5 Game-Changing Music Industry Philosophies

If you work in or around the music industry it’s obvious things are changing drastically. The way people perceive and find their music has completely changed. New technology has turned the music industry on it’s head. How do we keep up? and why hasn’t the industry’s platform of doing things completely flipped as well?

Over the course of the last year I’ve been researching and developing a new platform, at least for my company to operate under. Instead of traipsing around complaining about the demise of the record business (like many of the major label execs spend most of their time doing now) I figured, something’s gotta change and fast! Being the owner of a young company, I’m not going to operate by the old platform’s standards and jump aboard a sinking ship.

More people than ever before are listening to music. It’s great! They have it coming at them from all angles, it’s just fantastic. This should be a very prosperous time for the music industry. Music is everywhere - embedded in their phones, tv, public spaces etc. So much room to make money from music. So where do we start…

Here’s my top 5 game changing philosophies. I think with an outlook shift we will actually be able to sustain ourselves. Well, I hope so at least…

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Ten in Ten: New music industry poll launches 08.02.11

Horace Trubridge, MU Assistant General Secretary, says: ‘Although we can guess, none of us know what the next ten years will do to the music industry – that’s why Music Supported Here will be launching Ten in Ten. The concept is simple. Ten questions that will be answered by experts from the music industry – musicians, fans, managers, labels etc – to give an overall picture of what we think is going to happen.

“Will illegal downloading become less of a problem? Will recording contracts be fairer? Will there be less new talent emerging? None of us can really be sure of what 2021 holds for the music industry, but we think that the opinions of thousands of people who live and breathe the music industry will produce some pretty accurate predictions’.

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The Musician's Secret Weapon

“Life can be very, very hard for a musician. You’re competing against millions of others, desperate to be heard over all the noise. And you’ve got no money.

But you’ve got a secret weapon. To outsiders, the music industry is sexy. People with day jobs are fascinated with the mythos of “The Rock Star”.

Make the person you’re talking to feel this. Make them feel like a part of this world.

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Music Industry Secret to Success #4 – Have Integrity

I have developed a set of music industry “secrets.” These “secrets” are designed to develop positive behavior, so do not expect a ton of tactical talk. Strategy will be the ultimate takeaway. In each shared “secret,” I am going to give ideas that should help you make the right changes toward a substantial music career. Be sure you check out the previous “secrets” of “Be Yourself”, “Reach Out”, “Listen” and “Have Humility” on FryinginVein.com before reading this.

By definition, there are two ways you can interpret integrity. Regardless of whether we are talking unfettered completeness or moral soundness, having integrity is crucial to succeeding in life - period. In this piece, I will list key actions you can do to increase your level of integrity in your music career.

When you are a person with integrity, you are a person that people can trust. You are someone that can be depended upon to do what you say you are going to do. That is where the “completeness” ties into the definition, so for the first key action:

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Is the Internet Dead or just Dead to Artists?

Is the internet dead? This has been a question I have been asking myself for a few weeks now. If it’s not dead is it just going through changes like most businesses do? I have read several articles of late that seem to think that it is dead and that the future of the internet will look much different then it does today. So what if it’s dead, how does that impact us? Do we even care?

I’m looking at the internet through the eyes of someone working in the music industry, as a recording artist, a studio owner and a music publisher. What was once the supposed gateway to music business success is closing and its closing fast. In fact it may have never really been open at all.

We have all heard the stories of how a band was found on myspace and then international fame soon followed. I once bought into this, but now I’m not so sure. How true can this be? Success in business has always been built on hard work, time, effort, energy, preparation and education. There are always the stories of overnight successes but even then all of the above things were at some point involved. No one can succeed at anything if they have never put forth any effort to succeed can they?

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Why Spotify is being denied in the US: A matter of pride?

The music industry has been getting kicked in the nuts from P2P and illegal file-sharing for a long time now. They have tried everything they can to try to stop their aches and there has always been one main reason why these illegal file-sharing sites get away with it - THE SONY BETAMAX CASE

Without going too much in to this, BETAMAX (VHS’ forgotten brother-in-law) came to US shores and hollywood went in to a state of panic. The thought that their movies, which millions of dollars were pumped in to making,  could be duplicated so easily was a huge issue! Soon a law suit followed led by Universal Studios. They pleaded to the courts that this would ruin the movie business as people will stop buying movies and shift to duplicating movies with the record feature the Japanese company included. After a long battle the courts favoured Sony and technology.

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Where the Music Industry Went Wrong: Why Indie Musicians Are Struggling to Sell Their Music

There are three reasons why local, indie musicians are not achieving the levels of success they desire in the music industry. In this article, I will give a short overview of these three reasons and the role the music industry has played. If you are an indie artist and you are struggling to sell your music, if you are struggling to get promotion and publicity, then it is probably because of at least one of these three reasons.

Three Reasons why most indie musicians are struggling to sell their music:
Reason # 1. Indie musicians have forgotten or are not aware of, the true value and power of music.

Reason # 2. Indie musicians do not communicate the value of their music or they do so poorly. This reason aims at how musicians market and promote their music. This reason also explains why most musicians are not able to network effectively at industry events and get the attention of music executives and the press. I will discuss this reason in a later article in this series.

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Secret to Success: The Power of Passion

For years I’ve been asked by artists and aspiring entrepreneurs about an easy way to succeed in the industry. Typically the question is unwittingly disguised as various queries, including: What’s the best way to get noticed? How do we sell more music? How do we get a manager? How do we get a deal? What’s the best way to get coverage? How do we get radio play? What’s the secret to getting more gigs? Et cetera… Many don’t realize this, but in essence, they’re asking, “What’s the easy way to succeed?

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‘Sounds Digital’ Seeks Digital Music Innovators

London, UK. March 17, 2010 – Sounds Digital, the digital music event, is calling out for innovators in the UK and international digital music space to apply to join the Sounds Digital Lab, which offers mentoring, proposition development and international networking with some of the biggest names in music, technology and business.

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Put a Ring on her Finger- The Social Web & Music Marketing are Married

The world is moving at a faster pace than ever, and technology is the cattle driver of the modern world taking us all to magnificent new lands. Innovation is changing the way we live our lives on what seems like a daily basis. The landscape for which/where/how we do business is in constant motion. The challenge is no longer ‘how do we get there’ its ‘teach me how to drive.’ I am a heavy enthusiast for the marriage between tech and business.

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Your Guide to understanding the Music Industries today.

First, I would like to let you know the music industries are the largest they have ever been. Contrary to the doom and gloom predicted by the press, it is only the plastic jewel cases for CDs that are declining in numbers and some very public copyright lawsuits that reflect some archaic business structures in the industries.

Secondly, it might be good news to you that now is the easiest time to enter the music industries as an artist as due to new technologies introduced at exponential rates over the last decade, we have a plethora of mediums through which to present our art.

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An Open Letter to the Music Industry.

An open letter from the co-founders of the Restoring Music Foundation.

There is more music available than ever.  The ability for anyone to easily produce music at low cost coupled with an increase in available distribution channels, makes scarcity and control of music a thing of the past.  This is compounded by the proliferation of online piracy, that has made a significant dent in the revenues of the music business over the past decade.  Competing with “free” music is a challenge.  This has resulted in a devaluing of music, which has affected every stakeholder in the supply chain, from the record company to the musician.  This devaluation is the central reason for the Restoring Music Foundation.

In 2009 we defined the economic crisis with the help of our wonderful network of music industry supporters.  We want to personally thank all of you that pitched in your opinions and helped us ask the big questions.  The campaign was a massive success and it was all because of you.  We hope you will continue to stay involved in the ongoing Restoring Music Dialogue.  Thanks again!

Here at The Restoring Music Foundation, our goal is to create and implement solutions to the crisis and in turn, create an economically sustainable road map for the restoration of the music industry.

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Free Music: Response to Reddit

On December 28th, 2009 Music Without Labels & Beat-Play asked the public (using reddit), “What needs to happen in order for music to become free and the artist still get paid?” This is a very controversial topic right now seeing as piracy is one of the leading issues in the music industry today. Here is what some of the social media world and redditters had to say about this topic:

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Taylor Swift BMI Lawsuit

So as I’m sure you have heard, BMI has filed a lawsuit against a small Idaho sports bar for neglecting to pay licenses for playing songs specifically by major label contractee Taylor Swift. It never fails to amaze me how licensing companies like BMI, ASCAP and SEASAC don’t hesitate at a chance to sue considerably smaller establishments for lack of “proper licenses.” What is more shocking though, is the fact that though Taylor Swift is named as a plaintiff in the suit, she technically will have no say in the proceedings and probably won’t even be present for any hearings. BMI will control all aspects of this case, seeing as they pay substantially for full-time teams of impenetrable lawyers, just for such an occasion. It is also worth noting that WHEN BMI either wins the suit in court or as a result of a settlement, Taylor Swift will directly receive no monies whatsoever

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