Ringtones, Music Publishing, and the State of an Industry Giant.

Bands looking for new ways to make money may want to try to get into the lucrative ring tone market.

Bloomberg reports the following financial information on Warner Music today, including this bit about ring tone profits.

Warner Music, whose best-selling act in the quarter was rock band Linkin Park, said digital revenue from downloads and ring tones rose 25 percent to $130 million, representing 15 percent of total sales. The increase helped offset declining CD demand. Reflecting the industry wide drop in CDs, Warner cut 400 jobs this year, resulting in $9 million in costs in the quarter.

Ringtones generate income upon purchase/download. Both midi and sampled ringtones fall under the copyright law, and so it's possible for the copyright holder to make income on both versions of the song.

Publishing, following a strong recent trend, was also called a "bright spot" for Warner

"...publishing revenue, which comes from songs used in recordings, movies, ads and video games and on TV, rose 7 percent to $137 million on higher royalties from performances in international markets."

This also goes with the recent trend of publishing houses taking over more and more of the regular responsibilities once associated with record companies. Traditionally, Record Companies did the recording and collected monies generated by product, while the music publisher collected the royalties owed on the copyright (especially overseas). One of the things that has changed with the technology of the last few years, is that artists can sell their product on-line directly, and thus avoid the "middleman" (and large cash advance/debt system) of a record company. Collecting on copyright (performance and mechanical royalties) is still very much an issue for musical groups, and smaller publishing agencies (sometimes self publishing) are springing up to fill this need.

If you read carefully however, you'll see that Bloomberg reports that even with all these "new" sources of revenue, profit actually fell in the fourth quarter by 58 percent.

And in business, that's never a good thing.

So, you may ask, how far will these changes go, and where will the industry end up?

No one knows yet, but more and more, the power to decide what happens to the industry is in the hands of everyday consumers...and today's entrepreneurially minded musicians.

These are exciting times.

Stay tuned.

JG

Update: Free Downlaods from LT for Christmas

Livingston Taylor has added a few free downloads on his site as sort of an "early Christmas present". They can be accessed here.

What a nice holiday treat from LT. Free downloads are neither fatening nor expensive, and never need to be returned. This gift won't take up landfill space, is both educational and entertaining, and can be shared with others without diminishing your own supply.

Sounds like the perfect gift!

I think someone once wrote something similar to this about hugging, so I can't take credit for wit here.

What I would like to stress is the power of giving gifts to the people who are kind enough to help support us and spread the word about our music. People who not only do so during the holiday season, but all year long.

You might be surprised how well people respond to a little "freebie", especially when done out of love and gratitude. I wouldn't suggest you do it just for the promotional value. People aren't stupid, and can usually sense when someone is doing something only to get something back. Though as a bonus, the act of giving often feels good too, so you just may be giving yourself a gift at the same time, as well as maybe generating some goodwill among your listeners.

A wonderful holiday to you all.

JG

The Wiggles prove that the business of children's music is not all child's play

Autralian musical/television group The Wiggles won two major honors from the Australian Screen Music Awards last night. According to abc.net

Adults who find the Disney affiliated group silly may want to take note of the gigantic sums of money generated by the groups televison and touring schedule. The Wiggles made $55 Million in 2005, beating Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and Aussie rockers AC/DC, to top the list of Australia's Richest performers.

Not bad for a group of grown men who sing and dance with stuffed animals, all while wearing primary colored clothing, and apparently, having the time of their lives.

Livingston Taylor Live Video: Life is Good

Here's a video of Livingston Taylor. If you want to learn about stage performance, this is the guy to do it from. He teaches a class on the subject at Berklee College of Music, based upon his over 30 years of playing and performing experience.

Or you can just watch and enjoy his work.



I've had the opportunity to interview him several times, and he really is a class act human being, as well as the consummate performer and songwriter.

You can also find more information about him at www.livtaylor.com

Be careful what you wish for.

In business, when we have a group of people who buy from us regularly, we call it a "customer base". Having a steady customer base allows us to generate revenues from regular sales, and also to leverage the base to attract more customers (often called "building the customer base").

When bands, solo-artists, or other musical acts duplicate this effect, we have traditionally called such a customer base a following. In today's music business, smaller acts can use the power of the Internet to reach people they never would have been able to reach before. A folk singer in Boston, for example, can now reach a global audience by putting up a web page or joining a social networking site. This singer could then, potentially, attract people from places as diverse as Scotland, India, and Peru.

So far, so good. But what many musicians forget is that fame can be a double edged sword.

Here's a story about some musicians who have had success in promoting themselves over the Internet...sometimes perhaps a little too much success.

For instance: What do you do once you've attracted your following? Here are some things to consider:

• People expect a lot more individual attention than they used to. Do you like a lot of interaction? Are you prepared to spend the many hours it takes to stay in contact with your audience? All this extra promotion can really cut into your practice and writing time, never mind your home life. Can you balance the many demands on your time and attention?
• The Public today has a shorter attention span than in times past, and less patience for waiting between releases. Do you have enough music (product) to keep them happy? Are you prepared to release limited run CDs or free downloads to help promote your work?
• On the dark side of fame: Predators often lurk on the net. The "really nice fan" that "just loves your music" may be exactly what they seem, or they may not be at all who or what they seem.

This is not to say that we shouldn't avail ourselves of the new technology to build our audience, just that we need to be aware of the possible down side to doing so, and weigh the benefits against the risks.

Which is something all good business people do, almost every day.

Good luck,

JG

Solo Piano: New Age meets New Promotions

Here are some sites that offer "Solo Piano" by music by various artists. They offer free downloads, full songs or clips, again for promotional reasons. You also get the chance to buy what you are hearing in various ways.

http://www.freesolopiano.com/ - Allows preview clips, or full downloads of select songs -Customers may buy through Napster.

http://www.solopianoradio.com/ - A "Solo Piano Radio Station". Listen for Free, or pay service. Facebook, Blog and Mailing list links/services are offered as well, maximizing the promotional opportunities. There is a tip jar for donations, though all monies generated through it appear to be used directly for support of the site, not the musicians, who agree to let the site broadcast their content royalty free.

This may be a good deal for the musicians, as long as they look at it as a promotional tool, to hopefully help sell some CDs. Traditional radio stations don't pay the artists directly either, but they get paid, in theory by being part of one of the unions (BMI, ASCAP, etc). So in this case, artists are going to have to keep in mind that this may be a promotion-only type of deal.

I found both of these sites on Google. Just do a search under solo Piano, or maybe New Age. Jazz may also be a helpful search term in this context.

Note: There's a difference between New Age Music and New Age Spirituality. Though they are often related, this is not always the case. This is why I, personally, like the term Solo Piano, Better.

Self-Promotion article on About.com

FYI: About.com has a section on the music business called music careers.

Here is an article on self promotion for musicians.

Good luck,

JG

Music Trivia 1: Answers

1. Who is Arnold Schwarzenegger's favorite composer? - J.S. Bach (he's always saying "I'll be Bach...".)

2. Which Composer is easiest to grasp? Handel

3. Which Composer is the hardest to find? Hayden (pronounced "Hidin' " - as in "Hiding" )

Bonus Question: What do all these Composers have in common? They are now decomposing.

I told you they were bad :)

Thanks to all who guessed.

JG

That's one heck of a tip jar

So, according to this article, people who take music lessons tend to make more money over the course of their life time.

News: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071114/lf_nm_life/music_dc

So who still says we need to choose between music and money?

...And speaking of music vs. money, it looks like more people are trying the free download route of music promotion. See the previous post on Radiohead for more background on this trend.


Good things,

JG

Alicia Keys Interview

Alicia Keys talks about music, composing inside the Great Pyramid, and being literally, and figuratively, in the right place.

Here is the Story

Life is as fleeting as a melody, and even more precious.

Enjoy it.

JG

Radiohead's "pay what you like" marketing plan: update and observations

This story on is particularly interesting today. It discusses Radiohead's newest CD, and business gambit, In Rainbows. For those who don't know the story: Radiohead has offered their newest work online free for download, or more accurately, has offered to let people download these songs at a price of their choosing.

Charles Cooper of Cnet news reports "It turns out that freeloaders by a 62 to 38 percent margin outnumbered the fans willing to pay for the British band's new album, according to ComScore."

Still there may be a ray of hope here, as he also notes that at least "close to 40 percent of the test group (pulled) out their credit cards to pay something."

So, is the glass half full, or half empty? And, if Radiohead had not offered this "pay what you like" format, what would the sales have been? My students assure me that this band was (is) still a major name act, but I'd like to see the hard data on their previous record sales, and compare it to the take on this one. Don't forget also that we're talking about very early returns here: to be completely accurate, we'd need to take several factors into account, such as changes in buying habits between this CD and their last (Hail to the Thief in 2003) , as well as the considerable increase in the use of the Internet for both fan based, and band/label originated marketing promotion and actual selling/purchasing.

There's also the fact that the band is generating considerable public relations value with this approach.

What's it worth? Only time will tell. Giving away a certain amount of the product is a smart move, for a musical act or in any business venture, as long as the people doing so are balancing the potential ROI of the free sample against lost revenue for not actually selling the product.

The band has also indicated that they will be offering a collector's edition of the CD that is reported to include many bonus features (see the band's site http://www.radiohead.com/, for more information on the Disk Box package.

In the end, numbers for this "hard copy" edition of the CD will need to be matched with download revenues generated before a true ROI can be calculated.

On another front, this somwhat daring and seemingly very calculated, business move has inspired others to look more creatively at their own business model.

Perhaps that will be the greatest contribution of this release in the long run.

...And wouldn't that be something.

JG

Musical Trivia Number 1

Can you guess the following?

1. Who is Arnold Schwarzenegger's favorite composer?
2. Which Composer is easiest to grasp?
3. Which Composer is the hardest to find?

Bonus Question: What do all these Composers have in common?

Hint: each of these answers could be considered to be a "play on words".

I'll post the answers early next week.

If you ever thought that being a musician, and having a weird sense of humor went together. you now have proof.

JG

What is Music? Part 1

I can't answer that one. Not that that bothers me; people have been asking that question for centuries, if not millennia . So, as you can imagine, that takes the pressure off of you and me to try to come up with an answer on an idle afternoon.

Still...

If you love music you probably can't help but think about this question once in a while. What IS this stuff? This sound stuff. For music is made of sound, yet not all sounds are musical. Certainly a car backfiring produces sound, but not music. And a new student sitting at a piano may make a lot of sound, but whether it can be called music or not is questionable (Not to attack students: I've been playing for close to 20 years and I'm not sure if a lot of what I do can be considered music either...).

Yet, at the same time, certain sounds in nature have been described as "musical": The wind in the leaves or across the planes, Birds chirping, the falling (or landing rather) of rain, even the sound of a young child's laughter. All of these (and more) have been described as musical. Indeed, musicians have taken nature as inspiration for musical compositions throughout history. Vivaldi's Four Seasons is one of the best examples of this, combining beautiful stand alone melodies with those based on birdsong, thunder, wind and rain.

So if not all sounds are musical, then what makes those we do consider music to actually be music?

Some have suggested that perhaps it's intent: That the purposeful structure and arrangement that composers use to impose some kind of order on the sound moves it into the realm of music. In this case, even the beginning student is making music of some kind, wrong notes and all, because they are attempting to turn the sound into something more, where a virtuoso player pounding a fist or blowing into an instrument randomly would not be.

The problem with this criteria seems to come into relief when we consider so call "chance music", such as that created by John Cage? Wouldn't the definition of implying order rule that kind of thing out? And if so, how do we judge it? How can we guess the composer's intent? Cage may tell us it's random; then we can make a values, (though not aesthetic) judgement on those grounds, yet if the composer does not tell us his or her intent, how can we judge it? Just as in the murky realm of most moral judgements, guessing someones intent is all but impossible on the results of what actually gets created.

So if intent, or imposed order, alone will not help us define music, what else might?

Your thoughts and comments are welcome.

More later,

JG