Cassettes Go To Prison

Cassettes may be an audio delivery platform from a different era, but just like vinyl, there's still a bit of life left. Believe it or not, there are still a number of indie record labels that provide limited editions of cassette releases (Baldy Longhair Records, Scotch Tapes, Cold Slice, to name just a few), but cassettes are now getting a new lease on life thanks to the New York prison system.

Now a New York marketing company that sells exclusively to prison inmates called Send A Package has made a deal with Universal Music Group to sell cassettes from artists like Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Nas and Jadakiss to the inmates of New York. While on the surface this sounds completely ludicrous, it becomes a well-thought plan when you realize that prisoners aren't allowed to have CDs. Cassettes however, are allowed, and Universal is more than pleased to supply them with their favorite hip-hop from the present and the past.

Send A Package is unique in that it allows family and friends to send gifts to prisoners that are pre-approved and not subject to search by prison security. It's also a place where inmates can buy anything from food to magazines to clothing. The company buys the cassettes from UMG at $6 each, then resells them to inmates for $13.

Believe it or not, cassettes are still widely used throughout the world as in many cases that's all that's available for music delivery. While that usually applies to what we would consider the third world, it just goes to show that there's still a little bit of the third world right at home, and that some formats refuse to die.

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Billboard Charts Now Using YouTube Data

It had to happen sooner or later. Billboard Magazine, the unofficial bible of the music industry, has finally incorporated YouTube viewership into the metrics that makes up their chart rankings. This means that each chart not only reflects digital and physical sales (once the only metric reliable enough), but also terrestrial radio airplay and digital streaming, which you have to admit seems to be a potent combination that at least theoretically makes up most of the modern measurements that can accurately indicate the popularity of a song.

Billboard's YouTube data is limited to only official videos from the artists and labels, but Vevo clips and user-generated clips that use the "authorized audio" can also be included. Authorized audio means that the video producer has permission to use the audio in their video. If a user generated video has a commercial at its front, chances are good that it's been authorized.

The decision seems to be already having an effect on the Billboard charts. "Harlem Shake" by Baauer, which went viral on YouTube, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Massive views on YouTube also helped Rihanna's "Stay" jump from 57th place last week to third place in the latest chart.

You've got to hand it to Billboard in that they've finally recognized the influence YouTube now has in our daily musical lives. It's the number 1 music discovery portal online (number 2 overall after radio), and a huge part of our current music distribution network. Incorporating it into the charts can only bring a more accurate reading of the popularity of a song.

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Warners Makes A Deal With The Indies, Or Does It?

The record label business as we know it has changed immensely in the last year or so and those changes continue to come hard and fast. Take for instance the fact that when Universal Music Group purchased the assets of EMI last year, they were forced by European regulators to sell off much of the catalog and several labels (including Parlophone, Chrysalis, and Virgin Classical among others) to Warner Music Group in order to make the deal.

Now it looks like WMG is getting the same treatment, as Merlin and IMPALA, two of the most powerful indie label trade groups, have been threatening to raise a fuss again with the EU regulators as they had with Universal/EMI and BMG/Sony before that. So Warners became proactive in the matter and announced an agreement with the two groups to sell or license "a significant portion" of that music to some of the indie companies (which were not specified) within those groups.

Now let's get this straight. WMG tells the trade groups it will help their clients make money, but lays out no specifics on how that will happen or with what companies. Doesn't this sound like a bait and switch where WMG makes a nebulous promise that it can easily forget about as soon as the regulators give their OK? Or, WMG can just give some token feel-good deals that doesn't substantially alter the status quo of either company.

This seems to be a classic deal to make everyone look and feel good, but without much substance. If I were one of the member companies of Merlin or IMPALA, I'd be upset. It looks like more of the same from the majors, but with the seal of approval from the organization that should be helping the indie label's cause. It should be interesting to see how this plays out.

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Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

The Best Time To Send Your Newsletter

Just like there’s a best day to send your newsletter, there’s also a definite science behind the time of day to send your emails. It’s been studied extensively, most notably by Dan Zarrella and Pure360. In this excerpt from The Music 3.0 Guide To Social Media, we'll look at all the time periods in the day and evaluate email success in each. Remember that all times are Eastern Standard Time.

• Most opens occur between 5AM and 7AM. Most people check their email first thing in the morning even before they leave for work. Remember that open rates are as much as 53% higher in the mornings.

• 7AM to 10AM: The second most prevalent email opening time is at the beginning of the working day.

• 10AM to Noon: Consumers are not opening marketing emails, choosing instead to focus on work.

• Noon to 2PM: Consumers are unlikely to open emails during their lunch break, choosing instead to spend their time on news and magazine alerts.

• 2PM to 3PM: Right after lunch consumers remain focused on work, responding mostly to email offers related to financial services.

• 3PM to 5PM: Consumers start thinking about their personal situation and as a result, more emails relating to property and financial services are opened during this time period than any other.

• 5PM to 7PM: Consumers tend to open business to business (B2B) promotions during this period, but also open more holiday-type promotions during this period than any other.

• 7PM to 10PM: The time period when recipients are most likely to respond to consumer promotions is when they get off work.

• 10PM to 6AM: This is an email dead zone, as most sent during this period are ineffective.

Remember that these are trends and might not apply to your particular audience. The best way to proceed is to use these timings as a starting point, then experiment to see if another time works better. It's easy enough to schedule blog posts or emails to do so, just make sure that you have enough of a sample size before you make any ironclad decisions on exactly what's working.

To read additional excerpts from this and other books, go to bobbyowsinski.com.

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

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Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Fandalism: A Social Network For Musicians

Fandalism is an interesting network designed especially for musicians. It's not like ReverbNation or BandCamp in that it's not designed around the business of being an artist; instead it's more like a cross between YouTube, where artists can upload videos of their performances, and Matchmaker, where compatible musicians can find each other.

To register, you answer basic questions like where you're located, what instrument you play, your influences and musical history. You can then share your work through photos, videos, lyrics or Soundcloud audio. After you've set everything up, you can follow other musicians, give them "props" (likes), and send them private messages.

One of the cool new features on Fandalism is the ability to distribute your songs to iTunes, Spotify and Google Play. It's cheaper than either Tunecore or CD Baby in that you get unlimited uploads for only $19.95 per year, as compared to Tunecore's $29.95 per album per year or CD Baby's $49 per album per year (plus a percentage of the sale). Fandalism also gives you the first upload to iTunes for free.

There's been a lot of attempts to create a musician's network and none of them have caught on. Fandalsim already has over 550,000 members and has the feeling of something that is simple and non-intimidating enough to finally break through in a big way. Here's a video overview.

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Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Toothbrush Technology Extends A Brand

Talk about extending your brand, boy band One Direction has teamed up with Arm&Hammer to release two new band-branded toothbrushes. What's especially unique is that the brushes utilize something that A&H calls their "Music In Your Mouth" technology that streams sound vibrations from the bristles of the toothbrush through the teeth, allowing kids to hear music while they brush. What then happens is that the music is conducted through the jaw then transmitted into the inner ear so the brusher can hear the music.

The One Direction toothbrush line will feature two products, each with a different song ("What Makes You Beautiful" and "One Thing"). Each toothbrush will feature 2 minutes of music, which is about the right amount of time to sufficiently clean one's teeth, according to the company. The toothbrush requires a battery to operate and will have a suggested retail price of $9.99.

While this product seems like a bit of a reach, you can't really blame the band's handlers for doing the deal. It's fun new technology that promotes oral hygiene in the band's target audience, and gets the band's brand in front of a very wide audience, since the product will be rolled out nationwide to drug and food retailers. And since the lifespan of a boy band is fairly short, they're trying to cash in while they can. The most interesting thing is that the band already had a toothbrush deal with Colgate, only without the tunes.

Once upon a time (think 40 years ago) a move like this would have been considered crass and commercial, today it's just good business.

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Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Universal Music Sells Sanctuary, And Why That Matters

According to a story in the LA Times last week, Universal Music Group has agreed to sell Sanctuary Records, home to metal acts like Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Iron Maiden and Megadeth, to BMG Rights Management. Universal was forced to sell the label as well as other assets as part of an agreement with regulators from the EU in order for the purchase of EMI to be approved.

What's interesting here is that BMG has quietly been acquiring publishing and record labels over the past 4 years, and now looks like it might position itself once again as one of the major record labels, which is good news to everyone in the business. After all, the more competition, the better. It's true that BMG was once one of the Big 5 major labels, but decided to go more into publishing after it merged and unmerged with Sony Music. Now it looks like it's back in the "record" business again.

If you've read my Music 3.0 book, you know that Sanctuary was a unique record label in that it lead the way to the DIY movement that we have today. The problem was that it got too successful and veered off-course, causing it to become just another label which was eventually acquired by Universal in 2007. Here's an excerpt from the book that explains just how influential the company was.

"In 1979 Rod Smallwood and Andy Taylor discovered and then managed the legendary metal band Iron Maiden. They subsequently named their management company after the band’s song “Sanctuary” and expanded their roster to include similar bands of the genre.

Soon afterwards, Sanctuary Management had a brilliant idea. As managers of so-called “heritage acts” that had long-term appeal and large fan bases but no record deals, the company decided to independently finance CD releases for the bands themselves. After all, the audience was built-in and rabid. They’d buy anything the bands would put out, so why not release it themselves if a major label wouldn’t? The bands were going to tour anyway, so they might as well have a product to sell. Little did they know at the time, but this was the beginning of the new business model where the tour sells the record instead of the record selling the tour, as it did in Music 1.0 to 2.0. 

In the past, if an act would get hot as a result of local radio play, they would then tour in that location to take advantage of the energized interest. The record sold the tour by virtue of the airplay it received. The record was selling the tour. If the record flopped, there would be no tour. 

But in the new Sanctuary model, since the act had a strong enough fan base to support a tour anyway, why not have some product to back it up? With these new economics of self-financing the release, the act could now make more money than ever on fewer units sold. And since it was cheaper than ever to create a release (since by then most musicians had a studio at home that was more powerful than The Beatles ever had during their heyday), the stage was set for taking advantage of both the technology and the consumer environment. 

For a time, Sanctuary Records and its artists succeeded wildly, to the point that the company expanded into a full-fledged record label (and a subsidiary of Universal Music) with traditional Music 2.0 staff and infrastructure. Soon afterward, however, it collapsed under the weight of that traditional infrastructure. The company had ventured beyond its original concept and comfort level, and eventually paid for it. Sanctuary was acquired by Universal at the end of 2007, but today Sanctuary Management continues to represent the likes of Fleetwood Mac, ZZ Top, Tommy Lee, and Velvet Revolver, among others, but has drifted somewhat from its initial intentions and goals. 

Sanctuary started the trend of an artist self-releasing a record during Music 2.0, way ahead of the curve and way ahead of what's commonplace today. Without knowing it at the time, the company paved the way for artists living in Music 3.0, where self-production, promotion, and distribution is not only commonplace, but becoming the norm."

You can read additional excerpts from my books at bobbyowsinski.com.

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

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The New Contract Rider

A new contract rider that's being inserted into recent artist concert appearance agreements might surprise you. It's a condition that prohibits the artist's show advertising from appearing on a pirate site or any site that exploites artists in any way.

Another provision sets the condition that any show advertising can't confuse the artist's brand with one not consistent with the artist. That means that if the artist doesn't like firearms or tobacco or even Republicans, then the advertising for their concert can't be associated with those people, places and things in any way.

As far as brand association, this is just good business. If you're Taylor Swift, for instance, you don't want to be associated with a site that's biker oriented, and if an artist is a proponent of a vegan lifestyle, then being joined at the hip with Ted Nugent just wouldn't work either. This probably wouldn't happen to begin with since any adverts would be badly missing the target market and be just a waste of money, but the contract language now ensures that it won't.

That said, both the promoter and artist are trying to sell tickets any way they can, and let's face it, it's tough going in most markets these days. While all artists hate to be pirated, the fact of the matter is that at least some of the piracy is the reason for the visibility of the act in the first place.

Still, the new contract language just goes to show that everything in the business, including the agreements, is evolving as our media technology progresses.

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When Kickstarter Doesn't Work

Crowdfunding campaigns are sometimes considered an almost can't-miss way to raise money for a project, but that's often far from the case. Even though slightly over 50% of music projects do get fully funded, there have been some high profile failures (think Public Enemy) recently.

The latest is Bjork's Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund the development of a new version of her Biophilia album app, this time for Android and Windows 8. The campaign was cancelled just 10 days in when it reached just 4% of it's goal of 375,000 pounds (about $580,000US).

The original Biophilia iPad app offered interactive modules for each song on Bjork's Biophilia album, which included games, animation and the ability to remix songs. Porting it to both Windows and Android platforms was a way to get it into more low income households in the interest of music education, according to the site.

When it comes to crowdfunding campaigns, there are 3 main impediments to funding:

1. Is the project sexy? Porting an app from iOS to Windows and Android just doesn't grab the imagination somehow. iOS owns the market (at least for now), and a great number of potential donators are Apple fanboys, so the basic premise was never going to work.

2. The reward tiers. There just wasn't anything sexy with the Biophilia app award tiers either. Art prints of the app graphics from a B list artist won't cut it, no matter how cool they might be (and they are very cool).

3. The monetary goal. Let's face it, the lower the amount of money you're trying to raise, the more likely you'll achieve it. While I don't for a second think that the amount Bjork was trying to raise was out of line with its needs, it was just too big a chunk to bite off. Bjork isn't successful enough as an artist to pull a campaign like this off.

For those of you who intend to create a crowdfunding campaign in the future, use this as a template of what not to do.

Here's the promo video for the project.

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

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Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Music Delivery Via Balloons And USB Drives

USB flash drives have been a music delivery format of choice for some time. Let's put it this way - nobody ever turns one down because it can always be used for something other than delivering your music. That said, you get a better chance that someone will at least give a quick listen to something that's on the drive, even if they delete it shortly thereafter, which is not the case with most other delivery formats these days.

Here's an interesting way of delivering their delivery system from a Belgian band called Garcia Goodbye having to do with balloons and thinking out of the box. Good job, guys!

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

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Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

The Grammy Bounce

It seems that this year's Grammy Awards show was the most successful ever in many people's minds (although viewing was down more than 20%), thanks in part to a big social media push on Twitter. Host LL Cool J leaned on the show's hashtags and handle quite a bit, and it seems to have paid off handsomely. The Recording Academy was smart enough to constantly tweet and post behind-the-scenes info during the show, and LL Cool J frequently quoted tweets during the show that indicated that they were listening.

What's more, the Grammy bounce (increased sales after an appearance on the show) seems to have really taken effect this year, after many years of very modest performance. Here's a look at how both songs and artists fared after the Grammys, thanks to 7digital, which powers music on a host of smart phones and tablets.

Songs:

• "I Will Wait" -- Mumford & Sons +394 percent
• "Lonely Boy" -- The Black Keys +367 percent
• "Could You Be Loved" -- Bob Marley & The Wailers +367 percent
• "Adorn" -- Miguel +353 percent
• "Blown Away" -- Carrie Underwood +195 percent
• "Ho Hey" -- The Lumineers +166 percent
• "The A Team" -- Ed Sheeran +133 percent
• "Over You" -- Miranda Lambert +133 percent
• "Home" -- Dierks Bentley +133 percent
• "Daylight" -- Maroon 5 +133 percent
• "Suit & Tie" -- Justin Timberlake featuring JAY-Z +119 percent
• "Carry On" -- Fun. +91 percent

Artists

• Dierks Bentley +294 percent
• Elton John +282 percent
• Carrie Underwood +194 percent
• Ed Sheeran +192 percent
• The Lumineers +170 percent
• Mumford & Sons +158 percent
• Frank Ocean +104 percent
• Kelly Clarkson +71 percent
• Fun. +56 percent
• Wiz Khalifa +48 percent
• Bob Marley +35 percent

We'll take a look at how these acts far with their overall sales in a couple of days.

I've been a critic of the Grammys for a while, but I have to say that I thought this year's show was great. For the most part, it had terrific energy and seemed to answer some of the criticisms that it garnered in recent years (like the forced artist collaborations). Way to go Recording Academy!

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

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Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

How Much Did Psy Really Make?

Everyone seems to be weighing in on how much K-Pop star Psy made with his global hit "Gagnam Style." According to numerous accounts, the 1.23 billion views earned a total of around $8 million on YouTube, in which Psy received $4 mil. But other sources seem to dispute this and say the overall take is much lower.

Indeed, you hear estimates that vary from $.05 all the up to $.65 per view, but NPR estimates that Psy's take was more like 4 cents per view. The fact of the matter is, any kind of digital stream monetization always seems to be a moving target so it's difficult to tell for sure, and just when you think you have a handle on it, everything changes yet again.

Then add to the fact that most videos don't start out using advertising, and only begin to employ it if it appears to be a viral hit. This can mean that quite a few million views go by the wayside earning zero because it took so long switch to the advertising model.

I don't know about you, but I personally hate ads on YouTube and will do anything to avoid them, especially the 30 second ones. 5 seconds I'll give you, but not much beyond that. Yet, I can't blame anyone for trying to monetize their art and create a new revenue stream.

All that said, you'd expect that over a billion views would generate well over the $8 million figure that's been thrown around. The real fact of the matter is that however much was generated, it's inconsequential to the overal income of Psy. Consider the billion views a huge marketing bonus, since Psy registered big dollars from worldwide concerts and television appearances. As always, your music is not your product - it's your marketing.

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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.