Is Music Discovery All It's Cracked Up To Be?

To many in the music tech community, the holy grail of online music involves music discovery. As a matter of fact, some within the industry feel that the music business' future depends on it. That's why any company that has "discovery" as a feature suddenly becomes a hot investor attraction even as investors grow wary of the music industry.

The reason why some think that discovery is the future is many feel that's the best way to grow the industry. Instead of listeners recycling their listening with more or less the same songs from years past as well as a smattering of songs from today that are high on the charts, any way that exposes a listener to something new means that there's a new potential sale, either from buying music, merch or concert tickets.

While that certainly seems plausible, one has to wonder just how much better the current discovery algorithms can get, and if an improvement is really all that necessary. In an interesting article on Hypebot last week, a number of industry vets were asked their views on the subject, and they had some interesting insights.

In the article Jay Frank, the author of Future Hit. DNA (a great resource for anyone in the music business) postulates that music discovery is overrated, since it appeals to only a limited segment of listeners, the ones actively looking for something new, to begin with. That, of course, limits the widespread usefulness of such an algorithm considerably.

Where once upon a time you were exposed to new music on the radio whether you wanted to be or not, today we have too many choices for that to happen as much (even though radio is still the largest form of music discovery, with YouTube far behind). In fact, so much of music discovery still comes from word-of-mouth. If all of your friends rave about the new Daft Punk album, of course you're going to check it out. If you hear mixed reviews, you're less likely to take a listen unless you're overwhelmed by the media exposure (think the last Justin Timberlake album). With a discovery algorithm, you might be exposed to something new, but will that single listen to a single song be enough?

While an improved music discovery algorithm might still be the holy grail for some, it doesn't seem likely that it will change the music business as much as some hope it will.

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Is Vimeo Better Than YouTube?

YouTube is the undeniable king of the hill when it comes to online video hosting, but it's far from the only game in town. At last count there were over 90 other sites doing roughly the same thing, which you can see at all-video-sites.com. While most of these sites were very specific in their content, a number of them are a catch-all, open to anything that one might post, as is YouTube.

There is a competitor to YouTube that doesn't open its arms quite as wide, which in many cases makes it a better choice for the serious artist or videomaker. That's Vimeo, which gets 70 million unique visitors a month that are generally more engaged that what you'll find watching the competition.

One of the advantages of Vimeo is that the content is generally up a notch or two from YouTube, with fewer cat and baby videos. Add to that a streamlined layout that allows you to find and watch what you want a lot easier, and you can see why it's preferred by many after they try it.

One of the best reasons to watch on Vimeo though, is that it's advert free, which won't make money for the content creator but sure is better for the viewer. Let's face it; no one likes to wait for a pre-roll commercial before you get to the video you want to check out.

A basic membership is free and allows you to upload one HD video per week or 500meg of storage. The downside is that your uploaded videos are subject to banner ads, the ability to make a video private is turned off, and the analytics package is pretty basic. Upgrade to Vimeo Plus for $9.95 a month and those limitations are lifted. If you're a pro, you can upgrade to a Vimeo Pro account for $199 per year that basically ups the game by providing better video quality, more storage and bandwidth, and the ability to monetize your content.

You might not want to change completely from YouTube, but Vimeo offers a lot - for a price. Then again, with a service like OneLoad, you can upload to a number of platforms and have a presence across all of them. After all, there's nothing like a video everywhere to raise your profile.

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Facebook's 3D Music Map

One of the cool things about the online world is the variety of measurement tools that are available, and the fact that new ones are being created all the time. Take for instance the 3D music map that Facebook commissioned Stamen Design to come up with.

In the following video, you'll see a number of views of the 90 day viral spread of 3 songs on Facebook; Will.i.am and Britney Spear's "Scream And Shout," Macklemore and Ryan Lewis "Thrift Shop," and Swedish House Mafia's "Don't You Worry Child." Check out how "Scream and Shout" starts to go viral in Miami and New York first before it spreads, and how "Don't You Worry Child" surges in Texas in the middle of February.

While this is just a test of the technology, I can see how a more real time version could be useful to record label marketing departments and agents, as they could see the hot spots of a song's activity and be able to respond with a greater artist presence in the area. For now, it's just a cool video (with no audio, by the way).

The map is part of Facebook Stories, a blog that looks at different ways that people use the social network.

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Predicting Retweets

What if you could determine how many retweets you'd have before you even sent the tweet? It probably would change the way you compose your tweet and use Twitter for promotion.

Up until now, most marketers depended upon data that suggests either the best time of day, or the best hashtags to use (or a combination of both) to get a feel for what their tweet might do in the wild. That might all change, as an MIT professor has now created a computer model that predicts the number of retweets in its entire lifetime after only a couple of minutes of retweet activity.

“A lot of people felt that Twitter usage was totally random and unpredictable, that it was all just noise,” stated Sloan School of Management assistant professor Tauhid Zaman in an article in the LA Times. “But it turns out that there is a systematic, repeatable behavior that you can model.” Who knew?

You can actually see the model in action on his website Twouija: the Retweet Oracle, which is a twist on the old physical Ouija board. The site shows a number of tweets from celebrities and shows, as well as  how well they match his predictions.

While on the surface this might seem like a boon to anyone who does promotion via Twitter, I don't think the model by itself adds much in terms of promotion, since you have to actually release the tweet first before it can predict what it will do. By correlating that data over time though, it might provide some better clues as to the parameters that make a tweet more "retweetable." 

That said, I can tell you that without any of the fancy computer models or predictions. Just write something worth retweeting. 

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The 30 Richest DJs

Who says you can't make money as a DJ? It seems like the stars of EDM far out-earn the rock stars of yesterday, and all without needing the major label infrastructure to promote them to boot.

Considering that the 7 biggest EDM clubs in Las Vegas average income was $625 million a year (according to Nightclub & Bar magazine), and many DJs now have sponsorship deals with major brands like Ralph Lauen and Sonos, you can see how the those at the top have become hot financial properties.

Here are the top 30 DJs with the highest net worth, according to celebritynetworth.com.

• #1: Tiesto – $75 million
• #2: Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (Daft Punk) – $60 million
• #3: Thomas Bangalter  (Daft Punk) - $60 million
• #4: Paul Oakenfold – $58 million
• #5: Paul van Dyk – $52 million
• #6: John Digweed – $45 million
• #7: Armin Van Buuren – $40 million
• #8: Judge Jules – $42 million
• #9: Sasha – $40 million
• #10: Pete Tong – $32 million
• #11: Moby – $30 million
• #12: David Guetta – $30 million
• #13: Steve Aoki – $28 million
• #14: Fatboy Slim – $23 million
• #15: The Chemical Brothers – $20 million
• #16: Ferry Corsten – $19 million
• #17: Deadmau5 – $18 million
• #18: Carl Cox – $16 million
• #19: Skrillex – $16 million
• #20: Benny Benassi – $15 million
• #21: DJ Pauly D – $15 million (Sad but true)
• #22: Sven Vath – $14 million
• #23: Jeffrey Sutorius (Dash Berlin) – $13.5 million
• #24: Calvin Harris – $13 million
• #25: Avicii – $12 million
• #26: Afrojack – $11 million
• #27: Kaskade – $10 million
• #28: Sebastian Ingrosso (Swedish House Mafia) – $10 million
• #29: Steve Angello (Swedish House Mafia) – $10 million
• #30: Axwell (Swedish House Mafia) – $10 million

For those of you who want to break out the turntables (or more appropriately, the computer) and get into the game, just remember that we may be seeing the absolute peak of the market here. I'm told by a friend who owns one of the world's biggest sound companies that EDM at the major European festivals is already somewhat passe this year, although EDM-only festivals remain hot. Any one care to speculate on the next trend?

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A New Way To Distribute Music Digitally

If you want your music on iTunes, Spotify, and other digital services, most artists choose to use either Tunecore or CD Baby as a distribution method. Each have their upsides and downsides, with the downsides mostly being financial, with Tunecore charging a flat per year for each release and CD Baby taking a percentage of the sale. Now there may be a cheaper and easier way to do it, thanks to DistroKid.

DistroKid is an offshoot of Fandalism, the social network for musicians started by Philip Kaplan. What makes it different from most other distribution networks is that it costs only a subscription fee of $19.95 a year which allows unlimited uploads of your music. You can even upload one song for free before you enter any credit card information.

Kaplan started the service with an eye on democratizing music distribution even further than it currently is by making it a snap for anyone to release their music. While on the surface this seems like a noble idea, the big problem is that since there are really no record label gatekeepers to sift through the mediocre to find the brilliant, at least the service fees of Tunecore and CD Baby would make people think twice before they'd release something that might not be up to par.

The flip side of that coin is, who really knows what another person might like? Music history is filled with big hits that their writers, artists or record labels thought weren't very good and were later pleasantly surprised by the public's enthusiasm. The beauty of Music 3.0 is that if you look hard enough, you'll find at least a small audience for it somewhere. The downside is that it's hard for the consumer to sift through all the noise.

DistroKid is a boot-strap operation despite the earlier online successes of Kaplan (the ad network AdBrite and social shopping Blippy), so it's yet to be seen just how effective it will be in getting your music to all of the sites it claims. Plus, there's not a lot known about how the accounting is handled yet. That said, if you want to get your music on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and Amazon in 2 to 4 hours (which is really fast), give it a try.

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Twitter's #Music New Chart Features

Although Twitter's #Music discovery service has gotten off to a somewhat shaky start (it was probably impossible to beat the expectations), it seems to be settling into its own comfortable groove. One thing that's important to fans and artists alike are charts, and #Music has finally included them, giving everyone a better idea not only of what's happening on Twitter but elsewhere as well.

#Music now provides 10 musical genre charts (from rock to country to hip-hop), but the 5 additional charts are the more interesting ones. These include Superstars, Popular, Emerging, Unearthed and Hunted. The Superstars and Popular charts show the songs that are currently trending on Twitter, while Emerging and Unearthed are truly for music discovery of new or lesser-known artists.

The most interesting chart of the bunch may be Hunted, which seems to be derived from We Are Hunted, the service that Twitter bought and turned into #Music. This chart actually looks at blogosphere to determine the listing, not just Twitter.

This service isn't catching on because it has limitations, since you need either a Rdio or Spotify subscription to listen to the song, or you can listen to 90 seconds from iTunes. That just isn't easy enough to use for most listeners who now have plenty of other choices that are much easier to get their music from. Too bad, because #Music could really be a boon to music discovery.

You can access the charts via the icon on the upper left corner of the #Music page.

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A New Revenue Stream For Musicians

While a Kickstarter or Indie Gogo campaign is all the rage for artists to fund a recording these days,  another twist on an old idea may give traditional crowdfunding a run for its money. A new site called Patreon, labeled as a "fundraising" site, allows fans to subscribe to the artists they follow and receive "patrons-only" streams of their work.

The brainchild of Pomplamoose's Jack Conte and AdWhirl founder Sam Yam, the site allows fans to perform the age-old function of patron. The difference from European royalty is that instead of a large lump sum bestowed upon the artist, each patron can contribute a small amount (think of it as a tip) every time the artist releases a piece of content. The content can be videos, songs, blogs, articles or recipes or anything other "art" that comes on a regular basis.

A patron receives more than the stream though, as they also have the ability to post in the artist's stream and can unlock additional patron packages like private Google+ Hangouts or tutorials with different levels of support.

It's a cool idea and just another way that an artist with a fanbase (that's the key here) can create a new income stream. Check out the video below for a more detailed description of Patreon.

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Prince's New Record Deal

We tend to think of record labels not changing much even in the face of the major paradigm shift that is Music 3.0, but while that may hold true for the major labels, there are a few that are forward thinking. Take Kobalt Music, for instance, which is an independent publishing company that launched their version of a label last year with the idea of giving control back to the artist, allowing them to not only maintain ownership of their work, but when and how it's made available as well.

The latest to sign a deal with Kobalt is superstar Prince, who joins the likes of Dave Grohl, Paul McCartney, Dave Stewart and Eddie Veder (among others) who've decided that this is the way to go in the future. Of course Prince is all about control, even changing his name to that unpronounceable symbol in order to get out from under the clutches of his deal with Warner Bros.

One of the things that he gets in the new Kobalt deal is access to their new software that closely monitors the streaming world, thereby increasing the royalties. Every artist and songwriter is concerned about streaming and what it will do to their career, so any way to get a foot up is attractive, which is why Kobalt seems to be making the splash that it is at the moment.

It's still to be determined just how successful their software tools actually will be, but there's a lot of music heavyweights that are convinced that Kobalt has something they need. You'll hear more about them in the future.

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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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The Implications Of Euro BMW's Streaming Music

There's been talk for a number of years now how streaming music would eventually become standard in all new cars, but despite the predictions, it hasn't come to pass - until now. BMW just announced that their European Series 5 autos now come with access to mobil carrier Vodafone's Rara streaming music catalog, and it will be available in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands.

On the surface this only sounds like the next evolution of streaming music, but dig a little deeper and you find that the deal includes 3G access wherever you can get a signal without any extra charges, cables or devices. The trick to this is that each car has it's own embedded SIM, which means that the radio isn't the device, the car is!

For this you pay a flat fee of about $500 for the first year and $285 for each year thereafter, but that includes mobil voice and offline access as well. It's steep, but definitely cheaper than any alternative in Europe, especially if you drive the continent extensively and have to subscribe to a variety of services in different countries.

But the implications are many, especially back here in the US. Since so much of traditional terrestrial radio now depends upon drive-time listening, imagine the hit it would take should a version of Beemer audio hit the States. There's an entire broadcast industry that hasn't yet quite felt the evolutionary heat like music and television has, but that writing is on the wall.

Image what this will do for music discovery? While it's true that YouTube is the leader in music discovery online, radio is by far the leader across all media categories. The major labels still depend upon the radio infrastructure of yesterday to spread their new music and cultivate top 40 hits. Legions of listeners tuning out to listen to their custom streaming channels could finally turn this paradigm on its ear. Could this eventually lead to the final nail in major label (as we know it) coffin?

Sometimes the smallest event is all it takes to trigger a huge change. Could something like the 3G Beemer be the one that triggers the next?

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

Teens Tiring Of Facebook

We've seen this coming for the last year or so, but now the trend seems to be in full swing - teens are tiring of Facebook and moving their social media lives to Twitter instead. According to new Pew research data, nearly a quarter of online teens now use Twitter instead of Facebook to keep up with their friends and celebrities. This is up from 16% in 2011.

Even though 60% use the privacy settings on Facebook in order to limit their interactions to only their friends, most seem to be growing more disenchanted with the service because of "oversharing" with adults, especially parents. What's more, roughly 50% had deleted their own posts, other's comments, or untagged themselves from photos, 75% had deleted people from their network, and 58% had blocked someone from contacting them.

But parents have their own concerns as well, as 81% are concerned about how much of their children's information is being learned by advertisers. That said, teens themselves were not worried about being targeted by marketers, and just 9% expressed concern about how their data was collected.

Pew also found that teens are pretty open about themselves in general when using social media.

• 91% post a photo of themselves
• 71% post their school name
• 71% post the town or city where they live
• 53% post their email address
• 20% post their cell number

This new data is not a good long-term sign for Facebook. Although it won't mean much in the near future, the teen of today is the adult of tomorrow, and by transitioning to a different social media platform than Facebook, is now growing comfortable in their own non-Facebook world.

The Internet is strewn with social networks that were king of the hill one day and seemingly gone the next (remember MySpace, Friendster, MP3.com?). Five years from now we may be looking at Facebook in a far different light.

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

Live Gig Footage To Your Phone

As video technology has gotten cheaper and smaller, it's been a dream of many artists and fans alike to shoot every gig at a venue. While this sometimes happens with the venue using pro equipment, it actually happens anyway with many in the audience holding their phones up to capture the performance.

That's all well and good except it's a pain to hold your arms up for more than 5 minutes at a time, and the act doesn't make anything from the process (except for some additional promotion). Now a beta version of the Soundhalo app may take care of both situations at once.

Soundhalo takes the footage and audio from a production crew at the venue and delivers a fully mastered MP4 video straight to the cloud directly after the song. Fans can then pay to download the song directly to their Android phones one song at a time.

There's a lot of  upside here. First of all, the production quality (especially the audio) is better than what can be captured by a phone, the fan can get it immediately so it can be an impulse buy, and the band has an additional income stream.

If venues were smart about it, they'd build this feature into the price of each ticket, but I can see why that probably won't happen. One of the biggest problems of digital commerce is clearances, and live recording can be a hornets nest just waiting to be struck. What if the artist decides to play a song on the spur of the moment that's not under his or her control? There's not time for clearances if the song is available immediately after it's performed. The artist/publisher/Soundhalo also has to pre-clear everything before the gig, and anyone who's ever tried to do that knows that it always takes more time than it should.

S till, for a hungry up and coming band that owns that owns their own publishing gigging in a club, it's a great way to increase revenue (if only slightly) and capture a memory at the same time.

On a similar note, an app called Switchcam allows aggregation of phone camera videos. If your fans are going to record you, you might as well have access to it.

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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 for 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.