Music And Business Today

Metallica VS the Net: Round Number 100?

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:53:00 -0700

Paste magazine is now reporting that "Metallica is fighting the Internet again".

This time it's over some early reviews of of their new CD, Death Magnetic. Reportedly, they had allowed early access to several tracks for review...and then got upset that the reporters actually reviewed the CDs.

This happens shortly after another "Internet fight" in May.

The band's official statement can be found on their site.

Opinion: I'm glad I don't handle PR for these guys.

JG

Another Blog: Polyvibe Records.

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:09:00 -0700

I found an interesting blog by Polyvibe Records/Entertainment today. It's shared here, in the interest of helping promote the free exchange of information and ideas about music, and the music industry.

Many interesting thoughts and bits of news on that blog.

As always, just remember that all business decisions you make in this world are up to you, and you bear the responsibility for making your own career happen, if it ever does. These days, more than ever.

Hats off to you for taking the initiative and time to try.

Best,

JG

Shock the...Money?

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:01:00 -0700

Singer Peter Gabriel has gotten deeper into the Internet-entrepreneur game with a new entertainment/travel/lifestyle recommendation search engine. The former Genesis frontman is hoping the service will compete with amazon.com.

(Gabriel started experimenting years ago, and had his first major success, with on-line business models in 2000 when he co-founded OD2. The company provided digital music to clients such as MSN and Nokia,and later sold for nearly 20 Million dollars, reports CNN.com).

The new service is in beta testing now, and is due for a public launch in May, according to CNN.

Gabriel also expressed delight with the way that many musicians are now useing the internet to bypass traditional music distribution channels, and find thier own way to success.

Johnathan Coulton: from coder to professional songwriter in one year.

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:28:00 -0800

Here's another story about Songwriter Jonathan Coulton, who quit his "dilbert-like" existance and became an internet success story by writing one song a week...and promoting his website site 24/7.

http://potw.news.yahoo.com/s/potw/61785/how-to-become-a-rock-star

Good luck to him.

JG

Britney and her Manager: Update.

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Thu, 7 Feb 2008 07:24:00 -0800

More problems with Britney Spears and her manager.

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1710362,00.html

Creative Career: Custom Songwriter

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Mon, 4 Feb 2008 11:36:00 -0800

Here's a story about a gentleman who writes custom love songs. According to the article on Yahoo.com, He gets paid "anywhere from $2,000 to $25,000 (per song) depending on whether he performs (the song) Live or not. "

Talk about finding and serving a niche!

One question not addressed is this: who owns the copyright on these songs? Are they considered a "work for hire", because the money is paid up front, or is the cost listed as a licensing fee? The difference may seem to be unimportant, but it's actually quite signifigant. Under the first arrangement, the songwriter gets a large upfront fee, but no royalties. If one of those songs later becomes a hit, this lack of additional (passive) income could make a huge influence on his ability to make a live, or not. In the later arrangement, the songwriter would have another source of income, something vitally important to the long term sustainability of the self-emlpyed.

Students will be reminded to watch this fact as we go forward: Know who owns the copyright before you sign anything!

Best Always,

JG

Recipe to Become a You Tube Star?: Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Sat, 2 Feb 2008 12:36:00 -0800

An update from yesterday's comment on You Tube promotion:

Sometimes talent *is* part of the mix (see below).

Also: if you backlink to this artist's homepage, you'll see that she says she had to remove the comments section as others were using her page to promote their own businesses, some of which she refers to as "nasty" (I shudder to think of what kind of business those might be...)

So there you have it, another example of the dark side of fame (You can see my previous post on this subject here).

Students: please bookmark this link, as we'll be referencing this when we discuss fame (and both it's positive and negative aspects) in class.

Best to you,

JG

Recipe to Become a You Tube Star?

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Fri, 1 Feb 2008 12:45:00 -0800

Want to be a You Tube star?

As I was telling my students this week, all it really seems to take are the following elements:

A few songs
An instrument of some kind that you can play reasonably well.
An inexpensive digital recorder.
An internet connecttion
Time - to record, edit (optional), upload, and promote your "work".
Looks/personal appeal.

Talent, of course, is optional. But then that's nothing new. ;)

Here's an example, found at random by You Tube and placed on the "recently featured" listing via Yahoo.

Students and others will please notice that this young lady shows as having over 15 thousand hits just on this one video (she has several). Please also note the fair amount of comments left by others (287 about this video, as of the date and time of this post), and the fact that she offers CDs for sale (no hard numbers available). She also has a myspace and personal domain site (http://www.julianunes.com/).

Those interested may want to compare this listing to the previous post on Andy Mckee. Following the backlinks from that post to his profile and his record company will show an excellent example of a more formalized, and business-like, approach.

So, is this the future of the music industry? Is the grass roots/viral marketing and indi/artist-owned label/publishing house the wave of the future? Will we see more and more people who stay "small time" yet make a living with their music, rather than the select set of mega-million dollar stars we have seen in the past? Or will equilibrium be reached by blending the two approaches, so that both have their own, very specific, place in the new order?

We shall have to wait, and see.

In the meantime, at least we'll have plenty to watch.

Happy, and safe, viewing.

Top Earning Artists for 2007

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:54:00 -0800

The numbers are in for the top earning artists for 2007. It looks as if veteran and reunion bands did very well in general. The Police, for example, tipped the scales at 142.2 Million in "ticket and music sales". Not bad for a band that has been disbanded since 1986 ( It must be noted that all three have kept creative solo careers going, even if only one of them, Sting, has keep high in the public eye during that time).

These numbers are impressive, but missing are figures on both merchandising (and requisite profits), and actual expenditures. How much was the band paid, for example? I seem to remember a figure of around 200 million paid to the band to do the tour, If that's the case and if total receipts were 142.2 million, than the "Biggest grossing tour of 2007" still would still net a loss. I've done some investigation, and an still trying to verify the numbers paid to the band. Other tour expenditures will be even harder to pin down, and may not even be made publicly available. I will post an update with any hard findings that appear in the course of my research.

Good luck in your own endeavours,

JG

Andy McKee and Youtube Promotion Done Well

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:57:00 -0800

Hello, and I hope your new year is going well. Regular visitors will notice the pace has slowed down since the "winter break" started. rest assured, it will be over soon and I'll start posting more often.

The video below was something I tripped on while searching for guitar entries on Youtube.com

This video, is by Guitarist/composer/(percussionist?) Andy McKee, and his record company Candyrat Records.

Not only is the music incredible, but the record company is doing the smart thing: get the product out there, in a "free" format, and let it sell itself. In this way they are building a community around the artist's work (see the comments section), and have all their contact information (and other web sites) in the "About the video" section (so people can find a way to buy the music, and find their other artists as well).

Brilliant, IMHO.

You can check out Andy's work below, and see related videos too.

Good luck with your own music, and it's promotion.

JG

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Tue, 1 Jan 2008 10:22:00 -0800

2007 saw a lot of changes in music, technology, and the business of music. A lot of flux, some confusion, and difficulty, were found as the traditional systems seemed to be breaking down. The record deal is no longer considered the "holy grail", according to the MTV story in my previous post. If that's true and if artists can't expect record labels and managers, the people who traditionally have the knowledge and experience to "make it happen" for them, then what are the creators and performers of music supposed to do? These seem, at first, to be dark times for those who want to make music a career.

And so the first blog post of the year will be about something we can all probably use

right now: hope.

Here's the story

It's about a young composer, only 16, who's recently had his work played by the Yale University Concert Band. One of the better quotes talks about the qualities this young composer has exhibited in his, still very young, career:

"He has the right combination of talent, passion and entrepreneurial spirit," Duffy said. "This is a pretty significant accomplishment for a beginning composer."

In truth, it's also too rare in so called "older, more experienced" composers and musicians as well.

So if you can't rely on the traditional powers that be, to make you a success, who can you rely on?

This young composer, and many, many others are have already answered that question for you: in the 21st century, more than ever, you have to make it happen for yourself. Others can advise, help, and even "evangelize" your music, but ultimately it's up to you to make it happen.

So, what are you doing about your career in 2008?

Stay tuned here throughout the year for more news, ideas, information, and with luck, some inspiration as well.

The very best to you in the coming year,

JG

Peter Spellman on Trends in the Music Industry

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:52:00 -0800

Here are some thoughts on the current state of the music industry, and where we may be headed, from Peter Spellmen, who is the Director of Career Development at Berklee College of Music in Boston, as well as director of his own consulting/training practice for music entrepreneurs.

http://www.musiccareers.net/articles/careers_in_music/music_marketing_trends/

This article has some length to it, but people looking for some key insights on current trends in industry will defiantly want to make some time to go though this article. People of an entrepreneurial bent (and most of the musicians I've known tend to be) will find some real inspiration here as well.

Happy New Year, Indeed.

JG

Oscar Peterson Dies at 82

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 09:44:00 -0800

Here's the Link: http://omg.yahoo.com/jazz-great-oscar-peterson-dies-at-82/news/5073

A sad note on Christmas. The world won't see his like again.

One listener's tribute, using one of Oscar Peterson's songs, is below.

Condolences to the Peterson Family, and Happy Holidays to you, gentle reader.

JG

MTV Weighs in on the Future of the Music Industry

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:34:00 -0800

Artists, Media and Industry experts, all weigh in on this short series by MTV.

Some are even calling 2007, the year that the music industry broke.

MTV does this series in three parts. Part number one is above. Part 2 asks the question What makes a star these days?, and Part 3 asks: If the old music industry is dead, What's next?

If you don't have time to wade through the whole thing, then you might want to watch the MTV News direct clips on each page. You can actually cycle through them all from page one, without clicking each link.

One overwhelming point is made by this series: while the old industry may indeed be dead, there is a whole new world, and new ways of doing business, opening up.

Stay tuned,

JG

Poetry, Music and Copyright

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:16:00 -0800

For an amusing, and slightly sad, commentary on copyright and the Internet, please see Wendy Cope's article that appeared in The Guardian on December 8th of this year, entitled:

You like my poems? So pay for them

She writes about Poetry here, but much of what she is writing about applies to music as well, certainly the main gist of the piece.

Food for thought,

Grant Money For Composers

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 12:07:00 -0800

OK, so you ask "What about more traditional forms of funding for the arts? Are there any opportunities left? Why don't you write more about that kind of funding?"

And my answers are, in order...

1. They are out there, but you have to look for them.
2. Yes. Here's a story about just one of them . Notice that this group alone gives out 1 Million a year, and that each of the 5 recipients makes $200,000.00 each. Hardly chump change.
3. The focus of this blog has been on what's going on with the business side of things, what the big companies are up to, and how musicians can use technology, opportunity seeking, and good old fashioned hard work to get ahead. This has always been my personal approach to business: Boot strap it.

Then again, maybe I'm getting mellow as I age (like cheese) but I have to admit that networking and mutually beneficial relationships have been the real backbone of any success I have had over the last few years. So maybe there is such a thing as too much Independence after all. Certainly it's no good to spend so much time looking at new trends and opportunities that we ignore some of the more traditional, and well established, ways to secure funding.

With that in mind, I promise to look into more of the traditional Grant, Scholarship, and Corporate Sponsorship funding sources for musicians, and other artists.

And if you know of any of these kinds of opportunities, please send me an e-mail, so that we can share them with others as well.

Thanks and Good Luck,

JG

Music Careers: Instrumental Coaching, Hand Doubles, and Actors Who Play Musicians in Film.

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:37:00 -0800

So, how does an actor who does not play an instrument learn to play well enough to portray a famous musician on the screen? Some times they do, and some time they don't.

For a music career of a different kind, read about Instrumental Coaching and "hand doubles" in this article:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1123/p12s03-almo.html

The article also offers insight from actors who are trying to learn some basic technique, at the very least, in order to portray composers and performers more acurately.

There are a lot of interesting, and little known, ways to make a living with music. All it takes is a little creative research to start to find them. This is a good thing: Because not everyone can be a rock star.

Good Luck with your own career, whatever path you choose.

JG

Satchmo: What a Wonderful World

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Sat, 8 Dec 2007 18:40:00 -0800

Sometimes, with all the business and promotional trends we discuss here, It's almost easy to forget that the point of it all is the music.

So here's a treat for you, a classic clip from a man who understood the need (and fun, actually) of the former, but never forgot the wonder of the latter: Mr. Louis Armstrong.

Please, enjoy.

J

Radio Interview

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Fri, 7 Dec 2007 16:36:00 -0800

There's a decent interview available on You Tube, and posted below, with singer/songwriter Emerson Heart.

Anyone interested in seeing a bit more about what it's like to be interviewed (or conduct an interview) in a traditional radio station may find this interesting.

Radio doesn't have the lock on music promotion that it once did, but it still plays a strong part on breaking, and reviving, careers in this industry.

A note to broadcasters everywhere: Programs and stations need to learn to take advantage of the Internet. Those that do, will find ways to keep interest strong and find additional forms of revenue. This will be vital to the survival, and growth, of terrestrial stations as the world of music and communications continue to change.

Good luck today,

JG

Example: Music and Business Done Right.

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Fri, 7 Dec 2007 12:38:00 -0800

Here's another example of a musical website doing it right from a business point of view:

www.chordie.com

What, specifically, are they doing right from a marketing/revenue generating standpoint?

1. They filed the thing with great content that people will actually want (chord/tabs/lyrics - something sadly missing since OLGA went into exile).
2. Their domain is "cute", and easy to remember.
3. They offer the forums, personalization, link exchanges, and other interactive features that encourage community building.
4. They have appropriate advertising on each page, thanks to Google AdSense, and other featured sponsors.
5. They sell physical products (t-shirts, etc) care of cafe press.

The only questions from here are:

1. What other forms of promotion are they doing? They rated pretty high on Google when I did a search by full song title (in this case "somewhere over the rainbow").
2. What precautions may they have taken against the copyright issues that OLGA ran up against? It would be a real shame to see them create a powerful following, only to have someone go after them and their 250,000 transcribed songs.

Over all, a very well done site!

Best of luck to this group, and to you, in your own on-line musical endeavors.

JG

Nokia and Universal: "Take that freeloaders!"

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Wed, 5 Dec 2007 14:19:00 -0800

Nokia has worked a deal with Universal Music Group to allow UMG's songs to be downloaded on Nokia's phones for "free".

Of course the money would be placed as a general fee or user "tax" to phone subscribers, reports the New York Times.

So: here's a partnership based attempt by a big label to stem the loss of revenue from those who download music for free. It's an interesting idea. It will also be interesting to see how Nokia's subscribers accept the service, and how the version of a "money pool" system will work when other record labels are brought into the mix. Nokia plans to offer music from other labels before this program goes live in 2008.

Here's the link: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/nokia-and-universals-proposed-music-tax/?ref=technology

The original story was written by Saul Hansell.

Rather ironic that this ran today...just a few days after the Doug Morris interview in Wired. You can find the link to that interview in my previous post.

Bon Hiver,

JG

Bon Iver: Another Indie Artist is "Giving it Away", and the Bigger Issue

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Tue, 4 Dec 2007 14:22:00 -0800

Here's another example of how a compelling story and free downloads can - sometimes - propel an unknown into the spotlight.

Please note: He's not a big star yet, but his CD is due out in February, and he already has started to build his fan base. It may be that this is the marketing plan of the future: give away the first batch of songs, and build a touring base, then see what happens. In actual fact: the interview mentions that people have already started to invite him to play gigs (and ask yourself, what's better: scratching around trying to find a gig, or having people call you and ask you to come play? Marketing 101 tells us that it's better to have them calling you).

Of course, all these free give aways may backfire in the long run: if people are always getting the music for free, they may come to expect to always get that end of the product for free (even the people who buy now, rather than steal).

But that's a topic for another day.

Good luck with your own propulsion,

JG

Adjunct Blog and Interview Reminder

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Sun, 2 Dec 2007 08:42:00 -0800

I've moved the information on the Christmas Project over to my musical project blog, tentatively named "All the World's a Stage".

It can be found at www.jimgrenier.net, or on the list of blogs on the profile page.

More can be found for the reason of the move here. Basically though, it's a way to allow people to access this blog for the regular content of music and business, while allowing interested others a glimpse of the process of songwriting. promotion, gigging (I hope) and various other elements of musical projects in actual practice.

Also: Please don't forget to check out that interview with Universal CEO Doug Morris for his view of what exactly went wrong with the music business. I'll save commentary on his views for later, but in the spirit of the piece, I'll leave you with a few words by George Santayana:

"Those who cannot (learn from) the past are condemned to repeat it."

I wish you an absolutely perfect day,

JG

Doug Morris Interview in Wired Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Sat, 1 Dec 2007 14:56:00 -0800

Anyone who wants to see a major label CEO's view of what's happened to the music industry in the last few years must read Seth Mnookin's interview with Doug Morris, chair and CEO of Universal Music Group in Wired Magazine.

If you read only one outside link from this blog for the rest of 2007, make sure it's this one.

JG

E-mail Notification of Blog Postings

noreply@blogger.com (JG) — Sat, 1 Dec 2007 12:27:00 -0800

You can now subscribe to this blog. E-mail notifications will be sent when new posts are published.

Just enter your e-mail into the handy box at the top left side of the screen.

This service is provided by Feedblitz. They do not sell e-mail lists.

Their Privacy Policy can be found here.

You can also un-subscribe at any time.

So now you don't have to miss a post!

Thanks again for your patience and support.

JG