I’m pretty sure this concept has been discussed but for those of you who like watching videos this is the one for you.
Professor, producer, and entrepreneur George Howard discusses the concept of “The Long Tail,” which describes how changing technologies and business processes are changing the long-term sales patterns of many types of products, and applies its lessons to the music business of today and tomorrow.
This movie angered me, possibly broke a small piece of my heart and filled me with hope and awe over the power of music.
Set in Northern Uganda, a country ravaged by more than two decades of civil war, WAR/DANCE tells the story of Dominic, Rose, and Nancy, three children whose families have been torn apart, their homes destroyed, and who currently reside in a displaced persons camp in Patongo. When they are invited to compete in an annual music and dance competition, their historic journey to their nation’s capital is also an opportunity to regain a part of their childhood and to taste victory for the first time in their lives.
14 year old Dominic had this to say in the opening minutes of the film [which was also beautifully shot on location] on the importance of music:
In our daily lives their must be music. In everything we do, if there is music, life becomes good. That’s why I want to be part of music.
Watch the film and tell me you wouldn’t want to grab that kid [or any of them in the film] and hug the hell out of him and then have a mad jam!
No known human culture now or anytime in the recorded past lacked music.
There is something universal and powerful about music and I feel fortunate enough to be part of it (and also not to have endured what these children and their families have).
I don’t want to give too much of the movie away but here is just one example of what these children have been left to deal with [copied from PopMatters review of the film):
The film illustrates a story told by Rose, a singer. Initially, the camera takes her point of view, running through a field in the sunlight, her hand trailing over the tall grasses. This pleasant perception is interrupted when Rose recalls LRA soldiers taking her to see a large pot, near a “big tree” swarmed by ants and flies: “It was so ugly,” she says, as the camera shows close-ups of bugs. “The soldiers,” she says, “removed heads one by one from the pot. I recognized my parents. When I saw my mother’s head being pulled from the pot, I felt like I was losing my mind… There is nothing more I can say.”
You really should see this movie.
Kudos to Th!nk Films for producing the movies they do - high quality productions that entertain while making you think and are almost guaranteed to get a response of some sort from you.
TORONTO and NEW YORK, April 29, 2008. eMusic (www.emusic.com) the world’s largest retailer of independent music launches its award-winning service in Canada today. With 33,000 of the world’s top independent labels and major audio books publishers, eMusic is unrivalled in catering to adults interested in entertainment outside the commercial mainstream.
…
eMusic offers 50 free bonus music downloads and one free audio book download at sign-up. Its subscription pricing provides music lovers with an inexpensive, low-risk way to discover great new music for as low as 37 cents per track. Canadian monthly pricing plans are as follows:
Music
eMusic Basic - 30 downloads $11.99
eMusic Plus - 50 downloads $17.99
eMusic Premium - 75 downloads $23.99
Audio books
1 audio book - $11.99
2 audio books - $22.99
Social Media News Release
Outside not even realizing the service was unavailable to Canadians [or forgetting if I did know], the most interesting part of this announcement to me was eMusic’s use of a social media press release format [in addition to a traditional press release]
To me social media focused news releases make so much more sense when posting online I can not understand why all companies have not embraced their use. Evidently there is some resistance from within the industry regarding their use. Check out The Social Press Release: Multimedia, Two-Way, Direct to the Public by Mark Glaser on Mediashift - it is a great primer and contains links to issues related to such releases as well as additional resources for making use of them yourself.
I hope by the end of the summer to have a Social media news release template developed for all future such releases related to the label and any of my other ventures.
If you are interested in finding out more about social media press releases, visit Shift Communications - the company that first introduced the Social Media News Release where you will find plenty of resources:
EDIT: I guess you could access eMusic from Canada already:
eMusic Takes DRM-Free Independence Into Canada
eMusic officially launched itself in Canada this week, a move that brings the action to independent music fans up north. According to an eMusic representative, a small number of Canadians already access the US-based service, though the launch raises the regional profile considerably.
The company carries a catalog of roughly 3.5 million tracks from 33,000 independent labels and audiobook publishers, a number that includes a subset of several thousand songs from Canadian artists. The Canadian launch is focusing on that regional content, a decision that will undoubtedly play well with local audiences.
Additionally, the entrance could boost paid downloads in the region, which are far lower - by total revenue percentage and absolute quantity - than United States levels. eMusic has sold more than 200 million music downloads since November 2003. Via Digital Music News
Derek Sivers is the founder and CEO of CD BABY which is a popular choice for indie artists to get their music out to the masses. I was skeptical, as I always am of anything new, when I first learned of CDBABY but I have always tried to experiment with how I got my music to people and figured what the hell. Since launching my album with CDBABY a year ago I have actually gotten paid, a few times so my skeptisism was quickly replaced with excitement.
I have since grown to become a fan of Derek’s blog and his insight into the music business. He gives away a tonne of great info on www.cdbaby.net and I recommend all artists take some time to read the advice portion of the website.
I recently stumbled upon Derek’s blog and found this awesome post so I thought I’d share it. The reason this all rings so true to me right now is partly due to the fact that I have recently taken part in the Cape Breton International Drum Festival. It was really inspiring to see world class drummers (seriously famous drummers if you know about drummers) coaching younger people and driving the point home that to “make it” they have to perfect their skills. If bands focused on getting good first instead of getting gigs/recording/money they would get further in the business of music.
I spoke at a conference last weekend, where a woman in the audience was SO mad about piracy that she was physically shaking, red in the face, tears in her eyes, fuming spitting livid, asking how we can stop this rampant piracy.
I didn’t answer her concern well, but I said “More people are killed by pigs than sharks each year, but because shark attacks are more newsworthy, they seem more prevalent. Piracy gets all the attention, but I don’t think most of you in this room have lost more than $30 to piracy.” (I got a big “Booo” from the audience for this.) “Obscurity is your real enemy. Fight obscurity until you’re a household name, then piracy will be more of a problem than obscurity. Until then, worry about pigs, not sharks.”
The woman got so furious about this that she screamed at me with tears in her eyes, “I HATE YOUR POINT OF VIEW, BUDDY!” (and some other angry things I forget.) From her point of view, piracy was Enemy #1 and anybody ignoring this massive threat was hurting us all.
Driving away from the event, of course I figured out what I wish I would have said in that moment:
The thing separating us from where we are and where we need to be is not piracy.
It’s always something more internal, whether writing, communicating, producing, networking, promoting, or taking a wildly different approach to marketing.
Putting so much attention and energy into fighting piracy (as if, when solved, you’ll suddenly start selling 10 times more) - is misguided effort, distracting you from what you really need to be improving.
That’s the real reason I often tell musicians not to worry about piracy. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist. But energy spent worrying about it is energy better spent working on what you know you really need to do.
I am sure somewhere on this site I have commented on my dislike of Flash based websites.
That said I know I have bitched about bands not having a website of their own.
So a Flash based site is definitely the lessor of the two “evils” in my books.
The UK’s Computer Arts magazine has a Projects magazine and the most recent issue was dedicated to design matters for the music industry [last year they also had a music focused issue that came packaged in a vinyl sleeve]. One of the articles in the issue is Create a band website in Flash.
So if you are lacking in the website department there’s something to keep you busy.
Cheers
As of this minute, Coldplay has 392,819 friends on MySpace and 43,156 fans on Facebook. MySpace’s Coldplay page has four songs on it; Facebook’s one. MySpace’s are embeddable on your page; Facebook’s are not, yet. MySpace supports for-pay downloads (they’re priced absurdly high, but that’s not MySpace’s fault); Facebook does not. MySpace’s page has some personality; but Facebook’s has a user video and a discography. They both have band info and touring info.
Chances are if you aren’t emo, you hate emo. But you likely don’t hate this straight-haired, massacre-lined subculture as much as the Mexicans do. In recent weeks, a wave of emo bashings has swept across Mexico, several news agencies have reported, fuelled by punks, rockabillies, goths, metalheads and basically anyone who’s not emo.
According to Daniel Hernandez, who’s been covering the anti-emo riots on his blog Intersections, the violence began March 7, when an estimated 800 young people poured into the Mexican city of Queretaro’s main plaza “hunting” for emo kids to pummel.
In talking about this I have received a wide range of reactions - most start with laughter, and while definitely surreal it would almost be a great thing if I didn’t feel bad for the emo kids getting their asses kicked for liking music [everyone else hates].
But they still love music right, shouldn’t that count for something?
More at Exclaim from whom I also snagged the Spanish news report below [kind of insane].
I will start with the particulars to save those that need just that their time, then I ramble, then I provide some additional info on Mr. Segal. Actually I will fire my rant in there at the end.
Event Details:
Time:
8am - 11am
Date:
Monday April 14th
Location:
Sport Nova Scotia Building
5516 Spring Garden Rd
Class Room A/B - 2nd Floor
About 2 1/2- 3 hours in length
Informal/Free
Small Groups
Information on VC/Angels and the process.
Sample Term sheets, documents, business plans, PowerPoints
Example Pitch or Pitches to show what’s interesting/good/bad
Open questions for a good chunk of time
An understanding of my world
A better feel for my industry and if raising third party capital is right for you
Other Dates/Cities:
April 14th Evening - Moncton NB
April 15th Evening - St John’s NF
More cities to be announced shortly.
Rick Segal
His bio from the JLA Ventures site:
Prior to joining JLA Ventures, Mr. Segal was President and Chief Executive Officer of Microforum, a leader in providing integrated e-business solutions in a wide array of industry verticals. Mr. Segal joined Microforum in July 2000 from Chapters Online Inc., a leading Canadian e-commerce company, where he held the position of President and Chief Operating Officer (1997-2000). Mr. Segal began working with Chapters Inc. in 1997 as a consultant on the technical development of the Chapters e-commerce venture. Based on this successful collaboration, he was named the President of Chapters Online in August 1998.
Prior to joining Chapters Online, Mr. Segal was a partner at the international firm of TMS Consulting from 1996 to 1998. Mr Segal worked at Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Washington from 1992 until 1996 as Director of technical services for the Internet Customer Unit. Mr. Segal is also the author of four books on Network Management and Windows software development.
Mr. Segal serves as a director of Planeteye, HealthUnity, B5 Media, MusicIP Corporation, Sirit Inc., and Truition Marketplace Solutions.
There’s more personality on his blog bio:
One-Line Bio: Doing the Voodo VCs do in Canada
Biography - The really short version is this:
I’ve done:
The U.S Air Force, TRW, AEtna, Brightwork, Microsoft, Chapters Online, Microforum (painful!) and JLA Ventures.
Interests
Digital Photography,Sailing,Movies, Cooking
Me Ranting
So this is not really music related, loosely connected - but it is relevant to the bigger picture. See also Jonny’s post: A tale of two Lobsters
We named our label From Here To There for a number of reasons - the significant one here being the physical distance bands from the east coast most overcome to reach a critical mass of people. That no matter how good you were, there just weren’t enough people here to sustain most bands. You had to go down the road.
So for similar business reasons, when I saw a post on Rick Segal’s blog The VC Roundtable Series - Call to Action, where he announced his intentions to visit communities across the country in order to do some VC outreach I had to respond to his questioning whether Halifax should be a stop or not [ and St.Johns etc.]. While larger centers across Canada certainly deserve his time, I believe it is the smaller regions that will benefit more from his visits.
If you ever meet me ask me about my music business plans I have - I have them in various states of completion for venues, social network aggregater(+) targeting bands, USB music related ventures, payment sites, a label and a jam space [those two have been funded at very low levels] and maybe another half dozen all music focused.
The issue isn’t finding opportunities, writing the plans or even finding the people you need on the east coast - finding money however has been a little more difficult. BUt I still refuse to believe it can not be done while remaining on the east coast.
See the SHARE THIS widget at the end of this post [all my posts and plenty of other blogs’ posts as well]? The company behind that [same name] just received $15 million in funding. Add to that the $6 million they already received and that = $21 million dollars for a ^%@#$ widget that has made no money. ZERO REVENUE. So I am quite confident that if you dear reader can invent a widget that actually generates revenue, you too could find yourself funded.
Point being though, I don’t think there is any individual or organization set-up or in the habit of doling out such amounts [and we’re talking about the $6 mil not $15] on the east coast. Particularly not for social media/music widget/donation payment/USB/aggregaters opportunities.
And that is not to say Mr.Segal would be either. But he is part of a small group, within Canada, that is active in the venture capital process. To have him spend 3 hours of his time introducing us to his world could prove invaluable should lessons learned eventually lead to funding for any participants on the 14th, or elsewhere on his trips across the country.
I had another more eloquent post on the matter that was lost due to a browser crash, but will sum my feelings up by mentioning that Mr. Segal’s visit itself represents an opportunity for entrepreneurs here to be funded. Whether via meeting him and eventually landing his support or via learning how to approach others from his talk - you may find you do not have to leave home to find the investment you need. And that will benefit everyone that calls Halifax home.
Quite looking forward to this - Halifax will be the first stop on his tour across the country (VC Roundtable - Block One) so let`s kick it off for him in fine style - hope to see you there.
As a purely business decision, you’d be an idiot to start a company in Canada, he says, unless you can get some capital from the U.S.
The article and Rick`s post address a number of issues in the Canadian VC scene and makes for a nice basic primer for folks interested in the opportunities available. Definitely worth reading.
Final note: Thanks to Jonny Stevens for assisting with the space hook-up
I think this is important. It may not take off, but the opportunities inherit for USB drives and music is significant in my opinion and certainly worth exploring.
Together they offer a means of tying the digital world to the real world. Tying retail purchases to social networks and fan clubs. They could be used to take fan clubs in new directions - a WillieLive USB bracelet to fan club members could entitle you to free downloads of all future concerts. Or what about VIP access for fans that show up wearing said bracelets?
I should note that all I REALLY care about is the music. I don’t care about the cover art [I have never bought a CD because it had a “cool” cover], I don’t even care so much about the liner notes, although I do miss them at times. But one could easily produce a Digipak like package with an included or even glued in booklet, but instead of a plastic tray to hold a CD in place, there is a tray to hold in a USB drive. And of course the booklet and art would also be included on the drive as high quality PDFs [?] from which the art and liner notes could be synced up with your music player/collection. The ideas/opportunities = endless.
A Few Ideas
While the idea of MP3s and lossless files [and whatever else they wanted to include: videos, websites, pictures etc.] on one format appealed to me initially [USB drives = better MP3/FLAC delivery device vs. CDs IMHO], I was more interested in the potential of USB drives tied to kick start some innovation WITH music.
Many venues/bands/labels have offered USB recordings of live concerts on your way out of the show. That’s a start. But what about coming in? What if having bought a previous live show USB drive, you plug it into a reader on your way in and get a discount on admission [or at the time of ticket purchase] for future shows.
What if when you get home you plug in the drive and it launches a website only accessible to fans with a connected drive in place [almost every idea like this will be hackable – but we are exploring these ideas in a happy-carefree bubble of fake reality]? That site can offer anything the label or artist wants to share.
My biggest plan for USB drives extends that even further and ties it into a fan club, and at the next level an entire social network. What if venues or at least bands with laptops performing at them – have a USB input for members of a shared social network that one ups Facebook’s events – beyond simply stating you intend to be there, show up, plug in briefly and ….well you can get creative here, do they just get (fan) points, some benefits, free music, all the above?
All my potential concerns or fears regarding USB drives and connecting to social networks and fanclubs was erased when I read about a VISA experiment. In Korea, where “digital became dominant years ago” you can now use a USB Credit card. While I certainly do not know the particulars about the set up I am confident that if what they have is good enough for credit card transactions, then a similar set up will handle any security concerns related to any ideas in this post.
I have also seen business proposals for USB based shopping lists: users compile a list using software for such purposes onto a drive, take it to the store and plug it into the shopping cart display unit. Customers then get directions to items in the store they need, are offered coupons, and even recipe suggestions [up selling other products] for items they have on their shopping list. Combine such a service with the VISA USB drive and they can pay with the drive as well at the checkout. What types of related ideas could be used to encourage retail purchases in the music industry?
Delegate Passes/All the Info You Need - for festivals/events – that provide USB drives at registration which you then plug into systems that can update you over the course of the event [and that would of course include music from artists part of the event]. All print materials – focusing on greening aspects important to many festivals/events today, could be regularly updated when plugged into internet connected system w/show/venue changes etc.Take it a step further and develop a weekend command center for festivals into the drive. Twitter control, profile updates, http://sched.org/, maps, all the line-ups and everything else you need. Events could offer deals for fans that use the drives while also saving on costs for some print materials.
Positives, beyond ongoing use/experiments from bands and labels noted below, for USB drives and music include:
Manufacturers and software developers increasingly see portable computing in our future. – which means more USB drive devices may be prevalent. There are manyways already to replace the need to carry even a laptop if you know there will be avalable computers where you are going. I have email, Thinking Rock [getting things done software] and a few other programs running off a USB drive now.
Another key benefit to USB drives is that their ports are on every current computer - and ah, universal.
Current Usage
While the format is still mainly in the realm of major level artists, you can find artists, and labels, at all levels exploring their use. Locally the only act I am aware of thus far is Shelter With Thieves.
There are plenty of USB manufacturers and resellers out there, companies specific to the USB/music industry opportunities include All Access Today and Aderra
The biggest downside of USB drives currently is their cost. Other issues not addressed include do fans want countless drives kicking around? Can’t be any worse than the useless CDs I have now can they? At least I could give the drives to friends and they could use them for other purposes, or you keep them in their nice Digibooks until you need them to get a discount to go to a show or need access to a members only section of a site – for which such perks could help such drives retain some value.
Getting back to costs - there is no guarantee such drives will replace CDs, in the coming months and years we should definitely see more labels and artists experimenting though as costs for drives continue to fall. In the end, consumer response will eventually dictate what role USB drives have in the future of music but if those in the music industry can not offer anything worthwhile or interesting….
The University of King’s College will present a public lecture by KRS-ONE (www.krs-one.com) on Saturday, March 15 at 4:00 pm in Alumni Hall (New Academic Building, 6350 Coburg Road). He will speak on hip hop, social justice and the role of music in social movements. All are welcome to attend and admission is free.
