Ever wondered how to get your music onto beatport? well read on to find out how[...]
TRENT REZNOR ON HOW TO MAKE IT
Nine Inch Nails Pioneer and Tunecore founder Trent Reznor espouses his philosophy on what musicians need to do to make it in the modern music industry[...]
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.
According to the BBC "New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has resolved to take an online computer coding course.
The mayor is joining more than 180,000 people currently taking part in Code Year, a campaign to encourage more people to programme.
"My New Year's resolution is to learn to code with Codeacademy in 2012!" he wrote on Twitter.
- BBC 6th January 2012.
"Participants in the course receive an interactive lesson each week, via email.
The campaign promises that participants will be "building apps and websites before you know it".
It has proved a hit on Twitter with thousands using the hashtag "#codeyear"."
Codeyear is a campaign by the company codeacademy - 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.
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 "Flat Earth News" 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.
There are several obvious giveaways when looking for PR planted news stories:
A prominent mention of a company, or campaign run by a company / political organisation
The article will espouse specific benefits of the product
The article will mention research by a grassroots organisation
Often the company's product addresses a specific outcome of that research by providing a solution.
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).
As the BBC pointed out in their expose on Internet Marketing here:
Kristin Hersch from throwing muses, George Howard, co-founder of tunecore and Peter Hinberger, manager of Dr John talk about making music from sync-ups - music licensing, why people feel they still need a major label to make it big and whether it is actually possible to make money from sync-ups - that is music on TV or film.
Sync-ups seem to be the hot topic in music conferences - and the so-called saviour of independant musicians. But there seems to be some doubt about how these work in practice, for example, some large TV networks now appear to be asking for unsigned musicians to send music in, but will not pay them for it's use - not even PRS royalties. The excuse they give is "it's promotion for the artist".
When competition is so fierce and young, upcoming artists are happy to be exploited in this way - how can an artist survive? Interested to know your thoughts below...
Yup - that's right $1,078,000 - well, according to NPR. "In this case it was Rhianna's "Man Down" - a big budget, blockbuster-style blowout that remains unproven" - so writes http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/
But is this a surprise? It's always been somewhat depressing to know that the lowest common denominator "sure-fire hit" has always been prevalent within the pop world. The fact that marketing budgets command the biggest slice of a song's "manufacture" is pretty much a given - the biggest change is that instead of trying to command a closed market of which they are the gate keepers - now the record labels are up against all of us.
The marketplace is crowded with lots and lots of upstarts vying for your attention so it's only natural that if a company really wants to push something they have two choices.
One of the heartening things to come out of this article is that, despite all the doom and gloom surrounding the music industry - clearly the record companies still think there's enough life left in her to invest that amount of money - it's also heartening to see that musicians and song writers are being paid - even if they have to produce Lowest Common Denominator stuff to do so.
Now i'm not sure whether anyone has done a, er, cost analysis of Viral videos - but i think judging by the views of the OK GO! video above - they're pretty rewarding. All you need is a video camera (which with the advent of cheap DSLR's with film quality is not beyond hiring at any rate), someone who can edit and a good idea.
As you probably are well aware, the ubiqutous facebook is currently the king of the social network – at least in the western hemisphere. It is increasingly being used as a method for connecting musicians and bands directly to the fans. But until recently it's basic graphical interface has meant that bands have very little control over it's appearance – and just exactly what can be embedded.
Root music attempts to solve that problem by providing a connecting interface between Facebook, Youtube and Soundcloud. This allows fans to view, interact, like, listen to your music and also to buy it through one simple web page.
They provide a basic free service which allows you to put a player and some basic interactive tools onto your facebook fan page, and a paid service where you have a greater degree of control over how the page looks. Monthly subscription starts at $1.99 per page per month.
The Washington Post details the growing influence of National Public Radio in the USA. It is now second only to MTV in terms of visits per month. Record labels are gradually waking up to the importance of NPR music.
But as the audience for NPR Music grows, it appears to consist of a demographic that’s actually shrinking: music fans who still buy music.
When NPR pushes a group, “there’s a spike in sales and chatter online,” says Steve Martin, the publicist for Radiohead, Arcade Fire and Paul McCartney — all of whom have felt a tangible boost from NPR’s support. “It’s something that reaches an audience that a lot of other people don’t reach.”
And the fact that NPR has music fans reaching back into their wallets has forced both independent and major labels to make NPR Music coverage a top priority in their publicity campaigns.
Label representatives for British soul singer Adele say that NPR was an “important piece” of the publicity strategy that pushed her new album, “21,” to the top of Billboard for two weeks earlier this month. NPR Music recently streamed both the album and an exclusive live performance.
For lesser-known indie acts, NPR Music’s stamp of approval can feel downright momentous.
This one video has commentators and bloggers split. The Reclusive Barclay Brothers are gaining lots of publicity by promising to give away £27 to 100 people who listen to their music. Unfortunately for them, and assuming it's not an internet practical joke, most of the people who've actually heard their single "lonely together" complete with glossy video are commenting on how bad the song is.
Only time will tell whether this turns out to be a viral scam for a tv show or a genuinely deluded band. Check out their site and sign up for a chance to be one of the lucky 100 here: http://www.newlowformusic.com/
Music 3.0 - The Blog Behind The Book: 5 Aspects Of The New Music Reality: "During lunch with a friend today, he passed some scenarios by me for breaking a new act. One of the things he said seems to be what's now seems to be accepted industry knowledge, although I believe the logic is faulty.
"We're going to do vinyl and digital downloads but skip the CD. They're done." After discussing for a while what he was going to charge for the items, I told him my feelings on the matter.
