Music And Games Make Friends Again

Music and games - what a great combination. Or that’s what seemed to be the case during the Guitar Hero/Rock Band days of a few years ago. At it’s peak, artists, bands, labels and songwriters saw an unexpected and, for a time, significant income stream that promised to hold up a flagging music industry for a little while, only to have it go the way most that trends do and die almost overnight. After a short fling with gaming, music had struck out.

But gaming insiders knew that the recent experience was only the tip of the iceberg and that music would someday experience a boom in gaming again, only in a different form. As Thom Kozik, then Vice-President of Online Gaming at Atari (and now COO of the Omnia Media multi channel network) forecasted in the second edition of my book Music 3.0: A Survival Guide For Making Music In The Internet Age:

“There was a model that showed up in a few games about a decade ago where the player was offered an option on the music. Because the licensing models were what they were at the time, that didn’t work as well as hoped. Now all these decisions about taste that you can express in an online game puts the control in the consumer’s hands instead of the game studio or publisher. We’ll see the return of the “choose your own soundtrack” model, with direct, immediate payment by the consumer at the time they hit play.”

That prediction looks like it may have come to pass thanks to the recent announcement of a new service by Valve Software called Steam Music, which allows gamers to listen to songs from their digital libraries on their computer while playing a game. Read more on Forbes.

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You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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A Look At Today's Digital Music Consumer

Today's digital music consumer looks a lot like yesterday's digital music consumer, according to a recent report by industry pundit Mark Mulligan's MIDiA Consulting. The infographic below points out a number interesting issues:

• Even after 10 years of paid digital music distribution, people still consume most of their music from radio and CD.

• Already, more people consume music from streaming sources than downloads.

• Music subscription is a force in the music business, but still only has 4% penetration.

The study goes on to show that 55% of digital music buyers and 45% of subscribers still purchase CDs monthly.

The study illustrates that the more things change, the more they stay the same. New technologies have made an impact on the music business and will always continue to do so, but the old technologies don't fade away as quickly as we might think.

Check out the entire report on the Music Industry Blog.

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Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

Last.fm Now Powered By YouTube

In what may be the first of more such alliances, digital music site Last.fm recently launched a radio service powered by YouTube streaming. What makes this significant though, is that it may be a way around the service paying music licensing, since the streams are being generated via YouTube.

Last.fm was one of the first digital services to provide personalized streams, and was growing along with the rest of the digital music space until purchased by CBS in 2007 (where have we heard that before?). Since then it has struggled for attention as both new and old competitors have moved ahead in public visibility.

The struggling service withdrew from most world markets last year except for the US, the UK and Germany in order to control licensing costs. The new deal with YouTube may make it possible to expand back into the markets it left without paying royalties, or at least that's the hope.

This could set a precedent that could prove to be quite unfavorable to artists, bands, songwriters, publishers and labels, and will no doubt be scrutinized by legal departments everywhere.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

3 Keys To YouTube Video SEO

When it comes to YouTube, you won't find a better vehicle online today for getting both your music and your message out there. Teens love it, and get most of their online music there, and it's the second most important engine for music discovery after radio. Still, most artists, bands and musicians don't know some of the keys in taking the greatest advantage of the network.

The YouTube chapter of my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book goes into great detail on the subject of YouTube channel and video SEO (as well as monetizing your videos so they become a new income stream), but we can break it down to 3 key points.

1. Title your videos properly. A haphazard video title is one that doesn't get searched. If it's a music video, be sure to include the name of the song and the name of the artist or band in the title. In fact, always include the name of the artist whenever possible. If it's a cover song, include the name of the original artist who did the song as well.

2. Don't skimp on the description. The more you add in the description, the more likely your video will come up during a search. Be sure to include the names of all the people in the video (as well as the director and producer) and what the video is about in detail. Also remember to include a link to your website at the end so people can get more information if they're interested.

3. Include the proper tags. The tags are important so make sure to spend enough time selecting them. Be sure that your name is one of them, as well as the mood of the song (if that's what you're posting), since many people search for "sad song" or "happy song." Not including a mood tag robs you of an important search element.

Follow these 3 simple rules and you'll find your video viewership will grow substantially as more people are able to find your videos when they search.

To read excerpts about YouTube and other social media from the Social Media Promotion For Musicians book, go to the excerpts section of bobbyowsinski.com

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

A Look Into The Music Business Crystal Ball

I've been interviewed a lot recently for publications and podcasts all over the world, and the latest one is on Music Business Facts, where Rodney Holder was kind enough to ask me to appear. Here's an excerpt from that interview (the full interview is on the site now) that looks into the crystal ball to show what I think the music business will be like in our near future.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

Top 10 Played More Than Ever Before

Many of us today think of music life centering around the online world, but that's far from the truth. The fact of the matter is that people still listen to the radio as much as they ever did, and it remains the top way for listeners to discover new music, beating YouTube (the online leader) by a large margin.

That said, the songs that reach the top 40 are played twice as much today than those ten years ago, according to Mediabase, a division of Clear Channel that tracks radio spins for all broadcasters.

For instance, last year's most played song was Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines," which aired 749,633 times in 180 markets. That comes out to 2,053 times a day on average.

In 2003 the top song was "When I'm Gone" by 3 Doors Down, which was played 443,160 times during the year, or 1,214 time per day on average.

One of the reasons is that there are a lot more Top 40 stations than there used to be, with about 70 new ones created in the last decade in place of more specialized stations that played rock and smooth jazz (which was once heralded as the next new thing in radio programming).

Even on the country stations, the trend is similar, with the top hit of last year, Darius Rucker's "Wagon Wheel" receiving 229,633 plays. In 2003, Lone Star's "My Front Porch Looking In" received 162,519 spins.

The upshot is that even though people still discover their music from radio, radio has a much tighter playlist overall. It seems to be a case where the 1% of the music industry is profiting more than ever, while the 99% has a harder road to travel yet again.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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 "Future Of The Music Business" Interview

Here's an interview that I did with my friend Slawek Blich regarding the future of the music business. If you read this blog frequently, you know that I'm very optimistic about where things are going, and this article points out why. The interview was originally for a Polish publication, but was also published in Forbes International, then AudioPro International.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

You're On Spotify, But Will You Be Played?

One of the problems with getting your music placed on any of the streaming services is that it doesn't guarantee that anyone will care enough to listen to them. In fact, that's one of the complaints about streaming services in general for an artist.

From a listener's point of view, it's just the opposite. There may be millions of songs available, but most of them amount to musical spam, with an abundance of alternate, cover and karaoke versions instead of the real hits that we're looking for.

Of course, even if your songs are the "official" versions and no one is interested in hearing them, that doesn't do you much good. In fact, according to a site called Forgotify, Spotify alone has over 4 million songs that have never been played, not even once!

Forgotify wants to change that though, as it specifically targets those under-appreciated songs for listening, and excludes the rest. The cool thing is that it's a way to get some plays that might not have happened otherwise, and maybe have your music discovered in the process. Visit Forgotify and have a listen to some tunes that nearly no one has heard before (the picks are random).

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

The Secret Technique To Engaging Your Fans Online

Many bands, artists, managers, record labels and anyone trying to reach and increase their fan base with Facebook and Twitter sometimes face a dilemma - great posts that don't receive enough action or engagement. The fact of the matter is that exciting your fans enough to take action from your posts is more a function of the way you post, rather than the fact that you're posting in the first place.

If there's a secret at all when it comes to attracting your fans enough to read something, and then getting them to act on it, it's this information from the Social Media Promotion For Musicians handbook.

Make sure that every post:

• Includes a photo. Posts with photos receive 39 percent more interaction than ones without. That said, posts with videos receive fewer likes and views, mostly because people don’t want to commit the time it takes to watch an entire video. That’s not to say that you should stay completely away from posting videos, just remember that in this case, less is more.

• Includes a link. Always include a link to additional information, pictures, video, mailing list, or your website. If you have someone’s attention enough for them to read your post, it’s likely they’ll take action even further if given the chance.

That’s said, the type of link that you include does make a difference. Using a long URL can get you three times the engagement on Facebook, mostly because people trust it more than one that’s been shortened. What’s the difference? Take a look:

Long URL:http://bobbyowsinski.blogspot.com 

Shortened URL:bit.ly/vjgIUQ or ow.ly/eMLi2

Shortened URLs work great for Twitter when the number of available characters is limited, but always use the longer one for Facebook.

Basically, a photo is what attracts your fans to read the post in the first place, and the link gets them to take further action. It's a known one-two punch that works and works well. Try it and see.

To read additional excerpts from Social Media Promotion For Musicians and my other books, go to the excerpts section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

The Hottest Social Network Today

If asked, most people would say that Facebook is the hottest social network on the planet today, and they'd be wrong. While it's true that FB has by far the most active users with more than a billion, the one celebrating the most rapid growth (with a whopping 23% in the fourth quarter of 2013 alone) is Instagram. But guess what? It's owned by Facebook, so by default, FB gets a boost as well.

Here's an infographic from research firm GlobalWebindex that shows the top 20 social platforms in terms of usage thanks to a recent study. I bet you won't recognize about a third of the names.

The study also shows that the vast majority of Instagram users are from 16 to 34 years of age (39% ages 16 -24), so if that's where your audience lies, then it's time to direct more marketing resources there.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

Can Twitter’s Big Data Influence The Music Business?

Twitter is a vast repository of all sorts of data on trends and users, but that data isn't always easy to delineate, even for Twitter. Now a new venture with former Warner Bros top exec Lyor Cohen's new 300 label intends to take advantage of the social network to discover new music trends and artists bubbling under the radar.

Under a joint agreement announced at the recent MIDEM conference in Cannes France, 300 (who’s name was derived from the movie of the same name) now gets to organize Twitter's music data, including some that's not available to the public, like location tags that shows from where tweets are sent. The company also plans to develop software around the information that might also be useful to musicians, record companies and publishing companies.

The venture is important for the Google backed 300 (Google is its largest investor), but it’s also important for Twitter as well. Just the fact that it’s accumulated a treasure trove of data over its seven years of existence isn't doing the company much good at moment, but having a partner make new use of it in one sector could give it ideas on how to repurpose other data specifically for other industries as well. Read more on Forbes.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.

No Talent? You Can Still Make Money On Spotify

For those who think that streaming services like Spotify can't be gamed, think again. A guy cranking out off-the-cuff improvised songs without a hint of production made $23,000 last year by thinking outside the box and providing titles just interesting enough to have lots of people click to listen.

In fact, Matt Farley has recorded more than 14,000 songs that have made their way onto Spotify and iTunes under a variety of names that range from The Toilet Bowl Singers to The Detroit Sports Band. The songs range from birthday songs (with different names in the title to get you to click on your birthday) to topical commentary about celebrities, musicians, politicians and anything else in the news. His Spotify playlist is 11 hours long!

Basically what Farley is doing is flooding the market with songs that trigger thousands of keywords. Do a search for a song using a keyword, and it's likely that one of his songs will pop up as well, and even more likely that you'll take a listen out of curiosity.

Farley records on some dated and inexpensive digital equipment, then snail mails a CD to CD Baby for digital distribution. He's done this approximately 500 times, which must be some kind of record for an individual artist. Obviously, production is not an issue here.

He's also discovered some rather obscure rules that most musicians and aggregators aren't aware of because they don't deal in the volume that Farley does. For instance, iTunes limits the number of songs on an album to 100, and most distributors will not take an album from a band that blatently posts its contact information on the cover.

This is so creative in its own way that you have to give the guy props. Sometimes ingenuity transcends talent. Read more about Matt Farley in this excellent article by Ryan Walsh.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook 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.