Future Of Music

OK

Here are some good summaries of trends that apply to music.  More to follow…

10 music-tech trends that will shape the next decade – from CNET

“With recording revenue plunging, bands must draw fans to their live shows in order to make a living. The common wisdom today dictates that musicians need a personal connection with their fans. They must blog, tweet, maintain their MySpace and Facebook profiles, and generally act like your next door neighbor who’s always pestering you to see his band. There’s a word for receiving “personal” messages from your favorite 100 bands–it’s called “spam.” Eventually, this cloud of self-promotional noise will dissipate, and will be replaced by old-fashioned word of mouth. Only acts that put on a great show–not just singing and playing songs, but entertaining in the old-fashioned sense of the word, with video and stagecraft and humor and spectacle–will cut through the noise. Bonus points for the first act that somehow integrates an audience-accessible game console into their act.”

The 20 key digital music trends in 2009 – from Music Ally

“There’s no doubt that consumers like streaming music when it’s done well, as illustrated by the success of Spotify and Pandora this year. And it seems equally certain that streaming has a significant role to play in the future of the music industry. That role, however, will be alongside other revenue streams, rather than being the downloads killer it’s sometimes painted as being by the media.  However, as 2009 draws to a close, there is still huge debate around the economics of streaming music, with ad revenues nowhere close to paying for the licensing costs, and artists and labels still grousing about their royalty cheques while fearful about cannibalisation of music sales. ‘Freemium’ has replaced ‘ad-supported’ as the business model of choice; but even that has yet to prove itself as a truly sustainable option.”

MidemNet Chooses Top 15 Digital Music Startups – from Hypebot

“The 15 start-ups chosen by Music Ally and a jury of entrepreneurs cover a range of digital fields that offer opportunities for the music industry including live applications (Awdio, Songkick, Streamjam), digital licensing of sheet music and lyrics (DigiClef, TuneWiki), artist management (BandCentral), managing key data for artists (Band Metrics), digital distribution (Pops Worldwide), web radio (Radionomy), remixing (Aviary, GoMix and Tracksandfields), musical discovery (Thesixtyone), artistic financing (Kickstarter) and on-line advertising (Silence Media).”

My friend Mary aka DJ Fusion wrote this rant on Hip Hop for 2009.  This is a great example of an indie scene flourishing and a good read for anyone thinking about a career in music these days.

“We’re approximately 35 – 40 years into a musical art form and culture that has traveled from the ‘hood to the corporate boardroom with some dallying around a bit with college folk, the ‘burbs and outsiders worldwide wanting another groove to dance to and a way to use the spoken word for expression.

As one of the many musical great grandchildren of the African Diaspora born from the coupling of what some call American Classical Music (Jazz, Funk, Blues, Soul, Funk, Rock, etc.) and Reggae, Hip-Hop has come a long way from its beginnings.

There’s more of a hungry audience on the hunt for new and diverse types of music than ever before because of the mainstream music industry dropping the ball on what they’re supposed to do in the first place – promote great artists for different audiences to listen to and spend money on.

The second the Hip-Hop A&R rep became more an regional area SoundScan Excel Spreadsheet reader instead of the person who hunted for new music from all over the planet or took time to craft a music artist’s long term career, the Old School Music System started to collapse.

Luckily during this time, the huge technological & social advancement of the Internet becoming a normal part of life though people’s computers, mp3 players or telephones created totally new options for music to expand it’s reach to essentially anywhere, to anyone and at anytime in a relatively cheap, quick and efficient way.

This fundamental shift is one of the great gifts ever given to all aspects of the Independent Music Community.

The playing field has gone from a huge mountain to climb to even get a demo a listen or for getting people to check out your viewpoint of Hip-Hop to at least become a slightly more manageable hill for music lovers to negotiate a successful career and outlet of expression.

Audiences who want to connect to dope music don’t really have to be around the corner anymore and are just a few clicks away through sites like MySpace, BandCamp, FaceBook, Twitter, Imeem, ReverbNation, CD Baby, YouTube and more.

An indie music artist or outlet can hit up that audience and give major record labels and distributors the finger by promoting themselves at pretty much however they like with promotional singles & mixtapes or any other product via tons of ‘net companies and the right applications.

With some dope audio software, an e-mail address, file sharing programs and a solid work ethic, new forms of musical collaborations can occur as long as there are like minds in the mix.

What about current subpar TV, Radio and written media outlets that don’t play or acknowledge dope Old School Hip-Hop artists (a lot of which are now back to either being Indie Music Artists again or having to function like one to get any worthy promotion for their projects) or any innovative New School heads?

Well, there’s probably either a website, blog, podcast, internet radio station, conference call, newsletter or online video outlet to avoid all that. Old School Hip-Hop as a whole is literally being kept ALIVE through it’s accessibility through the internet from these sort of outlets.

And the great thing is if there isn’t such an outlet yet, fans OR a music artist can make create their own such sites with the numerous free services out there for self-expression and upgrade GoDaddy.com style later on if one chooses.

The Old School mentality that made truly great Hip-Hop  and is still keeping it alive has made a comeback that can revolutionize a positive artistic creativity and business model – you got to do for self (D.I.Y. game proper) to come up, work hard as hell, stand out with fantastic musical product not just to get people to pay attention, but to stick around as a long time fan.

Basically, you got to earn your way homey – no shortcuts. Even some of your Top 40 Hip-Hop MCs didn’t just emerge from a record crate pre-packed for consumption – quite a few of them have been in the music business for years before getting to that point and had to climb as up as an indie to get to their current status (from Lil’ Wayne, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, UGK, the list can go on for days).

An music artist really has no choice BUT to build from the ground up to earn the respect of fans so they can give up their hard earned cash & word of mouth.

Indie musicians have more ways now than ever to develop a rabid niche audience that digs their individual musical foundation and to expand from there. Along with great support team that wants to promote the hell out of a person and do business on the up and up, next thing you know there’s an empowered Hip-Hop artist who doesn’t have to pimp themselves out to the latest trend to get a crappy major label/distributor contract in hopes of riches.”

2009’s 25 Great Hip-Hop Music Related Websites (Besides PlanetIll.com, of course) That You Should Always Be Checking For Dope Writing, Music Content, Information And Balance Away From The Norm:

• Philaflava’s The T.R.O.Y. Blog
• Poisonous Paragraphs
• The Mad Bloggers
• Ron Mexico City
• Bryon Crawford
• Combat Jack with Today’s Mathematics
• Hip-Hop Is Read
• Tha Feedback
• The Nappy Diatribe aka The Daily Throatchop
• Ill Doctrine
• Word On The Streets Magazine
• Nah Right
• Wax Poetics
• 2DopeBoyz.com
• Ill Roots
• DC Mumbo Sauce
• Rock The Dub
• Blunt Rapps
• Writer’s Block Media
• FLWRPT
• The Smoking Section
• Wake Your Daughter Up
• Making The Mogul
• BloggerHouse
• DJ D-Nice Journal

Read more here at Planet Ill.

Love it.  More from Mary here and here.

This is funny as hell, and probably not all that far off from what’s coming…

The Ultimate Rack:

Make Sound Like
Creative Difference Engine
Excellentalizer
Ego Controls
Decade Selector
IQ
Presence

Satire created for:
www.theinternetnowinhandybookform.com

Great info-graphics at:
www.informationisbeautiful.net

Here is a great info-graphic from the New York Times showing the relative performance of various music formats over the past 37 years.  Unfortunately it does not show the impact of free music online.  That would be an interesting addition to see how big file sharing and torrent downloads really are, relative to the physical formats of the past and the new “paid” digital formats.

In this economy, it’s hard to imagine anyone making thousands of phone calls trying to give money away. But that’s exactly what is happening as Sound Exchange contacts musicians who have earned, but not yet claimed, digital performance royalties.  And they are building their database fast, by tapping into the cloud of musician profiles available online. How cool is that?

Sound Exchange is a performing rights organization undertaking a massive education campaign about the fact that the rights and revenue exist, and how to go about getting the money.  In the past few months alone, thousands of artists have been contacted.

When sound recordings are streamed on the Internet, played on digital satellite radio, or used on cable music channels, the performers on that recording accrue a small royalty. Those digital performance royalties are collected by SoundExchange, who processes logs from services and distributes the payments to artists. Unlike other royalty societies, who collect and distribute only to their members, SoundExchange collects royalties for all performers, then has to locate and register artists so they can be paid.

If you want to get paid, you have to register with them at Sound Exchange. If you think your music has been played on Sirius-XM Satellite Radio, Internet radio such as Pandora, Yahoo, Live 365.com and AOL, or on digital cable and satellite TV services like Comcast’s “Music Choice” and DirecTV, you can collect.

The data being collected by today’s digital music companies is being knitted together to connect the dots between online listeners and the copyright holders.  By partnering with CD Baby, ReverbNation, SonicBids, Nimbit and others, Sound Exchange is tapping into the long tail of the market, and rewarding musicians who have online profiles – with cash.

CD Baby says they were notified by Sound Exchange that many of their artists were owed money.  They matched their databases and found that thousands of artists had not registered with Sound Exchange and therefore were not receiving their payments. CD Baby then reached out to these members with the good news.

According to iLike founder Ali Partovi, a database matching effort for artists that had uploaded their information onto iLike found more than $8 million for more than 8,000 artists. According to Partovi, the $8 million was just a first-run effort, and a broader initiative involving MySpace Music remains forthcoming. “MySpace has a much larger database, so we’ll be unlocking even more money.”

To stake your claim visit Sound Exchange, or to send an email to info@soundexchange.com

Musicians of the future need to know the reality of the business today and seek the tools of tomorrow that will enable them to participate and prosper in the creative industries and carve out a niche and an audience that can sustain them.  These are the underpinnings of the Music Power Network and what we hope to accomplish by helping to guide musicians, songwriters, managers, producers and business people seeking careers in the music industry.

Music Power Network is a new online information service that I started for independent musicians, songwriters, producers, artist managers, and people starting new music companies.  It is a framework with which you can plan your future in the music industry. MPN provides online lessons, exclusive video interviews and advice, career and business planning tools and thousands of hand-picked resources designed to help you achieve success in the new music industry.

Here is an sampling of some of the in-depth video interviews I did over the past year with industry luminaries including Terry McBride, Derek Sivers, Mike King, Phil Ramone, Kelly Cha and many others leading the way.  More interviews are being collected and added as I seek out the people who are helping to transform the music business and light the way into the future of music.

As a result of publishing The Future of Music, many people have asked me to help them with their careers. MPN is the system that I developed to help people get organized and make money in the new music industry. With MPN you can learn from industry experts, set your goals and realize your vision.

The successful artists and writers of the future will start independent and stay independent. They will create businesses around themselves to suit their ambitions, personality, and style. They will connect directly with their fans and control their own destiny.  MPN can show you how to do it.  Make a 360 degree deal with yourself and find ways to generate revenue from your writing, performing, brand, name, activities, and interests that suit you and what you stand for.

Join MPN and get immediate access to:

• Online music lessons that will help you understand the new music industry.
• Exclusive video interviews with industry experts on the latest strategies.
• Custom business planning tools to help organize and guide your career.
• Thousands of hand picked career and market resources to help you build your team.

Here’s what people are saying:

Terry McBride / Nettwerk CEO – “Dave Kusek has an amazing grasp of where today’s music business resides, where its been and where its going. He has a unique ability with factual analysis to cut through the hype and buzz and give us all a clear picture of what is actually taking place in today’s environment.”

Corey Smith / Artist – “It is safe to say  that the “Future of Music” was very much the catalyst we needed to quantify our intentions instead of it being assumptions and guess work.  I thought hey, this is possible. And that, alone, made a huge difference. It’s amazing what you can do once you realize that something is possible.”

Milan Kovacev / MPN Member – “MPN’s services are remarkably well suited for 21st century independent artists. As a songwriter, producer, artist, and music publisher I wear different hats every day and that requires a clear focus and goal-oriented approach to my music business endeavors. MPN’s online course, video interviews, resources and practical tools for building a business plan helped me move fearlessly and confidently in this new dawn of the music industry.”

Debbie Cavalier/ MPN Member – “MPN is the best resource for independent musicians who want to take their career to the next level. My goal for “Debbie and Friends” is to connect musically with as many families as possible via national tours, while maximizing my catalog’s potential through music publishing, licensing, distribution, merchandise, and music teaching opportunities. MPN has all of the resources I need to help me achieve my goals. It’s exactly what I have been looking for.”

Fernando Grecco / MPN Member - “Music business today is not for beginners. It is an open field where there are lots of opportunities for artists and professionals, but where there are very few right answers. MPN is the best way to go from beginner to pro in this brave new world of possibilities. Designed by Dave Kusek, who foresaw this new scenario more than 5 years ago, in his book about the Future of Music, MPN was key for me to choose and develop the 360 degree label business model for Borandá.  MPN helps turn inspiration into action for serious people who want to thrive in this new reality, regardless if you are a musician or a entrepreneur.”

Debra Latimer / MPN Member – “Terry Mcbride is a genius. He articulated some of the most dynamic and innovative concepts pertaining to the music industry that I have ever heard. This video has opened my mind to new models of thinking about producing and distributing music.  Just a wonderful and insightful video.”

See for yourself how Music Power Network can help you.

We posted last December about Corey Smith, a clever artist who is blazing a new trail through the music business using entirely new ways of thinking. Corey’s whole business model is based on giving away lots of music for free and building relationships with his fans.  He does it primarily through touring and developing seriously close relationship with his fans. And it was this giving away of the music that was Corey Smith’s tour support. They didn’t have any label support, but grew their fan base. Because once people heard Corey’s music, they had to see him live. Which they did. In 2007, Corey Smith grossed $1.7 million. Last year Corey’s gross $4 million. Free music built the base.

Corey Smith made headlines when his independent music career slowly grew into a multi-million dollar business, selling out large venues normally reserved for those with chart topping hits. Corey toured diligently and worked hard to make honest connections with his audience. As his fan base grew, he stayed focused on building that connection and being intentional with his business decisions.

Get more at Music Power Network.

“Maybe music consumers don’t have to own their songs anymore.” – USA Today

After years of resisting efforts to offer music fans the ability to “rent” music instead of buying downloads, Apple is finally joining the party. Apple’s purchase of online music service Lala brings the No. 1 music retailer into the streaming music business.

For years, the music industry has advanced subscription services such as Rhapsody and Napster, saying they made more sense for the consumer and better profits for the labels. But the services have not panned out.

What has changed is the popularity of free streaming services, led by Pandora, which has 40 million monthly listeners worldwide. You can’t choose specific songs, but you can choose your favorite artists. Pandora then creates a music experience for you with similar-sounding music. Pandora is widely popular on the Web and on smartphones, including the iPhone.

Inside Digital Media analyst Phil Leigh says

“There’s no doubt this will become the successor to radio and be how new music will be popularized”

Read more here from USA Today

With big record companies willingly bucking technology, musicians and software types gathered in Cambridge to revolutionize the industry.

On an unheralded fall weekend right before Thanksgiving, a roomful of amateur hackers and Web rock stars gathered in East Cambridge for a historic convention that could dramatically reshape the way we get our music. At stake in this laptop orgy on the quiet end of Memorial Drive, appropriately held at Microsoft’s New England Research & Development (NERD) Center: how you and everyone you know will discover your next favorite band, and how artists will reach audiences in an age when the media and music industries are in steep decline.

The collaborative powwow, dubbed Music Hack Day, was the first-ever such event held in the US (earlier iterations took place this year in Berlin, Amsterdam, and London). But while such recognized brands as NPR, Apple, and Yahoo! were astute enough to show up, the confab was more populated by non-household-name Web sites, from Boston’s own tourfilter.com to CBS-owned last.fm, which, generally speaking, share an aesthetic that is anathema to the record industry: they want to make music — and virtually everything related to music — available to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Most radically, they want to do that all for free, and claim that such a model could benefit consumers and performers.

The complimentary public conference was as notable for those who were not in attendance as it was for those who represented. Most glaringly absent were the Big Four — Sony, Warner, EMI, and Universal — and their major-label peers. Considering how mega-imprint executives continue to defend dated hard-distribution models as their businesses implode, it’s hardly a surprise to watch them miss the train. After all, tech mavens have long alleged that industry fat cats would rather toast past successes than discover how invention propels multimedia.

With big record companies willingly bucking technology, musicians and software types gathered in Cambridge to revolutionize the industry.Long before consumers, artists, or reporters noticed that established entertainment systems were growing increasingly irrelevant, developers were synthesizing music and applied science. And though many pioneer programmers are now being applauded, in the past such trailblazers were marginalized as everything from geeks to criminals. David Kusek, a vice-president of media at Berklee who was hacking complex circuit boards when his legionnaires were tweaking Speak & Spells, remembers the reaction when he used to tell people that he worked in music software: “They would say, ‘What the fuck is that?’ ” Commencing Hack Day festivities, Kusek preached his gospel to approximately 300 attendees: “Things have changed a lot . . . it’s such an open world today, and I think that’s wonderful. But don’t just share the code — share the money.”

Read more from Chris Faraone at The Phoenix

Berklee Press just released a new book from Mike King titled Music Marketing: Press, Promotion, Distribution, and Retail. The book presents a step by step integrated approach to marketing 2.0 which leverages the new music marketing opportunities available for musicians and managers and the best practices for traditional outlets that still matter. If you are looking to develop a targeted marketing plan for your band, this book will be a big help.

Chris Stone, Founder of the legendary Record Plant Studios, says:

“A strategic, real-world, down-in-the-street approach to selling music in today’s music marketplace, that takes advantage of the most effective contemporary tools, while remaining well grounded in the traditional marketing techniques that remain relevant. If you want your music to see the light of day, follow this indispensable step-by-step advice, clearly put forth from the industry trenches by an unusually effective and creative marketing professional.”

Click through to Mike’s book site to get a free chapter.