Music Business Blog by Jason Feinberg

My newest post is now live on the PBS Mediashift Blog. It discusses the future of Direct-To-Fan marketing, citing examples as well as some companies that enabling it.

I am a firm believer in the D2F space, and my company is working with many artists and labels to leverage the power of the channel. As I have discussed before, OTMG is also a certified Topspin marketing partner, of which we are very excited and proud.

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/06/the-time-is-right-for-direct-to-fan-marketing-of-music175.html

If you haven’t read the Nielsen presentation for NARM, download it now. Some interesting insights and stats (summarized from winkscollectibles.blogspot.com), such as:

- Digital music is now 40% of the total music purchases compared to just 8% in 2005. It is projected that it will hit 50% by the end of 2010.

- Purchases are being made less at mass and chain/electronic stores and more at value oriented outlets (dollar, mass merchandisers, clubs) and on-line. Between 2001 and 2009, chains like Best Buy’s share of the market has gone from 54% to 32%, independent music stores from 14% to 7%, mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart from 28% to 33% and non-traditional sources such as iTunes, Amazon and Starbucks from 3% to 29%.

- Digital music buying was done most by fans of rock music, with 41% of all purchases coming from an on-line source. That’s compared to only 6% of sales for country albums.

I am so excited that I can finally tell the world about a big part of what I have been up to lately. For a while now I have been a big believer in the company Topspin. Their software platform and methodology is very forward-thinking and I am confident it can be a big part of the overall marketing strategy bands needs to incorporate moving ahead.

It does not (necessarily) replace a label, iTunes, Amazon, management, or marketing team. What it does is gives artists and online marketers new tools that open up massive opportunities in the direct-to-fan space. This is a core part of almost any artist’s career, and I am excited to be a part of helping write the blueprint for what this will mean in the future.

Having said that, I am proud to announce I am one of a small group of people who are now officially Topspin certified! See the article below…

http://topspinmedia.com/2009/06/congratulations-topspin-class-of-june-2009/

Check out this insanely useful tool: http://amusiciansjourney.blogspot.com/2009/05/your-diy-activity-document.html

It is a doc whose “purpose is to keep track of all your actionable DIY activities: the “business” items you need to keep up in order to build a self-sustaining career.”

My third post for the PBS MediaShift blog is now up at http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/04/how-bands-can-avoid-making-7-big-seo-mistakes119.html. It details seven key areas of search engine optimization that often cause trouble for artists when building sites.

The seven mistakes are:

1) Site Built Fully in Flash
2) Site Built With Images Only
3) Lack of Keywords in Content
4) Relying Solely on Meta Tags
5) Poor Link Strategy
6) Overlooking Alternate Search Types
7) Ignoring the Logs or Not Utilizing Analytics

For in-depth details of these issues, and more importantly, resolutions to solve them, visit http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/04/how-bands-can-avoid-making-7-big-seo-mistakes119.html.

My newest article has been published over at the PBS MediaShift Blog.

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/04/maximizing-the-sxsw-experience-with-social-media091.html

It’s all about using technology and social media tools to get a better SXSW experience. Hopefully something useful in it for everyone – if you’ve never been it’s a major jumpstart, and if you are a veteran you might learn some new tips to get even more out of it.

I am now writing for the PBS Mediashift blog, and my first post is up. It’s titled “Five Tips for Musicians to Engage Their Fans Digitally” and can be read here: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/03/five-tips-for-musicians-to-engage-their-fans-digitally068.html

Let me know what you think…

Been insanely busy since getting back from the Murder City Devils tour. They are playing Coachella and Sasquatch too.

As I’ve mentioned, I went out on the road with them for eight days filming the general experience. Was nothing too planned out. Just a dude, on tour with the band, taking snapshots of what that week on the road was like.

The band has posted Day Two (Seattle, 2.12.09) at http://www.themurdercitydevils.com/2009/03/day-two-february-12th-2009/.

A quick note from the Portland airport to let you all know we posted day one of the Murder City Devils video last night. I’ve been getting a ton of footage every day, looking forward to editing more of these and posting soon. The shows have been amazing, I can’t wait to mine the footage to see how well I captured the energy and vibe.

Check out day one here:

http://www.themurdercitydevils.com/2009/02/day-one-february-11th-2009/

So I am sitting in my hotel room in Seattle, preparing to hit the road with one of my favorite bands, The Murder City Devils. Anybody that pays attention to any of my social network profiles (like twitter) know that I have been talking about this band like mad for the past two months. Part of that is because I built their website and am managing the online marketing campaign surrounding the tour and re-issues; the other part is that this band freaking rules and if you are unfamiliar you may want to check them out. Highly recommended if you are into bands ranging from The Dead Boys to Zeke, from At The Drive In to the Misfits.. They were primarily in existence from 1996 – 2001, and have played a handful of shows since.

Until now. Tomorrow starts a 9 show / 8 date west coast tour. And I am going along with the band.

Starting Thursday, be sure to check out http://www.themurdercitydevils.com every day for a blog entry and video update showing video from the road, each show, behind the scenes, and assorted mayhem. I am basically traveling with the band, video camera in hand. As a fan of the band, this is an amazing opportunity, and as a new media marketing guy this is an excellent way to use my skills. Win-win situation.