A year ago this month we made a MobiFlick with the team of Christopher R. Coppola’s PAH Fest, at Columbia College in Chicago. The name of our movie is Harry’s Shipwreck and you can view it at www.pahnation.org under Theater - Chicago - MobiFlicks - Harry’s Shipwreck. It was a very exciting project & we split our first scene doing it.
Because of Chris’s energized digi movement, we are now into High Def videotaping of musical events as well as any big or small subject that catches our attention. Digitalized autobiographies so we can look back and say “Remember the day…”
Thanks Chris, for your willingness to share your love of digitalized videography with the world. You have a kind and generous spirit and it’s an honor to have met you. Thank goodness our paths crossed up on the 8th floor. Salute!!!
I don’t remember how I first met Ritch Esra. I’m sure it was in e-mail, but I don’t remember the content of his missive. But I’m sure it was nice. Ritch is always nice, and enthusiastic and insightful. We’ve developed a friendship. We go out to dinner at least once a year with Michael Laskow of TAXI and Ritch forwards me exclusive information on a regular basis. Which is probably why I agreed…
Suddenly, I remember how I met Ritch, he invited me to be on his radio show, broadcast to students. You might not be able to get me to do this today, especially the part about driving to Burbank, but we develop special relationships with people who are there for us in the beginning. My list had a fraction of the number of subscribers it does today. If someone was tracking me down to give me an opportunity to spread my message, I was accepting the offer.
Last year I spoke at Ritch’s class at the Musicians Institute. Because of our history, because of the relationship. Which is why I listened to this Seth Godin interview. I might have skipped it if someone else had posted the link, I certainly wouldn’t have listened to the whole thing. If Seth Godin HIMSELF had told me to listen to the interview, I wouldn’t have. I don’t like promotion from the act itself. Even though I know Seth a bit. I’d say to him “Why are you working me?” Is that our relationship, where you use me to get ahead? My friends don’t market me, don’t hype me, don’t work me. Maybe if Seth had sent a friendly note, explaining why he thought I’d be interested in the interview, I’d check it out. But this is sensitive ground. Especially when someone already has traction. We’ll help the up and coming, if we know them personally. Bottom line, if you’re up and coming and I don’t know you, I owe you nothing. And if you’re working me, you’re violating our friendship, I won’t view you in the same way ever again.
Furthermore, I listened to entire clip because I figured I might run into Ritch and he’d ask me about it, or e-mail me and want to discuss it further. Let’s be clear here, Ritch was not asking me a favor, he made an assessment of who I was, what I was interested in, and sent me a targeted link. He doesn’t do this every day, rarely, in fact. So, based on our friendship, I listened.
Anyway, the first half of this lengthy interview with Seth was ground I was quite familiar with. Then, when speaking about Tribes in the latter half of the conversation, Seth spoke about permission marketing, the relationship with the fan.
How do you build that relationship? How do you get people interested?
By doing something great. Seth unleashed his book, “Unleashing the Ideavirus”, online, for free, a decade ago, and gained fans that way. He didn’t compile an e-mail list and spam people, he focused on the work. And then using the distribution platform of the Web, he allowed people to pull it, for free! To the point where people implored him to print a hard copy, that they could buy, they wanted to own it. Is your music so great that it will draw its own followers? If not, you’re going to have a hard time in the new universe. Listeners have unlimited choice, they don’t care that you’re broke, went to Berklee and have invested a ton in equipment. They’ve got no preexisting relationship. Your calling card must be your music. The number of friends you’ve got on MySpace, your stunting, they might garner passing interest, but a listener might wonder if you’re better at marketing than music. And so many of today’s wannabes are. They’re computer-savvy, they’ve grown up online. But they haven’t practiced their chops in their bedrooms alone, they haven’t spent endless hours in the garage. So, there’s nothing at the core.
And once you’ve got a fan, once they’ve found you, you’ve then got permission to contact them. But here’s why I’m writing this, Seth said your tribe is people who would be DISAPPOINTED if they didn’t hear from you!
Think about that. Kind of like a girl you met at a bar, at a friend’s house. You exchanged phone numbers, e-mail addresses. You sent her a note, a text and…SHE DIDN’T RESPOND?
You wouldn’t shrug your shoulders and not give it another thought. You’d wonder, WHAT HAPPENED? Did she lose her phone? Does she not have computer access? Did she get in a car accident? When you spam me, telling me about your project I’m not interested in, I don’t wonder if your mom has grounded you, if you’ve been in a car accident, I DON’T KNOW YOU AND I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU! Whereas if a week went by and I didn’t get an e-mail from Ritch Esra, I’d wonder… Did he go out of town? If two weeks went by and there was no e-mail from Ritch, I’d e-mail Laskow, I’d do a little research, DID SOMETHING HAPPEN?
Today’s acts dun you for notice, and then when they’ve made it, they remove themselves. Whereas a relationship must be nurtured, and CONTINUED! Once you’ve got the relationship, you must KEEP IT UP! To make an album every three years is ridiculous. You’ve got to release a track, a demo, a video, SOMETHING for your regular fans. They’re starving, you’ve got to feed them, to keep up the relationship. Believe me, the guy who doesn’t hear from that girl doesn’t think about her every minute of the day THREE YEARS LATER! He’s on to something else.
The old model was limited product pushed down people’s throats.
Today’s model is endless product available to those who want it.
That’s another thing Seth said. You can’t try to reach everybody, only your tribe, only those who are interested. They’ve got enough money to support you. That’s what the overpriced vinyl and books and CD packages are about. Feeding the fan frenzy, not the casual buyer. The true fan will pay ten bucks for the album at iTunes, he doesn’t need to buy “No Line On The Horizon” for $3.99 at Amazon. Those sales are almost meaningless. Not only do they cannibalize those of the fans willing to pay more, the casual buyer enticed at this price is not going to buy an exorbitantly-priced concert ticket. (The casual fan would be better off getting free access…)
Point being, are you growing fans or just another SoundScan statistic? There are not enough album sales for the SoundScan statistic to be truly meaningful. You’ve got to branch out, sell more to the tribe, your fans, who truly care. If you’ve got a fan club it shouldn’t be primarily about getting good seats to the show, but providing more of what fans truly want, communication, product and access.
Your tribe is enough to support you. As long as you have reasonable expectations. A klezmer musician may never reach 100 million people, but can sustain a career and a life, because of the passion of klezmer fans. He can’t complain that he doesn’t fly in a private jet, he must change his direction if he desires to do that. Then again, he might just have a fan who’s that rich and is willing to put his Cessna at the musician’s disposal.
It’s amazing what friends/fans will do. But they won’t do it for everybody.
Don’t collect e-mail addresses, collect FANS! Don’t spam people, don’t give people what they don’t want, it’s hard enough navigating this world of endless media. Instead, hope your music is good enough to infect fans who will spread the word for you. Not because they’re getting a reward, street teams are passe, but because they love your music and they want their friends’ lives enriched.
I know, I know, this is not how the major labels do it, this is not what they taught you in business school, you’re impatient. Well, welcome to the real world. People only need great. You’ve got to be great. And even if you are, you won’t be an overnight success. But people are looking for great, and when they find it, they tell everybody they know.
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Songwriters Will No Longer Be Paid Like They Used To
This interview with Seth Godin done by David Hooper over at Music Marketing is excellent, excellent.You know about the Tribe—right?Well, if you are making or trying to make money in the music business you should know about this new concept.Here is the link to this interview…..
Really excited about this one.In fact, it goes with what Seth is talking about in his interview.Getting in front of the microphone.So let’s do it!!!An S2S Concert Party has been booked at the Roberts Gym, IL 60962 on June 28, 2009 to coincide with the County’s Sesquicetennial.We’ve got 4 artist contracts out with 3 verbal confirmations.We are setting it up.More details in next newsletter.
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Where To Submit Your Music, Photos & Video……………………………………..
Songs2Share is in need of a new WebMaster.If you’re a whizz at web building/coding, understand how WordPress blog site works and love music, please apply.We’d like to add another feature at the website…..
Big Music Will Surrender, But Not Until At Least 2011
Michael Arrington
TechCrunch.com
Sunday, March 8, 2009;
I had a surprisingly candid lunch conversation last week with a big music label executive, and a good part of our talk focused on the future of music. I asked the usual question: Why are you guys so damned clueless? Your business is disintegrating before your eyes, and all you do is go for short term cash gains (lawsuits, mafia-style collection rackets from venture backed music startups, etc.). The long term costs are horrendous - an entire generation or two of young music lovers feel no remorse at outright stealing music. Particularly since most online streaming is now free, it’s hard to understand why downloading or sharing songs should be a crime.
His response: It’s all part of a master plan. The labels fully understand that recorded music, streamed or downloaded, is going to be free in the future (we’ve argued this relentlessly). CD sales continue to decline by 20% per year, and the only thing that’ll stop that trend is when those sales reach zero. Nothing will replace those revenues.
They also understand that recorded music will largely be little more than marketing collateral, meaning that the Internet services being sued today for copyright infringement will be embraced in the future as ways to get the word out on hot new music. These services pay for the privilege today (either through high streaming rates or in court), but in the future they’ll be the ones getting paid by labels. Think radio payola at a whole new level, and there won’t be any more talk about social networks giving stock to labels and artists. Money will flow the other way, as it should.
By 2013 (maybe as early as 2011) it’ll make sense for the labels to finally reorganize their business models around the reality created by the Internet and person to person file sharing services. No longer will the labels be tied to revenue limited to sales of master recordings - by then most or all artists will be under 360 music contracts that give the labels a cut of virtually every revenue stream artists can tap into - fan sites, concerts, merchandise, endorsement deals, and everything else.
But until then, he says, the spreadsheets and financial models dictate that suing customers and partners just makes too much sense. Venture capitalists have directed hundreds of millions of dollars, via their litigation-mired startups, into the label coffers. To some extent those payments will continue, although the big payment days are likely over. Apple still sends a lot of money to the labels for paid downloads, and sites like MySpace Music, Imeem, Rhapsody and Last.fm pay big streaming dollars. Until CD sales really stagnate, all those revenue streams bring in more money than facing reality.
For most industries, embracing old revenue streams until they are completely petered out is a great way to open the door wide open to competitors with more innovative business models. But the Innovator’s Dilemma problem doesn’t necessarily apply to the music industry. The big labels have a lock on talent, and there’s no reason to believe that new artists won’t continue to strive to lock themselves in to one of them.
What this means for us music consumers - don’t expect much to change for the next few years. But sometime in the next decade we’ll see a real renaissance in how music is distributed and consumed. And who knows, a decade after that we may have all forgiven the music labels.
By ANN SANNER
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sheryl Crow, will.i.am,
Herbie Hancock and other entertainers on Tuesday urged Congress to
force radio stations to pay performers when their music is broadcast.Satellite
radio, Internet radio and cable TV music channels already pay fees to
performers and musicians, along with songwriter royalties. AM and FM
radio stations do not pay performers’ royalties, just songwriters.”People deserve to be paid when somebody else uses their property,” Hancock said.
He and the other musicians, including Dionne Warwick and Patti LaBelle,
appeared at a news conference on Capitol Hill on behalf of the
musicFIRST Coalition. The group is pushing legislation that would
require radio stations to pay musicians royalties similar to those paid
to songwriters.
The National Association of Broadcasters, who
oppose the measure, said a fee would put thousands of radio jobs at
risk. The association also argues that stations drive listeners to buy
music and concert tickets.”NAB welcomes an honest debate over
whether radio stations or the record labels have historically been a
‘better friend’ to musicians,” Dennis Wharton, the organization’s
executive vice president, said in a written statement.Hancock said people tune in to the radio because of the music.”
Just as radio promotes music, music promotes radio,” he said.Lawmakers in the House and Senate have introduced bills that would make radio stations pay the artists when their songs get airtime.Advocates say the bill accommodates smaller commercial stations, which could pay $5,000 per year. Public radio, college stations and other noncommercial stations could pay $1,000. Larger stations’ rates would be set through a government regulatory board, which would determine the fair market price for the use of the songs. The smaller stations could also choose to have their rates set by the board.Warwick said she hasn’t been compensated while her songs played around the world for 48 years.”I think now is about time that I do get paid,” she said.
Introducing a new songwriter to the Songs2Share community.
His name is David Mac Mullan and he currently resides in Switzerland. He sent in a photo of himself singing “New York New York” which he says goes over well with his European audiences.
His song titled You’re Going To Break My Heart is in the music player on our home page. It is a very good mood piece for film, as well as a good performing piece with guitar and vocal alone or orchestrated.
Songs2Share has our first two music videos. Each captures a live performance of a song available for licensing at www.Songs2Share.com. Our songs Daddy Please and Song Of The Earth can be viewed and at YouTube - SongsShare. Please stop by and leave a comment.It is our goal to build a catalog of music videos, both live and staged. If you have a music video and would like Songs2Share to watch and help market your song, please send us a message through MySpace here or at the Songs2Share website.If you are a filmmaker and need music for your movies, please contact us. We have many instrumental tracks available as well as songs with lyric. We will write a lyric specific to the theme of your movie. A well written theme song connects the idea of your movie with music and adds to the viewers enjoyment and remberance of your movie. We currently represent 21 songwriters and our list is growing.Peace, Roberta
Roberta: We should have a party! I did something great today too. I finished the first Songs2Share Inc. business plan.
Augi: What does that mean? You get money now?
Roberta: I have to send it out first. After a year and a half of working on this business program, I have finally finally put down on paper what it is we do, what we want to do and how we are going to do it all.
Augi: So you finally know what you’re doing. That’s good, that’s good.
Roberta: Yeah, I finally know what I’m doing. :-) That’s a reason to celebrate!
