10 Predictions for Radio's Next 5 Years

Do you remember the scene in the 1951 classic A Christmas Carol, when the Ghost of Christmas Present tells Ebenezer Scrooge that, while he sees Tiny Tim’s chair empty in a corner, “these are visions of things which maybe, not things which will be.”

Here are ten predictions for Radio’s next few years - visions of things which maybe.

1. Radio will recognize that to be more attractive than other sound-alike alternatives - to retain more of its existing audience – it must count on more than habit, convenience, familiarity, ease of use, and the often-proclaimed almost-universal reach of the medium, since all those advantages are transitory. 

2. The advantage of “local” will diminish in direct proportion to the disappearance of local content on stations - and here I’m talking about the local content between the songs (the very stuff that makes the PPM meters tank). 

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What successful Internet marketers know and what musician marketers don't

Most Internet marketers make money online, most musician marketers don’t.

The Backstory – The Big Seminar
My journey into the world of Internet marketing, began when I attended an Internet marketing conference and saw one of the keynote speakers. Armand is a bubbly and enthusiastic man from South Carolina; he makes a fortune in the world of internet marketing, and he not only markets things that help him make money, he teaches people how to do it themselves.

Armand is also a musician and his alter ego is Micheal Lee Austin. When I saw him speak, he walked us through how he took took himself to the top of the Billboard charts using his own online marketing strategy. He sold thousands of CD’s using his own techniques. I was so intrigued I wanted to learn how he did it, so I signed up to study with him via a series of online courses and they came with a ticket to his “Big seminar” in Atlanta.

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Sell More Cds at Shows By Not Naming the Price

I recently posted about discovering a wonderful band called Arizona. I found them while attending PopAsheville in January and I wrote - “I was invited to give the keynote speech this year. I spent an hour reminding the musicians in attendance that they are no longer in the music business, they are in the T-shirt business and they all seemed to agree. They also agreed that the music industry is not hurting, it’s the cd business that is in decline.” The whole post is here.

I am not being facetious when I say that bands are in the T-shirt business as I believe very strongly that as music slips down to zero in dollar value then artists must move quickly to find different ways to make money from their art.

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practicing with limitations

practicing with limitations

I see many musicians (especially young ones) getting frustrated with practicing. there are two main reasons for this.

for one, musicians are overwhelmed by the many possibilities and the number of materials to study. they ask “what should I practice?”, they don’t see the wood for the trees.

others complain about not having enough time to really practice deeply because they have a huge load of responsibilities everyday and at night they’re too tired to focus.

“what” and “when” are the most commonly asked questions.

this post is about the “what” but it will also help to get the “when” under control. (I’ll post a seperate article about the “when” later)

practicing is actually very simple if you follow one simple principle.

keep it simple by applying limitations!

I spent 8 years studying music at conservatories in germany, the netherlands and the usa. I’ve gotten so much advise from teachers, musicians, friends and audiences, I still wouldn’t know where to start hadn’t I come up with a solution. it’s a simple solution, too.

limitation!

limitaion leads to simplicity.

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MIDEM Conference Video Interviews

Last month, (January 2009), I went to the MIDEM Conference in France. The largest music business conference in Europe.

I went two years ago and didn’t like it, because it was just a lot of suits talking to suits. Very old-boy network. But, like I did with PopKomm, I tried to be the eyes and ears of my musician clients, bringing my video camera around to every company that was exhibiting there, and asking them questions from a musician’s point of view.

So, here are the edited videos from 13 companies that seemed worth talking to - and the URL for each.

Whether they can help you directly or not is up to you, but I hope you find it interesting, either way.

If you are a self-promoting musician, I don’t recommend attending MIDEM. It’s better than it used to be, and is worth it for bigger companies to attend, but still not an ideal use of your money and time.

For a more objective overview of what went on at MIDEM 2009, read this write-up by my buddy Hal Bringman.

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Artist Path to Market Post #2: Navigating the Hype Machine

[This is the second in my series of posts about the artist-to-fan relationship]

Ah the one hit wonder. It’s a music industry staple isn’t it? Great one-off hits have lit up the charts for as long as the charts have existed, cultivating a love-hate relationship with the public. Everyone should have a personal favourite.

Mine is ‘I Am The Beat’ by The Look, which sadly, reveals mostly nothing much but my age. It charted in the UK at number 6 in 1980 and had nice shades of The Jam and XTC. And wonder of wonders, a quick Google entry, and it is right there on YouTube. An amazing 39,152 (and steadily rising!) views, reassures me that I am not alone. It’s had 4,426 plays on Last.fm (slowly rising) and was re-released as a download in May 2006. The miracle of the internet - it has opened up a world of discovery and fun for nostalgia fans at least.

Of course, no serious artist wants to be a one hit wonder, quite the opposite. Even if artists don’t seek fame, fortune, adoration & idolation, at the very least, they might quite like to have, well, a sustainable career. But with the traditional ‘Route 1’ to market – i.e. signing a label deal – undergoing something of a re-appraisal, do digital channels open up a genuine new route to a sustainable career for artists? Yes and no, too early to tell.

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Real in-store CD distribution: still working for anybody?

A musician emailed me today, asking my advice on choosing a physical distributor. He was considering paying big money to one company who promised to get it on the shelves of record stores, or another who would take a big cut, or using CD Baby’s in-store distribution (http://cdbaby.net/instore)

Here’s my advice to him.  Feel free to critique it.  I’m curious to hear any replies from people who have had success with real in-store distribution recently.

The big question is:

How many people are going into physical stores (shopping malls, etc) - looking for your CD - and are unable to buy it?

Are those people truly unable to buy your CD, and give up before looking online?

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How to Set and Reach Your Music Goals

The fifth term of my “Music Marketing 101” class at Berkleemusic.com recently wrapped up. The twelfth and final assignment asks students to create a 12-month marketing plan they can use in the real world.

Most students do a great job with it. But it amazes me how many include goals such as:

”Book a lot more live shows.”
or
”Sell a buttload of CDs and music downloads.”

Hmm …

Let me ask you: Exactly how many is a “buttload”? How do you know when you have arrived at buttload status? And how much is “more”?

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Music artists your route to market is as easy as A, B, C...

“For all it may be a workable and pragmatic model, a teenager miming with a tennis racket in front of the mirror is hardly dreaming about running a small business with low overheads and low expectations”.

Alexis Petridis, The Guardian, from “This song was brought to you by…” April 2008.

It’s never been easy for pop musicians who are not yet popular. A few years back, a friend of mine delightedly, excitedly told me his mate’s band (UK indie hopeful’s Vega 4) had at last been signed by a label in the US - a major in fact, Capitol. What did I think about that? My response was inevitably, rather muted. “Do let him know when you congratulate him that his chances of a sustainable career in the music industry have just improved, to roughly 1%”.

Since I was The King of Music Industry Stats at the time, he couldn’t really argue. The percentage I quoted was the appropriate one – the chances of releasing a record and going to Gold sales, and therefore, being in with a shout of getting a second album with real momentum behind it. It didn’t happen for Vega 4, even though the band was unusually fortunate to get a second bite of the cherry when they signed in the UK with Columbia 18 months later. They sunk with barely a trace.

That was back in 2005/6. Fast forward just a few years, and the music industry landscape for a new band has become even more crowded, competitive and complex. With an increasing groundswell against the idea of signing with a label (at least in the traditional sense) - but a rapidly fragmenting media landscape making any other route look bewildering - what exactly is the best route to market for a new artists these days?

Two HUGE questions face you:

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Inspiring quotes about making music

Do you have some quotes that inspire you, as you make your own music?

I’ve always loved those little thoughts that would inspire me to dig deeper in my songwriting, try new sounds in the studio, or listen to music in a new way.

A few years ago, I collected these quotes into a simple website:

http://musicthoughts.com

It’s there for two reasons:

1. inspire other musicians (you!)
2. collect other thoughts about music

I think you’ll love this new update: I hired professional translators to translate MusicThoughts into nine languages: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Japanese, and Chinese.

Look again, and play with the language bar across the top: http://musicthoughts.com

If you are fluent in any of these languages, please notice that below every translated quote is a link that says, “Can you improve this translation?” Example, here: http://musicthoughts.com/t/546/pt

If you can’t see the Asian fonts, this link will tell you how to fix that: http://tinyurl.com/2kzezd.

After browsing around the site for a while, if you’ve got a favorite quote that inspires your music-making, please add it to the site. I’m not trying to make this a big site of all thoughts about music - just a simple quiet place with a few of the most inspiring ones.

http://musicthoughts.com

Feel free to bookmark or link to any you love. The URLs are permanent, so it’ll always be there for you.

Enjoy!

A Better Way To Book Live Music

Digital technology has revolutionized the way recorded music is created, discovered, distributed and sold. The market for live music, however, has yet to undergo a true revolution.

As Andy Malloy touched on in his Music Think Tank Open posts a few weeks ago, the Internet should enable fans to proactively drive the concert business. Rather than waiting for bands to come to them, audiences should be able to bring bands to their town with a few clicks of the mouse.

The way things are

Unfortunately, we aren’t there yet. Some of the tools have changed, but live gigs are still booked the way they were 15 years ago: The artist and the venue engage in a time-consuming, inefficient exchange of primarily historical information while potential concert-goers (fans) sit on the sidelines.

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Going Mobile – The Future Of Marketing For Musicians

Many experts say that the #1 way we will all communicate within the next 3-4 years will be thorough our mobile devices. It is no secret that the United States is far behind Europe and Asia in ease of use and advance technologies in the mobile realm but it is never too early to begin looking at a mobile strategy.

With that said I will be exploring how musicians can fully utilize using mobile technologies throughout 2009 but here is a primer. I saw Helen Keegan present in Reykjavik at the You Are In Control conference at Iceland Airwaves 2008 and I was wowed by her presentation.

Helen is a mobile marketing, advertising and media specialist working with a range of clients from media owners to brands and agencies to mobile technology companies. She has been working in mobile marketing for more than 8 years.

I asked her a few questions via email and she was generous enough to answer them for us here:

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Everyone Is Going To Help You …. If You Know How To Ask A Response To Derek's Post

This is a great discussion and I think we all understand that Derek is not saying NOONE will EVER help you because every single one of my fellow authors on this blog are helping artists in our own way by being here…

Two types of artists: Complainers vs. Doers
His point is if you want to make it you need to be willing to help yourself first and only after that will others help you. I wrote my book based on this and this alone there are two types of artists. complainers vs. doers / negative vs. positive attitudes / builders vs. idlers / artists that are willing to takes responsibility vs. ones who are angry and entitled.

When the complainers call our office we look around at each other with dread… The conversation is demanding and negative “Can you hook me up with a booking agent if I hire you? Will I sell more albums because of you? etc…and their negativity is infectious. We want to get this type of artist OFF of the phone as soon as possible.

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Nobody’s going to help you. Does that encourage you or discourage you?

Nobody’s going to help you. It’s all up to you.

Does hearing that discourage you or motivate you?

The reason I’m asking is that a musician friend emailed me two questions last week (December 2008):

How can I find a great/major booking agent?
And how can I find an investor? I need someone to invest $500,000 into my band for radio, touring, recording, videos, PR, payola, etc.

My answer was:

Sorry, but when it comes to this stuff, I think the healthiest attitude is the most cynical one:

There are no great agents that would want to take you on unless you’re already earning $5000 a month gigging, so that their 10% cut (only $500) would be worth their time.

There are absolutely no investors that would invest in a musician now. Even solid profitable businesses with customers and employees can’t find investors these days, (December 2008), so just assume you will not.

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