Music Business Blog by Jason Feinberg

I grew up a punk. I was introduced to Minor Threat and Dead Kennedys one summer while visiting my grandparents, probably about the age of 10. It didn’t hurt that one of the instructors at the computer camp I went to (did I say punk, I meant nerd) was also way into punk, as was evident by the DK logo on his Converse. Over the next decade I continually refined my taste of punk music, digging stuff from all extremes (from Crass to Op Ivy, from 45 Grave and all the Death Rock bands to the Freeze, from Black Flag and Fear to the Misfits and Samhain – the list goes on and on).

And my point? Well, as a modern businessman who owns a music industry company, I sometimes face an inner conflict. The adept entrepreneur in me often sees people and opportunities in a way very different from the core values I developed via the punk and DIY way of thinking.

The challenge is to find a happy medium.

I think it’s just fine to be indie and punk and DIY your whole life, never buying into a capitalistic way of doing things. I also think it is fine to change your mind once you’ve matured, experienced new things, and have been influenced by a wide range of circumstances. What I don’t think is necessary is to bind yourself to set rules unless you truly believe in them.

So when I think a statement like “to lead a business to success, one must be able to view all relationships both from a human interaction standpoint as well as a ‘how can I make money from this relationship’ standpoint, I sometimes feel conflicted. As if Jello Biafra would be shaking his finger at me, reminding me that money and greed are the source of so many of our universal problems..

On the other hand, I really enjoy getting paid to do what I do. It sure beats doing something I hate and only getting to do this in my spare time for a hobby.

So the way I balance it out is as such: I treat artists with the respect they deserve, because without them, I don’t have a job. I don’t charge exorbitant amounts of money just because a record label might pay it (and charge it back to the artist of course). I am in this business because music has always been the fundamental base of my life. It’s been there through everything else that has come and gone. Naturally I want to pay my bills, and I work hard enough that I think it’s okay to charge what I do. But that punk upbringing has definitely given me an attitude towards the business end of the music industry that I feel makes me quite unique.

Going through the 3 million scraps of paper all over my office and apartment that will someday be a book, I came across this:

Make sure that, before you quit – and that’s a long time off – you make or do something that expresses your true world beliefs – the things that go on inside your head. How you view the world, society, people, yourself… You have a very interesting perspective on people. It’s time to stop dismissing and negatively analyzing it and instead truly understand and use it.

I think this might apply to many of you. We fortunately work in an industry where expression is the name of the game. The product we sell is simply a collection of various forms of it – musical, lyrical, artistic, sonic, technical… And if you push yourself beyond the goal of simply releasing music and instead strive to deliver a message about your core beliefs, you’ve accomplished something 99.9% of the world will never have the opportunity to do.

Don’t waste the soapbox you’re building.

Here’s a simple one for all you musicians, labels, and media outlets out there –

It is very bad form to start music playing as soon as someone lands on your website.

It is even worse form not to give clear, obvious, and concise controls to allow them to stop and start the music.

Keep in mind a few things. First of all, a majority of people that come to your site during the day are surfing from work. Quite often on the sly – suddenly having music blaring from their computer can be a one way ticket to their supervisor’s office. Second, the types of people that are surfing around to music related sites are also the types that probably have music already playing on their computer. I utterly despise when I am rocking out to some P-Funk and I hit a website that either (a) starts playing their own music or (b) starts playing an atrocious MIDI file. Fortunately the days of (b) are mostly gone, but it still happens sometimes.

The lesson – don’t interfere in a man’s P-Funk! No wait, the lesson is that music on a website is essential if you are in the business of selling music, but forcing someone to listen to it without them initiating it is horrible netiquette and is greatly frowned upon.

Although I didn’t go back through all my posts and check, I am sure I’ve posted “the most important rule” type musings before. So instead of calling this “Rule #1″ let’s just call this (Another) Rule #1.

Beyond anything else, your customer is your top priority.

Say it out loud. Repeat it. Tattoo it on your forearm – make that both forearms. Do the left one in Spanish.

This might seem like common sense, but as anyone who has read my blog for more than 2 days knows, I strongly feel that common sense is usually anything but common. It is surprising and often shocking how few people truly practice what seems to be sure-fire strategies for success. Like I tell my students – all you need to succeed in any industry is passion and common sense. Creativity and talent can sure speed up the process, but without passion and common sense you are simply destined to mediocrity at best.

But back to (Another) Rule #1 – it doesn’t matter how amazing you are at what you do, be it marketing, music, or emptying garbage – if you do not realize that your customer (or fan, or garbage maker) is the sole thing keeping you in business, you might not be in biz for much longer.

I have been very fortunate – my company is doing quite well. I have a number of great clients that continuously feed me work. I am also bringing on new clients at an accelerating rate. And the secret to my success really isn’t a secret at all – I spend almost as much time addressing my clients’ needs as I do actually fulfilling them.

Many inexperienced (or narrow sighted) business people think that the only deliverable to a client is the actual output they are paying for. This is a tremendous error in their way of thinking. When a client hires you, they are actually paying for two items – the deliverable, and the intangible services you indirectly offer them such as need assessment, customer service, and project status updates. Naturally, each industry has its own set of intangible services, but the underlying concept is the same – if you only focus on the end goal, you are not delivering a full package to the customer.

Instead of posting the “knowledge” that pours out of my brain, occasionally I like to inform my readers of other resources out there. Today it’s going to be a few books that I find highly informative and useful.

This Business of Music: Marketing and Promotion – Oooooh boy is this a good one. I use it as the textbook for a number of my music business classes at Musicians Institute in Hollywood. My students tell me all the time how amazing it is. I have used my first copy so much in structuring my business that I had to buy a second copy!

The Musician’s Handbook – If you are a musician looking to make it, this might just be your new bible. Written by a world renowned artist, he tells you all the mistakes to avoid. The cost of this book can be offset 1000 times just by following some of his contract and royalty advice. Amazing!

The Indie Bible – I know I hype this every couple of weeks, but that’s for a reason – I use it every single day! No matter what genre you work in, as an artist, a promoter, a startup, or just someone who sees the value in having the contact info for THOUSANDS of websites, radio stations, and publications that will play, review, and promote independent music (whew!) this book IS FOR YOU. I wouldn’t be where I am today without this book – I’d still be sitting in front of my computer gathering all this info the slow and tedious way – one site at a time.

All You Need To Know About The Music Business – This is the legendary book by the legendary Donald Passman. If you are even CONSIDERING a career in the music industry, you need this book. If you are already in it and don’t have it, get ready for the knowledge to take you to the next level. Enough said.

and last but not least…

Confessions Of A Record Producer – Hands down the most entertaining and fascinating book I have ever read on the music industry. Well, Have Gun Will Travel, The Spectacular Rise and Violent Fall of Death Row Records might be a close tie, but I digress. Either way, this book shows just how people on the business end scam musicians left and right – with REAL numbers and real life examples. I have read my copy 10 times, and I catch something new each time. Seemingly unbelievable until you meet people that do the EXACT things in this book.

An article I recently wrote for Small Business Trends has been published today. You can click the link above to find it on the main page, or the individual article is here. It’s an excellent site and a very valuable resource, I highly suggest checking it out.

Here is the article text:

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New Business Model Evolves for Music Artists

Editor’s note: we’ve been following the dramatic changes in certain industries and what they mean for entrepreneurs, including music-entrepreneurs. An increasing trend is for music artists to choose to stay independent and market their own works, instead of signing with major record companies. So it is with great interest that we present this guest column by Jason Feinberg on the new business model for music artists.

By Jason Feinberg

A trend is often most fascinating when it is counterintuitive to an industry’s traditional ways of thinking.

In the music industry, up and coming artists are finding great success by doing the exact opposite of traditional practices. Instead of selling their music, they are giving it away — completely free — on the Internet.

The music industry has been looking for ways to deal with music being distributed via the Internet for almost a decade. During the majority of this time, most of the bigger record labels held a strong stance against placing music on the Internet for any purpose — be it sales, marketing, or promotions.

All efforts put forth by these companies were focused on shutting down websites and software companies that were making music available. Most of their efforts ultimately proved to be in vain, as they could simply not keep up with the rapid pace of Internet growth and expansion.

Smaller record labels had varied strategies in managing their music online. Some attempted to embrace emerging Internet technology by making their music available, while others shied away from using the Internet for anything more than simple web pages.

As more and more companies began assessing the opportunities the Internet provided, many players in the industry began to realize that combating the issue of music being distributed online was a futile fight. Music fans were storing, sharing, and buying music online at an exponentially growing rate. There was no way to avoid it — the industry simply had to devise a way to control it.

At this point, it was quite clear that consumers wanted their music on their computer and portable devices; it was also becoming evident they were quickly adopting new technology and distribution methods. From this arose a tremendous opportunity for musicians that were not yet under contract with any of these record companies.

Instead of forcing consumers to pay for the rights to own and listen to an artist’s music (the traditional practice), independent musicians began giving their music away for free with the hopes of creating awareness of their art and increasing exposure for themselves.

Websites such as MySpace and MP3.com began offering a centralized location for artists to distribute their music for free. These sites have proven wildly successful. MySpace has over 12 million users and is growing rapidly. Sites such as these have provided independent artists an avenue to reach potential fans that was previously only available to those signed to a record company that had a marketing and promotions budget.

The ultimate benefit to these self-financed artists is that CD sales created by this business practice have a significantly higher profit margin than a structured record label would make. Labels spend tremendous amounts of money marketing, promoting, and distributing their product, all of which eats away at their profits.

Typically an artist signed to a record label might net one dollar (US) per CD sold — and that is only after the label has recouped its expenses. An independent artist using free promotion techniques can see as much as twelve dollars (US) profit per CD.

It is this simple math that has inspired many musicians to completely ignore the traditional route of signing with a record company in favor of doing everything on their own.

As record labels rush to develop new ways to both fight and embrace the Internet as a music distribution tool, independent artists continue to capitalize on the new trend of free self-promotion. As more and more Internet sites devote themselves to creating exposure for these artists, an entirely new business model for the entire industry is being developed.

* * * * *

Jason Feinberg is President and CEO of On Target Media Group, a music industry marketing firm specializing in Internet and New Media promotion. He is also the author of the Music Business Blog, an online journal focusing on current trends and topics in the music industry.

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I welcome your thoughts, either here or at the article itself (which allows comments, and is where I’d prefer you discuss this).

A quick update on the recent happenings over at my Online Marketing and New Media company, On Target Media Group.

CDs we’ve recently begun promoting:
Eric Johnson “Bloom” – The legendary axe man delivers yet another fantastic guitar CD. Blues, Jazz, Rock, and that Texas thing – “Bloom” has it all.

Pierre Bensusan “Altiplanos” – A beautiful and mezmerizing CD from renowned acoustic guitarist Pierre Bensusan. World music meets fingerpicking brilliance.

Peppino D’Agostino / Stef Burns “Bayshore Road” – Former Y&T / Huey Lewis guitarist Stef Burns has joined up with legendary acoustic guitarist Peppino D’Agostino for a one of a kind musical experience. Features Sheila E.!

Also, don’t forget your free iTunes download (must have iTunes installed).

Ok, here is a secret so powerful, so true, that I should be charging for it. Lucky you to get it for free before it goes into book form someday! ;)

The key to successfully working with celebrities, famous musicians, or anyone else of major stature is very simple: You must be 95% business mixed with 5% fan.

Let me give an example. I’ve had the fantastic fortune of working with Steve Vai for the past three years. He is a tremendous person, one of the greatest guitarists this planet has ever seen, and a spectacular mentor in the ways of the music industry and life in general.

When he hired me, I had already been listening to him for almost 15 years. I loved his work with David Lee Roth, Whitesnake, Frank Zappa, and his solo CD “Passion And Warfare” was a guitar bible as I was growing up.

But none of that mattered when it was time to WORK for him. I was a big fan, no doubt, but I realized early on that the key was to shove that aside and focus on the business relationship. It was key to treat him as my boss who was also a guitar god, not a guitar god who I was working for.

Now notice I say you need to also retain 5% fan – I believe this gives you the spark and fire to give that extra bit. Most of the time you must think of them simply as your boss, but every so often, you need to say to yourself “wow, I am working for (insert celebrity name here)!” It can be the recharge necessary to give your best.

Trust me on this one. I have seen MANY people get gigs with high profile employers only to let the stars get in their eyes and forsake their job responsibilities because of it. Instead, focus on the business, but occasionally allow yourself to indulge in the fact you’ve solidified a relationship with someone of such high stature. And send me an invite to the parties. ;)

A few mailing lists I suggest you sign up for to be kept current as to industry happenings:

Daily Chord – A daily roundup of music biz news

Indie Bible – Once a month update of new resources – also, a spectacular book for getting publicity, radio play, and promotion – click here for more info

MI2N – The Music Industry News Network

There are plenty more; feel free to comment with any you enjoy.

Hey all – sorry for the lack of posts the past few days – been wrapping up a video editing and DVD authoring project that took all my available time and plenty of unavailable time as well.

While doing the video editing, I started to think about how what makes a good editor is what is in their bag of tricks… The techniques one uses to add professionalism or creativity into the project. Then I started thinking that no matter what you do in life, one of the primary components for success at the top levels is having a bag of tricks.

In the classes I teach at the Musicians Institute Music Business Program, I often refer to my “marketing toolbox” – the resources and services I am aware of that can be called upon (or paid for) to accomplish a certain task. And the more diverse and complete my toolbox, the better job I can do for my clients. I spend a significant amount of my time expanding and reinforcing my marketing toolbox – I never want to be hit with a client request that I do not have the tools to accomplish.

No matter what your industry, there is benefit to be had by developing a bag of tricks. Understanding how to overcome obstacles by employing available resources is an essential trait of a successful worker, manager, executive, or entreprenuer.