“Quit your day job. Start a label.” has to be the stupidest blog post I ever published. And yet, it’s the second most visited post on this blog.
(For your information, “Katy Perry” is the most popular post on this blog but that’s just because Google picked up on the image tag so when Katy Perry fans (of which there are many) search for Kary Perry images, my blog shows up. There’s no value in it for me whatsoever. I’m confident that zero Katy Perry fans care about this blog.)
But with “Quit your day job. Start a label.“, there’s no fabricated traffic. It’s all real visitors searching for authoritative content which, to my disgrace, leads them to the worst post on this site.
A Webware 100 Winner, Grooveshark allows its users to stream music for free from an aggregate selection of 15 million tracks. No download or registration required. The service is supported by online advertising or through a $3/month premium plan which eliminates the ads.
Developed by a group of music enthusiasts from the University of Florida, Grooveshark boasts one million registered users to date.
Labels aren’t doing very well at the moment. In fact, they’re darn right horizontal on their deathbeds.
People don’t want to pay for music anymore.
Children are being sued for copyright infringement.
Every digital music startup in the last three years has flopped.
It’s grim.
Yet there’s never been a better time to start a label.
Go ahead, sign a few acts – no one else will.
Nobody expects an advance or a fat tour bus. It’s budget airlines all the way.
Invest in talent while it’s cheap and ubiquitous.
Don’t know how to do it? Plenty of executives out of the job. Go talk to one.
Four tips to get you started:
1. Quit your day job. Nobody will take you seriously if you’re doing something else 9 to 5.
2. Stick with what you know. If you lack people skills, avoid public relations. Focus on your strengths and, when you can, develop or outsource your weaknesses.
3. You’re in business. Act that way. Get organized. Lots of stupid people own hugely successful businesses. You too can create a successful business.
4. Pick great acts. Treat them well. Work hard for them and they will show you returns.
Music is a safe bet. There will always be money in it.
Peter Kafka of All Things Digital, part of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, confirms that one of my favourite music sites and Webware 100 Winner, Grooveshark, is being sued by EMI. Here is Grooveshark’s statement sourced from Peter’s post:
“For the past year, Grooveshark has been in talks with EMI Records and other copyright holders to negotiate licensing agreements for the use of their content. We are pleased to announce that over the past few months Grooveshark successfully concluded mutually bene?cial agreements with many artists, labels, and publishers that we hope to be a template for other such agreements with additional copyright holders.
Recently, EMI Records chose to abandon the template we’ve built with the help of other major copyright holders and opted for their traditional intimidation tactic of ?ling a lawsuit as a negotiating tool. We ?nd the use of this negotiating strategy counterproductive, as Grooveshark has been willing to conclude an agreement with EMI Records that is economically sustainable for both EMI Records and a start-up company the size of Grooveshark.
Grooveshark is run by a group of young and passionate musicians. We love music, we make music, and we believe that the use of all music should be paid for. We adopted this core philosophy at our inception and to date have concluded agreements with hundreds of record labels, major US performance rights organizations, and thousands of independent artists who support Grooveshark’s business model. (See: Grooveshark Artists)
As musicians, we support the rights of copyright holders and strive to sign sustainable agreements with all content owners, ensuring that all artists get paid– or we agree to remove content from our system in accordance with our DMCA Takedown Policy. We hope that EMI Records eventually follows the lead of the many forward-thinking labels we are already working with, who would rather get their artists exposure and a fair share of our revenue than block content access and force customers to illegal networks.
We understand that the economy of the digital music business is in a state of ?ux, and we hope to help ease this transition by providing the required new tools and services that lead to the next generation of the music industry. We respect the ownership rights of the major labels and publishers, and our core mission has always been to compete with piracy by offering a service that is genuinely better than what illegal networks offer, while also ensuring fair payment to copyright holders. Our next important step on our road to success is to conclude a mutually bene?cial agreement with EMI Records that is sustainable for both EMI and Grooveshark.”
EMI began sending out invitations for EMI.com subscribers last Friday to try an extension of the label’s website at YourSoundCheck.com. The platform, which I have not yet been able to preview for some reason, acts as a crowd sourced research initiative for EMI to learn about its consumers’ musical opinions and desires. More on this if and when I gain access.
Universal Music Group International and its joint venture company, All The Worlds, are hitting the track by joining forces with Formula One Administration Ltd. to create F1 ROCKS, a new global entertainment initiative. F1 ROCKS will combine racing’s most glamorous and spectacular sporting event with A-list stars at international F1 racing locations.
“The partnership between the world’s most thrilling sport and the world’s biggest music company is one of the most exciting entertainment initiatives to be launched anywhere. The combination of music, megastars and motor sport will create a groundbreaking, all-new entertainment spectacular, channelled through the multiple platforms open to our two global brands.” — Lucian Grainge, Chairman/CEO, Universal Music Group International
Music search engine, SeeqPod, that has already indexed (but not stored) 12 million songs, has been handed a formal complaint from EMI following a lawsuit from Warner last year. Unlike Pandora and Imeem, the company has not pursued licenses to provide “playable search results” maintaining that they are not responsible for content sources and, therefore, free from any obligation to the copyright holder. Legally questionable, Seeqpod has become very successful and the two major labels are probably going after it to settle on a mutual business model rather than to shut it down. The news prompted me to play with the system a little and I enjoyed learning about their artist-centric advertising progamme that’s highly targeted and cost competitive. Providing 5000 “exposures” (i.e. impressions) a month for $19.95, SeeqPod Echo is a nicely put together search-oriented advertising interface which may very well generate some relevant traffic for artists and music promoters who wish to tap into SeeqPod’s massive music listening community. I’m curious to learn how the conversion rates stack up.
Further to my piece on Don Ross earlier this week, I wanted to add another post about one of his fellow CandyRat Records artists who really caught my attention last night with his original composition, “Catching the Light”.
Dufour has lots of video performances on YouTube, equally as stylistically impressive and melodically driven. As one of Canada’s emerging young stars of acoustic fingerstyle guitar, he is building a strong fanbase and reputation as an awe-inspiring live performer and innovator of the solo acoustic guitar style driven by him and his CandyRat peers, many of whom are also prominent YouTube stars.
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