What
is music marketing?
Music
marketing is the process of satisfying your fans’ needs
for your music, merch, and concerts. It’s also about, ya
know, reaching the right people and turning them into fans
in the first place. A lot can fall under the marketing
umbrella. From publicity, to promotion, to advertising, and
more. Experts will debate the differences between those
various pursuits. But to keep things moving, let’s just
say that marketing can either encompass or overlap with all
those efforts.
When
we say “music marketing,” we mean actively putting your
music in front of your desired audience through a concerted
effort called a campaign. Through a campaign,
you persuade your audience
to take a specific action. That action you’re trying
to get your audience to take might be something like:
CRM
For Musicians – How To Use Customer Relationship
Management
CRM
for musicians can be a valuable tool. CRM stands for
Customer Relationship Management. It originally comes from
the sales world. With CRM software you can keep track
of all your contacts. What is more, you can tag and
categories them. This can help you greatly to identify the
‘value’ of a contact. If you think about it, being
a musician is quite the business. Hence the word music
industry. This is crazy, instead of selling products like
computers, you are very much selling your music.
Having a good overview of your contacts can be a time saver
as well as to professionalize your work approach. Here’s
the thing: the music industry is all about contacts. If you
want to get booked you need the right contacts as well as if
you want to strike a good deal with a digital distributor.
How
to achieve your financial goals in music sustainably
Making
a living making music is the goal of most musicians.
It is said that nothing good in life comes easy. Of course,
achieving success in music requires hard work and talent,
but even more importantly perseverance. Calvin Coolidge, the
30th US president famously proclaimed: “Nothing
is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.” It
is an unfortunate fact that countless talented bands and
musicians have had to throw in the towel when finances
simply haven’t stacked up, and when things haven’t quite
gone as hoped. But the possibility of success may have been
just around the corner for those who called it a day too
soon. How will you ensure you have the means to keep
persevering even when the chips are down? Let’s talk about
how to achieve your financial goals in music in a
sustainable way.
What
is spoofing? Understanding the type of cyber attack and how
you can protect yourself against it
Spoofing
is a cyber attack that works like an online Trojan horse; it
uses a familiar name or contact information to gain
important private information from you, or to spread malware
. More sophisticated than claiming to be from somebody or
some company you know, spoofing allows the bad actor to
disguise their identity as one you trust.
For
example, it can allow the person to make a text or call look
like it's from a number you recognize, or send an email
address disguised as a familiar company. Spoofers can make
themselves look like your bank, your credit card credit
company, and can even appear from an IP address or Domain
Name System (DNS) you or your system recognizes.
Spotify
and music listening 10 years from now
July
marks ten years since Spotify’s US launch. Although the
tendency among some is to consider this ‘year zero’ for
streaming (thus ignoring everything that had happened in
prior years both within and outside of the US) it does
present a useful opportunity to reflect on what the next
decade might hold for Spotify. Rather
than focus on the business outlook, I am going to explore
how Spotify and other streaming services, could change the
way in which music is consumed ten years from now.
Songwriters
Urge Copyright Royalty Board to Reject Proposed Mechanical
Rate Freeze
Back
in late May, songwriters demanded greater mechanical-royalty
transparency from the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB). Now,
music-creator organizations are once again expressing
“strong opposition” to a proposed mechanical-rate freeze
as well as “non-transparent elements” that could be
introduced to the CRB by the National Music Publishers’
Association (NMPA) and the Big Three record labels. The
“compulsory mechanical rights licensing system”
mechanical rate has remained frozen at 9.1 cents since
2006. Notwithstanding
this lengthy freeze, however, the Big Three record labels,
the NMPA, and the Nashville Songwriters Association
International in March of 2021 submitted a notice of
settlement in principle to the CRB. This notice of
settlement included a recommendation “that the royalty
rates and terms presently set forth in 37 C.F.R. Part 385
Subpart B” – for physical releases, permanent downloads,
ringtones, and music bundles, that is – “should be
continued” at 9.1 cents through the term ending in 2027.
Vinyl
Keeps Setting Records
Vinyl
has become much more than just rarities to be bought and
sold by music aficionados. It has become a bona fide
growth area for a music industry that finds itself in
continual transition – just like the rest of the media
business.
The
Associated Press reports that while the entertainment
industry mostly suffered throughout 2020, sales of vinyl
records surged – up an impressive 29%, contributing $626
million in sales. And try this on. Vinyl is now
outselling compact discs, impressive for a music format
written off for dead not so many years ago. (And if
you still don't believe in the power of retro, keep in mind
audio cassettes had a great year as well.)
How
Much Data Does Spotify Use? Here’s a Quick Breakdown on
Streaming Data Use
How
much data does Spotify use? The answer depends on your
streaming quality and maybe your carrier incentives.
Here’s a quick breakdown. Spotify uses less data
than equivalent times of video streaming, but you could rack
up more data usage than you expect. That’s especially true
if you’re streaming higher-quality audio tracks and
podcasts. Spotify offers five different sound quality
settings in the app that govern how much data Spotify uses.
Which
Recording Mixes Do You Need to Increase Your Odds of Getting
a Song Cut?
Audio
mixing can be defined as the process of combining
individual tracks from a multitrack recording into a
finished product. It includes determining the volume and
adding effects such as reverb, delay, compression, and
equalization to each track. In stereo and surround sound
recordings, mixing also includes placing each track in its
optimal location, determining the direction from which the
listener will hear each sound as coming from (for example,
the left, right, center, front, or back) in the finished
version. Depending on your intention for the recording
you will probably require a variety of mixes. Let’s
identify the mixes you are likely to need and define the
terms.
How
To Get A Booking Agent
Every
successful musician has a great booking agent, and today,
we’re helping you find the right agent to further your
career. Booking agents do not make the world go round.
Instead, they make artists go around the world. Every
successful artist needs a great booking agent. These
professionals can take bands playing gigs in DIY spaces and
get them club dates. They can take a club headliner and make
them a theater act. A great booking agent can take
someone’s career to the next level, and that is what we
want for you and your music. But there’s a catch.
Every artist wants a booking agent, and there are far more
talented musicians than skilled booking agents. The
competition for attention is tough. So much so that many
will spend months or even years looking for an agent who can
help their career.
Catalog
Releases Now Account for Two-Thirds of All US-Based Music
Consumption
Catalog
releases – or those that are over 18 months old – now
account for two-thirds of all music consumption in the
United States, according to a new report. MRC Data
disclosed the noteworthy stat in its recently published
mid-year analysis, covering January 1st through July 1st,
2021. The comprehensive breakdown details several
interesting trends from across 2021’s first half,
including triple-digit sales-volume growth for vinyl and a
27.5 percent year-over-year boost to global song
streams. And as initially mentioned, catalog releases
(encompassing music that’s over 18 months old, per the
report) accounted for 66.4 percent of U.S. music consumption
during 2021’s opening half, against 63.9 percent during
the same stretch in 2020. Additionally, “catalog total
album consumption” hiked from 244.5 million to 288.6
million in Q1 and Q2 2021 – an 18.04 percent improvement.
Vinyl
Record Sales Are Up 108.2% This Year — Not Everyone Is So
Thrilled, However
Though
U.S. vinyl record sales enjoyed a 108.2 percent
year-over-year increase during 2021’s first six months, a
number of indie acts and record labels are expressing their
frustration with the popularity uptick’s impact upon the
production process – and moving away from the format
altogether. MRC Data recently disclosed the
triple-digit vinyl record sales growth in its 2021 half-year
report, covering January 1st through July 1st. According to
this analysis, stateside vinyl LP sales surpassed 19.2
million units through 2021’s initial two quarters, up
108.2 percent from HY 2020’s 9.2 million units.
Additionally, the breakdown relayed that vinyl had outsold
CDs in the U.S. “for the first time at the midyear point
in MRC Data’s history (since 1991).”
Copyright Office Recommends Mechanical Licensing Collective Delay First Unclaimed-Royalties Distribution
The United States Copyright Office has officially released a report designed “to recommend best practices” for the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) as it works to resolve unmatched royalties and make an inaugural unclaimed royalties distribution, including a far-reaching recommendation pertaining to the timetable associated with the entity’s first such distribution.
The USCO just recently published the document, spanning an astonishing 158 or so pages (117 pages for the report proper) and containing all manner of operational recommendations for the Mechanical Licensing Collective, which ingested north of $420 million worth of unpaid royalties from digital-service providers (DSPs) in mid-February of this year. Worth noting here is that these DSPs fronted the unmatched compensation to take advantage of “the limitation on liability for prior unlicensed uses” outlined in 2018’s Music Modernization Act
(MMA).
The
end of Privacy even in your sleep?? Amazon has won permission to monitor your sleep using radar
Amazon has won permission from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make a device that can monitor people's sleep using radar, Bloomberg first reported.
The FCC approval document, published Friday, said Amazon's description of its proposed device included "Radar Sensors to enable touchless control of device features and functions."
It also said the device would be stationary, and Amazon "plans to use the radar's capability of capturing motion in a three-dimensional space to enable contactless sleep tracing functionalities."
(Just another nibble)
SoundExchange
to collect ‘private copy royalties,’ but what are they
and are you owed some?
SoundExchange
wull take over the collection and distribution of domestic
and foreign private copy royalties to more than 500,000
rightsholders. Private copy royalties are a patchwork
of tarrifs generated by the sales of devices and media like
blank CDs as well as personal audio devices, automobile
systems, media centers, and satellite radio devices that
have music recording capabilities. In an era where
music streaming has replaced ownership, those royalties have
been diminishing.
Global Music Streaming, Stateside Vinyl Sales Experienced Massive Growth During 2021’s Initial Half
During 2021’s initial half, global song streams hiked by about 27.5 percent, whereas overall U.S. album sales grew substantially thanks in large part to 108.2 percent year-over-year vinyl LP sales growth, according to a newly released music industry report.
MRC Data shed light upon these and other telling music industry trends in its mid-year analysis, covering January 1st through July 1st of 2021. Worth noting here is that the entity’s report for the first half of 2020 tracked a pandemic-prompted decline in total album sales (down 25 percent YoY across March 13th and July 2nd), digital album sales (down 14.3 percent during the six-month stretch), and physical album sales (down 20.3 percent).
Global music subscriber market shares Q1 2021
The music industry’s growing obsession with declining ARPU will continue to colour the outlook for the global streaming market in revenue terms, but the positive driver of this equation is the rapid growth of music subscribers. There were 100 million new music subscribers in 2020, taking the total to 467 million. (In 2019 there were just 83 million net new subscribers). A further 19.5 million new subscribers in Q1 2021 pushed the number up to 487 million. While the failure of subscription revenues to keep up with the pace resulted in ARPU falling by 9% in 2020, this lens detracts from the huge momentum in paid user adoption. Subscription revenue might not be increasing as fast as some would like, but the global music subscriber base is not just growing – it is growing faster than ever.
4 Benefits Of Applying Focus To Your Music
Anyone who’s been holed up in a music studio with the mission of writing a new album knows how hard it can be to focus on the task at hand. Distractions come in all shapes and sizes, whether it’s a smartphone notification, pet, bandmate, or our own internal boredom or impulsivity. To get the most of your life as a music-maker, you’ll have to learn to devote deep focus when you create or perform music. Here are four huge benefits you’ll experience when you apply focus to your music:
NFTs and the music industry: Token gesture or transformative technology?
In recent years, technology has dealt musicians a crushing blow, with music streaming having brought down the unit price of musical works to near-zero. However, many believe another technology — blockchain, and specifically non-fungible tokens — could come to the rescue.
“NFTs could bring back the value of music once again,” Pochang Wu, a co-founder of Taiwan-based NFT platform OURSONG and the main vocalist in rock band Echo, told Forkast.News in an interview.
Live
Nation CEO says ‘North American concert business is fully
re-open’
Live
Nation CEO Michael Rapino says that the concert business has
fully re-opened despite concerns of a COVID resurgence in
key states. Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino told CNBC
that its North American concert business is fully opened
again as the concert industry heads into what is shaping up
to be the busiest summer concert season in years.
“We’re
very excited about the American market. You know, 70% of our
business is going to be the U.S. and the U.K. Those two
markets seem on track,” Rapino told CNBC’s Julia
Boorstin during the interview on Thursday.
According
to Rapino, Live Nation is currently hosting 30 nationwide
amphitheater tours at full capacity, starting this week and
has a slate of 10-15 summer festivals, which kicks off later
this month when the Rolling Loud festival lands in Miami.
