ContentSphere - Music & Media in an Online Culture - Business Models

Music Business: Lessons In Free Strategies From Other Industries (Pt. 2)

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:44:00 +0100

I started this article two days ago (which isn’t quite correct because I started writing it about a week ago), though I have yet to come to the main part - the lessons themselves. Hope you enjoy, have your read.

"Music Business: Lessons In Free Strategies From Other Industries (Pt. 2)" vollständig lesen

Music Business: Lessons In Free Strategies From Other Industries (Pt. 1)

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:43:00 +0100

CC-BY-NC-SA by Comrade_S

If talking to independent musicians about the benefits of distributing content for free you most certainly will come across four arguments in monolithic defense.

I paid too much in creating this to give it away for free.
Free distribution is beyond control.
How am I supposed to pay my rent if I give away my works for free?
Free doesn’t work.

This article deals with all of them - kind of. But the main focus is to show that an artist is not alone in employing “free” strategies. It’s reasonable. It’s common business.

Please note: I won’t discuss copyright issues in here. But no matter if you give away your song for free to billions of people or if you sell a licence to one company - your copyright in your song remains unaffected. Please keep that in mind.

"Music Business: Lessons In Free Strategies From Other Industries (Pt. 1)" vollständig lesen

Do We Need Music Conferences?

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:04 +0200

Do We Need Music Conferences?

Music Conferences provide numerous possibilities to make business, network and discuss with your colleagues, share knowledge with your peers and discover new talents and industry trends – so they say. But do Music Conferences really provide added value and do they fulfill what they promise? Does the industry need conferences to develop to the next step? What are the reasons for the increasing amount of conferences all over Europe?

I came across this when browsing this year’s program to Luxembourg’s Sonic Visions festival and - you guessed it - conference.

Obviously, the question is a more rhetoric one. At least I hope so. Too bad if announced panel’s conclusion would be to reduce and cut conferences. Of course, some conferences appear dispensable. Actually, changes in music industry indicate that some sort of conferences has become redundant.

"Do We Need Music Conferences?" vollständig lesen

DIY-Marketing #2: Can Artists Be Creative?

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:28:29 +0200

CC-BY-ND Fräulein Schiller

Is this provocative to ask? Well, yes. No. Depends on. Of course everyone has his ups and downs. Yet there’s more to it. Because nobody has the skills to be creative in every field. Or is there a sculptor in your band who is perfect in weaving tapestries, writing scripts for plays at the Old Vic, and at the same time artfully handling his stock shares himself and piling up his riches at the Caimans?

So why do I ask?

I’m not talking about finding a strategy or business model here. It is the very basic that comes first: ideas. Sounds simple, but be prepared for hard efforts. You know for yourself that ideas just won’t pop up when handy.

"DIY-Marketing #2: Can Artists Be Creative?" vollständig lesen

DIY-Marketing #1: Amanda Palmer's Basics in Donations

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:48:49 +0200

CC-BY-NO Karola Riegler

Actually, I intended to start out with suggestions in DIY marketing for artists today. Suggestions I would have come up with by myself.

Then Amanda Palmer posted her response to the feedback her posting on donations generated. Anyone: Read her response. In full. It is essential and the basics to everything I can tell you. Some of it she already mentioned at Berlin’s all2gethernow.

For all those who don’t have the time to read through Amanda’s terrific response I’m going to highlight some parts.

On her website, Amanda has a page called “The Till”. Anybody who’s willing to can pay any amount as a donation. If you pay you will get no CD, merch or whatsoever.

Why to pay anything? Does she really think there are people crazy enough doing so? - That’s what you might think.

my cellist friend zoe keating (@zoecello), who more or less runs her own business out of her house (and isn’t signed), told me a few days ago on the phone that people have been ordering multiple CDs directly from her website and simply putting, in the comments section of paypal “PLEASE DON’T MAIL ME THESE CDS - i just wanted to send $40 because i want to support you!”.

Please note: Zoe Keating is a rather unknown artist. If you’re regularly reading liner notes though, you may have read her name on covers of Amanda’s works as well as Rasputina’s and others.

"DIY-Marketing #1: Amanda Palmer's Basics in Donations" vollständig lesen

Die gute Tat der Piraten - von Kolja Reichert

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:42:41 +0200

“The Pirates’ Good Deed” (© Kolja Reichert) wurde im Original unter dem Titel “Die gute Tat der Piraten” veröffentlicht in “Der Tagesspiegel” vom 26.07.2009. Übersetzung ins Englische von Wolfgang Senges. Übersetzung und Veröffentlichung auf ContentSphere.de mit der freundlichen Genehmigung von Kolja Reichert.

Bitte beachten: Anders als die meisten Artikel auf ContentSphere.de wurde die Übersetzung veröffentlicht unter einer “Alle Rechte vorbehalten”-Lizenz von Kolja Reichert.

Deutscher Artikel: Siehe “Der Tagesspiegel” vom 26.07.2009.
"Die gute Tat der Piraten - von Kolja Reichert" vollständig lesen

Trent Reznor Explains Online Music Business

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:37:41 +0200

I just stumbled upon this via an article at TechDirt. But, it’s Trent Reznor again who has something to say - and it’s absolutely essential to every musician out there. Maybe labels might consider reading it too. It’s his “thoughts on what to do as a new / unknown artist” these days.

Funny thing is, when posting this to the NIN forum Reznor obviously was on his way to Luxembourg… I’m still suffering from the aggressive light show yesterday. But the NIN gig was a pure intoxication of virtuosity & entertainment.

Reznor’s point is straight forward and easy to understand.

Bottom line is, master music & online tools, work hard, deliver something good - and sell something unique other than music. Because you can’t rely on selling (recorded) music in itself. Music is ubiquitous. And it’s free. Cash is about extras.

Some advice by Reznor is about what to avoid and what to do in particular. The aspects he mentions do remind me a lot of Andrew Dubber’s ebook “The 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online”. For a free download go here for the English version (German version).

Mike Masnick: Business Fixed Extended Mix – Reznor v2.0

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Sat, 02 May 2009 00:23:37 +0200

[Deutsche Version] Earlier in March, I mentioned Michael Masnick was about to hold a keynote presentation at Leadership Music Digital Summit 2009 in Nashville. He announced to update the case study on Trent Reznor (= Nine Inch Nails) he presented at Midem, which was simply brilliant. So the expectation of extending a presentation of this quality requires full attention.

I was hoping for another video of the presentation, and yes, finally here it is. While the first one ran 15 minutes, the keynote clocks in at almost 30 minutes – and every second is worth it. After Midem’s presentation, one of the main issues many people had was about how Reznor’s business model could not apply to less known artists building upon a much smaller fanbase. Hence, Masnick’s pays tribute to this and takes into account several musicians from different success levels.

No spoilers here, just sit back and watch it. And have some good laughs.

Unfortunately, if you’re a major label’s executive chances are you might not be amused at all.

This video is essential for learning.

Leadership Music Digital Summit 2009
Mike Masnick keynote address, 3/25/09
from Leadership Music Digital Summit on Vimeo

Excuse Me, What Again Is It I Should Pay For?

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:51:00 +0100

Michael Masnick revisits the shutting down of SpiralFrog, putting emphasis on the fact that however a new idea in online music business gets hailed, there still is at least one predominant reason for failure. To succeed, you have to offer more than what you can get for free using bit torrents. As I mentioned before, quite along the lines of Michael Masnick’s Reznor case study, you need real added value. It’s what Masnick calls the “reason to buy”. Add something to the product (= music) to be obtained nowhere else, be it quality, quantity or core competence.

Learn from history or fail to succeed.

Masnick on Reznor at Leadership Music Digital Summit 2009

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:48:00 +0100

Michael Masnick has been announced to hold the keynote presentation at Leadership Music Digital Summit 2009, taking place from Monday, March 23, 2009 on until Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at Belmont University’s Curb Event Center, Nashville, Tennessee.

Don’t miss the chance to witness an updated version of his Trent Reznor case study. Yes, Trent did it again. Michael intends to refer to the latest online activities by Nine Inch Nails which started just two days ago at Twitter. Luckily enough, I just started running twhirl when Trent came up.

Also, Jim Griffin of Choruss fame will be there. Might be fun to see him again shoulder arms to fight the “pirates”…

Dr William Cooper, CEO informitv, on Challenges in Television Industry

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:49:45 +0100

Recent articles on this blog featured the problems broadcasting services have to face in the days of the internet. Just take a look at my del.icio.us bookmarks on the right to notice that the death of Project Kangaroo has been the opener to Project Canvas.

Today’s informitv newsletter is concluded by a comment by Dr William Cooper, CEO informitv, addressing current issues. It’s a brilliant one. Unfortunately, I can’t find it anywhere on their site (“resource not found”). So here it is, straight from the newsletter…

"Dr William Cooper, CEO informitv, on Challenges in Television Industry" vollständig lesen

Can artists make a living without ASCAP et al.? Jamendo says: "Yes!"

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:56:31 +0100

Jamendo is the world’s first B2C music download service offering all tunes under the Creative Commons license. At least that is Jamendo’s claim. Also, I do not know about any other one either. If there are small ones or large ones out there handling their business that way – please contact me. I really would be interested in your experience.

The Land of Digital Milk & Honey

Most importantly, any music offered on Jamendo is legally free for download. This is rather surprising to say the least. Yet all of us should have been prepared since OpenSource software like Linux is something we take for granted. But music? It feels like the Holy Grail being one-way used in a fast food restaurant and thrown into the litter box right afterwards.

"Can artists make a living without ASCAP et al.? Jamendo says: "Yes!"" vollständig lesen

Mike Masnick: Trent Reznor Paving Way for Future's Music Business

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 23:51:42 +0100

At this year’s Midem, Mike Masnick from Techdirt gave a presentation focussed on how Trent Reznor/NIN is doing music business. It is worthwhile watching the video. Masnick’s accompanying article can be found here. You will find additional comments there.

Unsurprisingly, there are some issues mentioned which might be familiar if you read my previous articles on here. Discussing the “Ralph Lauren Model” I pointed out how important the added value to a generic content is. Masnick again summarises the five most important facts:

Motivate consumers by involving them.

Add real value to generic content.

Create hype to promote the product in the long run.

Implement a pricing strategy that makes use of long tail strategy.

Most importantly: There’s a wide variety of strategies to choose from. Be creative.

In case you are reading this within your email feed, the video might be missing. Do yourself a favour and visit my blog to watch it.

Might Ralph Lauren Save Digital Distribution of Music?

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:11:00 +0100

At SIIA Industry Summit 2009, Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino described the framework for Financial Times’ digital and pricing strategy. Financial Times is published by Pearson.

Sardino, referring to print content, stressed the difference between generic content such as news and the value Financial Times provides by quality analysis. Apart from the brand value, it is in particular the supplier generated extra content which defines the product’s market value.

But where is Ralph Lauren?

The newspaper’s price has been increased which led to an increase in number of readers too. Now this is what Scardino calls „The Ralph Lauren Effect”, in marketing more commonly known as snob effect.

Certain target audiences have a need to “feel” quality and identity of a product by price. Customers expect exclusiveness and social prestige in buying. You might compare it to car enthusiasts buying a Porsche’s sound, or like the fact a vacuum cleaner has to be noisy to be efficient. It is about feeling the product and consumer’s identification with it. Lower the price or reduce the noise – sales figures will go down.

This phenomenon works well with exclusive goods. The price indicates the quality of product.

Print vs. music media

So can digital distribution in print media be compared to music in terms of pricing and product structure? Is it possible to transfer the Ralph Lauren model?

Let us start with one premise: The basic situation to be analysed here differs in print and media. Scardino refers to standing the competition within several print outlets. The core issue in music business is not based on rivalry. It is about 1) Upon which sources do I generate revenue? and 2) Is there a way to beat piracy?

"Might Ralph Lauren Save Digital Distribution of Music?" vollständig lesen

Pay a fee at your ISP, get your music for free - sort of

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:10:00 +0100

On MidemNet Blog, Peter Jenner shares his “Thoughts on the deal between DSPs, Content Industries, and Government for Next Generation Access”. Actually, his thoughts might have their origin in a news flash from last year.

Sorting it out…

The story’s beginning has to be set in March 2008 when Warner Music Group hired business veteran Jim Griffin to develop a new business model to build upon. In early December, the result hit the public. Selected universities were approached to prove if the business model would work: Students would pay a small fee, and in return they were allowed to access and download all music available via internet for free - legally. According to Eliot Van Buskirk on wired.com all major record labels apart from Universal agreed to be involved.

However, in a real world environment (outside the campus) the intention is to establish a (nonprofit) company to collect the fee in cooperation with the ISPs. With Warner’s and Griffin’s business model, this company (‘Choruss’) apparently turns out be registered by Griffin’s OneHouse Digital.

Cure to everything?

Another well-known media strategist, Gerd Leonhard, announced on MidemNet Blog that at Midem 2009 he was about to show “[..] why we urgently need a new blanket license for Internet music (on-demand streaming, and downloading) that is similar to what we already have for radio & broadcasting (i.e. a collective or a compulsory license that is made available to anyone), why all the efforts of controlling music content online have failed to generate relevant future revenue streams for the creators (rather than just the lawyers), and what the alternatives will be.”

Peter Jenner hails this idea as the one solution which fits the situation.

"Pay a fee at your ISP, get your music for free - sort of" vollständig lesen