Thursday, February 24, 2011

For Warner Music - Let The Bidding Begin

While everyone is aware that EMI Records is virtually down the tubes thanks to their recent default on their Citibank loan, now it looks like Warner Music Group might go before them. According to a report in Reuters, several parties have already started to put in bids for the once venerable company, including private equity firm KKR (who now owns BMG Rights Management), Russian billionaire Len Blavatnik (who already owns 2% of Warners), as well as Universal Music and Sony Music.

There's a lot of intrigue around the issue in that Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman is telling everyone that they may spin off their Warner/Chappel publishing arm so that they (WMG) can buy EMI, but because of the huge debt load of WMG, that looks unlikely to happen.

There are a lot of other strategic plays possible, but whatever happens, it looks like the Big 4 major record labels will soon be down to the Big 3, and maybe even the Big 2, very soon.

As I said before, I see this as a good thing, since we're nearing the end of the old music business and starting the new one based on Music 3.0. By the end of the year, our industry may look very different than what we see today.

Read the entire Reuters article here.

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You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Facebook Usage By The Numbers

Here's a very short, yet well-done video about Facebook's staggering usage stats. If you're not using this app for your marketing, you're really missing out, since the possibilities are amazing. Take a look.


The World Is Obsessed With Facebook from Alex Trimpe on Vimeo.

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You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Swag Is Your Friend

It's time for another excerpt from Music 3.0: A Survival Guide For Making Music In The Internet Age. This time it's from the chapter called "How To Make Money In Today's Music World" and deals specifically with swag, which is another word for merchandise.

You can read more about the book as well as a few more excerpts on my website page that's dedicated to the Music 3.0 guidebook.
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Performing live is only one ingredient of the recipe however. You’ve got to have merchandise (other terms include “swag” or “merch”) to supplement your income. It’s always been a huge part of the income of an artist, but until recently was considered just an ancillary revenue stream. Today it’s an essential part of most artist’s earnings.
It used to be that merch required a sizable capital outlay in order to get in the game. You had to buy enough to get some sort of economy of scale, but then you also had to worry about storing the inventory as well. And what if the item didn’t sell? What do you do with 4,835 custom keychains or 492 pairs of branded underwear? Luckily, there are now alternatives to make the buy-in easier on the pocketbook than ever.
Today both Cafe Press (cafepress.com) and Zazzle (zazzle.com) make it easy to provide quality merch of all kinds without worrying either about the upfront money or inventory. Both companies provide a host of items that they’ll manufacture to order, and they’ll even allow you to show examples of merch on your website or store. In other words, whenever an order is placed, that’s when they’ll make it. They’ll even drop-ship it to the customer for you so you don’t have to worry about shipping and inventory. All this comes at a cost so your profit won’t be as high, but it’s an easy and inexpensive way to get into the merch business.
So what kind of merch should you have? You can now get a huge variety of items branded with your logo, but typical merch items are:
   T-shirts (probably the #1 item ever for a musical artist)
   Hats
   Lighters
   Sweatshirts
   Coffee cups
   Posters
   Bumper stickers
   Mousepads
   Bags (timely now since people use them instead of paper or plastic at the supermarket)

Just about anything you can think of can now have your logo on it. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean that just because you can make it available, it’s a good idea. It’s still best to narrow things down as too many choices can actually prevent a willing customer from buying anything because he can’t make up his mind. Keep the number of items to a maximum of 2 at first until you’re sure they sell before adding more options.
Another interesting idea is a tour book of photos available from blurb.com such as the Grateful Dead did on their recent tour. Once again, it’s on-demand printing, and they offer a number of professional templates to make the design easy.
Don’t forget that, in the end, branded items such as T-shirts, hats, beach towels and frizbees are for marketing you as an artist, so be sure that the design is professional. If you’re going to spend hard cash, this is the place to do it. Find a pro or an advanced hobbyist to design it for you. Don’t forget the true reason for merch is that if enough people see your intriguing logo on a T-shirt, coffee mug or bumper sticker, some of them will be at least interested enough to check you out.
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You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Is There A Market For Used MP3s?

Hypebot had a post recently about ReDigi, who've announced that "the world's first online marketplace to legally recycle, buy and sell, used digital music files" will go online later this year. OK, listen to these words as you read them - "used digital music files."

The way I see it, there are so many things wrong with this business model that I'd be shocked if it ever got off the ground.
  • When you upload one of your tracks, you get a coupon that you use to to discount the next song that you buy from, guess who, Redigi. This is virtual cash. Unlike CDs or LPs of old, you can't sell them for real dollars that you can use on anything else later.
  • If people would rather steal new digital music files, why do they think that they'll buy used ones instead?
  • The rights owners have to get paid. The overhead required for the virtual paperwork seems overwhelming, although ReDigi states that they have some proprietary software that will take care of it.
  • They'll still have to get license agreements from the labels, if the labels have anything to say about it. This will go to court before it's settled, I bet, which may sink the company before it gets out of the gate.
I can foresee a scenario when there might be a market for used digital files, so that makes ReDigi is worth watching. I just don't think we're there yet.

Go to the ReDigi site to watch their intro movie.

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You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Understanding The Like Button

There's a great article over at Music Think Tank by Robin Davey about how to successfully grow your fan base using Facebook. One of the parts that I really liked is about how to react when one of your posts is "liked." Take a look.
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"UNDERSTAND THE LIKEWhen a post of yours is liked, it is important to take a step back from that. Don’t think too highly of yourself for saying something that enticed a click on the “Like” button. Instead, understand that they have clicked that button because, in some way, they feel your post defines them. They are endorsing you, putting their name to your comments. If you get an above average number of likes, it’s not just because you said something clever, it’s because your fans are responding to something they want to associate with. Look for patterns in this and hone in on them.
Was it something funny, meaningful, or controversial?
This is important because you want to get fans coming back to your page. You can reel them in with something that interests them, and when they are there, they will want to look deeper. Maybe even download an MP3, or go one further and purchase something.
For instance, if you were outraged by the Prop 8 result, or thought an SNL skit was funny, you can bet that a portion of your fan base does too. If you are passionate about something, people will relate and interact."

There's a lot more great advice in the article How To Successfully Grow Your Fan Base Using Facebook (And Not Spend A Dime). It's worth checking out.

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You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.


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