Music 3.0 - The Blog Behind The Book

The Implications Of Euro BMW's Streaming Music

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Fri, 24 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

There's been talk for a number of years now how streaming music would eventually become standard in all new cars, but despite the predictions, it hasn't come to pass - until now. BMW just announced that their European Series 5 autos now come with access to mobil carrier Vodafone's Rara streaming music catalog, and it will be available in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands.

On the surface this only sounds like the next evolution of streaming music, but dig a little deeper and you find that the deal includes 3G access wherever you can get a signal without any extra charges, cables or devices. The trick to this is that each car has it's own embedded SIM, which means that the radio isn't the device, the car is!

For this you pay a flat fee of about $500 for the first year and $285 for each year thereafter, but that includes mobil voice and offline access as well. It's steep, but definitely cheaper than any alternative in Europe, especially if you drive the continent extensively and have to subscribe to a variety of services in different countries.

But the implications are many, especially back here in the US. Since so much of traditional terrestrial radio now depends upon drive-time listening, imagine the hit it would take should a version of Beemer audio hit the States. There's an entire broadcast industry that hasn't yet quite felt the evolutionary heat like music and television has, but that writing is on the wall.

Image what this will do for music discovery? While it's true that YouTube is the leader in music discovery online, radio is by far the leader across all media categories. The major labels still depend upon the radio infrastructure of yesterday to spread their new music and cultivate top 40 hits. Legions of listeners tuning out to listen to their custom streaming channels could finally turn this paradigm on its ear. Could this eventually lead to the final nail in major label (as we know it) coffin?

Sometimes the smallest event is all it takes to trigger a huge change. Could something like the 3G Beemer be the one that triggers the next?

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Teens Tiring Of Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

We've seen this coming for the last year or so, but now the trend seems to be in full swing - teens are tiring of Facebook and moving their social media lives to Twitter instead. According to new Pew research data, nearly a quarter of online teens now use Twitter instead of Facebook to keep up with their friends and celebrities. This is up from 16% in 2011.

Even though 60% use the privacy settings on Facebook in order to limit their interactions to only their friends, most seem to be growing more disenchanted with the service because of "oversharing" with adults, especially parents. What's more, roughly 50% had deleted their own posts, other's comments, or untagged themselves from photos, 75% had deleted people from their network, and 58% had blocked someone from contacting them.

But parents have their own concerns as well, as 81% are concerned about how much of their children's information is being learned by advertisers. That said, teens themselves were not worried about being targeted by marketers, and just 9% expressed concern about how their data was collected.

Pew also found that teens are pretty open about themselves in general when using social media.

91% post a photo of themselves
71% post their school name
71% post the town or city where they live
53% post their email address
20% post their cell number

This new data is not a good long-term sign for Facebook. Although it won't mean much in the near future, the teen of today is the adult of tomorrow, and by transitioning to a different social media platform than Facebook, is now growing comfortable in their own non-Facebook world.

The Internet is strewn with social networks that were king of the hill one day and seemingly gone the next (remember MySpace, Friendster, MP3.com?). Five years from now we may be looking at Facebook in a far different light.

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Live Gig Footage To Your Phone

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

As video technology has gotten cheaper and smaller, it's been a dream of many artists and fans alike to shoot every gig at a venue. While this sometimes happens with the venue using pro equipment, it actually happens anyway with many in the audience holding their phones up to capture the performance.

That's all well and good except it's a pain to hold your arms up for more than 5 minutes at a time, and the act doesn't make anything from the process (except for some additional promotion). Now a beta version of the Soundhalo app may take care of both situations at once.

Soundhalo takes the footage and audio from a production crew at the venue and delivers a fully mastered MP4 video straight to the cloud directly after the song. Fans can then pay to download the song directly to their Android phones one song at a time.

There's a lot of upside here. First of all, the production quality (especially the audio) is better than what can be captured by a phone, the fan can get it immediately so it can be an impulse buy, and the band has an additional income stream.

If venues were smart about it, they'd build this feature into the price of each ticket, but I can see why that probably won't happen. One of the biggest problems of digital commerce is clearances, and live recording can be a hornets nest just waiting to be struck. What if the artist decides to play a song on the spur of the moment that's not under his or her control? There's not time for clearances if the song is available immediately after it's performed. The artist/publisher/Soundhalo also has to pre-clear everything before the gig, and anyone who's ever tried to do that knows that it always takes more time than it should.

S till, for a hungry up and coming band that owns that owns their own publishing gigging in a club, it's a great way to increase revenue (if only slightly) and capture a memory at the same time.

On a similar note, an app called Switchcam allows aggregation of phone camera videos. If your fans are going to record you, you might as well have access to it.

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A New Media Format From......BitTorrent?

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

One of the big problems of the modern digital music industry is bundling, or more accurately, lack of it. Back when the business was a roaring success at the top of its game, the CD album (and before that the vinyl album) brought in most of the revenue. Sure, singles were a reasonable business (at least in the vinyl days), but the album was where the big money was made. Of course, that's all gone away in our current Music 3.0 world where the single song is the king.

Now comes an interesting new bundle that's not exactly an album or movie, but more of a combination of music, video, flyer and store. And it's all built into the same file. The only potential problem is that it's from the service that most creatives love to hate - BitTorrent.

Basically the BitTorrent Bundle is a file that acts as a graphic, telling you anything an advert normally would, but the other pieces can be unbundled as the user buys in. For instance, Ultra, the label that brought you such EDM artists as David Guetta, Tiesto, deadmau5, and Calvin Harris, is trying the new bundle with Kaskade.

The bundle acts as a virtual flyer over social media, and if someone subscribes to his mailing list they then unlock behind-the-scenes footage. Want to buy some music - it's already there. Make a donation, and see some video. It's all up to how to configure it.

The music business needs a new concept in bundling and potentially this could be it. The big problem, of course, is that it's from BitTorrent, which the industry (not to mention artists and songwriters) view it as a bastion for piracy. That said, they do have 170 million active users that you can immediately access.

The Ultra BitTorrent Bundle is a first alpha release, so we don't know what the bugs are yet, but on the surface it's a great concept. Check out this video for more info.

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It's All About Song Skipping

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Mon, 20 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

Probably the holy grail of listening to music is the ability to skip a song when we get bored. It was pretty difficult with vinyl records, easier with CDs, and much easier with digital music. Of course, it's always been impossible with radio, but digital streaming brings us many possibilities.

One of the features siad to be in Apple's new iRadio music streaming service is the ability to skip songs, and apparently that's become a big problem for Sony Music. It's not that they're opposed to it, it's just that they'd like to get paid full rate even if a listener only played the song for a few seconds. Apple would naturally prefer pay a portion of the royalty using a formula that determines the royalty rate based on the amount of the song that's actually listened to.

Of course, whatever is hammered out with Sony will no doubt be applied to the deals with Universal Music and Warner Music Group as well, since it would be a shock if they didn't have a "favored nation" clause built into their agreements that would keep the compensation equal regardless of who got the best deal.

Yet another feature of iRadio is said to be the ability to rewind a song. As a listener, I love the thought of this feature since there are so many times that I'd love to repeat a section of a song to analyze it. The problem then becomes, how much is paid for each rewind and how is that rate determined.

It's funny how some things that we take for granted with music we own become an issue when it comes to streaming. That said, this is another reason why I think that much better days are ahead for songwriters and artists. The compensation may be small but the increased number of revenue streams should increase income substantially.

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Is Viral Success A Myth?

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Fri, 17 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

Everyone is searching for viral success with one of their videos. There's been books written about it (a good one is Contagious: Why Things Catch On), presentations given at conferences, countless web articles, and much speculation about assumptions and formulas, but few are able to recreate the a success like OK Go's "Here It Goes Again," Rebecca Black's "Friday," Baauer's "Harlem Shake," or Psy's "Gangnam Style" (not to mention the numerous cat videos that routinely make the rounds).

But is it possible that what we think of as viral isn't actually viral after all? A number of recent articles and presentations propose that these videos were given a big corporate helping hand first before getting any kind of traction.

Take for instance Psy's "Gangnam Style." In a recent article on Pando, Brandon Mendelson postulates that the video's success is "actually the tail end of months and months of preparation, buying fake views and comments, an extensive PR campaign, and his video fitting a very specific need for the business model that fuels the web: The Page View Based Economy."

He goes on to state that Psy's record company purchased views and comments by using companies like Microworkers and Fiverr to trick the YouTube algorithm into thinking the video was exploding. It actually was, only as a result of gaming the system.

Another article by Keven Ashton on Quartz points out that Baauer's "Harlem Shake" had only a few thousand views as a result of YouTube comic George Miller's video compilation. It was only after Warner Brother's owned Maker Studios made a version of the video to promote the studio itself and promoted it across it's many YouTube channels and Twitter did the video begin to get some traction. Other companies, DJs and bloggers jumped on, mostly to promote themselves, which caused Baauer's record label to take notice and begin its own promotion. Ashton provides a pretty thorough blow by blog of how it all took place, and it a lot less to do with what we think "viral" is rather than self-promotion. Here's the very first version the "Harlem Shake."

The gist of both articles is that what we believe and what's reality are frequently two different things when it comes to social media. It's becoming easier to manipulate many of the metrics that we use to measure success, if you have the money.

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Google Launches A New Streaming Music Service

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

Yesterday Google introduced its new streaming music service called All Access, but surprise, surprise - it's not the same one that's been rumored for months.

Previous reports had it that Google's new service would be built around YouTube, which made a lot of sense since the majority of people discover new music through that video service anyway. It seems that both services will live in parallel, the difference being that All Access will be subscription only with no free tier. Users will have to pay $10 per month for the service ($8 if you subscribe by the end of June) with a 30 day free trial.

While we don't know for sure what's in store over at YouTube, We do have a little more information about the list of All Access features. It appears to combine your personal music collection with any available tracks in their catalog into a single searchable library, and of course, Google excels at search so everything should be easy to find. It also has auto-recommendation-based radio stations that allow you to customize your playlists.

A couple of things about Google All Access are very interesting:

1. Google beat Apple to the punch. The tough part about launching any kind of digital music service is making a deal with the major labels. The fact that Google accomplished this before Apple probably means that the labels pushed for a better deal and got it. This had the dual purpose of stymying Apple's attempts as well, as the company has reportedly only recently upped the terms of what they were willing to pay, and still haven't completed deals with Warners and Sony.

2. There's another service vying for marketshare. Although Amazon is king of the hill in terms of online retailers, their music site hasn't made nearly the mark that was anticipated, especially when you consider the marketshare that Android phones enjoy. As more and more consumers discover the joy of accessing music versus owning it, the marketshare that it has (about 13%) could shift in a hurry, especially if Apple doesn't introduce its service in the short term. Google as a behemoth company stands on the same ground as Amazon, and could easily eat their digital lunch and maybe Apple's too when it's all said and done. After all, they have an installed base of all those Android phones.

As has been the theme here lately, we're witnessing a big change in the music business occur right before our eyes, and it's going to be better for musicians in the long run. Today every artist and songwriter complains about the meager revenue they receive from streaming, but remember that as of now it's only expected to total $1.7 billion at the end of 2013. Considering that iTunes throws off twice that in royalties to the major labels alone every year, you can see where this is eventually going to go. Unfortunately, no royalty details were mentioned during the announcement yesterday (no surprise there).

Streaming probably won't replace the income of the glory days of CDs, but things will eventually be better than they are now in the transition period from one distribution method (downloads) to another (streaming).

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Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Twitter Now Gets Cozy With Network Television

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

Recently I wrote about how the cable channel Fuse designed a new show around Twitter music trends. Now comes word that the social network is actively working with the major networks even more closely.

Fox's The X Factor has used Twitter for voting and American Idol used Twitter hashtags from the audience to gauge their sentiments during the show, but now the both networks are going beyond that relationship. In fact, Fox will be using Twitter to distribute clips of their various shows and events after the they have been aired starting in this summer.

This is a pretty good move on Fox's part, since most of the social narrative and online buzz revolves around Twitter at the moment. Facebook suddenly seems so last year, and as it imposes more restrictions on what a user can see thanks to their Edgerank algorithm, doesn't have the promotional cache that it once had.

But Fox isn't the only network getting in bed with Twitter, as the social network is currently having discussions with ESPN (they've already used it for expanded coverage of the BCS series), NBC and CBS as well.

All networks see a relationship not only a means to expand their distribution and show coverage, but as a potential means for advertising revenue as well. With measurable results available from Twitter, any network could build a new business angle that they didn't have before. It's also potentially good for Twitter since it expects to double it's revenue in the next few years to over a billion dollars, which is just what's needed in time for a potential upcoming IPO.

Sometimes it's difficult to see things change when we're right in the middle of it happening, but if you look closely, you'll see a social media changing of the guard going on right now. Facebook isn't going away anytime soon, but Twitter is now the rising star.

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Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

RIAA Now Counting Streams For Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

As we slowly see music turning into a streaming world, so apparently does the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the industry organization that doles out the gold (500,000 sold) and platinum (1,000,000 sold) record awards.

Wanting to get ahead of the curve, the RIAA just announced that it will now also include streaming music in the count for their Digital Single Award certification. As a result, 56 songs have immediately earned awards, even a number of oldies from Aerosmith and Whitney Houston.

What's interesting is that the RIAA counts 100 streams as equivalent to 1 download, which means that you'd need 100 million streams to reach Platinum in a streaming-only world, a figure that seems fair as it's as difficult to attain as a million sales or downloads.

The organization is including streaming figures in its count from a number of apps, including Spotify, Rdio, MOG, Rhapsody, Xbox Music and Muve, as well as video sites like YouTube, Vevo, MTV.com, Yahoo Music and others.

There are so many artists getting massive streaming counts, and they should be recognized, as streaming influence is perhaps greater than any other sales parameter at the moment. It's another indication that the music business is evolving right before our eyes.

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Can iRadio Save The Music Business?

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Mon, 13 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

Word leaked out last week that Apple has finally come to terms with Universal Music regarding a licensing deal for their new streaming iRadio service. They also are reported to be inching closer to a deal with both Warner Music Group and Sony Music, although Sony still seems to be the toughest of the bunch to hash out an agreement.

It's also been rumored that the terms of the deal is much more favorable to the record labels in that it would pay more per stream than Pandora, plus the rights holders would get 50% of any ad revenue generated by Apple's new iAd business, which is still in its infancy.

iRadio is potentially a huge opportunity for artists, songwriters and record labels alike in that the audience from streaming will increase by multiples the minute the service is launched. One of the problems that everyone on the creative end of the business has at the moment is that the payout from streams is so abysmally low. That's like saying that you're not making enough money when you only play at largest venue in a small town in Iowa. There are plenty of fans elsewhere in the world if you can only get to them, which would increase your revenue.

Though both Spotify and Pandora have seen significant increases in total users, it's still a drop in the bucket to what Apple can potentially deliver. With iTunes now available in 119 countries (the App Store is in 155 and more than reaches 90% of the planet - and each one spends an average of $40 per year!) and more than 500 million active users, artists can look forward to a boost in revenue simply in terms of the increased audience that represents.

Will the revenue streams of the glory days of the music business be revisited as a result? Unless some new ideas in song bundling (an album is a song bundle, but now outdated) come along, probably not, but artist's are going to see a definite improvement on those meager streaming royalty statements over time, and many will be quite pleased with the result.

iRadio is going to do for streaming audio what iTunes did for music downloads, which is turn it into a viable business for content creators, this time by virtue of its installed user base. Google is said to be readying a similar music service to be launched later in the year through YouTube, and that competition can only be good for streaming in general.

I've talked and written much about Music 3.0, which was more about the music business embracing digital music and the artist socially connecting to his fans. Right before our eyes we're seeing it evolve into Music 4.0 - the age of streaming.

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What Your Site Visitors Hate

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Fri, 10 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

Recently a friend asked me to critique his website. While it was slick and modern, there were a number of problems that both he and his designer overlooked. Here's a short excerpt that covers a number of those items from my upcoming book, Social Media Promotion For Musicians, about the things your site visitors hate.

"Technology marches on, and as we know, the pace seems to get faster and faster all the time. The problem is, we all have to keep up in order to both stay relevant and keep our fans engaged. Now comes some research courtesy of getsharesquare.com (a site that helps mobilize your site) that’s an eye opener in terms what visitors really hated about artist’s websites.

33% of the survey respondents said their most frequent complaint about an artist site was text that was so small that it required zooming.

31% stated their biggest complaint was video content that was broken or unavailable.

28% said they hated when buttons or links were too small to click.

20% hated when streaming music was broken or unavailable.

17% complained that recent news and event info was difficult to find.

29% said that they missed the ability to exchange an email address for free content.

25% said they really missed the ability to download an artist's song.

21% complained that they couldn't purchase tickets or merch directly from the website.

This is a fascinating report in that it indicates that a lot more commerce could be going on if only artists would pay more attention to their websites. Many artists take their site for granted, but it should be the main point where all of your fan contact is directed since it's the one portal online that you have total control of."

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Twitter And Television

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Thu, 09 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

For anyone who discounts the influence of Twitter, understand that when other mediums begin building programming around it, you can no longer afford to wait to finally jump on board. It's amazing how many musicians still discount the social network, but it's quickly becoming the center of online social life, maybe even more so than Facebook.

The latest example of how important it's become is a new television show based around Twitter trending music topics called "Trending 10." The new show will be shown on the Fuse cable music channel and be sponsored by Trident gum. It's scheduled to air weekdays at 4:30PM.

The idea of the show is to feature the top 10 music-related Twitter topics of the day, which is determined by Fuse's "heat tracker" algorithm, and look at which musicians are the most discussed. The show will also feature interviews and articles, but everything will be based on the latest music trends on Twitter.

It's unclear if Twitter actually has a part in the show, but it does show that at least one channel thinks it's significant enough to build a show around it. I'd say that's a pretty good indication of influence. More on Trending 10 on the Fuse website.

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Interested in the Music 3.0 archives? Buy The Music 3.0 Guide To Social Media. The best of over 800 posts.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Trey Songz Fan App Nets $50K Per Month

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

Social networks can be very powerful, and many fans will pay for exposure on them, as singer Trey Songz is now finding out. The artist, who's had a number of big R&B hits, began his own private social network via a smartphone and tablet app called Trey Songz - The Angel Network, and has been reaping the reward with as much as $50k of revenue per month since it was launched in December.

How? Well, it's not from app sales, which would only be a one-time fee a best. In fact, TS doesn't even charge for the app; it's all about what happens later.

In fact, fans pay for the privilege of being an "Instant VIP" to have a profile picture appear high on a board, pay to send TS an email, and pay for virtual goods. In fact, it's been estimated that some fans are paying as much as $32 per month during the course of their engagement.

The fans don't use actual cash in any of these transactions, instead purchasing 250 credits for $1.99. Bidding credits for higher profile picture position can go anywhere from 2,500 to 5,000 credits, while sending Trey a message goes for a mere 100 credits.

The irony is that TS doesn't even engage his fans on the app all that often, checking in briefly only a few times per week. That said, that doesn't seem to deter his primarily female audience, as more than 45,000 of his estimated 5 million followers have downloaded the app. That means there's still some obviously room for growth with his fan club, but it's a healthy start so far.

What this proves is that fans indeed crave engagement, even if it's with one another. Point them in the direction of a mutual cause or artist, and they thrive if the right environment is presented.

I'm not sure that the Trey Songz social app is directly transferrable to other artists as is (maybe for Justin Bieber), but it is an interesting case study. More on this to come as the app matures.

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LMFAO Sues Management For Getting Them Work

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Tue, 07 May 2013 05:30:00 +0000

A good manager gets his act work, but in California and New York that can mean some pretty negative consequences down the line. When a musical act is first starting out they have no leverage, not hits and no juice, so most promoters and agents won't take a chance (as many of you probably know only too well). In this early career stage, a good manager is the only thing between them and obscurity. The act needs work and the manager does whatever he (or she) has to do, which means booking gigs without the help of an agent.

But the problem is that in California and New York, this is illegal as an agent always must be involved thanks to a law known as the Talent Agencies Act. As a result, many an act has used this law to break their contract with their manager after becoming more successful. For example, here's an excerpt from Chapter 27 of producer Ken Scott's memoir Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust where he describes the same situation he endured as manager of Missing Persons.

"Even though I had a contract with them, they found a way around it in a way that could only happen in California or New York. There’s a very strong law in this state whereby a manager cannot ”procure employment” for an act, only a licensed talent agent can. It’s an arcane law more designed to protect the movie agents of the 1930s than a music artist of today, but it is a law. Well, early on I got them an appearance on Solid Gold, which was one TV show that helped them sell a load of records. Since they got paid scale for it, that meant that I, the manager, had gotten them employment. As a result, they threatened to take me in front of the California labour board, which could have ended up turning out very badly for me. If you go in front of the labour board as a manager and it’s found that you did indeed procure employment, then the labour board can determine that the contract that you have with the band is null and void and never existed, thus any monies you had received because of that contract have to be paid back to the band. That’s what happened with the band Weezer, and both Ke$sha and Lady Gaga are bringing the same action against their former managers right now so they don’t have to pay them commission."

Now the same situation plays out again with a twist. LMFAO's former management company RPMGRP is suing the act for $7 million in commissions it feels it deserves after the act fired the company and poached two of it's employees to act as salaried managers just as the band was hitting it big. LMFAO claims that because RPMGRP got them jobs at various parties and clubs in the early days of the band, their original contract is null and void thanks to the TAA.

This can be a pretty cut-throat business sometimes, but the spirit of this law stinks as it's a no-win situation for any manager. Management is a key commodity in the music business these days, but you'll see fewer and fewer managers taking chances on young acts as long as a silly law like TAA is held over them.

For more excerpts from Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust and other books, go to bobbyowsinski.com.

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Should Artist Royalties Be Private?

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Mon, 06 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

There are so many things in life that are meant to be private yet turn up before the public. Executive salaries, artist contract riders, tax returns, rehab, criminal and medical histories are just some of what comes before our eager eyes on a daily basis. There's a school of thought that says that a celebrity's total life should be totally open to whatever scrutiny the public desires, since that's what the artist signed up for in the first place. Others believe that some things are sacred in their privacy, regardless of how popular you are.

One of these privacy battles is now being played out in the class action lawsuit against Universal Music Group over digital income. After the successful appeal by Eminem's production team against UMG in 2010 where the court agreed that a digital download was subject to a license fee rather than a royalty, other artists like Rob Zombie and the estate of Rick James were quick to sue UMG in order to gain the same advantage. After all, earning 50% of the license income from a download is far better than the 15 to 20% a royalty would generate.

The real problem comes from the fact that the attorneys in the matter want UMG to turn over the sales and royalty data from other artists not involved in the suit so they can have enough information to calculate the damages. UMG has balked, more from the standpoint of self-preservation rather than a defense of their artist's privacy rights. It's now up to a judge to decide.

The problem is that each artist has a slightly different contract, and of course, their sales are different, which makes you wonder just how useful the data would actually be even if turned over.

While various approximations of artist sales have always been around, the exact numbers have always been somewhat of a mystery, sometimes even to the artists themselves. While definitively determining that number might not be such a bad thing, having the terms of one's contract available to someone else's prying eyes can only open up a can of worms for all concerned. Sometimes things are better off left private.

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The 5 Kinds Of Music Publishing Payments

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Fri, 03 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

Too many musicians underestimate or just plain don't understand how important music publishing is. It's always been the hidden-in-plain-sight cash cow of the music business, but also has been one of the least sexy. That said, publishing is literally the gift that keeps on giving, where you can get paid (and paid well) while you sleep. It's also the one part of the business that still continues to do well even though it's taken a hit like most other areas in music.

DIY Musician posted a short article on publishing recently that I'd like to paraphrase a bit regarding the 5 kinds of payments that music publishing can provide. If you're not hip to publishing, hopefully this will wet your appetite to learn more.

1. Mechanical Royalties: Every time your song is sold either on a vinyl record, CD or MP3, the songwriter is entitled to $.091 per copy. What that means is that if there's an album with 10 of your songs on it, you'll make $.91. This is why some writers made big money in the glory days of the business when albums where king. It's also why those same writers have far less income these days where it's a singles world, and will have even less when the world changes to streaming, although you do get a mechanical from some services like Spotify, although at a far lower rate.

2. Performance Royalties: Every time your song is played in public, you're owed a royalty payment. This includes airplay on the radio (terrestrial, satellite or Internet) and television, or in restaurants, clubs or even high school plays (although that's a lot harder to collect).

3. Synchronization License Royalties: Whenever your music is played along with moving pictures like television or movies, the creator of the movie or video has to pay the songwriter a fee. If fact, if you're the artist as well and they use your recording, they have to pay a fee on that as well. This is where most of the growth in the publishing business has come from recently, thanks to the proliferation of television channels.

4. Sample License Royalties: If someone samples a piece of one of your recorded songs, they owe you a royalty. Once again, this is a relatively new revenue source that's only happened in the last 20 years. There's been some big lawsuits regarding samples that have largely gone in favor of the songwriter.

5. Sheet Music Royalties: Any time your music is reproduced in a printed form, you're owed a royalty. This includes hard or soft copy sheet music, lead sheets, and anything else that represents your music or lyrics. When the music business was young over a hundred years ago, this was the major source of revenue for the entire industry.

As you can see, publishing pays in more ways than one. Having a piece of a big hit can pay off for the rest of your life, which is why those in the know are so protective of it. I still get paid for some songs I wrote that appeared on the 80s hit television show Bay Watch (although it's not much these days), which goes to show how powerful being a songwriter can really be.

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It Can Be Done, With An iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Thu, 02 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

We live in an age where there's so much technology available to us that there's no excess why you can't be creative anymore. Take making a video for example. Once upon a time not all that long ago, if you didn't have an expensive high-quality camera on your shoot, the quality wouldn't be sufficient enough to ever get on television.

Today an artist isn't all that concerned with getting their video on TV, but high quality for YouTube and other video networks is still a priority, as more and more consumers demand hi-def. Luckily, the video technology available today for mere hundreds of dollars far surpasses some of the multi-thousand dollar cameras of ten years ago. In fact, even the video quality that you get from the almost afterthought feature of a typical iPhone 5 is amazing.

Here's a video for Allied Irish Banks that was done completely on an iPhone. Granted, there's nothing fancy and no editing at all, but the point is that the video holds up well enough to meet television standards.

Considering that many videos with just lyrics or a picture of the album cover get millions of views, an iPhone video behind a song could work at least just as well, if not better.

Now there's no excuse. You can't blame it on the gear any more.

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9 Overlooked Video Optimization Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

I've posted before on the some of the things you can do to optimize your videos (like YouTube Channel Ranking Tips and A Tip To Improve Your YouTube Ranking), but here are 9 additional tips for improving your video SEO after your meta tagging is complete. Most of these are overlooked, but fairly easy to accomplish.

1. Upload a transcript of the video. This is perfect for a music video in that it can contain the song lyrics. This closed-caption file is important because it's searchable content that helps with search indexing.

2. Create a custom thumbnail for each video. Don't rely on the choice given to you by YouTube. Create a custom thumbnail in an image editing program like Photoshop that adequately describes the video at a glance.

3. Upload in high-definition at 1920 x 1080 if possible. Unlike only a few years ago, hi-def is now the norm and preferable to most viewers.

4. Include a call to action. This can either be a link to a website or an annotation.

5. Make the video public. This seems like a no brainer, but the video won't be searchable unless this is selected.

6. Choose the right category for the video. This is a tough one sometimes since a video may fall into a number of categories at the same time. The best strategy is to stay with the most appropriate category (music), since that's where you're most likely to get the most views from.

7. Create a playlist. This is a relatively new feature of YouTube, but it helps viewership by keeping similar videos joined by topic or theme.

8. Embed the video on your website or blog. The best way to get the video out there is to have it appear in as many places as possible.

9. Include annotations. These are the pop-up links and text that provide the video with interactivity. Annotations take some extra time to program, but are worth it as it's been found that the engagement increases with videos that include them.

I've adapted these points especially for musicians from a great article on ClickZ, which has a lot of additional info on video SEO.

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The Flarian Music Player Reinvents Physical Product

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:30:00 +0000

Even though CD sales are down more and more every year, consumers are still buying albums (see yesterday's post). There's still a place for CDs as a product during live events like gigs since music consumers want a physical memory of the event, but they're starting to feel more and more dated as time goes by. That's why a new format for the album could be a boon to music sales, and that's why the Flarian Music Player is so interesting.

The Flarian Player is about the size of a credit card and can hold about 1 Gig of data. Since it's a true audio player complete with an audio jack, you can listen to the audio directly via a set of headphones or earbuds, or plug it into a computer with a USB adapter (which will also charge the unit). The company also sells a USB-only version of the card that has been previously released, but this takes it to the next level.

One of the things that the Flarian Music Player claims to be is a great business card for musicians, since it can contain audio examples of your work, and I see a future for this device at least in that market even if it doesn't break out to the larger consumer marketplace. That said, physical music products will always be around, so it makes sense to move to something that technologically newer and has a lot more wow factor than the old tech that is the CD.

The Flarian Music Player is currently at the beginning of an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, and you can find out more details about the unit there. In the meantime, check out the video below. I wish it had just the basic info instead of the attempt at comedy (the principles probably read somewhere that most successful crowdfunding videos are humorous), but you'll get the idea.

Flarian Music Player Crowdfunding video from Hammad Naseem on Vimeo.

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US Individual Track Sales Down, But Why?

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 04:30:00 +0000

After a gangbuster growth rate for ten years, US individual music track sales are down 2% for the year through April 14th according to Nielsen SoundScan. While this may be a surprising stat, what's even more surprising is that digital album sales are actually up 9% for the year.

While digital track download sales had gone negative for a time in 2010, they actually ended the year in the positive. While this might happen again in 2013, it also might be an indication that the streaming music revolution is beginning to take hold, as more and more consumers discover the beauty of access or ownership. That might explain track sales, it doesn't adequately describe why album sales have increased though.

The two major theories on the subject are that more and more people are using Apple's Complete My Album feature to fill in their missing album tracks. The second theory is that both Amazon and Google Play are gaining market share from iTunes, mostly because of deep discounting, especially on albums. If I had to make a choice, I'd say the reason lies more in the fact that albums have been discounted rather than people trying to fill in those lost tracks that they never listen to anyway.

We'll have to see if either of these sales stats are temporary or long-term, but the only thing that will be a surprise is if album sales continue at their current pace. If they do, the bigger marketing question will remain, why?

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Surprise: iTunes Leads In Video Too

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 04:30:00 +0000

When it comes to a viewing audience, there's no service bigger than YouTube, but when it comes to video sales, it appears to be an iTunes kind of world. That's from the latest info online research company NPD Group, which released a new report on the subject last week.

As more content owners struggle to monetize their catalogs, iTunes is increasingly leading the way. According to the study of the 2012 video business, iTunes had:

67% of TV show online sales
65% of online movie sales
45% of video rentals

As you can see from the chart on the left, iTunes dominates even Amazon in this regard. When it comes to rentals though, the race is a bit closer with Amazon accounting for 18%, Vudu for 15%, and XBox video at 14%.

None of this should be a surprise, although it seems to be. First of all, iTunes was the first mover in the download sales area and enjoys dominance in music, but when you factor in the proliferation of iOS devices like iPhones and iPads (which are excellent for watching video), you have an ecosystem that supports the distribution arm. Just as Apple planned it.

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Why The Grooveshark Ruling Should Scare YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 04:30:00 +0000

Grooveshark is the music streaming service that everyone uses at least sometimes, but gets no respect, especially from the music industry. In fact, Grooveshark has been laden with lawsuits from the major labels over the last few years over users uploading copyrighted songs illegally, a fact that has weighed the company down significantly.

Despite having a healthy 30 million users a month, the service has been struggling with cashflow thanks to the legal hassles that the suits entailed. Things just got worse for the company when a 5 judge panel of the New York Supreme Court overturned a previous ruling and concluded that any song created before 1972 that was uploaded to the service should have the same "safe harbor" protections offered by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as a song written after 1972.

What that means is that not only must Grooveshark remove any copyrighted song from that period if given notice of infringement by the controller of the copyright, but that it can also be charged as a party to the infringement as well. This, of course, opens the company up to all sorts of potential lawsuits that can bring an already struggling company to its knees.

While Grooveshark is clearly the focus of this suit and controversy, it also brings the same type of scrutiny to YouTube and all other video sites however, a fact that should be making them extremely nervous about now.

Now the saving grace for YouTube in all this is that so far this is a lawsuit based in New York, where Grooveshark does business, and each state has their own interpretations of the same law, but a precedent has been set.

Google has some mighty deep pockets that can hold their own in just about any legal fight, but you know that this is not a fight that they need or want. Copyright holders might see this as another source of income however, one that they might feel has rightfully eluded them for many years, and move along a new round of legal action based upon the ruling quickly.

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What's Learned In 30 Years Of The Music Biz

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:30:00 +0000

As everyone knows, the music business has changed substantially in the last few years. One of the things that's evolved has been the fact that the artist is able to do so much without the help of a record label and still have a chance for at least some modicum of success. That could never happen way back when, where if you weren't embraced by the "music business," you were essentially left out in the cold with no hope for ever getting ahead.

Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips has seen it all over the band's 30 year run, and in this video he explains not only how things have changed, but how the band was always against the grain business-wise, as they operated more DIY before it was even popular or possible. The lesson here is that sometimes trading money for artistic freedom can be worth it.

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The Music Subscription Music Service You Don't Know About

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 04:30:00 +0000

Subscription music services have been getting more and more press as the music business and their customers gradually adopt the concept, but we normally only hear about the higher profile services like Spotify and Pandora. It's true that they have the most subscribers at the moment, but did you know there's one service that's quietly crossed the million mark that very few have heard about?

Muve Music, which is a service of wireless carrier Cricket Wireless, has quietly surpassed 1.1 million subscribes less than 2 years after it was launched. It's basically an unlimited music service that's tied to a pay-as-you-go mobile phone service. It offers no apps for personal computers or tablets, and is only offered on Android phones.

What's particularly interesting is the demographic that Muve Music caters to. Most of its users don't own a computer or have a credit card. That means they'd never be a user of one of the other services anyway.

It just goes to show that there's always a sub-market to be served, even though it may not get much attention. That's pretty much the way music works these days. Even superstar artists have their own niche that they cater to, and any artist can have a career within a narrow category.

That's the key to being an artist in Music 3.0. Find your niche and play to it. It doesn't matter if you play something esoteric like Swahili polka or Manchurian jazz, there's a market out there for what you do. The trick is to find it. Luckily that's easer than ever thanks to social media. Stay tuned for more on how it's done.

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12 Social Media Tactics For Artists

noreply@blogger.com (Bobby Owsinski) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 04:30:00 +0000

Here's an excerpt from The Music 3.0 Guide To Social Media ebook that looks at the basic concepts for artists to use social media more efficiently.

"Heidi Cohen at ClickZ post a great article regarding the 13 tactics to make social media work harder. I've adapted her post for Music 3.0, since her points are excellent, but I've found that only 12 of them apply. They are:

1. Understand how and why your fans use social media. This is the best way to make sure that you're interacting with the majority of your fans in the first place.

2. Develop content that meets your fans needs and interests. This shouldn't be too hard. They like you already and will probably want anything you give them. Don't be afraid to offer rough mixes, rehearsal and studio out-takes, and behind-the-scenes videos.

3. Use a variety of forms of content and understand the role that each plays in social media. Blog posts, video, forums posts, Twitter and Facebook posts are all important. Many fans prefer one over another, so it's best not to ignore any of them.

4. Encourage your fans to share content. The key to a healthy fan base (or Tribe" as "Seth Godin calls it) is not only their interaction with you (the artist), but also with each other.

5. Support and promote consumer-generated content. Mash-ups of songs and videos can be as important as your own releases.

6. Integrate product information into your content/story. Don't sell or hype your fans, inform them. They'll do the promotion for you.

7. Use content in social media to help build organic search optimization. Always think of SEO (search engine optimization) when developing content. Using the proper keyword phrases in your copy and metadata (even for videos) is crucial for being found, and therefore getting the word out.

8. Listen to, interact with, and recognize your fans. Communication can't be just one way. When they reach out, you must reach back.

9. Provide immediacy and nimbly react to events as they unfold. Social media is immediate by nature, so your fan base expects a more-or-less immediate response.

10. Participate in social media with a human voice. For social media to work well for an artist, the artist herself must participate. Certain communication can work through a surrogate, but fans can see right through a post that's supposed to be you but isn't.

11. Encourage band members and crew to participate in social media. The perspective of everyone involved with an artist is valuable to the fan, that's why it's important that everyone in the artist's circle should participate at least a little.

12. Track relevant conversations, responses, fan relationships, and sales across social media forums. The real key to effective and efficient social media management is measurement.

All these points are worth considering in order to ensure strong social media management."

To read additional excerpts from my books, go to bobbyowsinski.com.

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