The Problem Is You!

I don’t care how much it cost you to make your record, how long you practiced, how many years you’ve been in the business. If no one hears it, it’s WORTHLESS! That’s the value of unheard music, NOTHING! Stop complaining that you’re underpaid and deserve more and start thinking about how you can reach more people and get them to listen to your music. If it’s good, they’ll react. If it’s bad, no harm, no fail. But instead you’d rather complain the system is stacked against you, that you can’t get on the radio, that you can’t get paid.

The problem is you. - Bob Lefsetz

You're in the music business, not the album business - another case for "growing in public".

Albums are for fans, singles are for newbies.

Don't make an album expecting to reach a new audience. If you want to reach a new audience, focus on the single.

I'm baffled by those who make a full length project the basis of their marketing campaign. Hell, I'm baffled they've got a campaign at all. You mean you want me to stop and listen to this much bad music? Okay, okay, don't get offended, but it seems that so much is shite, wading through the crap is a full time job, and I'm only gonna listen if a buddy tells me to and then only one track. If you're incredible, I'll want more, but only in bits and pieces. It's not like I go to Ben & Jerry's, order a cup of Phish Food and decide I like it so much that I go back to the counter and order TEN! I might buy a pint at a later date, but that's it.

Actually, I love Phish Food, and I buy pints on a regular basis. Imagine if they only made the ice cream once every two years. And I had to keep up with the marketing to know it was out. I'd have to be one hell of a fan to care.

In other words, if you're putting out an album every couple of years you're reinventing the wheel, you're marketing from ground zero over and over again. You've even lost touch with your fans. You need a steady stream of product to keep people interested. But the main point is do not release ten tracks at a time for ten bucks, that's positively archaic thinking based on the CD and major label profitability schemes.

Think of it this way. Do you constantly worry about the size of your hard drive? Do you think about coming up with a bevy of files that fit it perfectly? That's what making an album is like. In a world of unlimited storage, you're still trying to fill a floppy disk. It's a ridiculous pastime.

Concentrate on making music. Focus on making the best music you can. And release it when it's ready, don't hold it back as a result of some sales scheme. Once again, that's major label thinking for dead bands. That's how they sell the Stones or the Beatles or... All that hype about the "Exile On Main Street" anniversary set... Have you heard anybody talk about it recently? It's set in amber. Whereas the music of a working band must be in the ears of listeners on a regular basis.

The flaw in this thinking is especially prevalent in the work of classic acts. They finally put out an album and no one cares. They think it's still the seventies. That radio is waiting and everybody is listening and visiting the record shop every Saturday thumbing through the new releases. They're baffled when their album stiffs.

Usually, the music is not great. But there might be one gem included. Why not put out only that? Something that good has a chance of being spread via word of mouth. You might get some traction. Otherwise, it's the best player on a losing team. It's like being a bad baseball club with one superstar, playing in Iowa, with little or no media coverage. Your album is a team. No one wants to play with a loser. But unlike in sports, you don't need nine or eleven members on the team to play the game, in music you only need one!

We're getting there. At some point artists will catch up with the audience. But for a decade now, not only have labels been behind, so have the music makers.

Look at the statistics for new acts. They sell singles more than albums. Katy Perry's album sales are anemic, she stands on the strength of her single hits.

Oh, that's right, you're an "artist". Show me where in the manual it says an artist makes music in sixty minute chunks. Or that people listen to it that way.

I've got no problem with you combining ten tracks and selling them as a CD at your concert. Or as a double vinyl package. That's about selling a souvenir, not music.

But please, stop making albums. It's a waste of money. You lose momentum between projects. No one listens to most of the music. You're in the music business, not the album business.

And the music business is about three or five or even ten minutes of glory. An experience that cannot be denied. Concentrate on constructing that. Then you'll grow fans.

Or just make albums for the few people paying attention. But don't expect to be much bigger than you are now.

Let's Fix Cancon - Sign The Petition Now!

Gregg Terrence, president of the Canadian Independent Recording Artists’ Association, has created an online petition called Let’s Fix Cancon. Terrence proposes introducing “Cancon credits” that would entice stations to play new or developing artists. The site makes the case that when music programmers must choose between the ‘safe bet’ international star and the ‘risky’ established, national or developing artist … there is simply no incentive for choosing the lesser-known artist. So far the petition has 5,335 signatures.

Is SXSW really worth it?

We all know that SXSW is one of the most important conferences in the music industry. With over 12,000 annual registrants and the highest revenue-producing event for Austin's economy, it's clear that those who are serious about their music careers are making the trek to Texas every March. What was once a regional artist showcase has now become a platform for musicians, filmmakers, tech start-ups and even corporate brands to make some noise and reach key influencers across industries and the media.

But has anyone stopped to think if it's all really worth it?

Just 1% of Releases Account for 82% of New Album Sales...

An incredible 81.7% of new album sales come from just 1% of new release titles, according to details released by Nielsen Soundscan on Wednesday morning. "It's ridiculous," commented Nielsen executive David Bakula during the presentation at Canadian Music Week in Toronto.

But it's been that way for years, at least in the US. According to the same Nielsen dataset, the top 1% accounted for 83.3% of new album sales in 2009, and 82.8% in 2008. And, the figure was just shy of 80% in 2005, 2006, and 2007.

The story is much better in Canada, where stronger breadth and diversify exists - at least on frontline releases. In 2010, the top 1% accounted for 57.6% of overall sales last year, though previous years have also shown a lopsidedness. In 2009, the figure was 67.9%, and earlier years were mostly in the 60-percent range.

Following Comment By: wallow-T 
As a culture, we are going to have to decide: do we want art, or do we just want cheap entertainment. Art requires subsidy. The Canadians understand this, as does most of Europe.

In the old days, label heads could use the profits from cheap entertainment to subsidize art music of more lasting value. Think of the Velvet Underground, of whom it was said: their album only sold 5000 copies, but everyone who bought a copy started a band.

Now, as America worships at the altar of the Free Market, any subsidies which were steered towards worthy artists have been squeezed out, because that money rightfully belongs to the stockholders. There is no reason, according to the god of the free market, for any music below that top 1% to even exist. Gaga, Bieber, Boyle and Beyonce should fulfill all consumer needs, and screw the rest, there's not enough money in it.

Coming next: the defunding of NPR, which will strike a huge blow to liberate us from art music. Isn't freedom glorious?

Quote of the Day: Bob Lefsetz to Me

Consider it a privilege to work in entertainment, not a right. Respect those with careers both on stage and off because to be able to maintain is almost impossible. There are always new bands and nobody really needs any of them. So if you're getting tattooed to look cool...hold off on the ink.

“Why is high-fidelity going backwards? What’s wrong with people?”

Beginning in the late1940s, we’ve been told to upgrade to a new type of music playback medium every five or six years so that we be able to experience better sound.

If you’re brave enough to step into my basement, you will find CDs, LPs, 12-inch singles, 7-inch singles, cassettes (both pre-recorded and homemade), a couple of 8-tracks (Where did those come from?), a pile of DAT tapes, assorted MiniDiscs, some rescued concert recordings on 10-inch reel-to-reel tape and probably a couple of 78’s. Under the stairs is a pile of 12-inch Laserdiscs that I’m willing to let go cheap. I’ll even throw in the player.

About the only thing that’s missing are some cylinder recordings and a couple of stillborn formats like the Elcaset and anything to do with DCC.

The International Standard Organization’s approved the algorithms that make music as MP3 files possible in 1991. Twenty years on, the public’s love affair with the format’s convenience seems to know no end.

We’re firmly into the digital age. Global digital music sales reached $4.6 billion in 2010, which equals about 30 per cent of all sales by record labels. The value of the global digital music market has gone up 1,000 per cent since 2004. There are more than 13 million tracks legally licensed for download by music publishers. The MP3 rules.

But despite the severe high-fidelity shortcomings of MP3s, most people seem completely happy with what they deliver. The same goes for Apple’s AAC format, which is what you get when you buy a song through iTunes.

Although technology used in today’s hard drives keeps driving the cost of storage lower and lower, few music consumers seem interested in switching to a better sounding codec like FLAC. A song ripped to FLAC is about four times larger than when ripped to MP3—but if you’ve got the room, who cares?

Outside of a hardcore cadre of audiophiles, no one seemed much fussed that the public is listening to music with sonic qualities that are substantially worse than what we heard from vinyl on a good turntable 30 years ago. I find it strange—and rather depressing—that while we continue to demand bigger and better HD and 3DTVs, few people are demanding that the audio quality of their music gets better.

Why is high-fidelity going backwards? What’s wrong with people?

- Alan Cross

The Grammy Bounce And The Real Seller

It used to be that a Grammy performance was worth a million unit sales. That's obviously not the case anymore, but at least for some artists, the Grammy's can mean a significant sales bounce. Arcade Fire, Lady Antebellum, and Eserpanza Spalding all saw big iTunes gains after their performances on Sunday's show (see the chart on the left). Mumford and Sons saw spikes as high as 156% for some songs.

And while that might seem impressive, consider this. The Grateful Dead began presales of their Europe '72 65 CD set (yes, 65 discs) and sold out their 7200 unit run in 4 days - at $450 each. That's $3.3 million dollars, an amount that any record label would kill for these days.

Grammy Hangover - Do Singles Build Careers?

In the old days, we never would have known Mumford & Sons was the hit of Grammy night. Because we wouldn’t have instant sales information and the album couldn’t have been successful because the limited physical inventory would have sold out in a flash in brick and mortar stores.

But now you can manufacture ad infinitum, online, iTunes was ready with all the inventory necessary. Mumford & Sons is still number one on the iTunes chart.

The old wave constantly bemoans the new wave, says the Internet ruined music. What the old wave hates is it’s lost control. Which came in the form of distribution. Radiohead could not go their own way. And it would have been hard to seed retail with enough copies of Mumford & Sons to show a spike, to feed demand.

The future is not digital sales, it’s streaming. And if the labels were smart, which they are not, they’d go with Spotify immediately, before Apple or Google allows customers to keep their purchases stored in the cloud, obviating a need for subscription services. So these sales statistics, which are anemic by old wave standards, are not harbingers of the future. But they do illustrate demand. You cannot categorize what appeals to the public. In this crazy world anything can hit. With everything available, the public selects from the giant smorgasbord, messing with the system.

People want to be touched emotionally. That’s what Mumford & Sons delivers best. In other words, in an era where so much music is made by machines, people truly desire that which is made by humans.

When it’s all said and done, Mumford’s album could outsell Katy Perry’s, it’s close. Sure, Katy sold more singles, but do singles build careers?

Weekly Roundup

GUITAR HERO
It was a fad. Stuns me that a business that specializes in selling fads didn’t realize this. Ringtones were going to save the music industry, then ringbacks and Guitar Hero/Rock Band. They’re all fads. In the modern tech world you get in early and get out early, just like with a musical fad. Give props to Scooter Braun and his Justin Bieber movie. Because it won’t be long before there’s no fever surrounding the Bieber. How do I know? Because I’ve lived long enough to see everybody from the Monkees to NKOTB to the boy bands to Miley Cyrus come and go. And let’s not forget Leif Garrett…

LADY GAGA/EXPRESS YOURSELF
"Express Yourself" was a hit in 1989. That’s twenty two years ago. Most of GaGa’s fans hadn’t reached consciousness or weren’t even born yet. No one cares. And "Express Yourself" was a good record!

PEAS AT THE SUPER BOWL
Of course they sucked. But they weren’t playing for you, they were playing for the mainstream. The Hold Steady are never going to play the Super Bowl, get over it.

THE GRAMMY SHOW
Train-wreck incarnate. The same people complaining about the Peas are gonna bitch about this show. But never forget, it’s about television, not music, it’s about ratings, not quality. Just like radio is about advertisements, not content. Don’t get your knickers in a twist. The show is meaningless. Just a celebration of what once was in the mainstream. Yes, most of the stars will be gone tomorrow. And the audience doesn’t care, it’s too addicted to Facebook.

EGYPT
We were there first, music fans already revolted. They killed not only the album, but the major labels. We’re living in an era of chaos. To complain is to be Mubarak. The audience was oppressed for too long, given an opportunity to go its own way, it did. Remind me how it helped the audience to have to buy a fifteen dollar CD to hear the one track that was a hit? Now they just buy the hit on iTunes. And if they don’t do that, they don’t even bother to steal it, they just watch it on YouTube. You don’t need to own it, next year it won’t mean anything.

WARNER/EMI
The latest report is that Warner wants to sell itself before EMI, to get the most cash. The major labels were decimated by the Internet. Their assets are worth something, but not what they once were. Publishing will go for a lot. Someone will end up with the masters. As for new music, that’s up for grabs. Who’s going to break new music? Who’s going to pay for its development? That’s a problem we need solved, but you don’t see VCs and techies throwing money at that, because it’s just too difficult, it’s easier to trade on the assets of what once was.

EMI
Ignore Faxon. Banks don’t like to hold assets. That’s not their business. EMI’s for sale, it’s just a matter of when.

VINYL
Enough. There are people who collect buggy whips too. Sure, it sounds better. But do you think everybody’s going to drive fifties Thunderbirds because they look better? Face the future, don’t try to bring back the past. At some indeterminate time bandwidth will be so plentiful and cheap that quality sound will return. But it’s not imminent.

THE DECLINE OF WEB-BASED E-MAIL
The Decline of Web-Based E-Mail

People check their e-mail on their mobile handsets. Young ‘uns don’t use e-mail at all. Think mobile. That’s where all the action is. That’s how you reach customers. And that’s what’s killing the major labels. They’re still making revenue from physical product when the future is streaming to the handset. If you’re married to the past, you’re lost in the future.

WORLDOMETERS
worldometers

The numbers are positively staggering. You need to start right in front of your nose, but don’t stay there. The money to be made exploiting music around the world is huge. You don’t need to reach everybody, there are so many people out there.

HOWARD STERN ON TWITTER
Howard Stern - Twitter

Today he watched his own movie, "Private Parts", and tweeted the real story behind all the scenes. Musical acts should go on Twitter and do the same thing, tell the real story behind making their music and being on tour. The public eats this up. If you do the tweeting yourself and are honest. Don’t forget, the key is TRUST!

Wow, YouTube Really Thinks We're That Stupid...

Sorry, the gig is up on free music. It isn't making bands rich, or even making ends meet, for that matter. If you need proof of this, check out this discussion thread about Spotify - it contains real numbers and testimonials about how paltry the payouts on free access are. It's not just Lady Gaga that's getting the shaft.

(full article)

What Does Lindsay Lohen and The Canadian Record Industry Have In Common?

TORONTO: Album sales continue to mirror the career trajectory of Lindsay Lohen. According to Nielsen SoundScan Canada, the sum total of the top 10 totalled 30,859 units for the week ending Feb. 6, down from the mortiferous 32,511 units reported the previous week. Year-to-dates sales for titles in the weekly top 10 total 174,424, down almost 50% from the 323,916 sold in the 1st 5 weeks of 2010. The #1 album for the week, Doo-Wops & Hooligans by Bruno Mars, sold a wan 4,200 copies

DIY is not D2F

Of the 94,000 albums released last year how does one rise above the clutter of the thousands of other releases? Just because you can easily record and release your music with a click of a mouse, doesn't mean you should. Is DIY the answer? DIY is not DTF, and DIY has its limitations.

DIY – or ‘do it yourself’ marketing for the uninitiated – was widely viewed as an early startup approach during the sessions. ReverbNation CEO Mike Doernberg called pure DIY “crap,” though at the earliest stages it can help an artist get some initial traction. “The DIY problem is that people think it’s DIY for life – it’s not… you cannot do it yourself,” said Steven Van Zandt. “All the best records ever made were made by an army of people.”

By contrast, DTF, or direct-to-fan, is highly related but ultimately something different. The marketing team surrounding Radiohead, Trent Reznor or Arcade Fire, for example, is going direct-to-fan. But "they" are not doing it by themselves.

DIY = WTF! is live and on the air!

Join the conversation at www.twitter.com/DIYisWTF