Music Business Blog by Jason Feinberg

Great read, and a very interesting picture of the demise of the almost-giant…

“We were claiming super-unique user growth while we knew we were just getting users to bounce off our site. Our approach was not far from hiring Internet users in India to click on our home page.”

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10303994-93.html?tag=mncol;txt

Been seeing this floating around for a day or two, a MUST SEE.

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/the-death-of-the-music-industry/

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/

I’ve had this link open in my browser for a few weeks. STILL working my way through it. The title says it all. Pour a glass of Ovaltine, engage your pocket protector, get in your most uncomfortable carpal tunnel inducing position, and read away…

Categories include:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Personal Branding
Social Media: Strategy for Social Sites
Twitter
LinkedIn

and more…

http://www.techipedia.com/2009/internet-marketing-posts-2008/

I am a statistics monkey, i love them and learn as much as I can by reading any music/internet/tech stat I can find.

This post details out a survey presented last week at MIDEM that details fan preferences regarding digital music. A new notable bits:

What about fans’ interest in artist-based subscription models – subscribing to get cool content and offers. 30% said yes, 56% said it depends on the cost, and 13% said no. So how much? 51% said they’d only use it if it was free, but would accept ads. Those who would pay said they would pay £1-£5 for such a service. So there’s an opportunity for labels and managers to develop these kinds of models more.

Read the whole article here: http://musically.com/blog/2009/01/17/midemnet-2009-liveblog-voice-of-the-fans-survey

Something a lot of savvy bands are doing is providing tiers of products that hit different types of fans. On their last project, NIN certainly understood that they had multiple levels of fans, some that simply wanted to listen to the music (9 free medium-quality mp3s), devoted fans (36 high quality audio files for $5), some fans that would want a CD ($10 2-CD with immediate digital download), serious fans ($75 deluxe pack with CDs, Blu-Ray disc, data DVD with multi-track songs), and hardcore fans ($300 box that sold out in TWO days).

Some of the bands I am working with also get this. The Murder City Devils are issuing a tour-only deluxe box set limited to 275 copies. It will contain 4 LPs on white vinyl (exclusive to the box), be hand-numbered, and each one will be unique in that it will contain one-of-a-kind items such as old backstage passes, photos, band member’s electric bills… They will be only for sale on their upcoming tour. Although they are giving one away. Given how collectible their records are (and expensive on ebay) this is something that devoted fans are going to snatch up in a heartbeat.

The Rentals are taking a different approach. They have just launched a year-long project at therentals.com where each day they are posting a new photo, each week a new short-form film, and every 3 months a finished EP of songs. These will be streamed for free, offered for sale in various ways, and at the end of the year packaged up in a deluxe box set that will offer far more than what has been released on the site (such as undeveloped roll of film taken by Matt Sharp, backstage passes, etc).

In the evolving music economy, it is critical to understand that different fans consume in different ways, and the Internet has given us the ability to cater to each of them on their own terms. Onwards and upwards!

I have a pretty big CD collection. Not big compared to some other music obsessed friends, because I keep it pared down pretty tight, but bigger than a lot of people’s at somewhere around 2500 CDs. Physical CDs.

My CD shelves are split in two sections – most in the living room and then some more down at the end of the hall. Last night I went through the living room section trying to find CDs to demote to the hallway. Needed to make room for the stack on the floor that I’ve acquired lately and that need to find their way into the prime shelving.

You know the drill. It’s one of those things you do at the beginning of a year, or when the stack is so big you have no choice. I’m squarely in the middle of those scenarios.

My music taste isn’t for everybody. It’s certainly not for the general public. But, a reasonably large and musically experienced set of people would agree it’s mighty comprehensive and shows a solid understanding of the past 5 decades of music. I deeply get a specific subset of genres, mostly in the connected corridors of punk, post-punk, hardcore, metal, hard rock, and goth. And I also have amassed what most would agree are the essentials any learned music fan should have and appreciate.

My collection travels seamlessly from Dr Dre’s “The Chronic” to “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash” and from Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” to MC5′s “Kick Out The Jams.” Deicide is only a few slots from Neil Diamond; the Swans’ “Cop” is only a shelf away from “Ice Cream Castles” by the Time. Big Black lives near Black Tape For A Blue Girl, and Pavement lives squarely between Parliament Funkadelic and Quicksilver Messenger Service. You get the point.

I often tell people my music selection runs from Neil Diamond to King Diamond. That pretty much sums it up.
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A great article by Mark Glaser on the PBS Mediashift blog, interviewing Nettwerk CEO and all-around smart guy Terry McBride. As I am a big believer in the artist-run business model, this is a very interesting perspective on how artists should be running their enterprises given the opportunities and constraints in place with current technology, record label practices, etc.

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/12/nettwerk-ceo-terry-mcbride-puts-fans-in-charge-of-bands346.html

Excerpt:
Search engine optimization, the ability to write basic code, understanding how social networks and blogs work together, how to connect that interaction back to the sale of music or monetization of behavior or crowdsourcing music. It’s understanding all of those things, and having a very imaginative marketing plan around the artist vs. around a product. It’s really brand marketing. What are the artists’ causes? Are there cause alignments? Are there other brands we can hook up with to align our causes? And if the other brand is bigger, can we give them free music and get exposure to their audience because it’s like-minded tribes?