MUSIC INDUSTRY BLOG

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

In a post called “Don’t Confuse Technology with Marketing” published today on The Music Snob, I found the opening statement intriguing: “The use of music marketing technology is not in and of itself an act of music marketing.”  The post develops into an insightful, artist’s perspective on the plethora of web-based music marketing and networking solutions aimed at independent artists and promoters, and questions their claim – each service with its unique proposition – as “an act of marketing” by mere subscription to and execution of their service. The Music Snob highlights that the majority of these services provide a means for fans to find the artist and not visa versa.  For instance, if the artist is distributing his music to iTunes, he is certainly making his music available for purchase… but that’s not marketing, that’s plain old supply.  So how do you create demand?  By marketing.

One of the successful attributes of social networks is the balance of push and pull marketing.  In push marketing, you look for and find friends.  In pull marketing, friends look for and find you.  Popular folks enjoy more of the pull while the less socially apt have to push.  This is a tried and tested socio-ecosystem, online and off.  However, musicians and music listeners are, by definition, unequal.  There may be a cross over – musicians may also listen to and purchase music and music listeners may also write songs and play in band – but one is supplying and the other is consuming.  In a world where music is ubiquitous and available in limitless varieties, the marketplace is not in favour of the musician and, therefore,  he must actively market (push and push hard) to find music listeners to consume his music.  The advent of taste making music technology such as Pandora, iLike and Last.fm has made it easier for musicians to develop their presence online but that, I hope The Snob will agree, is far too passive to constitute a true marketing effort through technology which, first and foremost, caters to the consumer’s appetite for music (and not necessarily your music).

From my understanding, what this post suggests, at least in part, is that few artists manage to market themselves successfully, even with an array of revolutionary “marketing” tools, and, resultantly, the music industry’s bottom line pretty much remains the same: a handful of artists sell while the vast majority don’t, even if all of them have a presence on MySpace, Facebook, ReverbNation, Sellaband, OurStage, Music Nation, Sonicbids etc. etc.

Ethan Diamond, the brain behind OddPost, the web mail service acquired by Yahoo! and, more recently, founder of Bandcamp, dispatched a newsletter today announcing the band portal’s new feature-set and recent upgrades.  The free publishing platform boasts nifty and relevant tools for artists and band promoters to optimize their online presence and provide an uber-cool experience for fans and new comers.  Armed with features such as domain redirection to a unique domain name within the site, fan email capturing on transactions, and IP licensing control (courtesy of Creative Commons) associated with the variety of ways to transmit music files, Bandcamp is set to become a popular choice for the brand conscious and online promotion savvy music community.  In addition to Bandcamp’s visual bells and whistles and you-control-your-music ethos, the company focuses on pertinent music file meta-tagging and artist profile-specific search engine optimization for its individual members.  Did I mention that it’s free?  Bandcamp is really quite simple, down to earth, and rather wonderful.

Hello Operator, recent winners of Breaking the Band, were called a “newsmaker” in Macleans magazine, and listed as “one of 12 bands to watch out for” by Canoe.ca.  Their video for Chasing Satellites has been in regular rotation on Much Music and Much Loud since November 2007 and the band has been on “Much On Demand”, “Going Coastal” and “Much News”.  Hello Operator have appeared and performed on MTV Live, were showcased on E-Talk Daily and have toured with Faber Drive, Hilary Duff, Ill Scarlet, Switchfoot, Simple Plan, Hedley, Thornley, Loverboy, and many more.  The London Free Press called Hello Operator a “guaranteed breakthrough rock act” and now, after headlining club dates across Canada, more stadium shows with Duff, and several U.S. tours behind them, the band has just released a new 6-song EP, called The Breaks.  The new material offers escapist pop jangle tempered by a moody new-wave pulse. Not only is it a progression from the quirky Cars/ Costello vibe of the first Hello Operator EP (produced by Arnold Lanni), but is also the result of many hours spent in the studio, where Mike Condo and Evan Huson experimented with taking a new approach to their songs. The Breaks (co-produced by Mike Condo and
Dom Condo) shows the evolution of Hello Operator from Mike’s original work to collaboration between Mike, Evan and a full live band.  VIEW Magazine calls it “a mature, expansive set of fun, playful songs.”

Chasing Satellites

Surprisingly, the world’s most renowned indie artist retailer is experiencing growth in CD sales, of all sectors.  CD Baby, founded by Derek Sivers and recently acquired by Discmakers for $22 million, has reported significant uplifts in recent physical sales and titles: 2% increase in CD sales, and 7% increase in new album titles since 2007.  That’s good news but, more significantly, the company boasts a 45% increase in digital music distribution revenues during the same period which is a better reflection of where the music industry is at.  Overall, CD Baby has paid out $34 million to its artist members in 2008, a 28% increase from 2007.  Although these figures reflect the company’s revenue growth as opposed to the mean earnings of its members, considering the current financial climate, it’s promising data for the indie artists community too.

Today marks the launch of We Are Listening’s brand new site!  We have spent almost a year developing and implementing a facelift for the platform and backend features that will improve the overall user experience and song contest and lyric writing contest entry workflow.  Soon, every participant in our music competitions will have access to a backend dashboard with entry management and content security tools.  It’s all fairly straight forward stuff, really.  Although re-branded, We Are Listening’s commitment to world class opportunities, awards, and musician resources for indie artists and unsigned bands remains at the forefront of the company’s mission.

Next Big Sound, a site developed by four students at Northwestern University and described as a cross between MySpace and American Idol by The New York Times, has come to fruition last August as yet another platform for independent artists and fans to come together in a digital environment of discovery and competition.  Better described as another player in the realm of Sellaband and OurStage, The Next Big Sound looks great and promises adventure in role-play A&R for music fans and, with any luck, an opportunity for independent artists to raise their profile.

The site boasts 2000 “moguls” that have “signed” 9000 acts to date.  The business model surrounding the idea is not yet clear but, if it takes off, I imagine that there will be plenty of opportunities for the company, participating artists and, of course, moguls (music fans) to monetize a piece of the proverbial action.

Overplay, the independent artist platform for music promotion and discovery, announced today that they have given their website a facelift and added some exciting new interface features.  To celebrate this re-launch, Overplay are accepting free entries for their international song competition, “Play & Rate”, for which I have been a member of their song competition panel for some time now.

Since 2003, Overplay has been providing independent artists and fans with communication tools and promotional incentives with a one-stop-shop platform.  In addition to a variety of awards, sweeps and the “Play & Rate” international song competition, Overplay empowers fledgling artists to sell their digital assets and merchandise directly to their fanbase.

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.