I frequently see young fledging artists and businesses using Flash to make a fancy- looking website thinking it will allow them to play in the big leagues, and set them apart from your average upstart. But this strategy is like playing in a beautiful stadium with no-one in the audience.
Here’s some reasons why that can be a Very Bad Idea:
1) Flash is hard to properly optimize for search engines. While there have been some advances by the search engines in this area, you will not be able to optimize your site in the depth and detail that you can an HTML site.

2) This means that, sure your site might come up first in Google if someone types in your company name, but that means they are already looking for you and aware of you. What about all the potential visitors you miss out on because your site does NOT rank for a slew of other related keyphrases?

3) With an HTML site you can optimize each page according to its content, for different phrases/words – this is the best way to do it. Flash does not allow you to do this – essentially your homepage will be indexed but not much else.

4) When you are a new artist/business looking to raise awareness and expand your target audience, you need to make yourself as accessible as possible to targeted traffic, and that means SEO in addition to other promotional avenues. Don’t make an already uphill battle even harder by starting out with a Flash-site that immediately limits your audience.

5) Because of all the above, your organic search traffic will be relatively low, at least to start out with, leaving you to rely on other methods to get traffic, such as your own promotional abilities to spread the word, slugging away on Facebook etc.

6) Loading pages, especially when they take too long are an obstacle to people getting to the good stuff. You risk losing people before they even see your site, never to return. And if you do get repeat visitors, it’s a bit annoying to have to wait for the site to load every time.
My personal advice for using Flash is to limit it to adding cool, but functional design features or flourishes, but not to build an entire site only in Flash.

It’s easier for well-known brands to use Flash, or even sites that are very text-light, and still rank highly because they receive a lot of incoming links from many other sites which helps them compensate for the lack of text on their own site. Using an example I saw on an old post at SEOBook.com, we can see this demonstrated in a search for “coffee” or “chocolate”. At the time that post was written, Starbucks ranked #1 in a search for ‘coffee’ despite having very little text on their site, and Hershey’s and Godiva ranked top in the chocolate search. This was attributed to the amount of incoming links for these brands which proved them to be relevant. These brands still rank highly today, but in both cases the #1 spot is now taken by pages on the distinctly un-flashy Wikipedia.

Visit www.WebTrainingWheels.com for more posts like this.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

A Guide To Online Marketing Terms – Part 1

I put this simple guide together to clarify some of the terms that I throw around on this blog. I’m finding that many people have heard these terms, but aren’t necessarily 100% sure what they mean or why they should care. If there is a term you have heard that is not included here, drop me a line [lucy AT webtraingwheels.com] and I’ll consider including in a future installment of the guide.

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 describes the evolution of the internet from its early days of static web pages that waited to be discovered by web surfers (web 1.0), to dynamic, portable, social web content that lives in multiple places and can be easily shared and consumed in multiple ways.  You can copy and paste simple code to place a video on your website, you can subscribe to a website via email or RSS, you can vote for content you like on sites like Digg, or you can bookmark it and share it on sites like StumbleUpon and Delicious. All these things are part of web 2.0

Why you should care:

The way content is created is different now. You can work with video and images as well as text. Your content has the possibility of ‘going viral’ by being shared, re-posted and reaching a wider audience than you can reach just from your own website. By choosing what sites to subscribe to, users filter and customize their content to suit their own tastes so there are plenty of niche markets and communities you can discover, be part of and cater to.

What is Social media?

Social media is a huge part of web 2.0. It began to be buzzed-about with social networking sites like Friendster (remember them?) and MySpace. You could create a profile and start making ‘friends’ with other people on the same website. From there it developed into sharing content and voting and now many websites offer the ability to create a profile or interact directly with other users, and the content, in some way. Social media also relates to the phenomenon of user-generated content. So instead of news, entertainment, or any other kind of content only being generated by specific media companies, now anyone can create and publish content, whether it’s a blog post, a video, photographs etc.

CONTINUE READING THE FULL POST AT WEBTRAININGWHEELS.COM

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

“It was easy to feel overwhelmed by the big, bad world of bloggers. Lucy demystified it all and I’m now addicted to my blog! Thanks, Lucy!” – Andrea, Boli Bling Designs, LittleDesignerBook.com

If you would like to use a blog to enhance your business but aren’t sure where to start, I will show you how to do it from the ground up.
This workshop will show you everything you need to know in order to set up a blog, maximize both SEO (search engine optimization) and branding potential, and the basics of using your blog as a marketing tool. If plugins, widgets and RSS are alien concepts to you, I will enlighten you, demystify the process and give you the confidence to take control of your web presence.

Attend the next workshop on June 27th,  to learn in a comfortable, friendly environment, and network with other budding bloggers. There are a limited number of spaces available, so it’s necessary to register below to confirm your place.

Topics to be covered:
- How a blog can help your business
- How to install and set up a blog (using the Wordpress platform)
- How to use Wordpress and it’s features
- How to install key plug-ins
- The do’s and don’ts of blogging
- Marketing and attracting traffic to your blog
- Becoming a ‘blogger’ – integrating blogging into your business routine
- I also provide post-workshop support to help you implement what you have learned.

The next workshop will take place:
June 27th from 1-3:30pm in West Los Angeles (full location information provided upon registration)
The fee is $45 per person.
Non-profits get a $10 discount!
Email me at:  lucy@elemental-consulting.com with questions, for more info or to claim your non-profit discount code.

Register now and secure your place. Click below to use either Google Checkout or Paypal to make your payment. When payment has been received you will be sent a confirmation email.

Or you can use Paypal

I also provide 1-on-1 services, and consulting services for existing businesses looking to maximize their web presence.

“Lucy helped us update our blog by providing our team with best practices and areas for improvement.  We’ve seen increased traffic and greater customer engagement since we implemented her suggestions.  Lucy is very friendly, and a great teacher- we appreciated her approach and expertise.” Deborah, MyCorporation

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

1) Just Do It! Take A Small Step, Any Step!
Starting is the hardest thing, but once you’ve taken that first step, it will become easier. It’s easy to come up with a laundry list of reasons why not to do something – I don’t have time, I need to redesign my site first etc etc. In reality however the most important thing to do if you are new to blogging is simply to BLOG and start building up your stash of content. Ultimately the more content you have the better, so start NOW with your first post.

2) Keep It Simple
Don’t worry about tricking out your blog with every little widget right off the bat. You can figure that out in time. Start out by just getting some posts up – short and sweet will do the trick. All the widgets in the world aren’t going to help if there’s no content.

3) Don’t Let Perfect Be the Enemy of Good.
I stole that concept from The Happiness Project but it works for blogging. Your writing style and voice will develop over time so don’t expect it to be perfect right away. This is YOUR blog – not a national newspaper so as long as you have something of interest to share, don’t worry about sounding like a Pulitzer prize winner. Allow yourself the luxury of practice – write some posts and the more you do it, the more comfortable you will get with the process. Get into the feel of writing and allow your own  style to develop.

4) Get Into a Routine.
This is necessary advice when trying to develop any new habit – essentially this is what blogging is. Try and carve out certain times during the day and week that you will reserve for blogging -30 minutes here and there, or whatever you can manage. If you leave blogging to the end of your already full to-do list, chances are you will never get to it. So make it a priority and make an appointment with yourself. Set yourself realistic goals – one post a week, for example – a goal that will motivate you without overwhelming you.

5) Who Do You Want to Come to Your Site?
This is one of the central questions that you should keep in mind when blogging. Who is your audience? Oftentimes your audience can be broken down into several different categories or segments, each with a varying profile of interests. Sometimes when you are stuck for an idea, it can be helpful to re-visit your list, pick one of these segments and think about something that would be interesting or of value to them that could be turned into a blog post.

6) Anything Can Be a Blog Post!
Don’t psych yourself out thinking you have to write an essay each time. Sometimes it’s ok to do something easy like posting pictures of yourself at an event, pictures of people using/wearing your product, a blurb about another website that you find useful or interesting etc. Any number of things can be short effective blog posts. Surf around other blogs you like in your niche and get some ideas and inspiration. Think about what you would like to share, or something you as a reader would find interesting. It could be directly related to your product, or perhaps it’s a news item related to your industry, or just a funny thing that happened on your way to the trade fair.  The possibilities are endless once you start thinking like a blogger. You can also join in the conversation of hot topics of the moment, whether it’s current affairs or something related to your industry. Bloggers often like to give their opinion, and people like to read that. So see what others are talking about and join in the dialog by posting your own thoughts. You can reference or quote other bloggers if appropriate (always give credit with a link).

7) Think Outside the Box
This seems like stereotypical advice, but sometimes it’s easy to not see the forest for the trees. It’s easy to get stuck in the rut of thinking only about the product you are trying to sell. But the good thing about a blog is that it gives you the chance to expand beyond your field and this will ultimately be good for search rankings. So instead of racking your brain trying to come up with a new way to talk about your product – let your imagination expand a little. Your main website is where the hard sell happens – your blog is where you get to express yourself and different aspects of your personality and business. Chances are, you are a good example of your target audience so think about the types of things you like to read on other blogs. If you happen to have a real flair for writing and have a distinct voice – perhaps you are funny, or have sharp insights on current affairs – these things alone can help you develop a following. Think about people like Perez Hilton and others who have developed audiences simple because they are entertaining – there’s no rocket science going on there!

8) Networking
Ultimately you will want to network with other relevant bloggers by swapping links. But don’t go crazy contacting tons of other bloggers until you have some good posts on your site and a good amount of content. If you request links from bloggers too early, before you have much posted, they may not want to link to you if it doesn’t look like you are regularly updating, or serious about your blog. But do keep a target list, or bookmark sites that you would like to connect with at some point. Also keep in mind that you shouldn’t target the most popular blogs right away because they may not see the value in connecting with a small blog site.

9) Don’t Ever Be Discouraged!
A common mistake of new bloggers is giving up too soon. Don’t assume that you will be an overnight success – this is the exception, not the rule. Give yourself some time to build up some momentum. And enjoy the process of blogging itself. The more you enjoy it, the more you will be motivated to make it a habit.
Your blog is not going to write itself and it only works if you work it. So it will take some effort and in the beginning it can feel like you are talking to yourself . But Rome wasn’t built in a day! You probably won’t get people leaving you comments the first day you launch your blog. But as you start to develop your content and attract visitors, those things will happen.  Also, just because people aren’t commenting or emailing you, that doesn’t mean they aren’t reading. After all, how many blogs do you read? And how many have you actually interacted with? Make sure you have a way to track web traffic to your blog so that you have real info about who’s coming to your site and where they are coming from.
But the most important thing is never to give up. Be tenacious and persistent in your blogging practice and it will definitely pay-off.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

• Search engines like regularly updated content. Many business sites are informative but not updated very often so are hard to keep at the top of the rankings, without buying keywords. Blogs can and should be updated on a regular basis with fresh content.

• Bloggers typically link to each other in their ‘blogrolls’ so once you start to exchange links with others, you will start to gain new traffic  as your site is exposed to a new audience. Additionally the more inbound links you have (ie other sites linking to you) the more the search engines will like you.

• The variety of content you post on your blog will naturally expand the number of keywords and phrases that will lead people to your site. On a purely informative business site, you don’t always have the opportunity to target keywords outside your direct focus but a blog gives you more range.

2) You would like to give your business a more personal voice and develop a relationship with potential customers.

• A blog is a great way to add to and enhance your brand. It allows you to craft a more personal voice for your company, which is engaging to the reader. If a reader likes what you have to say and reads you on a regular basis they start to trust you.  You can’t build that type of dynamic relationship with a static site.

• A blog allows you to share success stories from your customers, and engage with them through comments.  Once you’ve built a decent readership a blog can be a great way to do free consumer research – test out product ideas and poll your audience.

3) You would like to establish yourself as an expert in your field.

• These days a lot of information is available for free on the internet – it’s almost expected. So you may as well join the fray and give people a taste of what you are all about and the knowledge that you have.

• A well-written, informative blog may help you to attract the attention of other high profile people in your industry that you may not otherwise have access to.
• You may also be able to pitch yourself as a guest blogger on other popular sites and blogs, further increasing your profile and credibility.

4) You would like the opportunity to network with other people and bloggers in your field or related areas. Being part of the blogging community allows you a way to network with others in a friendly fashion, without having to push a hard sell. It’s easier to make friends with people when you have something to offer (a link exchange, good content), rather than something to sell.

DON’T Blog If…..

1) You really don’t have anything to say. If you’re not inspired about your subject matter or feel that you have nothing to contribute, blogging may not be for you.

2) You think it will be a quick fix. Blogging is not an overnight quick-fix to getting more traffic. It takes a little time to start generating traffic, although once you get going you may see a snowball effect.

3) You’re not in it for the long haul. To really get the most out of having a blog, you will have to spend some time working on it, writing and promoting it. There’s no real way around that, so if you’re not prepared to carve out some time for it, you won’t be maximizing it’s presence.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Make anything in your video clickable, or add clickable media files, images, relevant icons, MP3 files, and more, creating a powerful interactive experience for your users.
Engage with advertisers and sponsors to pay for interactive links anywhere within your video. Share your interactive video across the internet, driving traffic back to your site or anywhere on the web through your clickable links.

While there is a free level of service that Veeple provides, you will have to pay for the interactive elements. Hosting is “in the cloud” so you won’t have to worry about bandwidth. I haven’t yet taken their online webinar that goes into more details of how to make the best of their service, but as I understand it, this is how it works: You create an account at Veeple.com, upload your video, then you gain access to their simple tools that allow you to add the interactive elements. Then you have your “Veeple-ized” video which you can then embed all over the web as you would any other kind of widget or video. Pricing is based on views, so if you are getting up to 5000 views of your video that will come for a flat fee of $49/month. Above 5000 views and it transitions to a cost per view, starting at $0.008 per view and scaling down in cost as you pass higher thresholds of viewing.

So if you have content which you think will be frequently watched, either because it is compelling viral content, or you have a network of fans, blogs etc that will re-post and watch your content, then it will cost you a small amount of money. But it gives you the opportunity to find a sponsor or advertiser with which to co-brand your content and charge them money for. Veeple provides extensive stats and tracking on the views of your video.

I recently had the opportunity to ask some questions of one of Veeple’s co-founders, Scott Broomfield, via email and phone.
He gave the general context of Veeple as follows:

To begin, think about Veeple in terms of breadth and depth.  The breadth is our interactivity, which enhances storytelling.  One thing is for certain, as YouTube has proven, people love to tell their story. The depth is our ability to add in relevant and non-intrusive advertising, which helps the publisher monetize their content.

Second, we are one of the few who provide a complete service 100% ‘in the cloud.’  With Veeple, you get the Video Player, the CMS, the CDN (we use Amazon), Full Analytics and Interactivity.  Nothing to download. No cookies. No add/delete programs.  And, our focus is 100% for the benefit of the web publisher.  One can serve only one master and our’s is the web publisher.

When did you launch Veeple?
We founded the company in early 2007.  We built the first alpha product by October of 2007.  We raised about $600K and built our first beta product and laboratory, where a few hundred people posted numerous videos.  We took this learning, added another $700K in our own funds and built our first commercial product. We launched the service – what we call Video as a Service or ‘VaaS’ about two weeks ago.  So far we have about 70 registrations/sign-ups.

Can Veeple-ized videos be uploaded to YouTube and other similar sites and retain their functionality? Or do they only work in the Veeple player?
The answer is yes from a technical POV, but no from a business POV as related to Youtbe.  In other words, if a site allows metadata to attach to the JPEG, then we run well.  Youtube, for commerical reasons, does not allow this.  Some other sites do, like MySpace, Facebook, Demand media, Stupidvideos, GrindTV, LP33 and others.

How realistic is it to create a video technology that doesn’t play with the leading online video destinations, especially for folks like independent musicians who are looking to expand their reach?
The content owner, and in your case the musician, controls where their content show up with Veeple.  We have comprehensive embed functionality that, if they allow it, enables any third party the ability to consume a video (including a music video). Further, we think that the content person will, by definition, continue to use Youtube due to their reach.  However, we also see the same content owner placing video on their own site and using Veeple to improve the messaging/storytelling and allow anyone to embed.  Keep in mind that when a video is embedded to a third party site, all the Veeple functionality flows with the video and can ‘trackback’ to the original web site.

Are you seeing any trends yet in your user base – Is it mostly people who have content, such as musicians or other content-owners? Or are you seeing advertisers/ad agencies using it as the next generation of banner ad?
Ouch, I would die if this became the next form of banner ad.  I hate banner ads.  We would hope that all ads inserted into a video would be done in a non-intrusive, relevant and engaging fashion.  Remember that the content owner makes the decision when, where and why an ad is placed.

Trends.  Well, most important from our point of view is that people really like what we are doing.  We have had over 40 meetings in the past 3 weeks and there has yet to be a single bad meeting. As to specifics, we do not yet have enough people to really have empirical data, but people seem to like to click on the video, if the ‘veespot’ is done well.  We have seen a CTRs of between 8% and 22%, which is very high.  We are seeing that people like to use both transparent spots (so the video still looks good) and images that look like they are part of the video.  As to adoption, our top 5 market segments so far are: How To, Entertainment, Politics (of course), Technology, and Social Media.

Do you have any examples of musicians using your technology that you can share with us – either anecdotal or sites where we can see it in action?
How about Paramore!!  That would be cool.  We are using one of their videos in our showroom.
http://veeple.com/showroom.php?video=music

Is there anything you care to share about how you see Veeple’s future shaping up? E.g. Ideas for added features in the future? The overall vision for the company?

Well, I am reluctant to discuss much because the world is very competitive and people move very fast nowadays.  That said, I can share with you 3 quick things: 1) We will be adding in MP3 capability soon (next month or so), 2) Dynamic Flash images, in addition to static images, and 3) a pencil drawing function that will allow the tracking of an object through a video (really cool). A couple of other really cool things, but I will not talk about them until we launch them. The vision thing is all about adding tremendous value to and for the web publisher.  To help them tell their stories, deliver their messages and, if they desire to do so, make money in the process.
In a follow up conversation I asked Scott if he could give some ideas as to how musicians may best use Veeple. He indicated that they will be adding MP3 capability, meaning that you could make an mp3, either a full song or ringtone, directly downloadable from the Veeple video. Since a Veeple video acts like a widget, meaning that when you update the video, it automatically and immediately updates wherever the video is posted on the web, you could use it to promote tour dates on  a real time basis. You can also link to buy tickets directly from your video and the tracking will allow you to collect stats on that – good info that you can provide a venue manager, promoter or anyone interested in booking you. You could add links to your various social profiles, homepage, retail sites directly from the video to drive traffic wherever you want. You could also use the service to include cross-promotions with sponsors etc in your videos.
Companies like MTV are looking at Veeple as a potential way to monetize their catalog of older content. They have alos been working with Vloggerheads.com who welcome Veeple-ized videos.

Veeple is in its early stages as far as penetration and adoption goes. But their service does allow for many more creative uses of video. So it’s worth looking into and keeping an eye on and seeing if you can come up with inventive ways to use it.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

What’s the difference between a strategy and a promotional/marketing campaign?
What I mean by strategy is a long-term vision, plan or direction that you have for your career as an artist, business or brand. It is not only the vision, but the roadmap that helps you plan your course. Your strategy may change over time or adapt to circumstances, but the point is that you are not just blindly plodding along hoping for the best.
In contrast, a marketing campaign is a short/mid term promotional plan, usually around a specific product or event, such as an album release, or a tour. Such a campaign would be one element of your overall strategy.

What I usually find is that a lot of independent artists think that their album marketing campaign IS their strategy. They hire publicists and promoters etc when they have an album coming out and know they need a promotional push, but what’s going on the other 9 or 10 months out of the year that are not part of that new release window? Many times, the answer seems to be, not much.
Why treat yourself as a seasonal business that must hope to make as much as possible from one release? Wouldn’t it be better to develop ways to create residual income with the bonus of spikes around album releases, tours and so forth?

This is where strategy comes into play.

Market consistently, not episodically
Just because you don’t have an album coming out every month of the year, doesn’t mean there aren’t things you can and should be doing on an ongoing basis.
Your online strategy should include branding yourself, developing a database of fans and marketing to them, developing relationships with bloggers and people that can help you, and generally being active enough to keep your name in front of people on a regular basis.

Particularly in the online world there is now a lot of potential power in your hands so you need a clear direction for what you are doing and how to make the most of the opportunities available to you. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the wealth of information, social networking sites and tools available to you – if you have a strategy it will help you maximize your time and energy. The more you feel you are drowning online, the less effective you will be, and most likely will run out of steam soon enough.

Repetition is key
Chances are you will not make the splash you think you can with just one album release particularly if it is your first one, or if you are not particularly well-known.  It’s becoming harder and harder to get the attention of bloggers and other editors to even listen to your music, never mind write about it, so you need to be engaging them on a long term basis. Essentially your strategy is what lays the foundation for a successful marketing campaign when you do have an album that comes out – people will pay more attention to your album if they already have an inkling of what you are about – that goes for folks on the editorial side as well as fans/consumers. Both sets of people need multiple impressions before they will pay attention to you and take any action or seek out further info. You will get more bang for your buck if you’ve already laid some groundwork before you invest in publicists etc since they will be able to make more headway.

Take charge of your relationship with your fans
One of your most important assets should be an opt-in email database of fans. These are people that have visited one of your sites, downloaded music, or engaged with you in some way and have decided you are interesting enough to warrant them being kept up to date via emails. Not MySpace bulletins but actual emails right to their inbox. So you need to proactively find your fans and develop a relationship with them. This is something that can be done year-round.

Additionally, the prevalence of social networks means that all your fans’ info is spread across various places and you don’t have direct access to them except through the tools that particular site provides. For maximum efficiency you should be channeling those people to your site, or at least collecting their email addresses so that you own those relationships – get their info and communicate directly with them. Turn them from “friends” into real “fans”.

The album no longer needs to be the only way you release content.
You can release content and music digitally as frequently as you choose, so you need a way to get it out there and promote it. Whether that is music you sell, or music you give away to gain ears, you have to create demand –get folks hooked on your music and be excited for more of it.  As we mentioned in “digital demand for urban artists” when done strategically over time, a steady stream of content released throughout the internet can help boost your career. Notice I am using the word “content”. Music isn’t the only form of content – it could also be a blog you write, photos your upload, videos you make etc. Content can take so many forms these days and all are useful in providing touchstones for people to engage with you. A digital strategy will mean that you have the tools to create and distribute this content in an effective manner, then harness the benefits of it.

Think long-term
Many of the tools now becoming available online have to do with social networking, which is most effective as a part of a long-term plan. The social networks only work if you work them and are best used consistently and not just for promotions otherwise you will turn people off with your advertising and lack of personality. Many labels I come across are guilty of this. They set up a MySpace for a particular album release and promote it for about 2-3 months but after that it languishes. It’s smarter to have profiles based around your brand and maintain them for the long term since they will reap greater benefits. Again, think strategically for the long-term. The nature of branding, is really that it only works over time, so this is something you commit to for the long haul.

Create systems for residual income
A digital strategy will help you realize that you can be residually generating revenue all the time through your own website where people can make a purchase. Not to mention continual demand will drive organic traffic to a catalog of releases you may have. Contrary to what major labels would have you believe, your catalog is valuable. Once people discover you, they want to have access to all your music, not just what you’ve released in the last 30 days.

Have I convinced you yet?
I want to hear from you if:
You have a strategy and would like to brag about it. Or at least share some insights.
You don’t have one and need help masterminding one.
You think I’m on crack.

I’ll get into some specifics of what the strategy actually looks like in another article…

—
Photo credits (in order of appearance):
http://flickr.com/photos/vascellari/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidking/

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

“In two days more people have been exposed to my music than in the entire previous 12 months.”

While this type of promotion may not be the right choice for every artist, Fakesensations’ story shows that it can be an effective strategy, and more importantly that the option to utilize P2P should be up to the artists, not the major labels, ISPs or anyone else.

I recommend reading the full article here.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Yesterday I was coordinating the press preview for Scion’s new exhibit at their Culver City gallery: “Insiders, Outsiders & the Middle” curated by Giant Robot. Space Invader is one of the featured artists. As I watched the artists set up their work and transform the gallery before my eyes, I had the opportunity to chat with Space Invader about one of his pieces. The photo below was taken with my Blackberry Curve, so it’s not the best, but it will do….

So while this is a piece of art, there is very literally a hidden message. This is actually a QR Code/Data Matrix , which is the next generation of barcodes. I believe that QR Code and Data Matrix are 2 versions of the same technology and that the former was developed by a Japanese company and the latter by an American one. They work in the same way but just look a little different. We are all familiar with the black and white vertical lines of a barcode which designate a series of numbers. Well the QR Code, which is already very common in Japan (of course the US is technologically lagging), actually contains real data – words, hyperlinks, contact info, numbers etc. You can scan it with your reader-equipped cell phone and a message will pop up on your screen, or even a hyperlink.

So there might be a poster for a movie with a QR Code included – you wave your phone at it and it opens up a video trailer on your phone. No lie, this is actually real!

So back to Space Invader. The piece above has a message encoded in it. He demonstrated with his iPhone, on to which he had downloaded an app that can read QR Codes. He pointed his phone at the piece as if to take a picture and the text popped up on his screen “This is an invasion.” Nice! I tried to take a pic of the result but as you can see below, I couldn’t get the best photo with my cameraphone.

Additionally there is a 40% tolerance for error, so Space Invader can actually tweak the appearance of the code a little bit to include his signature space invader icon (or parts of it, check the bottom left corner), and the code will still be readable and produce the same message.

So expect to see a whole new level of street art popping up courtesy of Mr. Invader and once this technology is prevalent in the US there will be plenty of unique ways to market with it.
For more info on QR codes, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datamatrix

Generate your own!
http://www.i-nigma.com/personal/Create.asp

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Ever since iTunes instigated the $0.99 per song model, it has been hotly debated. Some folks think $0.99 is too expensive for a song; others think it is not expensive enough. Still more think that there shouldn’t just be one standard price for tracks; that labels and artists should have more flexibility in pricing so that hot, new items can be priced higher than catalog material, following the pattern in brick and mortar stores. As part of this overall debate, there seems to be emerging what I think is a disturbing trend of wanting the new standard per-track price to be in the region of just $0.25.

I was prompted to write this specific post by what I read in a recent email newsletter from Bob Davis of Soul Patrol. He referred to some comments from Nettwerk Management CEO Terry McBride suggesting that the sweet spot for selling digital tracks is $0.25 and that this is what labels should be selling them for in order to create a ‘tipping point’ for digital music sales. Davis suggested that he felt the same way based on sales of his Virtual Album project where he varied the pricing of the album and found that approx $0.20 was the most popular per-track price.

I definitely agree with the overall concept of having variable pricing available as a digital retail model – the more options for artists, labels and consumers, the better. But I just can’t get my head around the overall goal of making music so ridiculously cheap. Call me old-fashioned but music in digital format has already been greatly devalued in the eyes of the consumer so why perpetuate this devaluation by suggesting that a song is only worth $0.25? Shouldn’t we be doing more to add value, not decrease it?

I think free and cheap music has its place for promotional and marketing value but when people then have their interest piqued enough to actually make a purchase, I think they should be shelling out more than $0.25 per song, or $2 per album (as McBride suggests).

Davis says “smart Indy artists & labels who adopt [variable pricing] as a core strategy, will be successful in not only making money, but more importantly will be able to identify and connect with their “true fans” and therefore be able create their own marketplace that will sustain their career/business for many years.” I followed up with him via email and he further explained his position:

The price of a song should be whatever the market will bear. The cheaper the song, the more people will become customers. It’s simple economics 101.

Consider the following examples:
If 100 people buy at $1.00/song, then you make $100.00

However it’s better for the career of the artist, if they sell 200
copies at $0.50/song, because now they have 200 fans.

Even better if they sell 400 copies at $0.25/song, because now they have
400 fans.

See it’s really the total number of fans (people who actually make a purchase) that is important to the artist long term career prospects, not the short term revenue.

The identification and obtaining the permission of fans to contact them directly in the future is what should be the primary goal of all indy artists on the internet. Identifying them and obtaining their permission to contact them directly in the future becomes the single most important online asset of the indy artist, because that is how you build your
consumer base for the future.

In my example, I now would have 400 people (as opposed to 100 people), who are my fans, that I can engage directly in economic activity, that because they are my fans (ie; they have actually brought something from me at least one time), I can probably sell them other things (concert tickets, merchandise, etc) in the future.

If you extrapolate a little, then if I have 10,000 people who are willing to spend at least $10.00/year with me, then I can have a minimum annual income of $100,000/year. Now I don’t have to have a “day job”…

Bob’s logic makes some sense on the surface but I think it lacks real practicality, especially for indies. I’m curious as to where Bob thinks the average indie artist can find 10 000 paying fans per year. From my experience, pricing is not the challenge for indies, gaining visibility is, and certainly the kind of visibility that could attract 10 000 customers. I don’t think that the $0.99 track price is the barrier to entry for consumers. Many indies can’t even attract enough attention when they give their music away. It’s more that they don’t necessarily have the resources for the marketing needed to attract a large number of fans. I think 10 000 paying fans per year is quite a steep goal for the average indie. And I’d argue that if those people are truly your fans, they would be willing to pay more than a few cents for your music. Once the emotional connection is there, if you are producing good music, people will pay for it. And I feel that should be the goal – to produce music good enough that people want to buy it – not to make your music available for bargain basement prices. Of course, as Bob states, indies need to develop that direct relationship with their fans, but there are other ways to connect with potential fans and get them on your mailing list without devaluing your product. This model might be able to work for majors who can make up for the low price with volume of sales but for indies I don’t think it’s viable.

Additionally the $10 per year that Bob’s plan requires each of the 10 000 to spend, means at $.25 per song, each one of those 10 000 needs to buy 40 songs every year! Not all 10 000 will want to buy the same 40 songs so the artist then has to produce way more than 40 songs every year of retail quality – again that could be a tall order. But then I guess if you’re only charging $.25 per song, they don’t have to be that great eh? Do we really want music to become fast food? Cheap, hastily consumed, and an entirely forgettable experience?

I’d also argue that just because I forked out $0.25 for a song, that hardly qualifies me as a fan and isn’t an indication that I’m that invested in you as an artist. However, get me to buy your whole album for $10 and maybe I’m someone who would then be willing to part with more cash to go see a show or make some additional purchase because I clearly have a real interest in your music.

Kevin Kelly recently suggested you only need “1000 true fans” to make the same living that Bob suggests – approx $100 000/year. Kelly’s concept is that you just need 1000 fans who’ll spend $100 in the course of a year. I’m not sure which model is better and would be interested to hear from musicians and labels who have direct experience to relate but it seems that this would be more feasible – a smaller number of people who have a strong connection to your music.

VARIABLE PRICING AS A PROMOTIONAL TOOL

I would suggest using variable pricing as a promotional tool, but not as a way to lower the benchmark for music. Reel listeners in with a limited time cheap download or something similar but the ultimate goal should be to develop the emotional connection and turn that buyer into a real fan – someone who thinks your music is actually worth paying for. i.e Use cheap pricing in a similar way as free promotional downloads – to create demand, stay visible, attract an audience – but the ultimate goal is to get fans to fork out $8 – $10 or so for a whole album, not $2. Lil Wayne gave away albums worth of free music in order to develop anticipation for Tha Carter III which is being sold for approx $10, not $2, and moved       1 000 000 units in its first week.

Labels and indies should absolutely experiment with variable pricing and see how their individual market and fans react in order to make the best informed decisions. The more choices for artists and consumers, the better. But I worry that lowering the bar to such a level will adversely affect the quality of music being produced, and the amount that consumers are willing to pay for music-related products.

MUSIC AS A LOSS LEADER

In a recent blog post on what seems to be a likely Amazon-Myspace deal, Lucas Gonze points out that for places like Amazon, digital music is a loss leader because the margins aren’t really that profitable.

“I’m skeptical that downloads will ever be a non-trivial revenue source for Myspace. The margins are too low.

Amazon itself doesn’t make anything on them; it makes money on downloads by using them to attract shoppers, and then upselling products with a real margin. For example, a user will click into Amazon to buy a download, see a recommendation for an MP3 player, and buy the MP3 player.

So if Amazon has a hard time making money on music priced a little below iTunes standard pricing, how can downloads priced at a fraction of the cost be profitable for indie labels and musicians?

Applying the concept of loss leaders that Lucas mentions here, it logically requires that the download is then just the gateway to other products that the musician will be selling for more money – concert tickets perhaps? Merchandise? These are probably the most common supplemental sales, but the fact of the matter is that the digital song is the most viable sale – possibly the cheapest and easiest to manufacture and distribute. The cost is unaffected by geography, unlike concert tickets where an artist has to physically be somewhere and must pay for his/her travel expenses and that of the band. So I’m not seeing how cheap downloads as a loss leader would really work for the individual artist or small label. I can see cutting the cost of a particular track or album in order to provide the gateway to buy other albums at a higher cost but I just don’t see how a viable business for indies can be made from cut-price downloads.

This morning I just read an article by Kavit Haria on InnerRhythm.org discussing a similar topic. Kavit takes a similar view to Bob: “it is no longer about how much people should pay for your music; it is about getting your music into the hands of as many people as possible.” While this may be true – the monetization has to come from somewhere and again, the struggle for indies IS getting it to as many people as possibleand I don’t think price in itself is the barrier.

I’d like to see some further exploration of other realistic revenue streams, or “upsells” that indie artists can pursue, especially if they plan on taking the tactic of making their music sales a loss leader. Feedback is always welcome. As always I’d love to hear from bands and labels who may be experimenting with these ideas and have real-life experiences to share.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites