MixBit: 16 Second Social Video

There's a new social video service in town and it's name is Mixbit, an app that lets you mash-up videos from as many as 256 sources. Already available for iOS, an Android version is also in the works, and the web version just went live.

The app was developed by old hands at online video, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. If those names sound familiar it's because they were the co-founders of YouTube, which they sold to Google in 2005.

Mixbit is a little like Vine (6 seconds) and Viddy (30 seconds) in that each finished clip is limited in time, with Mixbit being 16 seconds long. People are able to combine either their own source material or use clips that are shared publicly.

16 seconds doesn't sound like much but it's been proven in various studies that people's attention span during videos is shortening all the time, and it's rare that most people will watch one in it's entirety, especially if it's over a minute. 16 seconds may be a magic number where the viewer will commit even if there's a possibility that they might not like it, where that's rare if the video is long enough where he has to wait for a payoff.

For a band, Mixbit is cool in that your fans can make short mashups of your videos or pictures and provide a a sample of your songs. It a bite-sized way for people to get a feel for your music.

All of these social video apps have a ways to go before they're in the same league as YouTube or even some YouTube competitors like Vimeo or DailyMotion, but Hurley and Chen have the experience and presumably the money to jump out in front. Let's check back in 6 months and see what happens.

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

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Spotify Launches A Browse Feature

Spotify has long been criticized about its minimal way of searching for music. In an effort to music discovery easier, the service has introduced a new feature it calls "Browse," which is specifically designed to point users to music they might like.

Browse is a list of suggested playlists grouped by context and mood that are curated by real humans, not algorithms. This is a big change in that most music services try to build suggestions based around an algorithm that measures what you listen to. That has left big gaps in the useful suggestions, leading to a great deal of criticism by industry leaders and how ineffective these features really are.

It appears that Spotify's purchase of the music discovery startup Tunigo earlier this year brought in the necessary elements for it to be able to launch Browse.

What's interesting here is that Beats Jimmy Iovine has been a major critic of current streaming services, and claimed his upcoming Daisy music service would be the first to feature real people curating the songs on a service. Now it looks like Spotify has beaten them to the punch, although it's too early to tell just how well they will perform the task.

That being said, every streaming music service is now aware that human curation is a necessary element, if for no other reason than the competition will have it. It will be up to each to prove they can execute the feature well, but it can only mean an useful improvement for the listener in the end.

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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 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 Turtles Sue SiriusXM For $100 Mil

If you're like me and like to occasionally sample some of the songs of the 50s, 60s, and 70s on SiriusXM, you may soon find that option no longer available thanks to a $100 million class-action lawsuit brought about by the 60s band The Turtles.

The Turtles had a number of big hits back then that get regular airplay on the Sirius 60s On 6 channel like "Happy Together," "It Ain't Me Babe," and "She'd Rather Be With Me," but the band feels that SiriusXM has not paid adequate royalties on these and thousands of other songs that date before 1972.

On February 15, 1972 all recordings began being protected by paragraph 114 of the Copyright Act, which provides limitations on exclusive rights and spells out the way that artist's are compensated. Unfortunately the law is somewhat murky on what happens with songs before that point, and The Turtles (Flo & Eddie - Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan) feel that Sirius has overstepped their bounds in that regard.

While millions of dollars are a big part of the picture, what might be even bigger is that the suit also seeks an injunction to prohibit any pre-1972 songs to be played on SiriusXM until the suit is settled. That would be a shame, since it sure is fun to hear some of the old songs.

Just for the record, Mark Volman is now an associate professor and director of the entertainment industry studies program at Belmont University, where I have spoken at in the past.

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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 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.

Radio And Streaming Show Different Song Popularity

Both streaming and digital song sales are up this year (downloads by 4% and streaming 24%), which is a good thing, but some interesting new data shows that there's a big difference between the top songs that radio plays and the most streamed songs.

The reason why this is important is that sales come more as a result of radio play, who's playlist is controlled by consultants and program directors, while streaming is based more on the actual popularity of the song or artist. Here's what the comparison looks like, according to Nielsen and Billboard.

While radio isn't going away by any stretch of the imagination, you have to wonder how its playlists will be affected in the future as streaming increases. With so much of music radio programmed by consultants who are one step removed by the public, perhaps they'll be forced to watch the streaming charts more closely when it comes to choosing songs. Whether they do or not, radio will be changing in future thanks to streaming, you can bet on 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.

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

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.

6 Steps To Resolving A Band Conflict

One of the most difficult things in life is to keep everyone happy in a band. In most situations, you're playing together because of the music that you collectively make, not because you're friends. That can lead to a number of personality clashes that will need to be resolved, or else you'll find the band folding right before your eyes. Here's an excerpt from How To Make Your Band Sound Great (the band improvement book) that covers the 6 steps in resolving a band conflict.

"Being in any relationship requires at least some compromise and a band is no different from what you’d expect between family, friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, husbands, bosses and co-workers.  There are times where you just have to bend in order to keep the peace.  

While compromise is easy for some people, others have a personality that would never allow it and a conflict occurs. Here are some effective steps that you can take to state your case in a way that should resolve the conflict.

1. Cool off first - Conflicts can’t be solved when emotions are running hot. Take some time to get away from the problem for a bit and brainstorm on exactly what the problem is, how it was caused, and most important, a possible solution.

2. Present accolades, support and respect - The first thing to do is acknowledge the person’s accomplishments and talent. Something like, “I want to start by saying that I think the band has never been better since you joined and the parts that you’re singing are way better than I ever expected.”  

3. Analysis of why the problem occurred - If you give a clear explanation of why you think there’s a problem or why the problem or conflict has occurred, you set the initial groundwork for solving the conflict. If the other person knows exactly what your side of the story is, you might find more often than not that you’re both on the same page, but on different sides of it.

4. Take responsibility and use “I” messages - If you have a part in a conflict that you’re aware of, take responsibility and own up to it, but make sure that everything is from your point of view. For instance, it’s best to say, “I think you were really flat on that part,” rather than “Everybody knows that you always sing that part flat,” or worse, “You’re singing sucks, man.”

5. Describe what I or we need so the problem doesn’t happen again - This is the solution from your point of view. “We really need you to be here ten minutes before rehearsal so you have time to set up. That way we can get our full rehearsal in, which we really need right now.”

6. Support their success - Tell him that you want him to win to, because if he wins, so do you. “The better you sound, the better we all sound,” or “Do you know how great we’re going to sound once you get that part down? We’re going to kill!”

To read additional excerpts from How To Make Your Band Sound Great and other books, go to the excerpt section of 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 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.

Facebook's New Embedded Posts Feature

In an effort to keep up with Twitter, Facebook has introduced a feature that not only allows its content to be more accessible outside it's network. This allows anyone to embed public FB updates like photos, videos, hashtags, or posts from other people or pages on their own websites.

It's also possible for viewers of this embedded content to like or share it, as well as like or follow the person who originally posted or authored the content.

The new embed feature unfortunately isn't available to everyone yet, as only a hand full of news outlets (CNN, Huffington Post, People Magazine among others) have access to it.

When it's available, the embed feature will be part of the drop-down menu on the right (see the graphic on the left). When selected, it will generate the html code needed to embed on a site or blog.

You have to hand it to Facebook, they really do keep on trying to improve, and that's being reflected in their stock price, which briefly topped their offering price yesterday. Embedding has been a missing piece for Facebook, which was fairly irrelevant when it came to breaking news. This will only strengthen the network going forward.

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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 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.

How A New Royalty Could Change Radio For The Better.

North Carolina Representative Mel Watt (D) has announced that he’s going to introduce new legislature before the next Congressional recess that will require broadcasters to pay performers a royalty on all the music that they play. Unbelievably, terrestrial broadcasters in the United States are not currently obligated to do so, thanks to the strong lobbying effort of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). Broadcasters in most parts of the world already pay these royalties, and US broadcasters on the Internet, satellite and cable do so as well.

Terrestrial radio is a different beast though. Right now radio pays only the songwriters, not the performers, for the songs they play. That means that the writers of a song like “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” (the most played song in the US in the 20th century) get paid for every one of it’s more than 8 million plays while the Righteous Brothers, the recording artists of the song, never made a penny from any of it.

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 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 Tips For Connecting With Music Supervisors

One of the biggest income streams open today to artists, bands, musicians and songwriters is getting your song placed in a movie or on television. The good thing is that there's a constant need for new material in our 200 channel cable universe. The bad news is that there's a lot of competition, since everyone else is aware of this avenue as well.

Here are some suggestions from music supervisors in how to get your music in front of them.

1. Take advantage of YouTube, Soundcloud and music blogs. They're the go-to way supervisors find new music these days.

2. Have a great song, but have a great story too. A story lets you rise above the competition.

3. Be specific in your pitch. Find out exactly what kind of music each show is looking for. It wastes everyone's time to send alt rock songs to a show that's looking for electronic pop, or vice versa.

4. Use IMDBPro to figure out what producers and supervisors are working on.

5. Be persistent, but don't cross the line. Be friendly and to the point, but don't be a stalker. Also don't take it personally if no one gets back to you initially, so don't stop submitting either.

Music supervisors are your key to television placement, but it takes time to cultivate those contacts. Be patient, because if you've got what they need, the doors will open.

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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 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.

Indies Labels Now Have 34% Of The Market

Once upon a time the music world was dominated by the major labels, who had the vast majority of market share. Today that's no longer true as the mid-year numbers from A2IM reports that indie labels now own 34.4% of the overall market share. This is based on the number of masters, not distribution, but it's still a radical departure from the days when the majors rules and such an idea would have been laughable.

It's truer than ever that you don't need a major label to get ahead in the music business. As an example, here's the top selling indie artists so far this year:

Mumford & Sons - 1.1 million albums (combines total of all their releases)
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - 670,000 albums
The Lumineers - 660,000 albums
Taylor Swift - 650,000 albums
Jason Aldean - 310,000 albums
Vampire Weekend - 275,000 albums
Alabama Shakes - 250,000 albums
Queens of the Stone Age - 150,000 albums

We are definitely in a DIY age. It's not just a dream anymore

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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 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 Social Media Myths Busted

There's a lot of myths when it comes to social media, and most continue to be retold as truths. Let's bust 5 of the bigger ones. I've personally busted these with my own testing, but there's a lot of research to back them up as well.

Myth 1: Get as many friends/followers as you can. What good is it if you have 30,000 Twitter followers and only 30 care about what you're posting? The quality of these friends and followers is more important than the quantity.

Myth 2: The more you post, the better. Study after study has found that the less you post, the more effective it is. Once again, it's the quality of the post that counts, not the quantity.

Myth 3: You should focus on social media and forget about your website. If fact, your website should be the center of your online universe and all of your social media sites should point to it.

Myth 4: Broadcast any activity on one site to all your social sites. In other words, if you post a video on YouTube, you have the ability to automatically post that fact on your social sites as well. Yes, that's potentially a good strategy, but it's a better if you customize the post to each one. People tend to ignore mass posts.

Myth 5: Social media is all about your personality. Yes, personality has something to do with social success. People like dealing with other humans, but too much personality can also be a train wreck, as evidenced by celebrities and athletes everywhere who continue to put their foot in their mouths. When it comes to using social media to promote your brand, a mix of professional news along with personality works best.

Remember that using social media for marketing and promotion is a different animal from using it personally.

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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 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.

Reality Popstar Versus Producer Pay

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know that most hit music stars make most of their money from everything but their recorded music. For that reason, this infographic about reality show popstar revenue versus what the show's producers make should be no surprise.

The real fact of the matter is that, expect for a few rare exceptions, the winners of shows like American Idol are reality TV actors, not music celebs. They should consider the fact that they make anything from music a bonus.

Infographic by: clickitticket.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 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.

What Younger Fans Want

MTV recently asked Millennials (those born between 1980 to 2000 and sometimes known as "Generation Y") just what they expected from their favorite musical artists. The results are decidedly different that what you'd get from other generations.

• They think music should be free, but they might buy it as a gesture of support.

• They really want an inside look at things. Nothing is too personal or mundane.

• They really want to be engaged. The more they're asked to be involved in creation or branding, the better.

• They crave interaction. Using multiple platforms to do so is okay.

• Shuffle-mode is just fine. They're really into musical diversity.

• There's no such thing as selling out. Blatant commercialism by an artist is almost expected.

We live in a new world where the concepts of old no longer apply. Anyone who doesn't evolve will be left behind because the music world, and music consumption, changes with new consumers. All you need to do is ask them.

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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 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.