Who says what now?

Cory Doctorow. He’s from the EFF and he’s here to help. Agree? Y/N
Image via Wikimedia Commons under a CC Licence

Yesterday, I sort of took Jupiter Research analyst Mark Mulligan to task about some fairly sloppy thinking. I did it on a blog of mine that almost nobody reads (sort of a scrapbook of things I note as interesting in passing), rather than in a major public forum like Music Think Tank, or on my own New Music Strategies site - because actually, it didn’t seem that important.

I wasn’t out to start anything - just kinda making notes.

Mulligan himself has painted the feedback he got as something of a firestorm, and has offered to host the raging debate he expects to ensue online at his personal blog. That’s fine. I recommend that strategy to you. Pick a fight, and then make sure you’re the destination where that dispute takes place.

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The KamaSutra of Music Marketing

When was the last time you thought about music promotion and making love at the same time? Been a while? Well, by the time you finish reading this column, you may do it more often. (Thinking about the combination, that is. How often you “do it” is up to you :-)

This whole idea started when I ran across an article by Desiree Gullan called “The Kama Sutra of Marketing.” (In case you don’t know, the Kuma Sutra is an ancient Indian text widely considered to be the first manual on love and human sexuality.)

It reminded me of an analogy I’ve often used: Marketing is a lot like dating.

But most self-promoting musicians don’t think of it that way. And because of that, they struggle to get noticed, connect with fans, and make more money.

So, here are some valuable lessons from the Kama Sutra you can apply to your music marketing efforts:

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Can File Sharing Be Monetized By Advertising?

Ideas about how to monetize P2P activity – as opposed to trying to sue it and its users out of existence – have been discussed for years, and several companies have attempted or are attempting to do it. Thus far, the results haven’t been all that encouraging. Within the past month, BitTorrent, Inc. announced that it is abandoning its paid P2P offering, and P2P search advertising service SkyRider pulled the plug on its business. There were certainly flaws in the way that both of these companies executed their services, but nevertheless it got me thinking: Can file-sharing be monetized effectively over the long-term? Or is it a strategy that, while appealing in theory, is destined to fall short in practice?

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Do most fans really want anything from you other than your music?

I think this is one of the most important questions that we can ask ourselves. Do most fans just want your music, or do most fans want something else from you beyond your music?

Why is this question so important? In a world where music is generating less and less revenue, it’s important to understand what fans truly want; especially if you plan to sell them something other than your music.

The following quote is from Ariel Hyatt’s last post about Twitter.
“People want personality. They want authenticity. They want a genuine look at the person behind the music.”

Personality, authenticity, a look at the person behind the music… I am trying to understand who, why, when, what, how and how-many fans (what percentage) would trouble about anything but your music, tickets or t-shirts.

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Music Blogs - Are They The New Radio?

A couple of months ago I received an email from the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI). They asked me to remove a music file (MP3) of ‘Silence’ a track from Portishead. Under the rules of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the IFPI has every right to ask me to comply with the law as it stands. To avoid litigation I complied. I then received an email from the office of the IFPI asking me if I would agree to an email interview that would be posted on their sister site, Pro-Music.org; I said yes, here it is:

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Twitter is radically changing the way musicians are building communities of supportive fans around them. Are you still resisting it?

Musicians Twitter Roadmap

By Ariel Hyatt (@CyberPR) & Laura Fitton (@Pistachio)

[Note from Music Think Tank: This is a comprehensive post on Twitter.  If you are an artist and you have not heard about or used Twitter, you shuold read this post.]

It has been over 18 months since I joined the Twitter community and since I began to really use it something has shifted for me radically. Using Twitter has directly contributed to my life in meaningful ways.

I must admit that when I first saw it, I wanted to cry.  Why would anyone care about what it is I do?  As a still recovering traditional publicist I couldn’t really understand the benefit for my artists if I was using Twitter.  After all, it’s about my clients not about me. How wrong I was…. It turns out the social web isn’t directly about you, it’s about other people: The audience that you become engaged with, and how you interact with them and with them in mind magic can happen.

Some things that happened since I joined Twitter:

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If music was sport

Just for fun, here’s a thought experiment. It illustrates that things in the world of music (and the business of music) need not necessarily be configured the way they are…

If music was treated like sport:

• Schools would have plenty of equipment and kids would have places to play and practice
• People who didn’t do any music at all would be considered a bit lazy by their peers
• Professional musicians wouldn’t get asked by their parents when they were going to get a real job
• Most people would play music and almost none of them would expect money for it
• Every weekend, you’d get a televised battle of the bands

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Nobody knows the future.

Nobody knows the future.

That’s a hard but crucial lesson to learn.

If even ultimate insiders like Greenspan, Bernanke, and Paulson don’t know the future, then neither does Jim Cramer, your stockbroker, Nostradamus, nor you.

We have a human need for certainty that desperately yearns to believe that someone can turn our future from unknown to known.

Even if we logically understand that it’s impossible, we’re emotionally sucked back in and fooled again when someone important tells us with such conviction what the future will hold.

But nobody knows the future.

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10 Mistakes Bands and Musicians Make

Here’s a post that was posted on MTT Open!  Thanks David.

If you want to get a record deal, get people to your shows, or sell music like crazy, the answer isn’t some kind of “magic pill” website that you post your music on, blindly sending out a bunch of demos, or anything to do with having good music…although good music certainly helps — the answer is to develop a “mindset” that naturally attracts people to what you’re doing as well as an understanding of how the music business game is played.

As you develop as a person, your music career will develop with you.  Sounds crazy, but it’s true…and I’ve seen it time and time again, with thousands of acts that I’ve worked with, from garage bands, to the guys selling out arenas.  Check out these ten common music business mistakes:

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Do great songs really ever go unheard?

FOLLOWUP NOTE:  THE COMMENTS ON THIS POST ARE EXCELLENT!

I am not talking about good songs, I am talking about great songs.  I know good and great are subjective, but can you point to a song that you said to yourself - “that’s one of the best songs I ever heard in my life” - and then that song went on to die on the shelf; never to be heard by more than a handful of humans again?  Does death by obscurity really happen to great songs, or does lack of traction only happen to mediocre songs?

I am doing some research.  Can you show me links to songs you think should have been certifiable hits?  Or, just comment on this post.  Thanks.

MTT Music - What's your advice? Should we launch MTT Music or scrap it?

Thanks everyone.  I think we are going to reinvent this section.  Thanks for the feedback.

With the SquareSpace platform, we were able to put MTT Music together in under two hours.

Music Think Tank is looking for your suggestions and feedback…
Here’s the concept:

• MTT Music is a place to get practically unfiltered, community feedback.
• One song is featured per day.  
• Only studio-quality songs will be posted.
• Artists should be asking for honest advice and feedback.
• Click here to read the Guidelines Page.

Question:  Will MTT Music be helpful to artists, or is this going to be something that gets overwhelmed by artists and underutilized by those that can give proper advice?  

The concept is purposely vague.  We are hoping to get some feedback on direction.  No, we don’t have a revenue model…

A publishing and distribution deal from the same company - is it smart?

As an independent label, is it better to have a distribution and a publishing deal on the same major label?  Or is it better to have a different publisher to your major partner [label]?

I was asked this question by someone funding a small label.  Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Great New Posts on MTT Open

There are some great new posts on Music Think Tank (MTT) Open. 

Note:  We are also looking for more posts that relate to music creation and production.  New Contributors - Click here to register.

Consumer or Music Lover: You Decide
By Kyle Bylin
When Trent Reznor developed and adapted a new model to deliver Ghosts I-IV to his audience he reframed what it meant to be in the music business. Understanding that free was inescapable and multipliable formats were inevitable, he established six points of participation for fans. By catering to the resurgence of vinyl and allowing interaction with multi-track files he went on to challenge market abundance with scarcity by increasing the level of personalization and authenticity. Thus making the purchase, Better Than Free for his core fans.  Read the post.

Has the over reliance upon Digital Audio Workstations (Gods) ended the era of acts that can fill stadiums?
By Bruce Warila (a repost from 2007)
In this post, I am submitting the argument that the spread of digital audio workstations can be correlated to the complete drop-off of new artists that have the ability to sell out stadiums.  I am also suggesting that the reliance upon engineer/producers using DAWs have made artists a bit lazy, and/or that this crutch has enabled artists to focus on things that are less important than making great songs.  Read the post.

Shifting the needle on new digital music services
By KEITH JOPLING
There are some fundamental service elements still to play with – price, product and customer experience are still up for grabs in developing something a bit special. But with labels gatekeeping price and savvy service providers unwilling to subsidise music, i think price can almost be ruled out as a differentiator.  Read the post.

The Wearing of Hats
By MICHALE SHOUP
Michael’s question is: with the status of the Music Industry, is there a middle ground between the following mindsets: one being a casual style of living, irresponsibly bouncing from moments of extreme focus to days or weeks of broader scoped work, or two, is this the new model based upon being an independent, entrepreneurial creative who is able to organize, create, and mold to the quickly changing industry?  Read the post.

An industry with a great future behind it

I read a great article today about Sister Ray Records in London. It was my favourite record store in the capital. Or at least - I thought it was. In fact, Sister Ray was not my favourite record shop because I liked Sister Ray. It was my favourite record shop because it fitted a romantic, nostalgic notion about London independent record shops.

And that ‘nostalgic’ bit is kind of weird, because I didn’t grow up in London, but in a suburb about 13,000 miles away at the bottom of the planet. And I’m not nostalgic about Jim’s Record Spot in Panmure, even if that was where I bought my first album with my own money (David Bowie’s ‘Scary Monsters’, since you ask - but it was a toss-up between that and Donna Summer’s ‘The Wanderer’).

London independent record shops mean something. And to me, Sister Ray encapsulated that. Fine. But it’s not a great way to continue to do business. As Brett points out in his article - when you actually look at it on its own merits, and take all that nostalgia stuff away, Sister Ray was dark, overpriced and staffed by people who’d rather you’d just go away. And that might have been fine once. It just isn’t now. There’s no room for any of that. Things have changed.

But that’s symptomatic of a wider problem, rather than a misreading of the times by a single record store.

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