Thursday, August 9, 2012

Warner Music Loss Down Thanks To Digital Sales

Warner Music Group logo image from Bobby Owsinski's Music 3.0 production blog
Warner Music Group's 3rd quarter report is out, and if you look at it closely, it really is a indicator to the trends of the music business today. Here's what we discovered:
  • Warner's loses were $32 million, which were down from $46 million last year at this time. This is considered a positive somehow, which is the crazy world of publicly traded companies for you. It always amazes me when a company gets hammered for having only a 14% increase rather than the predicted 15%, and this is much the same. WMG is still losing money, and even though it lost "only" $32 mil, that's not that great when you factor in that there was actually a $11 million tax benefit figured in.
  • Total revenue decreased about 5% to $654 million, and much of that they attribute to an unfavorable exchange rate. 
  • Recorded music sales slipped 8.4%, and publishing revue also slipped from from $97 to 84 million.
Now for the good news:
  • Digital music revenue climbed 13% to $230 million and represented about 35% of WMG's income.
  • 25% of the digital revenue came from streaming, which amounted to $54 million, or about 8% of total revenue.
  • Domestic revenue was up slightly to $282 million from $276, mostly on the basis of hit records by Jason Mraz, Lincoln Park and B.O.B.
If you want to see exactly how their revenues break down, Digital Music News did a nice graphics below.
Typical major label income split image from Bobby Owsinski's Music 3.0 blog


What does this tell us? Major record labels are sinking, but very slowly as they hold their own, at least for now. Digital music income may be rising, but it's not going to replace the sales of physical product, and streaming music makes the situation even worse, as that doesn't replace the income from digital downloads. Oh, and the most important piece of the puzzle - you still need hits to make money.

If you're from the musical old school, you're probably lamenting the fact that the business model is changing from the way it previously worked. If you're not tied to that paradigm, you're embracing the change, as a new business model will have to replace the old one at some point. None of us know what that that is at the moment, but we're all on the lookout for it. When you find it, let me know, please.
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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.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Artists Warming To Facebook Timeline

Facebook Timeline image from Bobby Owsinski's Music 3.0 music industry blog
In a study conducted by ReverbNation and Hypebot, it seems that artists and bands have a more positive opinion of Facebook's much maligned Timeline after using it for a bit. Here's what they found:
  • 30 days after release, only 39% of artists would give Timeline a Like. After 90 days, that figure increased to 45%.
  • 62% said that Timeline makes it easier to share videos and photos.
  • 55% say that Timeline is better at publicizing shows.
  • 54% say that Timeline is better at sharing music.
  • 49.5% say that Timeline is just as good or better at growing their fanbase.
  • 49% say that Timeline has helped their fan engagement.
  • 68% are getting more likes since the switch.
  • 61% thing that their "People talking about this" stats are better after the change.
  • Only 15% say they have more comments since the introduction of Timeline.
  • Only 17.6% are noticing more Shares.
It seems that the more artists live with Timeline, the more they like it. What do you think?

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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.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Online Music Store Differences

It seems like every year we look at the differences between the big 3 music stores of Amazon MP3, Google Play and iTunes, and every year they're the same in some ways, and different in others. While subscription streaming music is trending in an upward direction, it's nowhere near critical mass yet, so buying downloads is still a big business. PC World recently ran a great article regarding the latest state of the download content business and below you'll find the salient points of the post.
  • Tablets now allow new access to the online music stores, with the Nexus Q and Android tablet providing direct access to a Google Play stream, Kindle Fire to Amazon's music and video stores, and of course, and the iPad for Apple's iTunes.
  • All stores have lots of content. iTunes now has over 28 million songs, Amazon hosts more than 20 million, and Google Play isn't saying exactly, but it's plenty more than you can listen to in a lifetime.
  • The pricing really varies. Current songs and movies are pretty much the same across all 3, but catalog in both music and video varies.
  • The real differences between them all is in the video offerings. Each service has a different idea of what the pricing and features model should be, with rentals and HD offerings differing.
Check out this chart for some clarity.
Online Media Store Comparison image from Bobby Owsinski's Music 3.0 blog

The article goes into detail on some of the differences, especially on the video side, so be sure to take a look if that's important to you.


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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.








Monday, August 6, 2012

11 YouTube Tips From The Pros

YouTube logo image from Bobby Owsinski's Music 3.0 music industry blog
RealSeo just ran a great post about 11 YouTube mistakes and tips from some of the most successful video makers on the service. You can read the entire article here, but below I've condensed it to just the main points.

1. Have a main channel.

2. Make your vlogging channel unique so you stand out from other vloggers.

3. Try humor to keep your viewer's interest.

4. Don't steal or copy other people's tags, descriptions or titles for your video.

5. Don't keep putting up videos when your not getting views. Find out why they're not connecting, or collaborate with someone with more subscribers.

6. Don't try to be someone else. Originality is important.

7. Don't forget to add hyperlinks in the description box.

8. Don't make things too long.

9. Don't forget to have a Subscribe button at the end.

10. Don't do something just because you think it might get views. Do content that you care about.

11. Don't forget to watch other videos for inspiration and tips.

These are all pretty common sense tips, and a number of them I've already touched on in previous posts. Keep in mind that they're all from people who've had much success on YouTube, so they're worth some consideration.

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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.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

The 3 Pillars Of A Successful Brand

Brand image from Bobby Owsinski's Music 3.0 music industry blog
I've discussed branding a lot here and in my Music 3.0 Internet Music guidebook, and I've found that the thought of it either intrigues or appalls most artists. One of the problems with the process of branding is that by being such an obvious goal, it can feel like a sell-out. That very well may be true in some cases were the branding is created more for manipulation than for overall promotional strategy, but it is a new fact of life in the current music business that everything is based upon brands.

The problem is that whether you like it or not, if you're an artist you're already a brand. It may not be a strong brand, but then again, it very well may have become just that without any thought or effort on your part. What I want to outline here is exactly what a brand is and how it's created.

First of all, what exactly is a brand? In all situations, it's a promise of quality and consistency. For McDonalds, that means that anywhere in the world you can easily recognize a franchise, and a Big Mac will taste the same. For an artist, that means the sound and feel of their music and their image will retain the same familiarity. Madonna changed her style in clothing and music over the years yet her sound and image has always been relatively the same. The same goes for The Beatles or any of the legacy acts that have lasted 20+ years.

So what are the pillars of building the brand? There are 3:

Familiarity: You can't have a brand unless your followers or potential followers are familiar enough with who you are. They don't even have to know what you sound like to be interested if you have enough buzz and they've heard about you enough to want to check you out.

Likeability: Your followers have to like you or something about you. It could be your music, or it could be your attitude or your image. You could even say how much you hate your fans and do everything to ridicule them, and that could be the thing they like about you. It doesn't matter what it is, but there has to be something.

Similarity: Your fans have to feel that either you represent them either in a cause or movement (like a new genre of music), or that they can be you someday. Female Olympic athletes usually don't do well in this category because their sleek and muscular look is so far beyond what the ordinary girl or women can attain that they can't relate to them. On the other hand, young girls love Taylor Swift because they feel that she could be their best friend from next door.

If you have those three things along with consistent quality product (which hopefully is your music), you've got a brand. I wouldn't intentionally try to manufacture your brand so it absolutely complies with these pillars (people usually see right through that), but always keep these things in mind that this is how your audience looks at you, although none of them may even know it.
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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.

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