December 29, 2009 Numerous readers have emailed or questioned my post pertaining to artists needing a Global Self-Promotion License. The post was a fake. It’s not real. I was trying to be funny.
I should have waited until April Fool’s day, but the world changes so fast that I didn’t want the post to be outdated. The thoughts arrived. I wrote them down. I clicked the post button. Sorry about the confusion.
December 28, 2009 When digitized, all of the photos, images, text, comments, sound, video, songs, lyrics and any media that’s posted on a site - represents the sum of the values, interests and desires (the V.I.D. DNA) of a web site’s contributors and users (this is true for any website where humans have a voice). Google repeatedly indexes this media, and then makes it easy for humans to find humans with similar V.I.D. DNA. This is how people find and form communities on the Internet, not by demographics but by shared V.I.D. DNA (learn more). I believe we will shape the process of forming our own V.I.D. DNA by trimming around the edges, but eventually the community will dominate (and grow) the brand, and this exactly what we want to happen.
December 22, 2009 Beginning in 2010, anyone self-promoting on the Internet has to obtain a Global Self-Promotion License (GSPL). Failure to do so, will result in the revocation of your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube accounts; moreover, repeat offenders will lose their license to blog and comment on the Internet.
We all have attention capital accounts. Attention capital accounts are recharged via great user experiences and energizing content; whilst overwhelming choice, bad design and unrefined content have the opposite effect.
Music Industry Self Promotion Privileges Calculator
Please use the Self-Promotion Privileges Calculator (SPPC) below to determine which self-promotion license you qualify for.
December 1, 2009 Here are two things that you may want to consider when planning out your life as an artist that earns a living by staging performances (live and not).
December 1, 2009 If you are contemplating the future of music sales revenue, the most alarming thing about inexpensive (they actually call it “premium”) all-you-can-eat streaming models (Spotify, MOG) where music fans pay roughly $72.00 a year (for example) for endless access to all the music in the world (anytime, anywhere, anyplace), is that the $72.00 is divided by (all songs consumed times each song’s play-frequency).
November 18, 2009 Does anyone have a good music-related domain they want to sell for less than $1,000 USD? Please post a comment that includes the domain. I can’t provide more information, but chances are there are other readers looking also. Personally, I prefer the .com over any other extension. Thanks.
November 18, 2009 If you are interested in stats and examples about the power and cost of social media, check out this video.
November 9, 2009 Listen to your music for the first time again.
Examine your online presence as a first-time visitor would.
Imagine standing in a corner watching one of your shows for the first time.
Ask yourself: As a fan or potential fan, what does your stuff, message and existence do for me? The answer to this question is your ‘value proposition’.
For example:
All of this entertains me.
All of this helps me to forget.
All of this helps my social life.
All of this makes me socially aware.
All of this informs me.
All of this energizes me.
All of this calms me.
All of this helps me to feel young again.
Artists and songs don’t necessarily compete, but the value proposition(s) you choose to deliver defines the broad (market and product) segment you are competing within. For example: are you competing within the ‘all-this-entertains-me’ segment or within the ‘all-of-this-energizes-me’ segment or within an overlapping slice in between?
When considering the delivery of a value proposition, consider the following (random examples):
November 5, 2009 When I had live video shot in the past, we hung large, dated signs up that clearly declared our ownership of the video. The signs also strongly suggested that anyone that did not want to be included in the video should please leave. We also had our camera crew shoot the signs right into the footage as ‘evidence’ if needed.
Here’s a video and photo release (below) you can use when you believe it really matters. Get an attorney to check this for you. Always try to get verified (check an ID) addresses and phone numbers on these releases.
November 5, 2009 Here’s another reason to shoot high-definition video that’s connected to your music-related ventures: Demand for short, interesting, compelling, non-explicit, music-infused, high-quality, high-def content is going to be driven by the digital signage industry.
I have been doing some work for a venture that’s focused on digital signage. Here are some stats to consider:
Since the average exposure (time) to digital signage is relatively short, music videos are perfect for digital signage loops. Expect new mass-exposure opportunities to grow out of the digital signage networks over the next twenty-four months.
Question: Do any MTT readers have high-quality music videos that they feel are under exposed?
About Bruce Warila
October 20, 2009 When a westerner (an American for example) walks by the office of a co-worker, and the co-worker is quietly sitting there doing nothing, the westerner’s first reaction is that the co-worker is lazy and probably slacking. On the other side of the world, when an easterner (someone from Japan for example) walks by a co-worker, and that co-worker is doing nothing, the easterner’s first reaction is that the co-worker is most likely engaged in deep thought whilst grinding away at a solution to some problem…
I want to say two things in this post:
October 14, 2009 Artists looking for a stunt or promotion angle. Look into augmented reality (Wikipedia). Six months from now or sooner, journalists will be looking for interesting augmented reality stories. Come up with something unique and hire Ariel to get you the PR bang you are looking for. I just posted an example (sort of) on my site. This is for artists that are also geeks (yes they do exist).
October 14, 2009 Q: What happens when you put a lawyer, an economist, a business executive, a government bureaucrat and an artist into a locked room? A: The business executive assaults the economists, the lawyer sues the executive, the bureaucrat falls asleep, and the artist writes a song about it. This is the copyright debate.
Over the last couple of years, and as a background task, I have tried to make sense of the copyright / copy restriction debate. Is more or less copy restriction better or worse for rightsholders?
September 22, 2009 To generate a return for your investors, you probably need 1,000,000 people to click their mouse three times. How hard can that be? In fact, every artist is just three clicks (times 100,000 or so people) away from financial independence.
Here are the clicks:
Click one is the click that leads to discovery of a song or artist.
There are many ways to discover music that only require a single click; here’s one: when a receptive music consumer (one whom is open to, and an early adopter of unknown songs) clicks the ‘recommend’ button (attached to some music site or service) to obtain a recommended playlist of new songs.
Click two is the easiest click to obtain; it’s simply the click of the play button.
Click three is the hardest click to obtain; click three is the ‘meaningful’ click.
Meaningful clicks result in a purchase, or a share, or a placement in a personal playlist (where songs are spun until they are loved), or a recommendation to friends, or a trip to a concert, or a public spin (at a party for example), and/or meaningful clicks result in other meaningful actions…
Since most consumers can’t tell the difference between a great song and a good party (where they often hear the best new band on earth whilst drinking and dancing the night away), I would argue that in the absence of context (celebrity or radio endorsement, social group endorsement, or serious momentum to celebrity), most consumers will do nothing; they will not generate a meaningful click.