Another Piece Of The Music Business Evolves

It’s rare when a trade association reinvents itself. After all, they mostly fall into the same trap as most corporations, trying to maintain the status quo rather than experiencing the change needed to keep growing. Associations, like many companies, generally don’t want to experience the pain that evolution can bring, even if it’s in it’s own best self-interest.

That’s why the re-branding of NARM (the National Association of Recording Merchandisers) to become the Music Business Association is so impressive. The board recognized that we live in a totally different world than when the association began in 1958, and it needed more than just a coat of paint to be relevant to its members in our current Music 4.0 world.

The new Music Business Association will divide its attention around six sectors that now make up the new music business: digital products, information technology, physical products, knowledge, management, touring and legal/business affairs. This division recognizes that the music business has evolved to become far more than just selling music products in brick and mortar stores as when it began. Addressing these different sectors also acknowledges that the in order to grow, the organization has to represent more areas of the music business than just retail, which really was at the core of NARM in its previous iteration. Read more on Forbes.

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The New Music Grammar Guide

Most industry pros now agree that metadata on digital tracks is way more important than the average artist realizes. After all, it's there to help listeners find your track, and to provide the digital equivalent of liner notes to the song. Now the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) have released a sort of "style guide" to help artists and labels alike avoid problems with all the meta data required on a digital track.

One of the problems is that poor meta data, which includes the title, can be a reason that a song isn't easily discovered, or even worse, rejected by a music distributor like iTunes (always known to be picky about these things).

So what are some of these rules? A big one is proper capitalization of a title, since some artists get a bit too clever for their own good. "In da House" and "It's fo; Realz" get good marks, according to the guide, despite the intentional misspellings. "Intentionally misspelled words must respect the same title casing rules" as those spelled normally, states the guide. Random capitalization (like "a TIMe to love") violates the guideline, however.

Another one is to not use ampersands (the "&" symbol) when two artists collaborate unless they are inseparable as an act (like Hootie & The Blowfish). Yet another is using an excessive description when identifying an artist (like "Jeff Beck (Guitarist)").

Perhaps the most egregious act is to randomly include the name of a superstar in the meta data of a track where he may not belong in order to sell more product. That's not a good idea on many levels, the least is the fact that the people it attracts probably will get angry when they're favorite star isn't actually involved of what they're listening to.

If you're going to be making digital music and you want to give it the best chance of being discovered, it's probably a good idea to take a look at the guide. Rules are made to be broken, but you have to know what they are first.

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Why A Metadata Standard Is Important

The Nation Association of Recording Merchandisers recently announced that they would be having a "Metadata Summit" at their upcoming Music Biz 2013 Conference in Los Angeles on May 6th and 7th. This is the first of it's kind, and is somewhat of a turning point for the industry.

Metadata, or the data about the data, in this case refers to the information about the digital audio file. This can be everything from the name of the song, the artist, it's ISRC code, the publisher and the record label. The metadata can include so much more though, from when the song was recorded and published, the producer and songwriters, and the musical genre, and much more.

The problem is that there's no standard as to exactly what metadata should be included, which means that most digital tracks are woefully inadequate when it comes to these details. Hopefully, the Metadata Summit will be a first step in the right direction.

On the surface, filling in metadata seems like a somewhat mundane task, but it can play an important part in search. For instance, if there's an artist you like and you'd like to find everything that he's been connected with, metadata can be an essential piece to search. It would be great to find other songs that he's written or produced, but unless that metadata is included, you'll have to find the info some other way. That's an opportunity missed by the artist, the publisher and record label alike.

A second reason for filling in the metadata is it can make accounting easier by clearly delineating who owns the copyright of the song and who administrates it. Getting paid is always a priority and this is one way to ensure that it actually happens. The only thing worse than not getting paid is having your royalty held up in an escrow account because it wasn't clear who should get the money.

Even if you're a indie artist you can still be diligent about metadata. As you're making an MP3, ACC or FLAC file, be sure to fill in as much of the data as you can. Two that are frequently overlooked are comments and artwork, but both can be important in search and grabbing the attention of a prospective listener. It may take a few minutes more to load the info in, but you only have to do it once, and it can be very worthwhile, especially if new standards are created and music search engines begin to utilize them more.

So don't overlook that metadata. Your fans want it, it will help them find you, and help you get paid.

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How We Currently Discover Music

Music business association NARM and leading market research company The NPD Group recently released findings of a joint study that examined the ways consumers discover new music. The study was conducted in August 2011. There were a number of surprising elements in this study.

• More than 80 percent of all respondents were interested in learning about new music from artists they were already fans of, and 60 percent were interested in learning about unfamiliar artists in genres that they usually buy.

• AM/FM radio and family/friends/coworkers are the most common avenues for discovery, and discovery via online radio and

• Web videos were also important for the most active music fans.

• Free online radio, video sites like YouTube and Vevo, and other emerging forms of influence are more likely to cause listeners to continue to stream songs, rather than buy them.

• Music recommendation from family, friends and co-workers are also very important, as they always have been.

What's more, the report breaks down music consumers into five segments:

Committed: the youngest group, with a mean age of 32 (20 percent are age 13 to 17; 42 percent are 18 to 35).  They represent 10 percent of all consumers who listened to or purchased music within the prior three months. “Committed” consumers also account for 46 percent of per-capita spending on music, and they are the most engaged consumers in the report. While they use a variety of discovery sources – including radio, video, streaming, and movies – they also value ownership, and they are the most open to discovering new artists. They find their current means to discover new music is good, but still wonder if they are missing something.

Convert: makes up 30 percent of musically active consumers and accounts for 34 percent of per-capita spending. They're the second youngest group, with a mean age of 34 (13 percent teens; 23 percent are 18 to 25 years old). They also listen to music in a variety of ways and are more likely than the average consumer to purchase CDs or digital downloads. They are generally satisfied with their means of music discovery, but they would still consider other options.

Comfortable: makes up 30 percent of musically active consumers and account for 15 percent of per-capita spending on music. With a mean age of 50, they are considered the mainstream segment. These individuals mostly listen to music on CD or on AM/FM radio, and they prefer to discover new music from familiar artists. They also rely primarily on television and radio to find new music, and they feel those methods are adequate for their needs; they are not interested in new ways to discover music.

Casual: makes up 14 percent of musically active listeners and account for 3 percent of per-capita music spending, and have a mean age of 43. They are also lighter listeners than average, they rarely buy music, and they have low interest in digital sources and discovery.

Content: makes up 11 percent of musically active consumers and accounts for 2 percent of per-capita music spending, have a mean age of 55. They are the lightest buyers and listeners, and while they periodically buy CDs, they do not find current music engaging.
 
Another interesting thing that the study found is that television has emerged as the second-most influential tool for music discovery, with 49 percent of musically active consumers citing it as a top influence. Television is particularly effective for targeting the mainstream “Comfortable” group, as well as women and brick-and-mortar store shoppers. Awards shows, music videos, competition shows, daytime TV, and serial shows are the programs most likely to be effective for music discovery.

But guess what? Television was trumped by AM/FM radio, which continues to remain as the most important tool for music discovery, with 60 percent of musically active consumers citing it as a top influence.

While radio and TV were the clear-cut top traditional choices for music discovery, Internet music-discovery options are much more fragmented. Shazam and other song-ID apps, as well as other mobile/tablet apps, are most likely to lead to high-value actions, like paying for a CD or digital download.

What's the upshot? Some things never change, and that includes the way we discover music. What is changing is that now we have more sources and which groups uses those additional sources. Once again, conventional wisdom is set on its ear.

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