MUSIC INDUSTRY BLOG

Three months ago, we launched the Song Contest and Critique Status Manager.

For the first time, when you entered one of our song contests or purchased a song critique, you had total control over your entry and insight into the review process.

No other song contest provides this kind of data, security and functionality to view, edit and store your most valuable assets: your songs.

Now, I want to take things one step further.  And I need your help.

When you receive your Final Status (i.e. Winner, Finalist, Runner Up, Not Selected), I want to include a Score Card.

At the moment, we don’t have a standardized method for “scoring” entries.  I want to change that.

What are the individual elements of a song that you think we should score?

Leave a comment

Owning a Gibson guitar is like owning a BMW.

It’s a statement.

For BMW, the “German Engineering” stamp is impervious to Lexus.

For Gibson, “Made In The USA” is just as sacred.

It takes decades to establish the reputation that Gibson has achieved.

Yet only minutes to flush it down the toilet.

Gibson, like many heritage brands, engaged itself with a young spunky marketing consultant that dazzled its management team with social media catchwords like “viral”, “buzz” and “tweet”.

How the conversation went down:

Spunky Consultant:  “You’re doing everything wrong.  Everything!”

Gibson Management:  “We are?  Sales are up.  Overhead is down.  What do you mean?”

Spunky Consultant:  “Sales Shmales.  It’s not about the money, it’s about your brand equity!”

Gibson Management:  “Sales Shmales?”

Spunky Consultant:  “You want to connect with your fans, engage with your customers and create a conversation around you, see?”

Gibson Management:  “Will that increase sales?”

Spunky Consultant:  “Forget sales already.  I’m going to get you buzz.  You do want buzz, don’t you?”

Gibson Management:  “Does buzz increase sales?”

Spunky Consultant:  “Look, do you want followers or not?”

Gibson Management:  “I… guess… that… we… do…”

Spunky Consultant:  “Great!  Make the check out to…”

So what happened the next day?

Gibson launched a new website that displays each of its exquisite instruments in the light that they deserve.  Best of all, on every page of the website, beneath the featured instrument, they included threaded comments (like on YouTube) where visitors can comment on the featured guitar and the community can vote the comment up or down.

This is spunky, dynamic, web 2.0-ish online social media marketing at its finest!

Except for one thing…

The most popular comments, those that received the largest number of votes, make Gibson look like a Buick, not a luxury premium.

One comment in particular, truly struck a chord with me.  Here it is at No. 1 with 452 votes for the Gibson Les Paul Dusk Tiger:

I can see the salesmen at Guitar Center now: Salesman: “Hey man check out the new Gibson Dusk Tiger! It’s got all of these amazing features!” Customer: “It looks kinda stupid.” Salesman: “Yeah but it tunes itself! You can dial in any tone you want on this baby!” Customer: “Can you dial in a less stupid looking finish? My band will laugh at me if I turn up to a gig with that thing” Salesman: “It only comes in the one color, but it’s LIMITED EDITION! There’s only gonna be 1000 of these made!” Customer: “I think it’s a limited edition because there’s a limited market for these things. Even then I doubt that there are enough guys out there wearing the leather pants, wolf t-shirt and eye makeup necessary to look as stupid as this guitar. And those guys usually don’t have $4000 to waste on what is basically a gimmicky Les Paul dressed as a gay tiger, so you’re going to have a hard time selling these, aren’t you?” Salesman: “Like you would not believe”

Where do you think Gibson went wrong with its online marketing strategy?

Leave me your thoughts please.

The USA Songwriting Competition announced yesterday the launch of their 15th annual song contest.

In the email announcement and on their blog, they celebrated a decade of success stories by their song contest winners.

Among the Top 10 USA Songwriting Winners Of The Decade, the likes of Kate Voegele, Ari Gold and Darrel Scott were mentioned.  I’ve never heard of them either but check this out:

Kate Voegele (2005 song contest winner) appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien performing her song “99 Times”, a Billboard Adult Top 40 Hit, peaking at #24.  Her album, “A Fine Mess”, was released on Interscope/MySpace records and made the Top 10 on The Billboard 200 Albums Chart.

Ari Gold (2007 song contest winner) hit #10 on the Billboard Charts and #1 on Sirius OutQ with his winning entry.

Darrell Scott (2005 song contest winner) pitched his song and got it cut by Faith Hill in 2006.  Wow!

Do you think these artists would have achieved such success had they not entered The USA Songwriting Competition?

Leave your comment

After more than 40 years in the business, German rock sensation The Scorpions have announced their retirement.

With timeless classics such as “Wind Of Change” and “Rock You Like A Hurricane”, The Scorpions have been selling out arenas for longer than I’ve been alive.

Tell me this: How did such a shit rock band make it so big and for so long?

With a tenure just shy of The Rolling Stones’ and a decade lead on U2, it’s clearly not a fluke.

What’s their secret sauce and where can I get me some?

According to many songwriters, song contests are inherently deceptive.

They are designed to raise expectations in order to collect high submission fees while buffering the disappointment of losing with months of anticipation of the results.

The individuals that run them are masters of persuasion.  If we weren’t, our song contests would buckle under the popular consensus that song contests should be free or, at least, much cheaper.

So how persuasive, even manipulative am I?

According to the “Q Test” which I discovered in an article published by the Guardian, not very.

Try the Q Test for yourself:

Using the first finger of your dominant hand, draw a capital letter Q on your forehead.

Some people draw the letter Q in such a way that they themselves can read it.  That is, they place the tail of the Q on the right-hand side of their forehead.  Other people draw the letter in a way that can be read by someone facing them, with the tail of the Q on the left side of their forehead.

This quick test provides a rough measure of a concept known as “self-monitoring”.  High self-monitors tend to draw the letter Q in a way in which it could be seen by someone facing them.  Low self-monitors tend to draw the letter Q in a way in which it could be read by themselves.

High self-monitors tend to be concerned with how other people see them.  They are happy being the centre of attention, can easily adapt their behaviour to suit the situation in which they find themselves, and are skilled at manipulating the way in which others see them.  As a result, they tend to be good at lying.

In contrast, low self-monitors come across as being the “same person” in different situations.  Their behaviour is guided more by their inner feelings and values, and they are less aware of their impact on those around them.  They also tend to lie less in life, and so not be so skilled at deceit.

Which one are you?

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8 Reasons Not To Enter A Song Contest

10 Most Popular Song Contests

7 Reasons To Enter A Song Contest

10 Reasons To Enter A Song Contest Again

Free Song Contest

Community Funded Song Contest

The Truth About Our Song Contest

4 Qualified Song Contest Perspectives

Can You Handle The Truth?

Several months ago, I was interviewed for an article in Berklee Today, the Berklee College of Music magazine.

The piece, titled Healthy Competitions, studies the many perspectives on song contests and their changing role as the business of songwriting has evolved and become ever more competitive over the years.

I thought I would share some of these perspectives with you by publishing four quotes from the article which you can read in its entirety here.

“Aspiring songwriters get in trouble when they start looking for the quickest way to achieve their musical goals in the shortest amount of time by doing the least amount of work,” says singer/songwriter Dave Petrelli, the director of events for the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI).  “Less-than-legitimate song contests can take advantage of that by promising really unrealistic things.”

“I’m sure that winning a songwriting contest is a positive event, even if it’s only to boost the prestige or stroke the ego of the winner,” Songwriting Department Chair at Berklee, Jack Perricone says.  “Because more than money, songwriters need to have their songs acknowledged and to be given hope that they are not writing in a vacuum.”

“We have a proven track record in past years of winners going on to get signed to music publishing contracts, record contracts, and hit the charts,” says Eddie Phoon, the event director for the USA Songwriting Competition.  “Kate Voegele got her start by winning first prize at the 2005 USA Songwriting Competition in the Pop category; the record labels took notice.  We even placed her at our showcase at South by Southwest, where she was signed after the show by Interscope.”

Emily Shackelton entered the John Lennon/BMI Foundation scholarship competition and won, despite doubt that her song would even get listened to.  “I was definitely proven wrong,” Shackelton says.  And the win has really made a difference.  When Shackelton moved to Nashville, BMI set her up with a rep that landed her a publishing deal.  Additionally, last year she placed as a runner-up in the American Idol songwriting contest, and subsequently crowned idol David Cooke sang her song on TV, resulting in nearly 200,000 iTunes downloads and a number 15 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 charts.

What’s your take on this?

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I attended the NAMM show today in Anaheim.  It’s the largest industry event that I know of.

Walking from the car park to the convention center, I heard a familiar melody echoing in the distance.  As I approached, it hit me that the song I was hearing was being performed live, on stage, in front of the entrance, by one of our very own song contest winners: Michael Logen.

Michael Logen is a two-time We Are Listening song contest winner; in 2005 and 2006.  Only one other artist has won our song contest twice.  He’s an immensely talented artist and an awesome human being.

After his 45min set, we had lunch together.

Three years ago, Michael was going through a rough patch professionally.  In the last year, though, his luck changed.  He has been writing and touring with Jonny Lang and Matt Kearney, both of whom have become close friends of his.  He has a number of cuts on their records and recently became a free agent.  Consequently, several major publishers, labels and managers are courting him now.  Things couldn’t be better.

Running into Michael was my favorite part of the day.

When I returned to Santa Monica where I’m staying for the rest of the week, I was struck by something he mentioned over lunch:

Lior, most artists don’t realize how long it takes.  I’ve been doing this for quite a while and it never occurred to me to quit.  I stuck to my plan.  That’s the difference.

A plan.  Now that sounds like a good thing to have!

What is your plan?

Have you got what it takes to stick to it?

Leave me your comments.

I spend the first hour of my working day sifting through email.

I read important email immediately.  Save low priority missives for later.  Flag and filter various blog subscriptions.  Delete the rest.

A large percentage of the daily email that I receive is from budding songwriters.  Those, I don’t delete and endeavor to respond to within a few days.

Typically, I will read:

Hey! Found your website.  Looks cool.  Just got out of the studio with a great new song.  My best ever man.  Here is the link…… please tell me what you think.  I’m looking for a manager.  Thx.

So I click and listen.

In my reply, I highlight strengths and weaknesses.  If I can, I offer a tip or two.  My response rarely exceeds two or three lines.  On rare occasions, I will make an intro to a manager, promoter or label.

From time to time, I click and hear the kind of dribble that belongs on Pop Idol outtakes.

I work hard to identify strengths but there are none.  Each note is more painful than its predecessor, working their way down my spine until a lumbar vertabra pops in unison with my speakers.  Ouch.

Sometimes, it really is that dreadful.

Should I refrain from responding if I don’t have anything nice to say?

Should I be truthful?

What if the awful artist I’m describing is you?

How would you expect me to respond? How would you respond?

p.s. I wish to credit Mandy Mercier for inspiring the title and theme of this post with her comment on The Truth About Our Song Contest.

I recently sent out a newsletter under the headline Song Contests Are A Scam.

It was a big success.

Its open rate was higher than any other newsletter I have ever sent.

But it was a major flop too.  Its unsubscribe rate was higher than ever before.  I lost many readers forever.  I received a lot of angry replies.

I wrote “Song Contests Are A Scam” to convince you otherwise.  I included social proof and listed benefits.

To be honest, I don’t know about other song contests but ours is the real deal.  And that’s the truth.

So where do you think I went wrong?

Please let me know.