ContentSphere - Music & Media in an Online Culture - Strategies

Why Jay Frank (FutureHit.DNA/CMT) Fails: It's Longevity That Artists Need, Not Chart Success

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:09:47 +0100

Browsing my Google Reader today I stumbled into Kyle Bylin’s interview with Jay Frank of Futurehit.DNA and CMT (a division of MTV Networks) at hypebot. Jay’s new book “FutureHit.DNA - How The Digital Revolution Is Changing Top 10 Songs” you can download for free on his site.

Well, of course the digital revolution has changed music. But there are some claims of his that I do not necessarily agree to in the way Jay puts it. It’s a bit of context that’s missing.

First of all, you might easily forget about the fact that he’s talking about chart music only. During the interview I can’t help getting the feeling the majority of musicians (from Jay’s point of view) are merely in it for the money. Rules to follow, issues to avoid - just to make sure your song makes the Top 10.

Honestly, the probability any song makes it there is very low. Let’s face it: It’s near zero. You might as well spend your time and money on lotteries.

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DIY-Marketing #3: Georgia Wonder Serving Fresh Ideas in Reducing Recording Cost

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:04:02 +0100

Go support Georgia Wonder!

Georgia Wonder is Stephanie Grant from London and Julian Moore from Portsmouth. We got to know each other via Andrew Dubber’s blog and Twitter. You’re searching for a pop/rock/folk band serving beautiful tunes and a brilliant female voice - buy their tracks. You can even choose if and how much to pay for downloads. Or you may order a physical copy.

Julian Moore and Stephanie are never short of clever ideas to add to their marketing. And they are really running the marketing themselves. Blogs, videos, Bandcamp, iTunes, We7, Twitter, homepage, mailings (email as well as snail mail), Facebook etc. - it is time consuming but they’re constantly connected to their fans.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.
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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).

Cellonaut: On Music Industry, Self-Marketing, Financing 2.0, and Free Content

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:06:12 +0200

The interview is now online on Vimeo in full (German language). To view part 4 & 5 right here on this site, just click the link for more. To read any article related to the interview, simply click the tag for Wolfram Huschke.

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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

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.

Dubber on Music for Free

wolfgang.senges@contentsphere.de (Wolfgang Senges) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:48:57 +0100

Three weeks ago, Andrew Dubber once again tackled the question of “Why give music away for free?” on his blog. He earned more than 140 comments. That is a lot. It stirred up the a lively argument between the contributors on more than just one level. Take your time - it is an excellent read.

Here is the comment I added. I left it unedited which means there are a few referers to other people’s comments. Hope you don’t mind. If you like, add your two cents by adding a comment right here (or over there).

Nothing is predictable

So what remains to be a constant in music business? There’s the product, which includes performance & composition. It’s the artists, or more generally speaking, the creative bunch (whomever that will include on the technical side). On the other side of the story we’ve got the consumer. Then there’s kind of a middleware - let’s call it the platform of distribution, no matter how many third party companies are involved (if any). There are rules and a technological as well as a economical framework to deal with the product. This includes licensing & copyright law. Anybody involved intends to get their share of money. Expect for the consumer, who’s trying to pay as less as possible. IF he’s doing so.

So everything remains more or less? No, for heaven’s sake - again I’m with Andrew. If anything’s predictable, it’s a multi-dimensional complexity which arises of any constant being altered by a multitude of parameters: technology, globalization, ubiquity, The Long Tail, individual production etc.

Upside down

What’s changing in music (or media) business? Basically, anybody’s role will change - that’s quite easy to see. It’s not only the labels. And it will not change somewhere in the future, it’s already in the making. Be open minded and keep up a good amount of analytical awareness. Your tasks have changed.

Complexity arises from multiple forms of the product’s carrier (media, format, resolution, options). More complexity arises from options in the choice of distribution channels (online, offline, label, portal, aggregator, selling by yourself). Even more complexity arises when it comes to choose whether to add added value (ltd editions etc - see Tom Robinson and Julian). If that’s not enough, you can define the pricing model and strategy as an artist yourself (depends on way of distribution of course).

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