Musicadium Blog

Remember the so called ‘good old days’, when bands just made money from CD sales, touring and merchandise? ‘Selling out’ or making money from a corporate tie in, or through having a song featured in  a mainstream movie was deemed a pretty negative thing. Things have since  changed, and with the decrease in record sales and the recent havoc within the music industry, artists are looking for new and interesting ways  to get their music heard.

One way of doing this is by selling their music to be synchronized with commercials and hit television programs. Synchronization gives artists the  opportunity to have their music played during a commercial or a television series. This not only creates a hefty wad of cash, but generates a huge amount of exposure and awareness.

On a local scale, take the Mitsubishi Lancer ad with Polka, by Yves Klein Blue playing. You know the one - the couple are throwing stuff into the back of their car, and the song makes the ad great. Or if you want to look at it from a bigger scale, there are television shows, Gossip Girl or Entourage to name a few, who only want the latest and greatest music featured, Entourage has featured music from Cold War Kids, Phoenix and even our very own Empire of The Sun.

The exposure and recognition that is gained from your song is uncharted as it could be played across all television stations on     
free-to-air, dozens of stations on Foxtel and Austar, at prime time to millions of people. Even if it is only a snippet of a song, it is helping to reach an audience outside your target market that you wouldn’t have thought of before. Having a song synced with a commercial could help to also generate numerous purchases. With the use of iPhone apps such as Shazam, a consumer can hear the song on an ad, Shazam it, and have the opportunity to purchase it via iTunes immediately.

The new hit show Glee is a great example of synchronization at its best. Glee has sold over 2 million tracks on iTunes, and its success doesn’t look like it is going to slow down. The cast also cover popular songs, and this is helping to boost sales by artists who manage to get selected for the show – an example of this being Rihanna’s “Take A Bow” increasing a massive 189% since it was covered on Glee. The royalties that they are generating for older artists is also incredible, the Glee Cast covered Journeys “Don’t Stop Believin” and it was certified Gold in December selling 500,000 copies. See the article here.

In theory, sync is great but is anybody really paying that much attention?  Sure you hear a great song in a movie, you might go buy the soundtrack, or find it through other sources via the Internet once you’ve identified it on Shazam. One good song on Gossip Girl may give you a kick start, but the rest, a great live show, other great tracks, still needs to be present in order be successful. Otherwise an artist may fall into the abyss of songs that are only associated with the ads they were on, and become known as “Oh yeah, the song off that dog food ad” forever.

With not a whole lot of ads being created, and so many artists trying to get heard, the chance of ending up on an ad are slim, to none. But still, if this could be harnessed, and Australian commercials used music by Australian bands, then the world would be better place.

Take from this blog what you will. At the end of the day what works for some people won’t always work for others. The old model of selling albums to make money is changing along with culture. Artists need new ways to get their music heard, and if that means writing a song for a vampire soundtrack, is that still selling out, or simply surviving?

Attribution for photographs

Yesterday, Hundreds of Thousands of Australians tuned into Triple J to count down the Hottest 100 tracks of 2009.

news.com.au dissected the countdown and come up with the following interesting facts:

• 50 of the Hottest 100 artists were from indie labels, 44 from major record labels and 6 were unsigned.
• Only 27 of the Hottest 100 songs featured in the 2009 ARIA Top 100 singles chart
• 36 of the songs were from Australian artists, 29 from the UK, 23 from the United States.
• Mumford & Sons Hottest 100 #1 song, Little Lion Man, featured at just #87 on the 2009 ARIA Top 100 singles chart
• Not one of the Top 40 songs on the 2009 ARIA Top 100 singles chart featured on Triple J’s list.
• The first to make the cut was Hilltop Hoods Chase That Feeling, at #3 on the Hottest 100, #42 on the 2009 ARIA Top 100 singles chart
• Florence and the Machine and Muse charted the most number of times in Triple J’s Hottest 100, with 4 each, Temper Trap and Flight of The Conchords notched up 3
• Lisa Mitchell was the first Idol artist to ever feature in the Hottest 100 annual poll, charting at #7 with Coin Laundry

Some fun Musicadium-related Facts about the Hottest 100

• One of the 6 unsigned acts, Musicadium Artist Seth Sentry was one of them!
• 12 of the tracks in the 100 were by Artists who Musicadium has distributed (though not necessarily the tracks featured in the hottest 100) - Lisa Mitchell, The Temper Trap, Seth Sentry, Sarah Blasko, The Hilltop Hoods, Philadelphia Grand Jury, The Middle East and Washington.
• Flying in the face of the Hottest 100 of all Time poll, half of those 12 tracks were by female artists or contained female artists on vocals.
• Seth Sentry was one of a number of artists in the 100 who were Unearthed artists

Ahh, the holiday period. A time for family, food, festivity and fantastic tunes.

Our gift to you is Digital Distribution of your music and video - which you can re-gift to your fans!

Last week, we promised you a sale on our Digital Distribution services and in a fit of pre-Christmas excitement, we gave away gift cards like crazy to those who took up on our offer.

This week, we’re delivering more gifts to you like some sort of Rock and Roll Santa Claus!

FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY- OFFER AVAILABLE TILL 5:00PM AEST 18th DECEMBER 2009!!*

Video Distribution
Add 3 videos for the price of 2
1 or 2 videos, get a $20.00 AUD iTunes Gift card

E-Mail info@musicadium.com for instructions on how to sign your videos up and for specifications for encoding.

Add an Outlet
Add Nokia or additional outlets for $20.00 AUD each for releases already through Musicadium

New Releases
- All four outlets for the price of three for new releases - $19.75 AUD per outlet!

Don’t forget to email info@musicadium.com to let us know you signed the release up - you can expect to receive an invoice for the limited time offer price within 48 hours.

Issues

If you are having any issues with the uploading of WAV files to the Musicadium system, be sure to e-mail support@musicadium.com for assistance.

At just about every conference or industry forum we attend, invariably someone will ask about “What’s the next big thing in music? What’s the future of music? How will bands be making money in 5 years, 10 years?”

Invariably, the answer is “horses for courses.” Which is kind of vague and annoying for conference-goers because that rhetoric then gets bandied around a lot.  But when you think about it, is very open. Which is nice. Because it means that you, as an artist or artist manager, have options.  Where previously, there was but one definition of success.  You were signed to a major label, big advances, massive tours, mass-media campaigns and stadium shows and platinum records, all the while being disconnected with your fans.

I don’t think that there will ever be a culture of the super-mega-massive-superstar ever again. Career artists, sure, big shows and festival headliners, sure, but certainly they and their labels will need to be thinking innovatively and being ahead of the game to survive.  They will need to be connecting with fans as well and certainly not being inaccessible as before.  There may be big success for a time, but being ignorant of connecting with fans through live performance and technology could so very easily push them away.

Luckily, in this new environment, it kind of comes down to something that Seth Godin was talking about on his blog a few weeks ago - making decisions. There are endless options in terms of distribution of your music, touring, marketing, publishing & licensing, the whole gamut of industry options.  By being a decision maker, you set yourself goals and you define who you will be and what you will and won’t do in your career.  There is no one path anymore, so making decisions about how you feel about certain paths/options will take you on your own choose-your-own-adventure music industry tale.

You can literally decide what levels of success you wish to achieve and how you can create your success, whatever that is for you. That’s not to say that an artist should not understand the current models within the industry, but decide to work within them, around them or invent new ones.

You can decide how to record your music, you can do it yourself at home or you can record at a studio, you can choose to give it away on a disc or sell it at whatever price point you want, you can choose to give it away online or sell it in whatever stores you choose or a webstore of your own, you can choose to have merchandise or make merchandise and sell it in webstores who can print-on-demand at no cost to you,  you can set up your own digital label and distribute not only yourself, but other bands you like as well, using a digital aggregator like Musicadium. You can decide how much you spend on marketing, if any budget at all.  You can choose how to access your fans and the level of interaction you have with them.

There are literally as many answers to the question of “What the future for musicians and artists?” as there are people in the world.  It is open to interpretation.

The next big thing in Music? Could be you. Make the decision to make decisions.

I recently designed some flyers for the UnPlug Live concept I had devised several weeks back. Last week I got my designs printed @ StreetPrint in Birmingham, (posters to follow soon).

I’ll be distributing these everywhere I go; at local shows, venues, record shops, recording studios, ticket outlets, clothes stores, universities, colleges, fast food joints…everywhere!

Since displaying the flyers outside the venue the other day, a good number of bands are already showing interest in playing at UnPlug, finding the policy I have specified for each show most appealing. This of course benefits the exposure of Musicadium, potentially increasing the level of UK artists registering for digital distribution.

Digital copies of these flyers are circulating across Myspace, Facebook and other social networking sites, with various Birmingham bloggers also due to be contacted.

Here’s a clearer example (click to enlarge)

Front:

Back:

Advance tickets for each show look a little something like this:

I’ve been meeting up with artists scheduled to play at the venue, discussing the idea of UnPlug Live and the benefits of registering with Musicadium. The fact that bands retain 100% royalties and have no term based contracts hanging over their heads, proves to be the most appealing factor when informing exactly how the distribution deal works. The cool thing is that this policy I have devised at UnPlug will also remain on-going, even after my internship is complete and I have moved to Australia. Providing the nights are successful, the events will continue, therefore creating a solid connection with Musicadium and UnPlug in the UK.

I’m also mapping out ideas for the Musicadium podcast I mentioned in one of my previous posts. For every artist registered through the Unplug Live concept, I then wish to devise a podcast featuring tracks from bands who have performed at UnPlug. This will be a first and awesome feature for the company, another incentive for artists wishing to get their music heard.

I’m also going to represent Musicadium with my upcoming DJ bookings, by having the Musicadium logo alongside my name on all future flyer designs. Every little bit helps!

Ok I could really do with some tea and pudding right now…I’ll keep you all updated with more news soon!

Peace

Jimbooo

jamesb@musicadium.com

Artist Liaison and UK Correspondent

Musicadium family member Roxy Burt aka Jane Doe has been very industrious of late, DJing at the latest Musicadium showcase and at various venues around Brisbane.  Her new endeavour is the combination of fashion, art, music and industry. Just check out the Press release for her event this Saturday October 17th at Brisbane’s X&Y Bar.

The recent explosion of club nights has been a gift and a curse to Brisbane, Australia. Beggars have been made choosers with the weekly tirade of events. What was once the highlight of your month now has to settle for a nonchalant “maybe attending” on Facebook.

glassghost, however, is one night you don’t want to miss. A jam-packed feast of disco delinquencies for you to sink your fangs into, the madness begins at X&Y Bar on Saturday the 17th of October. A product of the masterminds that brought you Turpentine and Pistol Whipped, the two have teamed up like crazed scientists to create the Frankenstein’s monster of all club nights. Cue flash of lightning!

Inheriting Turpentine’s lust for emerging fashion labels, glassghost is set to feature some of Brisbane’s newest and most exciting designers, while Pistol Whipped sews it all together with Brisbane’s freshest offerings- DJ’s Jane Doe, Aukistra and Frankie Trouble bringing their distinctive indie electro buzz.

The night takes on a life of its own through an electric live performance by The Cityscape Riot, playing tunes off their debut EP, Technodome Nights. Already a Triple J feature artist in November 2007, the band are a heady duo that sounds like a mutant Daft Punk fronted by Ian Curtis.

Adding extra industry value to the night, glassghost is backed by digital music aggregator, Musicadium, who will be present on the night to talk to musicians and labels in attendance about DIY, 100% royalty-return Digital Distribution of their music and/or video to iTunes and a host of other online outlets.

If that still hasn’t got your heart racing, there will be zines by Bats and Turpentine to pick up, as well as live art by Coco, Sarah Field and Rhiannon Mallet. Oh, and did we mention that entry is FREE? Phew, BREATH!

So get your good self along to X&Y Bar (Free Entry) on Saturday the 17th October for glassghost!

Sarah and a crack team of interns will be on hand to dispense advice on distribution, promotion and connection.

RSVP TO THE EVENT ON FACEBOOK!

I may be a complete idealist when it comes to music but I’m still in love with the idea that everyday people can pick up basic instruments and make sense of our world. Although, I am beginning to think that I am in the minority. I’ve heard this theory that there are two kinds of people in the world. There are lyric people and music people. The lyric people tend to be analytical, all about the meaning of the song. They’re the ones you see with the CD insert out 5 minutes after buying it, poring over the lyrics, interpreting the hell out of everything. Then there are the music people. They are the people who could care less for the lyrics or the meaning behind the song as long as it’s just got a good beat and you can dance to it.

There is probably no better example of ‘music people’ then the thousands of people you can’t avoid at festivals all over the summer every year. The kind of people who have no idea who is playing but are there anyway, rain, hail or shine. They are there, usually shirtless or wearing as little as possible.

It’s clear that music festivals are fast becoming less about the music and more about people trying to look good and fulfill their constant need to get ‘loose’, with a combination of too many drugs, too much alcohol and way too much fake tan. Their general shitness crosses all boundaries of musical tastes, so whether your festival calendar involves Big Day Out, Splendour in the Grass or Parklife they will be there showing off their sweaty Southern Cross tattoos, right along side the scantily dressed girls who are too busy taking photos for their Myspace and Facebook pages to go see any of the artists appearing on the stellar line ups. That is if you can even get your hands on a ticket in the first place.

It seems that these days to get away from that kind of festival culture you have to take a 19 hour long drive down to Melbourne for Falls Festival or discover a new festival in its first or second year of life, although it is definitely a welcome relief from what music festivals are evolving into. Maybe one day they will look back and realise what the rest of us already know. For now, I still battle the fake-tanned bogan crowds because I love music, safe in the knowledge that others feel my pain. ‘Lyric’ people still exist – you just have to fight through the bogans to find them.

(Pssst, I know we are a few weeks late on blogging this, but they are great and worth sharing! Kisschasy are Musicadium artists…)

I thought I’d introduce myself a little bit more and also explain what I do as a promoter at my local music venue in Birmingham. I’ve been working for a club, Un-Plug, for a good while now, regularly putting on popular upcoming and well known deejays from across the country. The club is situated 2 minutes from the heart of Birmingham city centre in Digbeth, an area thriving in music, arts and culture. You can read more about this here.

After joining the team at Musicadium, I immediately began thinking of ways in which I could incorporate Musicadium’s services with Un-Plug. Having just launched a new event dedicated to unsigned bands called Un-Plug Live, I then set about mapping out ideas which would benefit both the venue and Musicadium.

My Idea

I then devised a ticketing system in which bands whom play at Un-Plug, are posted a bundle of tickets in advance of their show. The policy goes like this. All tickets for Un-Plug Live will be split up, with a certain amount sold at advance, and a certain amount on the door. For every ticket sold in advance, bands will retain a set share of this. For every 15 tickets sold, bands automatically gain a distribution deal with Musicadium, funded by the team at Un-Plug. This idea offers bands opportunites to earn money through ticket sales they make, an experience of promotion and also the chance of gaining a worldwide distribution deal with Musicadium. Definitely a big look!

What’s next?

I have a massive list of bookings I’ll be making over the next few weeks specifically for Un-Plug Live. I’ll be designing fresh flyers/posters with all the info regarding the Un-Plug Live/Musicadium partnership, necessary in dishing out to everyone and everywhere possible. As soon as these are done I’ll get digital copies online in my next post to show you guys. I’ll be launching Un-Plug Live at the end of October, having mid-week gigs running fortnightly.

What follows?

The Musicadium podcast, featuring UK artists whom have registered and signed a distribution deal. I don’t wish to give too much away on this idea, so hold tight for my next post.

Nice one!

James

jamesb@musicadium.com

Artist Liaison and UK Correspondent

Musicadium

The record industry is dying, according to…well, pretty much everyone.

The music industry, however, is most definitely not. If anything, the easy availability of music to the consumer has opened up the industry which was previously so dominated by the large (viewed by most as evil and tasteless) record companies who were filling the market with formulaic pop. Now, we as consumers have choices and our particular breed of music, whatever that may be, is much easier to access.

But yes- quite often this is accessed by illegal downloading.

While the record companies responded to this threat by suing everyone who dares to download- from high school students to families- research has shown that even with the threat of prosecution, the general public still don’t view music downloading as being ethically wrong. Aren’t we all such little rebels?

The industry is only now starting to come around to the fact online downloading is not going to disappear and are looking into new and inventive ways of capturing a audience and their cash. But how exactly do you go about getting people to willingly pay for something they can often get for free?

There have been many academic research papers looking into viable ways to encourage consumers to pay for their music. I have come up with 4 factors that determine a consumer’s willingness to pay for music legally. Take a gander at my lovely diagram below.

The first point I’d like to make is that the appeal of extra benefits offered with a legal purchase will increase a consumer’s willingness to pay. If bands offer a free extra, say, a free T-shirt with legal purchase of their CD, or legal download, this will increase the appeal of the legal purchase against the free option of an illegal download.

Take, for example, Radiohead’s offer of a limited edition “discbox” including a second disc from the recording sessions, vinyl and CD editions of the album and a hardcover book of artwork when consumers chose to pay over a certain amount to legally download “In Rainbows”. When I purchased tickets to see Daft Punk at the Riverstage in Brisbane, my tickets arrived with a lovely CD. More recently, if you pre-ordered Paul Dempsey’s album “Everything Is True” from iTunes you received an exclusive video of personal footage of Paul finishing the album. To put it simply, people love free stuff and are more willing to pay if they think they’re getting a bargain.

Point no. 2 on the pretty diagram: The higher the consumer considers themselves to be involved in music, the higher their willingness to purchase music products legally would be. This means if, for instance, you’re a musician, you have an understanding of the position of an artist and would not want to be depriving another of their livelihood. Nor do you want poor sound quality downloads if you are a massive fan of a band. Most music fans buy the music of their favourites as well as tickets and associated merchandise because the music forms part of their identity. Your identity is not something to take lightly, or cheaply.

The third, and perhaps most obvious point, is a consumer’s expendable income. If a music lover does not have a bank balance as great as their appetite for music, they are naturally going to lean towards the option of feeding this hunger for free and using their real money to buy 2-minute noodles. Research has shown that those on lower incomes are more likely to pirate rather than purchase to sample new music, but are more likely to purchase favourite songs legally, linking back to my previous point of a persons involvement with music.

Satisfaction with a sampled product is when a consumer trials an unknown artist/song by downloading it for free- be it legally or illegally. Depending on the level of satisfaction with the free, sampled music, this person will be more willing to pay for a related music product legally.

For instance, if you had a band recommended to you by a friend and then went and acquired the music by pirating an album. Through consuming and enjoying the music, you became a fan of the band, and you’d be more likely to pay to see them play if they came to your town and possibly buy their album at the show. If you had not sampled this music, you probably would not have paid for their album in the first place based purely on your friend’s recommendation.

One thing is for sure, there’s no going back. The industry must continue to move forward and embrace new business models, new ways of thinking, new ideas. It is by no means the end, but the beginning of a new kind of music industry where the consumer can help shape the change.

By Julia ‘Ju-ju Bean’ Bridger