modern music marketing

Sony Gives In

The hostility between the music industry and file sharing networks now seems to be softening. The LA Times is reporting (registration required) that Sony BMG is in negotiations with Grokster to allow free music sampling and offer paid downloads. An AP report on the story can be found here.

Although many of the details are still in flux, people familiar with Mashboxx said that it would probably work like this: When users search for a Sony BMG track, the system will allow them to download only authorized versions of the song. In some cases, these could be free promotional tracks that come with an offer to buy higher-quality renditions of the music. Mashboxx hasn't set any prices. Many online music stores sell songs for 99 cents each.

The idea behind the venture is to let people continue to use file sharing to discover music at no charge, while encouraging them to pay for the songs they want to keep.

The venture is expected to use a version of DRM that has been developed by Snocap Inc., a company founded by Shawn Fanning, creator of the original Napster. Many recording studios are wary of allying with P2P networks where paid downloads could be offered alongside unauthorized copies of the same files. There is also the issue of a network's popularity falling off when once free files are locked up in DRM wrappings. While there still may be many issues that need to be worked out, it is refreshing the industry is looking towards P2P as an alternative sales outlet.

"There's a lot of serious effort on the label side of the table to try to make this work, more than you would have ever expected to see," said one record company executive who asked not to be named. "There's some heavy lifting, but everybody's really talking through the possibilities."

These are strange words to hear from recording industry executives. Even the former head honcho for the RIAA seems to have been enlightened by the clue-by-four. Will the rest of the recording industry start to emerge from their bunkers soon?

What Is Podcasting and Why Should You Care?

Amy Gahran has an excellent post called What Is Podcasting and Why Should You Care? She outlines several ways bands can put the technology to good use.

In a nutshell, podcasting is simply online audio content that’s delivered via webfeed. (Background: What’s a webfeed?) Think of it as radio on demand. However, it gives you far more options in terms of content and program style than radio. While the field of radio has generally settled into few established types of programs, podcasting reflects more of the variety that is available on CDs.

Plus, podcasting is like TiVo for radio. That is, you can download whatever programming you want and listen to it whenever and wherever you want. You also generally have full access to the audio archives for the programs you like. This removes time, use, and content restraints.

Fake Buzz

Spin Me has some wise words on Message Board abuse.

If you're gonna do the old "hit the message board" trick, at least get folks posting from different IP addresses on different days, or you're going to invoke the wrath of bulletin board or weblog moderators. Remember that fake buzz is worthless and real buzz is priceless. You can't pay someone to fake buzz, and you certainly can't muster it yourself. When trolling boards, align yourself with folks who have been members for a while -- those testimonials will be valuable, and true.

Music Moves Toward Viral, Web Marketing

An interesting article on modern music marketing...

"...One area of the Internet that has resisted the influence of big record labels is the rapidly growing community of music web logs, otherwise known as music blogs. Surf the hundreds of music blogs online and you'll find music enthusiasts who post reviews and descriptions of obscure and undiscovered tunes as well as — and this is the controversial part — MP3 clips of the songs. These bloggers, who are part amateur music journalist and part disc jockey, often don't have the permission of an artist or record company to host the songs. Yet, perhaps sensing the promotional possibilities of MP3 blogs — especially in the iPod era when single-song downloads are picking up — record companies haven't taken legal action yet. Some labels even give bloggers tacit permission to post new MP3s by sending them promo copies of albums.

"[Blogs] can't necessarily be controlled because they're the work of individual people — but they can be influenced," says Matthew Perpetua, who runs Fluxblog, a popular site, out of his New York apartment. "So you have a lot of labels sending promos to myself and some other people who do MP3 blogs, the high-profile ones. It certainly is useful, especially for small artists, who no one really knows about, in gaining buzz."

Just ask the Killers, a band that sounds like Las Vegas' answer to Duran Duran. Their album, "Hot Fuss," cracked Billboard's Top 100 albums in July thanks to advance buzz that started on blogs.

"The music blogs are really playing the role of the old-style DJ, where the musical selections are driven by passion and enthusiasm," says Todd Lappin, a senior editor at Business 2.0 magazine. "That really does lead to sales. Not necessarily sales on the level of U2 or something like that, but definitely stuff that's credible."

The value of MP3 blogs is that they act as curators and tastemakers who filter through a vast universe of music looking to identify the next big thing. It's not surprising that labels want to harness the influence of the music bloggers.

David Gutowski, a Web developer in Decatur, Ala., who runs a blog called Largehearted Boy, has already been approached by two major labels to hype new CDs through contests on his site. Though he turned them both down, he predicts that record companies, big and small, will find a way to use blogs and other sites for grass-roots marketing.

"Weblogs can be a huge force for an artist building his fan base. And also the Internet," says Gutowski. "If you build an interesting, interactive Web site that fosters fan participation, you're probably going to sell more albums."

Marketing Your Band Using IM

An interesting article on MarketingSherpa.com on IM marketing (i.e. skins, wallpaper, etc.)...

"...skins work best where there is an engaged fan base such as for music, a movie or TV promotion, who will form an initial eager user base. "It helps create viral buzz. It extends the message virally and ends up in desktop ownership."

Lanctot says an IM skin program can work for brands with built-in affinity. "An established brand, aspirational cars, fashion brands, these segments tend to be able to make good use of IM skins," he says. "Skins also tend to be effective when the target includes a youth market. "They are more likely to actually download a skin, embrace a skin and share it among friends."

Black agrees: "This group is very elusive and very fickle about how they absorb media. They are constantly changing based on trends. How they're participating in advertising is very strange."

Record Labels Aim for Net

This is a good followup on the REM experiment through MySpace.com...and other such experiments by labels. More than 600,000 users listened to the album the first week it was posted... (via Paid Content)

Sex Sells More Than Wire...

Everyone knows sex sells. Are you using sex to sell your band?
They're using it to sell wire on Ebay...

I'm sure this woman is getting higher than usual bids for her products because of her...unique selling proposition.

Contrary to what people say, they really don't have a problem with it. Remember MTV earlier this year. Just a few weeks after promising to clean up its act during daytime hours because of Janet Jackson's Super Bowl bra-ha-ha, MTV was baring all again. Britney Spears' graphic sex romp "Toxic" was back in heavy rotation around the clock. So were controversial videos from Blink 182 (although edited a bit) and Maroon 5. MTV officials, under heavy criticism for producing the R-rated Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 1, had vowed afterward to do the "responsible" thing and pull such explicit music videos from daytime viewing. Instead, the music channel said it would air them only late at night - when fewer young people and families would be watching. So what happened? An MTV spokeswoman explained the network's backflip this way: "We decided to take a temperature check, we listened to the audience, we wanted to make sure we still felt good about the images on MTV." Now that some of the initial shock of the Jackson nip slip is over, she said: "The audience ... decided they wanted to see these artists."

XM delves into online music

(via Dow Jones) XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. unveiled XM Radio Online, an Internet music service to debut in early October.

As part of the launch, eligible Dell Inc. customers who purchase Dell Inspiron notebook and Dimension desktop computers will receive a free 30-day trial offer for the online music service, satellite radio service XM said in a press release Wednesday.

XM Radio Online subscribers will be able to listen to its commercial-free music channels and other XM content over the Internet for a monthly fee of $ 7.99.

XM Satellite Radio subscribers will receive a discounted rate for XM Radio Online of $3.99 a month.

Taking advantage of IM

Today many teens say they would rather IM than talk on the phone. French marketing company Heaven is planning to capitalize on that trend by introducing MSN Cards in France. The cards are printed with one’s screen name and users can hand them out like business cards. The initial launch of 900 decks reportedly sold out in two hours.

Maybe instead of printing flyers your band your print cards which allow email and IM addresses to be put on one side while your band occupy's the other side...just a thought...

Buy a video camera

Forget about the problem of people downloading music. That is so 2000.

If you are an artist you should be asking yourself one question: What happens after what comes next?

The download problem will sort itself out. That's how markets work. I tell bands everyday to just put their music online. If you're a band just starting, it can't hurt you. What you really need to be doing is finding someone who can shoot you a cool ass video.

Yeah,video. With a digital camera and well edited.

Your website should have video.

Your emails should have video.

Next year everyone's going to be doing it, anyway. You may as well get ahead of the curve. Marketing is partially about standing out among the clutter. Right now, video does that. It won't always...
Jeremy Allaire gets it. Read his short article on Rafat Ali's site and let it soak in your brain.

Um, and when you shoot your video of your next performance be sure to include your fans in it. That's who it's about and for anyway...