To Pay Or Not To Pay Interns

The connotation of the word "intern" is now changing as it has gone from "free worker" to "paid temp employee" thanks to a class action lawsuit on behalf of 3,000 former unpaid interns that felt abused by the system.

Recently Warner Music Group became the largest music company to resolve litigation over its past internship program by agreeing to settle for an amount of $750,000.

Other similar lawsuits in film and television have ended in the same way, prompting all media companies to reevaluate their intern programs, which potentially means far fewer opportunities for those seeking the few internships that are available. The laws governing internships are different from state to state, but a precedent set in one tends to carry over to the others, which is what's happening here.

To be sure, this applies mostly to large corporations, but could possibly have a chilling affect on even smaller studios as well. While most interns are just too happy to have a job that allows them to learn from a pro and would never conceive of bringing an action against an employer for fear of what might happen to their career, just the threat of something like that happening can have a chilling effect on a potential employer.

I have a friend who owns an upscale but small studio that was sued by a former intern because he didn't get the promised studio downtime simply because the studio was busy with bookings. The studio owner won the case but it still cost him time and lawyer's fees. That person now runs a no-intern shop.

So paid internship is now a double-edged sword. It's nice to get paid for the work you put in, but the opportunities to learn will now be far more limited.

How We Spend Money On Music Is Changing

93% of the US population listens to music, spending an average of 25 hours a week listening to their favorite songs, according to Nielsen's Music 360 Report.

That said, 2014 provided a paradigm shift in how we consume music, as streaming has now become the preferred method.

In fact, 67% of music fans tap into streaming music on any given week.
Indeed, we streamed more than 164 billion tracks last year alone.

That said, Americans spend an average of $109 a year on music, and you'd be surprised how we spend it.

As you can see from the chart on the left, the majority of the money is spend buying live music tickets, and the next largest sum is buying CDs!

That's followed by buying music gift cards for others, and tickets to music festivals. Paid online streaming is almost last, which means there's big room for growth in the future.

5 Snapchat Secrets

Snapchat has 100 million monthly active users and most of them (71%) are under 25 years old, with 77% of college students using the service daily. There are over 400 million snaps sent every day, but very few know how to use them for promotion, since only about 1% of marketers even attempt to do so.

Recently Snapchat has added a number of features that can help expose you to a brand new audience. Here are 5 secrets to Snapchat success from social media pro Gary Vaynerchuk.

1. Make emojis huge. After you've taken your snap, type in an emoji, then tap the big T button in the top corner. You can drag it anywhere on the screen.

2. Find the hidden colors. Snapchat limits the number of colors in a snap but you can bring out one that's hidden just by dragging your finger to the left and bottom of the screen to open up a rainbow palette.

3. Use the geofilters. Swipe to the right while filtering to see the location appear.

4. Replay your snaps. Thought they disappeared right away, didn't you? You can replay the last snap you viewed once during the day, but it has to be the last one. Enable reply in your settings first.

5. Cross-promote. Save your photo after you take a snap so that you can post it to your other social accounts as well.

If your audience is on Snapchat, that's where you should be too, and these 5 tips will help you reach them faster.

Jay-Z Nears Deal For Streaming Company

Not to be outdone by Dr. Dre, who made a windfall when Apple purchased Beats last year, rapper and business mogul Jay-Z has bid for the Swedish streaming company Aspiro. The company owns two streaming services offering audio and video called WiMP and TIDAL.

TIDAL has been mentioned on this blog a few times already, since it's a premium service that offers CD quality streams. The service was only launched in the US late last year, and has about 500,000 subscribers at $19.95 per month.

The surprising part of the deal is that Jay-Z's subsidiary company Project Panther Bidco bid only $56.2 million for Aspiro, which seems like a steal compared to what similar services are priced at.

Aspiro's board of directors has approved the deal, and the only thing holding it up now is approval from the shareholders.

I think this is a brilliant step by Jay-Z. It's only a matter of time until all streaming services have at least one hi-res tier, and TIDAL is really leading the pack at this at the moment. Not only that, the price is very reasonable considering the infrastructure and subscribers included. Aspiro looks to be cash-strapped, so it gives the founders an exit strategy while breathing new life into the service.

I don't know if TIDAL will survive when Google's Music Key and Apple's rejuvenated Beats Music launch, but right now it's one of the few streaming services with something unique to offer.

The Big Shake Up In Licensing On The Horizon

Everyone acknowledges that the current copyright law that we live under is outdated, but it's been really difficult getting any updates to the law passed in recent years, mostly because of special interest groups and the fact the a complete overhaul is required rather than just a few band aids.

That overhaul just got a little easer thanks to a 245 page report issued last week by the US Copyright Office officially throwing its weight behind some big time changes that would definitely benefit copyright holders.

The paper made a number of specific suggestions, many that will bring some large media corporations (like broadcasters, for instance) kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Here are some of the things proposed.

1. Everywhere in the world except the United States artists get paid when one of their songs is played on the radio (the songwriter gets paid, but not the artist). The artist gets paid when a radio station or streaming service streams online in the US, but not for traditional terrestrial airplay as it's claimed to be "publicity." The broadcasters have successfully lobbied forever about how their business would be destroyed if forced to pay artists while they've raked in billions. Now the Copyright Office finally agrees with what artists, managers, record labels and even the general public has been saying for years - let's pay the artists for airplay.

2. There's a funny loophole in copyright law where a song from before 1972 can be used by radio or streaming services without payment to the copyright holders. There's been a number of high-profile lawsuits (The Turtles successful suit being one) about the fairness of this doctrine, and the Copyright Office agrees that pre-1972 songs should be treated just like post-1972 songs.

3. The amount of money that performance rights organizations like ASCAP and BMI can collect is governed by a piece of anti-trust legislation called the Consent Decree. Basically what it means is that these organizations must offer licenses on equivalent terms, but those terms haven't been updated to keep up with the latest technology or the evolution of the business, so copyright holders are still bound to a rate that's decades old. It's actually a much deeper subject, but the gist is that the Copyright Office is finally agreeing that the Consent Decree should be reevaluated and updated for the Music 4.0 world we live in.

4. Producers get a royalty on units sold, but the payment can either come from the record label or directly from the artist, which means that it can be really difficult to get paid sometimes. The Copyright Office recommends that producer payments now be administered by Soundexchange as a way of freeing the label and artist the burden of accounting, but also making sure that the producer gets paid as well.

There are other recommendations in the paper, but any one of the above will bring sweeping changes to a system that badly needs it. Read the full report.

The Grammy's: Four Ways To Improve Music's Greatest Night

Let’s call the Grammy Awards for what they are - an excellent way to line the coffers of the Recording Academy and CBS and seemingly nothing more. It’s the Super Bowl of music, only without the game, filled with endless halftime performances and commercials.

Even if you followed the 2015 Grammy Awards Broadcast last night, you probably don’t remember or even care about the winners today unless you’re in the music industry. If you were like me, you looked at the clock over and over and thought, “Is it over yet?” But there was always more, and the performances seemed to drone on and on.

I’m not insensitive to how difficult it is to put such a spectacle together, and producer Ken Ehrlich does as good a job as anyone can hope for when it comes to herding celebrity cats, yet in the three and half hours of broadcast time that is the Grammy Awards, it felt that there was about two hours of filler. 

The problem was that the show peaked right at the beginning with a blistering appearance by AC/DC and went downhill from there (although the Ed Sheeran and Annie Lennox performances rose to the occasion as well). If I look at my notes from the show, they indicate long stretches of boredom. If the Grammy’s and CBS want a better show that really does resemble “Music’s Greatest Night,” here are four suggestions to improve the show. See more on Forbes.

Youtube Experimenting With Multiple Camera Angles

Artists that post frequent videos to YouTube will be interested to learn that the service rolled out an experimental feature that allows the viewer to be able to chose from multiple camera angles when watching a video.

When implemented on your video, the viewer can select the desired camera angle via a list of thumbnails on the right side of the video as shown on the graphic. The tool shows up under a special "Choose Your View" tab.

Here's an example of how the feature works using a live performance of indie artist Madilyn Bailey.

YouTube expects this feature to be used only on live events right now, although it would be interesting what could happen during a normal edited music video. There are some downsides, however, in that each camera angle eats up more bandwidth, and you can only stream a single angle from a mobile device at the moment.

Remember, this feature is still just being tested, so everyone can't access it yet, and you have to be in the US as well. That said, many artists might not even be interested unless they regularly work with multiple cameras shoots to begin with, but it's cool that YouTube is still pushing the envelope by adding new features.

If you're into trying it, here are YouTube's instructions for encoding multiple camera angles, and you can sign up to use it here.

iTunes To Block Sound-Alike Covers

Many up and coming artists have found cover songs to be the ticket to gaining a larger audience. While this is a tried and proven method on Youtube, taking it to iTunes will no longer receive the same reception. Digital Music News reports that sound-alike cover songs will now be banned from the service.

iTunes is really trying to clean itself up after years of complaints about people buying a song only to find out it's a tribute or cover, or even worse, a cover by the real artist. Many artists re-record a track in order to cut the record company out of the royalty pipeline. It may sound close, but it's not the original and usually you can tell.

The latest iTunes Style Guide (here's a link to the previous one) apparently says that track titles that state "Originally performed by," "In the style of," "Tribute to," or "Cover of" will be automatically rejected. Also, any songs that violate these guidelines that currently are on the library will eventually be taken down.

Karaoke and instrumental versions are the exception, however, as long as they're placed in the correct category.

iTunes will also no longer accept titles that include popular song lyrics either.

This problem is more acute on digital download services where you think you're getting one thing and instead pay for something else. With a streaming service you just move on, trying to find the version that you want, so they don't have the same restrictions in place that iTunes has.

Music Doesn't Crack The Pirate Bay's Top 100

There is good news and bad news when it comes to piracy. According to an MBW analysis of the newly returned online sharing site, music doesn't even crack the top 100 of most downloaded files.

That means that, like many have been saying for a while now (including me), piracy is no longer a major issue for the music business.

The bad news? It could mean that people don't care enough about music anymore to steal it, although I'm inclined to believe that it's more about the new streaming paradigm than anything.

So what dominates the top 100 most pirated files? As you can see from the chart on the left movies are about 50%, followed by television shows at 33%, porn at 9% and games and apps at 4%.

What were the top 5 most downloaded files?
1. Wild Card (movie)
2. The Interview (movie)
3. American Sniper (movie)
4. Nightcrawler (movie)
5. The Blacklist (television show)

The most pirated music?
1. True - Avicii (album)
2. "Shake It Off" - Taylor Swift (track)
3. "All of Me" - John Legend (track)
4. X - Chris Brown (album)

There will always be pirating of material that people can't either afford, think is too highly priced, or is inconvenient to get legally. As we've seen with music, once at least one of those barriers are broken, pirating decreases, except for in the case of some techies who will pirate things anyway just because they can.

5 Common Tactics Of Live-Music Sponsorship

Every artist or band wants a sponsorship, even on a local level, but they're usually hard to come by. That's because most potential sponsors aren't aware of the many ways to utilize a sponsorship, and neither is the act.

Group M Entertainment and Sports Partnerships, the world's largest media buying firm, discovered during a 12 month study of 2,000 people spanning all age groups that 44% of concert goers are more likely to respond to a brand that sponsors a show compared to 38% at a sporting event. The only problem is that most brands aren't as familiar with music as they are of other "passion points" like sports.

That said, there are 5 tactics that a brand can use to sponsor an artist or band:

1. Pre-sale promotion
2. Ticket promotions
3. VIP/on-site hospitality
4. On-site sampling
5. Social media messaging

These apply to just about any kind of sponsorship, even for a local band. For instance, if you get a local clothing store to sponsor you, you can have their name on all tickets, their promotional material and banners can be available during meet and greets and after-parties, or they can have some of their clothing at the venue for attendees to check out. Of course, having them utilize their social media to promote the show and vice-versa the band promoting the store, could also be utilized.

By offering a variety of alternatives, you're more likely find sponsorship than just asking to hang a banner behind the band.

Facebook Isn't Cool Anymore, But It Doesn't Matter

Once again research shows that Facebook's popularity among teens continues to wane, as a new report from Frank N. Magid Associates found that the number of teens that use the social network is down 6% from last year.

That said, 88% of US teens still continue to use Facebook, and that number rises among all age groups over age 25. In general, Facebook user numbers still continue to grow in all age groups, especially outside the US, so you won't see a panic in the FB boardroom any time soon.

In fact, teens that leave Facebook tend to go to Instagram instead. You know who owns Instagram? Facebook, of course, so the service is losing teens basically to itself.

What this means to  band or artist is that if your fanbase is comprised mostly of teens, then Instagram should definitely be part of your social media promotion mix. But don't forget Facebook, since a great many teens still do check it out, especially outside the US.

Katy Perry And The New Super Bowl Sales Bump

When Katy Perry takes the field to present her 12 minutes of Super Bowl halftime entertainment on Sunday, the reality of what that exposure brings will have changed greatly from previous years. Forget music sales, social media followers, viral music videos or any of the other recent analytics that an appearance of such magnitude usually measures by. Sure, those will still be there, but this time the prime metric of the expected Super Bowl bump will be different. Now it’s all about the sponsorships.

Last year’s headliner Bruno Mars watched his album sales jump more than 160 percent right after his Super Bowl appearance, and his earnings for the year topped $60 million, good enough to place 12th on the Forbes list of richest entertainers. Ms. Perry has already sold nearly 100 million units, and that should increase directly after a halftime of greatest hits (even last year’s guests Red Hot Chili Peppers saw their greatest hits package soar over 400%), but the sales are almost an afterthought to an artist in the current music environment. In the new Music 4.0 world we live in, the music is the marketing, not the product.

While Perry came in 23rd on that same list with $40 million last year, she can expect a big bump in revenue in 2015 thanks to a major increase in her concert asking price as well as a big jump in her sponsorships. What that means is that the overhead involved in any major tour she mounts will diminish greatly with sponsors signing on for big dollars, which is where the real money in music is today. Read more on Forbes.