Artists House Music

Music Business Weekly Wrapup

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:26:51 -0500

In case you missed anything, here are some highlights from this week in music business news and artist advice:

Artists House Music:

A new AH interview from Atlanta Symphony Orchestra: Jennifer Jefferson (interactive media manager) http://is.gd/4Lhvz
Another clip from our new series with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra: http://tinyurl.com/yb32nft
New followers: have you added yourself to the Artists House map yet? http://ow.ly/zEan
If you want a good live music scene in your town, you gotta go see live music!
Awesome! Thank you guys for getting us to 21k followers. It’s been just over one year - couldn’t have done it without you!
“Coin a Phrase: ‘The Downsell’”: http://bit.ly/2uwFRH
“AH Vault: Get a Job in Music Publishing!”: http://bit.ly/3Xkf0k

Music Business News:

Digital Music Arms Race: MSN Joins the Fray: http://is.gd/4P9Y6
Early Results From Google’s China Music Service http://ow.ly/zWWt
Now BlueBeat is just asking for hurt. The ‘psycho-acoustic simulation’ defense to copyright infringement. http://ow.ly/zDkm
MySpace Traffic Drop Costs News Corp About $100 Million - http://redirx.com/?bq9d
Lollapalooza Uses Crowdsourcing for 2010 Lineup http://is.gd/4NehF
Kings of Leon Launching Limited-Edition Clothing Line http://is.gd/4MqNv
Orchard Shares Double On Buyout News http://is.gd/4MfQT

Artist Advice/Thought/Opinion:

A sample Photo and Video Release Form http://ow.ly/zXor
Seth Godin: Everyone is clueless http://ow.ly/zW7E reminds me of my article “Focus on a Few” http://ow.ly/zWad
A Tale of Two Industries: What Do Books and Music Have In Common? http://ow.ly/zDcT
The lure of a one-of-a-kind item: http://ow.ly/zhmU
The Problem With 1,000 True Fans by John Scalzi http://ow.ly/zD4c A nice reality check
Create Invoices, Get Paid http://ow.ly/zDdt Another helpful, practical post from @musicianwages
All Songs Considered Addresses a Critic and Explains their Method… http://ow.ly/zhjT

Coin a Phrase: The "Downsell"

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:14:51 -0500

by George Howard

We all know about the upsell: Mass Merchants, etc. lure you into their store with a low-cost item (too often, CDs) in the hopes that you leave with some high-margin item like a washing machine.

The “Downsell” is different. As I’ve discussed, the music business is now the merch business, and the way to go is to create a vast and sometimes over-the-top (like the awesome Josh Freese campaign) product array with some big-ticket (and high-margin) items that create awareness and drive people to the artist’s Site.

The reality, of course, is that most customers will look at the big-ticket item, but won’t buy. The psychology is sort of interesting. A customer is made aware of the site via the big-ticket item (Mr. Freese got a bit of press about his campaign, if you recall), looks at it, but can’t afford it/doesn’t want to spend so much. However, all of a sudden a CD/download priced at $10 seems like a bargain when compared with the big-ticket item priced in the hundreds (or thousands) of dollars.

It’s what economists call “the importance of being unimportant.”

The good news, of course, is that in addition to (for the time being, until everyone does this) creating awareness and driving traffic to an artist’s site, these big-ticket items have a high margin; you don’t have to sell too many of them to make material $. All the while, the majority of people who can’t/won’t pay for the big ticket item now are not only aware of the core product (the CD/download), but are predisposed to buy something because it appears to be a bargain.

Hence, the “Downsell.”

We’re doing this with Carly Simon’s new CD, and it’s working. It ain’t perfect, and we’ve got a long way to go (and it very much is an effort in refining), but the proof of concept is there.

It’s so important to think this way. The whole notion of just selling a CD/download is increasingly quaint (remember, the music business is the merch business).

Also, it’s crucial to not leave money on the table with respect to your core fans. The people — whether it’s 100 or 10,000 — who will buy whatever you throw at them, should not just be thrown a CD/download.

Doing so leaves a fortune on the table.

If you’re a true fan, and your favorite artist presents you with an offering that is personal/deluxe/etc., you’re not going to think twice about paying more for it. Yet, too often we as content providers don’t give these fans the opportunity to pay more.

As my three-year old says just before being chastised for doing so: “Stupid.”

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra: Charlie Wade (VP Marketing/Audience Engagement)

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0500

Another clip from our series with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra…

In this interview, Charlie Wade talks about being Vice President of Marketing and Audience Engagement at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Charlie discusses how the state of the music industry affects his job, and the future of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

AH Vault: Get a Job in Music Publishing!

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500

For many of us pursuing a career on the business side of music, it wasn’t long ago that a position at a record label was the lone objective. This mindset may have been reasonable in the days of yore — back when the idea of a five-figure sales week being enough to regularly land the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart was almost laughable — but as the paradigm of the music industry evolves, so to must our mindsets. This is not to suggest that you should abandon the idea of working at a label; in spite of their current troubles, labels will eventually reinvent themselves, and there are labels out there now that are innovating and that can offer rewarding career opportunities. However, the industry also encompasses more thriving areas than ever before, and the types of careers spanning the business have never been so varied. By limiting your aspirations to a label position alone, you could miss out on a career path that you’re even better suited for.

Out of these thriving areas, publishing has been receiving most of the spotlight. In his interview with Billboard.biz, “Big” Jon Platt (now President of North American Creative at EMI Music Publishing), compares the potential for career longevity at publishing companies vs. record labels. He paints the publishing world as a place where executives are afforded more time to grow within companies, some staying with the same publisher for 15 years — a feat that’s rare to find within a record label. Furthermore, for those who want to play major roles in artist development, publishing is a top spot to be. While labels have understandably been trying to minimize their risk by targeting artists who are already as “developed” as possible, publishers have taken on greater roles as nurturers of talent. Had it not been for publishing companies and this openness to stick with new acts through the sometimes protracted development process, some of today’s biggest artists may still be unknown. Taylor Swift, for example, got her start by honing her songwriting abilities under the guidance of Arthur Buenahora at Sony/ATV Music Publishing before being offered her record deal. And in this Reuters article, Keri Hilson speak about how having first developed as a songwriter with Universal Music Publishing prepared her for the launch of her career as a solo artist this year after signing with Interscope Records.

So, how does one go about entering the publishing industry? The Artists House vault can offer some insight.

In addition to our video interview catalog, ArtistsHouseMusic.org offers a selection of articles and text-based interviews, and the list includes a comprehensive interview that Mike King (@atomzooey) did with Eric Beall on this very topic.

Beall began his tenure in the industry as a songwriter, penning songs for The Jacksons and Diana Ross (among others) and later transitioned to the business end of things, holding senior Creative positions at Zomba Music Publishing, Jive Records, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing. He is the author of “Making Music Make Money” (a must-read for anyone who wants to learn the ins and outs of publishing) and “The Billboard Guide to Writing and Producing Songs that Sell”. Currently, he is an A&R for Shapiro, Bernstein & Co and an instructor of the Berklee College of Music’s online course, Music Publishing 101, which he also authored.

In the interview, Eric discusses some of the ways people can get into the publishing industry, the positions available, the growth publishing has been experiencing, the amount of jobs available, and the best ways to prepare for a job in publishing. The full interview can be found here: Get a Job in Music Publishing!

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra: Jennifer Jefferson

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0500

We’re in the process of uploading some new videos from various interviews we held with members (both musicians and staff) of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. I think, especially since this is an (often) underrepresented part of the music business, these interviews will be helpful for all of you, whether or not you are involved with this area. So much of the hype of music marketing/trends is only specific to ‘popular’ music, and really there is so much more to be said for the rest of the music community that doesn’t concern what Trent Reznor is currently ranting about.

This first interview, Jennifer Jefferson, Interactive Media Manager, talks about her job as media manager, how the state of the music industry affects her job, and the importance of new media.

Music Business Weekly Wrapup

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:35:36 -0500

In case you missed anything, here are some highlights from this week in music news and artist advice:

Artists House Music:

Social Media Club Chicago Panel Discussion October 2009 http://ow.ly/xJg7
Seth Godin on blogging and social networking: http://is.gd/4Hn5y on the Artists House blog
Interview w Michael Walbert, co-founder of @SMKA. Great entrepreneurial advice http://is.gd/4Gb7u
It seems like Facebook groups are where fans and conversation go to die. Am I wrong?
When you and your fans’ stories become intertwined, you’re on the right path.
Instead of DIY, think more along the lines of Do-It-Ourselves. You don’t need the budget, but you still need the right TEAM of people.

Music Business News:

Lala.com co-founder on the Google music search: “What’s happening here is the most frictionless thing since Apple and iTunes.”
Video From Google Music Search Announcement http://ow.ly/xnsm
Live Nation Opens Web Platform To Artists & Fans http://ow.ly/xns0
This is it: See LaLa’s New iPhone App In Action: More at TechCrunch…. http://bit.ly/47Jn1T
Apparently over 10 million people streamed the U2 gig live via YouTube the other day. Pretty significant numbers…
@TuneCore Does $30 Million in Music Sales in 2009: http://is.gd/4EEUU
Hey folks, check out the @cashmusic public fundraiser - support the people who support the music community at large - http://cashmusic.org

Advice/Thought/Opinion:

Big Champagne’s Eric Garland: Here’s the Bad News… http://is.gd/4InmT
What Google Wave means for arts organizations http://is.gd/4Ijfy
Moving to the Big City and Finding Work http://ow.ly/xntt
In Defense Of 1,000 True Fans - Part II - Matthew Ebel http://is.gd/4HorP
Touring and Work Permits http://ow.ly/xnre
The “Art” of Music Merchandising http://ow.ly/xnp3
8 Best Ways to Share ‘Mix Tapes’ http://ow.ly/xnuc
An Open-Source Arts Field http://ow.ly/xnob
The Rise of the Creative Class: Why cities without gays and rock bands are losing the economic development race. http://ow.ly/x9pA

I’ll be looking to put together some good music twitter lists (might take awhile sorting through our nearly 21k (thank you!) followers). If you have suggestions, I’d love to hear em!

Social Media Club Chicago Panel Discussion, October 2009

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:46:36 -0400

We filmed this panel discussion on social media in Chicago earlier this month - I wanted to share it with you because you all indicated in our recent poll that social media was one of the areas you were most interested in getting more information on.

The Social Media Club Chicago is a chapter of the national SMC organization. SMC Chicago is the fastest growing networking group in the Chicagoland area. The group started in October 2008 and already has over 1300 members in Chicago. SMC focuses on educating businesses and individuals through discussions and workshops about how to use social media, while bringing people together. They meet once a month in Chicago at various locations, and it is free to join.

After watching this video, you should do some Googling and find out if there are similar clubs or meet-ups in your own local area. Nothing brings the fullness of social media value to light more than connecting online with offline relationships.

Seth Godin on Blogging and Social Networking

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0400

Believe it or not, there are still some artists and musicians out there who have not opened their minds to the possibilities of blogging and social networking. Perhaps it feels a bit too much like marketing, or it’s another thing to add to an already long to-do list. A lot of the musicians I interact with ARE involved in blogging or social network, but they aren’t quite sure why. They only know that they should.

In the following two videos I stumbled across, Seth Godin pretty much nails it and gives it to ya straight:

“Networking is always important when it’s real, and it’s always a useless distraction when it’s fake.”

I will testify: it IS incredible hard to not be seduced by the numbers. But I will also testify that it IS incredibly worthwhile to avoid the seduction and build real relationships (NOT transactional ones) which you will be able to call upon in the future.

New Video: Michael Walbert of SMKA Productions

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:11:10 -0400

We just uploaded a new video to the Artists House video database: an interview with Michael Walbert, co-founder and manager of SMKA Productions. Michael has taken his love of hip-hop and materialized it in his company. This video is ripe with some good entrepreneurial advice and ideas. In this day and age, all artists NEED to be thinking of themselves as entrepreneurs (because you ARE, whether you like it or not!). Embrace the spirit and together our little community will build the new music business.

You can find out more about SMKA at http://thesmkaexperience.com . They are also on twitter (@smka) and Facebook.

Business Formation - Partnerships

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:04:26 -0400

by Scott Krokoff

In my introductory blog on business formation issues for independent artists and bands, I discussed the need to choose an appropriate business vehicle for your music business activity, and in particular, summarized the pros and cons of being a sole proprietor (aka, the DBA model). Obviously, only individual artists may conduct business through a sole proprietorship. So what can a band do? A band can form a partnership.

What exactly is a partnership? A partnership, generally speaking, exists when two or more persons conduct business together. So all you need is evidence of two or more people operating a business. You do not need to draft a partnership agreement to have a partnership, although you should have an agreement in place to protect everyone’s interests. Each person who participates in the business is called a partner, and each partner is considered to own an equal share in the business unless specified to the contrary in the partnership agreement. Thus, in the case of a band, each band member would be a partner in the partnership.

Generally, there are two kinds of partnerships – general partnerships and limited partnerships. There are also variations of limited partnerships, such as limited liability partnerships (LLPs) and, believe it or not, limited liability limited partnerships (LLLPs), but I will not be discussing those in this article. A general partnership is the most basic kind of partnership, and is just like a sole proprietorship except here you have more than one owner. Unfortunately, the same risk of being of sole proprietor is present in a general partnership – that each partner is fully liable for the debts, obligations and actions of the partnership. In other words, just like a sole proprietor, a partner in a general partnership has unlimited personal liability. Moreover, a partner can also be liable for the actions not only taken by the partnership but by the other partners as well, and a party seeking to sue the partnership can go after the partners individually or as a group. This is called “joint and several” liability and can be a real killer. By contrast, a limited partnership exists where you have at least one partner serving as the general partner (and thereby bearing the brunt of the risk in the event of liability) and the other partners are “limited partners,” meaning that their risk is limited only to their own investment in the partnership. While this is more advantageous than the general partnership, bands cannot form limited partnerships because in order to be a limited partner you cannot be active in the business (and have no say in management or control), and bands by definition are active in the business. So limited partnerships are generally not available to bands, but they can be available to individual artists who need investors who are willing to serve as silent partners (and therefore qualify as limited partners).

Through the partnership, which is treated as a separate entity from the band for non-tax purposes, the band conducts its business (e.g., by entering into agreements with other parties, for example, with respect to booking gigs and licensing songs) and collects any income earned, offset by any losses or deductions. For tax purposes, however, the partnership is usually treated as a “flow-through” entity and what that basically means is that all tax items earned or incurred by the partnership flow through to the partners to be reported in the partners’ individual tax returns. In other words, the partnership is not treated as a separate entity for tax purposes (when we discuss corporations, you will see that certain corporations are treated as separate entities and must pay taxes). The partnership files an informational return with the IRS through Form 1065, but that is for informational purposes only. The partnership itself does not pay any taxes; only the partners do.

Come tax filing time, each band member receives what is called a Schedule K-1, summarizing his or her ratable share (also referred to as the “distributive share”) of partnership income and losses based on his or her ownership percentage. For example, assume you have 5 bandmates forming a partnership. Assuming each band member owns an equal percentage in the partnership, each member would own 20% and therefore be required to report for tax purposes 20% of the partnership’s income and losses in his or her own tax return. So if a partnership has $10,000 of net income, then each partner would be required to pay taxes on $2,000. This is a key concept. What you need to know is that a partner must pay taxes on his or her distributive share even if the partnership does not distribute that partner’s share of the partnership’s net income to the partner. Put another way, if you are a partner, you must pay taxes on your share even if you decide to leave that money invested in the partnership. Again, that is because the partners themselves, rather than the partnership, are required to pay taxes. So you want to make sure the partnership distributes to you sufficient money to cover your tax hit.

You do not need to do much to set up a general partnership. You may need to file some kind of certificate of formation, depending on where you live, and may need to pay a small filing fee. You should also draft a partnership agreement addressing such issues as the business purpose of the partnership, the partnership’s term in which it will exist, the terms and conditions of ownership (including what happens if someone dies or if new partners want to buy into the business), how the partnership will conduct business and how profits will be distributed. If you do not have an agreement, then the partnership will be governed by the law as stated in the Uniform Partnership Act. To avoid unintended consequences, it is highly recommended that you draft an agreement with the help of an attorney.

Partnerships can be advantageous for a few reasons. They are usually easier and cheaper to set up than corporations, for example. They also require less formality (i.e., no need for a board of directors, annual meetings or corporate minutes). Most importantly, they permit a high degree of flexibility in setting up the economic arrangement between the partners. Ownership does not have to be equal amongst the partners, and profits (or losses) do not always have to be distributed in accordance with ownership percentages. The tax rules addressing these issues are very complex and can be very tricky, so please make sure you consult an accountant or tax lawyer when setting up your partnership.

As stated above, the biggest disadvantage in setting up a general partnership is the unlimited personal liability risk (including joint and several liability). While this risk can be mitigated by purchasing the proper insurance, conducting a general partnership is not recommended. There are other types of business vehicles available, such as limited liability companies (LLCs), S corporations and C corporations, which will be discussed in subsequent blogs. In particular, LLCs and S corporations are very popular alternatives, but it was important here to begin the discussion of partnerships since these issues will come up when discussing other business vehicles. In addition, despite the obvious risks, some bands may still opt for conducting business as a general partnership due to the relative ease and low expense of setting it up.

Next topic: C Corporations

Music Business Weekly Wrap-Up

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:00:28 -0400

If you’ve been too hard working on your music to keep up with the link goodness, here are some highlights from this week in music news and artist advice:

Artists House Music:

I suggest following anyone/everyone I’m following for good music biz convo: http://twitter.com/artistshouse/following

Music News:

We7 Response to News about Google Music http://ow.ly/vW6S
Spotify Premium Bundled With Android Phone http://ow.ly/vW5a
MySpace Music Gets A Major Upgrade http://ow.ly/vVZs
Here’s some info on the Google music deal if you haven’t seen it yet: http://is.gd/4vVey
YouTube’s Bandwidth Bill Is Zero. Welcome to the New Net http://ow.ly/vbt6

Artist Advice, Thought, Opinion:

Inference is the Difference: Gaining Insight from Music Data Analytics http://is.gd/4Bx4c
Minds for the Future: Why Digital Immersion Matters http://ow.ly/vbH2
Create Your Own Gig Part 2 http://ow.ly/wdcq
In Defense Of 1,000 True Fans - Part I - The Mountain Goats http://ow.ly/vbtM
Preparing for the Recording Studio http://ow.ly/vW3N from @musicianwages
GREAT 5-minute talk about how sound affects us. Please watch: http://bit.ly/1SgBSf
Dave Kusek: Music Industry - Change or Die http://ow.ly/wday
Can Music Learn from Comic Con? http://ow.ly/vW2O
Ideas I like by Martin Atkins http://is.gd/4vWkq
Arts, Culture, and Community Economic Development: Live from GIA: Day II http://ow.ly/vW2y
The Declaration of Independents: http://is.gd/4vTVT
The Future is Social, Not Search, Facebook COO Says http://ow.ly/vW4A

Music Business Weekly Wrap-Up

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:18:43 -0400

In case you’ve been too busy out in the field working on your music career, here are some highlights from this week in music news and artist advice:

Artists House Music:

We’ve launched a Facebook fan page! Details: www.bit.ly/2Umbn8 (be sure to follow the badge at the end of the post to become a fan)
Reflections on the 2009 Future of Music Policy Summit http://ow.ly/ucS0 from George Howard

Music Business News:

Indie And D.I.Y. Music Coming Soon To Rock Band http://ow.ly/uQwZ
Senate Judiciary Committee Approves RIAA Bailout Radio Tax http://ff.im/-9X46s
MOG Readies Premium Music Streaming: The rush to beat Spotify to the US market continues with .. http://bit.ly/cpZKo
Peer-to-Peer Passé, Report Finds http://ow.ly/ucT9
EMI Drops Suit Against Grooveshark Music Service, Licenses It Instead http://ow.ly/ucSO

Artist Advice, Thought, Opinion:

How Derek Sivers (CDBaby) knew he was done with his company: http://is.gd/4pBFt
The Lyric Holy Trinity: Writing a Breakthrough Lyric by Wayne Cohen http://ow.ly/uQxR
What do you guys think of this? The Lottery Model, The Free Culture Model, The Click Control Model http://ow.ly/uQxG
The ‘Unofficial’ Hypebot Reading List http://ow.ly/uQxd
When you have data you have power http://ow.ly/ucwA
Nine Lessons From Next Big Nashville http://ow.ly/ucmm
Topspin: A Data-Driven Artist and Fan Perspective http://ow.ly/tPEP

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend - I hope to see a lot of you again at this Tuesday’s online chat - more details to follow!

Changes to Artists House's Facebook Presence

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:58:00 -0400

As many of you know, Artists House’s Facebook presence currently consists of a traditional user profile and a group. However, we have decided to add another page into the mix: an Artists House fan page. And as Andrew wisely pointed out, the undertaking of driving the 2,300 + people attracted by the Artists House user profile and group to a new Facebook destination can be turned into a learning experience for the Artists House community.

To that end, this entry will cover our reasons for launching a fan page and the advantages/disadvantages of Facebook’s fan pages as they relate to artists. Follow-up entries will cover our strategy for driving our current Facebook friends/group members to the new destination and whether or not we feel that completely shutting down our old Facebook pages and solely using the new fan page would be wise.

Artists House initially opted to go with a traditional profile page rather than a fan page because Facebook’s old fan pages would have served little purpose in helping us achieve the goal of our social media campaign: to bring an interactive aspect to Artists House, thereby keeping the site from solely remaining a “broadcast”. Static and essentially acting as “billboards” (a la MySpace profiles), the old Facebook fan pages, while offering some benefits, were simply not the best option for reaching this goal.

Thankfully, Facebook revamped its fan pages this year. The new fan pages still offer the benefits of the old fan pages, but they are now much more “social”. With this in mind, our reasons for beginning the transition to a fan page are as follows:

— The new fan pages and traditional user profiles now share many similar aspects, allowing for more social actions than the old fan pages did. For example, fan page status updates now appear in the Facebook news feeds of the page’s fans. Furthermore, a fan page’s administrators can now also choose to publish other content (photos, videos, etc.) to the page’s wall, making it appear in the news feeds of fans.

— Unlike a traditional user profile that caps a user’s number of friends at 5,000, a fan page imposes no limit on the number of people that can become fans.

— By using a fan page instead of a traditional user profile, you do not have to deal with the hassle of sifting through the inevitable onslaught of group invites, events invites, and page suggestions that go hand in hand with having a large number of friends on a traditional user profile. Furthermore, you don’t have to manually accept friend requests with a fan page; people can automatically become fans.

— Unlike a group that no longer allows you to send out mass messages to members after 5,000 members have been exceeded, a fan page allows you to send out mass updates to a limitless number of fans.

— Rather than only allowing you to send mass messages to all fans (like the old fan pages did), the new fan pages also give you the option to send geographically and/or demographically targeted messages to fans by country, state/province, city, sex, and/or age.

Note: This is a particularly useful feature for touring artists because it allows them to send out messages announcing a tour to all of their Facebook fans and to then follow up these mass messages with region-specific messages closer to each date. By doing so, they can send reminders about each specific date to fans in the surrounding areas without flooding the inboxes of fans for whom this information would not be relevant.

— The new fan pages have a feature called “Insights Tool”. This is an analytics tool that gives page administrators information on how fans are interacting with their pages and on fan demographics. You can learn more about the “Insights” feature here: www.insidefacebook.com/2009/05/05/facebook-upgrading-insights-metrics-dashboard-for-page-managers-tonight

— Fan pages can have their own discussion boards, allowing you to consolidate your Facebook presence since there’s no need to have a separate group for a discussion board.

— You have the option to advertise a fan page with Facebook ads.

Sounds like opting to solely use a fan page is a no-brainer, right? Well, even with all of these benefits, fans pages are not without their flaws:

— Presently, Facebook does not allow you to change the name of your fan page; you would need to start a new page from scratch. (Clearly, this is a major negative for bands or companies who change their names after having attracted a large number of fans to their original pages.)

— Administrators cannot view the profiles of their page’s fans. (There’s always value in being able to view the profiles of your most active fans and use what you find to create an outline of your target audience.)

Even so, it’s likely that Facebook will eventually fix some of these issues. Regardless, it’s looking like the pros of fan pages outweigh the cons, but we will continue to keep our original pages active until we have some tangible results to examine; stay tuned for the future blog entries detailing our findings.

In the meantime, we hope to see you all connect with us on Facebook through the new fan page. This badge will bring you directly to it:

ArtistsHouseMusic.org | Promote Your Page Too

Reflections on the 2009 Future of Music Policy Summit

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:43:56 -0400

Written by George Howard

OK, a day or so after my panel at the fantastic Future of Music Policy Summit, and I want to try and toss out a few thoughts.

First off, while I’m typically not real big on conferences, I can enthusiastically recommend this one. The values of the conference and the caliber of speakers/workshops makes this - in my mind - the go-to conference. Get yourself registered for 2010 asap.

So, my panel was entitled New Musician’s Toolbox. I moderated, and the panelists were: Duncan Freeman, founder, Band Metrics; Charlie McEnerney, Host + Producer, Well-Rounded Radio/Musicians for Music 2.0; and Alexis Rodich, Director of Marketing and Partner Relations, BandsinTown. Excellent panelists all, and certainly people/companies committed to adding value. I urge you to check out each of these companies.

I think what really hit me about the conference was that it’s the first time where I felt like the expectations of the attendees wasn’t completely whacked. I’ve been doing these conferences for longer than I care to remember, and, in fact, it was after a conference where I spoke, in which, simply because I had the suffix “A&R” attached to my name, that my panel was over-crowded with a teeming mass of demo-wielding aspirants attempting to fast track themselves to a record deal, that I decided to write my first book telling people that foisting a demo on a fatigued record label executive in the hopes that this would somehow further your career may not be the very best strategy.

None of that at this panel.

Instead, rather than perceived access being the factor that motivated people to come to the panel, it appeared to me that information was what was being sought. And, again, not information for how to get signed to a label, but rather information that they (the panel attendees) could use in order to further their own ventures.

This is a pretty seismic shift.

I’ve seen it coming for some time, but — like the lake being over taken by algae that doubles in size every day — it seems like the progress is now inexorable and exponential. Artists realize there’s no looking back, and - importantly - there is beginning to emerge some principles and best practices for the way forward. While these principles and pieces are still formative, you can kind of feel people assembling the disparate elements in a manner that makes sense given their individual situations; building on the wisdom of others and customizing.

On my panel we had many of the important pieces: Band Metrics represents the crucial analytic piece that bands must familiarize themselves with (if you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist (yes, that’s what she said)). I believe each of us on the panel said something along the lines of, “You must familiarize yourselves with SEO and analytics.” Band Metrics makes this easy and useful; they’re on to something.

BandsinTown brings the element of live performance. In this era of all things online, too often bands sort of downplay the importance of playing live. I’ve written ad nauseam on the importance of balancing (Straddling) your off line world with your online world. BandsinTown offers important solutions. (I kind of think Band Metrics and BandsinTown may want to collaborate.)

Well Rounded Radio represents the continued importance of media, even as it evolves from a teeny group of gatekeepers at magazines/radio/etc. to a more bottoms-up decentralized-but-connected trusted sources with voices. Charlie made some important points about how you must think in terms of psychographic affiliations rather than just assuming you’re marketing to people who like music that is similar to yours, and thus they will like yours too.

This idea was best summed up by the excellent artist, Vienna Teng who, from the audience, told of the fact that her music was being used with some frequency in some sort of anime mash up; and that this occurred without her really having anything to do with it. However, measuring this impact, and discerning the sources of interest (via analytics) allows you to then react with some form of plan to maximize these elements of light.

Terms popping around the panel:
Social Forensics
Sentiment Analysis
1000 True Fans

If there was anything I felt lacking in our panel (and, I would guess, it was covered in others) was that essential to an artist’s tool box is the ability to sell directly from their own site and capture information from this process. I, naturally, gave a shout to Topspin and CASH for this particular breed of functionality.

Additionally, something related to this that must be in the artist’s toolbox is some way to develop (source), manufacture, and sell merch. This is a decidedly non-trivial issue as the music business, more and more, becomes the merch business. Shout out here to PAID.

Once these elements coalesce a bit more systems are going to emerge. The inspiring thing to me is that we no longer really have to pound the fist on the table and command (beg) artists to not worry about getting signed to a label. Artists - at least at this conference - didn’t seem the least bit concerned/interested in this. Rather, the interest seemed to be about strategic partnerships and best practices.

Here’s to the dawn of a new era, here’s to the Future of Music Policy Summit, and, yeah, raise a toast to St. Joe Strummer.

—George Howard

http://www.9giantsteps.com

Music Business Weekly Wrap-up

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:16:30 -0400

In case you missed anything, here are some highlights I’ve picked from this week in music news and artist advice:

Artists House Music:

Indie Artist X September Stats are now available! http://ow.ly/t0TJ
Watch this week’s live chat with the fine folks of Red Pill Entertainment: http://is.gd/419fY Incredible music, valuable conversation
One of our chat guests from “last season”, @joshcharles, is still working to raise money and awareness for New Orleans http://is.gd/3Z7sh If you’d like to submit a cover of his song “Healing Time” you’d be supporting a great cause and connecting with some great people
For those of you on twitter, I recommend everyone I’m following for good music biz conversation http://www.twitter.com/artistshouse/following

Music Business News:

Amie Street Raises $3.9 Million http://ow.ly/tsuJ
UK Rejects Live Nation Ticketmaster Merger http://ow.ly/tsub
NMPA, Major Labels Sign On Terms Of Agreement http://ow.ly/tst6
WMG Pacts With Outrigger To Monetize Videos http://ow.ly/tssT
Labels Emphasize Artist-Specific Social Networks, Websites http://ow.ly/t0Pc
The Orchard Adds EU Physical Dist. Via Intergroove http://ow.ly/t0U0
Spotify makes playlists available offline: http://ow.ly/sPBq

Artist Advice, Thought, Opinion:

How much does Spotify cost to run? Analyse the numbers http://ow.ly/tstA
Analysis: The Cost of Streaming Billions of Songs http://ow.ly/tsrv
Video: Topspin Media’s Ian Rogers on Why Letting iTunes Own Customers Is a Bad Idea - http://tr.im/BdpH
Inside EQ - The Keys To A Great Mix by Jake Hartsfield http://ow.ly/tssN on the TuneCore blog
More thoughts on sharing the artistic process http://ow.ly/tssk from Suzanne Lainson
brand = trust; lose trust = lose brand. Radiohead’s mgr on trust: http://bit.ly/12phwo
SEO Basics for Musicians http://ow.ly/t0O3

Hope you all had a fantastic week, and I’m looking forward to hanging with all of you again on Tuesday’s online chat - more details to come soon!

Live Chat with Red Pill Entertainment

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:51:18 -0400

If you weren’t able to catch today’s live chat, we’ve got you covered! Lauren Markow and Jacob Detering, partners in Red Pill Entertainment, guest-hosted this week’s chat from St. Louis, MO. Amy Petty graced us with her incredible voice and songwriting. We talked promotion, touring, production, and everything in between. Check it out:

Thanks to everyone who joined us live for contributing your thoughts and questions! Lots of people were asking how to get in touch:

http://www.redpillonline.com

@redpillmusic

Lauren Markow: @sambarouge

Amy Petty: @amypetty

http://www.amypetty.com

See you all next week!

Indie Artist X September Stats

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:13:06 -0400

The goal of the Indie Artist X Project is to develop a basic, actionable music marketing plan designed around simple strategy, prioritization of tactics, easy to use tools, and a reasonable budget that can be implemented by any artist who has the inclination to follow it. About.com Music Careers, Artists House Music, Hypebot, KnowTheMusicBiz.com, MusicianWages.com and Revolution Number 3 have banded together to create this community based music marketing plan. We will be working with one anonymous artist to design and implement this music marketing plan then track and report the actual results over a four month period. To keep up with the latest news on the IAXP follow the project on Twitter and Facebook.

Below are the Indie Artist X Project statistics for the month of September:

September Stats:

Band Metrics Score: 241 / Silver

Website Unique Visitors: 979

Website Total Visitors: 1187

Website Sales – CD’s: $0.00

Website Sales – MP3’s: $14.99

Website Sales – Merch: $0.00

Fan List: 774

Live Show Attendance: 215

Live Show Net Sales: $850.00

Live Show CD Sales: $240.00

Live Show Merch Sales: $320.00

Distribution Sales: $1,340.61

Licensing Royalties: $0.00

BMI Royalties: $305.56

Soundexchange Royalties: $0.00

MySpace Royalties: $0.00

Some notes about September’s IXAP reporting:

Indie Artist X spent much of September in the recording studio so they weren’t able to play many live shows. The new songs sound great but the lack of live shows this month definitely impacted the growth of the fan list, live show revenue and direct-to-fan sales of CD’s and merchandise.

BMI pays! Indie Artist X received a PRO Royalty check in September from BMI for $305.56. Finding an unexpected check in the mailbox is always a nice surprise.

Despite regular IAX plays and streams on Pandora, Last.fm, MySpace, iLike and Imeem there are still no royalties reported or paid from Soundexchange.

The indie label that released IAX’s last two records only pays / reports periodically. In September IAX received a check for $1,340.61 for year to date royalties. Distribution is handled through InGrooves.

Band Metrics measures activity across several web properties where IAX maintains a presence including iLike, Last.fm, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube. Band Metrics also measures terrestrial radio play but hasn’t picked up any spins to date for IAX. The Band Metrics score for September moved to 241 from 233 in August.

Direct CD and Merch sales for August were $0.00. The website ecommerce store is not yet set up for CD and merchandise sales since IAX is still waiting on the artwork files from the indie label that released the last two records.

Music Business Weekly Wrap-up

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 08:00:00 -0400

In case you missed anything this week, here are some highlights I’ve selected that I think will be valuable reads for you:

Artists House Music:

Copyright Infringement Insurance Policies for Songwriters http://ow.ly/sxr8
New videos posted from our interviews at McNally Smith College of Music http://is.gd/3USCU
Really felt like we did something cool on the live chat this week…a community of smart people (you) helping artists is a good thing. Join us again this Tuesday - stay tuned for more details!

Music Business News:

Future of Music Policy Summit: Live Webcast & More! http://bit.ly/suUX0
Court denies preliminary injunction in constitutional challenge to Copyright Royalty Board http://ow.ly/rYRV
The Fanfarlo Four Step… http://ow.ly/rYJE
Apple’s hypocritical move to block competitors from accessing its software. http://ow.ly/rYj1
Trouble In The Orchard: CEO Scholl Exits, Staff Cut: Greg Scholl, President and CEO of indie d.. http://bit.ly/3vMd2Y
Pandora Adds Music Videos http://ow.ly/rqnZ
Netflix data shows shifting demand down the Long Tail http://ow.ly/rqlq
How Ringtones Have Come And Gone As A Business http://ow.ly/rqk0
iPhone Growth Reshaping Mobile Landscape http://ow.ly/rqiF

Artist Advice/Thought/Opinion:

The Fanfarlo Four Step… http://ow.ly/rYJE
Low Overhead + High Margin: An Interview with Jonathan Coulton http://ow.ly/rYJ1
The Folly of Commercial-Free http://ow.ly/rYHi
A Look Inside The ReverbNation Audiolife Store http://ow.ly/rYTR
Pandora’s Westergren On Ads, Profits And Listeners http://ow.ly/rYEx
Hypebot: MTV Makes Me An Offer I Can Refuse http://ow.ly/rYEc
Zoe Keating: Web Fame that Actually Translated to a Career http://is.gd/3P5NM
YouTube Responds To Return Of WMG Videos http://ow.ly/rYD4
TrendWatch: Musicians as digital curators http://ow.ly/rYCR
The Necessity of Touring for Independent Musicians by Martin Atkins , http://bit.ly/QtyyW
A Short-Hand Guide to Music in Film for the Indie Musician - PART 2 http://ow.ly/qUGb

New Videos Posted: McNally Smith College of Music

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:37:00 -0400

If you haven’t been keeping up with our twitter stream, you’ve been missing out. We’ve been adding new videos to our database, and our twitter followers are usually the first to find out. But, in case you missed it, I wanted to turn you all on to our interviews with the incredible minds at McNally Smith College of Music.

An Interview with Joe Mabbott, Audio engineer and Instructor at McNally Smith

An Interview with Jerry Kosak, Head of the Guitar Department at McNally Smith

An Interview with Debbie Sandridge from McNally Smith’s Career Development Center

An Interview with Harry Chalmiers President of McNally Smith College of Music

An Interview with Janis Weller, Chair of the Liberal Arts Division at McNally Smith

(If videos do not appear in your RSS reader, click through to the blog to watch)

Copyright Infringement Insurance Policies for Songwriters

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:00:00 -0400

Occupying the top spot on my Google Reader subscription list, Eric Beall’s Berkleemusic blog (http://ericbeall.berkleemusicblogs.com/) is a go-to music industry resource of mine. Beall is currently an A&R for Shapiro, Bernstein & Co, one of the nation’s most eminent independent music publishers. As someone who has a successful career in the business, he’s able to draw on personal experiences and provide information that you simply can’t get from the majority of music industry pundits. One of his latest blog entries, “Beware of The Suits— Lawsuits, That Is…”, is no exception, and it shines some light on a topic that many newcomers to the industry are unaware of: the fact that songwriters can purchase copyright infringement insurance policies.

There’s a reason why most who are just entering the industry don’t know about this insurance option: it has always been unaffordable for the majority of songwriters. Until now…

Eric’s blog post addresses the proliferation of copyright infringement disputes in the industry today. He concludes by profiling the Nashville Songwriters Association International’s recent partnership with Frost Specialty (an insurance agency) to offer new, more affordable copyright infringement insurance policies to songwriters. Here is an excerpt from his blog post concerning the policies that NSAI and Frost Specialty have created:

On that last subject, there’s a new service being offered by the Nashville Songwriters Assn. International, that may make a lot of economic sense for some songwriters. If you’re someone who regularly has songs commercially released, you may want to consider NSAI’s recent partnership with insurance agency Frost Specialty, which has created a copyright-infringement insurance policy for NSAI members.

This group plan allows songwriters to pay relatively low premiums for a moderate level of coverage. In the past, writers often had to purchase at least $1 million dollars worth of coverage, which is very expensive. Under the NSAI policy, writers can pay premiums as low as $1,500 for $100,000 of coverage– most copyright disputes are settled for less than $100,000.

Kudos to NSAI, which is truly one of the most effective songwriter organizations in existence (and one to which every songwriter should belong anyway) and to NSAI president (and legendary country songwriter) Steve Bogard for taking on a very challenging problem. Remember– in our society, anyone can sue anyone for anything, with or without cause. The plaintiff may not win, but for the accused, who finds his or her money frozen, legal fees mounting, and reputation damaged, it may not matter who wins. If you’re making a living at songwriting, I would strongly suggest that you consider the necessity of the NSAI-Frost policy. Check it out at:

http://www.frostspecialty.com

The full blog entry can be found here: http://ericbeall.berkleemusicblogs.com/2009/08/03/beware-of-the-suits-lawsuits-that-is/

And here’s another article (from InsuranceJournal.com) that covers the new NSAI/Frost policies and how they compare to other policies being offered in the marketplace: http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2009/07/16/102268.htm

Upon learning about these policies, you may be wondering if copyright infringement insurance is only a concern for songwriters who retain all (or a portion) of their copyrights. If, for example, a songwriter entered into a standard publishing deal that saw him assign 100% of the ownership in his copyrights to an outside publisher, would he still be liable in the event of a copyright dispute, or would the publisher be assuming all of the risk?

This is what first ran through my mind, and I decided to do some investigating. Eric was nice enough to offer some insight on that question, so I’ll be paraphrasing from our exchange as well as from some legal texts that I consulted.

Copyright infringement insurance is, in fact, a concern for writers who have standard publishing deals. This is attributable to the WARRANTIES AND REPRESENTATIONS and ACTIONS AND INDEMNITIES clauses that virtually all publishing agreements contain. A warranties and representations clause sees the writer assert that no composition covered by the agreement infringes upon any existing works and that each composition is free of any legal entanglements. An actions and indemnities clause states that the publisher can charge the writer back for any legal expenses/damages payable/settlements that may arise if the ownership of one of the songs is ever brought into question, even if the writer is found innocent of copyright infringement. An actions and indemnities clause also states that, once presented with a claim related to a composition covered by the agreement, the publisher has the right to withhold any royalties (and other payments) that may become due to the writer, pending the result of such claim. Sometimes the amount withheld will be enough to recoup the publisher for the legal expenses it may incur related to the claim, sometimes it will not.

Note: The above only refers to claims that are presented against the publisher. If, on the other hand, the publisher were to take action against an alleged infringer, the contract should state that the publisher would bear any resulting legal expenses itself.

As you can see, copyright infringement disputes can be incredibly damaging for songwriters, even for those who have standard publishing deals.

Although the new NSAI/Frost Specialty policies are better deals than their competition and could turn out to be lifesavers in certain situations, they’re still not cheap. It’s important to note (as Eric does in his blog post) that copyright infringement insurance is really only a concern for writers whose material has been/will be commercially released; the chances of getting into copyright infringement disputes over unsuccessful songs are slim.

Special thanks to Eric Beall for his assistance with this blog post.