Split Gigs

As I've said so often on this blog, getting gigs is one of the hardest things for an artist or band to do. Once upon a time, there seemed to be a club on every corner and most of them had live music, but obviously that's no longer the case, so the competition for every date and time slot is fierce.

If you're playing in showcase clubs where you only play a single show, a way to expand your reach into another territory is to trade gigs with another band. This is where you each book a local show, but you trade them so each band gets to play in a new venue. The problem is, it's not always easy to find another band to trade gigs with.

Now comes a service called Split Gigs, a social network that helps bands, musicians and dj's find gigs to play. The site enables bands to connect with one another to exchange gig possibilities, and according to the site, even book a tour.

While this idea can work, be aware that you run the risk of incurring the wrath of the club owner or promoter if the band you're trading with doesn't bring a crowd (which won't happen since probably no one knows them), so it might not something that can be done often. Then again, if you can arrange for the other band to share the same bill on an opening slot and then vice versa, that could work well as long as the promoter agrees to it.

Check out the trailer for SplitGigs.

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What Is A Brand?

One of the things that an artist or band hears a lot these days is the need to promote "your brand" in order to get ahead in Music 3.0. That's all well and good, but it's hard to promote your brand unless you know exactly what a brand is. So what exactly is a brand? Here's a quote from the Music 3.0 Internet music guidebook that describes it perfectly:

A brand is a promise of quality and consistency. No matter where in the world you go for a McDonald’s hamburger, you know what to expect. No matter what product you purchase from Apple, you can expect sleek high-tech design and an easy to understand user interface. Brand management is protecting the image of the brand and carefully selecting how to best exploit it.

For an artist, that means a consistency of persona, and usually a consistency of sound. Regardless of what genre of music the artist delves into, the feel is the same and you can tell it's the artist. Madonna has changed directions many times during her career but her brand remained consistent. Here persona remained the same even as she changed to and from the "material girl." The Beatles tried a wide variety of directions but you never once questioned who you were listening to. It was always fresh and exciting, but distinctly them.

On the other hand, Neil Young almost killed his career with an electronic album called "Trans" that alienated all but his hardiest fans, and the well-respected Chris Cornell may have done irreparable harm to his long-term career with his recent album with Timbaland ("Scream") even though it was the highest charting of his career. Why did this happen? For both artists, the album no longer "felt" like them. Both Young and Cornell built their careers on organic music played with a band, and as soon as their music became regimented and mechanical, they lost their brands. After Trans, Young returned to his roots and slowly built his brand back to superstar level, but it's too soon to know what will happen with Cornell.

How do you determine what your brand is? It's easier said than done.

In order for an artist to successfully promote their brand, they must have a great sense of self-knowing. You must know who you are, where you came from, and where you're going. You must know what you like and don't like, and what you stand for and why. And you must have an inherent feel for your sound and what works for you.

And that differentiates a superstar from a star, and a star from some who wants it really badly but never seems to get that big break.

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5 Strategies To Sell More Merch

Every artist and band wants to sell more merch. It's a profit center (one of the few that a musician has) that has to be treated with a lot of forethought or you'll find yourself with too much inventory with a slow sell through. Here are a 5 strategies that can help you increase your sales immediately.

1) Limit the choices. Having 5 different colors of t-shirts might be a nice touch, but it's crazy inventory-wise and actually can impede that sale. A good salesman limits the choices to only 2. Any more and you risk the potential buyer throwing their arms up and saying, "I can't make up my mind," and not buying anything!

The same can be said for different styles of shirts as well. Remember, too many choices = buyer indecision.

2) Target the merch. You're a lot more likely to sell heavy sweatshirts, hoodies and beanies in the Minnesota in the winter than in California in the summer. Likewise, tanktops are going sell in better in Florida in the summer than in Detroit in the winter. You can even increase your profit margin (i.e. charge more) if the merch is climate appropriate and targeted.

3) Tie the merch to a tour. Tour merch generally sells better than generic items because you're celebrating a moment in time. Even if you're just playing local clubs you can do this successfully by calling a t-shirt something like, "2010 Club Tour." In 2011 you change the color and style to give your fans a reason to purchase again. Sports teams do this every year by changing the color and even the style of their uniforms. You can do it too.

4) Don't forget the girls. Under the right circumstances, it's well worth it to have an item aimed just for the ladies in style and color, since many girls and women would never be caught dead in a generic shirt. Guys, don't design or pick this item out yourself. This is one time help from the opposite sex is mandatory. If in doubt, go back and read #1.

5) Be careful of novelty items. Novelty items such as lighters, condoms, beach balls, etc. can be fun, but usually don't sell well. They're usually meant to be given away for free to remind people of the brand, and that's the way they're best used. Once again, remember #1.

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How Not To Do Business

It's tough enough to try to work with a major record label if you're an artist, but if you're a producer, engineer, studio, or anyone providing services to a label, it can be completely maddening.

For instance, it used to take 60 days to get paid after you turned in your invoice, which seemed like an eternity. Then the majors lengthened it to 90 days, which is totally unreasonable. Now the norm is more like 120 days (4 months) or more, which is outrageous. But you have to draw the line when they ask for sensitive personal information, and then negligently share it with the outside world.

The following is an email I received from famed producer/engineer Ken Scott (The Beatles, David Bowie, Jeff Beck, Missing Persons, among many others) regarding trying to get paid for a Supertramp DVD mix from Universal Music.

"Some information for you to use however you see fit, whether that be with your friend or in your blog or not at all.

I am in the middle of a battle with the accounting department of Universal Music, which you might or might not know is now based in India. Yes, they've outsourced it. 

The battle started initially because of slow payment through their incredibly ridiculous Uniport payment website. That is nothing compared to what is now happening. Uniport is a supposed "secure" website and so there is a certain feeling of safety when one HAS to insert full bank details, routing and account numbers, the usual. BUT when they start to send out ones full banking information via completely unsecure email I get very worried. 

I have raised my concerns several times, the last to which I received the following: 

"Just would like to inform you, your below bank details are completely safe as we are care taker for your account and we did not mark any outside people. We did mark only Jack as he is your label (provide good and services for you). If payment got rejected then we need to inform to you and label as well." 

Of course this email once again contained all my banking information.

What has brought me to "spread the word" is that subsequent to my concerns, they are still sending emails containing my information, just not copying them to me. The fact that a major company like Universal would make you give them your most valuable information, if you want to get paid that is, and then float ones most private information for any cyber criminal to obtain and use should be brought into the open so they are forced to change this completely negligent, bordering on criminal, practise.

As I said, use it however you see fit. Quote me if necessary."

If anyone connected to UMG sees this and can help Ken, let me know.

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10 Resources For Booking Gigs Online

Here's a post from the great Hypebot blog regarding finding and booking gigs online that deserves a repeat. For just about every artist, playing in front of an audience is the ultimate reason why you get into music in the first place. Getting gigs has always been the toughest part of the job until you have an agent, which you never have when you're first starting out.

This post is attributed to Duncan Freeman (founder of Band Metrics and Indie Music Tech), provides a pretty good overview on the services available.

1. GigMasters (booking platform for artists and talent buyers)
2. GigMaven (free and easy-to-use booking website for musicians; currently available in NY, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, DC, Austin, Phoenix and Ohio)
3. Gigwish (influence venues, promoters and booking agents by enabling an artist's fans and their local music scene to vote for them)
4. G2.fm (an online booking community where bands and musicians connect with venues by sharing their music)
5. Live Music Machine (get booked anywhere for any type of live music event, as well as getting booked directly from MySpace)
6. MusiGigs (a private beta service that helps artists get booked by connecting venues directly to bands)
7. OnlineGigs (booking and promotional tool, and one of the largest detailed venue databases)
8. ReverbNation's Gig Finder (search over 100,000 venues and clubs, and locate those that have booked similar Artists)
9. Sonicbids (the largest and most successful online booking service for musicians, bands, managers, promoters, etc., as well as corporations and organizations looking to book artists)
10. SplitGigs (a new social web-app that helps emerging artists find other artists to exchange and share gigs with)

Artists may also find sites like Eventful, Meetup, Bandsintown and Songkick helpful for locating venues and artists to perform with.

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Mulve - The Music Industry's Worst Nightmare

As reported yesterday on Hypebot, a new program called Mulve allows free streaming of songs directly to a user's desktop quickly and easily. Since P2P isn't involved, this means that the user doesn't have to worry about uploading, viruses, or "getting caught." And since it's free, the price is right (at least for the user).

While this might be great for music consumers, it's potentially horrible for music creators and distributors. Getting music for free means, of course, that no one gets paid. An indie artist won't care if following in the Music 3.0 footsteps where music product is treated as marketing, but it cuts right at the core of  the income streams of publishers and record labels.

This isn't the first free streaming service and it probably wont be the last. Grooveshark is another service that does somewhat the same thing, as it searches the web for the title that your looking for, then provies a number of choices for you to play. Eventually the RIAA legal team is all over these services, so enjoy them while you can.

You don't have to register for Mulve, and only need to download a 2MB zip file that includes the installer itself and a text file regarding donations. Note that it's PC only at this time, so Mac heads still must use Grooveshark or, if you want to pay, iTunes.

Here is how the creators describe Mulve and themselves:

"Originating from computer adept backgrounds, two guys, both musicians, met one day. After a drink, it was final, they decided to start developing a program like no other, something that would allow people to find a tune they wanted, no slower than a click of a button.

Mulve, is just that program. After years of development we wanted to bring you something that you would enjoy loading up, something that was not for personal gain or for money. Something that could run flawlessly without so much as a momentary hiccup. Something that would prove to be a monumental breakthrough in terms of music discovery."

Mulve seems to be both amazingly simple to use and untrackable. Here's the official video demo:

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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.

My Appearance On AudioNowCast

I had the great pleasure of appearing on the excellent AudioNowCast, a bi-weekly podcast about all things audio and the music industry. The show is hosted by Mike Rodriguez and features industry vets Rob Arbittier, Scot Gershin, Andrew Shoeps and Gary Mraz in a lively roundtable discussion.

This is the 91st episode of the show, and much of it was focused on Music 3.0. You can listen to audioNowcast here, and take a look at their Facebook page here.

What Can Happen If You Don't Clear Your Samples

Copyright can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand it protects artists and makes sure they get paid for their work, and on another it can stifle creativity and suck a revenue stream dry. The latter is what happened to The Verve with their still much loved 1998 hit "Bittersweet Symphony."

It's hard to believe that Rolling Stone's Mick Jagger and Keith Richards get all the publishing income from that song, but that's what's happened. The reason why is that "Bittersweet Symphony" is closely based on the Stone's 1965 hit "The Last Time." Hard to believe if you know the song, I know, because I didn't hear it at first either.

"Bittersweet Symphony" is actually based on the Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra's (the Stone's original producer) version of the "The Last Time" (listen below) rather than the Stone's version. The Verve acknowledged this and actually got a license from Jagger/Richards to use a sample of the song, so they thought they were in the clear.

But when Bittersweet Symphony came out, the Stone's representatives were immediately on the phone saying, "We want 100 percent of the song, or take it out of the stores!" The reason was that The Verve didn't just use a sample, they lifted virtually the entire song and just put new lyrics to it.

This nastiness probably could've been avoided with some shrewd negotiation up front, but that era of the Stones catalog is represented by the notorious Allen Klein, who was one of the hardest and most hated negotiators in the business while he was alive. It seems sure that the exact use of the song wasn't revealed until after the song became a hit, and The Verve thought they were in the clear.

What can you learn from this? If you're going to use a sample, remember that there are 2 licenses that you must get - one from the publisher and another from the record label for the recording. And remember that the length of the sample may become an issue so specify how much of the song you're using in advance.

Below are 2 videos. One of "Bittersweet Symphony," and the second from the version of the song that the music was lifted. You'll be amazed how similar they are.

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Look What's Selling

Below is a chart of the top 50 albums from 2 weeks ago in terms of sales. It's interesting to see what's selling at the moment. There are about 10 "legacy artists" like Brian Wilson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Cyndi Lauper and Sting, the Glee Cast has 4 albums in the top 25, and teen sensation Justin Bieber is bringing up the rear at #50.

The music is decidedly white-bread, middle-of-the-road and heavily leaning towards Pop, but it tells you a couple of things:

1) Although the charts have always had their share of legacy acts, there seems to be more of them than in the past. That confirms that the people that are buying are an older demographic.

2) If you're not on a major label or large indie, you're probably not on the chart.

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Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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Music And The Cell Phone

The music industry places its hopes on two things; subscription music (which I've posted about a lot), and listening to music on the cell phone. Everyone has a cell phone now, with 234 million people using them in US alone (as of July), and that's users older than 13. It's assumed that a lot of music is being consumed on cell phones, but they're just not being used for that application as much as everyone thinks.

Here's a breakdown of activities on the cell phone (both smart and not-so-smartphones), according to a comScore study of users ages 13 and older during May and July.

66% sent a text message to another phone
33.6% used a mobile browser
31.4% used downloaded apps
22.3% played games
21.8% accessed a social networking site or blog

Only 14.5% listened to music on their mobile phone.

This will obviously grow in the coming years, but it may never be as large as the music industry hopes it will be.

One thing that everyone always forgets about cell phones (and smart phones in particular) is that it's a communication device first. People want to make calls and exchange texts first and foremost. Everything else is a happy addition.

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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.

Study Predicts Huge Music Industry Growth

Since it seems like I'm always the bearer of bad news, here's something that I hope will be a bit more upbeat. A new study by IE Market Research called the "Global Digital Music Forecast" predicts that music retail revenues will increase to $32.5 billion by the end of 2014.

Now considering that the global total music sales fell by by 7 percent last year to $17 billion, these seems a tad optimistic to me, but I don't write reports for Goldman Sachs either.

How did they come up with these numbers? It seems that there are now 832 million paid users of digital music worldwide, and the study says that number is expected to almost double to 1.555 billion in 2014. As a result, digital music revenues will increse from a current $4.82 billion to $21.3 billion at the end of 2014.

Where are these users coming from? Can it be that Chinese music lovers will suddenly honor international copyright law? Will all the P2P users suddenly get religion and buy a subscription instead?

It seems that subscription will lead the way on both online and mobile music channels according to the studio, although the number of music users downloading their music will also increase from 507 million in 2009 to over 1 billion in 2013.

Some other numbers from the study:

• There are now 105.4 million paid users of digital music in North America and that number is expected to grow to 227.2 million in 2014.
• Online music download users in North America will increase dramatically from 50.4 million in 2009 to 135.0 million in 2014.
• Digital music retail revenues in North America are expected to reach $11.86 billion in 2014.

While I think that all of these predictions are wildly optimistic, I do hope they come to pass. It can only lead to a much healthier music industry and a better lot for everyone involved in it.

You can read more about the the study here.

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How Location Apps Help Touring Bands

I read a great article by Jonathan Ostrow on Mashable called "10 Ways Touring Bands Can Leverage Location Apps." In it he discusses how geolocation services like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Facebook Places can be extremely helpful to any band on the road.

Here are a few of the items from the article that caught my eye.

1. Discover "Hidden Gem" Venues. Tap into your location network to unearth these hidden gem venues and reap all of the benefits that the local scene has to offer. If you find a great venue, be sure to leave a tip for your followers as well.


2. Get Venue Details Ahead Of Time. Location apps offer the perfect opportunity to test the waters and leave tips about bass boominess, the lack of sound check time, or how to get a particular audience really cranked up about a show. 

3. Sleep for Cheap. Use your network to discover and suggest the best deals in every the city — those comfortable, safe and cheap spots for a good night’s rest before the next gig.

4. Emergency Instrument Repair. Each potential store or repair shop has its own specialty, so use your network to quickly find the most recommended shops and get everything fixed before it’s time for the sound check.

5. Target You Audience. Before you book the gigs, use your network to learn which venues cater directly to your genre of music and your target audience. Which venues have paid off for other bands? Your geosocial connections should point the way.

6. Drum Up Local Support. Many businesses that support local artists may be willing to post a show flyer or let you perform outside or in the lobby. Each city or town has at least one hang-out with a supportive public that might be willing to endorse upcoming events.

8. Snag Good Cheap Food. By using a network of location-based tipsters, you can tap into that local knowledge and get fed better while on the road, without busting your budget.

9. Find Cheap Parking. There are many advertised parking lots that come at ridiculous prices, but city natives may know of some secrets — the parking space that a neighbor rents out for cheap, or an empty block that doesn’t charge. 

10. Find Auto Repair. Before you hit Google or the phone book, check your location networks for a recommendation.

There's somewhat of a backlash against geolocation services lately as some people DO NOT want others to know where they are, but I think that number is in the minority and decreasing every day. That being said, you can do some of the same things with Facebook if you have friends in the area that you're traveling, or Twitter if you know how to reach out or search.


Bottom line is that social networking apps have changed how musicians travel. Gone are the days when it was all too easy to be stuck in a town without the local knowledge to solve a problem (I have too many of those memories that I try to forget). We can all be thankful for that.

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Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.