Peter Spellman on Trends in the Music Industry

Here are some thoughts on the current state of the music industry, and where we may be headed, from Peter Spellmen, who is the Director of Career Development at Berklee College of Music in Boston, as well as director of his own consulting/training practice for music entrepreneurs.

http://www.musiccareers.net/articles/careers_in_music/music_marketing_trends/

This article has some length to it, but people looking for some key insights on current trends in industry will defiantly want to make some time to go though this article. People of an entrepreneurial bent (and most of the musicians I've known tend to be) will find some real inspiration here as well.

Happy New Year, Indeed.

JG

Oscar Peterson Dies at 82

Here's the Link: http://omg.yahoo.com/jazz-great-oscar-peterson-dies-at-82/news/5073

A sad note on Christmas. The world won't see his like again.

One listener's tribute, using one of Oscar Peterson's songs, is below.

Condolences to the Peterson Family, and Happy Holidays to you, gentle reader.

JG

MTV Weighs in on the Future of the Music Industry

Artists, Media and Industry experts, all weigh in on this short series by MTV.

Some are even calling 2007, the year that the music industry broke.

MTV does this series in three parts. Part number one is above. Part 2 asks the question What makes a star these days?, and Part 3 asks: If the old music industry is dead, What's next?

If you don't have time to wade through the whole thing, then you might want to watch the MTV News direct clips on each page. You can actually cycle through them all from page one, without clicking each link.

One overwhelming point is made by this series: while the old industry may indeed be dead, there is a whole new world, and new ways of doing business, opening up.

Stay tuned,

JG

Poetry, Music and Copyright

For an amusing, and slightly sad, commentary on copyright and the Internet, please see Wendy Cope's article that appeared in The Guardian on December 8th of this year, entitled:

You like my poems? So pay for them

She writes about Poetry here, but much of what she is writing about applies to music as well, certainly the main gist of the piece.

Food for thought,

JG

Grant Money For Composers

OK, so you ask "What about more traditional forms of funding for the arts? Are there any opportunities left? Why don't you write more about that kind of funding?"

And my answers are, in order...

1. They are out there, but you have to look for them.
2. Yes. Here's a story about just one of them . Notice that this group alone gives out 1 Million a year, and that each of the 5 recipients makes $200,000.00 each. Hardly chump change.
3. The focus of this blog has been on what's going on with the business side of things, what the big companies are up to, and how musicians can use technology, opportunity seeking, and good old fashioned hard work to get ahead. This has always been my personal approach to business: Boot strap it.

Then again, maybe I'm getting mellow as I age (like cheese) but I have to admit that networking and mutually beneficial relationships have been the real backbone of any success I have had over the last few years. So maybe there is such a thing as too much Independence after all. Certainly it's no good to spend so much time looking at new trends and opportunities that we ignore some of the more traditional, and well established, ways to secure funding.

With that in mind, I promise to look into more of the traditional Grant, Scholarship, and Corporate Sponsorship funding sources for musicians, and other artists.

And if you know of any of these kinds of opportunities, please send me an e-mail, so that we can share them with others as well.

Thanks and Good Luck,

JG

Music Careers: Instrumental Coaching, Hand Doubles, and Actors Who Play Musicians in Film.

So, how does an actor who does not play an instrument learn to play well enough to portray a famous musician on the screen? Some times they do, and some time they don't.

For a music career of a different kind, read about Instrumental Coaching and "hand doubles" in this article:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1123/p12s03-almo.html

The article also offers insight from actors who are trying to learn some basic technique, at the very least, in order to portray composers and performers more acurately.

There are a lot of interesting, and little known, ways to make a living with music. All it takes is a little creative research to start to find them. This is a good thing: Because not everyone can be a rock star.

Good Luck with your own career, whatever path you choose.

JG

Satchmo: What a Wonderful World

Sometimes, with all the business and promotional trends we discuss here, It's almost easy to forget that the point of it all is the music.

So here's a treat for you, a classic clip from a man who understood the need (and fun, actually) of the former, but never forgot the wonder of the latter: Mr. Louis Armstrong.

Please, enjoy.

J

Radio Interview

There's a decent interview available on You Tube, and posted below, with singer/songwriter Emerson Heart.

Anyone interested in seeing a bit more about what it's like to be interviewed (or conduct an interview) in a traditional radio station may find this interesting.



Radio doesn't have the lock on music promotion that it once did, but it still plays a strong part on breaking, and reviving, careers in this industry.

A note to broadcasters everywhere: Programs and stations need to learn to take advantage of the Internet. Those that do, will find ways to keep interest strong and find additional forms of revenue. This will be vital to the survival, and growth, of terrestrial stations as the world of music and communications continue to change.

Good luck today,

JG

Example: Music and Business Done Right.

Here's another example of a musical website doing it right from a business point of view:

www.chordie.com

What, specifically, are they doing right from a marketing/revenue generating standpoint?

1. They filed the thing with great content that people will actually want (chord/tabs/lyrics - something sadly missing since OLGA went into exile).
2. Their domain is "cute", and easy to remember.
3. They offer the forums, personalization, link exchanges, and other interactive features that encourage community building.
4. They have appropriate advertising on each page, thanks to Google AdSense, and other featured sponsors.
5. They sell physical products (t-shirts, etc) care of cafe press.

The only questions from here are:

1. What other forms of promotion are they doing? They rated pretty high on Google when I did a search by full song title (in this case "somewhere over the rainbow").
2. What precautions may they have taken against the copyright issues that OLGA ran up against? It would be a real shame to see them create a powerful following, only to have someone go after them and their 250,000 transcribed songs.

Over all, a very well done site!

Best of luck to this group, and to you, in your own on-line musical endeavors.

JG

Nokia and Universal: "Take that freeloaders!"

Nokia has worked a deal with Universal Music Group to allow UMG's songs to be downloaded on Nokia's phones for "free".

Of course the money would be placed as a general fee or user "tax" to phone subscribers, reports the New York Times.

So: here's a partnership based attempt by a big label to stem the loss of revenue from those who download music for free. It's an interesting idea. It will also be interesting to see how Nokia's subscribers accept the service, and how the version of a "money pool" system will work when other record labels are brought into the mix. Nokia plans to offer music from other labels before this program goes live in 2008.

Here's the link: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/nokia-and-universals-proposed-music-tax/?ref=technology

The original story was written by Saul Hansell.

Rather ironic that this ran today...just a few days after the Doug Morris interview in Wired. You can find the link to that interview in my previous post.

Bon Hiver,

JG

Bon Iver: Another Indie Artist is "Giving it Away", and the Bigger Issue

Here's another example of how a compelling story and free downloads can - sometimes - propel an unknown into the spotlight.

Please note: He's not a big star yet, but his CD is due out in February, and he already has started to build his fan base. It may be that this is the marketing plan of the future: give away the first batch of songs, and build a touring base, then see what happens. In actual fact: the interview mentions that people have already started to invite him to play gigs (and ask yourself, what's better: scratching around trying to find a gig, or having people call you and ask you to come play? Marketing 101 tells us that it's better to have them calling you).

Of course, all these free give aways may backfire in the long run: if people are always getting the music for free, they may come to expect to always get that end of the product for free (even the people who buy now, rather than steal).

But that's a topic for another day.

Good luck with your own propulsion,

JG

Adjunct Blog and Interview Reminder

I've moved the information on the Christmas Project over to my musical project blog, tentatively named "All the World's a Stage".

It can be found at www.jimgrenier.net, or on the list of blogs on the profile page.

More can be found for the reason of the move here. Basically though, it's a way to allow people to access this blog for the regular content of music and business, while allowing interested others a glimpse of the process of songwriting. promotion, gigging (I hope) and various other elements of musical projects in actual practice.

Also: Please don't forget to check out that interview with Universal CEO Doug Morris for his view of what exactly went wrong with the music business. I'll save commentary on his views for later, but in the spirit of the piece, I'll leave you with a few words by George Santayana:

"Those who cannot (learn from) the past are condemned to repeat it."

I wish you an absolutely perfect day,

JG

Doug Morris Interview in Wired Magazine

Anyone who wants to see a major label CEO's view of what's happened to the music industry in the last few years must read Seth Mnookin's interview with Doug Morris, chair and CEO of Universal Music Group in Wired Magazine.

If you read only one outside link from this blog for the rest of 2007, make sure it's this one.

JG

E-mail Notification of Blog Postings

You can now subscribe to this blog. E-mail notifications will be sent when new posts are published.

Just enter your e-mail into the handy box at the top left side of the screen.

This service is provided by Feedblitz. They do not sell e-mail lists.

Their Privacy Policy can be found here.

You can also un-subscribe at any time.

So now you don't have to miss a post!

Thanks again for your patience and support.

JG

The Christmas Project: A Good Start

Well, after several years of kicking the idea around, the Christmas project finally got kicked off today. I'm recording a few Christmas Songs.

Pre-production (choosing, and learning the first songs) actually started a few Weeks ago. The difference today was that I got some help.

My pal Andy and I met over at Route 110 Studios and got some basic guitar tracks down (he played the guitar, I hit "record" on the lap top). As always, I was impressed by his professionalism. Not only did he quickly pick up the odd progression I had arranged for the lead song, but he then went on to come up with several variations, and lay down all 5 tracks quickly, many of them in a single take.

It was a lot of fun as well. There's a strange kind of humor that only musicians working together seem to be able to express. I think it's got something to do with the collaborative creative process that makes us (allows us?) to come up with some strange artistic juxtapositions (the reggae riff version of "Away in a Manger", or the Jazzy version of "Jingle Bells" that we started to experiment with, for example).

All in all: a good start. I can call it that in earnest now, because because now that someone else is involved with the project, I had better complete it :)

I'll post most about the project as it progresses.

I'd love to hear about your projects as well. Post a comment or e-mail me any time!

JG