Your Cover Songs May Not Be Streamed

Doing a great cover version of a hit song has been a successful tactic in helping to raise the visibility of an artist or band for some time, but that practice may soon come to an end thanks to new efforts by iTunes, Spotify and other streaming services.

More and more, digital streaming services are either hiding or removing cover songs, sound-alikes, re-recorded songs and live performances in an effort to simply their catalogs and make it easier for users to find the song they really want.

And they have a point. Searching for a popular song sometimes turns up more than 50 choices, making it difficult to find the original that you're looking for.

The problem is that there are many unintended policies that come with this editorial decision.

For instance, it's been reported by Billboard that one service's "blacklist" of recordings that include 400 artists that range from B.B. King, Frank Sinatra, John Coltrane and Pete Seeger.

Re-records, the practice of an artist or band re-recording one of their hits so they own the recording instead of the record label, are also frequently marginalized as well, although many fans aren't all that unhappy as most prefer the original versions.

So beware if you're recording a cover song in the hopes of gaining some extra streams. While the practice may still work on YouTube, chances are your cover won't see the light of day on the other streaming services from now on.

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The 10 Best-Selling Christmas Albums

Everyone thinks that Christmas albums are giant moneymakers, but while massive radio airplay may bring songwriters of Christmas songs some big royalty checks, Holiday albums haven't really sold that well.

Below is an infographic from Statista based on Billboard chart information that shows the 10 best selling Christmas albums since 1991. It's surprising that Kenny G is #1, but it's even more surprising that the total album sales is only 7.3 million units. Also a surprise is that Mannheim Steamroller has such a strong presence on the list, taking up the 5, 6 and 7 positions and totaling just under 11 million.

Of course, selling a million albums today is quite a feat, but remember that most of these top sellers were around during the heyday of the CD business, when selling a million merely got you into the game.

Have a very merry Christmas, and thank you kindly for your continued support of this blog!

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The Beatles Finally Coming To Streaming

All signs are pointing to one of the last major remaining holdouts, The Beatles, finally coming to a streaming network near you. Billboard, MBW, and Hits Daily Double all report that the Fab 4 will finally be available on either Apple Music or Spotify (or both) on Christmas Eve.

There's also some speculation that The Beatles music might be the first available only on Spotify's Premium tier. Last month CEO and founder Daniel Eck seemed to indicate that the company was softening its stance on making certain superstar artists available only on the paid tier and not on the free one.

This seems like a good strategy that may not only get more people to upgrade their accounts (which pay much higher royalties to artists, publishers and labels), but to appease the music industry as well.

The music business has long been railing against giving away music for free, although money is still generated via advertising, just at a lower rate.

The Beatles haven't been absent from streaming altogether though. They've been on Pandora for some time because of a more encompassing license for the non-interactive format.

Just as a point of reference, the band has sold 178 million albums in the US to date, according to the , and their music has been available on iTunes since 2008.

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Billboard Introduces A Chart For Lyrics

Billboard already has over 100 charts, so you'd think that there wouldn't be a need for another one. The company found room for a couple more by introducing a new US and International LyricFind Charts, which show the songs with the most search queries for the lyrics.

The charts are based upon the data mined from LyricFind, the market leader for lyric licensing, synchronization and reporting.

The company has issued lyric licenses to more than 100 services already, including Amazon, Pandora, Shazam and Yahoo. It specializes in taking the burden of licensing and collecting royalties for lyrics from publishers, who generally choose to spend most of their time on other parts of the business with a greater royalty payout.

While on the surface one might wonder the need for such a chart, it's actually pretty interesting in that so many consumers regularly search for lyrics, in many cases almost as much as the actual song itself. It's no surprise that the chart closely mirrors the Hot 100 chart in that it's mostly populated by the most popular songs of the moment.

In our data-driven Music 4.0 world, the LyricFind Chart is just another useful piece to help frame the success of a song. It's been a long time coming.

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Amazon Prime Coming On Strong As A Streaming Service

Means More Revenue For Artists And Songwriters

I've been saying for months to watch out for Amazon's music streaming service, and now there's some data to back that up.

According to a report by market-research firm Parks Associates that was sited in Billboard, 66% of the 97 million U.S. households with broadband connections listen to a streaming audio service. 40% of them use a free service, while 26% listen to a paid streaming service.

Here's where the data gets interesting. Amazon Prime Music has the lead with about 10% of those households that subscribe to a paid service, followed by Pandora One at 6%, Spotify Premium at 4%, SiriusXM Streaming at 4%, iTunes Match at 2% and Google Play Music at 2%.

Amazon Prime has an estimated 40 million domestic subscribers, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, although some figures reach as high as 90 million. Whatever the number, it's large and now it appears that many of those customers are beginning to discover the value of Prime Music, which is part of the Prime subscription.

Amazon Prime has been completely under the radar when it comes to the streaming music wars, but shouldn't be underestimated. Amazon's a huge company with deep pockets, and ultimately may be the only company that can ultimately take on Apple, Google and maybe Spotify.

The one downside to Prime Music is that it's catalog is relatively small at 1 million or so (most other services are 25 million plus), and doesn't have the latest hits. That may not be a factor as the customers using it may not ultimately care.

The point is that Amazon Prime is becoming another viable revenue stream when it comes to streaming music.

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Smartphones And Concerts Are Tied At The Hip

If you’re like me you’re probably wondering why everyone is looking down at their phones during a concert instead of at the action on stage, but it’s something that’s becoming more the norm and will probably be increasing in the future. And that, it turns out, is going to be a good thing for artists, bands and brands everywhere.

According to an article in Billboard by Donnie Dinch, Ticketfly (the online ticket source where Donnie is General Manager of Consumer) tasked Harris Interactive to conduct a poll asking how people used their phones during a concert or event. What they discovered is beyond interesting.

First of all, 31% of Millennials (18 to 34 year olds) use their phones for half the concert or longer, while only 15% say they never touch it while there. That’s a lot of time to be looking at a small display while the main event is happening in real life, so what are they doing exactly?

It turns out that most of those phones are being used for recording the show, but not so much as a historical document as stoking the FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) fires of their friends. This applies to 40% of the females (as compared to 24% of males), who also share their posts on social media 59% of the time.

All interesting, and maybe a little sad, but the fact of the matter is that there’s a large number of attendees glued to their phone, yet hardly anyone is actively taken advantage of it.

This could come soon thanks to the new Bluetooth beacon technology that companies like Apple and Marriott are employing which automatically send push notifications to smartphones in the vicinity, providing the users with product information, flash sales or deals. With a few well-placed beacons around a venue, there could be an opportunity to sell some merch in a fast and easy way. Read more on Forbes.

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A Look At Music Tech Salaries

Once it leaves the creative stage, music is more and more dependent upon the tech community than ever before. Today's distribution, communication, interaction, marketing and promotion all depend on tech.

That's why it's a good idea to have an idea of what it costs in terms of salary for tech execs. Many musicians, artists and bands want to build their own app or music service but have no idea of the costs involved. Of course, labor is just one of the pieces of the puzzle and it can be a big one.

Of special interest is the lowest rung on the ladder, which is community or social media manager, with an average salary of $40k to $70k. This is a job that every artist needs these days, and this figure can help place a value on that job. Thanks to Billboard for the infographic.

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A Look At Label Exec Salaries

I bet you always wondered exactly how much those label execs at your record company are making. Here's an interesting chart thanks to Billboard that gives some real-world numbers. Caution: if you're in debt to your label, you might not like what you see.

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What's A Music Stream Worth?

You might wonder how the music industry determines how much a stream from a major service like Spotify or Pandora is determined. Unfortunately, that's a wildly moving target so no one can exactly say, and here's why.

• The different tiers pay differently. A free tier has a different royalty rate from a paid tier.

• Interactive vs non-interactive streams. Spotify is an interactive service because the user can select the song she wants to hear so it pays more than Pandora, which is a radio-like service and is therefore non-interactive.

• Different countries pay different rates. The US pays a different rate than the UK, which pays a different rate from Sweden, which pays a different rate from Korea, etc.

Because there's no way to determine the exact amount that a stream pays out, the industry has come up with something called a "stream equivalent album (SEA for short)." The way this works is that 1,500 streams at an average of $0.005 (a half-cent) each equals $7.50, which is the wholesale price for a CD. Therefore, 1,500 streams = one album.

Billboard began using this figure last year to help determine chart position, and the music industry has adopted it as a general sales metric.

That said, that 1,500 figure is subject to change. It was 2,000 streams in 2013, so it may be different next year as well.

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The Top 10 Best Selling Christmas Albums

Everyone thinks that Christmas albums are giant moneymakers, but while massive radio airplay may bring songwriters of Christmas songs some big royalty checks, Holiday albums haven't really sold that well.

Below is an infographic from Statista based on Billboard chart information that shows the 10 best selling Christmas albums since 1991. It's surprising that Kenny G is #1, but it's even more surprising that the total album sales is only 7.3 million units. Also a surprise is that Mannheim Steamroller has such a strong presence on the list, taking up the 5, 6 and 7 positions and totaling just under 11 million.

Of course, selling a million albums today is quite a feat, but remember that most of these top sellers were around during the heyday of the CD business, when selling a million merely got you into the game.

Have a very merry Christmas, and thank you kindly for your continued support of this blog!

Top 10 Highest Grossing Concerts Of 2014

The results are in and the highest grossing concerts from this year will astound you. The following chart from Billboard shows that some music acts are making some serious money on the road. Keep in mind that the chart isn't for an entire tour - it's only for 1 show!

The One Direction/5 Seconds Of Summer tour was obviously a blockbuster, capturing 5 slots of the top 10, including the single highest attendance with 236,566 at London's Wembley Stadium, but The Stones were the highest grossers, capturing almost $28 million for a single date at the Tokyo Dome.

All that said, actual total concert attendance was actually down a little over 1% in 2014, but people paid more money than ever, as the concert industry made nearly 20 billion worldwide - a record.

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The Pandora Effect On Music Sales

A study by Pandora earlier this year has found that the more a song is streamed on the service, the more actual sales it will generate. If that's the case, it turns out that Pandora is a radio-like service in more ways than one, as radio plays have always lead to sales as well.

The study, which was outlined in a Billboard article, found that the average positive effect resulted in a 2.31% increase in music sales for new music, and 2.66% for catalog in something they called "track equivalent albums," which is a metric that counts 10 tracks as an album.

This ratio really changed between music released by major and indie labels. New music from the major labels played on Pandora resulted in a 2.82% positive effect, but only 0.62% for indies, who fared much better on catalog at 3.85% compared to the major's 2.36%.

The study also looked at how the number of streams affected sales as well. It found that if the streams were at least 25 times the sales, the positive effect was around 5%. When the streams to sales ratio was 150, the positive effect grew to 15% (I'd like to see the methodology for this, as the results seem dubious).

As a result of all this info, the researchers could put a value on each Pandora stream that was higher than the actual royalty paid. For instance, new music was valued at 0.265 cents while the actual royalty paid was 0.13%. Catalog music didn't fare nearly as well though, being valued at only 0.135 cents for only a 4 percent increase.

While the numbers look impressive, it's important to remember that the study was sponsored by Pandora in the first place, and these numbers will be used in the various upcoming lawsuits and hearings that the service is involved in. That said, there have been previous independent studies in the past that have found similar results, like this one from the NYPD Group.

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The Reason Why Opening Acts Lose Money

You've signed you first major label record deal, the new album is about to drop, and now you're scheduled to be the opening act for a major headliner. What could be better? Well, it helps if you actually make some money, but that's usually not the case because touring costs are so high.

How high? This article in Billboard illustrates the costs for an opening, mid-level, and superstar act. An example of the opening act costs from the article is below.

The big takeaway is the final note. If you're not careful, you'll be on the hook to the label for much more than you think.

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Billboard Twitter Launch Realtime Charts

Billboard Twitter Trending 140 Chart

Billboard has now officially launched its new Twitter real-time charts that rank popular songs shared on Twitter in the US.

The first chart is called the Trending 140, which shows up-to-the-minute ranking of songs share on Twitter in the US over the last 24 hours. The chart also has a weekly summary called the Twitter Top Tracks.

Another chart called the Twitter Emerging Artists chart ranks the songs shared by new and upcoming artists. Songs on the charts are measured by:

• the inclusion of a link on a tweet to listening platforms like Spotify, Vevo and iTunes.
• the use of hashtags like #nowplaying or #np or the artist's or song's name.
• the use of terms that signify a song such as "music," "song," "track," or "listen."

The Billboard Twitter charts are the latest in Billboard's transition from sales to social media to determine its charts. Other charts based around social media include the Social 50, On-Demand Songs and Streaming Songs. With music sales waning, this is perhaps the only way for the magazine and service to remain relevant.

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Record Store Day Another Big Hit

Record Store Day 2014 was again a raging success as sales at independent record stores represented 19.4% of the US music sales volume last week, which many say is the highest share since Soundscan began tracking such things in 1991. Many record stores proclaimed it their best day ever, with some stores actually having a line of several hundred waiting to get into the store!

As a result of RSD, vinyl sales were up a whopping 57% as its resurgence continues, with over 329,000 sales for the week. So what titles were hot? Here's how Billboard ranks sales for the week:

Vinyl Albums
1. Childish Gambino, "Because the Internet" (Glassnote)
2. The Afghan Whigs, "Do To the Beast" (Sub Pop)
3. Notorious B.I.G., "Life After Death" (Bad Boy/Rhino)
4. Bruce Springsteen, "American Beauty" (EP) (Columbia)
5. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Live At Monterey" (Experience
Hendrix/Legacy)
6. Grateful Dead, "Hampton Coliseum: Friday May 4, 1979" (Grateful
Dead/Rhino)
7. Tame Impala, "Live Versions" (Modular/Interscope/IGA)
8. Joy Division, "An Ideal For Living" (EP) (Warner UK/Rhino)
9. The Flaming Lips, "7 Skies H3" (Lovely Sorts Of Death/Warner Bros.)
10. The Ramones, "Meltdown With the Ramones EP" (Sire/Rhino)

Vinyl Singles

1. Nirvana, "Pennyroyal Tea" (Sub Pop/Geffen/Interscope)
2. Devo/The Flaming Lips, "Gates of Steel" (Live) (Warner Bros./Rhino)
3. The Cure/Dinosaur Jr., "Just Like Heaven" (Fiction/Elektra/Rhino)
4. David Bowie, "1984" (Parlophone/Rhino)
5. Love/Rush, "7 and 7 Is" (Elektra/Rhino)
6. Frank Zappa, "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" (Zappa/UMe)
7. Poison Idea/Pantera, "The Badge" (East West/Rhino)
8. Paramore, "Ain't It Fun" (Fueled By Ramen/RRP)
9. Fleetwood Mac, "Dragonfly" (Reprise/Warner Bros./Rhino)
10. Garbage With Brody Dalle, "Girls Talk" (Stun Volume)

Record Store Day continues to be a yearly hit, and vinyl sales continue to surge, now at 3.2% of all music sales. The indie brick and mortar record stores should be all cheering loudly, and rightfully so.

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Billboard's New Twitter Charts

Twitter has showed his music muscle once again, signing an agreement with Billboard Magazine to institute a number of real time Twitter charts. The charts will monitor not only the top tracks by popular artists, but also the ones with the most engagement.

Billboard is built around its more than 200 charts, which are recognized worldwide as the gold standard for success of a release. Adding additional charts derived from a social network like Twitter is a move to keep the company more relevant and timely in today's market.

While all this sounds well and good, the new charts do put an additional burden on an artist to develop a Twitter following. Although Twitter can hardly be ignored by any artist these days, it's sometimes not as emphasized in an artist's marketing the way other social networks are. That could all change with the creation of these charts.

If there ever was a good reason to get a Twitter account, it's these new Billboard charts.

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6 Reasons Why Live Concert Streaming Hasn't Taken Off

A few years ago, the technology and bandwidth seemed to have advanced to the point where live concert video streaming from venues large and small would be inevitable. That hasn't happened and there are a number of reasons, as outlined by a recent Billboard article:

1. Production costs. It costs a lot more to produce a live video stream than a live concert recording.

2. Union fees. Ask anyone who's ever dealt with a major venue and they'll tell you about the union fees that are introduced the moment a camera appears.

3. The bandwidth isn't there yet. Surprisingly, you can't always get the upload bandwidth needed to support a live stream, and many times when you can it's way too expensive.

4. Promoters are afraid. They think that it will prevent people from attending the show.

5. It's the same show. Most acts have a show that's pretty much the same every night. There's very little reason for someone to purchase a live stream more than once. Plus, it may prevent a fan from actually attended the show when it comes to town since they've already seen it.

6. Ownership. For small venues, the issue of licensing fees and ownership of the product become a huge issue. Who owns the product? Who pays the publishing? Can cover songs be cleared in a timely fashion?

Live concert streaming looked like it might become a major new income stream a few years ago, but as with many technologies, just because it's possible doesn't necessarily mean there's a business there.

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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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Getting On The iTunes Home Page

iTunes Home Page

Almost every artist wants to have their song or album placed on the iTunes home page as that can make a big difference in getting a lot of buzz, exposure and sales. It's the equivalent of a CD display near the entrance of record store. The problem has always been finding a way to get there.

A recent article in Billboard interviewed various industry execs on the factors that get an act that sort of home page placement. Believe it or not, iTunes doesn't provide placement based on the artist's name, reputation or past sales. Instead, they look more at what the promotional plan is going to be, as well as the career arc of the artist.

This is actually pretty smart on iTunes part, in that they try to make sure that the artist will have an on-going relationship with the iTunes audience, and that the release will have significant additional promotion beyond the iTunes home page, which will also help the iTunes sales.

The problem is that most DIY artists don't have the wherewithal to develop the type of marketing plan that iTunes deems acceptable. That's one of the reasons that signing with a large indie or a major label can sometimes be an advantage, although an experienced management team could also make that happen. Just having music that people like is not enough.

One final item on the subject - it doesn't matter where you're placed on the home page, just that you get there. Apple has all the stats to prove that placement anywhere on the page is equally powerful.

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Best Cities For Music Jobs

If you're looking for a job in the music business in the United States, the places you can live to do so are limited. On the other hand, there's more of them than you might think, and according to Billboard Magazine, there are actually 10.

1. Nashville - 7.8 jobs per 1000
2. Los Angeles - 2.8
3. Austin - 2.6
4. Charlotte - 2.1
5. New York - 2.0
6. Atlanta - 1.8
7. Memphis -1.8
8. Seattle - 1.8
9. Chicago - 1.7
10. New Orleans - 1.7

On the other hand, the amount of money you can make from a music job rates those same cities differently. Here's the percentage of money that you can make from a music job compared to a regular job.

1. Los Angeles - 175%
2. Nashville - 156%
3. New York - 147%
4. Chicago - 113%
5. Seattle - 105%
6. Charlotte - 99%
7. Austin - 94%
8. Atlanta - 85%
9. Memphis - 79%
10. New Orleans - 73%

When it comes down to it, LA and Nashville are still the best place to be if you want to be in the music business, while New York has dropped in influence in recent years. On the other hand, Charlotte wasn't on anyone's list 10 years ago and now has a very active music scene.

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