The BBC Will No Longer Play The Classic Rockers

In the wacky world of music copyrights, what's normal and useful in one country may not extend to another country that has a whole different set of copyright laws. The result can mean it's difficult for even classic superstar acts to get paid or played.

Such is the case with Neil Young, The Doors, Journey and Bonnie Raitt, who have all withdrawn from Britain's Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) over the terms of its licensing agreement. As a result, the BBC has announced that it will no longer player their music, because there is no way to properly pay them.

The MCPS is like the UK's version of ASCAP or BMI in that it collects royalties for radio performances in that country.

The fact of the matter is that the BBC really doesn't play these artists all that much anyway, but it might disrupt a few newer artists who happen to use a sample from their records.

The BBC also took a long time to make this decision in that Young had bowed out from the association way back in 2002, The Doors in 2006, and Journey in 2013.

The lesson here is to make sure that you have your international licensing deals sorted out, especially in these days of streaming, because you might be missing out of royalties from airplay that you're not aware of, or not being played at all because you're not part of the system.

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Composer-Producer Rob Arbitier On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

This week I'm please to have composer, producer and music technologist Rob Arbitier on my Inner Circle Podcast.

Rob is not only one of my compadres from the AudioNowcast, but he's been Stevie Wonder's technology guy for 30 years, as well as a composer/producer for commercials, movie trailers and albums.

Rob tells a great story about how he got started started with Stevie, then shares his vision about the future of audio hardware and software on the podcast.

In the intro I'll describe how a lawsuit from American Idol's record label 19 Recording against Sony looks to challenge the major label's equity interest in Spotify, and the importance of the studio headphone mix and some tips on getting a great one.

Remember that you can find the podcast at BobbyOInnerCircle.com, or either on iTunes or Stitcher.

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Everything You Need To Know About Hashtags

Here's a great infographic from SocialCaffeine.com about Twitter hashtags. I've posted a lot about them here in the past, and this graphic reinforces that info.

Pay attention to the bottom right hand corner - the Where To Find Popular Hashtag section. It has some great suggestions about where to find find the right hashtags for your content (remember that what you post doesn't always have to use #musicians, #music, #studio, etc.).

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Is Smooth Jazz Dead?

For a while there in 1990s and early 2000s "smooth jazz" was front and center in radio stations in every major city across the country. Many former rock stations switch to the smooth jazz format in an effort to boost ratings, and for a while it worked.

That trend has drastically changed however, and we might have seen the last of the format for a while, at least on radio.

Stations that featured smooth jazz have seen their ratings plummet recently, causing most to bolt to another format to attract more advertisers.

But why? One theory is that smooth jazz stations struggled to attract younger listeners, which is the most desirable demographic for advertisers. Still, there seemed to be plenty of listeners in the almost-as-desirable 25-54 age demo.

Which means that the demise of the radio format may in fact be due to bad data supplied by Nielsen, who's the dominant ratings provider for both radio and television. The idea is that people were still listening, but they weren't being counted due to being in the wrong demographic.

I'm not a proponent or listener of the smooth jazz format, but the lesson here is that if it happens to one format, it can happen to others as well. Having listeners doesn't equal having the right kind of listeners for many advertisers, and by extension the station groups that own the radio stations. No wonder radio content is worst than ever. Thank you very much Madison Avenue.

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How Much Is A Music Stream Actually Worth?

There's a lot of confusion in the marketplace about how much a music stream is worth. To say that it's a complicated issue is an understatement.

• It depends upon all of the following factors:

• What type of service (interactive like Spotify, or non-interactive like Pandora)

• Which tier (free or paid subscription)

• Which territory it's played in (they all pay different royalty rates)

• Your marketshare (on Spotify you get paid more if you get played more)

As you can see, it's impossible to say exactly what each stream is really worth, and the best we can do is get an average. Billboard has done just that with a great infographic that gives you an approximate worth of a stream coming from Spotify and Pandora.

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Is Sony's Stake In Spotify Legal?

One of the things that most people don't know about Spotify is that it's partially owned by the three major labels. That was a required part of the licensing deal that Spotify had to acquiesce to  in order for the streaming music service to launch in the United States.

The major labels are obviously hoping for a windfall profit should Spotify ever be purchased by a larger entity (its valuation is north of $10 billion), and the worst part is that most of it would go to the company's bottom lines instead of to the artists that helped make it happen.

But one of the major labels, Sony Music, might be up against a legal foe that could change everything in its equity position with Spotify.

19 Recordings, the record label tied to the American Idol television show), has filed suit against Sony demanding fair-market royalty rates from the label regarding its position with Spotify.

Basically Sony received a block of advertising on Spotify's free tier that it could sell on the side, with the label pocketing the money. 19 Recordings, who's artists include Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, claims it wasn't receiving its rightful cut of that money.

While this might shock some in the business (especially artists), it's just some of the same shenanigans that record labels have been playing almost forever. Whether it's morally right or wrong, labels do their best to make the most money possible and will do whatever it takes to feed the bottom line. The artists are usually left with less than they deserve, but have little power to change things (unless of course you're name is Taylor Swift).

Should 19 Recordings win this lawsuit, however, it will start a chain reaction that could end up forcing the major labels out of the streaming business, and maybe even pay at least a slightly higher royalty to its artists for digital distribution. At least, that's the dream.

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Big Changes In Music Sales This Year So Far

Nielsen's mid-year music sales report is out and a lot has changed in a mere 6 months. Here are some of the highlights.

• On-demand streaming from services like Spotify is up 92.4% over last year! Over 135 billion songs have been streamed so far this year. Yes, this streaming thing is definitely catching on. 

• Vinyl sales continue to rise at an ever greater rate, up 38% over last year. Vinyl albums now comprise almost 9% of all album sales.

• Digital track download sales are down 10.4% from last year. The bloom is off the rose.

• Digital album sales are virtually flat though, which is good news considering that last year they were down 10%.

• If you add in the new ways of looking at albums in the digital domain (track equivalent albums = 10 and stream equivalent albums = 1500), total album sales are actually up 14% over last year at this time.

• CD sales are down 10%, which is decreasing at a much slower rate that anticipated and slower than we've seen in previous years.

• Physical album sales are down at traditional big-box retail, but up 0.6% at indie music stores, and up a giant 18% at non-traditional vendors like online, at the venue, and direct-to-consumer.

What do these numbers prove? Music is still not only alive and well, but demand and consumption is growing. What we don't see in the Nielsen report is the revenue numbers, and that's where the actual tale is told. We have to wait for the end of the year for that.

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A Look At Music Tech Salaries

Once it leaves the creative stage, music is more and more dependent upon the tech community than ever before. Today's distribution, communication, interaction, marketing and promotion all depend on tech.

That's why it's a good idea to have an idea of what it costs in terms of salary for tech execs. Many musicians, artists and bands want to build their own app or music service but have no idea of the costs involved. Of course, labor is just one of the pieces of the puzzle and it can be a big one.

Of special interest is the lowest rung on the ladder, which is community or social media manager, with an average salary of $40k to $70k. This is a job that every artist needs these days, and this figure can help place a value on that job. Thanks to Billboard for the infographic.

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A Look At The Crowded Streaming Marketplace

Apple Music launch this week moves it into an already crowded streaming marketplace. This Edison Research survey (the chart was put together by Statista) shows that Pandora has a commanding lead in the US over all other streaming services.

It's important to remember that Pandora isn't available in most of the rest of the world, so Spotify basically has matched its user numbers if you look at it globally.

Apple Music hopes to be at the top of the food chain within a year though, and actually has a shot at it despite the tepid launch thanks to its hardware user base and the 850 million credit cards currently on file.

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Apple Music’s Beats 1 Radio Pros And Cons

Now that Apple’s new streaming music service Apple Music has officially launched, perhaps the biggest question remaining is how much the Beats 1 global radio station will add to it. If you haven’t checked it out yet (and you probably haven’t since it just live yesterday), Beats 1 operates 24/7 from Los Angeles, New York and London and is said to eschew the commonly used radio consultant data used by just about every terrestrial radio station these days in favor of the tastes of the DJs playing the music.

So what does that mean exactly? If we look at the big picture for the success of the station there are a number of possible pros and cons.

Beats 1 Pros

• Both terrestrial and online playlists are so tightly controlled today that you basically hear the same songs anywhere you go. Beats 1 can break this logjam with some fresh new music that can make listening to radio an adventure again as it was before consultants ruled.

• Beats 1 is free and available to everyone. You don’t have to be an Apple Music “member” to access the station, which is great for both exposure and an introduction to potential new customers for the service.

• It differentiates Music from the rest of the streaming pack. At least at the moment, there is no other streaming service that offers a similar feature.

Beats 1 Cons

• The big one is actually more of question as it’s the great unknown - Do people really care about curated content and music discovery from a non-interactive stream? And, do they care enough about it to make a difference? Read more on Forbes.

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12 Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Post On Social Media

As I've said many times here and in my book Social Media Promotion For Musicians, just being on a social network doesn't mean that you're using it effectively for promotion. There's a mindset that's need before you can use any network as a promotional tool.

Here are 12 questions to ask yourself (thanks to this Time article) before you post to any social network that will help you focus your content for greatest impact.

1. Is the message educational or entertaining? Stop if it doesn't fit these categories.

2. Is the voice correct? Remember to stay within your brand and not get too personal.

3. Is it too long? Shorter posts get more engagement.

4. Is the URL correct? You did remember to include a link, right?

5. Should I target a specific audience with this message? Sometimes it's better to just address a specific portion of your audience or fanbase.

6. Did I use the right keywords and hashtags to maximize exposure? Keywords and hashtags are still important.

7. How many times have I already posted something today? Too many posts in the day may mean that this one could be ignored.

8. Did I spell check? Something that people notice immediately.

9. Will I be okay with absolutely anyone seeing this? Stop and rewrite if you feel the slightest bit uncomfortable.

10. Is this reactive communication or is it well thought-out? If you're angry, take an hour to calm down before you post.

11. Did I make the most of visual content—images, video, slides? Visuals increase engagement on almost all platforms.

12. Did I make the most of my update text—headline formulas, polls, quizzes? You only have so many chances for attention so make the most of them.

The best way to use social media as an effective promotion tool is to post great content. Follow these 12 questions and you'll always be sure that you're in the ballpark.

You can also read some excerpts from my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book on the excerpts section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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An App That Inflates Spotify Streams Disabled

Musicians are a clever bunch when it comes to gaming the system sometimes, as evidenced in inflated MySpace followers way back when, to todays Facebook Likes, YouTube views, and Twitter followers.

While artificially inflating view counts can work for a time, the industry soon catches on and either begins to ignore a certain metric altogether, or find a way to disable it.

That's what happened with an app called Eternify, which allowed an artist to stream endless loops of a song for 30 seconds on Spotify in order to increase the stream counts. However, the company announced that it put a stop to the app's API (application program interface) so that it can no longer game the system.

The app was created by a New York-based ambient act Ohm & Sport, who might have continued to use it for their own music without much notice had they not released the app to the world.

Of course, you don't have to create an app to do something similar, as an artist can just put his album on repeat on Spotify for 24 hours with no app required. That works, at least for now, but you can bet that the streaming service will be keeping a close eye out for anything that tries to game the system in the future.

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