Kyte, the San Francisco based company providing turn-key solutions for online and mobile digital content production, distribution and monetization, has announced the launch of custom iPhone and iPod Touch apps as a new means for music fans to access their favourite artists’ music, videos, news, and exclusive content. In a separate affair, 90’s rock group, Presidents of the United States of America, who made a name for themselves with “Lump” and “Peaches”, have just released their own iPhone app along the same lines. For $2.99, fans can stream the band’s entire catalogue over a Wi-Fi or cellular connection, as well as gain access to exclusive content and previously unreleased music. This is exciting music industry news! iPhone apps are hugely popular and provide an unparalleled platform for artists to access their audience and visa versa. It won’t be long before we see more and more artists, from megstars to indies, harnessing this technology to promote themselves, monetize their catalogue, and upsell associated initiatives and assets such as concert tickets and merchandise.
Philadelphia group, Officer Roseland, has taken the “free download” marketing strategy [flawlessly executed by Trent Reznor] a step further. As part of their marketing campaign for their fourth album release, “Stimulus Package”, the band is offering to pay $1 to every person who downloads the album. Each user has the option of “taking” the dollar or “giving” it to the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation. I entered my name and PayPal details to “take” the dollar on www.mystimuluspackage.org, opted-in for the band’s newsletter (by default), and received an email with a link to download the album. I am now waiting to receive my dollar…
Audiolife is an LA-based artist services company founded in 2005 by three USC graduates. Their mission is “to create a middle-class in the music industry by giving all artists simple tools to generate revenue so they can spend time on what they love and do best – make music!”. Currently in public beta, the company announced this week that it will be accepting submissions for its “Artist Advancement Scholarship”, an initiative geared toward college level music school students, artists and otherwise, in pursuit of a professional career in the music industry. Don’t let the inclusion of the word “scholarship” fool you though; this is a writing exercise where $500 cash is on the table for one winner, not a scholarship application to potentially finance your future academic studies. I imagine that Audiolife is seeking to achieve two things with this campaign, the first is to establish the company’s perceived value and, the second, to draw more users to learn about their offering by writing competitively about it. Personally, I would prefer to reward the best ten applications with $50 each and use their essays as original content on the site to raise Audiolife’s natural search ranking…
Applications must be received no later than 11:59 p.m. PST on April 1, 2009, in the form of an essay addressing the question, “How do you see Audiolife affecting the music industry in the next two or three years?”, in 1000 words or less. Students in any accredited academic university or music institution enrolled at least part-time during the 2009 academic school year are eligible. A winner will be selected by Audiolife’s management team and announced by April 20th, 2009. Essays should be emailed to Travis Dean at travis[at]audiolife.com
Starting at approximately $1000, emusu provides a turn-key solution for managing and selling your digital assets from your own domain, as opposed to distributing to third-party ecommerce websites or via social network applications. The system is entirely web-based and the company is sinking its teeth into the music industry. Ouch.
The service allows its customers to create custom web pages from a series of handy templates and enable fans to buy directly from the source or incorporate its technology into an existing site geared for music retail.
The fact is that most artists simply don’t sell. In fact, most labels don’t sell a volume of any note. As such, even if the service was free, managing your own music sales is not too far up your priority list unless you’re shifting so many units that iTunes’ commission significantly diminishes your bottom line. Furthermore, if MySpace, boasting approximately three million *active* musician users can’t make Snocap work on exclusive terms, how is emusu going to convince prospective clients that they can sell – and sell more – on their own?
At a time where the industry is shifting away from record sales and toward ticketing, merchandising, bundling, licensing, sponsorship, and advertising, emusu is a surprising entry into the space. Selling recorded music is no longer the end game but rather the marketing collateral to sell something else. The infamous 360 deal is a tribute to this strategy and Live Nation is a testament to its success. Starbucks too.
However, if emusu can leverage its platform to forward thinking megastars such as Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails, both of which ’sold’ direct-to-the-fan, they may have a lucrative client. Or two.
This is an exciting time for the music industry and its emerging artists. Although there is still some confusion as to how music should be consumed online, it is evident that the systems available to both the artist and the consumer are challenging the traditional practice of the music industry, specifically the record industry. The internet has empowered artists with user-friendly applications for self promotion and sales. Resultantly, consumers can reach artists directly and visa versa. This relationship allows the artist to take control of his business. For instance, performing artists and songwriters can now choose to make their songs available online on a specific date for a specific period of time, set the price, provide discounts or even share them for free, all which are decisions typically taken by the record label. Not anymore, for the most part.
In today’s music industry, the potential for you to develop a direct and intimate relationship with your audience is far greater than ever before. By nurturing a relationship with your fanbase, you are in fact learning about their wants and needs, likes and dislikes and, of course, how to increase your appeal. Consider the value of truly ‘knowing’ your audience, no matter how big you’re fortunate enough to become.
Although the record industry has taken a massive beating and will probably continue to, the music industry is fit and healthy and beginning to embrace a prosperous new dawn.
The record industry, worth approximately $31 billion globally in 2006, is a large slice of the much broader and more than three times larger ‘music industry‘, worth more than $130 billion. With record sales dipping and alternative revenue streams coming into significant play, a broader view of the music business, namely the live, gaming and film/television licensing, and publishing sectors, is warranted for budding professionals. In spite of the bad rep, the record industry remains to be one of the most creatively oriented sectors in media with 20% of its revenues invested in the acquisition and development of new talent. This is a staggering figure for R&D investment in intellectual property. Although this investment is still being recouped from record sales, revenue goldmines are being discovered in other media sectors which are increasingly more prominent than the traditional retail sources. Recorded music has become a key influencer in the mobile industry and a pivotal consumer offering in $100 billion worth of broadband subscriptions in 2006. The live performance sector is growing rapidly and its promising, future effect on music merchandising and sponsorship remains to be seen.
While the record industry appears to be an exclusive club, every artist recording and, in one form or another, publishing music is, in fact, a part of it. As music converges with other media, so does the record industry with other industries. As such, as more and more artists produce and publish great new music, more opportunities arise for monetizing their copyright without the dependency on actual record sales.
The much-talked-about 360 music deals give labels the traditional percentage of CD and MP3 sales in addition to a cut of ticketing, merchandise, licensing, publishing, and sponsorship opportunities.
In the Web 2.0 Summit, Warner Music Group CEO, Edgar Bronfman, outlined that new artists will have to sign 360 contracts, and that about a third of their signed artists are under such contracts already.
Bronfman expressed that it’s is no longer feasible to pour money into artists when CD sales continue to diminish. Without a stake in the other aspects of an artist’s career, WMG will simply avoid going to market altogether.
CDbaby has been selling CDs online for the last ten years on behaf of approximately 250,000 independent artists, accounting for 4.5 million CDs and $83 million in sales revenues distributed to its clients.
MP3 metadata contains a large amount of searchable information, including the basics of a song: song title, artist name, and album title and artwork. Some artists take the time to include discography and biography details, as well as liner notes, lyrics, images, and anything that allows the digital file to be found, catalogued and, most importantly, relevant and a source of added value to the consumer. The successful distribution of digital files largely depends on the manner in which they are tagged.
Philadelphia group, Officer Roseland, has taken the “free download” marketing strategy [flawlessly executed by 
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