social bookmarking: geeking out on it

See this is one frustrating part of my job is trying to understand technology that only geeks currently use so that 6,12,18 months down the track when it becomes popular enough to offer real promotion opportunities to musicians and creatives I've already got a thorough understanding - as it was one of the great fortunes of my life that such a thing happened with myspace and social networking to put me where I am today.
I will be blogging soon about deciding how to avoid wasting your time resources on sites that won't help promote your music because there's no one there to promote your music to.
But see as I've said before, promoting on the net is all about having the distribution systems in place for the ongoing genration of content, and having this set up in the most favourable way for search.
Although theories are starting to fester in the unlikeliest corners of Nigeria that Social - with the potential to infinitely and effortlessly connect, network, aggregate and deliver is gonna eventually be bigger than search, the sons of myspace will destroy the sons of google.
But you'll see that rather than going nutty on the quantity and quality of my content creation (and here I am writing a boring as geeky blog post to blow off steam) which comes further down the line, I'm strengthening my distribution network.
Because the latest technology I am trying to come to grips with in this area is social bookmarking and feeds and the like and though it may seem otherwise to you who are co ordinated enough to play an instrument - I am not naturally adapted to such geek environments.
And don't try and argue that Stumbleupon, Digg and Del.icio.us isn't geek shit. Myspace is mainstream. Social bookmarking is still geek shit.
So whats it about? Well I have managed to wrap my head around the significance of distribution and ease of access to quality information.
Although as you know I write my own material when I can, and I'm trying to get more into useful and unique analyses, you probably notice I repost a lot of articles I find for you people to read and the happy result is more business and more kudos for my business by providing access to significant items of interest in my chosen field of expertise.
So whereas in times past this would have been considered akin to plagiarism, these days, with the flaws of the internet manifested by google in screeds of pointless unvaluable information or "noise", being able to provide direct access to high quality information, creating trust and worthiness - as I've pointed out several times - is now quite a powerful marketing strategy.
Hopefully you can reflect on how all this relates to YOUR online promotion strategy.
What kind of access and redistribution of information can you provide to your fanbase to add value to your brand?
More less geek oriented stuff coming through soon.
Stupid bloody bookmarking sites. This better bump my google ranking and get me lots of hits.

Lets see how this goes:

Hot to get gigs/shows/bookings

How to get gigs

Here's another article I grabbed this time from about.com (music.about.com) they got a few good ones! People are always asking me how to get gigs, but I don't touch that stuff! Posters I do, press kits I do, CD promos I do, gig promotion on and networking on myspace, bebo, facebook I do. My role I see as a happy helper who makes sure your gig doesn't go completely to shit and become a lasting scar on your psyche. Not a bad deal for a couple of hundy. I know all about gigging, touring, promoting gigs, I've done plenty of it, made all the mistakes. If you're an unknown, you're going to have to spend a couple of years playing gigs to no one and it coming out of your own pocket and there's no cut in that for me! If you're not an unknown, then you'll already have a manager. Poor sod. Fortunately, online promotion and networking gives you a chance to at least generate some interest before you hit the stage, but being a manager is not a glamourous or thankful job - that's why I charge $500 p/month to do it on top of a full promotions package. OH ALSO: one day I will have to write about why it's important to be nice. From my experience Auckland is the ONLY place in NZ where not being nice won't fuck your career and even then, you'll be lucky. Pay your debts, don't be rude or demanding, don't get into "beef" on the "scene" with other musicians. Trust me. Or 6 months from now you'll be sitting in your room wondering why you never get any gigs. Of course it wasn't to do with you dissing that band on the message boards. HOW TO GET GIGS: One of the best ways to build up a fan base for your band is to get out there and play live, as often as your can. But often bands find themselves between a rock and hard place - to get a gig, you need an audience, but to get an audience, you need a gig. You can rise above that, however, and get your band in front of the crowd if you follow the right steps. This how-to guide will cover getting a single show, but many of these steps can be built upon to book your band an entire tour. 1. Think Locally - The best place to start looking for gigs is in your own backyard. Get to know the music scene in your area. What venues and promoters are willing to give up and coming bands a chance? What bands in your area play live often and might need a support act? What venues in your area put on touring bands, who might need a local opening act? To get a gig, all of these factors can come into play. Approaching the right venues will open doors to you, and there is strength in numbers, so working together will the other bands in the area will increase the opportunities for everyone. (Plus, you can share gear!) 2. Get your Promo Package Together - [or "media kit"] Have a standard package ready to introduce yourself to venues and promoters. Much like the package you use when you send a demo to a label , this promo package should be short and sweet. Include a short demo CD, a short bio or one sheet to introduce the band, and some press clippings, if you have any (especially ones that review live performances). If you're going to approach people by email instead, cut and paste the info into the body of an email and include a link to a site where your music can be heard. Don't send attachments - most people won't open them. 3. Approach the Venue - To get a gig directly with a venue, call and find out who is in charge of booking bands and send them your promo package. They may tell when to contact them again. If not, give them about a week, and follow up by phone or email. Keep trying until you get an answer. If you've haven't played live much, your best bet is try to get on an existing bill with a band that already has a bit of a following. Keep in mind that if you book with a venue, you may be in charge of promoting the show yourself and paying venue rental fees, unless you are invited on to an existing concert bill. 4. Approach the Promoter - If you'd rather not self promote and take on venue fees, you can approach a promoter to get a gig. Send your promo pack to the promoter and follow up in the same way you would with a venue. If a promoter agrees to get you a show, they will book the venue and promote the show for you, but you may need to send them posters you have made yourself to do so. If the promoter doesn't want to put you on by yourself yet, ask them if they have any shows you could play as an opening act. If they say no, check in from time to time to remind them you are always available as a support act. [Matt - lets not pussyfoot about. If you're not established and there's a big promoter guy who's running game in your scene, you'll have to offer to play for free. Rememeber, promoters are often people who like to feel important. work with that.] 5. Understand the Deal - This is the trickiest part for most bands. First, understand that when you are just getting started, you often will not make money on your shows. In fact, you may even end up out of pocket. That doesn't mean it was all for nothing - building up your fan base will mean you do make money on future gigs. If you do make money, you will either have a deal where you get paid a pre-agreed amount no matter how many people turn up, or you will have a door split deal . Either deal is fine and fair. Focus on building your audience and not the money right now. 6. Play the Gig - Sounds obvious, I know, but the way you handle the gig can have a lasting impact on your ability to get future shows. Show up on time for the soundcheck and if there are other bands playing, remember everyone needs time for their soundcheck. Be professional - there is likely to be free drinks around, but remember everyone is there to hear your music, not to see if you can handle your beer. Don't sell yourself short by getting on stage in anything but your top shape, ready to play a great show. Play a good show, be courteous and professional, and you'll soon be getting more show offers! [Matt - this is a big one. If you're just starting out, don't be all anal about soundcheck and free drinks!!! You're just there to fill in the gap before the guys everyones coming to see plays. The promoter will look at you like the amateur you are if you stat getting huffy and making demands.] Tips: 1. Don't Get Caught Up on the Deal - This is worth repeating. Your goal is build up your audience. Promoters and venues are taking a chance on you when you are just getting started - they will be more willing to give you a chance if you don't have a lot of financial demands. 2. But Don't Pay to Play - If you're putting on your own show, of course you may have to pay a venue hire fee and you may to pay some promotional costs. However, don't pay money simply to get on a bill, and don't trust anyone who asks you to. 3. Invite the Press - Keep the entertainment writers at your local papers informed about your activities and always invite them to the show. Also, keep your local radio stations up to date on what's happening with your band and when you're playing. 4. Respect the Guest List - Guests lists have a way of getting out of hand, fast. Don't push it with promoters with the guest list when you are trying to build up a name for yourself. If you're part of a larger bill, you may not even have any guest list spaces. If you do, use what you have and be done with it. Don't try to get 50 of your closest cheapskate friends into every show for free. You'll get a bad name for yourself. More How To's from your Guide To Music Careers Playing live may be the most important thing a band can do. If your band is unsigned, playing live is a great way to build up a loyal fan base, get some media attention and attract record label interest. For signed bands, gigs are the means by which you can keep building your audience while promoting your new releases. Booking a gig can seem like an overwhelming process, however, especially when a band is doing all of the booking themselves. If you're in a cold sweat, wondering how to get some shows for your band, never fear. Take a deep breath, relax and follow these steps that are sure to get your band on stage. The Basics - Let's go right back to the beginning. Before you even can think about booking a gig, there are a few things you will need to have in place: • A demo or a finished CD, or a website on which people can listen to your music • A press pack, including information about your band and clippings of any press coverage you may have had. You should also have an idea of when you want to play a show - approaching a venue or promoter and asking for a gig "whenever" isn't very helpful. Come up with a window of preferred dates and make sure everyone in the band has their calendar clear for those days. Find the Right People - So, you've got the promo package and demo ready to go - now, who should you send it to? There are two ways you can go about booking a gig: • Book directly with the venue, in which case you as a band take on the costs and responsibilities of promoting the show • Book with a promoter, who takes charge of promoting the show Sometimes, venues work with a specific promoter, and sometimes they don't. Give your venue of choice a call to find out how they do things. If you don't know any promoters, ask the venue for advice, or ask around to find out with whom other bands in your area work. If possible, get the names of a few different promoters and venue booking agents and send them all promo packages - nothing wrong with people fighting to give you a chance to play, right? Tired of booking gigs for yourself? Try getting a manager or agent on board who can help you get the shows you want. The Deal - A good deal is part and parcel of a good gig. You should prepare yourself, however, for the fact that many shows lose money. If you're just getting started and don't have much of a following yet, you should think of your gigs as promotional opportunities for your band rather than money making opportunities. Your willingness to work with a promoter and/or a venue to try and minimize the financial risk involved in a show will only help you convince people to work with you. Your deal should detail how any income for the show will be divided, as well as confirming information about things like accommodation for the band, riders, backline, and soundchecks. If there is something you're unsure about or you don't think is fair, speak up well in advance of the show. • Door Split Deals • Before you Sign a Music Promoter Contract • Backline • Rider • Should I Pay to Play a Gig? Show Up and Play - Now all you have to do is show up and play a good show. Be professional, treat the promoter and the people at the venue with respect, and if you can't handle drinking all of the rider before going on stage, then for goodness sake, don't do it. If you happen to have an off night, but you have treated people well, most promoters will want to work with you again. If you've given everyone working to put on the show a night of utter chaos and stress, well, then, you'll probably be looking for a new place to play. Make sure you take full advantage of the audience at the show and promote any releases, new websites, or any other news the band may have. Encourage everyone who enjoyed your set to sign your mailing list, so you can let them know when you're playing again. Cheers for the connection with Kurb. Supporting musicians with successful strategies on a budget. Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and a dedicated online distribution, promotion and videomarketing program. All the best with your music, from Kurb For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo ..................... Kurb Myspace

Music Industry Long Tail - Everythings up! Except CD's.

For those who are not familiar with the "Long Tail" theory it is one of the most persuasive theories in the economy of the entertainment business right now - that the infinite shelf space of the internet will cater to so many more tastes and demands out there than before, that the small amount of "hits" and "hitmakers" traditionally responsible for the bulk of profits will see a decline as tatses diversify amongst the infinite range of whats now available.

Here's an update from author and editor of wired magazine Chris Anderson on the state of the music industry.

October 19, 2007
Everything in the music industry is up! (except those plastic discs)

At a speech last week I was asked a question that has come up every day since the Radiohead (and Madonna, NIN, Prince, etc, etc) announcement: What's going to happen to the music industry?

To which I answered "Which music industry?" You don't mean just the one that sells CDs, do you? Because it's a big mistake to equate the major labels and their plastic disc business with the industry as a whole. Indeed, when you stand back and look at all of music, things don't look so bad at all.

Indeed, it appears that every single part of the music industry except the sale of compact discs is up.

* Concerts and merchandise: UP (+4%)
* Digital tracks: UP (+46%)
* Ringtones: UP (+86% last year, but probably just single-digit percent this year)
* Licensing for commercials, TV shows, movies and videogames: UP (Warner Music saw licensing grow by about $20 million over the past year)
* Even vinyl singles (think DJs): UP (more than doubled in the UK)
* And, if you include the iPod in the music industry, as I'd argue a fair-minded analysis would: UP, UP, UP! (+31% this year)

Only CDs are down (-18%). They're around 60% of the industry not including the MP3 players, but just around 25% if you do include them.

So the problem with the music labels is not that music is an industry in decline, but that they have a too-narrow view of what business they're in. Madonna's switch from a label to a concert promoter should be a clue. This quote from an excellent article (it's worth reading it all) in Entertainment Weekly says it all:

''Soon a lot of these companies won't define themselves as record companies,'' says Steve Greenberg, the former head of Columbia Records who now runs the independent record company S-Curve. ''They'll define themselves as artist development companies. If you're involved in an entire career with an artist, then everyone's interests can be aligned."

I think most music will soon be free, as artists give away the product as marketing for their performances and licensing, and as a celebrity accelerant that creates more opportunities to make money than just from the sale of a record.

And for those who say that this avenue is only available to artists at the head of the curve, such as Madonna and Radiohead, I'd point out that the other group poorly served by the labels are those at the bottom of the curve, the many thousands of bands who fall below the radar of the hit-driven majors. I'd argue that they, too, have nothing to lose by letting their music go free, nothing to lose but the prospect of becoming indentured to companies stuck in last century's model of monetizing music,

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And, for what it's worth, down here in long-tail retailer land at CD Baby, even physical CD sales are up 35% over this same month last year. I suspect that part (not all) of the decline of the top-40 CD sales are people buying more CDs directly from independent musicians and alternative outlets.

Posted by: Derek Sivers October 19, 2007 at 11:07 PM

Then there's the content. I'd bet that # of bands, # of musicians, # of tracks being made and available somewhere, # of venues are all up as well. My gut feel is that there are more people making more music than ever before. Then how about streaming; Last.fm and Pandora up. P2P sharing; Up. Number of shoutcast servers; Up. Digital radio and radio over cable/satellite stations are Up.

It's highly likely that more people are listening to more (and more varied) music than ever before.

It's not really CD sales that are down. It's the Music Major's profits.

Posted by: julian bond October 20, 2007 at 01:46 AM

The EW article is extremely interesting, just read it last night. Of particular interest are the "360" deals which include concerts, merchandising, etc. (all forms of revenue, not just CD's). These all-inclusive deals should be the logical progression for the music ologopoly. They clearly need to hedge their bets and diversifying is the answer. These big companies are also much better suited at trafficking in the short head rather than discovering talent in the long tail. Increasingly, technology is facilitating the discovery of longtail artists.

Perhaps this will evolve like the financial markets have. Large labels can start acting like investment banks rather than VC's or seed financiers. They become more transactional in nature and only deal with artists with a lower risk profile (guaranteed revenue stream). Technology will facilitate the viability of smaller unsigned artists getting discovered, and music labels will play less of a role in that process. Perhaps there is still room for labels to take risks and "make" unknown artists into superstars, but maybe it's time they embraced their future in "buying" artists rather than "building" them?

Posted by: Ryan October 20, 2007 at 08:08 AM

Sharing music to promote concerts has been going on for over forty years. The Jam Bands, specifically The Grateful Dead starting allowing their concerts to be taped and shared from their beginning. From this grew a fanatical group of concert goers that follows the band in it's various incarnations today.

They have now spawned a new genre which is instant high quality sound board mixes of the concerts that they do. At $10.00 for an MP3 it makes it worth while to purchase directly from the band online. I expect you'll see more of this as the "real" music companies catch on.....even if it only took them forty years.

Posted by: Josh Patrick October 20, 2007 at 08:38 AM

Sharing music to promote concerts has been going on for over forty years. The Jam Bands, specifically The Grateful Dead starting allowing their concerts to be taped and shared from their beginning. From this grew a fanatical group of concert goers that follows the band in it's various incarnations today.

They have now spawned a new genre which is instant high quality sound board mixes of the concerts that they do. At $10.00 for an MP3 it makes it worth while to purchase directly from the band online. I expect you'll see more of this as the "real" music companies catch on.....even if it only took them forty years.

Posted by: Josh Patrick October 20, 2007 at 08:39 AM

I'm still in shock that the RIAA is running such a gangster outfit... and the government is standing by them as well as the justice system. When more money is spent on lobbying than on marketing, you should take a hint that you're in a dying industry.

Posted by: Douglas Karr October 20, 2007 at 11:14 AM



Cheers for the connection with Kurb.

Supporting musicians with successful strategies on a budget.

Kurb is NZ’s leader in online promotion strategies for artists and creative projects plus we offer the cheapestCD/DVD reproduction and
posters available.


Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and a dedicated online distribution, promotion and videomarketing program.


All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo


.....................
Kurb Myspace

Online promotion: it's all about content

Right in part 2 of my new blog series from my latest research - well it's not really research its more of a successful experiment which I am extrapolating on i.e. doing more of.

Yay I'm on the observation post team for NZ musician now. I guess I'll have to tone down the buy buy buy angle. Oh and the spam spam spam angle.

But see I see Kurb as like uhhh the mighty Totara, that we might, like mad Vikings, board our cyber wakas fashioned and hewn from the technology of kurb and set forth to conquer far off lands with our antipodean sound – except thanks to kurb, you don't actually have to leave the house.

I live only a few blocks from The New Zealand Music Industry Commission. Man, if they gave me one of those $50,000 grants they're always giving out to the household names to get radio play in europe I could put every kiwi artist on myspace on a kurb online promotion plan – then we'd really see some developments!

Btw there's a reason I never talk about getting NZ on Air or creative NZ grants. You're better off looking for fairies and leprechauns in the back garden. Maybe Kurb should develop an artist strategy package for that also.


Cheers for the connection with Kurb.

Supporting musicians with successful strategies on a budget.

Kurb is NZ's leader in online promotion strategies for artists and creative projects plus we offer the cheapest
CD/DVD reproduction and posters available.

Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you're interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD's, posters and a dedicated online distribution, promotion and video marketing program.

All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo
.....................
Kurb Myspace




Your online promotion strategy: Its all about content.

Whattya mean "Content"? Y'know, stuff!

Well theres primary content. That's your music (kinda) and your gigs and your merch. Where your earn is. I don't deal with that stuff. I make CD's and posters and I can put you in touch with engineers etc. but basically all the promo stuff that makes you seem cool – your words, pictures, website and profile designs, videos, that's your secondary content. And it's my jobe to make sure thousands of people see it.

Remember what I was saying last time about how if your content is good and they can get it, then people will like you, and you'll make money? Oh but remember how I said – if people can find you amongst all the "access"?

I think what I'm really trying to reinforce to you is that my end of things – the bit where everyone finds out about you – that's sorted. Just leave that to me. But sure, so if I can make 10,000 people watch your video, what if your video is crap? Or worse, what if you only ever do one decent thing and people think you must have died? I mean I'm open to strategies but . . .

I said do you want to get famous and make money not doing some normal job or not?

But it is kinda why I've launched the 3 month thing because if we wanna build your fan base up in a way that's real we gotta put some work in! Even if you're amazing it'll take 6 months at least.

I think I'll do a post "the cost of fame: $NZ2000".

Which brings us to the subject. People want cool stuff. Stuff that grabs them, cool stuff they can enjoy, stuff they can feel cool telling other people about. That happens so quickly now its insane.

People come to my blogs. I'm tip toe spamming round some of the biggest internet communities in the world linking musicians I've targeted to my blogs and they're coming and they're liking and they're linking and googles reading the links and the blogs are coming up on searches and people are clicking the links and googles reading the behaviour and next thing Kurb is beating out huge established companies in NZ for searches on "online promotion" AND "cd duplication" and "postering".

THIS IS WHY BLOGS ARE MASSIVE. Because Google pays attention to them. Those little google spiders read EVERY WORD.

Helps if you've got 20-odd like me, but I'm lazy I should really get another few hundred up and running.

I can't tell you all my secrets. But if you can get into the habit of writing about cool stuff that the kind of people who listen to your kind of music like at least once a week, y'know, 2-300 words - you're gonna have something to work with even if you don't work with us. Just make sure you put your links! Back to your website! You do have a website don't you? Oh then make your wordpress blog your website then, shit!

Seriously. Did somebody say "Radiohead"? Your website is now MORE IMPORTANT than your CD. And having your myspace as your website is basically like having a cd without a case. It looks unprofessional and things will get messy.

Your myspace is (or bebo if you're a teen act or facebook if you play to the discerning crowd) the doorway to well exactly what youtube calls it – your channel. A place where you're engaging them on your own terms. Myspace is like the gig. Now invite them back to your place and make it personal.

It's totally like "Like our myspace? You should totally come back to my site and check out our band – we've got downloads and everything, it'll be crazy. I've totally got this blog about like, the craziest gig we did ever its like got pictures and everything. Just leave your email if you wanna know when the video for the song we wrote about it is up."

Now doesn't that just sound like a bunch of dudes?

And now I'm talking about videos! Videos are different from blogs – they're not special in a jedi geek way like blogs are because they're not text, google spioders can't "read" them, they don't link, they don't tell google anything. But videos . . . they sure say something.

As I'm moving onto in part 3, people don't want to pay for your CD!! How do you think you're gonna get paid? They're just gonna throw money at you? Why does rich come before famous uh "syntactically"?? If it ever did in reality it certainly doesn't any more.

We're gonna have to work – I can get these people to you but you've got to really get to these people about who you are, what your music is and what it's about. It's gonna take more than one cool video to make them part with their cash, but if you're the real thing it'll happen eventually.

If you are the real thing then let people know. Blog about it. Film it. Sorry to be old balloonhead over here, but when it comes to internet campaigns I'm the real thing and that's why I go to the trouble of explaining that the experience is real, and people who pursue this information connect with it and they want to be involved. And they want to spend money. Your music works in the same way. We do business on the internet now. Trust = earning.

And if you've already got well recorded songs and you know you're ready to start blogging and making videos and keep doing it then as I say - write the cheques and leave the rest to me. Then you'll have plenty of time to make videos and blog posts. Being an industrious fellow I'll probably be able to do both of those things for you as well soon enough.

We're already working on our studio set in the garage so we can start filming, bringing content live that people can connect with. Do you think I'm going to be dropping 5k every time I want to make a shitty little clip for youtube? And being all "Te Irirangi Motu" on it? Don't hold your breath.

Have you seen youtube? People record themselves in their rooms talking to shitty little webcams. And they get famous. People are engaging this shit. Video does so much more than blogs to break down the anonymity of the web and create bonds, connections, whatever - for creative and thoughtful people theres endless ways to use video to bring character to your musical identity.

This is what media is all about. Some people love the tight playing, some people love the style, some people know all the lyrics, some people think the bass player has a real attitude and great hair. How are people gonna get that message if you're not sending it? And I mean every month because you know they'll just forget if you don't remind them.

So.

See the way media is converging – as a musician you've got to see the SERVICE you provide as part of a larger product which is an experience. To have a career in music these days – well we knew when video came along it was less about the sound - now promoting yourself as a musician on the internet is about promoting yourself as an experience! When people believe in the experience, when you've provided someone with the experience of the music and what it represents and it's real for them . . . people want to feel closer to that experience, and that could mean as little as buying the T shirt. Or the box set. And they're gonna be there next time you play, and they're going to bring all their friends.

That's what happens when people discover something real amongst the shit. They hold it up. They say, "look what I found!"

So when it comes to providing content as the engine of your online promotions campaign remember that now, what you're providing is more than ever, more than a sound, more than a catchy tune, it's an experience, it's a way of life.

Music videos go online - end of music TV era

Awesome article dropping down on the state of music videos as a promotional tool and source of revenue to the music industry.

- Don't forget now! Kurb is australasia's leader in dedicated techniques to market and distribute your videos online through Youtube and potential revenue generators such as megavideo, revver and over 15 other video sharing sites.

The economic model that MTV was built on has been shredded - big budget one off videos are out - the digital revolution is upon us! You have the power to cut an album and make a video in your own bedroom and distribute it worldwide!

So don't make one song, one video, keep making songs, keep uploading videos, film gigs, film band practices, make vblogs, make funny shorts, talk about your music, blog about your music, build your following, interact, be an entertainer, create meaning, connect with them and connect them to your music!

visit Business weeks gallery of 10 stars who revolutionised the industry and reflect how innovation, community and interaction could change your musical career.

This new article drops after Bob Lefsetz and other cutting edge media critics denounce the MTV awards and Top 40 becoming just a circus sideshow to what's really happening in the music industry today - as witnessed by the brutal cannibalising of one of it's own, Ms. Britney Spears.

This from indystar:

Consumers Bop to Rhythm of Online Music Videos

[who came up with that clanger of a headline for such a decent article? Don't they know that blogging is 50% headline and 50% content???]

Viewership of music videos moved from TV to the Web at such a fast pace that few saw it coming.

Yahoo, the Web's top music destination, streams 240 million music videos monthly. MTV, which defined the young music video medium but now devotes nearly all of its airtime to non-music video fare, attracted 1 million viewers in prime-time viewing in August.

"Online is the single-largest place where consumers are watching music videos," says Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of eLabs, Universal Music Group's digital division. "When we release a video, we still put it on MTV and BET, but in terms of the most impact from audience and revenue, it's online."

Videos used to be given to networks such as MTV to sell CDs. Now, labels charge for video usage. "It was clear that all of our content needed to be paid for," says Thomas Hesse, president of Sony BMG Music Entertainment's global digital business unit. "The times when we could make our content available for free so someone would buy the CD are over. We drive usage to the Internet sites, so we should be paid."

Hesse wouldn't disclose exact figures, but Caraeff says licensing of music videos to sites such as Yahoo, AOL Music and YouTube reaps $20 million yearly for Universal and is growing steadily.

YouTube has been at odds with much of the entertainment industry because some of its users digitize content on their own and put it on the site without compensating the content owner. MTV owner Viacom is suing YouTube owner Google in a copyright infringement case.

But Universal, Sony BMG, Warner Music and EMI have agreements allowing their music videos to be shown on YouTube. In exchange, they share in ad revenue. YouTube attracts the largest video viewing - including movie trailers, amateur productions and tech podcasts - on the Web, with 44.8 million visitors in August.

With 23.4 million visitors in August, Yahoo is the most-visited music site, followed by ArtistDirect, MySpace's music channel, AOL Music and MTV's music channels, including MTV.com, VH1.com and CMT, according to ComScore.

This summer, Yahoo began offering an application to post many of its videos onto pages of the wildly popular social-network site, Facebook. It has since expanded this concept, via a test site, to post videos from Universal and Sony BMG onto personal Web sites or blogs.

Once word gets out and music fans realize that they can take the latest videos by say, Justin Timberlake or Fergie, and post them to their blog, Yahoo Music general manager Ian Rogers believes the viewing of videos online will grow "from 10 to 100 times over the next one to two years," he says. "There's no question people want to do this."

He says Yahoo fought for several years to shut down sites that offered ways to hack into Yahoo Music and post videos. "We know the demand is there."
Demand and convenience caused music fans to migrate to the Web to watch the majority of their music videos, says Rogers.

"If you want to see a music video, why would you turn on MTV and hope to see the video you want, when you could go online and get it immediately?" he says. "The shift happened as music videos became more available online and less available on TV. This was a natural evolution."

MTV, the channel that defined music videos, isn't sitting out the digital revolution. On-air, the TV channel urges viewers to go to MTV.com to see the latest videos and video premieres. "We realize that we live in an on-demand culture," says MTV Executive Vice President Courtney Holt.

Holt says on-demand viewing is great, but it's TV exposure that still makes the difference for emerging bands. He cites groups such as OK Go and Paramore, which had major online exposure but took off after MTV started playing their videos.

MTV recently bought a 50 percent interest in digital music service Rhapsody to expand its online music reach. Both Rhapsody and MTV.com show music videos on their sites, while some sites - most notably Apple's iTunes - offer them for sale. Caraeff says streaming music videos represents the bulk of the action for music videos and that downloads represent a tiny fraction of sales. Hesse says his best-selling download of all time - a recent Timberlake song - clocked in at just 58,000 sales for $1.99 apiece.
"This is a good, growing business," he says. "As more people get video iPods, we'll start to see more people buying music videos."

Label executives are also looking for streams and downloads to mobile phones - currently a niche business - to explode in the coming years as more wireless customers get multimedia phones.

"The average usage time on a phone for entertainment programming is no more than two or three minutes," says Caraeff. "The short-form nature of music videos makes it a perfect fit."

Q&A with Rio Caraeff

USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham spoke with Caraeff about how music videos have shifted from TV distribution to the Web, and turned into a profit center.

Question: Is TV distribution for music videos still important?
Answer: Online is the single largest place where consumers are watching video. When we release a video, we still put it on MTV and BET, but in terms of the most impact from audience and revenue, it's online. We're reaching more people than we've ever reached before with our music, and have turned what was a promotional business into a revenue business, worth $20 million a year for us, and growing.

Q. Where are people viewing the music videos online?
A. YouTube and Yahoo Music are the lion's share, along with MySpace and AOL. In the last quarter, we had 265 million streams of our videos online, and that doesn't even include YouTube, which is just starting to report activity. We have a Universal channel on YouTube, and the last time I looked, we had 180 million streams. YouTube is becoming the largest place for where our videos are played.

Q. Talk about how you make money off videos.
A. We were the first major label to realize that the old ways of doing business with music videos wasn't working anymore. Twenty years of videos as a promo piece wasn't stimulating sales of CDs. We had to turn videos into a premium product that feels free and convince Web sites to pay license fees for usage. Now every time the video is played, we get paid. We also offer them for sale at sites like iTunes, and via mobile phones and Verizon and Sprint. Both are flourishing, but the lion's share of activity is via streaming.

Q. Music videos used to boast of million-dollar budgets and big-name directors. What's the state of music videos today?
A. Clearly, the days of multimillion production budgets for videos has waned, but we've been able to do more with less. The budgets have come down, but the creativity has risen. With the challenge of doing more with a smaller budget, some of the best videos have come in with no budget, using Mac computers, high-def cameras and a small crew.
I even envision a world where music videos are created by the fan, and collaboration that exists in a digital, all-Internet world - the artist creates the song, and fans can go online, and make the videos. We're going to see a lot more creativity. It's no longer just about one big company publishing, it's a two-way communication. This is completely new to our industry and something we embrace.



Cheers for the connection with Kurb.

Supporting musicians with successful strategies on a budget.

Kurb is NZ’s leader in online promotion strategies for artists and creative projects plus we offer the cheapest
CD/DVD reproduction and
cheap posters available.


Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and a dedicated online distribution, promotion and videomarketing program.


All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo


.....................
Kurb Myspace

More juice on industry changes from business week

Business week gallery of 10 stars who have revolutionised the industry

It has been a rough month of breakups for the Big Four record companies. First, British rock group Radiohead decided to release its new record as a pay-what-you-wish digital download on Oct. 10, making it clear the quintet intends to avoid any new major record deal. A week later, industrial band Nine Inch Nails declared its emancipation from its former label, Interscope Records. NIN's announcement came less than a month after front man Trent Reznor exhorted fans at a Sydney show to "steal" music to protest high CD prices.

"I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different, and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate," Reznor wrote on the band's Web site on Oct. 8. "Exciting times, indeed."

Not if you're a record company executive watching sales plummet. Last year, CD sales dropped 13%, to $9.2 billion, according to figures from the Recording Industry Association of America. The slump mirrors overall revenues for the Big Four—Sony/BMG, Universal, Warner (WMG), and EMI Group—which have been flat or declining for more than two years.
"A New World"

The Internet has wreaked all sorts of havoc on the traditional recorded-music model. For decades labels have been signing bands, paying for their first record and video, moving the music to radio and retailers, organizing concert tours, and helping to peddle merchandise. But for many fans and artists, that model has become grossly anachronistic. If the music is flowing digitally, why allow a corporation to get between an artist and the audience? "It's a new world now, and people are thinking of new ways to reach the people, and that's always been my aim," said Paul McCartney in March, 2007, when he joined Starbucks' (SBUX) new music label, HearMusic, ditching his longtime home at EMI.

It doesn't help that the same companies have been antagonizing music consumers for years with pricey CDs, rights-management restrictions, and file-sharing lawsuits. "They can't even make a product you can open," says Brandon Kessler, founder of Messenger Records, a small New York City label. "Can you imagine going to the store and buying a carton of milk you can't get open? It's infuriating. There's such a lack of knowledge of their customer."

Record executives finally recognize the shift and are no longer betting on a revival of CD sales. "Almost every core operating principle in the recorded-music business has been shaken or challenged," said Warner Music Chairman and Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. in a Sept. 17 speech at a technology conference.

One of the casualties is the industry's fundamental economics. A record label used to play an important financial role because it fronted the money to record an album, which could cost tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now any 14-year-old can pick up a copy of Apple's (AAPL) Logic Studio for $499 and make respectable recordings. All that's needed are generous parents or a babysitting gig.

Digital is the new paradigm. Who needs a record label to handle marketing and public relations anymore? Musicians can just set up a MySpace page and talk directly with their fans. Record labels used to help court radio stations, too, to get music on the air. Now you can zip MP3 copies of your first single via e-mail to anyone in the world.

Professional Strength

Despite the challenges, record labels still perform some tasks extremely well. The Big Four turn out recordings that are technically pristine, meeting the exacting standards of radio, television, and film that are out of reach for most kids with computers. The labels also can transport these CDs worldwide, stock them at retailers, market them reasonably effectively, organize concert tours, and manage various business functions for artists under contract. "They're very good at selling a Bruce Springsteen album and getting it everywhere at once," says Dale Anderson, a Buffalo (N.Y.) journalist who produced independent folk singer Ani DiFranco's first two records.

Record labels are experimenting with new approaches, too. Part of Bronfman's new strategy will be to expand revenue sources with musicians so that record sales are but one part of a pie incorporating more frequent releases, touring, licensing, merchandising, endorsements, and sponsorships. Others envision a time when music—a market still showing respectable growth—becomes more of a product, like mobile-phone service or cable television, that flows into your home or telephone at various rate plans. Others argue that music will become free, with record companies and musicians making money from concerts, merchandise, and licensing.
What's hard to see, though, is how the Big Four can boost their sales and income much in this new era. Manufacturing and distribution costs stand to fall in the digital transition, and record companies will handle numerous business and administrative functions for artists. But the profit bonanza of an $18 CD? Those days are gone forever. Record companies are likely to become geared more toward the commercial aspects of the business and away from the creative side. "They'll still play an important role. The question is whether they'll get paid for it," says Kessler. "They'll either go out of business or wake up."

There's talk of further industry consolidation—EMI was acquired this summer by private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners for $4.8 billion. Some analysts have said the industry's conversion from CD to digital music may be a job best overseen by private owners.

Mix and Match

Not that CDs will become rare anytime soon. For all its online experimentation, Radiohead is expected to put the new record out on CD next year, shortly after the band ships an $82 "discbox" of album art, vinyl LPs, and eight bonus tracks. Another group, the Charlatans UK, will give fans its new record for free in 2008, with the first single coming Oct. 22 as a digital download.

British music journal Record of the Day collected some 3,000 responses in its online poll of what consumers paid for Radiohead's In Rainbows, finding that about half offering the band nothing. The rest said they'd given £5 or £10, or $10.20 to $20.40. Others said they'd paid what they assume an artist receives from a typical CD—10% to 20% of the retail price—Record of the Day Managing Director Paul Scaife said in an e-mail. "First time I've paid for an album in years," posted a purchaser from Britain, who said he'd paid £5. "I'm paying in part because I love this kind of original thinking—though I don't see it as a solution to the music industry's woes."

In his speech, Bronfman detailed the company's 2006 experience with South Korean pop star Baek Ji Young as a possible template for future releases. In the traditional model a pop act had the record and several singles to sell. For Baek's record, the company had 416 distinct digital products, including song tracks, ringtones, videos, and album art. "And all without the need for physical inventory," said Bronfman. Just the sort of revenue scheme that could comfort a record executive lamenting the loss of his CD collection.


Kurb is NZ’s leader in online promotion strategies for artists and creative projects plus we offer the cheapest
CD/DVD reproduction and
cheap posters available.


Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and comprehensive online promotion strategy.

For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo

All the best with your music, from Kurb
.............

Marketing 2.0 for Web 2.0 - how can your business benefit?

ew I'm business blogging - shoot me now. How sickening.

You can be rest assured that the devil drives an extremely hard bargain. Apparently it’s a buyers market.

Don't worry I've got 2 more music blogs coming up on content and what to do now no one wants to buy CD's.

Of course the same principals apply if your small business is in music and you will obviously observe I'm generating content to distribute - not only to strengthen my search network but to create awareness of the work I'm doing by providing free expertise.

My expertise is obviously in online marketing and I'm not too shabby flinging a few words together. But I'm sure you're good at something you can write or make videos about to - and don't worry this article took me 4 hours to write.

Marketing 2.0 for Web 2.0 – how can your business benefit?

The Internet is the most powerful and far reaching marketing tool available to small businesses and increasingly word of mouth is now word of blog, email or IM and thats what web 2.0 is - when we stop hearing the messages sent by those who can afford to send them and we just learn from the messages we share from the access the internet now provides to one another.

According to Tim O’Reilly who coined the phrase “Web 2.0” in 2004:

"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as a platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."

Web 2.0 presents opportunities to use the internet in new and interactive ways to deliver an unprecedented amount of information and choice to unprecedented audience numbers.

Unlike declining traditional media the internet offers users control over access and it gives consumers choice. Web 2.0 represents a major blow for traditional advertising methods because Web 2.0 is about the online experience the user has customised – and no one wants ads! Marketing is to survive only as part of a media experience that is embraced, not an unwelcome interruption to be filtered out.

Social Networking:

Social networking – the explosion of sites like Myspace, Bebo, and Facebook – has transformed the online social environment into a place where branding happens naturally. Myspace, the big daddy of social networking sites, created an online environment where brands as well as bands, characters and ideas could be accounted for with online identities.

You only have to go to the stats to see the wild popularity of these sites in New Zealand and around the world. Even I choked when the Herald quoted 800,000 kiwis use http://www.bebo.com/. It comes behind only Google and Trademe for volume of usage in NZ.

By creating a presence for your business on social networks you are able to present content and interact with other users participating in a massive global network either as an individual representing or creating awareness (this will be required on facebook and bebo which are not so friendly to commercial brands), a brand profile of your business, or even a key product! Or all three! There’s no rule against having multiple accounts.

SEO and web 2.0 - when content "goes viral"

It is still the truth that most of your website traffic will come from search engines and in New Zealand that is overwhelmingly accounted for by the Google search engine. To put what is often reported to be a complex and competitive study into simple terms, search engine optimisation (SEO) is based around keywords matched to your content, and the ranking of its relevancy in the search by the amount of links to it and the quality of those links.

Search engines can be influenced in two ways – by both the quality and quantity of written content you make available and the quantity and quality of backlinks created to your site from other sites. Distributing and sharing as much content furnished with links back to your site as you can make available is the most effective way to dramatically increase your search rank, send your brand around the world and bring traffic to your website.

All I will say is that websites that follow the web 2.0 format, which are some of the highest ranked in the world – myspace, youtube, blogger – the last two of which of course are owned by google, are ranked in a different way by google, and using these sites in different ways to make people aware and provide links to your website can have dramatic results.

But when your marketing message has assumed the appearance of a media experience – whether a blog, a podcast or a short video demonstration - that you have made available through your various online social network to share and enjoy as “infotainment” it’s no longer advertising! And when people are motivated to share the information you have provided they are not only building your search ranking but sharing your marketing message that your personal brand represents knowledge and experience of the products and services you provide.

Video Marketing

Video marketing is the hottest thing in internet promotion right now and youtube is popular with an older demographic where social networking hasn’t spread. Unlike everything else I’ve talked about – videos in themselves will not increase your search rank on google! But the message out there is if you can do it, prove it - film it! People want to see for themselves and now you can show them!

Video content provides important information, breaking down the anonymity that effects a potential customer or clients decision to purchase through an online connection based on trust. Video is also the most potentially effective opportunity to offer deeper understanding through presentation and demonstration.

many more people will connect with your marketing messages as a visual image and when it comes to media – the types of small businesses that could never dream of affording to market by broadcasting video can now provide it cheaply in a way that makes it accessible to targeted users long after it is first made available.

One of the most successful viral campaigns focused on a series of short clips experimenting with blending different unusual objects in a brand presentation for a blender called "will it blend?"– one of these quirky clips featuring an iphone received over 3 million views on youtube.

XML, RSS, P2P, Aggregation

Web 2.0 continues to present newer and better solutions for distributing and accessing information but unlike social networking and video marketing these concepts of syndicating content feeds and providing ever more options for choice and access are ideas which time is yet to come.

But it remains that web 2.0 marketing is about “pull” and not “push”. Using social networking, and sharing blogs and videos, generating content that appeals to users whether it be through information, experience, demonstration, experiments or simply just the quirky, entertaining or humourous is a chance to build awareness of your business while connecting with people in a way they will appreciate and remember.

People are far more likely to "go with what they know" so establishing social profiles and participating in online communities, providing content that people will use and value, in a way that supports higher ranking in searches for your site is the best way for generating leads and contacts in the new online environment.

Cheers for the connection with Kurb. Supporting musicians with successful strategies on a budget. Kurb in NZ’s leader in online promotion strategies for artists and creative projects plus we offer the cheapest CD/DVD reproduction and cheap posters available.

Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, o All the best with your music, from Kurb For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo ..................... Kurb Myspace

spam and philosophy: Matt's a happy little spammer

Okay I’m really starting to rev up on the blogging because I’m spamming less than I used to and getting more traffic than ever! I’m #1 on google NZ for “online promotion”!!! But I have been keeping almost 20 blogs. Oh they’re all the same they just look different and have different names. This is the internet. This is digital promotion. Welcome to Kurb.

As I said, Australians can be pretty cynical. They always wanna know what successes I’ve had with bands I’ve worked with. And given that one of my main areas of expertise regards the fine definition of what exactly constitutes “spam”, I don’t really feel obliged to divulge the identities of my top clients.

The thing about running a promotions and marketing business is that I’m my own number one client. If Kurb was no good at promoting itself, it wouldn’t get much chance to promote anybody else. Luckily that’s far from the state of things.

And with my business ballooning, that’s what this articles about, my head turning into a balloon and you watching and learning from me.

Have a thought for me. Don’t think I don’t think about what it would be like if I was in a tight band of hot young guys or had just recorded a top song or a unique video and where I could take it with my skills. Instead I just happen to be one of New Zealand’s most dynamic new music marketing minds, and that being what I happen to be good at, I’m best advised to stick with it.

So what can you learn from me? The problem with most spammers is they are fuckin’ morons with no class. There’s no substance to the muck they peddle yet they are given a great power and they abuse it.

We’re living in a time when the full effects of the internet and online media are starting to permeate the everyday lives of the 1.1 billion people who use it – which is so much better than having deal with SAME OLD 3.5 million people who use it in New Zealand which has the second highest proportion of internet users in the world!!!

And poor Bic Runga can’t even sell enough records to give up her day job!

See that’s where me being an internet promotions expert is useful. Not only in that I already have clients (“fans”?) in Australia (And Europe), but that that means when the 92% of the 87% of new Zealanders who use the internet who use a New Zealand based google search type in “online promotion”, guess who comes up first?

Look at what you can learn from me. When I unleash a spampaign for Kurb – and I actually haven’t needed to for months, we’ve been that busy – I’m not begging people to “buy the new album” so to speak or ramming some new me me me thing down their throat. The fact is I offer a targeted audience of artists a really informative, cutting edge and informative series of blogs and on my site, a really solid range of articles I’ve sourced on basics – and promoting bands kinda is my full time job. And this is the angle I push because the internet is now all about trust, quality and brand. Because Kurb is all about providing access but when theres so much access, reliability and worthiness become really important.

Kurb is like having a doorman who says “right this way” to all the potential fans walking down myspace and youtube street.

To me the obvious thing about internet expert types who don’t spam is . . . who do they think theyre kidding? Any straight laced marketer who doesn’t know anything about softspamming or diet spamming or spam lite or whatever is charging way too much.

Of course I’m about to make a video with me sitting with all my computers spamming away in the background so people can see exactly who I am and I can tell them exactly what kurb means. Of course I will continue to write Blogs that illustrate my expertise analysis and depth of research and allow those who have afforded me an opportunity to spread some of the insight I offer to benefit from it without me asking for anything else in return. And today and tomorrow there is gonna be at least one person who reads this and calls or emails me about getting a campaign going.

More about videos and blogs and all that stuff next blog but what about you? I mean I’m sure you probably don’t know as much about spam (ahem) I mean “automation” as I do but that’s not your job – You’re the one who is changing lives with your music and looking cool, remember?

But people are gonna ask the same questions. Can we trust you? Does your brand stand for quality, is it the truth? Are you for real or are you just a wannabe, one of these types who wants to be a rock star, wants to be on tv? I mean we can see you but are you reliable, are you worthy? This is the internet, theres always something cooler two clicks away.

So are your songs any good? Is your video cool, does it say something? Do you look like – or are just kinda like some cool character out of a movie? Do you have a “vibe”? Do you and the guys you play with seem like cool guys to hang out with? Are you gonna keep doing cool stuff – cool videos that show us that you’re about something, blogs that tell us cool stuff – advice, stories and links to stuff we will enjoy and use? Can I have some of your stuff without having to pay for it? I mean, Are we friends?

Right now I’m looking at a Macdonalds cup and its some guy playing the drums called Xavier from Puerto Rico. Xavier is not my friend. Never really heard of him and I don’t care already except for thinking about how many macdonalds cups this guy is on and how it relates to what im saying.

Xavier is on a fucking million Macdonalds cups and he seems like a cool guy – but no ones gonna buy his album because he’s on a fucking macdonalds cup!

Macdonalds cup: Bad
Real actual connection through quality of content that speaks to people about who you are and what you represent: Good

Uh but what about spam uncle matty?

Most people don’t see me as a spammer because I’m not anonymously pre empting them to buy something under false pretences!

I’m Matt from Kurb, I added you on myspace using a machine because you’re an artist from Australia or New Zealand, and I’m here to give advice about making money or a career in music for free! Is there a problem for you with that?

So what have we learned?

- Spam can be bad, spam can be good, but spam works. And when I say “spam” I don’t mean actual spam, come on. That’s illegal. I mean UH “Automation.”

- People don’t want crap. They don’t want crappy music promotion advice and they don’t want to listen to crap songs or watch crap video or buy crap albums and if you spam crappy crap that’s even worse. Especially if you act like a rock star and don’t reply to real (as opposed to spam) comments and messages.

- When you’re good at what you do – whether its run a media promotions company like me – or make music and cool videos and stuff like you – and you give away cool free stuff that’s not crap and your kind of cool and not crappy in your own way – people will like you and contact you and give you money.

If they can find you amongst all that “access”.

without sp - AUTOMATION you’re not playing the numbers, you’re playing lotto with what opportunities you’ve got really just hoping you’re gonna get lucky. Which basically just narrows it down to people who are freakishly all round talented or basically a sex object or both.

So how do I know it’s true? Because it’s working for me and I haven’t hit the ceiling yet!



Cheers for the connection with Kurb.

Supporting musicians with successful strategies on a budget.

Kurb in NZ’s leader in online promotion strategies for artists and creative projects plus we offer the cheapest
CD/DVD reproduction and posters available.


Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and an online promotion strategy.


All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo

The digital revolution and why your music is worth nothing,

This is an older blog from a few months back but stand ready - I was on one of my research binges to the morning light last night so we're gonna have some tight new blogwise action coming this week.

It may be obvious to some of you but without a dedicated online strategy your potential as a career musician is pretty much negligible. That is why Kurb is getting so much traction on the Australasian music scene right now.

The two things I'll be focusing on in upcoming blogs are:

content:

whether you're in partnership with kurb to take care of distributing your content or not we need to have a serious talk about the role producing regular content plays in your long term promotion strategy.

Your idea of the great star making factory needs to be knocked down and built up again from scratch.

when I say "content" of course I mean new music, but in order to fully grasp how the online environment works, you need to understand the best way you can embrace REGULAR blogging and video making to build your online presence and expand you fanbase and key contacts.

CD's:

we're gonna have to start getting serious talking about future revenue streams straight away. I've still got too many people asking me how to market their new CD! Forget about your new CD! No one wants to pay for your new CD! I'm serious!

And if you even wanna talk to me about how you're gonna "get signed" just forget it. Get a grip on where we're at in 2007.

No one wants to sign you, no one wants to pay for your new CD. I mean seriously. If Radiohead and Prince have accepted no one wants to buy their new CD, why in hell is anyone gonna wanna buy yours?

You won't ever be ready for a career as a full time professional musician if you're not prepared to understand where we're at.


ANYWAY . . . Older article from a few months back when i decided to get serious about blogging but thought it was worth throwing up there for a bit of depth.

The digital revolution and why your music is worth nothing.
By Matt Turner from Kurb. Copyright 2007. Don't steal without asking.

Hi I'm Matt from Kurb promo. For my first piece here I was going to try and bring musicians up to speed with how the digital distribution of music is changing the industry but last night I had a realisation that I didn't think many musicians are ready to comprehend let alone accept. That is why I decided to write about it.

Your music is worth nothing.

Purely in financial terms, that is. If you get a lot of fulfilment and enjoyment out of writing and performing that's a great reward, but my clients are people who have taken the step of working towards earning a living from music and so that's my angle. But it's not time to collect the coins in your guitar case and go to the pub just yet.

The internet means music is becoming like water. You can try and bottle it and launch a massive marketing campaign to sell it but most people will still choose the tap. So what do you do? Give them the water for free. Start selling cups and glassware.

What the digital revolution means is that technology has now allowed for information – music - to be more accessible to anyone with high speed broadband than ever before. The fact that entertainment no longer needs to have a physical form (i.e. a CD or DVD) is totally changing the music industry. Labels, publishers, distributors, retailers all those who had the most to gain from music as a physical commodity are now bitterly resisting falling profits. Though we might certainly see a "fairer" music industry, even with the online distribution blooming into life musicians have to face that technology is slowing eroding the commercial value of music as a general retail commodity.

If your music is worth buying its worth stealing. In fact if no one wants to steal your music, you know no one will buy it! Which is all a matter of perception because on the internet it's called "sharing" and anybody with half a clue can do it.

The patterns of consumption are changing. Teenagers aren't going to save their pocket money and buy their favourite CD and listen to it for a month. They're going to download something new everyday and listen to it for a week.

I'm not sure it's a moral issue. The point I'm getting at is that I downloaded the latest Shapeshifter album and I decided I liked 3 of the songs, so I paid US$3 to download them and Shapeshifter gets US$2.07. $3. well that doesn't buy many Porsches. In fact it doesn't even by a happy meal, let alone a decent feed of chips for all the guys.

You have to remember when I buy the CD at the Warehouse for $30 the musician doesn't get much more. And with slumping CD sales due to digital developments the business side of the industry is shrinking dramatically, so although Musicians can now see a bigger cut of their earnings than ever before, they have to be smart to stay in it professionally.

So whats going to pay the bills for poor Bic working her day job? Smart musicians have to realise their music that they love is no longer the product, its the window dressing. Lets talk about how musicians are going to make their money in the future:

Merchandising: To be fair this is going to make a hell of a lot more sense if you're a teen Christian emo band that plays at the church hall once a month and has a massive following on myspace and in the youth groups. That's why you'll notice many of auckland's emo and punk bands have their own label. And no I don't mean a record label. Obviously if you're an experimental free noise artist it may not be immediately obvious what items may interest your audience but everyone likes clothes. Giving away water at shows? Buy a hot False Start cup. Merchandising may also be a cunning way to influence fans to pay for the CD they've already downloaded "illegally".

Gigs: Obviously. At least one thing will never change. Nothing beats a great live show. Maybe you don't have a great live show. Then you might wanna pay to book a headliner that everyone knows does and support them. If you see what I mean.

Videos: "The singers shit but I love their camera work." Again, your music maybe worth nothing but your music videos are worth more than ever. paid content is coming people. What if you wake up in 2008 and you're being paid as much as US30c for every view on youtube? And 100 people watch your video everyday? What if your video is totally next level and it blows up or gets featured and 100,000 people watch it in a week? Hullo? Which means that guy in media school who's always hanging around? He's your best friend now.

Licensing: Music may not be worth anything any more but it hasn't stopped being sexy. Music creates meaning it creates an image, and if a product has no image then it has no appeal. The trends indicate that digital licensing for film, television, advertising software and all manner of commercial uses is coming up in a big way, not only with the Merlin deal but also online licensing agencies multiplying.
See to licensing agents, labels and publishing copyrights are actually now a big drag and they love indie artists who hold all the rights themselves. Take Steriogram, arguably the country's biggest "indie" act. Brad told me their deal with Playstation was done in less than an hour. That'd be a well paid lunch break even for Bic.

So.

Making music is what you love and it's the reason you got into this. But lets face facts. Music is becoming lean and mean, to stay alive, you must evolve. The digital revolution means that already the music you create and record no longer has nearly the value as a product as it has in the past. But it still has value as a brand. It still has value as something true and meaningful that touches people and they believe in it. Which is every marketing manager like me's dream.

Because then you can sell them anything.

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