Beyonce Fights Back Against The Amazon/Target Boycott

If you’ve been following the marketing strategy used by team Beyonce on her latest self-titled album, you know that it’s been quite clever so far. To recap, the Beyonce album was released on the unsuspecting public without any advance marketing fanfare whatsoever, which caused a bit of a commotion as that fact was trumpeted far and wide by bloggers and news organizations (including me, I should add).

Of course there’s always more to the story and so it is here. The album was released as a digital-only product, with a one week exclusive going to iTunes. This didn’t sit well with retail giant Target, who refused to sell the CD when it was released as a result. A few days later, Amazon joined the boycott on the CD as well (although it still sells the download). 

Even though Beyonce set an iTunes record with over 600,000 digital album downloads, having the number 2 and 3 retailers boycotting your physical product could put a crimp in your long term sales. So what did Beyonce do? She went on a shopping trip to a Tewsbury, Massachusetts Walmart on Friday night, announced to everyone over the store’s loudspeaker system that she was there to buy her album, then gave out approximately 37 grand worth of $50 Walmart gift cards to everyone she saw in the store.

Most of the press covered the move as Beyonce being nice to a bunch of people she didn’t know, but there was actually a grand design behind the shopping appearance. One was a subtle reminder to her fan base that even if you couldn’t find her CD at Target or Amazon, it was readily available at Walmart. She also sent an unmistakable message to Target that said, “If you cross me, I’ll give all of my attention to your competitor instead.” Read more on Forbes.

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Which Social Network Should You Focus On?

Let's face it, there are a lot of choices when it comes to social network marketing, and although you can be on every network, it's usually best if you concentrate on one at a time. But which one?

If you want to sell your music and merch, there are clear winners, as reported by the research company Kissmetrics. On the infographic on the left, you can see that YouTube beats Facebook when it comes to time spent on the social network per month, and pages viewed per visit, but that doesn't tell the whole story.

Here are some other points that the company found after analyzing data from 18,000 ecommerce sites.

1. Run your marketing campaign during the week. It's far more effective than on the weekend.

2. Focus on retaining your fans and bringing then back to your site. They're the ones more likely to buy your products.

3. A small community of 500 active fans frequently beats a large community of inactive fans. Focus on your core audience.

4. Facebook brings more revenue than Twitter. People may spend more time on Twitter, but it's not as effective when it comes to marketing.

5. 65% of ecommerce traffic comes from iPhone and iPad users. Don't ignore mobile users, but concentrate on iOS first.

Read more about this specific study that Justin Butlion of Yotpo authored.

If you want to learn more about online marketing and promotion (which includes your website, blog and newsletter), check out Social Media Promotion For Musicians.

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

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

Do We Really Need A Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame?

The ballots have been counted and it’s been announced that this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees will be Nirvana, KISS, Hall & Oats, Peter Gabriel, Linda Ronstadt and Cat Stevens. While it’s hard to argue with the quality of work of these fine artists (they’re all well deserving of recognition), I still keep coming back to the same question - Do we really need a rock and roll hall of fame?

For one thing, the merits of the arts are nearly impossible to quantify. Many a movie, television show, album or piece of artwork that does big sales numbers may not have what’s widely believed to be much in the way of artistic merit, but then again, who’s to say? As the proverb goes, “One man’s treasure is another man’s trash.” What I might see as art might have you shouting it down as crass hackmanship, or vice versa. And when it comes to affecting the art of others, what influences you might have absolutely no effect on me.

So if you can’t quantify it or judge it by the moving target of influence, how about longevity? Here again, just because you’ve managed to survive in the business for 25 years (as is the requirement of all Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees) doesn’t necessarily mean that you were great, only good enough to survive. You may wind up being an influence based on a volume of work and the fact that you’ve grown or maintained your visibility over time, but does that qualify someone for any kind of hall of fame?

Actually hall of fames in general are fraught with problems and all are filled with controversy. Perhaps sports is best equipped to handle a hall of fame since induction can be based on performance statistics. In baseball, for instance, if a pitcher has 300 wins or a batter has 500 home runs in his career, his entrance into the Baseball Hall of Fame used to be automatic before the steroid era skewed the numbers. Can you do the same with music? Not as easily. Read more on Forbes.

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You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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Big Music Stars Have A New Label

You won't be seeing artists like Coldplay, Pink Floyd and Radiohead on the Parlophone label anymore as its acquisition by Warner Music Group has now been finalized. Parlophone was one of the world's oldest record labels, having been founded in 1896, but had been part of EMI since 1926. It was also the British home of The Beatles during their 1960's heyday.

Just to show you what an interesting ride it can be for an artist, EMI was purchased was purchased by Universal Music Group in 2012, but in order for the sale to go through, UMG was forced to divest Parlophone to appease European regulators. In February of 2013, Parlophone was then purchased by Warner Music Group, which then had to gain approval of both European and American regulators, hence the delay before they could release titles by Parlophone artists.

Now that the ride through the major label roller coaster is over, Warner Bros Records will distribute new releases from artists like Kylie Minogue, Lily Allen, and Eliza Doolittle, and catalog titles by Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Blur, Gorillaz, Radiohead, Kraftwerk, Supergrass and Sinead O'Connor. Atlantic Records (a subsidiary of WMG) will distribute new releases from Coldplay, Tinie Tempah and David Guetta (although through his own imprint called Big Beat).

This story just goes to show that once an artist is signed to a label, he or she has little control over their fate down the line. If artists like Coldplay and Pink Floyd don't have the control over their own destinies, than what hope does an artist of lessor stature have? That said, the above artists do appear to be landing in a good place, as WMG is noted for having some great digital chops, and that's where the business is going.

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Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

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Beyonce Attempts To Bring Back The Album

We live in a new music world. While some will tell you it’s entirely different from the past, it’s really a throwback to the 50s and beginning of the 60s when singles dominated. As artists and bands of the 60s became more successful, more attention was placed on the album, which while more expensive to make, also carried a higher profit margin as well, which pushed the industry to financial heights not previously dreamed of. This sales paradigm carried on until 2003 when the introduction of iTunes made monetization of digital music a viable part of the industry, and since then, the single song sale has dominated while album sales have steadily decreased to the point where many question whether the album is even needed in music today.

But Beyonce seems to have temporarily turned that concept on its head with the stealth release of her fifth album, entitled simply Beyonce, last week. The album had no promo run up to its release, no single released for sale before or with the album, and had 17 videos dropped simultaneously, but you can only view them if you bought the digital album first. Clearly, Beyonce’s album is meant to stand on its own (at least for a short time until the singles are released), defying the logic of how the new music business is run.

Just to review, the current strategy is for singles to be released frequently (even as quickly as every month or six weeks), making each one a separate event that can be individually promoted. Having a single available allows current and potential fans to live with the song for a while, giving it a greater chance to catch on. After a number of singles are released, they can be compiled into an EP or album, which is now another new event to be promoted. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work in this new music paradigm we live in.

That construct doesn’t necessarily apply to a superstar like Beyonce though, who can and does defy the rules by virtue of her gigantic celebrity. Most other artists dropping an album without any advance promotion would find their sales suffering. In fact, may stars and superstars have an album sales problem even with a lot of promotion these days, but Beyonce immediately went to number 1 on iTunes, although it helps that the service has a one week exclusive before the physical product and the singles drop. This might be the smartest decision that Team Beyonce could have made, as it immediately put the album on the front page of every entertainment blog as the word of mouth spread. Read more on Forbes.

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

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

7 Steps To Developing Your 2014 Music Marketing Plan

We're just about at Christmas, and most of the serious music business for the year is over. That means it's a great time to start planning your 2014 marketing campaign so you can hit the ground running on January 2nd. Here are 7 things to consider.

1. Does your website need an update in its look and feel? Do you have a press page or a easy to find contact page? Do you have a page with info just for promoters and club owners? Does your site have an easy to find mailing list subscription section?

2. Do you have a music release schedule for next year? Do you know when you'll have new music available? Do you have a production schedule? Do you know when you're going on the road? Now's the time to plan.

3. Do you have a video release schedule? Do you know what videos you'll need to create in order to support your music? Do you have a schedule for production? Make sure you plan for lyric videos as well as produced music videos, as they get viewed almost as much.

4. Do you have a mailing list schedule? Do you know when you'll be sending out emails to support your music and video releases? Do you know what you'll be sending out when you don't have products to announce? Now's the time to work up those ideas and create an editorial calendar so you'll always have something useful to send in order to keep in touch with your fans or clients.

5. Do plan on supporting your releases or gigs with paid advertising on Facebook, Twitter, Google Adwords, or bookmarking sites? If not, it's time to look into it as you can get a big return from a relatively small investment.

6. Do you Tweet? If not, nows the time to learn how. If you do, do you have a list of hashtags that you normally use? If not, go to search.twitter.com and create one. Do you know the best times in the day for you to tweet in order to garner the highest engagement?

7. Have you monetized your videos? You do have a YouTube channel, right? If not, create one right now. If you have one, be sure to set it up to monetize your videos. Do you get over a million views a month? Now's the time to look into a Multichannel Network like Omnia or Full Screen for a larger cut of the revenue.

If you're confused by any of the above, you can find out everything you need to know about promoting yourself, your music or your band by reading Social Media Promotion For Musicians. It's a guide that shows you how to use your website, mailing list, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+ and bookmarking sites to your best advantage when it comes to making your music more visible, and growing your audience. It makes a great Christmas gift for yourself or an engineer or musician in your life.

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

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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 Top 10 Most Watched Music Videos Of 2013

Even though we still have 2 weeks to go in the year, it's still pretty easy to confidently put together the top 10 most watched music videos for 2013. Keep in mind that these are the official videos, and the unauthorized covers and lyric videos add to the total (sometimes substantially) but aren't counted.

Probably the most surprising thing about the list is Psy's "Gentleman" at number 1, since it's not a song that got much airplay. It just goes to show how great the hangover from a previous hit can sometimes be.

1. Psy "Gentleman" - 610 million views (check out the great marketing annotations)

2. Miley Cyrus "Wrecking Ball" - 396 million

3. Miley Cyrus "We Can't Stop" - 304 million

4. Katy Perry "Roar" -  253 million

5. Pink "Just Give Me A Reason" - 237 million

6. Robbin Thicke "Blurred Lines" - 231 million

7. Rhianna "Stay" - 219 million

8. Naughty Boy "La La La" - 202 million

9. Selena Gomez "Come And Get It" - 185 million

10. Avicii "Wake Me Up" - 182 million

It will be interesting to see how many of the names on the list change next year at this time when we check again.

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

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

Led Zeppelin And The Free Spotify Mobile App

Spotify has heard the critics and has responded in kind. In an announcement at an event earlier this week in New York City, the music streaming service made a number of significant announcements that could alleviate much of the criticism that’s been leveled at it, at least for the moment.

One of the major issues with Spotify has been that you needed to be a paid subscriber in order to enjoy its mobile app. On Monday founder Daniel Ek announced that the app will now available for free not only on smartphones, but on tablets as well. The free version will still have adverts, and will add a Shuffle option that allows you to randomly play songs from within an artist’s catalog, instead of picking the exact song to play right away.

The second big announcement was that Led Zeppelin’s entire catalog will now be available on Spotify. Zep is one of the last of the major acts to withhold their music from any and all streaming services, so it’s noteworthy that the band has finally allowed this to happen.

The two announcements may sound modest on the surface, but they definitely play into a long-term strategy behind the scenes. By allowing the free version of the Spotify app on smartphones, the company can now expand it’s user base significantly, especially since its now available in 55 countries (a figure also announced at the event), many of which have more smartphone than desktop computer users. Read more on Forbes.

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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 and Facebook 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.

Beats Music To Launch In January 2014

We've been hearing a lot about Beats Music, especially over the last 6 months, but now it looks like its introduction is at hand, with word that it will finally launch in January 2014.

According to a blog post by CEO Ian Rogers, “When I joined Beats Music in January I’d expected we’d get this out the door before the end of the year. Thankfully I work with people who have patience and are more concerned about getting Beats Music right than pushing it out the door. In retrospect we’ve accomplished far more this year than I’d imagined possible.”

Beats Music has a lot going for it, being owned by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, and being run by industry veteran Rogers with creative director Trent Reznor. The service is based around the MOG streaming service, which Beats purchased earlier in the year. It's also backed by a $60 million investment from billionaire Len Blavatnik's Access Industries and Texas billionaire Lee Bass, so its pockets are potentially deep enough to battle it out with the likes of iTunes Radio, Spotify and Pandora.

That said, the differentiating factor between Beats Music and other services is the fact that it's based around curated content by music celebs and professionals. In fact, a new feature just revealed allows you to listen along to the same content as your favorite celeb in real time. It's yet to be seen if music curation is actually the attraction that the company thinks it is though.

Beats Music holds a lot of promise as a streaming music game changer. Very soon now we'll see the reality first-hand.

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

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

5 YouTube Tips From Big Brands

The top 10 YouTube brand channels like Red Bull, GoPro and Playstation (according to the Touchstone Video Index) all do the same things to stay there, so it's good to take a look at their techniques. Here's what we can learn that can be successfully applied to a music brand.

1. Publish content regularly. It's the key to increased viewer engagement, views and subscribers.

2. Convert your views into subscribers. Subscriptions are gold and much more important than views. The average is 2,276 subscribers per million views, so if you're not reaching that number then there's something wrong with your content.

3. Send people back to your channel. Most views are not made on the channel itself, so try to link the viewers back to your channel so they can subscribe or leave a comment.

4. Treat YouTube as an engagement platforms. Comments matter more than ever in Google rankings, so be sure to respond to all questions and comments.

5. Don't allow trash talk. Don't be afraid to delete and block inflammatory comments that lead to flame wars. Critiques are okay, but taking the conversation into the gutter kills your audience. You wouldn't allow it to happen at a party, would you?

Also remember that your video views should be evenly distributed. You're in trouble if one or two videos get 80 to 90% of your total views, as that means that the quality of your content is uneven.

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

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

Iron Maiden Stock On The Rise

One of the premier metal bands is also a premier company with an excellent performing stock. In a recently released report by the London Stock Exchange entitled 1,000 Companies to Inspire Britain, Iron Maiden LLP was named as one of the UK's fastest growing music firms.

Maiden has long been at the forefront of using their avid fan base as a springboard for both major tours and independent releases. The band has a huge global audience, especially online, where their fan base grew by 5 million from their touring of South America alone. In fact, it's estimated that Brazil may be the strongest market for the band overall, despite the heavy torrent use in that area.

I profiled Maiden's management in my Music 3.0 guidebook in the section titled The New Masters Of The Domain because in many ways they set the tone for the music business as we know it today. Here's an excerpt.

"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 afterward, Sanctuary Management had a brilliant idea. As managers of “heritage acts,” which 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 recording instead of the recording selling the tour, as it did in M1.0 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 studios at home that were 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 M2.0 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 essentially ceased to exist as a record label at the end of 2007, although it’s assets have since been sold to BMG. 

Sanctuary started the trend of an artist self-releasing a record during M2.0, 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 our current music generation, where self-production, promotion, and distribution are not only commonplace but the norm."

Some of the things that Sanctuary pioneered include:

   * The tour sells the recording, not the other way around

   * The CD becomes just another piece of merchandise

   * The artist markets and sells directly to his fanbase

   * Self-releasing can be more profitable than having a label

   * The artist can make more money on fewer sales

Iron Maiden LLP was actually just one of the music companies honored by the London Stock Exchange. The others include the music app company Shazam, distributor Kobalt Music Group, and music library Audio Network.

You can read additional excerpts from Music 3.0: A Survival Guide For Making Music In The Internet Age or my other books at bobbyowsinski.com.

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

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

Enough With The Apps Already!

I hate most iPad and iPhone apps. There, I said it. In this world we live in where jumping on the bandwagon is expected in order to keep up with the competition, every company or artistic project seems to be working on an app. And it’s not a good idea.

For one thing there are too many available already. In October Apple announced that there were one million apps available in the iTunes Store and a total of 60 billion had been downloaded already. Shortly before that, Google announced that there were 900,000 available from Google Play and over 50 billion Android apps downloaded. That figure has no doubt increased to match Apple’s by now. 

Besides the fact that we’re already inundated, the real problem is that most apps (except for games and utility apps) don’t work as well as the website they hope to replace. I’ve gotten to the point where I just use the browser on my tablet and phone instead of most apps that I’ve installed, which leaves the tiny programs taking up space in the background (I have to get around to deleting them soon).

Sports is a great example, with dozens of apps for every individual genre, and for the most part, every one that I’ve tried is frustrating. I keep on going back to ESPN on the browser for game updates. In fact, even ESPN’s own app isn’t as good as its website. Read more on Forbes.

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

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.