Ping For Artists By Invitation Only

While yesterday's announcement of iTunes Ping seemed like a boon to artists and bands, now comes word that there's no way to create an artist profile on the network. When Apple was asked about the process, a spokesman responded that artist profiles are only available on an "invitation-only" basis. This is a giant bummer for most bands that could really make use of this new social network.

The same spokesman points out that any iTunes user, be it person or band, can create a profile, but that doesn't help the artist much if he can't push content to the fans.

That being said, Tunecore stated today that it's working with Apple to get all of their bands and artists signed up in the near future. Stay tuned.

Another disappointment is the fact that Ping only displays the albums that your friends have purchased and not the albums that they're currently listening to. This would not only help in music discovery but be a boon in data measurement for any band or artist. Let's hope that Apple implements this feature soon.

One of the cool things that Ping does do is provide a Facebook-like news feed that shows a recent activity stream from the people that you follow. Artists will be able to post updates to this news stream, which then will be directly sent to fans. This is very cool and a potentially big deal.

Clearly Ping is a work in progress and doesn't meet many of our initial expectations. That being said, it's only been online for two days, so expect the kinks and bugs to be worked out eventually.

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6 Reasons Why iTunes Ping Is So Important

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Steve Jobs and Apple has done it again yesterday with the introduction of iTunes 10, which now contains the music social network Ping.

What is Ping? Jobs explained it this way, "It's like Facebook and Twitter meets iTunes." Although Apple is promoting Ping as a music discovery platform where artists and fans can interact, it's a lot more strategic than that. Until now Apple has mastered technology and content, but Ping gives them the one piece that they never had before - people, the most important of them all.

But Ping will be very significant for artists and bands too.  Here's how:

• 1) There are already 160 million iTunes users. That doesn't mean that they'll all use Ping, but it provide a huge base of people already on the network.

• 2) iTunes has a direct connection to your content that other social networks don't have. This should make an impulse buy easier.

• 3) Ping is about all music, unlike other social networks (sorry MySpace, you don't count anymore). At least in the beginning, there won't be any other distractions.

• 4) iTunes users consume content. They're used to buying, and they already have credit cards on file.

• 5) Ping is about music discovery. Discovery is still the Holy Grail of the music industry. Ping provides discovery on your own, discovery through friends, and discovery from other fans, and anything to help people find your music is a good thing.

• 6) Ping has a direct connection to buying tickets to gigs. With their database of over 17,000 shows and concerts (provided by LiveNation, by the way), it'll make it easier for a fan to purchase a ticket without ever leaving the network.

There's also a lot to be said for Apple's traditional ease-of-use, that could play a part in the development of Ping into something larger than intended.

Look for an announcement soon of how you can claim your artist page on Ping (check Lady Gaga's artist page out as an example). Then be sure to do it right away. Although it may be too early to tell, there doesn't seem to be a downside, unless you like being undiscovered, of course.

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6 Steps To Your Email Newsletter

As I've said many times on this blog and in my Music 3.0 book, the single best tool for communication with your fan base is via your email list. I found this great article on The Future Of Music blog by George Howard that described 6 vital steps in constructing your email. They are:

1. It must be short and highlight one and only one action. The total length should be less than 500 words.

2. It should be frequent; once a week (I believe that once every two weeks to a month is better) on a regularly-scheduled basis.

3. It should have a call to action. Tell the recipient what you want them to do: come to the site to get something, come to a show, etc.

4. It should be forwardable. Ask your recipients to forward the email to someone they think will enjoy it.

5. It should have sharing functions embedded. Allow people to Tweet, add to a FB status.

6. Make it easy for people to unsubscribe.

George also states the following:

"Don’t worry about overwhelming people with email blasts. If people are unsubscribing, they’re likely non-value adding “fans” any way. Instead, focus on presenting real, timely, share-able value to your current fans so that they have a tool to help you gain new ones."

This I don't buy. I think it's important NOT to overwhelm anyone, as you'll be perceived as a spammer. Emails are difficult to design well, and it's pretty difficult to keep coming up with pertinent info regularly, especially on a weekly basis. That's why I believe that it's both better for you and your fans if you have a longer period in between emails.

That being said, George's steps are right on. His post was more on psychographics and converting fans into customers, and is definitely worth checking out.

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Taking Advantage Of Social Media Demographics

Participation in social media has increased for all American adults across the board in the last year, but especially in the 50 to 64 year old category.

Now if you're an artist that's targeting a teenage or twenty-something demographic, it's important to know that social media use is growing in that age group too, because it's another tool to reach your audience.

But if you're an artist that's trying to reach an older demo, this information is critical because this might now be the best way to reach them.

And it's a great demo to sell to. The older the demo, the more money they have to spend, the more likely they'll buy CDs, and the less likely they are to pirate music. If you have something they want, they have no trouble buying it, providing they know about it.

Pew suggests three reasons for the growing popularity of social networking among older Americans:

• It enables them to reconnect with people from their past.
• It enables them to find support in times of poor health and chronic disease.
• It enables communication across generation gaps.

So how to reach them? Here's a very brief outline of what to try that has been covered in other posts here:

1) Use hashtags with your tweets. Hashtags are keywords that are included in your tweets (explained here) that enable people who are searching Twitter on a particular topic to find you.

2) Have a Facebook fan page and keep it fresh with posts.

3) Make sure that all tweets and Facebook posts link back to your website (you do have one, right?).

There's certainly more to reaching your demo on social networks than these three items, but they're a fast and easy way to start.

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5 Social Media Trends Musicians Need To Know

Here's a reprint of a great post from Hypebot last week by Jonothan Ostrow regarding 5 social media trends that are happening right now that musicians need to know about. It's an excellent overview of the current direction in social media. Here are the 5 trends:

1) Fan-Funding Campaigns:

Finding the funding for an upcoming project can be an extremely difficult process, as more than ever before, labels are only looking to invest in artists and bands with proven high-volume sales records. Tom Silverman, founder of Tommy Boy Records, has stated that the 10,000 units (albums) sold mark is called the 'obscurity line' - upon this achievement, you are no longer seen as an obscure artist within the industry, and it is not until this point that labels will take an interest in you.

This new trend in social media is one that absolutely every musician should take a look into. Fan-funding (or crowdfunding) is the simple concept of empowering the fans to raise money for you- to FUND your project. Typically this is done through an incentive system, in which the artist will set a monetary goal, and has a set amount of time to reach said goal. There are then different levels of rewards that vary based on the amount a fan contributes towards the project.

A fan-funding campaign is an excellent way for emerging musicians to create a grassroots marketing campaign around their next passion project. But be forewarned, this takes both significant amounts of time and effort in preparation and execution. Most fan funding platforms, such as Kickstarter, Pledge Musicand Rockethub, require that the entire goal be hit before the artist sees any of the money.

2) Metrics:

The internet has made it easier than ever for artists to make effective, informed decisions about who, when and where to target their audience. But a bunch of analytics/ insights start-up companies have set out to make this process even easier and effective, by giving artists the ability to obtain actionable data about their music and their fans.

Each start up offers a slightly different variation, but the goal is to supply artists with analytical data based on fanbase growth, fan engagement and/ or online music streams across multiple platforms. Many of the services can even track the geolocation of the plays and/or fans helping artists understand where their fanbase is the strongest. Tip: This is HUGE for when you are preparing your first tour. Some of the most popular music analytical services are:

- Band Metrics
- Next Big Sound
- GigsWiz
- Music Metric
- RockDex

3) Social Currency:

Social currency is the evolved idea of giving music away for free. The myth that giving away music for free would garner new fans has been (somewhat) busted, as more often than not, the music will be given away, yet the new 'fans' will never return. The exchange was off-balance.

With social currency, musicians create an even-exchange by 'charging' for their music through an exchange of a track or an album for a tangible return that will increase their reputation and reach, rather than their bank account. The most ideal choice of social currency is to exchange music for an email address (and location if possible -this will come into play next), as it gives artists a direct connection to their fans. Bandcamp does an excellent job of facilitating this exchange for artists.

Other forms of social currency that have recently become popular are tweeting for a download, and a similar idea of a Facebook wall post for a download. Both of these options have the pitfalls of being less beneficial for the artist in a long term sense, and are unfortunately seen by many as just a new form of spam. A few popular tweet-for-a-download services are Tweet For A Track and Pay With A Tweet.

4) Geolocation Marketing:

In the past year, the use of geolocation has become one of the most important advancements in social media. Through services such as Four Square, Gowalla and more recently, Facebook Places, users can 'check in', leaving an update focused on their current location rather than their current activities. While most geolocation based social networks include some form of gaming component, rewarding long-term use and excessive exploration with unlock-able badges and the like, it would be easy to overlook the benefits that these services offer to musicians.

Two of the most popular mailing list services, Fan Bridge and Mail Chimp, have both included a geolocation feature called Geo-Targeting, which allows artists to send out location specific announcements/ updates. In other words, if you have a show in NYC next week, you can send out an announcement of the show or special offer to those on your mailing list who are located within and around the NYC area.

Geolocation marketing also gives artists new opportunities for fan engagement. The idea that an artist or even the fans can now 'check in' when and where they arrived at a specific location creates new possibilities for the artist to engage with the fanbase through competitions (i.e. first 10 people to check in at a specific location gets a free album), scavenger hunts for free tickets, and even unannounced concerts.

5) Streaming Video:

The Youtube craze has been sweeping the emerging music community for quite some time now, but streaming video, through services such as UStream and LiveStream, is a trend that is just starting to explode. There are numerous ways that artists can use real-time streaming to offer additional value for fans, such as streaming live performances for fans who cannot attend, stream jam sessions or intimate acoustic performances from the comfort of their own home, or even engage directly with fans through a real-time question and answer session or even a fan request performance.

You can find the original article here.

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Is The Web Dying?

The above chart from Wired Magazine shows a startling trend that backs up editor Chris Anderson's recent assertion that "the web is dying."

As you can see, the current Internet traffic is composed of primarily video, peer-to-peer, web, and slivers of email and FTP. According to the chart, all those had mostly peaked by 2000 and have declined ever since, with only video increasing in traffic.

It's an interesting chart but in reality has no bearing on everyday Internet use by just about everyone. We all use the web so much we don't even think about it, as we do with video and email. Email isn't as big a part of the traffic curve (it was never that big to begin with) because it's a short-burst interaction that now has many competitive alternatives, from social networking to texting. P2P is down because there are a lot more alternatives to easily buy a digital product legally. Newsgroups have fallen to blogs. FTP is down because so much info lives on the cloud already, and you can now email files as large as 10 meg or more.

Video viewing is up first because high-speed DSL is so widespread these days that none of the video quality and speed problems of 2000 happen today. The picture is better (HD quality now), and there's so much more of it available, thanks to YouTube and now, Vevo. 

But isn't it true that we access video via the web? Shouldn't that mean that web traffic should be up as a result? As always, statistics can be manipulated to show whatever you want, and this one certainly doesn't show the entire picture.

Will the trend in video usage continue? For now it will, but who knows what the next technology trend will be and how that will affect the use of Internet bandwidth. The thing about the Internet is, tomorrow comes quickly.

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The Truth Behind The Stones And The Windows 95 Ads

Microsoft certainly scored a coup when they got the Rolling Stones to agree to let them use their hit "Start me Up" for the huge ad campaign for Windows 95 15 years ago. Until then, the Stones (and most acts of that generation) had refused to license their music to commercials for reasons of artistic purity (when there was such a thing), so it was indeed a milestone when the song appeared across televisions worldwide.

Now an interesting post on businessinsider.com tells the story about how Mick Jagger and Keith Richards tried to switch versions of the song in order to eliminate paying former bass player Bill Wyman. It turns out that Mick didn't want to do the deal, but Keith was running short on cash (you never think of them in that situation), so a deal was struck. The Stones were also at a lull in their career and thought that the huge campaign that MS had designed would help reignite their career, which it did. Since Jagger is the CEO of the corporation and Richards is the COO, they make all the decisions without the others in the band voting.

When Microsoft received the final track they were horrified to find that it was a recent live version of the song instead of the original studio version. This was apparently done because the four Stones would make more money, since Wyman had already left the band and wouldn't be paid for a recording that he didn't appear on. MS pushed back and eventually got the original studio version and the rest is history.

Today artists don't think twice about licensing their songs to commercials. They can't afford to since it's one of the only remaining sources of income in these days of Music 3.0. In fact, artists are willing to do almost anything to get their music on television these days, and as a result, the advances are far, far less than what the Stones got back then (although a huge hit song would still fetch a pretty penny).

The story also goes to show that when it comes to money, never trust your friends or bandmates. Things can get pretty cut-throat out there.

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5 Indispensable Twitter Tools

There was a good article the other day in the Social Media Examiner regarding the 5 most indispensable Twitter tools. I don't know how indispensable they are, but it's a good idea to know about them.

Here they are:

1. Blast Follow - indispensable for finding people in your niche (and beyond) and mass-following them with a single click. Good for research.

2. Tweepi - allows you to unfollow those who do not reciprocate. If you use this, you're using Twitter wrong.

3. twAitter - allows you to schedule your tweets in advance. Good app if you're using Twitter to broadcast blog postings. Not so good if used mostly for personal tweets.

4. Tweetdeck - allows you to organize your followers and keep an eye on the really interesting ones in separate groups. It also allows you to post to Facebook and Linkedin at the same time, and to schedule your posts as well. I use this one all the time.

5. Tweetchat - allows you to isolate the conversation based on the hashtag. If you don't know what a hashtag is, take a look at this past blog post.

For more information on each of these tools, see the original article.

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New Social Media Analytical Tools

As social media becomes more sophisticated, so does the measurement tool requirements to determine both your impact and branding possibilities. Three new methods of analyzing social media data have shown a lot of promise, but it might be a bit too early in the learning curve to completely trust the data. Still, it's good to know about what's on the horizon.

Sentiment analysis is a process that tries to determine the attitude of a speaker or a writer with respect to the topic they're writing about. If you actually read a blog or posting, you can tell the writer's sentiment immediately, but this analysis method tries to define and measure it as points of data.

Cluster analysis tries to analyze how certain words are gathering (or “clustering”) relative to a search topic. It finds the words that are mostly likely to be associated with your search word, which may provide unexpected insight into what’s being said about you and even predict sales before they happen.

Semantic analysis is another measurement tool that strives to understand what words mean in context to one another. Once again, it's something that we do for ourselves as we read, but this tool puts a number to it.

All of these tools are trying to measure what we can immediately see for ourselves empirically by just wading into the social media pool. They put a number to something that we can feel.

New measurement platforms like Sysomos and Radian6 are said to be using these tools to provide a more precise look at how you or your brand integrates with the social world.

If you need data for a meeting, to sway an investor, or appease a boss, these tools are important. If you're a marketer on a very high level, you might find the data immediately useful. If you're a band or artist just trying to make the next sale, the next gig, or make it through the next day of social media management, you'll find them interesting as best and parlor tricks at worst. But while these tools may be cutting edge today, you never know if they'll be an essential part of your marketing toolbox tomorrow. Stay tuned.

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10 Best Digital Music Startups

Since we looked at the 10 worst music industry disasters a few days ago, lets look at the 10 best Digital Music startups, according to Billboard Magazine.

1. The startup of the year is RDIO.com, a new site that offers $5 a month, all your can stream over the web or $10 a month on mobile.

2. VEVO.com is a new video portal owned by Universal Music, Sony and Abu Dhabi Media (a strange combination), and hosted by Youtube and Google.


3. SONGKICK.com allows you to organize and track your favorite bands and track concerts and dates. 

4. KICKSTARTER.com is  a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers, and just about anybody else.

5. MFLOW.com is a music discovery and recommendation platform.

6. ROOTMUSIC.com is another band page site, although it does have the ability to submit songs to radio stations around the world.

7.NEXT BIG SOUND.com is a music analytics site that allows users to track mentions of their favorite bands and musical artists across a variety of major music websites: music plays on Last.fm and MySpace, fans on Facebook, iLike, Last.fm, MySpace and Twitter, band page views on MySpace, and band page comments on MySpace.

8. GUVERA.com offers free MP3 music downloads and streaming while the artists still get paid by matching brands to artists and listeners.

9. HELLO MUSIC.com acts as both a filter and a traffic manager, placing good music with partners such as Yahoo! Music and Getty Images. 

10. MY WERX.com is a technology company that develops cloud computing software solutions to optimize copyright ownership identification.

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Slicing The Profit Pie

Here's an interesting pie chart that can be quite disturbing to a new artist or band (can't remember where I found it). It's not entirely accurate, but it's enough to give you the idea that working at McDonalds might be a better career choice than the music business.

Let's break it down:

• If you're signed to a label, most new acts will have a deal that will give them about 15% of the net sales revenue. Now this isn't as good as it sounds, since the label has a variety of ways to make it seem like they've never made a profit even though your record might've went Gold (500,000 sales), but for now we'll assume they're straight up about everything (which only happens in your dreams).

So your left with 15%, but that figure can be as much as 25% if you financed it and produced it yourself and just licensed it to the label. Whatever the amount you're left with, here's how it's split.

• In the case of this chart, the band had a deal before and still owes the previous label money. Maybe they can get out of this and maybe they can't. In this chart, it looks like it amounts to about 1 point (percent) of your 15. You're down to 14 points. (I don't know why the agent is on this chart since he only gets paid on gigs, not record sales.)

• The band didn't have any money, so it made a "spec" deal with a studio that really believed in them. Spec means speculation, which means that they agreed to pay the studio probably another 1 point if the album sold. You're down to 13 points.

• The normal producer deal is 3 points, although it may be as high as 4 if the project was on spec. You're now down to 9 points.

• The manager is making 20% of your gross, which means he takes another 3 points, and you're down to 6.

• You didn't have any money to pay an attorney, so he did a contingency deal with you, meaning that he makes 5% of the gross of any deal that he negotiates. 5% of 15% is another .75 of a point. If you also have a business manager that has the same deal, that's another .75 of a point. That means 1.5 points of your remaining 6 and you're down to 4.5.

• That means that if there are 5 people in the band, each one gets .9% of the income from the record.

Now if the album went gold with sales of 500,000 copies (which rarely happens these days) at a wholesale of $7.50 each (also high for the times), that means the label brought in a total of $3,750,000. Assuming that there was no hanky-panky with the accounting (in your dreams only), that means that each member of the band made $33,750. This doesn't include any tour expenses and the fact that you probably worked pretty hard for a couple of years before this check came in.

Still feel good about the music business?

Of course, if you were a songwriter, you made money on mechanical and performance royalties, and the band may have made some money on gigs and merch.

But you're not going to get rich even under the best of circumstances, and they hardly ever happen these days.

That's why the only reason to be in this business is because you love the music. You've got to do it because it's what you live for, and you're willing to make the sacrifice in lifestyle that it will take to pursue the dream. If you're worried about the money, go back to school and get your MBA.

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10 Most Disastrous Music Industry Deals

The every insightful and entertaining Digital Music News had a great article today on the 10 most disastrous music industry deals, that I thought was worth sharing.

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It's been a rough decade. Digital Music News dove into the archives for the ten most disastrous deals of the past ten years....

(1) Terra Firma's acquisition of EMI, $4.7 billion (2007)
Even Guy Hands (the embattled chairman of private equity investor Terra Firma) admits he made a colossal mistake on this one. One of the last super-leveraged buyouts before the bust, EMI has now become a $4.7 billion-plus toxic mess for Terra Firma.

(2) CBS' acquisition of Last.fm, $280 million (2007)
Scrobbling is cool and all - and this is still a very cool site - but few would "recommend" this deal today. Amidst predictable ad monetization challenges, the company has since switched to pay-only in certain European countries, outsourced full-length videos, and bid adieu to the original founders.

(3) Bertelsmann's investments in Napster, $100 million (2000-onward)
In retrospect, Bertelsmann was the forward-thinking maverick. But in the moment, that stance created a legal sinkhole for the company, accused of facilitating widespread infringement by keeping the P2P alive. The in-fighting lasted years before expensive settlements torpedoed Bertelsmann with hundreds of millions in losses.

(4) MP3.com acquisition by Vivendi, $372 million (2001)
Before MySpace was even conceptualized, MP3.com was setting huge records for IPO valuations, label lawsuits, and band profiles. Problems quickly followed the inflated purchase, and the site was quickly dumped by Vivendi Universal in 2003.

(5) The Robbie Williams 360-Degree Deal, $160 million (2002)
Williams loves being able to walk the streets of Los Angeles without being recognized. EMI, which structured the pricey deal, is somehow less thrilled by that freedom.

(6) The Sony BMG Joint Venture (2004)
The 50-50 JV (joint venture) was like "tying two sinking rocks together," according to one executive, and this seemed like a dead weight from the beginning. Bertelsmann walked away, and the combination was ultimately purchased by partner Sony Music Entertainment by 2008.

(7) WMG's Investment in Imeem (2009)
"We do not intend to make more digital venture capital investments," WMG chairman Edgar Bronfman told investors after suffering a $16 million write-off on Imeem in 2009. MySpace subsequently scooped the property for well under $1 million.

(8) WMG's Purchase of Bulldog Entertainment, $16 million (2007)
Bulldog Entertainment Group was best known for coordinating tony concerts in the Hamptons. The company eventually cratered with estimated losses of $30 million.

(9) Any Deal Involving PlaysforSure...
This was a mistake that caused endless suffering, for music service (Yahoo Music, MTV Urge, Wal-Mart), player (Sony, SanDisk, Samsung), and consumer alike. In fact, even Microsoft bailed on its DRM-heavy solution with the launch of Zune.

(10) Best Buy's Exclusive on Chinese Democracy...
Some comebacks are better than others, and Best Buy was left carrying a truckload of Guns N' Roses CDs. That did little to kill the big box exclusive, however, as plenty of big-name artists have used the concept to shift serious tonnage.

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