Taylor Swift's New Sales Strategy

Taylor Swift is using an interesting sales strategy for her new album, "Speak Now." You can download all 14 songs from Amazon for only $3.99, while the CD is available for the now standard $9.99.

Then if you head on over to iTunes, the download price is $13.99 for all the entire album, or $1.29 per track. It will be very interesting to see the breakout of which distributor actually sells more product.

That being said, it's probably not so much about the pricing strategy as it is about Swift's popularity, since the album is expected to sell more than 1 million units it's first week out. That would be a record for a country album, and a most rare sales occurrence these days.

Despite all the gloom and doom around the music industry, this performance proves that there's still an audience willing to purchase music if it's a product they like.

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MicroPayments - The Artist's Future?

For quite a while now, technologists have been predicting that the online world would eventually revolve around what's known as "micropayments," which is the ability to charge very low fees (as low as a few cents) for online services.

While this may seem like a no brainer, micropayments are a lot harder than they seem not so much from a technology standpoint, but from a financial one. Every financial transaction costs money. There's a service fee involved that mostly comes from the financial institution doing business with the vendor. The problem has been that the transactional cost has been high enough from the likes of Visa, Mastercard, et al, that it's been nearly impossible to have prices of less than a dollar for any purchase online.

You might think that iTunes has been charging $0.99 for 7 years now with no problem, but Apple (and Amazon for that matter) is so large that it can absorb the financial trading costs without an intermediary. For everyone else, you need a bank or a credit card company to securely collect your funds.

All that may be gradually changing though, as PayPal (which is owned by Ebay) recently announced a new micropayment structure for purchases under $12, which charges 5% of the transaction costs plus 5 cents. This means that a purchase of a dollar has a transactional cost of just $.10 instead of the normal cost of about $.33. As a result, it may actually become profitable for more companies to do business in around that $1 area.

Although this is a step in the right direction, it's still doesn't go far enough. The real Holy Grail comes when transactions as low as 1 cent become doable. Why? Because then it will be possible to charge for things that we get for free now. Who wouldn't pay a couple of cents to hear the streaming song or get a download of an interesting artist? Want to see that hot video? It might cost you a nickel, but it's a small enough investment that you'd pay it without a second thought.

Consumers will be more likely to pay this seemingly insignificant amount, and that can amount to at least some income for an artist. And what if the purchase was automatically charged to your cell phone bill (also part of the Holy Grail solution)? You may hardly notice if it were a couple of bucks higher at the end of the month, but an artist would certainly feel better about himself with at least a little money coming in.

So watch this topic closely. This tiny bit of money is more significant than it seems.

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Talent - The Main Ingredient

If you're an artist or band, you're hearing a litany of advice about how to do-it-yourself without a label, use social media to build you audience, develop you mailing list, improve your website, crowdfund, and just about every other buzz word that applies to online music these days.

Some people that you read or listen to have good advice, some have dated advice, and some just repeat what they've heard from somewhere else.

Regardless who you listen to or study from, you're no doubt feeling overwhelmed. What should I do first? Am I doing it right? How often should I do it? Do I need to do everything? Why can't I get everything I need to do finished by the end of the day.

Yes, being a musician, artist, band, producer, engineer or manager in our Music 3.0 digital music world is a handful. But here's the catch.

If you don't have the talent first, that special something that only stars have, none of it will work no matter how much time you spend on it.

There's more competition than ever, and most of it is mediocre. You can't just be good, or really good, or really, really good anymore - you've got to be GREAT! to break through.

Sure, who's to say what's good? Chances are no matter what you do, you'll find at least a small audience, but will that make enough money for you to quit your job? Will it even be enough to make all the hard work worth it?

That's why it's important to never forget why you're doing all this - it's for the music. If you find that you're spending more time working the social networks than writing, rehearsing, or practicing, you've got your priorities wrong. Because if the music isn't great, none of the other stuff will matter.

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iPad Owners Consume More

Apple's iPad was an instant success from the moment it was introduced and seems to be making great inroads in more places and demographics than anyone anticipated. One of the more interesting aspects of the unit is how much content an iPad owner consumes.

According to some new research from Nielsen entitled "The Increasingly Connected Consumer," iPad users:

  - are typically male (65%)
  - are under age 35 (63%)
  - have incomes over $100k (25%)
  - regularly access TV shows (25% vs. 11% on the iPhone)
  - buy more books (39% vs 13% for iPhone)
  - buy more movies (32% vs 12%)
  - are more likely to view ads that have interesting content (49%)
  - enjoy ads with interactive features (46%)

Contrast that to owners of videogame console systems when surveyed by Knowledge Networks and said:

  - 21% of viewers watch TV programs or movies using the game console at least once a month, which broke out like this:

    All persons 13-54        13-31      32-45     46-54
DVDs              17%          27%        13%       7%
Blu-ray discs      6            10             4          2
Streamed or       6            11             3          1
downloaded video
Overall use      21%          31%       17%       8%


What this all means is that we now consume all types of media on all types of devices. By not taking devices like game consoles, smart phones, and iPad tablets into consideration when distributing content potentially leaves money on the table.

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10 Things To Get More Shows

As you've read numerous times if you've spent any time on this blog, gigs are the live-blood of a band, especially in this day and age. Regardless of your skill or place in the music business, you've got to play in front of people to stay musically fresh, improve your show skills and make money. As a result, any time I see something that either makes it easier to book a gig, or contains some good advice or strategy, I feel compelled to post or comment on.

Here's a great post from Chris Bracco that appeared on musicthinktank.com regarding the10 things you can do to help you get more gigs. Many of these items we've covered before, Chris has a few things that really make a lot of sense.

Assuming that you have strong songs and an kickass live show, here are ten (10) simple things you can do to get more gigs:

1. Create a YouTube channel for your band.

Upload a live performance video on YouTube that represents your band at its best. Include a phone number and e-mail address too, so that anyone who wants to book you can contact you easily. Say something like “Contact ________ to book us for a live show.” To show professionalism and interest, try your best to respond to every inquiry within 48 hours.

2. Print up nice business cards

…with your band name, links to your music, live videos, and a phone number and e-mail address that can be reached for booking purposes. Also, include a link to your website so they can learn more about you. You’d be surprised how many bands STILL write down their phone numbers on dirty napkins and torn pieces of paper. Wherever you go, tell people who you are, how good you are, where you are playing next, and how easy it is for them to book you directly.

3. Go watch other bands that sound like you.

If there are any bands in your area with large followings, get out to a couple shows and become friends with other bands. Ask the bigger bands to let you open for them, maybe in exchange for some kind of help like designing a website, flyer, banner, etc. The harder you work for a band bigger than your band, and the more respectful you are to them and their efforts, the more likely they will consider you for an opening slot. Talk up how good your band is and why you are better than similar bands in the area.

4. Tell your fans how easy it is to book you.

Wherever you play - the street, house party, club or major venue, make sure your fans are aware that you’re willing to play anywhere. Use the Live Music Machine’s booking and calendar widget. Put it on your Facebook page, MySpace profile, personal web site, etc. and tell your fans to go there and book you for their private events, house parties, etc. After playing a gig, you should walk around the audience, engage people, ask them what they thought of the show, and let them know you are available to play live anywhere they want you too. Telling them that will definitely help you stand out from the pack.

5. Get guerilla.

Set up wherever there is a crowd of people who might like your music and play for them. Club, high school, venue, and stadium parking lots. How many tailgate parties do you think would love some free entertainment? Play outside clubs where bands are playing that fit in with your style of music. Those people waiting in line are going to be bored, so playing a spontaneous gig right on the spot will definitely make an unforgettable impression.

6. Don’t forget the old school.

Hand out flyers and post cards at events that have a link to free stuff and a way to book you for a gig.

7. Network with key industry people at events and conferences.

Radio PD’s and DJ’s, club owners, band managers, label executives, and others all attend music conferences quite regularly. Say hello to these people, maybe buy them a drink or dinner, but don’t make a nuisance of yourself. Respect their space and don’t try shoving a CD in their face two minutes after meeting them. Introduce yourself casually, let them know who you are and where they can see you play. If’s it’s a club owner, tell them you would love to come in during the day and do a free audition for a free gig. Just make sure you can get a place to sell your merchandise if you nab a gig. Offer to play at places that may not always host live music, like restaurants, coffee shops, stores, and malls.

8. Get creative.

Write up a proposal and present it to the appropriate person at your local school board, offering to do a series of free shows to raise money for the school athletic or band program. Ask to perform during a school assembly when they can provide you with a built-in audience.

9. Find places where bands similar to yours play.

Use ReverbNation’s “Gig Finder” to figure out where bands are getting booked in your area. However, e-mailing clubs with your RPK or EPK usually won’t get any results, because many of these venues have yet to claim their venue pages on ReverbNation. Instead, after finding some good places, print out your press kit and mail it to them, or better yet, personally drop it off it in a nice professional package along with a CD to any decision maker at the club. Follow up with a call within a couple of days so you stay fresh in their minds. If the decision maker has an assistant, get to know that person and you will find that it will be much easier to get in the door. If you email them anything at all, make it your MySpace link along with a concise paragraph stating why they should book you. For some reason, most clubs still feel most comfortable checking you out on MySpace, so play by their rules.

10. Do a gig swap!

If you have a respectable following or are an up and coming band, use sites likeIndieonthemove.com and Splitgigs.com to trade and share gigs with other bands who might want to break into your market. Collaboration is key to success in today’s fragmented music industry.

BONUS TIP! Everywhere you go, wherever you play, whomever you talk to about your band… collect as many e-mail addresses as you can. E-mail is still one of the best ways to communicate directly with your fan base, and develop long-lasting relationships.
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This post was originally published as a guest post by Chris Bracco on the Live Music Machine blog on October 19, 2010.

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New Survey Shows Teens Actually Paying For Music

It's common knowledge that teens don't and won't pay for music, and place zero value on it. Or so we've been erroneously told, it seems.

A new survey by the teen-targeted virtual world Habbo surveyed 47,000 teens from 33 countries about their listening and purchasing habits, and the results fly in the face of music industry wisdom. Among the data includes:

  -- only 33% of teens prefer to download music without paying for it
  -- Teens in Chile are least likely to pay for music, with 51% downloading music without paying
  -- only 21% of US and 20% of UK teens report downloading music without paying
  -- only 21% of teens prefer purchasing downloaded music
  -- 37% of Australian teens say they favor paying to download

Now comes the surprising part:
  -- 20% of teens polled report buying CDs
  -- Teens in Sweden (40%), Germany (37%) and Denmark (35%) are most likely to buy a CD, versus 14% of teens surveyed in the US

What influences the type of music teenagers listen to?
  -- Radio and TV are still the dominant music taste makers. 38% of teens take music recommendations from these traditional channels
  -- 28% are influenced by what their friends are listening to and recommending
  -- 18% are influenced by what is in the music charts
  -- Only 9% are influenced by magazines and what they read online

The study also shows that today’s teenager is connected with friends online and values their social recommendation:
- 78% of teens use social networks to share recommendations
- Only 23% never use social networks to recommend music to friends
- Finnish teens are the most likely to share recommendations (88%)
- German (51%), Swiss (46%) and Austrian (45%) teens are the least likely to use social networks to recommend

The music industry is pretty fast to claim that all their problems is the result of illegal downloads, but as we all know (and this survey suggests), there's a lot more to it than that.

Read the original article at Habbo's parent company blog at sulake.com.

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5 Ways To Take Your Tribe's Pulse

Your core fans, or your "tribe" as uber-marketer Seth Godin calls them, crave your communication. But communication is a two-way street, and the artist must be just as willing to listen to his or her tribe as talk at them. This excerpt from the Music 3.0 Internet music guidebook shows 5 ways that you can check the pulse of the tribe to better understand what they want from you.

"The leader must constantly check the pulse of the tribe to hear what they’re feeling and thinking. This can be helpful in determining just what the tribe likes and dislikes about you and your music. Maybe there’s a direction that you briefly touched upon on your last record that drove the tribe wild, or maybe one that they hated? You might choose to follow your musical instincts instead of listening to tribal feedback, but at least you won’t be surprised by the resulting reaction.

Taking the tribe’s pulse also lifts the mood of the tribe since interaction with the leader is always appreciated and results in more participation. Showing your appreciation for their participation fosters even greater loyalty and participation and gets them invested emotionally and intellectually.

So how do you take the tribe’s pulse? You ask them questions or ask them to help you.

1) Ask them which piece of merch they prefer.

2) Ask them about the best venues in their area, why they like them and if they’d prefer to see you there.

3) Ask them what song they’d love to hear you cover.

4)Ask them who their favorite artists are (this answer is great for other elements of social marketing as mentioned in other sections of the book).

5) Ask them to judge the artwork on your next release, then when they respond, reward them. Give a free T-shirt to the first 10 responses. Send them a secret link to download a track only available to them. Give a personal shout out to some of the best responses.

All of the above makes them feel special and great about belonging, and keeps the interest in the tribe high."

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The Music Industry Crisis 30 Years Ago

While many may think that the music industry has only recently begun taking it severely on the the chin, it should be noted that 30 years ago, it was in the midst of a similar crisis. Sales were way down, everyone was panicking, and the industry was pinning their hopes on a shiny metal disc called a "laser video disc" to bring them back to profitability.

Here's a segment from the television show 20/20 from 1980 that sounds so eerily familiar. Take notice to the statement of Joe Smith, then the president of Elektra-Asylum records, a little ways into the video:

"Records, you don't have to buy to hear music. There's sensational equipment out there. There's great FM radio. There's enormous amounts of music out there, without having to buy a record. Counterfeiting, home-taping, and the failure of major artists to deliver records on some kind of regular basis."

Understand that this was before the creation of MTV and the CD, both of which eventually bailed the industry out.

The second half of the video is now being blocked due to a copyright claim from Universal Music. Speculation is that there's something in the report that Universal finds very embarrassing. We'll just have to wait until someone else posts it again.

Regardless, it's well done and interesting to look at everything from a historical perspective.

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The New Google Analytics Overlay

For those of you who rely on Google Analytics for your site numbers, Google has now added something called “In-Page Analytics.” It’s a neat new function that offers visualization of the page data and really makes it easy to see what's working and what's not.

I think this is going to make a huge impact on measurement and analysis, but I don't think you can appreciate it's power until you watch the following video that explains the new features in detail.

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The New Ping Guidelines

To say that iTunes Ping has been underwhelming is an understatement. The new social feature seems like such a great idea, but also seems like it was released somewhat before it's time. In fact, one of the major problems has been the difficulty for indie bands to set up a profile, which significantly decreases its immediate social impact.

Thankfully Apple has reached the same conclusion and has come out with a PDF that contains a series of best practices, suggestions and guidelines to smooth the process considerably. I must admit that after reading the paper, it seemed like it contained some necessary information but didn't go quite as far as I expected.

It also had a number of interesting items that caught my eye. The following are right out of the PDF with my comments in italics afterwards.

• "URLs should not be included in the About section of your artist profile. This includes official artist
website URLs. URLs can only be posted in the Event feed." You mean you can't post a URL of your website, blog, or Facebook page? Apple again keeps everything tight and controlled, but in this case it's not such a good thing.

• "Video posts will not display in countries where the product is not available for sale, or where videos are not offered through the iTunes Store." In other words, Ping is a social network that's not available world-wide. This would make me think about spending more time on other social networks that would provide more bang for the buck instead of Ping.

• "Only Quicktime and MP4 files." Windows Media is not allowed, although that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, considering the animosity between Apple and Microsoft.

• "Posts should not include advertisements or links to sites outside of iTunes." The advertisements I agree with, but again, not being able to include links to an artists website, Facebook page or blog is a serious limitation.

It's still too early to known just how effective Ping will be in helping a band increase its visibility and build its fan base. But as it stands now, it seems like there are better places to spend your precious time more effectively.

It's recently been reported that Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg had dinner at Steve Jobs' house. Perhaps Jobs will learn something from the meeting that can make Ping a lot stronger product.

Go here to download the Ping Guidelines.

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Artist Revenue Opportunities Without Playing Live

The excellent Hypebot blog asked me to write a guest post to answer a couple of questions that the winners of their songwriting contest had regarding making money without playing live.

While most artist's income comes from touring, there are a number of other possible revenue sources as well, which the article covers.

You can read the entire article here.

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Crowdsourced A&R

Everyone knows about crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, but now there's a new way to use the power of the crowd when it comes to music - crowd A&R.  Hard rock and metal label Roadrunner Records has just launched SignMeTo Roadrunner Records, which they call a "fun and functional way for fans and unsigned bands to participate in the music industry's A&R process."

The way it works is that fans sign up as "scouts" and unsigned bands that add profiles and songs are rated by them. The site currently has about 6,000 active band profiles and about 10,000 scouts.

Tagging is a critical element of the process, as it classifies the artists in Roadrunner's genre-specific charts. and applied tags help to drive genre-specific charts (see the chart on the left for an example).  The top-charting artists are the ones that have a chance of getting signed.

This is a brilliant move by Roadrunner for a couple of reasons:

1) Their risk is significantly lowered by signing an artist or band that the "scouts" already like.

2) The artist or band already has built a significant following as a result of the process.

This is a great example of a record label that gets the essence of Music 3.0.

You can sign up as a band or scout here.

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