Music Career In A Rut? This Can Help!

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If you're career is in a music rut and you're not doing the things in music that you think you should be, then my 6 Keys To Musical Prosperity teleseminar might be just the thing you need to kickstart your career.

I'm inviting you to a free 60+ minute telephone seminar that I'm offering next Tuesday, January 14th with a group of my music industry friends like maga-mixer Dave Pensado and LA session bassist Paul ILL, who currently work with hit artists that have recorded some of the classic songs that you hear on the radio every day.

If you're not making enough money or working with the best musicians and people in the industry, it's time to find out how to overcome the common hurdles that block musicians, engineers, and producers from doing the things they've always dreamed about.

Together we'll teach you things that 95% of all musicians don’t know.

To register for this call, which is free except for your normal long distance charges, go here now:

http://www.bobbyowsinski.com/6-keys-teleseminar.html

Once registered (remember, it’s free), you'll receive all the details to join the call via return email. I look forward to "seeing" you on the call next Tuesday!

The Numbers Are In: Should The Music Industry Be Worried?

Billboard Magazine recently posted the Nielsen Soundscan year-end 2013 music sales numbers, and while they may not correspond exactly with the upcoming figures from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) or IFPI (International Federation of the Phonograph Industry), I don’t think they’re far off the mark. I’m sure music execs everywhere are looking at the stats and wringing their hands, and in some ways, they should be, because it’s the first year since iTunes was introduced that digital music has suffered a decline.

In what should be a huge red flag for the industry, 2013 digital track sales fell 5.7% from 1.34 billion units to 1.26 billion. Soundscan hasn’t yet released their streaming numbers for the year, but it should be clear to everyone that streaming is the reason for the downturn. In fact, it’s been widely noted that the digital download sales decline has been offset by the rise in streaming income, which we should see quantified when the numbers are made available.

Perhaps a larger problem is that the album, the cash cow of the industry (although less so than ever), has seen its sales decline for yet another year. Album sales for 2014 dipped to 289.4 million units, an 8.4% reduction from the prior year, although digital album sales fell a nominal 0.1% to 117.6 units from the previous year’s 117.7 million.

We’re in the era of the single song sale, as albums mean less and less to today’s consumers. It’s a different time where the attention span is much shorter, multitasking abounds, and there are more media choices than ever, which is less than ideal conditions for a medium that requires a long time commitment. Albums won’t die, but hopefully they’ll be altered for the times, with fewer songs and less running time. That’s not going to bring the format back to prominence, but it might slow its decline. This is one time where quality trumps quantity for sure. Read more on Forbes.

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

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

7 Website Killers To Avoid

It's great that you have a website, but you want it to be as effective as possible so that you can gain more followers, get better gigs, and sell more product. Here's an excerpt from Social Media Promotion For Musicians that outlines the 7 website killers to avoid to make sure that visitors find your site and want to come back.

"Here are a number of practices that are guaranteed to turn off your visitors. You know what they are yourself because you probably encounter them on other sites every day, but that doesn't mean you should emulate a bad practice. Not only do many of the following aggravate site visitors, but they're can mean site death when it comes to search engine optimization. If you want fans to find you, make sure these are avoided. 

1. A "splash" page. A splash page is an opening page with a movie or flash animation and no information. The whole "Enter Here" thing is so Web 1.0. There's no info for a search engine to grab and your visitors hate them. Avoid at all costs.

http://www.hail-stone.co.uk/

http://www.maninblack.org/

2. Flash animation. It looks cool, but sometimes people just want some info and not cartoons. Search engines can't read any of the info in a Flash movie so they're a waste of time and money. iPhones and iPads can’t display Flash, and most people hate it these days anyway.

http://www.atutiplen.es/

3. Frames. Again, so Web 1.0. Sites with frames went out a long time ago. Get with the times and dump these babies.

http://www.jimthatcher.com/csun2003/29.htm

http://www.jimthatcher.com/csun2003/31.htm

4. Pop-ups. It doesn't matter where they come from or if they're selling something or not, everyone hates them.

5. Pull-down boxes for navigation. Designers love them, visitors hate them, search engines can't read them. If your site isn’t that complex, stay away if you can.

6. Dead links. This is just poor website quality control. It happens to everyone at some point, but remember that both search engines and visitors hate them.

7. All graphics and not much text. Search engines love text. Visitors love text. Pictures are nice, but use them in moderation."

These rules aren't that difficult to implement, especially if you're updating your site. Chances are that if your site is still using the first 3 items, you really need an update anyway.

You can read more excerpts from Social Media Promotion For Musicians and my other books at the book excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

Vinyl Sales Grow, But Albums Stagnate

We're starting to get the final music sales figures from 2013, and the biggest jump so far is with the vinyl album. As you can see from the chart below from Statista, the LP has been on a steady incline since 2007, but last year grew by 32% over 2012.

Albums in general haven't done so well though, as overall sales (including CD and digital) fell another 8.4% last year, slumping to 289 million units from 316 million in 2012.

That being said, remember that the big jump in vinyl still means there was only 6 million units sold! That's a drop in the bucket compared to the other music media.

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

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

Help Your Fans Help You Market

Social media can be such an instant communicator that it allows people to immediately share the good time their having with not only their friends, but the world. The problem is that artists and bands don't often take advantage of this during a show. Consider the following ideas for your next gig.

• Display a live feed. How about displaying a live Twitter or Instagram feed on a monitor near the stage. Even better, if you use a projector in your show, put up the feeds at specific times during your set. An even better time is before the show actually begins, since there's already built up tension as the fans wait for the main event.

• Have clear written instructions on what you want people to do. Your fans will engage since they're already on their phones, but you have to have a clear call-to-action so they understand exactly what they're being asked. Then they need the instructions easily laid out for them. They're at a event trying to have a good time and don't want to think.

• Collect the data. Be sure to collect and analyze the engagement data so you can spot any trends, such as boredom, excitement or an intense reaction for a song.

• Turn it into user generated content later. Pictures and videos can later be used as social media or YouTube content, just ask permission first. Most fans will be only to happy that you've chosen their material.

A live gig is an underutilized tool that with a little additional effort can turn into a social marketing event with the help of your audience.

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

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.