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Elliot Pearson
MUSIC CONSULTANT.
Passionate about synchronisation, playlisting, licensing, supervision, A&R.
Send me tracks for consideration via my SoundCloud dropbox.
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Tweets
- These Stay Thirsty mixes from @TheFindMag on @mixcloud are incredible. Check them out instantly. Do as you're told.
- The amounts of money being talked about with the Facebook flotation are mind-boggling.
- Video: Just favorited “Stay Thirsty Episode 34” by TheFindMag on http://t.co/UfrRq5a3 http://t.co/ODDQ1ciK
- @TheEstherJones I got called Helios in Starbucks once. Must be that Greek look I have going on...
- Fantastic new acoustic video from @htnyband for a song off their 'Treading Water' EP: 'Going Home' http://t.co/Hj8lXAV8May 18, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- At @SoundCity? Head to see 'Streaming & New Ownership' panel at 14.45 featuring @nickcalafato from @lastfm
- Got an email about The Pharcyde at Koko on July 17th but nothing on the Koko site, anyone know anything?
- Think I need to somehow install another copy of @Flipboard to have more pages now they've included an audio section. 3 pages won't cut it!
- President Obama roasts David Beckham at White House ceremony http://t.co/KmnTu0qf via @MailOnline
- RT @cultofmac: Instagram Camera Concept Wants To Become Real With Your Help http://t.co/pEOyu4wk
- Streaming new John Mayer in full before release. Shows confidence people will buy, not taking their £ before they find out if they like it.
- Sounds great: good friends, good music, good food & good wine. http://t.co/48pW9mDt
- @nickcalafato Simple things keep the digital world moving eh!
- Genuinely can't remember how I managed on iOS without copy & paste. Remember being unmoved by the announcement of its inclusion though.
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Recent Tracks
- Mr. Quiche (The Dirty Tees Official Remix) by Wildcat! Wildcat!
- With You feat. Grovesnor by Flight Facilities
- You Get High by Pretty Lights
- "Moonlight House" (draft) by Elliot Pearson
- Maybe Tomorrow - Classic Mix by Terry Bush
- The MP (Live) by The Album Leaf
- Baby by Lou Rhodes
- Einaudi: Solo by Ludovico Einaudi
- Warm Sound by Zero 7
- Magic Day by Lou Rhodes
John MayerAtmosphereThe RootsBen HarperJason MrazIncubusJay-ZThe Brand New HeaviesMarvin GayeHauntsAqualungStevie WonderThe Everyday PeopleSouliveRaphael SaadiqBill WithersMichael JacksonAerosmithBeverley KnightLynden David HallFun Lovin' CriminalsAl GreenKanye WestToolCitizen CopePrinceThe PharcydeDave Matthews BandLenny KravitzJeff BuckleyHardkandyBedouin SoundclashThe NextmenJellyfishStevie Ray Vaughan And Double TroubleFinkJack JohnsonJohn Mayer TrioErykah BaduAlicia KeysBen Harper And Relentless7Mos DefRed Hot Chili PeppersDavid Ryan HarrisJill ScottCounting CrowsThe Album LeafAlabama 3GallowsAvenged Sevenfold- 92 plays
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- born to Run by K-Os73 plays
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- Drop by The Pharcyde48 plays
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- Neon by John Mayer44 plays
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- You by Atmosphere44 plays
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Info
- Music Consultant - Synchronisation, Licensing & Supervision for advertising, entertainment & brandsMusic | United Kingdom, GBSummarySpecialties: Music Business, Digital & New Media Technologies, Independent Music, Artist Relations/Adviser/Management, Online Promotion, Social MediaExperience
- May 2012 - PresentMusic Consultant / Smooth One Music Services+ Sourcing existing & new music compositions for use in advertising, TV, film & for brand marketing + Playlist design for venues + Repertoire management for bands/artists/composers + Soundtrack design and music supervision
- Nov 2000 - PresentActing Branch Manager/Sales/Assistant E-commerce Co-ordinator / Hooters Musical InstrumentsWorking at branch-level for a specialist musical instrument retailer. Undertaking a large range of roles, from product demonstration and sales, to e-commerce and online marketing, through to buying and staff training - and everywhere in between.
- Apr 2009 - Feb 2012Marketing & D2C Consultant / Smooth One Music ServicesFreelance consultancy regarding digital, online and social media applications for creative industries, and their use in promotion, marketing and brand maintenance. Specialising in the music industry, we advise clients on the most efficient and effective use of emerging technologies for the promotion of brand identity and product marketing, at both artist and label levels.
- Apr 2009 - Jan 2010New Media Co-ordinator (Freelance) / House Trained RecordsRoles include: + Creation & maintenance of rich media content + Consultation & implementation of new media strategy & procedures + Platform design & branding
- Jun 2002 - Oct 2008Label Manager / Smooth One RecordsLabel manager of independent record label, specialising in rock, indie and acoustic acts.
- Jan 2008 - May 2008Digital Assistant (Temp.) / Universal Music GroupResponsible for a number of new media roles including: + Online campaign monitoring and reporting + Data collection and utilisation + Research, presentation and integration of emerging online technologies
Education-
2010 - 2010Berklee College of MusicOnline Music Marketing with Topspin in Music Marketing
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2009 - 2009Berklee College of MusicMusic Publishing 101 in Music Publishing
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2005 - 2008University of WestminsterBA (Hons) in Commercial Music (Business Path)
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1998 - 2000The Hillside SchoolA Level in English Literature, Psychology, Media Studies
Additional Information-
Websites:
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Interests:Music Business, Emerging Online Opportunities, Digital & New Media Marketing & Promotion, Direct-to-fan, Independent Music, Artist Services
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Posts
Savoir Adore - ‘Dreamers’
A great track that the teaser doesn’t give enough exposure to, but have a listen on Spotify here.
Juan Zelada - ‘Blues Remain’
In all honesty this is one of my favourite songs of this year.
Hadn’t seen the video before sourcing it now and I’ve been slightly put off. He looks like the love child of James Nesbitt and Jamie Cullum.
First up, the new single from Polly Poison & Her Electric Antidote, “When The Devil Comes To Dine”
- 43 plays
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Posts
- May 14, 12
How wonderful technology can be, yet so frustrating at the same time. Hopefully, previous readers of this blog will notice the significant gap in time between this post and it’s predecessor. Unfortunately during a hosting migration I’ve lost the posts written during moving from my free WordPress-hosted blog to my own, and am now falling back to the old style way in the mean time, hoping to salvage those lost into the ether.
I’m hoping to be back up and running properly soon.
Filed under: Uncategorized - Feb 23, 10
Rewards and the element of friendly competition can be a great way to generate interaction between artists and the fan community, and utilising new technology can be a great way monitor and benefit from the information gathered.
The increase in adoption of geo-location services, such as Foursquare, present such an opportunity.
For those of you still unfamiliar with Foursquare, the general premise is that users can notify friends of the restaurants, bars and venues they are in when out. The point of which encourages you to find friends when you’re out and discover new locations and parts of your city you never knew existed. The inclusion of reward points and ‘badges’ that can be earnt add an extra element for users.
How could this be useful for independent artists?
Having an artist/band profile and checking in at venues for shows and appearances serves two purposes:
- Increased exposure of the band on venue pages (user profile pages also offer links to Twitter feeds and Facebook profiles for people to give easier access for people initially discovering the band)
- Fans checking in at the shows are rewarded and it is possible for the band to see which others users have checked in the most times with them
For a band, offering an ongoing promotion for the most die hard attendees of shows (in a similar way to how increasing numbers of venues are rewarding their Foursquare ‘Mayors’) in which they are rewarded with either an item of merch or special token from the band, or even just for those seen to be attending a number of gigs can help to fix a name to the face of audience members for relationship development.
While bands can often be snowed under with the number of different social media and interactive platforms, something like Foursquare is useful in that it can be updated in seconds from a large number of mobile devices, and allows an easy extra level of interaction with fans.
Filed under: Mobile, Social, Technology, Web Tagged: artist/fan relationship, Foursquare, geo-location, geo-tagging, interaction, iPhone, Live Music, Mobile, rewards, social media, Technology, venues - Feb 15, 10
A topic that starts to get scary for bands who want to focus on the musical and creative side of their work rather than get bogged down in the technical side of the business is that of web analytics. I can hear guitarists, singers and musicians of all sorts reaching for the mouse to close their browser window already, but bear with me! So much interaction happening online is wasted activity and therefore wasted time that could be better spent on music or interacting with your fans, and analytics tools can help to reduce this wasted energy.
While such tools require a certain amount of time to set up, they can really give fantastic feedback of not only how well your campaigns and promotions are working, but also how best to interact with your particular fan base. Why go to the bother of maintaining a specific music profile page when most of your fans want to interact with you via Twitter or Facebook? Tools such as Google Analytics will help monitor how and where your fans are finding their way to you, and even what they like when they find you. All of this can all help to optimise your presence online by customising your sites to make them easier to find on search engines, and help to give you an idea of what your fans want from you online. Are your fans spending most of their time watching videos you’ve posted? Analytics tools will highlight how popular your videos are so you know that by increasing the number or variety of the videos on your site, your fans will be more likely to keep returning to check out new videos, or re-watch their favourites.
There are a wealth of different levels of analysis you can use for your sites, from simple link-tracking using sites such as bit.ly which will help to highlight how many users click links posted on various sites (try using different short links on different social media sites to see which is most successful in sending users to the sites you post), through to more comprehensive systems, including Google Analytics, which will give a wealth of information from search engine terms, time spent on the site, most popular pages, and even locational hotspots based on IP address locations. Platforms such as Topspin and Bandcamp are built around giving great feedback to bands and artists to help promote their music, with embeddable widgets are gathering data that can really give clear indications as to social media successes, and even help with gathering mailing lists through to sale of music and other physical and digital products.
Why the Beatles reference in the title of this post I hear you ask? I am referring to Pandora‘s Tim Westergren who wrote a fantastic article about how important or successful a dedicated online marketing assistant can be for a band. While analytics and general web presence maintenance and promotion are vital to a ban’s success in the current music business climate, much of what is entailed can be time-consuming and often needs someone particularly technically-minded, and can benefit from someone’s dedicated attention. If a band wants to be successful it is worth appointing someone to help out with this side of their music, leaving them freer to concentrate on their specialist skills – creating and playing music.
Filed under: Independent Artists, Social, Web Tagged: analytics, Bandcamp, bit.ly, campaign management, digital, direct-to-fan, Facebook, Google, independent, interaction, new business models, online, online music sales, optimisation, Pandora, social media, Technology, Tim Westergren, Topspin, Twitter, web metrics - Feb 10, 10
With Warner Music Group’s CEO Edgar Bronfman’s comments this week about how free streaming music services are “clearly not positive for the industry”, and his stating that in the future Warner will not be embracing such deals, how does this affect WMG’s place in the future music market?
After releasing figures this week of WMG’s $17m loss in Q4 of 2009, Bronfman is obviously keen to lay blame somewhere, and in-keeping with his personality, wants to be seen making a stand against various parts of the current music business.
While Bronfman speaks of premium streaming services that require payment from subscribers that he feels will rival iTunes, I can’t help but picture a big swing-and-a-miss for WMG. One reason Spotify has become such a leading platform in music streaming is it’s far-reaching catalogue, and user uptake. The success iTunes has received is also largely down to similar elements – it’s market penetration and availability meant that it reached a large number of users quickly, lead the way and strongly maintained it’s position.
Any future service that hoped to take over from services such as Spotify or We7 would need to rely on the majors withdrawing their catalogues from those services and all coming together to sign deals to give the same catalogue to the new service. Who would choose a subscription service that you had to pay for which only had, for example, the Warner catalogue, when other services offer a wider range, with less stringent pricing options?
The bullish attitude of Bronfman only smacks to me of a company that are not getting their own way in the current music industry model, still relying too greatly on recorded music sales, and wanting to throw their toys out of the pram when their competitors are seeing streaming services as a potentially successful fraction of their future model. Would Bronfman have still made this weeks comments if Universal’s SVP Rob Wells hadn’t spoken in January in support of Spotify?
It still surprises me (but shouldn’t) when the majors are seen to be fighting against the tide of industry changes, rather than accepting the climate as is, while using their efforts to maximise potential income rather than casting negativity over what they cannot control.
In my opinion, were Warner to remove their catalogue from the streaming services, the lost promotion would have more of an adverse effect on recorded music sales than would be compensated for by dictating to consumers that they must buy through iTunes or the premium services of their choosing.
Filed under: Music Business, News, Technology, Web Tagged: digital music, Edgar Bronfman, iTunes, online music sales, Spotify, streaming music, Universal, Warner, We7, WMG - Feb 03, 10
With the empowerment of independent artists in the ‘new look’ music business, we are given a fantastic chance to not only discover talented musicians that we would otherwise never have found, but also get to learn about them as the people behind the music. When you find music that reaches out to you in different ways, and you see the personality of the artist behind the sound, it can be a fantastic experience for the audience too.
With this in mind, I have decided to start a (hopefully) regular feature in which I get to find out from the artists themselves how they are working with the new found musical and creative freedom they are currently enjoying, at the same time sharing with you some of the great music out there to be discovered.
The first artist I have the pleasure of featuring is North Carolina singer-songwriter, Chris Bryant. After reading an article featuring Chris and how he is capturing imaginations with his “de-mix” approach to covering other artists, along with his idea of being his own support act for live shows, I listened to his music via his website and Bandcamp pages, and he quickly became one of my most listened to artists of the last few months.
I have been fortunate enough to get in touch with Chris to get his views on his music, and how he approaches life as an independent musician.
EP: Hi Chris, firstly tell us a bit about your musical background and who the artists were that inspired you up to this point?CB: When I was growing up, my parents had a rule that we (I have a younger brother and sister) all had to be doing something musical. I sang in the choir in church, took piano from age 6-12, played saxophone in middle school jazz band, and sang in choir for a year in high school. They sort of stopped enforcing the rule in high school, so things stopped for a bit. When I went to college at Duke University, I joined the Pitchforks, an all-male a cappella group. I didn’t pick up the guitar until June 2008, about a month after I graduated.
As far as artists that inspired me, it’s all over the place. My parents didn’t let me listen to the “real radio” growing up, so I only really knew gospel music, motown, oldies, and smooth jazz until about 6th grade. Then the floodgates opened and I’ve been listening to everything since then. At first it was Usher, NSYNC, Third Eye Blind (It was 1997, cut me a break), and whenever friends would mention people, I’d try to listen to as much as possible. By the time I went to college, the most played CD’s in my collection were Ben Harper, 2pac, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and Mana (Revolucion de Amor). I’m always picking up little things from all over the place.
EP: You’ve only been performing as a solo artist for the last year or so; what prompted the change in focus for you?CB: I fronted a funk/rock fusion band for a really short while (Fall of 2008), and had an epiphany – bands have a lot of moving parts and it’s really difficult to get everyone on the same wavelength if you’re not all invested in the vision or if there is no vision. All of the guys were great guys, but we here all coming in with a different goal – the drummer wanted to have fun and get paid, the bassist and guitarist wanted to “make it” but didn’t know what that meant, and I just wanted experience singing in a band with instruments. Knowing what I know now, we really had no idea what was going on wrt booking, online presence, engaging fans, anything. We never had a practice or a show where everyone was happy, and I realized it was because we were all moving in different directions. I started focusing more on my guitar, and decided to do the solo thing January 2009.
EP: How difficult has it been juggling a day job with moving forward with your music career?CB: I teach middle school special education math and reading, and the teaching schedule is pretty nice when it comes to music – winter and spring break lend themselves to touring (working on my first one right now), and having a free summer is great because possibilities are almost endless. I have had a few days after shows/open mic networking where making it in to work at 7:00 hasn’t happened! It’s really not that different than someone working two jobs except you’re your own boss and the pay is not guaranteed.
EP: Where did the idea for the ‘de-mix’ album come from? Why did you choose to release this first as opposed to a full-length album of your own material along with the single tracks you’ve released?CB: It was really a “happy coincidence” of a lot of moving parts. I’m an economics student by training, and spent the first half of 2009 researching independent artists, doing miniature case studies, and basically doing everything but getting better at guitar! I came up with the conclusion that combining touring with a really compelling album would be the way to go about things, but since I didn’t quite have the skills or the time to support a tour, I decided to release an album. I’ve got a few hours of original material, but I still wasn’t quite sure what I wanted my sound to be or how I’d generate enough interest in my original stuff without touring or some other means of supporting a release.
Ben Harper is the reason why I started playing guitar, and I was really intrigued when I heard he’d quit playing with his old band, the Innocent Criminals, and was putting out a CD with the new one, Relentless7. His CD came out in May, I downloaded it from iTunes, and burned it to a CD for a 13 hour drive to my best friend’s wedding in Florida. I think I played that CD 12 times round trip. Since it was somewhat of a departure from the old stuff (a little heavier/more electric), I wondered what would happen if I did acoustic versions of some of the songs. I put a couple up on youtube and got a good response, so I decided to record a full length “de-mix” album of all of the songs from the album. I finished the project by August. It’s kind of a reverse concept of the re-mix combined with the mixtape that comes from hip hop. Instead of making it more danceable, I was making it “chill.” I got a good response from people on the now defunct benharper.com forum, and even had a nice guy translate my description of the project into french for the benharper.fr forum. I wouldn’t have been able to make the same connections with my own stuff, given limitations on my time/resources. I’ve made a bunch of new friends and send a couple of CD’s a week to France, and I think that’s great. I’m pushing for a full length original album by June, so we’ll see how round 2 goes.
EP: With such a proliferation of artists using the internet to promote their music the web is becoming saturated with independent music – how hard is it for you to get yourself heard?CB: It’s really, really hard. Especially when there are 20 people as good or better doing something similar. It’s all about differentiation, product placement, and audience engagement. And luck. Good music floats to the top, but the best/more successful artists/bands have something more to offer – a story, a personal relationship, a gimmick, something memorable. The people who give my music more than a cursory listen stick around for something, even if they can’t say what it is. It’s all about the experience.
EP: What are the key things you feel are necessary to progress as an artist, either from a business or creative aspect?CB: I have this conversation with my music friends all of the time, and half agree and half think I’m way off base. I strongly believe that good music alone isn’t enough for an artist to progress. With so much good music (and free music) on the internet, artists need a hook to get people to listen and keep them coming back for more. The hook doesn’t have to be a gimmick or even something an audience can easily define, but it needs to be there. This is the collection of best practices I collected from my observations last year:
- Play good music. The definition changes by genre, but it needs to be there or nothing else works.
- Clearly define your product/service. I’m a nice guy who plays good music, and that’s evident from the web presence to the live show and everywhere in between.
- Identify your target demographics based on #2. It’s not the whole world, but it’s probably larger than you think.
- Develop specialized ways to connect with those target demographics.
- Repeat – music can always get better, and 2-4 aren’t static
If you’re trying to make money, #4 has a couple of subpoints, but that’s the basic idea. Anyone who thinks they’ll be fine just because they play good music is crazy or doesn’t realize they’re accidentally doing the other steps to generate their progress. I tell my friends who don’t want to do anything more than #1 to find someone who will help them do the rest. I’m still working on #1!
EP: How important has live performance been as part of your promotion to this point, and how much do you see it changing further into your career?CB: I didn’t play that many live shows last year, and the ones I did were more for experience than exposure. I’ve made live performance a big part of my strategy this year, and expect it to stay that way in the future. I play open mics where I network with other musicians and venues owners/bookers (and occasionally pick up a fan or two), a monthly gig where I’m opening for myself (there’s more info and a video on hypebot.com), a few regularly paying bar gigs, short tours, and a decent number of benefit concerts with multiple bands. Although I’m not covering a ridiculous amount of square miles, there’s not too much over-saturation due to market segmentation and product differentiation – I told you I was an econ major! In the short-term future, live performance will continue to look like this. Long term, I think touring is the way to go, even if it’s just a regional circuit. I’m looking into that now for the summer, and, if all goes well, the fall and beyond. All that being said, I’d be crazy to ignore the Internet.
EP: What benefits or hindrance do you see being an independent artist versus being part of a label (major or independent)? If offered a label deal would you consider taking it, or have you already had the offer but turned it down?CB: The upside to being an independent artist is freedom. I can do whatever I want, have full artistic license, and don’t have to ask anyone for permission or go through a chain of command to do last minute changes – freedom is awesome. I don’t know if I’d take a major label deal if I were offered one – I was pursuing one last year and things fell through. I’d like to have resources available to have better connections to press and make recordings better, but I don’t know if a label deal is the best route to that.
EP: What developments have happened in the way you can communicate with your audience that have excited you or made new opportunities possible for you that previously were not? Are there any other things on the horizon that will change the game or give you new options with how you want to develop your career?CB: I’m all about developing personal relationships, and having a ton of ways for friends (I like that word better than fans) to interact with me and my music. I want to know how they found me, what they liked, what they didn’t like, what they do, and all of the social networking tools make this possible. I did this a lot with YouTube before I “went pro,” and now I use facebook, twitter, thesixtyone.com, email, and to a lesser extent myspace to interact more than inform. One thing I am worried about is maintaining information on all those sites and the new ones that seem to pop up everyday. ArtistData.com is great for updating/maintaining everything, and I’m just getting started using it.
I think the biggest game changer is the ease and inexpensiveness with which artists can record (audio and video) high quality material. It allows for a lot of new, fresh material, but I don’t think anyone quite knows how to manage it yet. I envision a multimedia monthly magazine, of sorts – I’ll be putting out 10+ new tracks each month (not all originals), but neither the content creator nor the consumer know what to do with all that stuff.
EP: How would you measure your career as being a ‘success’?CB: Up until now, I’ve defined success by my ability to develop music that people want to consume. I think the past year and a half has been really successful – I went from not playing guitar to recording a couple of albums and playing live shows that people seem to enjoy a lot. I think that definition may grow as I grow, but for now, it’s still focused on making music people want to consume steadily increasing the number of people who know who I am and like what I do. Hopefully the rest will follow.
EP: Thanks for your time Chris.
For the latest information on Chris and his music, make sure you check out his official website, and listen to his sampler album below, or on his Bandcamp page.
Filed under: Artist Spotlight Tagged: artist/fan relationship, Bandcamp, Chris Bryant, direct-to-fan, free music, independent, Live Music - Jan 31, 10
As an observer, something like the yearly MIDEM conference in Cannes is a great way to catch an insight into the current views of those inside the music industry about what is happening right now, and how they see things changing in the future. It is often supported by fantastic panels with often conflicting views. At the MIDEM Manager Summit, one such panel helped to highlight completely different views from two different managers. While the don’t necessarily conflict as they are personal opinions and not a clear case of right or wrong, it is interesting to the approaches of two successful artist managers.
Monday’s panel of Chris Morrison of CMO Management (Blur, Gorillaz) and Mark Wood of Radius Music (Imogen Heap) showed two managers working from different approaches – Morrison’s more traditional approach and Wood’s more tech-centred approach.
For me, the conversation was notable for a few different points. Morrison’s view of online digital retail was very concentrated:
“…there is only one retailer that counts on the net: iTunes… yet we spend an inordinate amount of time feeding the competition, rightfully so because we want there to be some competition”
There is no reference from Morrison to direct-to-fan techniques. I understand that for a number of reasons his point is correct; iTunes has by far the largest market share and is one of the largest music retailers, both online and offline, is a key access point for chart inclusion, and is an established brand for consumers with incredible tie-ins with the market-leading portable music devices. It is also true that competition must be maintained to keep the pressure on iTunes. Maybe it is the label involvement in the artists that chooses this path, but even EMI must be able to see the potential in direct-to-fan marketing and retail for such established acts – especially with EMI being on the virtual receiving end of the Radiohead ‘In Rainbows’ experiment. With platforms such as Topspin allowing many cost-cutting aspects to a release maximised for the established fanbase, and with the big name acts still more than capable of receiving media coverage even without chart placement, it is a better time than ever to shift to a new business model.
Morrison admits that he tries not to get overwhelmed by the online side of the music industry, distilling it in his mind to “a form of communication and a retailer”. While it is understandably a big shift for someone experienced in traditional record industry values to move into the digital world, a lack of understanding or neglect could prove costly – if I were an artist, I would want my manager doing their utmost to keep up with developments, should the time come that the band move away from the safety net of a major label deal.
When the topic of file-sharing was brought up, Morrison had a response to Pharrell Williams’ earlier comment about comparing file-sharing to “taste-testing” which has been widely reported:
“It’s not, it’s like giving them the whole bloody meal!”
While it is understandably frustrating to work so hard on a project over a period only for it to leak before release must be frustrating, his views about stopping piracy and “taking the gloves off” echo the lawsuits and clampdowns that have alienated music fans from major labels, by vilifying them after years of supporting the industry only seems to do itself further harm.
Mark Wood’s awareness of the internet and social media are far more in-line with how the industry seems to be developing, partially because his client, Imogen Heap, is so switched on to the idea of fan interaction. The information they receive from fans through the stars prolific Twitter-use amongst other things allows the management team to maximise and direct it’s avenues going forward, whether it be geographic pockets of information of fans requesting shows, or database cleansing and management. While such digital information is by no means exclusive, it can only be representative of a whole fanbase, it is vast information that would only be missed if these opportunities were neglected.
As I mentioned before, I am not saying that either approach is right or wrong – Morrison’s traditionalist approach is fine while the band are still operating under the major label record industry rules, albeit in a different climate – but as time passes, those in the industry who are more open to change and keeping up with the way consumers interact and source music will enjoy far more success than those who steadfastly cling to what has worked before now.
As Charles Darwin noted:
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
Filed under: Music, Music Business, News, Retail, Social, Web Tagged: artist/fan relationship, Blur, Chris Morrison, conference, digital, direct-to-fan, diversification, EMI, filesharing, Gorillaz, iTunes, manager, Mark Wood, MIDEM, new business models, online music sales, Radiohead, record labels, Retail, social media, Stylo, Technology, Topspin, Twitter - Jan 27, 10
So this post has come about as more of a spur-of-the-moment thought than a carefully constructed piece, but one which was based around a single notion; as life becomes faster and our possibilities in everyday life become more and more limitless, there is an increasing distance from the concept of simplicity, and within there is beauty.
The thought has been inspired by the core idea behind Apple’s use of multi-touch devices, and today’s much over-hyped launch of the iPad. While I’m sure many of you are rolling your eyes at the mere mention of the device, and anyone who knows me will be doing the same based on their knowledge of what a Mac fan I am, I reassure you this is not a tech post about the unit or intended to add to any of the hype.
Computers are increasingly more and more incredible at what they can do, and with the ability with which they can do such things. The thing that strikes me about the iPad, iPhone, or indeed the HP Touchsmart computers or other such devices is that the way with which we interact with them – the user interface - has been distilled to virtually it’s most simple and natural form. Touch.
Watching the promo video of the iPad on the Apple website brought home to me how astonishing and powerful this is as a concept. Seeing the person in the video fully interacting with the unit, performing every function on it with perfect ease using only their fingertips with no mice, scroll balls or stylus drives home how simple the notion is but at the same time how beautiful and right it is. As technology increases we are inevitably burdened down with the new accoutrements that are required to use them. Take the next step in TV which is almost certain to be 3D – we have travelled from radio which we could rely solely on our ears to enjoy, to television which included our eyes, next to 3D which will also require us to be wearing the tinted glasses. But with devices utilising touch technology, the input devices we have become accustomed to are removed – rarely has taking something away meant that we are taking a step forward.
As a child we learn touch before we can speak, and many of the things which follow require us to actively learn them. The videos on YouTube of babies ‘using’ iPhones indicates that the interaction with technology via touch interfaces is in fact far more natural an occurrence than writing words with a pen, or pointing and clicking with a mouse.
Sometimes, not purely in design terms, simplicity is beauty.
What business do these thoughts have on a music blog you say? With all the technology in the world being shaped to create, record, sell and interact with music, and the billions of dollars invested in trying to make billions of dollars from it – the latest technology we use to harness and synthesise the feelings we get from music, or the repeated concerns about how anyone will make money or a career from music in the future, it is easy to forget the beauty in simplicity; the distillation of everything that is concerned with music today – the song.
At it’s most base level the song has more importance than anyone seems to remember.
Before you worry about what you need to record or market or promote or sell the song, make sure you do the song justice in the first place.
Posted in Music, News, Technology Tagged: Apple, Gizmodo, HP Touchsmart, iPad, iPhone, simplicity, tablet, Technology, touch, user interface - Jan 22, 10
Okay, so you can’t turn anywhere online at the moment when looking at the music industry without tripping over coverage and opinion on yesterday’s IFPI Digital Music Report 2010 (I notice the irony in mentioning this as I introduce you to an article of me giving coverage and opinion to the very same topic). While everyone is focusing on the ‘piracy’ element, I wanted to zoom out slightly and look at the larger picture, much of which is unfortunately lacking in data to give perspective.
I seem to be making the point repeatedly recently, but it’s always worth pointing out the one-sided views presented of the current state of the music business and coverage of this report is no exception. The Guardian leads with the headline “Piracy continues to cripple music industry as sales fall 10%“, while TorrentFreak obviously reads the statistics from their perspective in the article titled “Pirates Are The Music Industry’s Most Valuable Customers“. Both of them are writing with the record industry in mind, whereas I am hopefully speaking with a view of the music industry.
Some people will be thinking it’s somewhat of a “tomayto/tomarto” situation (excuse the phonetics but I thought this would be more easily understood in comparison to a “tomato/tomato” situation…), but for me it is a clearer cut situation than that. When I refer to the traditional music business structure, it is the record industry which is essentially focused on shifting units, and has been built around major labels selling products to a mass market as we’ve known for the last fifty-plus years. The phrase music industry for me represents what is emerging from the power shift happening in the industry which is increasingly involving artist empowerment and direct-to-fan interaction, when music, in whatever form and whatever it represents, is the dominant cultural currency.
The record industry is suffering. Although the IFPI report shows progress regarding increasing digital revenue (up 12%), including digital album sales up 20%, the increase in digital is still lagging behind compensating for dropping physical sales and industry revenue (overall the record industry is down 30% on 2003). This however only covers label revenues, and doesn’t measure statistics of music outside of certain transactions. To quote Ian Rogers, CEO of Topspin Media:
I’d like to challenge you to consider a different perspective, in my honest opinion, the only perspectives that matter, that of the artist and the fan. I see news about the health of the music industry as defined by the stock price of WMG, or quarterly earnings of UMG, Sony and EMI every day.
While I don’t suggest that direct-to-fan transactions account for the total amount of that 30% loss in revenue, the music industry is flourishing, with artists able to take their careers into their own hands, and deal with their work and fans outside of the traditional label structure. If it were possible to measure data of music transactions outside of the major label, IFPI-covered system, I think with time we would see an increase in this as it gradually becomes a large part of how the music world will develop going forward. While there will still be room for the record industry, albeit more streamlined as it finds it’s new methods of operating, consumers will be able to access and use music as they want to. Enjoy mainstream pop and hyper-colour Disney tie-ins? The majors will supply this to you. Prefer heartfelt, coffee-shop acoustic folk? You’ll be able to go straight to the artists you love.
This could cover artists of any level; someone who regularly plays in the pub in your town will be as accessible if you want to find their music as an established major label artist who is taking their career into their own hands. And they will receive greater revenue and control for their work that they deserve. The pop artists on the major labels will still benefit from the increased financial backing and marketing they need.
As I type this I have an image in my head of an embryo spawning two twins; both from the same genes but each displaying their own personalities and sustaining themselves independently. I will probably omit this image from my article, however, as I’m sure it is a weak metaphor at best, God forbid I even reference it in the title of the article…
I don’t want to dwell on the file-sharing/piracy aspects of the debate, as while it exists and shows little sign of relenting (or even the question of whether it should need to relent based on the positive elements of the culture) I’d like to end with a quote from Matt Churchill who sums the birth of the two twins emerging from the traditional record industry egg beautifully:
If it wasn’t for file-sharers we’d not be looking to develop better business models, better distribution platforms and innovative ways to make sure the artist gets the right amount of money for their work.
Posted in Independent Artists, Music, Music Business, News Tagged: digital, Digital Music Report 2010, direct-to-fan, diversification, EMI, filesharing, free music, IFPI, independent, iTunes, Matt Churchill, Music, new business models, online, online music sales, P2P, piracy, record labels, Sony, Universal, Warner - Jan 12, 10
For me, one of the most exciting elements of a transitional music industry in which independent artists are becoming empowered is that bands are free to make their own rules and guide their own stories and careers, without being stuck in a ‘traditional’ release campaign structure.
More and more frequently I’m reading articles covering independent artists or bands who are finding ways to create music and release it to their fans in a two-way exchange that enriches everything about the release – more than any major label release could ever dream of.
Today I was sent this story of UK band, Hope and Social, and how they wanted to include their fans in their latest project.
While the story is self-explanatory, I think it highlights some very key values that Rich Huxley from the band writes about, and should be inspiring reading for other independent artists out there.
The band obviously value their fanbase and far from take them for granted. Fans are not simply numbers on a mailing list used as part of a calculation predicting sales, they are individual entities united by their fanship of the artist. As I have mentioned before in previous posts, the music industry is quite rightly an increasingly two-way interaction – rather than a faceless mass being force-fed music, the internet has democratised the world of music, and people are free to connect with any music they feel a connection with.
Looking at Hope and Social’s story, I am yet to see a better example of a band including their fans in such a key way. Rich writes about how involved their fans were in the construction and running, and even social aspect, of the event, but also how they were asked to be involved in the recording itself. The value of the final product to the fans that were there far exceeds the financial aspect of the purchase of the ticket and it’s inclusive physical release after the fact. This goes no end to strengthening the bond between artists and fans. What greater momento of a fantastic evening’s entertainment with a band you love than a permanent keepsake that actually has part of you included within it?
While the idea and execution of the event and release show a great awareness and creativity from the band, Rich Huxley’s writing also highlights the band awareness of the events place in the greater picture for the band. His awareness of how both online and offline interactions between fans and the outside world (for example, fan blogging or hash-tag utilisation on Twitter) shows great savvy and promise needed to really succeed on a level they aspire to in this new style business, but is part of the same knowledge that eludes or scares other artist’s and inhibits them from achieving similar successes. Hope and Social prove that to be successful in new ways of doing business, the music, the fans, and the enjoyment of creativity can still remain the central focus.
Posted in Independent Artists, Music, Music Business, Social, Web Tagged: artist/fan relationship, blogging, direct-to-fan, Hope and Social, independent, Live Music, Music, new business models, online, Rich Huxley, social media, Twitter - Jan 10, 10
With the success of multi-level priced releases by artists such as Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails showing that true fans are willing to not only spend money on what is also being offered for free, but that in many cases they are willing to spend far greater amounts of money on extra materials than has been offered before. For an independent artist looking to the future, how will this structure work for them?
When Nine Inch Nails released their ‘Ghosts’ collection in 2008, it heralded a real shift in how artists marketed to fans, and how recorded music can still create, and indeed stimulate, revenue. Echoing Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ release, NIN went further, with an increased range of options, more clearly defined and varied than Radiohead had offered. The pricing levels were:
- Free – 9 tracks from the release, high-quality & DRM-free MP3 with PDF
- $5 – All 36 tracks in a range of digital formats with a 40-page PDF
- $10 – 2 x CDs with booklet & immediate digital download
- $75 – “Deluxe Edition Package” with audio CDs, DVD, Blu-ray in hardcover fabric slipcase
- $300 – “Ultra Deluxe Limited Edition Package” (pictured) with 4 x LPs, CDs, DVD, Blu-ray, art books, slipcases and all personally signed & numbered by Trent Reznor
It is well-publicised that the $300 package sold out of it’s run of 2500 copies within hours, bringing in $750,000 before taking any of the other packages into account, and within the first two weeks of release the collection had brought in over $1.6m – straight to the artist.
Fantastic news for Trent Reznor, and thoroughly deserved for such an immaculately thought-out release. Both sides of the divide are happy; NIN can release their work on their terms and to a quality level that makes them happy (while receiving a shedload of money in the process without a label taking the majority of it) and the fans get music or artifacts that they love at a level they choose to spend, while feeling a greater connection to the artist they love.
This is all well and good for an act with the prior success and following that Nine Inch Nails have, as well as the financial backing, but how can an independent artist utilise a similar system for their own releases?
While the $300 package that NIN sold was what really blew their fans away, the level of quality and product in the package wouldn’t have come cheap at all, and it would have still been a certain amount of gamble to have 2500 copies made up if they weren’t to sell (Nb – I am unsure if these were made prior to release, or made to order when quantities were realised). It would be ridiculous for an independent artist starting out to consider a product of this magnitude, but the lesser packages could provide a good basis for their structure.
One thing that Trent Reznor was adamant about was that music quality would never be compromised, after all, that is still what it should all be about, so even the free package had MP3s of a high quality with no restriction. The idea was not to give a free taster, and make the songs so hard to listen to that the listeners would ‘upgrade’ to a better package, but it was to give a good representation of the work for those who would not normally listen to NIN, or those could not afford a higher package. It may be that an independent artist could give away an EP-worth of material in this way, but while keeping the quality high.
The paid download and CD options will fall much more in line with what we are used to, but the deluxe package is where each artist can really tailor the release to themselves and their audience. There is realistically no end of things that can be included, such as extra tracks, additional artwork, merchandise or videos, and much more. The key thing is to maintain the quality. To truly engage the audience and thank them for being passionate enough about your music to purchase this package, the content must be deemed special enough by the audience that it is something they will enjoy and treasure, rather than just including anything left lying around unused to make the package seem busier.
The beauty of many of these items is that they are rooted in the personal relationship between the artist and the fan, and often involve very little outlay (as long as the quality isn’t questioned). For example, the fan is more likely to enjoy and respond to a video recorded by the artist, possibly just a spoken message, or live acoustic performance exclusively for the package, than a material object like a badge or bottle opener. An exclusive video or song can be recorded very modestly and included on the CD or DVD, or accessed via a ‘VIP’ area on the artist site.
Artists are becoming increasingly aware that there is scope within what they do to reach out to fans in a way that can monetise their talent, whilst still enriching the musical experience for their fans. Terra Naomi is one example of an artist willing to diversify what she does, including writing songs for fans that pay for her to record a video of her performing the song to them with a personalised introduction. For someone like Terra who received great fame and a resulting deal with Island Records by posting videos on YouTube, she already had the skillset to be able to provide this service as it was essentially much of what she was already doing.
As technologies emerge, and new formats are embraced – whether they be iTunes LP-style HTML music players or iPhone applications – it is inevitable that major labels will have greater reach into these formats by having the money to source in agencies who can create such products, but there is still a wealth of ways that an independent artist can successfully offer products that can create income from fans as long as the music, the essential ingredient so often left out of digital marketing discussions, is the core of what the fan can engage with.
Posted in Independent Artists, Music, Music Business Tagged: artist/fan relationship, Deluxe Packages, digital, free music, independent, interaction, iPhone, iTunes, MP3, multi-tier pricing, new business models, Nine Inch Nails, online music sales, Radiohead, Terra Naomi, Topspin, Trent Reznor
