Louis CK on Direct Music Sales

Comedian Louis CK has weighed in with a status report on the first four days of his experiment with independent, DRM-free video distribution. CK spent $170,000 recording live performances consisting of previously unaired material ("every new generation of material I create is my income, it's like a farmer's annual crop") and made it available online direct from a site that he spent a further $32,000 on for $5, without any DRM. In four days, CK recouped the $200,000 outlay and made an additional $200,000, and sales are still holding strong (I just bought a copy).

The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10th. 12 hours later, we had over 50,000 purchases and had earned $250,000, breaking even on the cost of production and website. As of Today, we've sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over $500,000. Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video. They would have given you an encrypted and regionally restricted video of limited value, and they would have owned your private information for their own use. They would have withheld international availability indefinitely. This way, you only paid $5, you can use the video any way you want, and you can watch it in Dublin, whatever the city is in Belgium, or Dubai. I got paid nice, and I still own the video (as do you). You never have to join anything, and you never have to hear from us again.

I really hope people keep buying it a lot, so I can have shitloads of money, but at this point I think we can safely say that the experiment really worked. If anybody stole it, it wasn't many of you. Pretty much everybody bought it. And so now we all get to know that about people and stuff. I'm really glad I put this out here this way and I'll certainly do it again. If the trend continues with sales on this video, my goal is that i can reach the point where when I sell anything, be it videos, CDs or tickets to my tours, I'll do it here and I'll continue to follow the model of keeping my price as far down as possible, not overmarketing to you, keeping as few people between you and me as possible in the transaction.

From Boing Boing:  http://boingboing.net/2011/12/15/louis-cks-drm-free-direct-sa.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

By Jez with 1 comment

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If you would like to connect with us on Facebook - please like us on our facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/We-are-the-Music-Industry/111269045625970

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By Jez with 1 comment

SYNC UP- SUCCESS IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS?

Kristin Hersch from throwing muses, George Howard, co-founder of tunecore and Peter Hinberger, manager of Dr John talk about making music from sync-ups - music licensing, why people feel they still  need a major label to make it big and whether it is actually possible to make money from sync-ups - that is music on TV or film.

Sync-ups seem to be the hot topic in music conferences - and the so-called saviour of independant musicians.  But there seems to be some doubt about how these work in practice, for example, some large TV networks now appear to be asking for unsigned musicians to send music in, but will not pay them for it's use - not even PRS royalties.  The excuse they give is "it's promotion for the artist".

When competition is so fierce and young, upcoming artists are happy to be exploited in this way - how can an artist survive?  Interested to know your thoughts below...

By Jez with No comments

Live Dubstep Wobbling using Synapse for Kinect

An Exciting new Kinect hack from Synapse - the ability to manipulate live dubstep basslines by movement:

They explain how it works below:

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How much does a hit song cost? $1,078,000

Yup - that's right $1,078,000 - well, according to NPR.  "In this case it was Rhianna's "Man Down" - a big budget, blockbuster-style blowout that remains unproven" - so writes http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/

But is this a surprise?  It's always been somewhat depressing to know that the lowest common denominator "sure-fire hit" has always been prevalent within the pop world.  The fact that marketing budgets command the biggest slice of a song's "manufacture" is pretty much a given - the biggest change is that instead of trying to command a closed market of which they are the gate keepers - now the record labels are up against all of us. 

The marketplace is crowded with lots and lots of upstarts vying for your attention so it's only natural that if a company really wants to push something they have two choices.

Come up with a clever idea and Go Viral:

Or if you can afford it - buy the maximum amount of publicity available.

One of the heartening things to come out of this article is that, despite all the doom and gloom surrounding the music industry - clearly the record companies still think there's enough life left in her to invest that amount of money - it's also heartening to see that musicians and song writers are being paid - even if they have to produce Lowest Common Denominator stuff to do so.

Now i'm not sure whether anyone has done a, er, cost analysis of Viral videos - but i think judging by the views of the OK GO! video above - they're pretty rewarding.  All you need is a video camera (which with the advent of cheap DSLR's with film quality is not beyond hiring at any rate), someone who can edit and a good idea. 

By Jez with 1 comment

Needs Moar Sausage: Vst Review - Dada Life's Sausage Fattener

On test this week:  Dada Life's Sausage Fattener VST.

When i first saw the video for Dada Life's VST plug-in  "Sausage Fattener" - i wasn't entirely sure if it was a wind-up or not.    Dada Life - the production team behind the track "Fight Club is Closed", - the teaser video of which you can even see the Sausage Fattener on the Ableton session.

By Jez with 3 comments

Webdocs - complete with Soundcloud integration

Soundcloud announced as part of their soundcloud lab, integration with webdocs - an online document storage facility where pictures and sounds can be imported and hosted and then made into transferrable widgets like the one shown above. 

As well as being embeddable on other platforms like tumblr, blogger or you own webspace, it also features neat little app integration such as the twitter one above, or a countdown timer to your next gig. 

Check them out here:

http://www.webdoc.com

By Jez with 2 comments

Are Record Labels Dinosaurs?



image c/o http://digiboydesigns.com/


With the rise of social networking and direct to fan advertising, most people seem to think so.  But former EMI CEO Tony Wadsworth at an address at the Great Escape Conference seems to think the opposite:

"Record labels are unrecognisable compared to the 90s," he said. "They are smaller, more efficient and they have diversified and taken on many more functions."

Although there were an increasing number of ways for artists to release music without record labels – in recent years bands from McFly to Public Enemy have gone down the DIY route – this often worked only for established artists with years of record-label support behind them, said Wadsworth.

Prince, who has released albums through newspapers, and Simply Red, who released their last album exclusively through Tesco, had some success. But former Girls Aloud star Nadine Coyle, who also relased her debut solo single through Tesco, sold only 117 CD copies on its first day in the charts. "People outside the music industry think you can invest in music and cut out the record label," he said. "But investment without skills rings pretty hollow, record labels still give artists the skills and contacts they need."

By Jez with 1 comment

How to get your music onto Beatport

If you make dance music then the chances are you've heard of "Beatport". In their own words:  "Beatport is the recognized leader in electronic dance music downloads for DJs and club music enthusiasts."  Whilst certainly not the largest online audio store they are certainly the most recognised.  They certainly have the power to make careers - with progressive house producer Deadmau5 and Steve Duda amongst those whose careers have been launched through the site.

Beatport are renowned as having a strict policy in regard to their record labels.  In order to launch a deal with them you have to either be a recognised label and have some marketing muscle behind you.  They rarely deal with "vanity labels" - those labels set up just to deal with one artist - unless you are the kind of artist who can guarantee large volumes of sales.  In addition they monitor all sales - if you're sales dip below $500 per quarter then the chances are they'll cull you from their roster.

By Jez with 60 comments

Soundcloud announce "Labs" - app functionality through Soundcloud

Earlier today Alex, founder of Soundcloud announced the arrival of Soundcloud Labs - a new site dedicated to applications based on the Soundcloud platform.

Launching SoundCloudLabs (phone message) by Alex

The announced applications so far include:

• Social Unlock - a reciprocal social network application similar to tweetforatrack.com whereby users can download a track for free in return for a mention on twitter or facebook.
• Takes Questions - allows "fans" to interact with bands by recording questions which are then sent to the musician which they can reply to.
• Soundcloud Importer - allows users to import an audio file from a private phone line or by email
• Gmail plugin - embeds a soundcloud player in a gmail message
• Gobbler - a bulk upload and tagging utility

Social network allows you to link directly to your soundcloud account and lets users download via a page.  you can see this in action (for a limited time - until Sunday 14th) here:

http://socialunlock.com/celebrity-murder-party/ladyhawke-my-delerium-celebrity-murder-party-remix--2

There are hundreds more apps that other developers have created including an ipad beatbox app by Gorillaz and Korg, Soundcloud desktop and a Tunecore distribution application.

The direct to distribution applications in particular appear to be very useful - linking in directly with many other outlets using Soundcloud as the base.

Youlicense is a licensing application which allows you to advertise on the youlicense database for inclusion in films, tv, video games, websites, corporate applications and so on.

By Jez with 1 comment

Soundcloud Secrets: When to follow people

Soundcloud secrets - when to use following and when not to. at My car by The Always Unprofessional

By Jez with 1 comment

How to create a Facebook Fan page for your band using Root Music

As you probably are well aware, the ubiqutous facebook is currently the king of the social network – at least in the western hemisphere. It is increasingly being used as a method for connecting musicians and bands directly to the fans. But until recently it's basic graphical interface has meant that bands have very little control over it's appearance – and just exactly what can be embedded.

Root music attempts to solve that problem by providing a connecting interface between Facebook, Youtube and Soundcloud. This allows fans to view, interact, like, listen to your music and also to buy it through one simple web page.

They provide a basic free service which allows you to put a player and some basic interactive tools onto your facebook fan page, and a paid service where you have a greater degree of control over how the page looks. Monthly subscription starts at $1.99 per page per month.

The basic procedure is as follows:

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Topspin vs Bandcamp

On Peter Kirns excellent "Createdigitalmusic" blog he interviews elecotronica artist Tricil regarding their experience using Topspin Media and comparing it to Bandcamp.

Bandcamp’s charm when they came out in the post myspace-era was an embeddable, music-centric streaming site that had built in social-sharing, almost like SoundCloud with a commerce function. With Bandcamp, you can set up “In Rainbows”-style pricing of pay what you want and even do a free in exchange for an email much like Topspin. The downsides to Bandcamp are a sandboxed site with little to no css customization, so it’s harder to create a more “branded” presence going the all Bandcamp route.

By Jez with 1 comment

Are Music Subscription Services the way forward?

 The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) seems to think so.   Spotify announced that it's free subscription service wouldn't be quite as free anymore with 20 hours listening reduced to 10 hours - what impact does this have on musicians and artists?

By Jez with 1 comment

The state of Social Networks - 2011

From Bobby Owsinksi's great blog Music 3.0:

Here's a very interesting info-graphic from Ignite as sourced from Google Insights that describes the current state of social networks. As you can see, interest in social networking seems to have flattened out somewhat. It's also interesting how many of the most visited networks are not in the US. And finally, I don't think any of the 5 biggest losers are a surprise (especially MySpace), but the winners are (especially the Chinese Weibo).


Read more: http://music3point0.blogspot.com/2011/04/current-state-of-social-networks.html#ixzz1JgbBeHma

Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

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Is everything popular wrong?

The Independant Label Market is being held in London today and again on the 21st May.  This seems to coincide with "National Record day" which is apparently to celebrate the vinyl format.  The NME has written somewhat cynically about how they hold no love for what they perceieve as a dead format:

If physical singles are finally dying out for good, then don’t expect me to send any flowers to the funeral. I don’t care about Record Store Day. I don’t even care if I never own a physical CD or vinyl record ever again. I got rid of 90 per cent of my CD-based record collection last year, leaving behind only the records I’d paid for before becoming a music hack. I don't miss them.


And here’s why: if you’re seriously bothered about the way your tunes are delivered to you, you’re focusing on totally the wrong aspect of what makes music great.

By Jez with 2 comments

NPR, the music powerhouse?

The Washington Post details the growing influence of National Public Radio in the USA.  It is now second only to MTV in terms of visits per month. Record labels are gradually waking up to the importance of NPR music. 

But as the audience for NPR Music grows, it appears to consist of a demographic that’s actually shrinking: music fans who still buy music.

When NPR pushes a group, “there’s a spike in sales and chatter online,” says Steve Martin, the publicist for Radiohead, Arcade Fire and Paul McCartney — all of whom have felt a tangible boost from NPR’s support. “It’s something that reaches an audience that a lot of other people don’t reach.”

And the fact that NPR has music fans reaching back into their wallets has forced both independent and major labels to make NPR Music coverage a top priority in their publicity campaigns.
Label representatives for British soul singer Adele say that NPR was an “important piece” of the publicity strategy that pushed her new album, “21,” to the top of Billboard for two weeks earlier this month. NPR Music recently streamed both the album and an exclusive live performance.
For lesser-known indie acts, NPR Music’s stamp of approval can feel downright momentous.

Read more here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/npr-the-music-powerhouse-totes-dude/2011/03/14/ABvg1Cs_story.html?hpid=z13

By Jez with 1 comment

An experiment in Musiconomy

Found this great post on Sound-unsound, a forum for emerging artists and bootleggers which i'm reposting here:

"Releasing music is like the dirty dishes when you're living with roommates—if everyone just did their own, there would be no drama!"


-MC Owl


Now I know it would never be like that, and that there's plenty of music being released drama-free to the benefit of all parties involved, but it's an interesting thought. The digital revolution has flipped everything, and there are opportunities for musicians that weren't available before. Nowadays, any schmoe can release a track. Some say this has led to a flood. But it was already flooded, and at least this is a step up from what it was before: any schmoe with money could release a track. So I decided to do an experiment in 'musiconomy' during this evolving time in the music business to see if the outlets are available and effective for me and my peers.

The DIY spirit of underground music uprisings is an inspiration to me, especially the house, DnB and punk scenes. I've heard over and over the tale of Jesse Saunders putting out the first house record on his label back in 1984. I love that story!

I've been observing the music business for a while now, so it's time for a report. Here's what I have found useful if you are looking to release your own music:

SoundExchange

Sound Exchange is a non-profit P.R.O. that pays royalties to featured artists and copyright owners. Collects from satellite radio (such as SIRIUS XM), Internet radio (like Pandora), cable TV music channels and similar platforms for streaming sound recordings. This can be registered for even if you are with ASCAP/BMI/SESAC, it does not compete. They even have a separate fund set up that pays session musicans.

TuneCore

Tunecore is a digital distribution site, facilitates getting your music on iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, etc. There are others like it, but this one seems to be the most together. You can pay for a single or an album. There's a yearly fee to keep your music up on mp3 vendor sites, but its not hefty. What I like is that they get you an ISRC for free, which is valuable in tracking the sales of your music (like a barcode for digital tracks). Then, if you decide to distribute the song(s) yourself, you can encode the ISRC in the ID3 tag of your mp3. Then when you deal with Sound Exchange, you can provide the code and they can calculate your royalties from it, which brings me too:

E-junkie

E-Junkie is a service that provides you with a shopping cart and all the backend services you would need to put music out yourself. You simply upload your track(s) and they give you the code for the shopping cart, send customized emails to your customers with the link (which you can set to a certain amount of downloads) and all the tracking/reports. You can set up your tracks individually with a different price for a group of them (i.e. album). Price is extremely reasonable, a flat fee of $5/month. If you google "e-junkie trial coupon", you can find a coupon code. There's lots of them out there, and they do expire, but after 15 minutes of searching, I found one for a free 90 days.

US ISRC

If you are not using Tunecore for distribution (maybe strictly the beatport/traxsource/stompy route, which Tunecore does not deal with) or you would like the freedom to assign your own ISRC's for organizational purposes, you can register at this site. It's a one-time fee of $70, which might seem steep, but if you will be releasing a lot of tracks, it would be worth it compared to paying for each one on Tunecore.

Jaikoz Audio Tagger

Jaikoz is a software for Mac and PC that you can use to tag your mp3s. This is very useful to spice up your downloads with artwork, liner notes, credits, etc. to automatically show up on people's players. But more importantly, you can embed the ISRC. The software costs $15, but not without a FREE trial first! Once you buy the software, Jthink provides you with updates at no charge.

WordPress

Well known blog site, I know this is not some big discovery! But it's great. Free to start and maintain. Tons of tip sites out there for Wordpress, pretty easy to learn. Many websites you probably don't know are done through Wordpress because they offer a great backend interface.

http://www.orikawa.com/

Plug time! You can check out my site to see how the experiment is going. A little bit about myself: Once I discovered DJing and partying, the one thing I wanted to do most was...well, DJ for parties. Like many others in my raver generation, I got my start in the biz promoting shows...cuz no one books a DJ who doesn't contribute anything else to the scene! I started working for labels and venues, promoting more and more of other people's music and shows. On the side, I keep my dream alive, working on the many Frankenstein projects I now have in my Logic folder. I sit in on as many sessions as I can and I've worked with numerous heads that are on the same search for knowledge.

From my time spent working in the music business, it has become apparent to me that if you make good music, work hard and believe in what you're doing, you will succeed. Good luck!

By Jez with 1 comment