- ArtistshouseMusic -

Artists House's Own Debbie Cavalier of Debbie and Friends Named as a Finalist of the 8th Annual Independent Music Awards

tessa — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:32:37 -0800

Artists House's Own Debbie Cavalier of Debbie and Friends Named as a Finalist of the 8th Annual Independent Music Awards

Article:

Debbie and Friends is among a diverse group of independent musicians named as a Finalist in the 8th Annual Independent Music Awards.

Debbie Cavalier is the Dean of Continuing Education at Berklee College of Music's online extension school, Berkleemusic.com. She is also a children’s entertainer with Debbie and Friends. Her debut CD, “Story Songs and Sing Alongs,” is family music that’s fun, educational, and stylistically diverse - from original rock, pop, and show-style tunes, to down-home country and story songs.

All of us at Artists House are thrilled that Debbie's song, "Hangin' Around," is a finalist in the Independent Music Awards. The next step is to vote for the winner. The children’s music category link is here: http://tinyurl.com/5u2hnu

Please support Debbie! To enter your vote, register on the site with an email and password, and then rate the music with up to 5 stars.

Good luck, Debbie and Friends!

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Mercury Rev Using Free Music to Connect with Fans

tessa — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:35:40 -0700

Mercury Rev Using Free Music to Connect with Fans

Article:

Of course giving away a free record is nothing new – huge bands who’ve had major label support throughout their careers (Radiohead, Prince, Nine Inch Nails, etc) have the luxury of releasing free music to their massive fanbases with the understanding that doing so will fill the seats in the stadiums when they are on tour. But how does a band capitalize on free music when they don’t have this built in community, when they are not a household name?

Although Mercury Rev was signed to Columbia for their first two records, the bulk of their material was released by then-independent V2 (Richard Branson’s post-Virgin label). The band has fluttered close to mainstream success (1998’s Deserter Songs is a masterpiece), but has remained an indie favorite playing mostly mid-sized venues.

Indie Label Yep Rock (who signed Mercury Rev for their latest, Snowflake Midnight) has put together a great plan to leverage free music to build up the bands fanbase, and draw interest to their new release. Promotion for the new record draws folks back to their Website (not their Myspace!), where the band is giving away Snowflake Midnight’s companion release Strange Attractor, another full length record. Folks that sign up for the Mercury Rev mailing list get a link to download Strange Attractor as a high quality DRM-free mp3 that can be played on any device. The free release became available on the same day as their paid release hit the stores.

I think this is good marketing: they’re providing a value add for old fans, giving new fans a reason to get on board, and most importantly, collecting a ton of email addresses that they can use down the line to announce tour dates, sell merch, sell tickets etc. And the fact that they are providing music that people can own outright, share, play at parties etc is huge. The fans are part of the action, and are playing a part in making the release of the proper record a true event (via word of mouth). There is SO much music out there, that it is easy for folks to get distracted. Bands need to take special care in keeping their existing fanbase interested, providing incentives for potential new fans, and above all continuing to build their community.

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How To Sell Music On Your Website

tessa — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:14:04 -0700

How To Sell Music On Your Website

Article:

I’ve talked at length about the fact that it’s certainly easier (and cheaper!) than ever to sell your music online using CD Baby or TuneCore as a digital distributor. And while I think it makes all the sense in the world to get your music out to iTunes, AmazonMp3, and the other online retailers, it’s also important to sell directly to the fans that are visiting your own site or blog. Selling from your own site not only provides you with a higher percentage of income than selling through a third party site, but it also affords you the ability to creatively price your music, offer higher quality FLAC or lossless files, put songs up for a limited period of time, or engage in other subscription pricing models (like what Ari Hest is doing) that is not easily possible with third party online retailers.

Where do you sign up, right? Well, that’s the catch. The process of setting up an e-commerce store on your site is not necessarily the most straightforward thing to do. Andrew Dubber, whom I first heard about when he published his e-book 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online has a great post on his blog outlining his research on selling music online. He outlines several options from straight up outsourcing it (easiest option of course, but also most expensive), to open-source e-commerce platforms and plug-ins (the most interesting being this free Wordpress plug in). (http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/)

Check out Dubber’s complete post here

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The Word of Mouth Manual Volume II

tessa — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:13:03 -0700

The Word of Mouth Manual Volume II

Article:

One needs only to take a walk pass the new Apple store at in Boston at 8AM to see how important word of mouth is to Apple and their new iPhone. Apple is legendary for their marketing (customer service is another thing - I waited close to an hour last week to get an iPhone, in which time Apple was only able to service ONE person). Their integrated marketing campaigns are amazing, from the traditional print, packaging, television, and branding components; to their forward thinking viral and word of mouth campaigns.

To get a large group of people to evangelize about your product or service is the end goal of any marketing campaign, and it’s something that my friend Dave Balter knows a lot about. In 2002, Dave founded BzzAgent, a word of mouth media company that currently coordinates 450,000 volunteer “agents” in the US, Canada, and the U.K.. Dave recently wrote and self-published his second book on Word of Mouth marketing, creatively titled “The Word of Mouth Manual Volume II.” It’s a great read, illustrated with examples from the Grateful Dead, Crocs, and of course, Apple. The book is for sale for $45 on Amazon, but Dave’s provided the book to a few folks for free, as a PDF download, available here. If you’ve ever been curious about how or why word of mouth marketing works, or how to get folks to start talking about your own product, I recommend you check it out.

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The Tangled Web of Terrestrial Radio Artist Performance Royalties

tessa — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:15:56 -0700

The Tangled Web of Terrestrial Radio Artist Performance Royalties

Article:

This past Wednesday the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property met to discuss the proposed Performance Rights Act. Like many things related to the record business, it’s a contentious issue. Depending on where you stand, the Performance Rights Act is either: A) long overdue, the artists have been getting screwed for years, or B) another instance of the RIAA (the trade organization that represents the major labels) scrambling to pull in income from anywhere they can, and in this case they are biting the hand that has fed them for years.

There’s a ton of information (and mis-information) out there, and it’s confusing. Here’s a condensed version of what’s going on, as I see it.

Background

Broadcasters in the U.S. have traditionally only paid royalties on the public performance of a composition to the appropriate performance rights organization (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC). This money is then paid to the writers of the compositions. Unlike most other western nations, broadcasters in the U.S. have never compensated the artists themselves for any public performances. The same holds true for bars, restaurants, and retail stores. For the past 80 years, the record industry and the broadcasters have lived in harmony. The record industry worked the broadcasters, songs were played on the radio, records were sold, and everyone made money.

Players

On the side of radio is the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters), represented by spokesperson Dennis Wharton. Mr. Wharton is trying to build momentum for his cause by referring to the group he represents as “America’s hometown broadcasters,” which is not the first phrase that comes to mind when I think of Clear Channel, a massive radio conglomerate and NAB member. Two members of congress, Reps. Gene Green and Mike Conaway (both from Texas, the corporate headquarters of Clear Channel) have also introduced an anti-royalties bill called the Local Radio Freedom Act, which has been gaining support in Congress.

Those in favor of the royalty include the MusicFIRST Coalition, who was represented last week by Frank Sinatra’s daughter and recording artist, Nancy Sinatra. Marybeth Peters, the Register of Copyrights, also supports the bill, as does the RIAA (who incidentally back MusicFIRST). Sound Exchange, who has close ties to the RIAA, apparently will be responsible for collecting these new royalties, similar to their current role in collecting digital performance royalties.

Details

As submitted by Rep. Howard Berman of CA, the Performance Rights Act will:

(1) grant performers of sound recordings equal rights to compensation from terrestrial broadcasters;

(2) establish a flat annual fee in lieu of payment of royalties for individual terrestrial broadcast stations with gross revenues of less than $1.25 million and for non-commercial, public broadcast stations;

(3) grant an exemption from royalty payments for broadcasts of religious services and for incidental uses of musical sound recordings; and

(4) grant terrestrial broadcast stations that make limited feature uses of sound recordings a per program license option.

(5) provides that nothing in this Act shall adversely affect the public performance rights or royalties payable to songwriters or copyright owners of musical works.

Arguments

The artist’s (and the RIAA’s) point of view is simple: the old ways of doing things no longer work in the new music economy. The artists have made significant money for the songwriters (and broadcasters) of radio hits, but have received nothing from the airplay of their music. A performance right in sound recordings has been imposed on digital services since 1995, including the controversial royalty on Internet radio. It is unfair that U.S. terrestrial radio gets a free ride when all the other radio platforms, as well as international broadcasters, are required to pay the artists for public performances.

The NAB contends that terrestrial radio has always been a partner for the artists, responsible for millions of dollars in record sales. Commonwealth Broadcasting President/CEO Steve Newberry, speaking on behalf of the NAB on Wednesday, thinks that “…local radio provides to the recording industry what no other music platform can: Pure music promotion. Radio is free, radio is pervasive, and no one is harming record label sales by stealing music from over-the-air radio.” He went on to mention that if the bill passes “…the value of this extraordinary promotion, and all of the financial benefits that come from it, will be harmed. Ultimately, less music will be played, less exposure will be provided for artists — particularly new artists — and music sales will suffer.” The NAB also believes that the blame for dropping revenues in music is misdirected, and that the real problem for artists is restrictive recording contracts.

My Opinion

The NAB and the RIAA (the jury is still out for me on Sound Exchange, who have a heavy RIAA affiliation) are not organizations that have the artist’s best interest in mind. Their job is to represent the best interest of their member companies. And although the NAB is framing this as a battle between the “local broadcasters” and the RIAA (taking advantage of the RIAA’s terrible PR problem), this issue affects artists at every stage of their career, signed and independent. Although income is falling, the broadcasters are still making money (radio revenues came in at about $20 billion in 2007, according to ICBS Broadcast Holdings President/COO Charles Warfield, who testified on behalf of the NAB) based on the content these artists produce, and to say the artists should not be compensated for this is the embodiment of the old-school record business.

For me, the real question is if terrestrial commercial radio is still effective at selling music. Fewer and fewer people are tuning in to the large commercial stations that make up a large part of the membership of the NAB, and the play lists at commercial radio are so tight that the number of artists that commercial radio “breaks,” in terms of converting radio play to mechanical royalty sales, is miniscule. While I think non-commercial radio (in particular college radio and NPR) and some commercial Triple A stations are good promotional options for independent artists (radio play helps to get folks to shows where they can buy merch, it provides some legitimacy for a press campaign, and also could work to help a licensing pitch, for example), I’m not convinced that radio works to move records anymore at such a significant rate that it pays for itself. Promoting to radio is expensive, even to non-com radio, and of course there is no guarantee you’ll get spins anyway.

Lastly, terrestrial radio is no longer in the position to say that the promotion they wield is far superior to these other non-terrestrial radio outlets that do pay a performance royalty, in particular for developing artists. I think there needs to be parity between all forms of radio: satellite, online, and terrestrial. I’m confident that non-terrestrial radio will continue to gain market share over the coming years, and I think it’s likely that terrestrial radio will continue to lose listeners, too.

My only major concern with the Performance Rights Act (other than reservations about Sound Exchange and possible collection issues) is the effect it might have on the small non-commercial terrestrial stations that work to promote local artists. The bill does stipulate that these smaller stations will pay a smaller annual flat fee of $5,000, but profit margins are so razor-thin at non-commercial radio, that even this could cause a problem.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

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Solving the Problem with Digital Music: Slimbox Duet

tessa — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:42:31 -0700

Solving the Problem with Digital Music: Slimbox Duet

Article:

After accumulating (way too many) CDs since 1987, I’m making the move to converting my collection to digital. The have decreased to the point that it makes sense to rip my CDs to a lossless format, and the truth is, while I’m a big fan of liner notes and artwork, I’ve had it with CD storage. And moving the collection is nothing short of a horror show nightmare.

The major problem with digital music for me has been playing my music at home. I’ve been using the Airport Express to wirelessly stream my digital collection to my receiver, which is a huge step up from listening to digital music on tinny computer speakers, but even then it’s still inconvenient to have to control my music selection from my computer using iTunes.

The Slimbox Duet solves this problem for me. The Duet is a two-part (hence the name) digital music solution consisting of a receiver, and the thing that really makes this product special, the remote control device. Modeled after the iPod interface (but with a slightly less responsive scroll wheel), the remote control component hooks up to the digital music library on my external hard drive, allowing me to stream anything from my collection to my home stereo – without getting up from the couch. Also, the system is compatible with streaming radio services like Pandora, Rhapsody, podcasts, and other online resources like the incredible live music archive found at www.archive.org. I’ve had the duet set up for a week, and it’s like a whole new world to me.

While the Slimbox can play virtually all audio formats, it cannot play DRM files – including almost anything purchased on iTunes (which uses Fair Play DRM). All the more reason to purchase from DRM-free online retailers like Amazon, eMusic, or the new Napster mp3 store!

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Make Our Video

tessa — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:40:55 -0700

Make Our Video

Article:

Radiohead and I share a couple of things in common. We both love Bill Hicks (Paul Kolderie got me backstage in 2002 where I got to talk to Jonny Greenwood about Bill), but more importantly we are both interested in user-generated content. I really liked the "Nude" remix idea where different "stems" of the song (vocals, drums, guitar etc) could be downloaded, remixed, and then entered into a contest on http://radioheadremix.com. Although some folks have a problem with buying the stems from iTunes at $.99 each, I think it’s a great visibility vehicle for the band as well as a wonderful way to interact with their community. Radiohead even provides folks with a widget to add to their Facebook profile, MySpace page or website. Marketing ploy? Yes. Creative promotion that is effective at engaging folks? Yes.

Following up on this, aniBoom is now in the semi-final stage of their In Rainbows Animated Music Video Contest. The contest invites folks to create animated videos to In Rainbows tracks, with the winner of the competition (who will be chosen by Radiohead themselves) receiving a $10,000 cash prize and a shot at having their video air on the Cartoon Network's [adult Swim]. Below are some of my favorite semi-finalists:

watch more at aniBoom

watch more at aniBoom

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Starbucks Pulling Out of Day-to-Day Management of Hear Music

tessa — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:32:32 -0700

Starbucks Pulling Out of Day-to-Day Management of Hear Music

Article:

Hot on the heels of Starbucks warning on Wednesday that they expect their earnings to drop to 15 cents a share (down from 19 cents a year ago) in the fiscal second quarter, Starbucks announced Thursday that they were ceding all management responsibilities for it’s music label, Hear Music to its partner, Concord Music Group. Starbucks, which cut about 600 positions in February, is clearly looking for more ways to reduce costs.

“As part of our ongoing transformation, we are committed to examining all aspects of our business that are not directly related to our core,” said Howard Schultz, chairman, president and CEO in a press release here. “We have had numerous successes in music and books including eight GRAMMY® Awards and three No.1 books on the New York Times bestseller list. However, now is the appropriate time to restructure our Entertainment business to better align our efforts with our overall business strategies.”

Hear Music, founded in 1990, was purchased by the Starbucks Coffee Company in 1999. In 2007, the company partnered with Concord to release Paul McCartney’s Memory Almost Full, record, his first non-major label recording. Hear Music has also released music by Dave Matthews Band, Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Simon & Garfunkel, and Wilco.

I’m a fan of alternate retail and distribution outlets, and completely targeted niche-marketing campaigns. But I tend to agree with Mr. Schultz in that perhaps managing Hear Music has interfered with Starbucks core market, and the resulting changes are designed to refocus what they’re good at: selling high priced coffee. The fact is that Starbucks/Hear has done some great things for developing artists, but the sales from Starbucks were marginal at best. The New York Times reported last month that on average each Starbucks location sells only two CDs per day!

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¾ Of Major Labels Ink A 360 Deal With MySpace

tessa — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:52:32 -0700

¾ Of Major Labels Ink A 360 Deal With MySpace

Article:

Well, there’s certainly no shortage of news from the major labels lately. Following recent announcements from Warner (who are presenting a vague idea to charge people a flat fee for all the music they care to download from peer-to-peer sites), and Sony/BMG (whose head, Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, revealed that he supports the idea of a DRM-free unlimited music service), The New York Times today reported that three of the four major labels (EMI is rumored to join soon) have struck a deal with MySpace to launch "MySpace Music." The deal will be set up as a joint venture, where the labels will receive an equity stake, and MySpace will control and operate the organization.

Some interesting points:

The major’s entire catalogs would be available.
The labels will stream their music for free, and be paid through advertising dollars (MySpace apparently currently makes $70 million a month in advertising revenue).
Tracks will be available for download DRM-free, so they can play on any MP3 player.
The labels will also use the outlet to sell artist’s merch, ringtones, and tickets (which, thanks to the 360 deals the majors are going for now, will provide additional revenue streams for them).
There is also a possibility of a subscription-based component that would allow users to pay a monthly amount for unlimited downloads (likely through subscription DRM).

It looks to be a real win-win situation for the labels (as well as consumers), apparently made possible through Universal settling their 2006 lawsuit against MySpace for roughly $100 million (which is rumored to be part of the deal).

The only wild card is if folks can be convinced to actually purchase music through MySpace. Shawn Fanning’s Snocap, which folks can currently use to create an online store on MySpace, has not been popular (check out what Derek Sivers, CEO of CD Baby, said about their past arrangement here).

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Why I love Tunecore

tessa — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:23:51 -0800

Why I love Tunecore

Article:

I’ve talked a lot about how TuneCore and CD Baby are great online distribution options for independent bands. The two are set up differently, with CD Baby taking 9% of sales, and TuneCore making money on a $19.98 annual fee plus $.99 per store per record upfront costs. At low sales, there is very little difference between the two services. But at higher sales figures, there’s quite a bit of difference.

Eliot Van Buskirk at Wired’s great music blog just wrote a quick piece on what Trent Reznor likely paid to distribute his new record, ‘Ghosts I-V’ to Amazon. It’s really pretty amazing:

Trent Reznor found a great deal for distributing his comprehensive new Nine Inch Nails album to the Amazon MP3 store: going through TuneCore, while keeping ownership of the master recordings and 100 percent of royalties. Now we can see why he was so eager to leave his record label.

This is assuming TuneCore charged Reznor its standard for delivering a 36-song album on the Amazon MP3 store for the first year; I have a question in with TuneCore to try to confirm:

$35.64 ($0.99 per track)
$ 0.99 to put one album in one online music store
$19.98 charge per album
------------------
$56.61: Total cost to distribute Ghosts I-V to Amazon MP3

That's not the only efficient aspect of Reznor's plan. He's using BitTorrent to distribute the first 8-song volume of the album to fans for free, and the innovative aspect of the release generated lots of (deserved) press attention.

Trent is using a Creative Commons license with this current release, which I also think is noteworthy.

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- ArtistshouseMusic -

Artists House's Own Debbie Cavalier of Debbie and Friends Named as a Finalist of the 8th Annual Independent Music Awards

Article:

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Mercury Rev Using Free Music to Connect with Fans

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