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14-07-2010, 10:14
(This post was last modified: 14-07-2010, 10:20 by pennywill.)
No, this isn't a spam email :hand:, rather a discussion of actually making money doing music. I am always struggling with this as I don't like the 'business' idea...I'm too artsy for that, but sadly, I gotta eat. Here is a précis of my findings thus far.
The key to success in music marketing and retail as well as to gig promotion, media coverage, buzz and, most importantly, the sale of music online and off is this simple 3-step principle:
People hear music — People like music — People buy music
It’s as simple as that.
1. People hear music
This is why radio is such a successful driver of music sales. People need to hear whole songs. They need to hear them more than once. They need them to get under their skin and into their subconscious. The lesson here? Don’t muck about with 30 second samples. Don’t bother with streaming. Let people download your music and integrate it into their daily lives. Let them take it with them where they go. Let them put it on shuffle and have your music come up from time to time as part of their personal musical identity.
2. People like music
Having heard the song a number of times, they become far more than people who happen to like a particular tune and are prepared to pay some pennies in order to be allowed to listen to it. They become your fans: people who say ‘Oh yeah - I love that band’… rather than people who simply hear 30 seconds, think ‘that sounds cool’ and then move on elsewhere completely disinterested in anything else you may have to offer them.
3. People buy music
Fans of an artist will willingly and happily engage in an economic relationship with that artist. I’m not just saying ‘give the music away and make money on the t-shirts’ (though that can work too) — this goes deeper and is a more nuanced relationship. Fans buy music. They buy associated products. They buy concert tickets. You can’t convert a browser into a fan in a matter of seconds. Best case scenario, you’re looking at an impulse purchase.
Nobody buys a movie ticket because they enjoyed the film so much. Nobody rushes to the bookshop to pick up a copy of the novel they read over and over again the previous weekend. But — online or off — people get to hear a piece of music, grow to love it over time, and then wave their cash at whoever will take it from them so that they can own a part of that experience that has given them so much joy.
Naturally, there’s a fourth bonus timeless step:
4) People share music
You hear a song on the radio. You hear it again. You love the song. You buy the record. You bring it home. You play it and play it over and over. And then your next impulse? Tell a friend: “you’ve got to hear this record — it’s so great. LISTEN!” — and you play it to them. You might even let them tape it, or let them take your copy home for a bit. And then the process starts again.
They hear. They like. They buy.
Of course, the ways and means by which that happens changes over time. But the fact that it works like this can’t change. You can’t get them to buy, then hear, then like… any more than you can get them to like then buy then hear.
HEAR music, LIKE music, BUY music.
It’s so simple and obvious. It’s always been true. It only happens that way, and it only happens in that order. If your online music strategy doesn’t follow that universal truth, then you’re only making it hard for yourself.
" Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung. "
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Food for thought! If I ever actually manage to finish any of my projects (the day job keeps me pretty busy), I might take you up on this! I only hope I get some ROI which has been considerable to date. For every one part a musician has contributed there are at least four or five that have been discarded. It all adds up pretty quickly. One ridiculously expensive hobby!!! Still - a man's gotta do what a man's gotta .......Oh all right - whatever the woman tells him to!
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A lot of what is said here is excellent ..........however there are one or more things that can be important
of course in today's market on-line sales are the way to go forward and one can control one' s music and cut out a lot of what in past times has been an artist's downfall......................If at some time you come to a situation where you go beyond the situation where YOU are in control......then big problems can arise...... First of all , it is unlikely that you as a new person to the game will be able to negotiate a deal which will leave you in a good position now and in the future, if your music is likely to go from the small/ medium to the large scale and big time. .................Also, it is possible that if your music does get to this stage then it will have legs and will last.............................many artist never realize that there music might just be around in 20, 30 or even 50 years time......................
I have friends who are in this position and their advice is take adice from someone who knows what they are doing and together with the adviser plan for the future ...................
Nice to be able to go back to trust and friendship!!!!!!!!!
It's a mixed up sensation this being alive
Oh! it wears a man down into the ground
It's the strangest elation
I can't describe it
Oh it leaves a man weary
It makes a man frown..............................Chris Simpson ( "Mixed Up Sensations" 1975 Martin's Cafe )
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Digested some of what Penny said and I would have to say you've got it almost right. 2 out of 3 in fact.
People hear music, people like music, people download music from filesharing site.
The bottom line is that if someone has x amount to spend, he or she figures, now if I download that album I heard (and like) on the radio from a filesharing site instead of paying for it I will still have x amount left over to spend on whatever I want AND have the music. Remember that you as a band or musician are trying to convince people to part with DISPOSABLE income. In days of old people had to go and buy the music from record stores because thay had no means of making a copy of the music at all. They had no choice. The industry took off like a rocket. Then cassettes arrived (in various formats - remember 8-track!), but sales were not hit badly because the consumer still had to go out and buy some form of storage media to record the music on. (4 track). i.e. they still had to lay out some capital to obtain the music they wanted. Cassette recorder sales boomed. Unfortunately, magnetic tape is a really crap form of storage (the metal oxide particles get rearranged over time causing dropouts etc and are very susceptible to temperature changes, humidity etc. etc. People still felt they were getting better bang for their buck if they bought vinyl and looked after their albums. And the artwork/posters etc were a big selling point. You were getting a 'print' of an original artwork concept. And it was often the only way of finding out information about the band/artist pre-internet revolution. Nowdays, just about everybody has a laptop, workstation, iPAD, mobile phone, PDA etc. etc. There is no longer any need to buy any additional form of storage media because they already have it in spades. So why go and buy a CD when you can download it onto an iPOD, stick the iPOD in your tailored mini sound system and play it whenever you want - for nothing. Or take it with you wherever you go. These days music has become a truly disposable consumer commodity. It's only dummies like us who place a value on music that actually still go and buy a CD because we attach a sense of value to the product. That thinking is long gone with the younger generation. The real money is in consumer gadgets. The medium to deliver the product is where it's at. The real downside is that in order for a musician/band to develop they need finance to get the next project completed - studio time is hellishly expensive - just a professional mix (let alone recording/gear/marketing/promotion etc.) will set you back anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 USD or more depending on the complexity of what you are doing. Unless you are doing live shows the future looks pretty bleak for musicians. And of course we now have 'copy and paste' music, where the 'musician' simply stitches a whole bunch of audio segments together and calls it an original composition. Technology is dumbing us all down. Creativity is on the way out - and I don't mean just music. People don't want to think for themselves anymore, they want a machine to do it for them. And they don't want to pay for it. Right - end of sermon.
Penny for your thoughts?
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By the way, I see that under my profile someone has put 'session musician'!!!! Don't know how that got there and I am not a session musician anyway. It's just a hobby - something I have always wanted to do but never got around to. A creative outlet as it were.
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An amusing story (and an indication of things to come) - one of the top brass in one of the major labels made a presentation to the media some years ago. (You can find this on the web somewhere - happened about 6 or 7 years ago) He proudly displayed a new CD format that he claimed was secure and could never be copied, decoded etc. etc. And he invited anyone to try and copy this top-secret new format by putting it on the web in virtual format. His speech was cut short about 15 minutes later when an assistant informed him that some bloke in one of the Scandinavian countries (I think it was Finland) had sent him a mail with a copy of the CD in mp3 format attached to it. How the mighty have fallen!
I have a soft synth package which I use from time to time in my projects which is a virtual version of a Prophet 52 synthesizer. There are 2 small holes drilled through the disc. I assume it's to prevent you copying it but I suppose just like the example above someone will find a way around it.
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15-07-2010, 10:18
(This post was last modified: 15-07-2010, 10:27 by pennywill.)
"Piracy may be the bane of the music industry but according to a new study, it may also be its engine. A report from the BI Norwegian School of Management has found that those who download music illegally are also 10 times more likely to pay for songs than those who don't."
The record industry likes to whine about how much money they have lost due to piracy, but that's coming out of the CD bubble. Everyone was re-purchasing their records and tapes and so not even a lot of new music was being created, just re-issues. I remember when photocopiers (oh oh, showing my age) first came out and the publishing industry was on about the end of print and they had all these draconian practices in place to stop copying of material. Now people can scan a whole book if they want, but has it ended the print industry?
Internet piracy may end the reign of the mega record companies' strangle hold but they just got into it during the CD bubble, and I think it's time to go back to small publishing houses and individual efforts, because that's when the real art creation begins.
Also, everyone is stuck on selling cd's - what an old paradigm, what about other forms of musical expression. Karaoke or my own VideoSheetMusic - things that are interactive, rather than just passive listening. Music for Video Games? (a bigger industry than music and movies combined). Melodies hardwired into products. Installations such as fireworks. Creating software and hardware for music or instruments. Of course performing...probably the biggest of all.
The mega-recording industry knows this of course and is now indenturing musicians to 360 contracts (which should be outlawed).
I just watched a video "Frontline - how the music died" from 2004 and thought it was really interesting and of course a "must see" is "Steal This Film II" (smoother editing than version I)
" Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung. "
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15-07-2010, 10:23
(This post was last modified: 15-07-2010, 10:42 by pennywill.)
The 'session musician' is just a fun 'status' marker - roadie, session musician, band member etc... I'm dreading being a record executive - eek my nightmares will have come true :biggrin:
" Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung. "
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Oh well in that case I want to be the band's shrink! Too old to be a groupie.....
From your post "those who download music illegally are also 10 times more likely to pay for songs than those who don't."
Than those who don't what - download illegally or don't pay for music. One is a contradiction in terms, the other makes sense.
DON'T mention the K-word!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously though - one of the things I like about music is the fact that it is passive (or can be). Means I can do something else but still have it on in the background.
By the way the best interactive music/video thing I have ever seen is Mike Oldfield's interactive game called 'Tres Luna'. Well worth the money and will keep you amused for months.
A journey through different landscapes that keep you guessing. (sp?). When he tried to market it to the majors the first thing they asked him was how do they kill something in the video.
Video killed the radio star. Maybe I should take up ballet.......
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Oh and the reason 'Steal this film II' has smoother editing? The first was a stolen pirate copy!
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