6 Artists That Changed The Business Of Music

Inc. recently ran an interesting article about the iconic bands that changed the business of music. Yes, they all influenced music to a great degree, but most overlook their moneymaking abilities and how their actions improved the lot for all that came afterwards. Let's look at them:

Led Zeppelin
Major change: Zeppelin shifted the balance of power from the concert promoter to the act. They were the first ones to negotiate a deal to take 90% of the gate.

The Rolling Stones
Major change: The Stones were the first major group to pay for their own recordings, then lease the master to the record label. This allowed them to retain ownership of their copyrights for future licensing deals.
Major change 2: Their lips and tongue logo became a classic brand identifier.

KISS
Major change: Kiss took merchandise and licensing to a new level, eventually licensing over 3,000 product categories. This is a common tactic for artists today, but it was KISS who saw the value in licensing before everyone else.

The Grateful Dead
Major change: While other bands from the '60s through the '90s were all wrapped up in record sales, The Grateful Dead realized the current Music 3.0 mantra way before anyone - "Your music is your marketing." They encouraged people to tape their performances and share them with their friends, thereby broadening their fan base. Sound familiar? That's what acts are doing today, only online.
Major change 2: The Dead were social way before social media, selling concert tickets directly, creating an engaged fan club, and promoting and selling special products and fan-generated materials through the fan club.

Journey
Major change: You don't think of Journey as being at the forefront of any business dealings, but they were the first major act to go for a tour sponsorship deal (with Budweiser).
Major change 2: Journey was also the first act to own their own touring infrastructure, owning their own sound system, staging, and transportation.
Major change 3: Although the Stones led the way by being the first to lease their masters to the record label, Journey took it a step further by providing the artwork and marketing material as well.

Moby
Major change: Moby was the first artist to realize the tremendous potential of media licensing. When his Play album first came out it did nothing on the charts and was ignored by radio. That was before he licensed every song on the album for commercials, television and movies, then the record blew up.

The next time you hear the music of any of these artists, give a little thought to the behind the scenes influence they've had on the new ways of revenue generation they helped create.

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The Weirdest Merch Ideas

While most bands think of just the traditional merch items like t-shirts (the perennial favorite), hats, patches and posters, some bands get really creative. Here are a few that are odd if not borderline weird.

AC/DC Wine

Cliff Richards Bingo Dabber 

One Direction Toothbrush and Toothpaste

Owl City Unisex Pajamas

Pixies Racing Jersey

I think my favorite is the Cliff Richards Bingo Dabber, but it sure does show the age of his fans. My question is, "Just how many of these were sold?" If anyone has the answer, let us know.

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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 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.

Is This KISS Monster Book Worth $3500?

Since music sales are waning and will continue to do so as music subscription takes hold, artists are increasingly turning to merchandise to make up the difference. Indeed, it seems like there's no limit to what a true fan will cough up when it comes to pricing.

Take a look at this KISS Monster Book, which is priced at $3499 pre-launch and $4299 afterwards. There will only be 1000 made, they're signed by members of the band, and you can choose from one of 10 covers featuring country flags. But it's only a picture book! Granted it is 3 foot tall and 2 foot wide, but is it worth that kind of money?

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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 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.

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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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 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 Secret To The Merch Table

In Music 3.0, we use music as a promotional tool and not as a moneymaker for the band or artist. Where the artist really makes money is from gigging and merchandise. This income stream concept isn't really all that different from any time in the past though. In fact, one of the most powerful music attorneys in LA once told me that most famous recording artists have always made 95% of their income from touring and merch, not record sales.

Even if merch is really where the money is at, most musicians have a natural aversion to selling it (or selling anything for that matter). Yet one simple act that doesn't directly involve selling can help you make up to $500 a night from the merch table. Here's a great tip I found on a post by Daniel Kohn and his askkohnny blog.

In his post, Kohn talks about a band he saw where the lead singer would announce during their show, "After our show, we're going to be hanging out at the merch table, so come and say hi." He wasn't specifically selling anything, just announcing that the band would be available to chat later and where to find them.

At the end of the set came another announcement from the lead singer - "Thanks again for coming. We are xxxx. We'll be at the merch table so come and say hi," who immediately jumped off the stage and headed for the mech table where he was followed by fans.

At that point, nature took its course, and fans began to look at, then buy the merch as they were talking to the band (and buy and buy). It's a brilliant, low-key and low pressure way of getting people to look at your merchandise, which is always half the battle.

This one simple act can make a big difference in your merch sales, and that's the one place that you can be assured of making money these days, especially if you're just starting out. Remember, you don't have to physically sell anything yourself, just be there and talk to fans. Can you imagine what the sales would be like if Bono did that after a U2 concert?