Aug 04

Braindead: Is ‘Promotionless To Popular’ a Real Strategy?

New Music Media No Comments »
cc courtesy of Mandiberg @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/theredproject/

image cc courtesy Mandiberg @ flickr.com/photos/theredproject/

Investing in Artists: Consider a Promotionless To Popular Strategy First article at Music Think Tank has a few great points, and many holes.  Essentially the author is saying that crowd-sourcing most if not all promotion is the only way to go.  Anything else that works is a fluke.  He goes further: if all artists followed the current conventional industry wisdom, musicians as a class of people would drive fans away in social settings, much like financial planners, lawyers or car dealers.  I think there’s a lot of truth to this point.  Readers intuitively understand people don’t like being “targets” for anything (especially advertising!), so they might accept his other points.  The problem is, some of his other ideas are plain wrong.

The best show I ever saw was Big Black at the Jockey Club; I caught them by accident because I was working there that night, and managed to round up nearly a dozen friends after their sound check blew me away, but that was the extent of their audience.  Years later they played the Southgate House, half full, yet in spite of critical raves and plenty of fans, they were on their break-up tour.  Many of the best bands in the world fail due to poor promotion.  On the other hand, no one has failed for too-effective promotion.  Sure things are a little different in our viral, socially networked world.  And yes, if every band suddenly got good at promo, it’s value would shrink, as fans tune out of your message.  The TiVo effect is reality.  That doesn’t eliminate the need for promotion, it actually increases it, but it also changes strategies.  Valid, workable solutions are the opposite of “promotionless”; they have to be deeper and more strategic than ever, to cut through the noise.

The Old Spice Guy, played by Isaiah Mustafa, is a machine, not a real person.  To go viral this machine required a team of copy writers, a video crew, and a strong IT backbone, driven by a very conventional PR push to encourage (or even pay!) celebs to ask him questions.  Like the Tea Party, it’s powered by database driven design techniques, not grass roots enthusiasm or organic clicks and mails.  It epitomizes modern dataesthetics, but from the outside it feels genuine and always fun.  This campaign could never have been considered in a “Promotionless to Popular” paradigm.  Aside from truly viral characters, like the Korean guitar playing kid or the Numanuma guy, no one really takes off effortlessly.

Amanda Palmer.  Lady Gaga.  MIA. OK GO.  These are the best examples in the music biz of viral, organic fan-driven success.  And yet none of these acts fit the theory posed in this piece.  They epitomize the opposite: Pure 24/7/365 always-on promotion!  Where are the examples supporting this theory in the real world?  Bruce Warlia doesn’t offer any, maybe because none exist.

The non-existence of examples isn’t evidence that this is just too new or some sort of cutting edge thinking.  Without examples it’s just a theory, and not an especially new one.  It’s actually the core ethos of punk rock for the past 30+ years!  We heard it from The Sex Pistols.  We heard it from Mods in the UK in the early 60s too.  Authenticity, rawness, and fan-driven style and fashion tie-ins are pretty old school.  Likewise, rejecting contemporary promotional culture isn’t new… Who likes being the victim of a sales spiel?  Let’s get real!

So why am I posting at all?  Look at the comments below the article.  This is Yet Another Bad Idea from Industry Central that tons of ground level working artists are buying into, to rationalize their failure.  Unfortunately I see no evidence that it explains anything, since it’s unsupported and unsupportable.  What am I missing?

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Jul 28

Hyping Rented Music: Time For A REALLY Dumb Idea?

New Music Media No Comments »
Image Courtesy of Ryan Van Etten @ VirtualMusic.tv

Image Courtesy of VirtualMusic.tv

Brendan Mulligan, the founder of ArtistData now flush with SonicBids cash from their recent takeover, opines that rented music is the way to go over at Hypebot.  While it sounds hip and enlightened, this is one of the scariest (and weakest) memes I’ve seen in awhile.

First of all, if you actually care what music sounds like the whole idea’s crazy. Pandora and Rdio soundalikeass!  I’m not a snob, I’m just not deaf (yet)! 128K artifacts are ugly and easily audible, and that’s the best-case scenario streamed.  This is fine for background listening, and for many people that means it’s good enough. But if you listen on a decent system, not computer speakers, the current streams are not ready for primetime.  If recent bandwidth trends continue, this won’t be getting better any time soon; the unlimited bandwidth needed to get your music streamed is no longer the norm for iPhones, and most carriers are finding ways to limit demand by charging per megabyte.  Meanwhile users are moving to smaller, data-driven smartphones with similar issues, and away from desktop broadband.  Strike one.

If one accepts this meme, wither Sgt. Peppers, Dark Side of the Moon or Exile on Main Street? Concept albums and bodies of work are less accessible as sound, but we also give up the liner notes and packaging with the services you’re pimping. When you move to this new paradigm, the act of listening to music purely for its own sake becomes more difficult. You can’t invite a bunch of friends over to hear the new Flaming Lips record, unless listening is really just an excuse for drinking and yakking – drop outs and re-syncs are part of the experience, along with the $hitty $hitty sound, eliminating the possibility of pure musical entertainment.  Even the bad-old CD can be fun to listen to as an album, when the music is good.  Streaming makes pure listening rare or impossible.  Strike two.

Keep in mind, once you board this train there’s no going back. It will disrupt, destroy and replace the old paradigm entirely. As the physical purchase market shrinks, economies of scale go away (vinyl sells for a permanent premium, because manufacturing capacity is capped and shrinking – no mfg has sold a new press or lathe in 20 years!). While it’s fine to discuss new models, cheering radically different and clearly weaker ones is dangerous, if not dumb. Be careful what you cheer for – if you get it, you’ll have creative blood on your hands, and be working a new, lamer music market.  A rented-music paradigm is great for stars and bottom feeders, but puts sustainable middle class “jobdom” (new since the 90s in music biz) on the ropes.  Strike three.

Ultimately this article feels like a surrender to garbage and noise, trading a rich heritage for ephemera. It’s weak on facts and analysis, pitching a scheme to move music permanently into the background of our lives. I don’t see it as visionary, merely dystopic punditry. The fact that so many responders are willing to give up on concept albums, sound quality, liner notes, tangibility, and a broad license to flexibly enjoy their music is alarming to say the least.  Bah humbug, I say “Nay!” to Brendan Mulligan’s carelessly tossed grenade.

After cashing a fat SonicBids check, why not throw the rest of us under the bus?  His ideas are great for ArtistData (who will track all these unpaid spins, and rent you access to metrics), and his new masters at SonicBids (the gatekeepers for festivals, and live booking, and more recently licensing, all unaffected by his bomb-throwing).  Given the timing of Mr. Mulligan’s brainstorm, the attitude reminds me of Henry Hill’s famous line from Good Fellas: “F*ck you, pay me.”  Ummmmm… no thank you?

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Jul 14

The Value of Music + Data

Music Products, New Music Media, Party Line 1 Comment »

Topspin has a great concept: Drive all traffic and sales through the artist’s own website, not iTunes, Amazon or some label’s portal, and use music to create direct connections with fans.  That last part is half of the New Music Business Model; “Connect with Fans” and provide a “Reason to Buy” to generate sales.  Topspin’s great at connecting with fans.  It’s up to the artist to Connect with their own fans.

Topspin’s own business model is a bit wonky.  They take a cut of sales, so they’re selective about who gets in – they rely on a network of “partners” who serve as gate keepers, and they complicate engagement so it’s nearly impossible for individual bands to get in the front door.  So unless you’re already a star, you need a middleman, a pile of cash, or great determination to work with them.  What’s more, bands who make the least pay the most.  The terms are essentially punitive to slow sellers and true indies.  Trent Reznor and Radiohead get a way better deal than anyone you know.  But really, what else is new?  Topspin’s simply chosen a “pay to play” model with incentives for stars to help them pay the bills as they find their niche.

Topspin and CEO Ian Rogers get the new music business.   In this video he explains the intersection of music and data as they relate to selling songs.  And while Roger’s pimps Topspin as the tool of choice for obvious reasons, ordinary mortals can find the same tools on more open platforms, like ReverbNation and Bandcamp.

Still confused?  No worries.  Drop us a line, The All Night Party can help you get up and running in this new era.

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Feb 10

Good & Bad Advice from Well-Meaning Star

New Music Media No Comments »

Williams

BBC News reports Pharrell Williams urged new acts to chase ad agencies at the last MIDEM conference.  We take no issue with Mr. Williams’ strategy, in fact we agree almost entirely with his points.  But we strongly suggest artists discard his suggested tactics as bad advice.

We agree that the advertising market is a great place for today’s musical artists to earn a fair living for hard work.  While it’s far from a “blue sky market”, and already clogged with providers and operators at every level, there are unique opportunities for original music artists.  Pharrell Williams was on target with where to start: ”I would probably build a site, a home for my music, a destination where people could come and see me and what I do and what I’m thinking about.”  Perfect!  We couldn’t have said it any better.

But he immediately goes off the rails when he continues: “And then I’d probably assemble a team of kids that would go and bug the hell out of advertising agencies and marketing companies to use my music.”  Terrible advice.  If you are Pharrell Williams, working in a major-label band like N.E.R.D. you might have enough fans and clout to get away with this.  If you’re a local or regional band, this is the express train to a black-list, reserved for hacks and desperate losers.

It gets stranger when he adds, “But what a kid has that everyone else has is that same ability to market yourself and get yourself out there.”  This makes no sense, even to the casual observer.  Sure, there are viral stars, like the Numa Numa kid, but that path is too random to fix – fans were equally likely to encounter a LOLcat or crazy wedding dance.  Susan Boyle started with a mainstream media boost, not a great plan of her own.  There are a few scattered examples of successful viral campaigns by individuals, but they’re the exception, not a norm or even repeatable phenomenon.  Mr. Williams may believe the statement above, and his intentions are clearly positive, but he’s factually wrong.  A kid, along with everyone else, has very little ability to market themselves out here, minus a lot of luck and/or money.

Even though you can’t do it all yourself, and pointing flash-mobs at ad agencies is pointless, musical artists can still participate in the licensing market.  Actively putting music before decision makers inside agencies is indeed required, but spamming agencies and advertisers is never welcome.  You need partners who are already getting calls to place music in licensed settings.  One-Stops like Getty’s PumpAudio, and YouLicense, occupy the bottom rung of this ladder, and get you in the door.  Music supervisors, editors and specialists are frequently hired to do searches, and clear licenses, so these are better targets for a band or it’s management to climb a step higher.  Modern labels have relationships with these folks, and often pitch work actively, keeping your profile high.  Finally, newcomers like The All Night Party are already getting calls for great, original music placements by positioning ourselves in that market.

It’s not a lost cause or even particularly hard.  Licensing deals are very organic: music works against a picture or in a campaign or not, and selection criteria are more objective than label signings (advertisers can’t afford bad decisions).  More important, we’re discovering bands offer unique benefits to advertisers that other players simply can’t match.  It’s easier to commission compositions that are based on known starting points, and existing songs can be legally and liberally “borrowed” from.  Bands don’t necessarily require session players to flesh out a piece, saving time, simplifying production, and controlling budgets.  These are easy sells!

So the market is really there, as Mr. Williams suggests.  It’s a good direction for many artists, willing and able to play the game.  Just forget the tactics and find a better way to get your music on the field.  And if you need help, you know where we are…

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Jan 14

2009 U.S. Music Purchases up for 5th Straight Year!

Music Products, New Music Media 5 Comments »

Nielsen Soundscan reports that 2009 U.S. Music Purchases up 2.1% over 2008 as Music Sales Exceed 1.5 Billion for Second Consecutive Year. This news bears repeating, in light of the music industry’s constant, deafening whine: Total music purchases have in fact increased each year since 2005! For the record, 1.01 billion music purchases were made in 2005, 1.2 billion in 2006, 1.4 billion in 2007, and 1.5 billion last year, as noted above. While it’s possible poorly managed large companies, willing to overspend for talent, overpay executives, and ignore market realities could lose money on growing sales, it’s impossible to feel truly sorry for them.

The report has plenty more good news, especially for small labels and savvy artists. First digital downloads continue to grow, providing a direct path to revenue open to all. Better yet, albums represent an increasingly large portion of those sales, versus singles, growing 16% to reach a new peak of 20% of all downloads! These trends only accelerated in the fourth quarter of a recession year, suggesting a positive future. Indeed, hits are happening in the digital space, at levels previously reserved for physical CDs: Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga and Flo Rida all had singles that sold to quadruple-platinum levels (more than 4 million sales each)!

While the Zeros are considered a “lost decade” in many industries, it was a rebirth for the music business. We’ve crossed a threshold, selling nearly twice as many albums online as physical CDs. Album sales are moving away from traditional retail, to non-traditional venues. It’s remarkable to note given the numbers above that non-traditional music outlets represent most of that growth in albums versus singles, adding 11% over their 2008 sales, ultimately accounting for nearly 30% of total album sales in 2009.

The corner has been turned. It’s morning in the music industry!

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