes on, beer sales continue to decline across all markets. According to the WSJ, recent sales of Bud Light, the No. 1 seller in America, have fallen 5.5%, while Heineken, the No. 9 brand, fell 15%. So rather than create a new product, the beer companies are just repackaging the same old stuff.

To revive its Miller Lite brand, whose sales have recently fallen 7.5%, MillerCoors has begun testing a 1.5 gallon, $20 box of home draft. The box of beer stays fresh in the fridge for up to 30 days, and costs roughly 15% more per ounce than the same 18-pack of beer.

According to Andy England, chief marketing officer at Miller Coors, told the Journal, "We're really trying to meet that occasion when you just got back from work and want to reward yourself," instead of beer for "the party occasion." They're attempting to target the 30% of beer drinkers who prefer the taste of draft beer over bottled or canned beer.

What's the problem here? This is Miller Lite we're talking about. The taste difference of a glass of Miller Lite poured from a bottle and that poured from a home tap is negligible. The 30% of beer drinkers who prefer the taste of tap beer might just have been talking about beers that actually taste like something besides water.

Cheap beers like Pabst Blue Ribbon or Bud Light are best tasted straight out of the can or bottle. A home draft of Miller Lite is certainly not worth the added 15% price tag. Save the mini-keg or home tap for a real beer.

Follow Ariston Anderson on Twitter here.

MySpace Music has long been THE place on the web for established and emerging artists. For many musicians, MySpace has become their primary website, as it offers a free platform for publishing music and connecting with fans.

There are more than five million artists with MySpace music pages, and each year about 250 of those are exposed. MySpace Music President Courtney Holt describes it as "obscurity chasing opportunity to be noticed." Numerous top artists have emerged from platforms like MySpace into record deals, such as Sean Kingston, Taylor Swift, Drake and Lily Allen. Arguably, even the Jonas Brothers got their start on MySpace. And even more importantly, they come back. Katy Perry used the site to release unsigned music before she won her EMI deal. And now she's using MySpace with her second record launch to reignite her fanbase.

We spoke with Holt at the New Music Seminar to learn more about how MySpace is helping to bridge the gap between new media and the old music industry. Holt, throughout his career in the music industry, has been instrumental in embracing technology and innovating new ways for labels to promote artists. So it was only natural he ended up taking the reigns at MySpace Music, to build new tools, launch new artists, and analyze data to help the suffering music industry find some solutions to their woes. Helping the music industry understand how new media is the key to unlocking the future of the biz is a big job, and Holt is just the man to do it. Read on to learn his game plan.