Surprise: iTunes Leads In Video Too

When it comes to a viewing audience, there's no service bigger than YouTube, but when it comes to video sales, it appears to be an iTunes kind of world. That's from the latest info online research company NPD Group, which released a new report on the subject last week.

As more content owners struggle to monetize their catalogs, iTunes is increasingly leading the way. According to the study of the 2012 video business, iTunes had:

• 67% of TV show online sales
• 65% of online movie sales
• 45% of video rentals

As you can see from the chart on the left, iTunes dominates even Amazon in this regard. When it comes to rentals though, the race is a bit closer with Amazon accounting for 18%, Vudu for 15%, and XBox video at 14%.

None of this should be a surprise, although it seems to be. First of all, iTunes was the first mover in the download sales area and enjoys dominance in music, but when you factor in the proliferation of iOS devices like iPhones and iPads (which are excellent for watching video), you have an ecosystem that supports the distribution arm. Just as Apple planned it.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Interested in the Music 3.0 archives? Buy The Music 3.0 Guide To Social Media. The best of over 800 posts.

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.

Why The Grooveshark Ruling Should Scare YouTube

Grooveshark is the music streaming service that everyone uses at least sometimes, but gets no respect, especially from the music industry. In fact, Grooveshark has been laden with lawsuits from the major labels over the last few years over users uploading copyrighted songs illegally, a fact that has weighed the company down significantly.

Despite having a healthy 30 million users a month, the service has been struggling with cashflow thanks to the legal hassles that the suits entailed. Things just got worse for the company when a 5 judge panel of the New York Supreme Court overturned a previous ruling and concluded that any song created before 1972 that was uploaded to the service should have the same "safe harbor" protections offered by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as a song written after 1972.

What that means is that not only must Grooveshark remove any copyrighted song from that period if given notice of infringement by the controller of the copyright, but that it can also be charged as a party to the infringement as well. This, of course, opens the company up to all sorts of potential lawsuits that can bring an already struggling company to its knees.

While Grooveshark is clearly the focus of this suit and controversy, it also brings the same type of scrutiny to YouTube and all other video sites however, a fact that should be making them extremely nervous about now.

Now the saving grace for YouTube in all this is that so far this is a lawsuit based in New York, where Grooveshark does business, and each state has their own interpretations of the same law, but a precedent has been set.

Google has some mighty deep pockets that can hold their own in just about any legal fight, but you know that this is not a fight that they need or want. Copyright holders might see this as another source of income however, one that they might feel has rightfully eluded them for many years, and move along a new round of legal action based upon the ruling quickly.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Interested in the Music 3.0 archives? Buy The Music 3.0 Guide To Social Media. The best of over 800 posts.

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.

What's Learned In 30 Years Of The Music Biz

As everyone knows, the music business has changed substantially in the last few years. One of the things that's evolved has been the fact that the artist is able to do so much without the help of a record label and still have a chance for at least some modicum of success. That could never happen way back when, where if you weren't embraced by the "music business," you were essentially left out in the cold with no hope for ever getting ahead.

Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips has seen it all over the band's 30 year run, and in this video he explains not only how things have changed, but how the band was always against the grain business-wise, as they operated more DIY before it was even popular or possible. The lesson here is that sometimes trading money for artistic freedom can be worth it.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Interested in the Music 3.0 archives? Buy The Music 3.0 Guide To Social Media. The best of over 800 posts.

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.

The Music Subscription Music Service You Don't Know About

Subscription music services have been getting more and more press as the music business and their customers gradually adopt the concept, but we normally only hear about the higher profile services like Spotify and Pandora. It's true that they have the most subscribers at the moment, but did you know there's one service that's quietly crossed the million mark that very few have heard about?

Muve Music, which is a service of wireless carrier Cricket Wireless, has quietly surpassed 1.1 million subscribes less than 2 years after it was launched. It's basically an unlimited music service that's tied to a pay-as-you-go mobile phone service. It offers no apps for personal computers or tablets, and is only offered on Android phones.

What's particularly interesting is the demographic that Muve Music caters to. Most of its users don't own a computer or have a credit card. That means they'd never be a user of one of the other services anyway.

It just goes to show that there's always a sub-market to be served, even though it may not get much attention. That's pretty much the way music works these days. Even superstar artists have their own niche that they cater to, and any artist can have a career within a narrow category.

That's the key to being an artist in Music 3.0. Find your niche and play to it. It doesn't matter if you play something esoteric like Swahili polka or Manchurian jazz, there's a market out there for what you do. The trick is to find it. Luckily that's easer than ever thanks to social media. Stay tuned for more on how it's done.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Interested in the Music 3.0 archives? Buy The Music 3.0 Guide To Social Media. The best of over 800 posts.

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.

12 Social Media Tactics For Artists

Here's an excerpt from The Music 3.0 Guide To Social Media ebook that looks at the basic concepts for artists to use social media more efficiently.

"Heidi Cohen at ClickZ post a great article regarding the 13 tactics to make social media work harder. I've adapted her post for Music 3.0, since her points are excellent, but I've found that only 12 of them apply. They are:

1. Understand how and why your fans use social media. This is the best way to make sure that you're interacting with the majority of your fans in the first place.

2. Develop content that meets your fans needs and interests. This shouldn't be too hard. They like you already and will probably want anything you give them. Don't be afraid to offer rough mixes, rehearsal and studio out-takes, and behind-the-scenes videos.

3. Use a variety of forms of content and understand the role that each plays in social media. Blog posts, video, forums posts, Twitter and Facebook posts are all important. Many fans prefer one over another, so it's best not to ignore any of them.

4. Encourage your fans to share content. The key to a healthy fan base (or Tribe" as "Seth Godin calls it) is not only their interaction with you (the artist), but also with each other.

5. Support and promote consumer-generated content. Mash-ups of songs and videos can be as important as your own releases.

6. Integrate product information into your content/story. Don't sell or hype your fans, inform them. They'll do the promotion for you.

7. Use content in social media to help build organic search optimization. Always think of SEO (search engine optimization) when developing content. Using the proper keyword phrases in your copy and metadata (even for videos) is crucial for being found, and therefore getting the word out.

8. Listen to, interact with, and recognize your fans. Communication can't be just one way. When they reach out, you must reach back.

9. Provide immediacy and nimbly react to events as they unfold. Social media is immediate by nature, so your fan base expects a more-or-less immediate response.

10. Participate in social media with a human voice. For social media to work well for an artist, the artist herself must participate. Certain communication can work through a surrogate, but fans can see right through a post that's supposed to be you but isn't.

11. Encourage band members and crew to participate in social media. The perspective of everyone involved with an artist is valuable to the fan, that's why it's important that everyone in the artist's circle should participate at least a little.

12. Track relevant conversations, responses, fan relationships, and sales across social media forums. The real key to effective and efficient social media management is measurement.

All these points are worth considering in order to ensure strong social media management."

To read additional excerpts from my books, go to bobbyowsinski.com.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Interested in the Music 3.0 archives? Buy The Music 3.0 Guide To Social Media. The best of over 800 posts.

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.