Music Business Blog by Jason Feinberg

For those of you in or managing a band that is finally to the point of seeking radio airplay, let me break it down for you.

There are two types of radio – Commercial and Non Commercial. Commercial is in the business of providing listeners to their advertisers – oh and they do that by placing music in-between commercial breaks. Non Commercial on the other hand is generally in the business of providing culture and entertainment to the community.

Take a guess which you, as an unsigned or indie act, have a better chance of getting on.

It gets deeper – not only do commercial stations only play known music that will bring in listeners (specialty shows aside), but there is a spectacular system in place that dictates who gets played and who doesn’t. Ninety-nine percent of the time, it comes down to one thing – money. To get played on a commercial station, you almost always must hire an Independent Promoter that has tight relationships with the commercial stations. Fees for these people can reach up to $300,000 per song, plus $2000+ per add (a station publicly reporting adding the song to its playlists). I don’t know any indie bands that can afford that.

So that leaves non-commercial. College stations, public stations, independent radio – oh and don’t forget Internet radio. There are thousands of radio outlets that fall into this category, and getting your music played can be as simple as sending a package and making a follow up call or email. Go get The Indie Bible and get to it. I know bands that, for the price of the book, CDs, and postage have received hundreds if not thousands of spins on non-comm radio. And people do listen, believe me.

Quite often when an artist hires us, we are asked to assess their website and make sure it is doing all it can – collecting as many email addresses as possible, selling as many CDs as possible, etc.

I am sometimes appalled at the condition of artist’s websites. With SO many good examples out there (and so many brainiac 16 year olds to do the coding and Photoshopping) I often cannot believe how bad artists sites are. So, here are some suggestions and tips that we base our assessments on.

1. Make sure people know exactly what the site is about. Are you a band, a record label, a zine, or do you sell cardboard and cardboard related accessories? Sometimes it isn’t so easy to tell. Your imagery and text on the home page should convey the precise image and message you are looking to communicate. Far too many sites shout “We are a death metal band into neon green who hate the government but love artwork by 6-year-olds.” Really.

2. Lead your visitors to the ideal destination. Are you looking to sell CDs? Are you focusing on collecting email addresses? Do you want people to chat up the message boards? Then why is the natural flow of your website leaving people stranded on the “Band Member’s Pets” page?? Often people involved in a band (or company) are too close to it to really see it generically. This is especially true if you are involved in designing the site. Just because you naturally go to the Order page doesn’t mean John Q. CDShopper does. Have friends or ideally strangers navigate your site and watch where they go and how they get there.

3. Read your logs and statistics. Most webhosts come with a statistics program that lets you see how many visitors you’ve had, where they are coming from, what they view, etc. This is mega-valuable information, yet most people choose not to use it. Every morning, first thing, I look at the previous day’s logs for all my sites. I like to know where people are coming from, the search words they used to find me, and what pages received the most traffic. Marketing gold, I assure you.

Well, that’ll do for today. Feel free to email me.

For those of you reading this that are looking for publicity, but aren’t ready to hire the big guns (ahem.. like us), here are a few sites that can get the ball rolling for you.

Myspace – If you’re not on there, stop reading this. Go sign up, build a network, then come back and continue. Ok, maybe just go sign up, then come back here. Bottom line – it lives up to the hype. You can use it to meet new fans, talk to other bands in your scene, find bands to tour with/open for/etc…. The list goes on.
Book Your Own Fuckin’ Life – One of the original great indie sites – everything you need to make it happen. Except good tunes I suppose. That’s up to you.
Daily Chord – Collection of up to the minute music news stories. Essential reading for those in the biz. Sign up for the daily email blast.
The Indie Bible – Can’t stress enough how powerful a tool this is. 4000+ contacts, all wanting YOUR music. Get it, use it, thank me later.
Record Label Resource – Directory of everything an indie label needs to record, manufacture, and promote their releases.
iFanz.com – Fan management system – Email, Merchandising, Tours, Promotions…

Hopefully that will give you some places to start. Feel free to comment and add music related sites you have found useful.

As someone who has done plenty of hiring (and the occasional firing) in the music biz, let me give you a tip that is much more valuable than you might think.

If you are looking to get a job in the biz – behind the scenes, as an artist, whatever – and you are not from the area of your job search (Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, etc.) get a cell phone from a local area code.

Seriously.

When we review resumes and see an area code from a different area, a red flag pops up. A few questions come to mind – Is this person’s home base in that other area? Are they only fully moving out here if they get a job? If their home base is out here, why haven’t they changed numbers? What is the capital of Zaire?

Okay maybe that last one is just me. But the point is this – your mission in applying for a job is to present as many reasons as possible to convince this person to call you and bring you in for an interview. Something as simple as a non-local phone number can make a huge difference, as there will most likely be qualified people in the immediate area, which ultimately will be less work and potential headache for the person doing the hiring.

The little things really can make a difference, for both better and worse.

One of the services On Target Media Group provides for its clients is contest and giveaway coordination. Every so often I post links to these so that my readers can enter and hopefully win some free stuff, and while at it possibly get turned on to a new web page, blog, band, label, etc…

Current Promotions

Neal Schon – CD and Poster Giveaway

Steve Vai Guitar and CD Giveaway

Eric Johnson Trip and Guitar Giveaway

Another Neal Schon CD Giveaway

Reeves Gabrels CD Trivia Contest

Enjoy, and good luck!

As an instructor in a music business program, something that I discuss quite often is the flood of competition to get a job in the industry. Students getting ready to graduate are often faced with the arduous task of beating out a tremendous amount of other people for few available jobs.

What often gets overlooked, however, is that all this competition is healthy to the industry, and ultimately keeps the machine rolling that ensures jobs will be available into the future. So while it can be very tough to get a job in the immediate sense, from a career perspective this competition is ultimately a good thing.

People often feel very daunted at the thought of all the other people in the industry, those with more experience, those with more connections… But what is missing from that equation is that it is essential that these people are in the positions they are. Many people feel as if they are missing out – that they are getting left behind – if they are not involved at this very second. The reality of things is that the industry has been chugging along for decades, and nothing has ultimately changed. People have always wanted in and it has never been easy.

I actually believe that right now, it is easier to get a job (that leads to a career) in the industry than ever before. Thanks to the Internet, home recording, massive networking resources, and strong scenes in almost every major city, one doesn’t need to rely on a big company hiring them anymore. The “Do It Yourself” mentality is truly alive and thriving. This has allowed a tremendous amount of people to carve out a career for themselves alongside the people that have been in the biz for years or decades.

So, if you are looking for a job in the biz and having a difficult time, fear not – if you have common sense, a sense of responsibility, passion for music, and a touch of luck and timing, there is something out there for you. Have patience and never lose sight of the long-term goal – a successful career in the industry.

A number of people I speak to in the industry are not exactly clear how a CD goes from an idea in an artist’s head to a piece of plastic in a fan’s hands. Enter the Distribution Chain.

At its core form, the Distribution Chain is as such:

Record Label -> Distributor -> Retail -> Consumer

In a little more detail, here are the parts:

Record Label
They are responsible for the recording, artwork, manufacture, and promotion of the CD. These days, most bigger labels (major and indie) are often little more than a bank.

Distributor
This is the part of the chain responsible for physically getting the product to the stores, ensuring it is available, and ensuring it is accessible to the buying public. A good distributor will constantly be pitching retail buyers about new releases, trying to get them to bring in as many pieces as possible, give it good placement, etc. Distributors often arrange co-op advertising (more on this another time) and buy-in promotional programs.

Retail
Pretty simple – makes the CD available via physical store, web sites, mail order, etc. Offers promotion programs that labels/artists/distributors can buy into for better placement (listening posts, point of purchase displays, etc).

Consumer
Buys the CD.

It can be much more complex than that, but at a base level, that’s how it works. What is important to understand is that each element in the chain (except the consumer) takes a piece of the money. Quite often there are additional middlemen – Sub-distributors for example. Fortunately for many artists, the Internet has allowed them to remove many if not ALL of the middlemen and keep a significantly higher percentage of the revenue than in the past. Viva DIY!

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Gotta make this quick, heading over to Musicians Institute to go present an award and see my Music Business Program students graduate. It was a great batch this time around, sad to see many of them go. Watch out music biz, there are some future execs heading your way!

Here’s a quick thought for the day – The company you keep is generally very reflective of who you are. Look around at those you associate with, and ask yourself if they possess the qualities you feel necessary to succeed in the industry. The reality is that we generally surround ourselves with people similar to us at base levels. Think of the characteristics it takes to make a career in the music industry, then see which of those are missing from those around you. You might find they need improvement in yourself as well. It is always easier to judge others than to judge yourself, so this is a quick and highly accurate way of assessing your strengths and weaknesses.

Just a reminder – every week iTunes gives away a FREE track. Simple as that. You just have to have iTunes installed.

I will post the link below to the free track, and will also add it to the nav menu to the right so you can always click through from here to get your FREE iTunes song!