You may have read my blog post last year about social media, and how it was still a geek thing . . . but you gotta remember that once upon a time, back in 2004 when I joined myspace, Soical Networking was a geek thing too.
Now "Social Networking" is sites like Myspace, Facebook and Bebo.
In "Social Media" the big names are Stumbleupon, Digg and Del.icio.us.
It's about users "Stumbling" or "Digging" their favourite online stuff, and that data is then redistributed to people looking for their own kinds of stuff, whether it's knowledge, tech tools and software, or entertainment, whatever.
There's been talk about the idea that "Social Media" will one day eclipse the power of "Search Media" - why rely on Google when slowly, sites like Facebook as well as Last.fm and other forms of aggregators, are creating networks where data analysis can provide you with information and entertainment tailored to you based on the choices of not only your friend networks but unconnected users who show metric consistencies with you.
I mean sure jump on google, it feels more self sufficient than having to ask a friend who possibly knows more than you. But in the near future, you'll be instantly connected to information and entertainment based on its aggregate value created within your network of friend contacts and those with consistent data to your tastes and interests.
ANYWHO . . .
The point is it's working! I've had two killer spikes in the last week sending my daily traffic to www.kurb.co.nz well into the hundreds, which I discovered from my stats was the result of a very modest amount of traction on Stumbleupon.
Now in desperately scratching my head over how everyday muso's are going to make cash I begun to think about where the value is created on myspace. (y'know? like the $US570M sale back in 2005?)
It's not just the thing that built it, but its now one of the only things keeping Myspace alive . . . FANS FOLLOWING ACTS.
Myspace maybe the "new radio". Fans follow acts and trends and they put up with crap like ads . . . but the artist is seeing none of that revenue!
I don't think I said it loud enough the first time:
YOUR WEBSITE IS NOW MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR CD.
Radiohead just put 10 x more cash in their pocket from their site and they didn't even have ads on it!!!
Look. Let's make a deal.
If YOU can get 3 million people to come to your website - here I'll make it easy - before you die, I'm pretty sure you and me - we can both get rich off advertising.
This is the thing. If you BLOG then making money off advertising . . . That's your bag. Pro bloggers don't put out a CD, tour or do merch. Oh sure they'll do an E-book; but half the time they give it away or its only salivating fans who pay for it. The 5 figure monthly pay outs these guys collect are from their ads.
More than ever you need to create your OWN website, stake out your own claim, so you're prepared to start monetizing on ad supported revenue as the flow of marketing money from TV and Radio to online advertising grows in momentum.
Build a place of culture and community where people can hang out and interact. Create value, fill your site with relevant information, relevant advertising, every digital products and merchandise you can imagine, make it customisable, let fans create their own digital and merchandise packages . . .
Look, as far as I'm concerned . . . 2008 and is ALL ABOUT 2009.
Yeah, I had to wrap that up, I've got work to do.
Don't forget these New Years specials may not last, there's a frenzied mob gathering on my doorstep already, so we may have to shut it down to new jobs.
$100 – 100 CD Discs printed and duplicated
$70 – 50 DVD Discs printed and duplicated
$100 – 1 month online promotion management package
$100 – 100 colour posters printed
OR $250 FOR THE LOT.
HOW I APPROACH A NEW CLIENT FOR PROMOTION@ KURB
how digital promotion and social marketing works
more indie self promotion articles hub
Our artist packages
Overview of online promotion strategies
Real cheap CD/DVD reproduction in NZ
postering – placement in Auckland / Free delivery in NZ
Cheers and all the best with your work from Kurb
recent tidbits
ON RADIO
. . Executives at some individual stations say they are playing hits more heavily than they did even two years ago. That is not so much out of concern over digital competition as it is a desire to respond to listeners’ busy lives, said Kat Jensen, music director for KKMG-FM in Colorado Springs, which played “Apologize” 78 times last week. “There’s a very limited window. If they’re going to listen 15 minutes a day, you want to make sure they hear their favorite song in that 15 minutes. It’s really the fast-paced life style that we all live.”
ON BIG LABELS
IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. “That was the moment we realised the game was completely up,” says a person who was there.
ON AD SUPPORTED REVENUE
"As a result, advertisers and their agencies who want to engage with today’s consumers will have to start turning their ads into content. Ultimately, they will need to be able to produce content that is so compelling, relevant and entertaining that consumers will seek it out and want to share it with others. The new ad model is about creating great content and finding clever ways to embed it in the fabric of communities and content platforms where consumers are hanging out and actively participating."
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Music Lessons from a world class marketing gurur
FROM SETH GODIN:
Things you can learn from the music business (as it falls apart)
The first rule is so important, it’s rule 0:
0. The new thing is never as good as the old thing, at least right now.Soon, the new thing will be better than the old thing will be. But if you wait until then, it’s going to be too late. Feel free to wax nostalgic about the old thing, but don’t fool yourself into believing it’s going to be here forever. It won’t.
1. Past performance is no guarantee of future successEvery single industry changes and, eventually, fades. Just because you made money doing something a certain way yesterday, there’s no reason to believe you’ll succeed at it tomorrow.
The music business had a spectacular run alongside the baby boomers. Starting with the Beatles and Dylan, they just kept minting money. The co-incidence of expanding purchasing power of teens along with the birth of rock, the invention of the transistor and changing social mores meant a long, long growth curve.
As a result, the music business built huge systems. They created top-heavy organizations, dedicated superstores, a loss-leader touring industry, extraordinarily high profit margins, MTV and more. It was a well-greased system, but the key question: why did it deserve to last forever?
It didn’t. Yours doesn’t either.
2. Copy protection in a digital age is a pipe dreamIf the product you make becomes digital, expect that the product you make will be copied.
There’s a paradox in the music business that is mirrored in many industries: you want ubiquity, not obscurity, yet digital distribution devalues your core product.
Remember, the music business is the one that got in trouble for bribing disk jockeys to play their music on the radio. They are the ones that spent millions to make (free) videos for MTV. And yet once the transmission became digital, they understood that there’s not a lot of reason to buy a digital version (via a cumbersome expensive process) when the digital version is free (and easier).
Most items of value derive that value from scarcity. Digital changes that, and you can derive value from ubiquity now.
The solution isn’t to somehow try to become obscure, to get your song off the (digital) radio. The solution is to change your business.
You used to sell plastic and vinyl. Now, you can sell interactivity and souvenirs.
3. Interactivity can’t be copiedProducts that are digital and also include interaction thrive on centralization and do better and better as the market grows in size (consider Facebook or Basecamp).
Music is social. Music is current and everchanging. And most of all, music requires musicians. The winners in the music business of tomorrow are individuals and organizations that create communities, connect people, spread ideas and act as the hub of the wheel... indispensable and well-compensated.
4. Permission is the asset of the futureFor generations, businesses had no idea who their end users were. No ability to reach through the record store and figure out who was buying that Rolling Stones album, no way to know who bought this book or that vase.
Today, of course, permission is an asset to be earned. The ability (not the right, but the privilege) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who want to get them. For ten years, the music business has been steadfastly avoiding this opportunity.
It’s interesting though, because many musicians have NOT been avoiding it. Many musicians have understood that all they need to make a (very good) living is to have 10,000 fans. 10,000 people who look forward to the next record, who are willing to trek out to the next concert. Add 7 fans a day and you’re done in 5 years. Set for life. A life making music for your fans, not finding fans for your music.
The opportunity of digital distribution is this:
When you can distribute something digitally, for free, it will spread (if it’s good). If it spreads, you can use it as a vehicle to allow people to come back to you and register, to sign up, to give you permission to interact and to keep them in the loop.
Many authors (I’m on that list) have managed to build an entire career around this idea. So have management consultants and yes, insurance salespeople. Not by viewing the spread of digital artifacts as an inconvenient tactic, but as the core of their new businesses.
5. A frightened consumer is not a happy consumer.I shouldn’t have to say this, but here goes: suing people is like going to war. If you’re going to go to war with tens of thousands of your customers every year, don’t be surprised if they start treating you like the enemy.
6. This is a big one: The best time to change your business model is while you still have momentum.It’s not so easy for an unknown artist to start from scratch and build a career self-publishing. Not so easy for her to find fans, one at a time, and build an audience. Very, very easy for a record label or a top artist to do so. So, the time to jump was yesterday. Too late. Okay, how about today?
The sooner you do it, the more assets and momentum you have to put to work.
7. Remember the Bob Dylan rule: it’s not just a record, it’s a movement.Bob and his handlers have a long track record of finding movements. Anti-war movements, sure, but also rock movies, the Grateful Dead, SACDs, Christian rock and Apple fanboys. What Bob has done (and I think he’s done it sincerely, not as a calculated maneuver) is seek out groups that want to be connected and he works to become the connecting the point.
By being open to choices of format, to points of view, to moments in time, Bob Dylan never said, “I make vinyl records that cost money to listen to.” He understands at some level that music is often the soundtrack for something else.
I think the same thing can be true for chefs and churches and charities and politicians and makers of medical devices. People pay a premium for a story, every time.
8. Don’t panic when the new business model isn’t as ‘clean’ as the old oneIt’s not easy to give up the idea of manufacturing CDs with a 90% gross margin and switching to a blended model of concerts and souvenirs, of communities and greeting cards and special events and what feels like gimmicks. I know.
Get over it. It’s the only option if you want to stay in this business. You’re just not going to sell a lot of CDs in five years, are you?
If there’s a business here, first few in will find it, the rest lose everything.
9. Read the writing on the wall.Hey, guys, I’m not in the music business and even I’ve been writing about this for years. I even started a record label five years ago to make the point. Industries don’t die by surprise. It’s not like you didn’t know it was coming. It's not like you didn't know who to call (or hire).
This isn’t about having a great idea (it almost never is). The great ideas are out there, for free, on your neighborhood blog. Nope, this is about taking initiative and making things happen.
The last person to leave the current record business won’t be the smartest and he won’t be the most successful, either. Getting out first and staking out the new territory almost always pays off.
10. Don’t abandon the Long TailEveryone in the hit business thinks they understand the secret: just make hits. After all, if you do the math, it shows that if you just made hits, you’d be in fat city.
Of course, the harder you try to just make hits, the less likely you are to make any hits at all. Movies, records, books... the blockbusters always seem to be surprises. Surprise hit cookbooks, even.
Instead, in an age when it’s cheaper than ever to design something, to make something, to bring something to market, the smart strategy is to have a dumb strategy. Keep your costs low and go with your instincts, even when everyone says you’re wrong. Do a great job, not a perfect one. Bring things to market, the right market, and let them find their audience.
Stick to the knitting has never been more wrong. Instead, find products your customers want. Don’t underestimate them. They’re more catholic in their tastes than you give them credit for.
11. Understand the power of digitalTry to imagine something like this happening ten years ago: An eleven-year-old kid wakes up on a Saturday morning, gets his allowance, then, standing in his pajamas, buys a Bon Jovi song for a buck.
Compare this to hassling for a ride, driving to the mall, finding the album in question, finding the $14 to pay for it and then driving home.
You may believe that your business doesn’t lend itself to digital transactions. Many do. If you’ve got a business that doesn’t thrive on digital, it might not grow as fast as you like... Maybe you need to find a business that does thrive on digital.
12. Celebrity is underratedThe music business has always created celebrities. And each celebrity has profited for decades from that fame. Frank Sinatra is dead and he's still profiting. Elvis is still alive and he's certainly still profiting.
The music business has done a poor job of leveraging that celebrity and catching the value it creates. Many businesses now have the power to create their own micro-celebrities. These individuals capture attention and generate trust, two critical elements in growing profits.
13. Value is created when you go from many to few, and vice versaThe music business has thousands of labels and tens of thousands of copyright holders. It's a mess.
And there's just one iTunes music store. Consolidation pays.
At the same time, there are other industries where there are just a few major players and the way to profit is to create splinters and niches.
13. Whenever possible, sell subscriptionsFew businesses can successfully sell subscriptions (magazines being the very best example), but when you can, the whole world changes. HBO, for example, is able to spend its money making shows for its viewers rather than working to find viewers for every show.
The biggest opportunity for the music business is to combine permission with subscription. The possibilities are endless. And I know it's hard to believe, but the good old days are yet to happen.
Things you can learn from the music business (as it falls apart)
The first rule is so important, it’s rule 0:
0. The new thing is never as good as the old thing, at least right now.Soon, the new thing will be better than the old thing will be. But if you wait until then, it’s going to be too late. Feel free to wax nostalgic about the old thing, but don’t fool yourself into believing it’s going to be here forever. It won’t.
1. Past performance is no guarantee of future successEvery single industry changes and, eventually, fades. Just because you made money doing something a certain way yesterday, there’s no reason to believe you’ll succeed at it tomorrow.
The music business had a spectacular run alongside the baby boomers. Starting with the Beatles and Dylan, they just kept minting money. The co-incidence of expanding purchasing power of teens along with the birth of rock, the invention of the transistor and changing social mores meant a long, long growth curve.
As a result, the music business built huge systems. They created top-heavy organizations, dedicated superstores, a loss-leader touring industry, extraordinarily high profit margins, MTV and more. It was a well-greased system, but the key question: why did it deserve to last forever?
It didn’t. Yours doesn’t either.
2. Copy protection in a digital age is a pipe dreamIf the product you make becomes digital, expect that the product you make will be copied.
There’s a paradox in the music business that is mirrored in many industries: you want ubiquity, not obscurity, yet digital distribution devalues your core product.
Remember, the music business is the one that got in trouble for bribing disk jockeys to play their music on the radio. They are the ones that spent millions to make (free) videos for MTV. And yet once the transmission became digital, they understood that there’s not a lot of reason to buy a digital version (via a cumbersome expensive process) when the digital version is free (and easier).
Most items of value derive that value from scarcity. Digital changes that, and you can derive value from ubiquity now.
The solution isn’t to somehow try to become obscure, to get your song off the (digital) radio. The solution is to change your business.
You used to sell plastic and vinyl. Now, you can sell interactivity and souvenirs.
3. Interactivity can’t be copiedProducts that are digital and also include interaction thrive on centralization and do better and better as the market grows in size (consider Facebook or Basecamp).
Music is social. Music is current and everchanging. And most of all, music requires musicians. The winners in the music business of tomorrow are individuals and organizations that create communities, connect people, spread ideas and act as the hub of the wheel... indispensable and well-compensated.
4. Permission is the asset of the futureFor generations, businesses had no idea who their end users were. No ability to reach through the record store and figure out who was buying that Rolling Stones album, no way to know who bought this book or that vase.
Today, of course, permission is an asset to be earned. The ability (not the right, but the privilege) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who want to get them. For ten years, the music business has been steadfastly avoiding this opportunity.
It’s interesting though, because many musicians have NOT been avoiding it. Many musicians have understood that all they need to make a (very good) living is to have 10,000 fans. 10,000 people who look forward to the next record, who are willing to trek out to the next concert. Add 7 fans a day and you’re done in 5 years. Set for life. A life making music for your fans, not finding fans for your music.
The opportunity of digital distribution is this:
When you can distribute something digitally, for free, it will spread (if it’s good). If it spreads, you can use it as a vehicle to allow people to come back to you and register, to sign up, to give you permission to interact and to keep them in the loop.
Many authors (I’m on that list) have managed to build an entire career around this idea. So have management consultants and yes, insurance salespeople. Not by viewing the spread of digital artifacts as an inconvenient tactic, but as the core of their new businesses.
5. A frightened consumer is not a happy consumer.I shouldn’t have to say this, but here goes: suing people is like going to war. If you’re going to go to war with tens of thousands of your customers every year, don’t be surprised if they start treating you like the enemy.
6. This is a big one: The best time to change your business model is while you still have momentum.It’s not so easy for an unknown artist to start from scratch and build a career self-publishing. Not so easy for her to find fans, one at a time, and build an audience. Very, very easy for a record label or a top artist to do so. So, the time to jump was yesterday. Too late. Okay, how about today?
The sooner you do it, the more assets and momentum you have to put to work.
7. Remember the Bob Dylan rule: it’s not just a record, it’s a movement.Bob and his handlers have a long track record of finding movements. Anti-war movements, sure, but also rock movies, the Grateful Dead, SACDs, Christian rock and Apple fanboys. What Bob has done (and I think he’s done it sincerely, not as a calculated maneuver) is seek out groups that want to be connected and he works to become the connecting the point.
By being open to choices of format, to points of view, to moments in time, Bob Dylan never said, “I make vinyl records that cost money to listen to.” He understands at some level that music is often the soundtrack for something else.
I think the same thing can be true for chefs and churches and charities and politicians and makers of medical devices. People pay a premium for a story, every time.
8. Don’t panic when the new business model isn’t as ‘clean’ as the old oneIt’s not easy to give up the idea of manufacturing CDs with a 90% gross margin and switching to a blended model of concerts and souvenirs, of communities and greeting cards and special events and what feels like gimmicks. I know.
Get over it. It’s the only option if you want to stay in this business. You’re just not going to sell a lot of CDs in five years, are you?
If there’s a business here, first few in will find it, the rest lose everything.
9. Read the writing on the wall.Hey, guys, I’m not in the music business and even I’ve been writing about this for years. I even started a record label five years ago to make the point. Industries don’t die by surprise. It’s not like you didn’t know it was coming. It's not like you didn't know who to call (or hire).
This isn’t about having a great idea (it almost never is). The great ideas are out there, for free, on your neighborhood blog. Nope, this is about taking initiative and making things happen.
The last person to leave the current record business won’t be the smartest and he won’t be the most successful, either. Getting out first and staking out the new territory almost always pays off.
10. Don’t abandon the Long TailEveryone in the hit business thinks they understand the secret: just make hits. After all, if you do the math, it shows that if you just made hits, you’d be in fat city.
Of course, the harder you try to just make hits, the less likely you are to make any hits at all. Movies, records, books... the blockbusters always seem to be surprises. Surprise hit cookbooks, even.
Instead, in an age when it’s cheaper than ever to design something, to make something, to bring something to market, the smart strategy is to have a dumb strategy. Keep your costs low and go with your instincts, even when everyone says you’re wrong. Do a great job, not a perfect one. Bring things to market, the right market, and let them find their audience.
Stick to the knitting has never been more wrong. Instead, find products your customers want. Don’t underestimate them. They’re more catholic in their tastes than you give them credit for.
11. Understand the power of digitalTry to imagine something like this happening ten years ago: An eleven-year-old kid wakes up on a Saturday morning, gets his allowance, then, standing in his pajamas, buys a Bon Jovi song for a buck.
Compare this to hassling for a ride, driving to the mall, finding the album in question, finding the $14 to pay for it and then driving home.
You may believe that your business doesn’t lend itself to digital transactions. Many do. If you’ve got a business that doesn’t thrive on digital, it might not grow as fast as you like... Maybe you need to find a business that does thrive on digital.
12. Celebrity is underratedThe music business has always created celebrities. And each celebrity has profited for decades from that fame. Frank Sinatra is dead and he's still profiting. Elvis is still alive and he's certainly still profiting.
The music business has done a poor job of leveraging that celebrity and catching the value it creates. Many businesses now have the power to create their own micro-celebrities. These individuals capture attention and generate trust, two critical elements in growing profits.
13. Value is created when you go from many to few, and vice versaThe music business has thousands of labels and tens of thousands of copyright holders. It's a mess.
And there's just one iTunes music store. Consolidation pays.
At the same time, there are other industries where there are just a few major players and the way to profit is to create splinters and niches.
13. Whenever possible, sell subscriptionsFew businesses can successfully sell subscriptions (magazines being the very best example), but when you can, the whole world changes. HBO, for example, is able to spend its money making shows for its viewers rather than working to find viewers for every show.
The biggest opportunity for the music business is to combine permission with subscription. The possibilities are endless. And I know it's hard to believe, but the good old days are yet to happen.
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