One of the biggest places for artists to be able to generate revenue is, you’ve gotta look especially to the mobile space. Online of course is also big in terms of developing communities and then exploiting the content that you have, that you’ve created, and increase your revenue streams. You know, people who just look to the revenue that is generated from record sales I think are losing. There’s so much money that’s made in other sources, it’s just become such a huge part of – I think it used to be considered ancillary income, now it’s becoming core income. And, you know, you really look to, how much money are you gonna generate from mobile products, how much money are you gonna develop from your fan clubs? And fan clubs are really sophisticated these days. They’re not just – it’s not just, you know, write a letter in, and get a little card. It’s, you know, getting ticketing, it’s getting special fan experiences, it’s merchandising, it’s downloading product, various content from the sight that’s exclusive for members of the fan clubs. And there are things that people are making millions of dollars a year on, that artists are making millions of dollars a year on.
In terms of the mobile products, some artists who have been able to retain rights have the ability to exploit those rights in the mobile space. So for voice tones and ring backs and wallpapers that people, that consumers, are dying to get, they’re able to download these images or other products to their phones. They’re billed however they’re billed either through the carrier or paypal or something else – lot of different, several different billing methods. And then the content creator gets that revenue. And it can really add up to a lot of money.
There was an artist, an individual artist, that had sold about 130,000 downloads, digital downloads of a song at $.99, so you’re talking about roughly $130,000 of revenue that was generated. Now, the label gets their piece, the artist gets his piece, and the publisher gets their pieces, then, you know the iTunes and MSNs and the companies that facilitate those transactions, they get their piece. But you’re talking about $130,000. Well that same song sold 600,000 ring tones, times $3 piece, that’s 1.8 million dollars of gross revenue. So now you’re talking about a whole lot more money.
So when you start talking about like space and where there is money and where you can generate revenue, I think you really have to look to that space. It’s just a lot of money there. It’s a lot of money for everybody. It’s a lot of money for the carriers, it’s a lot of money for publishers, it’s a lot of money for the artists.
You know, just to be on the cutting edge of these new technologies, I think you just – the information is out there. Sometimes it can be a little bit difficult to get to the bottom of everything, but I had mentioned at another point that it’s important to read and to attend conferences. I’m a, you know – you gotta - you have to always be a student. And for the mobile space, if you really want to get in on that, you should go to the CTIA Wireless conference and you should go to the Medem conference and the Medem Net conference which precedes me Medem. Where’re you gonna get all that information and have access to the leaders in the world in that industry? Also the Future of Music conference which I think is a phenomenal conference. But those places, you know, you have access too. You can go up and talk to the president of whatever mobile company, or technology provider. You can go and speak to them, and it’s just – those are really great places to go. And it’s funny because sometimes I’ll be at a conference and I’m a panelist, but when I go to those conferences, I’m sitting in the crowd with my notebook, you know, feverishly taking notes and then going up and asking questions later.
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