If your ship came in, would you be smart and frugal enough to ship out on it or simply shit on it? Let’s keep in mind how hard it is to monetize music these days…
If a recording artist could invest $1000 to make between $10K and $70K in 4 months, would he turn it down? Even if you could invest $1000 for the following exposure for your debut CD, with no real guesstimates on download sales, would you turn it down?
Here’s one recording artist who did.
What would you have done if such an offer, like the one briefly described above, dropped out of the sky nine months after you:
a) spent about $3K to record and package your full-length debut disc? (Yea, talk about frugal).
b) bailed out of your marketing program, after spending half of $5,000 on the contract for distribution, marketing, radio promotion and PR?
c) failed to deliver promised live national performances at leading public entertainment conferences and expos?
d) failed to reply to all inquiries to participate in and fulfill the marketing program?
e) inexplicably maligned your own marketing team?…
f) … all the while still producing and recording in the very same building where your team is trying to promote your ungrateful, bipolar and sorry ass.
g) currently, he has 449 fans on his Facebook fan page, hasn’t updated his blog since mid January, 285 followers on Twitter, 8 Myspace friends, and the handful of videos relevant to his own music are all over a year old and barely break 1000 views.
I have been fortunate to have been the catalyst for some really amazing offers for my clients over my 20-years in the music industry. Yes, the ones that have Grammy Awards and nominations, as well as Gold and Platinum albums on their walls…
One of the top three offers I have received in the last decade was this recent offer for the aforementioned former indie recording artist client to appear in a viral marketing program for major automaker that was practically custom tailored to hit his demographic. The cost to the artist for my management fee for all my time, negotiating, paper-pushing, coordination of camera crews, etc., would have been negligible. $1000.
Again, for the record, this client bailed out on his contract in September 2010 and disappeared without fulfilling his obligations to see the campaign through or pay the balance of the contract. But, as far as I’m concerned… water under the bridge.
As far as the publicity was concerned, we did a decent job on the one and only press release we were paid to send out. We secured him about a dozen published web articles/reviews - with all due credit where credit is due - for his very innovative and unique debut release, with publication dates that ranged from September through to December 2010. (Per a Google search on March 3, 2011)
The automaker’s viral program would expose him and his music to 10 million people over four months through a five-minute video interview. This is not factoring in how many times the video would be shared. It could have ingratiated him to leading personalities in media, internet, corporate America, and marketing and it could have resulted in staggering download sales for his music, as well as thousands of new fans and followers to his Facebook Fanpage and Twitter accounts.
If 1% of 10 million people purchased one of his tracks thru iTunes as a result of him appearing in a 5-minute video, in where he would demonstrate his really unique music and recording processes, over the four months of the campaign, he could have netted $70,000.00 on the high-side and on the low-side, he could have walked away with $10K. This is after expenses and really working the campaign through his own social networking properties.
I emailed him an enthusiastic and detailed proposal (below) and he shot back, succinctly, via his iPhone, after I had to chase him down, “This campaign doesn’t fit me at this time.”
That was it… to say that it left me stunned is an understatement.
Below is the proposal I sent to him. (The names have been changed to protect incompetent).
A_,
Per our conversation last week, I have an offer for you to appear in the new “Chevrolita” campaign.
I just wanted to follow up and give you some facts and statistics about the program.
The Program: “Chevrolita” is a social media campaign, designed to appeal to fans of 6 major passion points: Technology, Travel, Music, Entertainment, Fashion, and Sports. Each genre features blogs and shows hosted by high-profile internet personalities. You’re going to be interviewed by “Shelia Sexynerd.”
The Hosts’ Collective Reach: Together, the hosts reach nearly 3 million Twitter followers and 350K Facebook fans/friends. Videos produced by the hosts prior to the “Chevrolita” campaign have a combined reach of nearly 5 million views.
“Shelia’s” Reach: “Shelia Sexynerd” has the biggest reach of the talents, with 1,596,690 followers on Twitter and 25,381 fans on her Facebook page. “Shelia” regularly tweets and blogs about her shoots and encourages followers to view her “Chevrolita” videos.
The Program’s Reach: The videos are syndicated primarily to YouTube and DailyMotion. “Shelia’s” Technology videos alone have had more than 125,000 views between those two sources since the program launched in late January.
The “Mini VidCam” piece, in particular, has 28K YouTube views, and 55K from DailyMotion.
These numbers will continue to grow as the “Chevrolita” name spreads and the campaign rolls on. They would love to feature you in one of these segments. Beyond being an entertaining piece, it’s a topic “Shelia’s” fans would undoubtedly embrace and share.
This is non-paid appearance, but if you want me to push this through for you, I am going to ask for $1,000.00 to secure your placement and act as your manager. I’m negotiable on the fee, to a degree.
Please advise, as they would like to do the interview as early as this weekend. I would need an answer - yes or no - by the end of the business day, March 3.
Thanks!
Very Best Regards,
C
Luck is defined as when opportunity and preparedness meet. I have no idea why this arist would back out of such an opportunity. His rejection of the opportunity was abrupt and succinct, to say the least. I don’t even think he read the proposal. Potentially, he didn’t have the funds to pay me for my time to review and put the paperwork together - paperwork that would protect him and his art. Otherwise, he’s just pennywise and pound foolish, completely unprepared for the reality of what the music business is all about: It takes money to make money. Yes, in this day and age, it takes $3 to make $4. Did his ship come in with this one offer? It’s hard to say for sure it did, but regardless, it was a pretty big, luxurious boat that could have sailed him off to better opportunities.
What would you have done, given this opportunity?