tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58849761718603874342024-03-14T08:59:36.576-07:00we ARE the music industryAnd so are you.... (Experiments in Self Releasing and Music Marketing)Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-57790089563995698412012-09-19T04:55:00.000-07:002012-09-19T04:55:17.355-07:00How Technology Destroyed The Traditional Music Industry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong style="font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">How Technology Destroyed The Traditional Music Industry</strong></div>
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<em><br />In 2006, <strong>Jeff Price</strong> (<a href="http://www.twitter.com/TuneCoreJeff" style="color: #666666;" target="_blank">@TuneCoreJeff</a>) launched <strong>TuneCore</strong>, for the first time allowing all artists onto the shelves of the digital music services whithout giving up rights or revenue. In 2011, he launched Tunecore's <strong>Global Publishing Administration</strong>service, allowing any songwriter access to global publishing administration. Price also co-founded and ran independent record label <strong>spinART</strong>for 17 years. He blogs at <strong><a href="http://artistcore.blogspot.com/" style="color: #666666;" target="_blank">ArtistCore</a></strong>.</em></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">One Path Only</span></strong></div>
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Until recently, the music industry provided artists one path, and one path only, to reach and connect with their fans and monetize their pre-recorded music. Artists had to sign to a record label, transferring ownership of copyrights, relinquishing exclusive artistic control, and giving up most of the revenue from the sale of their recordings. Fans could only buy pre-recorded music in physical form from retail outlets from the limited number of artists that labels chose to anoint. Labels were aware of their unique position and took full advantage of it by gouging both artists and music fans. However, thanks to recent technology, the entire old school music industry is a hairbreadth's away from being dead. In the new digital music industry, the gatekeepers are gone and so are the abundance of obstacles for artists and music fans. With the launch of streaming services, the proliferation of broadband and high-speed Net access via ubiquitous devices – i.e. smart phones, tablets etc - the only remaining relevant piece of the old industry is AM/FM radio in cars. This last bastion of what was will be gone within the next 24 months. With this final change, the collapse of the old industry will be complete.<br />
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<strong>THE TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES FOR MUSIC FANS</strong></div>
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The money behind the music industry follows the consumption behavior of music fans -- it flows according to the technology infrastructure through which music fans get their music.</div>
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For the last 90 years, music fans listened to music in two ways: on AM/FM radio and/or buying pre-recorded music in a "format" (vinyl, cassette, CD, MP3 etc). If someone heard a song they liked, they would most often buy the album with that song on it and play it via a hardware device (i.e. turntable, cassette deck, Walkman, CD player, MP3 player etc).</div>
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For over sixty years, music fans bought their pre-recorded music almost exclusively on vinyl. In 1979, this shifted somewhat with the launch of the Sony Walkman. Prior to the advent of the Walkman only AM/FM radio was portable. The Walkman provided the first truly moveable and convenient way for music fans to take their own music with them. Cassette sales skyrocketed. The trend would not last long, however, as shortly thereafter the CD was introduced. Once again, music fans' buying habits, and money, would shift. This time the consequences would be much greater for the old industry as it placed billions of digital songs encoded on CDs into the hands of hundreds of millions of people. When music was freed from the 5" circular piece of plastic it was embedded on, it set the stage for true industry (r)evolution. All hell was about to break loose for the old school music industry.</div>
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Shortly after the CD made it into the market, an elite technologically-savvy few created a way to "rip" music off a CD and place it onto a hard drive. When free "ripping" software became available on the Net, it hit the mainstream. Soon thereafter, Napster (the first mass used peer-to-peer "file sharing" service) took off, educating the world on how to download and play music on their computers. Consumers now needed a way make it portable; a digital "Walkman." After a few<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nomad.jpg" style="color: #666666;" target="_blank">iterations of digital music players</a> that never took off, along came the iPod. It was not only sleek, cool and very user friendly, it also provided the portability of a LOT of music on a very small lightweight device that could be backed up.</div>
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In addition to this new type of music playback device, another huge change was provided to music buyers with the introduction of two digital music stores: eMusic and then iTunes. With these two entities, music fans no longer needed to buy physical albums for $17.98 to get the one or two songs they wanted. For the first time since 7" vinyl singles dominated the market up to the early 1960's, music fans could buy any individual song they wanted at any time for under a dollar. In addition, the songs downloaded "pre-ripped," removing an inconvenient step for the consumer. The end result, iPods, digital music sales, and consumption took off. In 2011 in the U.S., just eight years after the launch of iTunes, digital music sales generated more revenue than physical music sales in the United States.</div>
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At the same time, Net radio picked up speed, offering the ability for a user to listen on-line to a small number of pre-selected/filtered song streams (just like AM/FM radio). From Net radio came the ability for the music fan to listen to songs he/she selected with "interactivity;" i.e. select the song, start, stop, skip, rewind, fast forward etc. However, before interactive streaming could take off, one very important addition was necessary: the ability for the listener to play and discover a lot more music on demand by accessing someone else's music collection.</div>
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Enter <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_(online_music_service)" style="color: #666666;" target="_blank">Rhapsody</a>, the first on-line streaming interactive music service. Rhapsody negotiated licensing deals with labels allowing music fans to stream music interactively on demand that they did not own; a true industry first.</div>
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That being said, it's important to note that whereas iTunes currently has over 500 million consumers with accounts and credit cards on file, the streaming services, until recently, were lucky to have a few hundred thousand paying subscribers. With more hardware devices, apps, and connectivity entering the market, and lower prices for all of the above, that trend is shifting. According to the 2011 Pew Research Center's report <a href="http://stateofthemedia.org/2011/audio-essay/" style="color: #666666;" target="_blank">The State of the News Media</a>,<em> "Americans for the first time report listening more to online-only outlets like Pandora or Slacker Radio than they do to streams from AM/FM stations."</em> And interactive streaming services like Rhapsody and Spotify are just a hair's breadth away from non-interactive services like Pandora.</div>
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In other words, music fans are rapidly shifting from buying pre-recorded music to listening to someone else's music collection via on-demand streams. One of the last pieces of the equation holding back an even more explosive adoption of on-demand streams is the proliferation of broadband and connectivity in cars. When that arrives, and it will in force within the next 24 months, the old system will be truly dead. (The fight to get into the car and dominate it -- between Apple, Microsoft, Pandora, Sirius, Spotify, Slacker, Google etc -- is going to be a big one).</div>
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For today's emerging music fans, CDs, vinyl and cassettes are a thing of the past; a fringe or niche market that is being replaced by tablets, smart phones and (soon) cars that provide instant on demand access to someone else's music at lightning speed.</div>
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It's the music fan that ultimately drives the industry. If the industry does not adopt the technology that the fans want, whatever permutation of the "industry" exists will fail.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: 11pt;">THE TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES FOR THE ARTIST</span> </strong></div>
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Until recently, there was only one path for an artist to follow to pursue their dreams of becoming a national (or international) music star -- get signed to a record label. Why? Four main reasons<strong>:</strong> barriers to recording, manufacturing, distributing, and marketing music were virtually insurmountable.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><strong>Recording</strong></span></div>
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<a class="asset-img-link" href="http://www.hypebot.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e2017c31edcc65970b-popup" style="color: #666666; float: right;"><img alt="image from www.google.com" class="asset asset-image at-xid-6a00d83451b36c69e2017c31edcc65970b" src="http://www.hypebot.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e2017c31edcc65970b-150wi" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; width: 150px;" title="image from www.google.com" /></a>First, it was extremely expensive to record anything of technical quality. Two-inch reels of tape (or quarter-inch or half-inch), tape machines, sound boards, mics, baffling, reverb units, edit decks, gear rentals, soundproof isolation booths, cables, effects and the expertise (producers, engineers, mixers, master-ers) needed to get the best sounds possible out of the air onto the tape—these all cost a lot of money. Prior to the world of digital, renting a recording studio of quality varied between $500 - $5,000 a day. To record a 12 song album, a band would usually spend a few weeks (months in some cases) in the studio just laying down the raw tracks.</div>
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Once the tracks were recorded, they then needed to be mixed at the pace of about one song a day. This may have happened at the studio where they were recorded, or brought to special mixing studios that had a whole other set of specially customized gear used for mixing. And of course, the artist needed someone with the expertise in how to mix, who charged an additional fee.</div>
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Once mixed, the recordings then needed to be mastered – yet another specialized niche where a trained expert with his/her costs would be added onto the costs to rent another suite of equipment. This involves sequencing songs, adding cross fades and the spaces between each song, tweaking the mixes to assure they were all more or less at the same volume and EQ range (i.e. bass, treble) etc.</div>
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Now, add on top of all of this, the ancillary costs for the artist – hotels or studio room rentals to sleep, food, laundry, cigarettes, gas for the drive, parking etc.</div>
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(For an idea of how great it could be to record, check out Peter Gabriel's <a href="http://realworldstudios.com/" style="color: #666666;" target="_blank">Real World Studios</a> in the UK, its mind blowing, expensive but worth the cost.)</div>
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Recording an album of decent technical quality was just damn expensive; to realize the vision in their head, artists needed someone else to front the money for them. That's what labels did in the form of a loan to the artist that came with some serious strings attached: i.e., transfer ownership of your copyrights to us and agree to payback the loan at a rate of 12% of what your album sells for (we keep the other 88%), give up control etc. And mind you, this was only for the less than 1% of artists that the labels let in.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><strong>Manufacturing</strong></span></div>
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As if the costs to record, mix and master were not enough, the artist needed even more up front cash to manufacture the vinyl or CDs they hoped people would buy. If an artist wanted to sell 10,000 CDs, they needed to front the money to make 10,000 CDs and then hope to god they sold. The risk of not getting the manufacturing money back was huge (let alone making a profit). If they did not sell, the artist was stuck with 10,000 pieces of plastic wrapped in shrink-wrap and a lot less money in their bank account (or unpaid credit card bills).</div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><strong>Distribution</strong></span></div>
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The third barrier was distribution of an artist's pre-recorded and manufactured music. The artist needed his/her music available on the shelves on the stores where people went to buy it. Unfortunately, in the physical world, an artist simply had no way to get his/her CDs onto the shelves of the 10,000+ retail stores across 3,000 miles of the United States. Physical distribution is an expensive, inefficient, costly endeavor of trucks, warehouses, shrink-wrap, inventory systems, finance systems, employees and more. The only way to get distribution was for the artist to do a deal with an entity that had this pre-existing infrastructure – another function of the major labels. In addition, physical retail stores could only stock so many releases before they ran out of room. It was only the majors with their pipelines and money that had access to the shelves of stores like Walmart, the number one music retail outlet in the United States for a period of time.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><strong>Marketing</strong></span></div>
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The fourth and final step on the road to success was marketing and promotion of an artist's music. Music marketing and promotion was accomplished by having a song (or music video) played for other people in hopes those people would like it, buy it and tell others.</div>
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The old media outlets for music discovery and exposure were the tightly controlled and gated arenas of commercial radio, MTV and print magazines, all of which could only be reached by a record label. (Mind you, just getting exposure through these media outlets did not guarantee success. 98% of what the major labels released failed, because it did not cause enough reaction in consumers to motivate them to buy the music through retail outlets.)</div>
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Labels were well aware of the position they held and took full advantage of it. They exploited the hell out of artists by requiring them to give up their copyrights, control and over 85% of the revenue from the sale of the pre-recorded music in order for the artist to gain access to distribution, marketing, and recording funds. In addition, labels removed transparency in royalty accounting and did their best to create laws that singularly benefitted them.</div>
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<strong>Technology changed all of these four points for the artist.</strong></div>
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First, it's far cheaper to record now than it ever has been before. In addition, the level of expertise needed to record has dropped considerably. With a laptop, some one-time purchases of software and some hours to learn how to use it, a home recording studio can be created for the cost of one day's recording at a high-end studio.</div>
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Second, in the digital world there is no up front cost or risk to manufacture inventory. The music is available in unlimited quantity as a digital file that replicates on demand only after it's bought or accessed to stream.</div>
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Third, music fans have shifted from buying CDs in stores to buying/streaming music on-line. Now an artist, for a nominal fee and the click of a button on a website, gets an unlimited amount of self-replicating inventory with no up front cost into the world's largest music retail stores (i.e. iTunes is larger than Walmart ever was), all while keeping their copyrights.</div>
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Fourth, there is now equal access to music discovery outlets – YouTube, blogs, Slacker, Pandora, Spotify, digital music stores' discovery features, Twitter, Facebook and other social networking applications are open to everyone, not just the elite few artists signed to labels. The only media outlet not open to everyone is commercial radio, but with that going the way of the 8-Track over the next few years, the last stranglehold of the traditional music industry will be gone.</div>
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<strong>THE END RESULT</strong></div>
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Artists no longer need labels to record, manufacture, distribute, or gain access to media outlets. The traditional music industry based on the concept of "exploitation" of the artist is being replaced by an industry that serves the artist. These new service entities provide value at fair prices while being innovative, transparent, accurate and fast. Due to the fierce competition between these new music companies, it is the artist who now has the power as they get to determine which ones will survive. The culture gatekeepers from labels and media outlets no longer get to decide which artists and music the general population gets to listen to. Instead, crowd sourcing is the new A&R. All artists now have a shot. The only thing not changing is the hardest task of all: the creative challenge for the artist to create music that makes a personal and meaningful connection with the listener.</div>
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Music fans no longer need labels, retail stores and media outlets to pre-filter what pre-recorded music they get to hear and buy. Instead, the general population has access to all music, makes it owns decisions as to what is "good" and can buy individual songs. In addition, fans no longer need to tether themselves to one device designed solely to play pre-recorded music. Instead, they can buy a smart phone, tablet, etc that not only makes phone calls, takes pictures, texts and shows movies, but also includes on-demand access to an almost unlimited supply of music via ubiquitous cellular and WiFi networks. There are now more people engaging and listening to music, and it will be available through all their devices, everywhere, at all times.</div>
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Despite these undeniable realities, the traditional labels are still attempting to prolong their control and revenue by operating as if the CD music industry world of 1995 still applied. The labels:</div>
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<li><a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081003/0945452446.shtml" style="color: #666666;" target="_blank"></a><br />Sue music fans for copyright infringement .</li>
<li>Create more onerous agreements between labels and artists requiring them to give up even more of their copyrights, not fewer (the infamous "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/360_deal" style="color: #666666;" target="_blank">360 deals</a>") while providing less value.</li>
<li>Use antiquated royalty accounting systems and provisions to slow down or <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/james-taylor-sues-warner-bros-370409" style="color: #666666;" target="_blank">reduce royalty payments owed</a>.</li>
<li>Stifle innovation under the guise of "protecting" copyright (As one example, the majors made it a condition that they must <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2009/08/07/this-is-quite-possibly-the-spotify-cap-table/" style="color: #666666;" target="_blank">own a piece of Spotify</a> in order for Spotify to have access to their music).</li>
<li>Killed artist development and long term careers in a mad dash attempt to make money as quickly as possible.</li>
<li>Feed the media as much false information as possible (i.e. the entire music industry is dying) in an attempt to discredit, slow down and delegitimize the new emerging industry.</li>
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Despite their best attempts, the supposedly "impossible" is happening as many "unsigned" artists top the sales charts of the music stores and sell millions of units of music - i.e. Civil Wars, Alex Day, Boyce Avenue, Hoodie Allen, Blood On The Dancefloor, Lecrae, Colt Ford, Ron Pope etc etc etc.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><strong>The transformation is now technologically complete.</strong></span></div>
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There is very little left to "disintermediate" or "disrupt." The old system is in ruins, degrading a bit more each day. With all the new pieces in place, there will soon be little left of the Wayne's World record executives pulling up in their white limos signing the artist to a contract requiring them to give up their rights and revenue so they can decide which artist gets to make a 5" circular piece of plastic available for music fans to buy at Walmart.</div>
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The new system will not be perfect by any stretch. Like it is with any system, there will be great things and bad things. But I strongly suspect that the worst of the new system will not be considered that bad when compared to what was. That is, until the next disruption occurs and it all starts over again.</div>
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This article originally posted here: <a href="http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/09/the-end-of-the-new-music-industry-transformation-how-technology-destroyed-the-traditional-music-indu.html">http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/09/the-end-of-the-new-music-industry-transformation-how-technology-destroyed-the-traditional-music-indu.html</a></div>
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Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-57044350873592248962012-01-31T03:50:00.000-08:002012-01-31T03:50:51.099-08:00Case Study: Remixing: New Release!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Brand New releases from Oscar TG on his new record label Oh That's Good Music! Entitled, Squelch, the release features remixes from Sean Dexter, Pete Kastanis, Secret Groovers and Me, The Celebrity Murder Party.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="no" height="450" scrolling="no" src="http://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F1203908&show_artwork=true" width="100%"></iframe>
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You can purchase this here:<br />
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Oscar TG Squelch<br />
<a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/juno-download/4f27d4a2008fcb00010008d0/" target="_blank"><span class="store">Juno Download</span> <span class="format">(Mp3/WAV)</span></a> | <a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/itunes/4f27d4a2008fcb00010008d0/" target="_blank"><span class="store">iTunes</span> <span class="format">(256kbps AAC)</span></a> <br />
Oscar TG Squelch (Celebrity Murder Party remix)<br />
<a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/amazon/4f27d4a2008fcb00010008d1/" target="_blank"><span class="store">Amazon</span> <span class="format">(256kbps Mp3)</span></a> | <a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/itunes/4f27d4a2008fcb00010008d1/" target="_blank"><span class="store">iTunes</span> <span class="format">(256kbps AAC)</span></a><br />
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<span class="format">Or on Beatport here:</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.beatport.com/release/squelch/854472">http://www.beatport.com/release/squelch/854472</a><span class="format"> </span> </div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-52703876292526570872012-01-10T07:03:00.000-08:002012-01-10T07:04:07.604-08:00How to book a Tour<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
From the Music Managers foundation:<br />
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Taking place from 6pm on Monday 16th January at Under The Bridge in Fulham, this is one of s series of events the MMF have produced to engage with the live industry that many emerging managers want. The aim is to expose the (sometimes) conflicting needs of the participants in booking a successful tour from artist/manager/agent/promoter/tour personnel/transport provider etc. The aim is to be light-hearted but with an educational outcome.</div>
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The panel will consist of:</div>
<ul style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #242424; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font: inherit; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 30px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jon Webster (Chair)</li>
<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Adam Elfin (MMF Live Committee – manager and agent)</li>
<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Alex Bruford (ex-artist/tour manager/ now agent at ATC Live)</li>
<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Promoter TBA</li>
<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Richard Young (Production manager Radiohead)</li>
<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">John Corr (Sound Moves, Global Freight Orchestration)</li>
<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Adrian Whitmarsh (Premier Aviation – transport)</li>
</ul>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #242424; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font: inherit; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<b style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Date: </b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Monday January 16<sup style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">th</sup></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #242424; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font: inherit; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<b style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Time</b>: 6pm arrival, 7pm panel discussion + Q and A, 8pm (approx.) networking</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #242424; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font: inherit; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<b style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Venue</b>: Under The Bridge, Stamford Bridge, Fulham Road,London,SW6 1HS</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #242424; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font: inherit; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<b style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Underground</b>: Fulham Broadway</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #242424; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font: inherit; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<b style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Map:</b> <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=stamford+bridge+stadium&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=0l0l3l2919l0l0l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0l0&prmdo=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1366&bih=659&um=1&ie=" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #d8185d; font-size: 13px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">click here</a></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #242424; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font: inherit; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<b style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">RSVP</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:info@themmf.net" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #d8185d; font-size: 13px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">info@themmf.net</a>. Admission is free for MMF and FAC members and is yet another benefit of belonging to our wonderful organisations.</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<a href="http://www.themmf.net/2012/01/10/mmf-event-how-to-book-a-tour-16th-january-2/">http://www.themmf.net/2012/01/10/mmf-event-how-to-book-a-tour-16th-january-2/</a> </div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-90143788887070964972012-01-10T06:09:00.000-08:002012-01-10T06:10:55.418-08:00How to: Internet Marketing - Affiliates<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
There is much disagreement over affiliate marketing on the internet - the idea of advertising masquerading as content is a contentious one. Many principled people balk at the idea of placing ads on their internet boards - and certainly for your main content - your "shop window" this isn't really such a great idea as it tends to give off a bad impression. This is why, if you're going to go down the road of placing adverts on your blog you need to consider this quite carefully.<br />
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Don't get me wrong advertising on the internet can be quite a powerful tool for advertisers, and some people can earn significant amounts of money from their blogs. One woman, mentioned on radio 4 recently how she was earning $2100 a month from Huggies coupons.<br />
<br />
So how do you actually do Internet Marketing?<br />
<br />
<br />
The principle is simple - create a blog (or series of blogs) dedicated to specific topics (such as Huggies coupons) and then either create specific content yourself, or you can pay people to create content for you. <br />
<br />
Then litter the blog with links to content relevant products, promote this via press releases to aggregators, and promote yourself on twitter, commenting whenever someone mentions a specific product, to raise your profile and then, voila let the $$$ roll in.<br />
<br />
The reality is not quite as simple as that.<br />
<br />
Is there anything worse than twitter marketers? Not only are they annoying in terms of contacting you, feigning interest, because they want to sell you something, but how can you trust their word if they're simply selling a product that pays the highest yield rate.<br />
<br />
This is how it works, on sites such as "<a href="http://www.clickbank.com/index.html" target="_blank">click bank</a>" you can view potential companies that will advertise on your blog. In return they'll pay a percentage of any sales made as part of a click-through - this could be anything from 4% to 15% or higher.<br />
<br />
Now knowing that, can you trust the word of a marketer who offers you a solution to your problem, knowing that there is something in it for them?<br />
<br />
No, the answer is in the form of ethical marketing. This basically means that you build your reputation for honesty by being honest. Don't advertise products you don't know anything about or wouldn't personally use. Your endorsement is your bond. <br />
<br />
So, if you have a passion for music, or are a musician - on your music related blog, only promote products that you either use or know you can trust personally. This may not offer the highest rate of return in the long run, but over the long term will build you a brand reputation for honesty which readers will respect and return to you for.<br />
<br />
This may also mean being critical towards the brands you advertise, if they warrant it.<br />
<br /></div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-59217649143198540942012-01-09T09:18:00.000-08:002012-01-09T09:20:34.749-08:00Case Study: First Release: Raindance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOroAbBjXy9X75uO39DD_aV0jEjoHOXAlwAm0Ma3vGb4O2QXzrdu2hzmNTEZeNkoOU3NP9-ngzCHY7sUzZZNLokCjJWG_cyg5vfPQwvuPiQ8HYGaYZHCsHsVaOopGEqaYGa7_lPXZMZUE/s1600/CMP_Raindance_2000x2000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOroAbBjXy9X75uO39DD_aV0jEjoHOXAlwAm0Ma3vGb4O2QXzrdu2hzmNTEZeNkoOU3NP9-ngzCHY7sUzZZNLokCjJWG_cyg5vfPQwvuPiQ8HYGaYZHCsHsVaOopGEqaYGa7_lPXZMZUE/s320/CMP_Raindance_2000x2000.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Back in October my track "<a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/juno-download/4f0b1c1c1d24620001000b1d/" target="_blank">Raindance</a>" was released through <a href="http://redrobotrecords.com/" target="_blank">Red Robot Records</a>. At the time I was busy setting up a company and so was unable to dedicate time to self releasing. <br />
<br />
Red Robot had a good reputation and a solid backlog of tracks on Beatport - and as it was unlikely that I'd be able to churn out the volume of tracks and sales that Beatport wanted in order to stay eligible from month to month, it made sense to go with a sturdy record label with a proven history.<br />
<br />
The deal with the label was profit share - we each take a certain percentage each in return for them releasing and promoting the track to their mailing list.<br />
<br />
Initial reviews have been good, although without a large budget to push the track marketing has been kept to a minimum.<br />
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The wonderful <a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/thriftshopxl" target="_blank">Thriftshop XL</a> produced this video:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/5weZutBuPhs?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
In total there are 5 tracks - the title track and 4 remixes by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/copycat" target="_blank">Copycat</a>, <a href="http://soundcloud.com/dunproofin" target="_blank">Dunproofin</a>, <a href="http://soundcloud.com/oscartg" target="_blank">Oscar TG</a> and <a href="http://soundcloud.com/banthissickfilth" target="_blank">Ban This Sick Filth<br /></a><br />
<br />
<object height="225" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F1142776&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&show_playcount=true&show_artwork=true&color=ff7700">
</param>
<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always">
</param>
<embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="225" src="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F1142776&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&show_playcount=true&show_artwork=true&color=ff7700" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object> <a href="http://soundcloud.com/celebrity-murder-party/sets/raindance-released-october">Raindance - 下雨跳舞 (Released October 2011)</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/celebrity-murder-party">Celebrity Murder Party</a>
<br />
And the tracks can be purchased here:<br />
<br />
Celebrity Murder Party - Raindance<br />
<a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/juno-download/4f0b1c1c1d24620001000b1d/" target="_blank"><span class="store">Juno Download</span> <span class="format">(Mp3/WAV)</span></a> | <a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/amazon/4f0b1c1c1d24620001000b1d/" target="_blank"><span class="store">Amazon</span> <span class="format">(256kbps Mp3)</span></a> | <a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/itunes/4f0b1c1c1d24620001000b1d/" target="_blank"><span class="store">iTunes</span> <span class="format">(256kbps AAC)</span></a> <br />
Celebrity Murder Party - Raindance (Dunproofin' Remix)<br />
<a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/juno-download/4f0b1c1c1d24620001000b1e/" target="_blank"><span class="store">Juno Download</span> <span class="format">(Mp3/WAV)</span></a> | <a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/amazon/4f0b1c1c1d24620001000b1e/" target="_blank"><span class="store">Amazon</span> <span class="format">(256kbps Mp3)</span></a> | <a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/itunes/4f0b1c1c1d24620001000b1e/" target="_blank"><span class="store">iTunes</span> <span class="format">(256kbps AAC)</span></a> <br />
<br />
Celebrity Murder Party - Raindance (Oscar TG Remix)<br />
<a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/juno-download/4f0b1c1c1d24620001000b1f/" target="_blank"><span class="store">Juno Download</span> <span class="format">(Mp3/WAV)</span></a> | <a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/amazon/4f0b1c1c1d24620001000b1f/" target="_blank"><span class="store">Amazon</span> <span class="format">(256kbps Mp3)</span></a> | <a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/itunes/4f0b1c1c1d24620001000b1f/" target="_blank"><span class="store">iTunes</span> <span class="format">(256kbps AAC)</span></a> <br />
<br />
Celebrity Murder Party - Raindance (Ban This Sick Filth Remix)<br />
<a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/amazon/4f0b1c1c1d24620001000b20/" target="_blank"><span class="store">Amazon</span> <span class="format">(256kbps Mp3)</span></a> | <a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/itunes/4f0b1c1c1d24620001000b20/" target="_blank"><span class="store">iTunes</span> <span class="format">(256kbps AAC)</span></a> <br />
<br />
Celebrity Murder Party - Raindance (Copycat Remix)<br />
<a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/juno-download/4f0b1c1c1d24620001000b21/" target="_blank"><span class="store">Juno Download</span> <span class="format">(Mp3/WAV)</span></a> | <a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/amazon/4f0b1c1c1d24620001000b21/" target="_blank"><span class="store">Amazon</span> <span class="format">(256kbps Mp3)</span></a> | <a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/itunes/4f0b1c1c1d24620001000b21/" target="_blank"><span class="store">iTunes</span> <span class="format">(256kbps AAC)<br /><i></i></span></a><br />
<span class="format"><br /></span> <br />
<span class="format">In Addition a free remix is available here:</span><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_621941304"><span class="format"><br /></span></a> <br />
<a href="http://audioporncentral.com/2011/10/world-premiere-apc-exclusive-celebrity-murder-party-%E2%80%93-raindance-nautic-jets-remix.html"><span class="format">http://audioporncentral.com/2011/10/world-premiere-apc-exclusive-celebrity-murder-party-%E2%80%93-raindance-nautic-jets-remix.html</span></a><br />
<span class="format"><br /></span> <br />
<span class="format">By the wonderful <a href="http://soundcloud.com/the-nautic-jets" target="_blank">Nautic Jets</a></span><br />
<span class="format"><br /></span> <br />
<span class="format">There is a theory behind the choice of remixes - a good diverse range of tracks from Electro Disco (Copycat), Breaks (Nautic Jets and Oscar TG), Tech-Trance (Dunproofin') and Dubstep (Ban This Sick Filth) means that there is plenty for people to buy if they're not into the original. <br /><br />Hopefully this will sell well - with minimal publicity this may not sell so greatly - but certainly for the next release we're going to look at facebook marketing and how to promote your band / tracks on facebook.</span> </div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-13904610916127828432012-01-09T02:28:00.000-08:002012-01-09T02:41:47.091-08:00Monetise your music content: Mixeeba<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh-RW5ZKEADtsqkyPgfawOzpXUVhQpgEEgAci-lOZhwIUIFcUw0uhmdFGOA1yHrgANPBCi_NAba3geI-JfKW7iz-k0lmRppFKP2QlRNddaug6a5fNL9jdTSbEl-JXQgyuXFoKMNg6AOMA/s1600/header-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh-RW5ZKEADtsqkyPgfawOzpXUVhQpgEEgAci-lOZhwIUIFcUw0uhmdFGOA1yHrgANPBCi_NAba3geI-JfKW7iz-k0lmRppFKP2QlRNddaug6a5fNL9jdTSbEl-JXQgyuXFoKMNg6AOMA/s320/header-logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="http://mixeeba.fm/" target="_blank">Mixeeba</a> are a music affiliate system that enables content providers to monetise content by linking to music download stores. <br />
<br />
As they describe below:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="black" style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light,'Helvetica Neue Light','Helvetica Neue',Arial,'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Mixeeba originally started life as a website for hosting DJ mixes.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light,'Helvetica Neue Light','Helvetica Neue',Arial,'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">DJs uploaded their mix and entered the tracklist in a special format. We monetised the website by displaying the tracklist with an affiliate link to buy each track, making the tracklist interactive. We would search for each track from download stores like</span><a href="http://www.beatport.com/" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #71992b; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue Light', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Beatport</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light,'Helvetica Neue Light','Helvetica Neue',Arial,'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.junodownload.com/" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #71992b; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue Light', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Juno Download</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light,'Helvetica Neue Light','Helvetica Neue',Arial,'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.traxsource.com/" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #71992b; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue Light', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Traxsource</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light,'Helvetica Neue Light','Helvetica Neue',Arial,'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.apple.com/itunes/" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #71992b; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue Light', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">iTunes</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light,'Helvetica Neue Light','Helvetica Neue',Arial,'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">.</span><span class="black" style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light,'Helvetica Neue Light','Helvetica Neue',Arial,'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Others on the web, however, were also tackling DJ mix hosting<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light,'Helvetica Neue Light','Helvetica Neue',Arial,'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">and websites like</span><a href="http://www.mixcloud.com/" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #71992b; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue Light', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Mixcloud</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light,'Helvetica Neue Light','Helvetica Neue',Arial,'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.letsmix.com/" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #71992b; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue Light', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Let's Mix</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light,'Helvetica Neue Light','Helvetica Neue',Arial,'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.soundcloud.com/" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #71992b; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue Light', 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">SoundCloud</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light,'Helvetica Neue Light','Helvetica Neue',Arial,'san serif'; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>were, we thought, doing a better job than we were. We decided to focus solely on what we were doing well: finding where to buy the tracks being played. As such we're now able to help other music-related websites successfully monetise their own content.</span></blockquote>
<br />
This basically means that if you advertise DJ mixes or Tunes on your blog that in return for providing a link and promoting a product you receive a share of the sales. The exact % of the sales return depends on which outlet you advertise. <br />
<br />
The Rates Mixeeba pay are detailed below:<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Juno Records: 10%<br />
iTunes: 4%<br />
Amazon Download: 10%<br />
<br />
On top of that Mixeeba take 20% of the commission and you keep 80%.<br />
<br />
How it works:<br />
<br />
<br />
It's really simple - you simply go to their Tracklist Link generator and input artist and track titles. In return it gives you a block of html which you can post onto your content. The blog links look as follows:<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Celebrity Murder Party - Raindance<br />
<a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/juno-download/4f0abeb10689a50001000afb/" target="_blank"><span class="store">Juno Download</span> <span class="format">(Mp3/WAV)</span></a> | <a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/amazon/4f0abeb10689a50001000afb/" target="_blank"><span class="store">Amazon</span> <span class="format">(256kbps Mp3)</span></a> | <a href="http://link.mixeeba.fm/open-in/itunes/4f0abeb10689a50001000afb/" target="_blank"><span class="store">iTunes</span> <span class="format">(256kbps AAC </span></a><br />
<span class="format"><br /></span> <br />
<span class="format">You can edit the links as appropriate to show as many of the stores as you wish.</span><br />
<span class="format"><br /></span> <br />
<span class="format">Mixeeba serves Beatport, Juno Download, Amazon, iTunes, DJ Trax download, DJtunes, and 7 Digital. In the example above, although the track is available on Beatport, it wasn't returned, which means no doubt they have to iron a few kinks out.</span> </div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-55739521333012340522012-01-07T02:46:00.000-08:002012-01-07T02:48:31.906-08:00Internet Marketing Dirty tricks: Mayor of New York to learn to code<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://my.telegraph.co.uk/expat/files/2011/08/michael-bloomberg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="http://my.telegraph.co.uk/expat/files/2011/08/michael-bloomberg.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16440126" target="_blank">According to the BBC</a> "New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has resolved to take an online computer coding course.<br />
<br />
The mayor is joining more than 180,000 people currently taking part in Code Year, a campaign to encourage more people to programme.<br />
<br />
"My New Year's resolution is to learn to code with Codeacademy in 2012!" he wrote on Twitter.<br />
<br />
- BBC 6th January 2012.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-indent: 0px; text-rendering: auto; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Participants in the course receive an interactive lesson each week, via email.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-indent: 0px; text-rendering: auto; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;">The campaign promises that participants will be "building apps and websites before you know it".</span></div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-indent: 0px; text-rendering: auto; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;">It has proved a hit on Twitter with thousands using the hashtag "#codeyear"."</span></div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-indent: 0px; text-rendering: auto; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://codeyear.com/" target="_blank">Codeyear</a> is a campaign by the company <a href="http://www.codecademy.com/" target="_blank">codeacademy</a> - the company mentioned so prominently in the article. The whole article reads like a press release for the company, and I would bet my hat that it's wording originated in codeacademy's PR department.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-indent: 0px; text-rendering: auto; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;">It may be somewhat surprising to learn that companies can manipulate large news organisations into running adverts as news items, but it is a trick used by PR agencies all the time. Nick Davies in his excellent book "<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flat-Earth-News-Award-winning-Distortion/dp/0099512688/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325932467&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Flat Earth News</a>" exposes how propoganda (government and PR related) is disseminated into the main stream media through the pressures on news organisations to produce a large amount of content quickly. <br />
<br />
There are several obvious giveaways when looking for PR planted news stories:</span></div><ol style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: small;"> A prominent mention of a company, or campaign run by a company / political organisation</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">The article will espouse specific benefits of the product</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">The article will mention research by a grassroots organisation</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Often the company's product addresses a specific outcome of that research by providing a solution.</span></li>
</ol><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-indent: 0px; text-rendering: auto; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;">Codeacademy's campaign is doubly effective in that they have leveraged a major figure to promote their campaign - Mayor Bloomberg (One wonders what he was offered in return).<br />
<br />
As the BBC pointed out in their expose on Internet Marketing here:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b018xy2b/The_Internet_Millionaires_Club/">http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b018xy2b/The_Internet_Millionaires_Club/</a><br />
<br />
Twitter testimonials are often a valuable tool for internet marketing.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-indent: 0px; text-rendering: auto; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div></div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-71627052114460143662011-12-16T02:44:00.000-08:002011-12-16T02:44:22.271-08:00Louis CK on Direct Music Sales<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/FzHzlMneaeQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Liberation Serif', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 22px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">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).</div><blockquote style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Liberation Serif', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 4em; orphans: 2; padding-left: 20px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 22px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><img align="right" class="bordered" src="http://craphound.com/images/ckmain-bg.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-color: black; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; border-right-color: black; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 2px; border-top-color: black; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 2px; border-width: initial; float: right; height: auto; margin-bottom: 11px; margin-left: 22px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 98%;" />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.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 22px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">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.</div></blockquote>From Boing Boing: <a href="http://boingboing.net/2011/12/15/louis-cks-drm-free-direct-sa.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">http://boingboing.net/2011/12/15/louis-cks-drm-free-direct-sa.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter</a> <br />
<br />
</div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-17397668083267329892011-11-29T03:46:00.000-08:002011-11-29T03:54:26.466-08:00Like us on facebook - follow us on twitter!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">If you would like to connect with us on Facebook - please like us on our facebook page here:<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/We-are-the-Music-Industry/111269045625970">https://www.facebook.com/pages/We-are-the-Music-Industry/111269045625970</a><br />
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Follow us on twitter:<br />
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<a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/WAMI_Blog">http://twitter.com/#!/WAMI_Blog</a><br />
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</div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-57711080989575030772011-11-29T03:32:00.000-08:002011-11-29T03:32:29.309-08:00SYNC UP- SUCCESS IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/F62eEf0QAq8?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
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.<br />
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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". <br />
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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...</div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-73742213540432802062011-07-09T02:54:00.000-07:002011-07-09T02:54:57.800-07:00Live Dubstep Wobbling using Synapse for KinectAn Exciting new Kinect hack from Synapse - the ability to manipulate live dubstep basslines by movement:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/1ge7RcIBWsc?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>They explain how it works below:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/teHCHsjxI00?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>It's for MAC OSX, Ableton Live and MAX/MSP - download it for free from their website here:<br />
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http://synapsekinect.tumblr.com/post/6307790318/synapse-for-kinectJezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-4249871932925139482011-07-05T01:30:00.000-07:002011-07-05T01:30:03.171-07:00How much does a hit song cost? $1,078,000<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqMioyvZLKj3cTUxentCdS1E6y_LMB8Dr5wooNoYCFyPPMxuWeWIAbxSjvJhP1CRhhdsxWIrxP9zoGYxuvv9GLjYnGhH12eywxW8PVfrywBqZO8JSDoPLqVj5lhEwGar-Z6ZXn3DzgGHk/s1600/npr_estimate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqMioyvZLKj3cTUxentCdS1E6y_LMB8Dr5wooNoYCFyPPMxuWeWIAbxSjvJhP1CRhhdsxWIrxP9zoGYxuvv9GLjYnGhH12eywxW8PVfrywBqZO8JSDoPLqVj5lhEwGar-Z6ZXn3DzgGHk/s400/npr_estimate.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Yup - that's right $1,078,000 - well, <a href="http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/063011song?utm_campaign=Argyle%2BSocial-2011-07&utm_content=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.digitalmusicnews.com%252Fstories%252F063011song&utm_medium=Argyle%2BSocial&utm_source=twitter">according to NPR</a>. "In this case it was Rhianna's "Man Down" - a big budget, blockbuster-style blowout that remains unproven" - so writes <a href="http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/">http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/</a><br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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Come up with a clever idea and Go Viral:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/dTAAsCNK7RA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
Or if you can afford it - buy the <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CEEQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FRihanna&ei=4MkSTuHXC4TDhAedjNn4DQ&usg=AFQjCNH5LfpKECiRPWoeD_mnELdrOY3chA&sig2=R040GSixTbPlQ0lZ_6T33g">maximum amount of publicity available</a>.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
</div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-60531004186238980322011-07-04T06:34:00.000-07:002011-07-04T06:44:27.622-07:00Needs Moar Sausage: Vst Review - Dada Life's Sausage Fattener<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">On test this week: Dada Life's Sausage Fattener VST.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCNfp8NDrdYXCtmZNLsPP7DmN2E4q9Bp0HBlk-KvqDK_grOfj1IBA6mXuNxzXlPTqm-B7xEj4EMMF4-O_-_wodL45eErDUb4FyF_Yyz2Fyc0h4Hh5F8lyn5F4pCLr7l-iW7SZz6soeDYA/s1600/sausage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCNfp8NDrdYXCtmZNLsPP7DmN2E4q9Bp0HBlk-KvqDK_grOfj1IBA6mXuNxzXlPTqm-B7xEj4EMMF4-O_-_wodL45eErDUb4FyF_Yyz2Fyc0h4Hh5F8lyn5F4pCLr7l-iW7SZz6soeDYA/s400/sausage.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/BVzPMCStRBQ"> teaser video</a> of which you can even see the Sausage Fattener on the Ableton session.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/jHFzfZl6NQQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
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After some initial reservations, i managed to purchase a copy from Dada Life for the princely sum of just $29. Thankfully - after a little wait - the download details for the plugin were sent to me by email and i downloaded my copy. <br />
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Taking up less than 3MB - it's very easy to install in either 32 or 64 bit flavours. Installation is easy and quick - and i personally had no problems using this on either insert or bus channels. It appears some people have issues running more than one instance but it seemed fine and stable on my platform (Quad Core, Win XP SP2).<br />
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I've included below a soundcloud link showing the effect of the sausage fattener as a bus channel - with a range of settings from 0-100%. <br />
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<object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F18374690"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F18374690" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object> <a href="http://soundcloud.com/celebrity-murder-party/sausage-fattener-review">Sausage Fattener Review</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/celebrity-murder-party">Celebrity Murder Party</a> <br />
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If you open up the Ableton session below (needs 8.1.4 or above) you will see that the plugin has been set up on a bus channel, through which the bass and drums are routed. I then increased the amount of saturation from 0% to 100% - starting at 0, then 35, 50, 75 and finally 100. You can see the effect the saturation has on the effect and waveform- making the name make more sense as you can see the sausage taking shape.<br />
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Ableton File: <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?dchdh8dt31ipdgi">http://www.mediafire.com/?dchdh8dt31ipdgi</a><br />
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In conclusion - the SF doesn't do anything you couldn't nesc. do yourself - it's essentially a saturator, eq and brickwall limiter in one - but it does add a pleasant (or more correctly - nasty) amount of fatness if you're trying to achieve that hyper compressed distorted sound beloved by bloody Beetroots et al.<br />
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Also interesting is that this plugin marks the first of hopefully a number of artist specific plugins to be created by "<a href="http://www.tailorednoise.com/index.php?/plugins/sausage-fattener-by-dada-life/">Tailored Noise</a>". This could be an interesting new revenue stream for artists that have a certain sound and don't mind other people having access to their tools.<br />
</div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-8824905990219426092011-05-17T13:18:00.000-07:002011-05-17T13:18:59.422-07:00Webdocs - complete with Soundcloud integration<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><iframe frameborder="0" height="483" scrolling="no" src="http://www.webdoc.com/embed/C4C66812-8AD0-0001-8789-194810AB4710" title="webdoc" width="500"></iframe><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">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. </div><br />
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. <br />
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Check them out here:<br />
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http://www.webdoc.com<br />
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</div></div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-39995520632510609512011-05-14T06:37:00.000-07:002011-05-14T06:37:31.882-07:00Are Record Labels Dinosaurs?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP7wzjY38KfTOZ_jGHkD87eqU_ROW1-r21MJpU9Gp2oRseojE5KvgdNBndY3PhbuMz-IY1HaKTG9hnmMZpToAqMl0VCSVKYpDZzUIfX9TMHn1Zu1IKmur5pyWxZY5y8ffKZD6EtElrG0s/s1600/dinosaurs_rock_brown_lg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP7wzjY38KfTOZ_jGHkD87eqU_ROW1-r21MJpU9Gp2oRseojE5KvgdNBndY3PhbuMz-IY1HaKTG9hnmMZpToAqMl0VCSVKYpDZzUIfX9TMHn1Zu1IKmur5pyWxZY5y8ffKZD6EtElrG0s/s320/dinosaurs_rock_brown_lg.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">image c/o <a href="http://digiboydesigns.com/">http://digiboydesigns.com/</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table> <br />
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:<br />
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<blockquote>"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." <br />
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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.<br />
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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."</blockquote><a name='more'></a><br />
(From <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/may/13/record-labels-not-dinosaurs-music-industry">the Guardian</a>) But digital technology, which allowed artists like Lady Gaga to communicate and promote herself directly to her fans through tools like Twitter, were making the labels raise their game, said Wadsworth. "Artists are beginning to say, 'I could do this myself, how can you add value?'," he said. "But many artists who have attempted to do things themselves have come to the realisation that labels still have a lot to offer."<br />
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The report, which takes a comprehensive look at how record labels have changed in the past decade, states:<br />
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* The artist/label relationship has changed – artists demand more from labels, and in return labels take a share of profits made from merchandise, touring and sponsorship and not just the number of CDs sold in 360º record deals. These can "spread the risk for the record label and increase the participation in success for the artist," says the report.<br />
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* Label marketing of music has gone from a scattergun approach to highly targeted digital campaigns, like Cheryl Cole who answered questions online from fans as well as doing deals with online retailers.<br />
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* Sponsorship deals are more important than ever. The Black Eyed Peas have done deals with dozens of brands including, Pepsi, Blackberry and Honda while bands like Girls Aloud have endorsed everything from Sunsilk hair products to Kit Kats.<br />
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* Investment is under strain and some bands are looking for alternative funding sources. Madness signed a deal with Power Amp who took a share of profits while the band maintained their copyright. But labels remained the primary investors.<br />
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* Some in the industry fear that with less money "investment is pushed towards the safer end of the spectrum […] there is a danger that safe investment brings with it safe music", states the report.<br />
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But some think that Record labels haven't gone far enough:<br />
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<blockquote>Mark Mulligan, analyst at Forrester Research said record labels had taken big steps to transform how they worked in order to survive, but they hadn't gone far enough. The digital market was slowing down he said, while physical music sales continued to drop. A report from the international music industry body, the IFPI, revealed earlier this year that the global growth in digital music halved in 2010, with only "single digit" percentage growth in the more mature US digital music sector. <br />
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"Each of the major digital music players, Apple, Amazon and Google have made it clear that they think labels are being unflexible and Spotify still cannot launch in the US because of wrangling over licensing," he said. "The record labels are at the start of a very long journey, but they have only taken a couple of steps and they are not walking quickly enough," he said.</blockquote></div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-87406854860581913132011-05-07T01:31:00.000-07:002011-05-07T01:31:59.006-07:00How to get your music onto Beatport<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnOxtbL4hYnqxwEwAOcCNQ_Kycv9idIUOAIxOhOsqCcQRL5te1eM9FLjy9iM5Di6NMYO7DR4zgrZfd6nL5be66ngQXNauEwtX4oaM0gjCT71x4yj6Oq4wHSyQrWht5l3r-bqY6EyD_Rog/s1600/beatport.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnOxtbL4hYnqxwEwAOcCNQ_Kycv9idIUOAIxOhOsqCcQRL5te1eM9FLjy9iM5Di6NMYO7DR4zgrZfd6nL5be66ngQXNauEwtX4oaM0gjCT71x4yj6Oq4wHSyQrWht5l3r-bqY6EyD_Rog/s1600/beatport.jpg" /></a></div>If you make dance music then the chances are you've heard of "<a href="http://beatport.com/">Beatport</a>". In their own words: "<strong>Beatport</strong> 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.<br />
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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 <a href="http://www.residentadvisor.net/forum-read.aspx?id=38300">cull you from their roster</a>.<br />
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In order to actually get on Beatport in the first place you'll either need to be:<br />
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<ol><li>An Established Artist with provable high volume sales</li>
<li>A Record label with an established roster of Artists </li>
<li>Signed to A record label or</li>
<li>Accessing them via one of the distributors such as <a href="htt://tunecore.com/">Tunecore</a>.</li>
</ol>In the case of 4. Even THAT does not guarantee your access to Beatport. Beatport can reject your music if it doesn't live up to their editorial standards. But certainly if you're interested in setting up your own label and want to take on the financial and time burden that comes in tandem then it's the way to go. <br />
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Conversely Beatport's "Quality Control" actually works to your advantage. That they are culling labels naturally reduced competition, whilst it reassures the public that they are not getting a situation like on myspace where they could spend hours wading through tracks that simply aren't any good. From a marketing perspective this makes Beatport very attractive - the brand is a seal of "Quality". This also narrows it's marketing reach.<br />
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Distributors (who claim) to work with Beatport:<br />
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<a href="http://www.miniaturamusic.net/">http://www.miniaturamusic.net/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.kvzmusic.com/">http://www.kvzmusic.com/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.musikandfilm.com/Digital_Distribution.html">http://www.musikandfilm.com/Digital_Distribution.html</a><br />
<a href="http://blog.somecutzupaggregation.com/">http://blog.somecutzupaggregation.com/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.houseplanetdistribution.com/">http://www.houseplanetdistribution.com/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.sonicraydistribution.com/client-base/partner-shops/3873627">http://www.sonicraydistribution.com/client-base/partner-shops/3873627</a><br />
<a href="http://www.miniaturamusic.net/">http://www.miniaturamusic.net/</a><br />
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This is as a result of a cursory glance on google - we can't vouch for them, remember if you're signing up look for other artists who they claim to distribute before agreeing to hand over any money!<br />
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</div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com60tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-42925583908532877952011-05-05T12:00:00.000-07:002011-05-05T12:00:12.848-07:00Soundcloud announce "Labs" - app functionality through Soundcloud<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Earlier today <a href="http://soundcloud.com/alex">Alex</a>, founder of Soundcloud announced the arrival of <a href="http://soundcloudlabs.com/">Soundcloud Labs</a> - a new site dedicated to applications based on the Soundcloud platform.<br />
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</div><object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F14663478"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F14663478" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object> <a href="http://soundcloud.com/alex/a-phone-call-on-wednesday">Launching SoundCloudLabs (phone message)</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/alex">Alex</a> <br />
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The announced applications so far include:<br />
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<ul><li>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.</li>
<li>Takes Questions - allows "fans" to interact with bands by recording questions which are then sent to the musician which they can reply to.</li>
<li>Soundcloud Importer - allows users to import an audio file from a private phone line or by email</li>
<li>Gmail plugin - embeds a soundcloud player in a gmail message</li>
<li>Gobbler - a bulk upload and tagging utility</li>
</ul>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:<br />
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<a href="http://socialunlock.com/celebrity-murder-party/ladyhawke-my-delerium-celebrity-murder-party-remix--2">http://socialunlock.com/celebrity-murder-party/ladyhawke-my-delerium-celebrity-murder-party-remix--2</a><br />
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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.<br />
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The direct to distribution applications in particular appear to be very useful - linking in directly with many other outlets using Soundcloud as the base.<br />
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<a href="http://soundcloud.com/apps/youlicense">Youlicense</a> 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.</div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-89302822132326892022011-05-03T10:52:00.001-07:002011-05-03T10:52:24.667-07:00Soundcloud Secrets: When to follow people<object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F14330287"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F14330287" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object> <span><a href="http://soundcloud.com/the-always-unprofessional/soundcloud-secrets-when-to-use">Soundcloud secrets - when to use following and when not to. at My car</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/the-always-unprofessional">The Always Unprofessional</a></span>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-23555469884636645102011-05-02T02:32:00.000-07:002011-05-02T02:32:00.600-07:00How to create a Facebook Fan page for your band using Root Music<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihUb60wnkhsqkBrGF4Q4Up8aOMH5l5C7b5GATFT-4tnVtwTfzCN_L940mgZlMGbb68gy682NKGhUi66EoKr72DkYvBQQMYgebR-iTymSrq6Zch91LVE31Qi94jkh_NLIUDOIlLBIaCIGY/s1600/rootmusic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihUb60wnkhsqkBrGF4Q4Up8aOMH5l5C7b5GATFT-4tnVtwTfzCN_L940mgZlMGbb68gy682NKGhUi66EoKr72DkYvBQQMYgebR-iTymSrq6Zch91LVE31Qi94jkh_NLIUDOIlLBIaCIGY/s400/rootmusic.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://3.gvt0.com/vi/f2zA0rwg_Ts/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/f2zA0rwg_Ts&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/f2zA0rwg_Ts&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><br />
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.<br />
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The basic procedure is as follows:<br />
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1. Create a Facebook fan page<br />
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2. Create a Soundcloud or Youtube account to hold your music and videos<br />
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3. Upload music to your accounts<br />
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4. Create a Root music account<br />
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5. Link your Facebook fan page to your root music page.<br />
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6. Export your page<br />
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7. Go to the Rootmusic app page<br />
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8. Add the app to your Facebook Fan page<br />
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9. Edit the default landing page of your Fan Page to the “Rootmusic” app.<br />
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The following videos show you how to create your band facebook page and edit the content using Root music.<br />
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<strong>How to create a Facebook fan page for your Music</strong><br />
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<strong>How to edit your Root Music Page:</strong><br />
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<strong>Exporting to Facebook</strong><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://3.gvt0.com/vi/Q_pcge8mWKs/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q_pcge8mWKs&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q_pcge8mWKs&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><br />
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<strong>How to edit the default landing page</strong><br />
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Unfortunately the videos seem to be a little out of date, however after a good few minutes of searching i managed to find out the following information:<br />
1. Click on “Edit Page”<br />
2. On the “Wall tabs” section, change the default Landing Tab to “Bandpage”<br />
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And that's it. Unfortunately when YOU view the site you will still see the old view - but when your fans land on the page they will automatically be taken to the rootmusic app page.<br />
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You can see the basic package on display here on our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Celebrity-Murder-Party/14772080307#!/pages/Celebrity-Murder-Party/14772080307">Celebrity Murder Party fan</a> page:<br />
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</div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-50277604039294733522011-04-30T03:17:00.000-07:002011-04-30T03:17:37.574-07:00Topspin vs Bandcamp<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgcldWyGWlT4n77NIWxLRJUaU1s_DSbTT46plYaFsuTusGXR7qtffGFfbYiH8H-lVa-WVHVxAeUDg1fk-U8hJOBKt-eaSsGS_LXHgM1_Opg-z73R2CsqwXw7eE7fv8I65Q4q6jzWFAjA4/s1600/topspin.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgcldWyGWlT4n77NIWxLRJUaU1s_DSbTT46plYaFsuTusGXR7qtffGFfbYiH8H-lVa-WVHVxAeUDg1fk-U8hJOBKt-eaSsGS_LXHgM1_Opg-z73R2CsqwXw7eE7fv8I65Q4q6jzWFAjA4/s1600/topspin.png" /></a></div><br />
On Peter Kirns excellent "<a href="http://createdigitalmusic.com/">Createdigitalmusic</a>" blog he interviews elecotronica artist Tricil regarding their experience using <a href="http://www.topspinmedia.com/">Topspin Media</a> and comparing it to <a href="http://bandcamp.com/">Bandcamp</a>.<br />
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<blockquote>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. <br />
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Topspin is different. They seem to be the pioneers of the “email for download” thing, which to me is your first price point. You could host them on SoundCloud, Last.fm or your own site and get 1000s of downloads, but wouldn’t it be nice to tell those 1000 people about your new album with an exclusive offer to download another new track? Anonymous hot-linking downloading is great, but having permission to go Direct to Fan is even better. This is the strength of Topspin’s email platform. Additionally, you can segment your fans so I can holler at my three fans in Peoria, IL about my next show there (TBA). Geo-tagging is done by clicking on a link in a confirmation email, COPPA-compliant. No spam here.<br />
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Bandcamp’s real appeal came from the universally embeddable streaming players that work via HTML5 and within Facebook as well. As you can see from a recent Topspin blog post that bizarrely features me, these are coming to the Topspin world as well. <br />
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Bandcamp has added email for download functionality as well, but I don’t think its email backend is as robust as Topspin’s. I believe it’s through FanBridge and that’s on a separate site, whereas in Topspin, it’s all self-contained in the same app, along with stats on plays, emails, geodata, and NextBigSound integration. (NBS is amazing, it’s like Google Analytics for musicians). </blockquote>Read the full article here:<br />
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<a href="http://createdigitalmusic.com/2011/04/tricil-measures-topspin-one-solo-artist-on-making-it-online-comparing-bandcamp/">http://createdigitalmusic.com/2011/04/tricil-measures-topspin-one-solo-artist-on-making-it-online-comparing-bandcamp/</a></div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-44983288351497093522011-04-30T03:05:00.000-07:002011-04-30T03:05:42.712-07:00Are Music Subscription Services the way forward?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi0L7zza3jSdYyromFVxJgBjYM2Sh82cDk9jSvfjQTLnilbgRkBtyz1hi-0ov0fvsYl895TJiEy6tdxLFGUR1tt7J-shMtLDcE8LjFe-MHmThsgW3uJwV6DRmVcNvbBAy4AYQxImkfZLM/s1600/spotify-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi0L7zza3jSdYyromFVxJgBjYM2Sh82cDk9jSvfjQTLnilbgRkBtyz1hi-0ov0fvsYl895TJiEy6tdxLFGUR1tt7J-shMtLDcE8LjFe-MHmThsgW3uJwV6DRmVcNvbBAy4AYQxImkfZLM/s1600/spotify-logo.jpg" /></a></div> The <a href="http://www.featuredartistscoalition.com/">Featured Artists Coalition</a> (FAC) seems to think so. <a href="http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/39580/spotify-limits-free-music-access">Spotify announced that it's free subscription service wouldn't be quite as free anymore</a> with 20 hours listening reduced to 10 hours - what impact does this have on musicians and artists?<br />
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The FAC describe themselves as follows:<br />
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<blockquote><strong><span style="font-size: medium;">The Featured Artists Coalition campaigns for the protection of UK performers' and musicians' rights. We want all artists to have more control of their music and a much fairer share of the profits it generates in the digital age. We speak with one voice to help artists strike a new bargain with record companies, digital distributors and others, and are campaigning for specific changes.</span></strong></blockquote>They are a reasonably new body that sprung from the Music Managers Foundation and a frustration with the recording industry in general. Mark Kelly, CEO of FAC had this to say:<br />
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<blockquote>The original idea was born from the Music Managers Forum (MMF). Some of the managers found that record companies and government bodies wouldn't readily include them in relevant discussions about the music industry. However, they soon realised that if they had artists on board, it would open doors and that's where the idea for the FAC came from. <br />
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In the early days we decided that we would do it all ourselves and not have any managers involved as we didn't want to come across as a mouthpiece for the MMF. Although the MMF created the FAC, we very quickly made efforts to make it clear that we were a seperate entity (although we do still work with them as well as the record companies and the Musicians' Union). The fact that we operate separately makes it challenging because, as musicians, most FAC members have full-time careers outside of the organisation</blockquote><br />
The FAC has a very forward thinking view of the recording industry:<br />
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<blockquote>That business model doesn't work any more. The idea of releasing something on the radio and it not being available to buy is ridiculous. If people hear a song and they can't buy it through the proper means then they'll just go and download it for free from a torrent site. So, we were very much behind the idea of getting the labels to agree not to release stuff to the radio stations unless it was actually available to buy. Several of the major labels have signed up to it already, and although it's still early days, it should make for an even playing field</blockquote><blockquote>We think that the labels could do more to get the artists involved. That's what would give Spotify (and other sites) the edge over the torrent sites. I think that if fans know that the artists are involved then they'd be more willing to pay. <br />
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Spotify has done deals with the four major labels, but we don't know what the terms are, as they're under NDA. We know that in most cases, the artists get paid fairly tiny amounts but to understand how we're being paid would really help. <br />
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As a consumer, I really like Spotify and I pay for a subscription. I think it's good value and it's a great service. I also really like the Pandora service in America [currently US-only]. Apart from the fact that it's churning a large amount of dollars back into the music industry over there, it's effectively a radio station, a bit like Last.fm. It's very good at suggesting stuff to you that you might like. That sort of service is great because it turns people onto new music which is always going to be a good thing.<br />
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When it comes to downloading music, some people pay for it, and some don't. Some of us use reputable free streaming services, while others opt for illegal downloads from torrent sites. Whichever option you choose is up to you, and while we would never condone nicking copyrighted content, we'd be hard-pushed to find someone that had never bent the rules, whether that's by illegally downloading a track or watching a pirated video. What we do know is that by using services such as Spotify, at least the artists are getting some of the profits made by the site, even if there's still scope for negotiating a better deal for the musicians. In short, we're happy to pay a subscription fee, as long as that guarantees access to a wide range of tracks and as long as the money actually makes its way into the pockets of the people making the music.</blockquote>However, as <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/apr/13/spotify-songwriters">Lady Gaga recently pointed out</a>, royalty percentages from Streaming services need to increase in order for artists to actually make any form of a living out of them. <br />
<blockquote>But last year it was claimed that over a five-month period, 1m plays of Lady Gaga's hit Poker Face – one of the most popular songs on the site – earned her just $167.</blockquote><br />
It's a chicken and egg situation - until Spotify improves it's subscription rate then it won't be able to pay any decent royalties.<br />
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</div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-39036263334064689622011-04-16T04:52:00.000-07:002011-04-16T04:52:13.462-07:00The state of Social Networks - 2011<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">From Bobby Owsinksi's great blog Music 3.0:<br />
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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).<br />
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Read more: <a href="http://music3point0.blogspot.com/2011/04/current-state-of-social-networks.html#ixzz1JgbBeHma">http://music3point0.blogspot.com/2011/04/current-state-of-social-networks.html#ixzz1JgbBeHma</a> <br />
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Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike</div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-82330831048544335562011-04-16T04:06:00.000-07:002011-04-16T04:09:57.793-07:00Is everything popular wrong?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Independent-Label-Market/209825562378146">Independant Label Market</a> 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 <a href="http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=146&p=10062&title=why_i_don_t_care_about_record_store_day&more=1&c=1">written somewhat cynically</a> about how they hold no love for what they perceieve as a dead format:<br />
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<blockquote>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. <br />
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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.</blockquote><a name='more'></a><br />
They have a point, but there is something far more appealing, both in terms of sound quality and having something tangible to savour in physical formats. CD's never really cut it for me.<br />
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Also, as the recent major press coverage of <a href="http://www.purplerevolver.com/bulletin/the-method/121389-rise-records-bristol---record-store-day-preview.html">Rise records in Bristol</a> goes the desire for quality physical products such as vinyl is on the rise. They attribute this to mainly staying away from music that is most dominant in the mainstream media. Most of their records centre around hard to find and niche labels churning out quality music with dedicated followings. And, unlike in other arenas, business appears to be booming. <br />
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Stefan Goldman on the great blog "little white earbuds" has also written about this recently in their article <a href="http://www.littlewhiteearbuds.com/feature/everything-popular-is-wrong-making-it-in-electronic-music-despite-democratization/">"Everything popular is wrong</a>":<br />
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<blockquote>Contrary to public perception, this didn’t affect the majors all that much. Their problems were mostly in their inability to maximize the advantages they already had instead of wasting resources on trying to revive an overthrown order. Soon enough it dawned on them that big artists (i.e. those with the biggest turnover) can generate reasonable income through so called 360-degree-deals, covering live gigs, publishing rights, merchandise, etc. all under the control of one company. Even the smallest labels engage in a similar policy nowadays. But the required resources to participate in the game of filling stadiums, really cashing in on movie and advertising deals today are almost exclusively in the hands of majors. Interestingly, the so called “democratization” of music production and distribution didn’t change this allocation of relevant income to the majors’ detriment at all.</blockquote><blockquote>.....To an extreme extent, success in the arts is subject to random factors (we see many successful people who have no clue how they got there, how to stay there or how to repeat it). The more radically and frequently you stand out, the more often you get exposure to those factors, thus increasing the probability of channels opening up for you. That is not spamming the Internet but creating radically individual great music in the first place. Once you enter the channel, you allow more factors to work for you, since these tend to add up (path dependency). Art always had to be great (whatever that is) and move people in order to succeed, too. But now there’s that third dimension of having to create a wide gap between you and the competition, even if that’s just within one genre. If you can implement this idea in your work, the flood is not threatening at all anymore since it works against itself. “Unique” is the most valuable word in a crowded environment of generic ideas and overwhelming redundancy. Striving for this quality is also exactly what is most rewarding artistically. Besides screaming fans and free drinks, that is.</blockquote>So it appears that, contrary to popular opinion the way to succeed in music nowadays is to strive for quality, rather than being otherwise popularistic. <br />
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So what do you guys think? Is it still possible to "make it" nowadays? Are the channels really flooded? <br />
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</div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-83270551758718438222011-03-20T03:13:00.000-07:002011-03-20T03:13:33.208-07:00NPR, the music powerhouse?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNz8PuWevHzdTEDJaisJuAA9octdZM891qNXjq3DMLHQcL6nCxcfMUvuU5U81TuVef5z6NgJZ08MNQfcpI8Kk5Zv7ncZaJdp1UY9tdMK6oCwxpuQY58rMoyLwcpEDzQMQ1AFKLe67ifZI/s1600/npr.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNz8PuWevHzdTEDJaisJuAA9octdZM891qNXjq3DMLHQcL6nCxcfMUvuU5U81TuVef5z6NgJZ08MNQfcpI8Kk5Zv7ncZaJdp1UY9tdMK6oCwxpuQY58rMoyLwcpEDzQMQ1AFKLe67ifZI/s400/npr.bmp" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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. <br />
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<blockquote>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.</blockquote><blockquote>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.” </blockquote><blockquote>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. <br />
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. <br />
For lesser-known indie acts, NPR Music’s stamp of approval can feel downright momentous.<br />
</blockquote>Read more here:<br />
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<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/npr-the-music-powerhouse-totes-dude/2011/03/14/ABvg1Cs_story.html?hpid=z13">http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/npr-the-music-powerhouse-totes-dude/2011/03/14/ABvg1Cs_story.html?hpid=z13</a></div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884976171860387434.post-67668217569587199012011-03-14T03:35:00.000-07:002011-03-14T03:35:30.011-07:00An experiment in Musiconomy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Found this great post on Sound-unsound, a forum for emerging artists and bootleggers which i'm reposting here:<br />
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"Releasing music is like the dirty dishes when you're living with roommates—if everyone just did their own, there would be no drama!"<br />
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-MC Owl<br />
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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. <br />
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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!<br />
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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:<br />
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<a href="http://soundexchange.com/">SoundExchange</a><br />
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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.<br />
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<a href="http://www.tunecore.com/">TuneCore</a><br />
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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:<br />
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<a href="http://www.e-junkie.com/">E-junkie</a><br />
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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.<br />
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<a href="http://www.usisrc.org/">US ISRC</a><br />
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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.<br />
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<a href="http://www.jthink.net/jaikoz/">Jaikoz Audio Tagger</a><br />
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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.<br />
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<a href="http://www.wordpress.com/">WordPress</a><br />
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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.<br />
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<a href="http://www.orikawa.com/">http://www.orikawa.com/</a><br />
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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.<br />
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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!<br />
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</div>Jezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897878452820902697noreply@blogger.com1