Update
IAN’S PRESENTATION
There’s a lot of good stuff here. And I’m going to excerpt a few quotes for those who may not click through:
"I have what I hope is good news: you are NOT in the $0.99 download business. In fact, I’d go so far as to say you should never sell a $0.99 download from your web site. A fan connection is worth far more than $0.99, and I’d much rather convert a large number of people into lasting and meaningful relationships than make a few dollars on a digital download. The reason is, the average revenue per transaction across everything Topspin has sold to-date is $26."
In other words, don’t go for the short term money. If you’re looking to get paid today, there’s a good chance you’re hurting your future.
"As Tim O’Reilly famously said, ‘An artist’s enemy is obscurity, not piracy.’"
If you’re more interested in getting paid than being heard, you’re not really an artist.
"If you’re just starting out, you need fans, not dollars. Our advice to artists is to not attempt to sell ANYTHING until you have at least a couple thousand people on your email list."
PORTLANDIA
You’ll be forwarding this to everybody you know.
I ignored the hype on this show, because that’s what it was, hype. But when a trusted filter e-mailed me this link, I checked it out. And the reason I’m sending it to you is it’s so damn good… It’s the small moments, like praying that Aimee won’t play new stuff, and asking her to clean up after being stunned she’s a maid.
TODAY’S FASCINATING HEAT MAP
RE: CHART OF THE DAY
What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where people care more about money than music?
Well, it appears they’re caring about music again. Isn’t that the Mumford & Sons story?
I believe these charts are gaining traction in the virtual world because everybody hates the labels. And reading bad numbers and passing them around is a way to have smug satisfaction.
Think about it, how are the rights holders supposed to turn their fortunes around when the general public hates their guts? If recording industry executives were politicians, not only would they be run from office, they’d be put in jail. Believe me, if you can’t find an exec who’s done something legally questionable, you don’t know any.
But what do we know?
That music is plentiful and reaches more people than ever before. How do we decide what gets traction, how do we compensate the creators? Those are different questions.
Now we’ve got a fight between the old and the new. Not only the labels, but the songwriters and old performers too. No one is guaranteed that their life will stay the same forever. If you can’t secure yourself against catastrophic illness, what makes you think nothing will change in the world of recordings? To put it another way, the highly reviewed
states that there’s such a prevalence of the disease now because we live so long, people used to die before they got the Big C. Do you want to go back to those old days, or figure out the new?
So we’ve got oldsters complaining their old revenue streams have been impaired and youngsters complaining that the door shut on the old system before they became rich and famous. Better to follow Ian’s prescriptions than complain.
As for what’s popular… The starmaking machinery fed by the labels and the media is fading, we just haven’t established the new paradigm. But you’ll bitch when we get there too. Because it too will leave you out. Because you want to be rich and famous and you’re just not that good a musician. You bought all the gear, you planned your route, you just didn’t pay your dues.
CD SALES
From:
Subject: CHART OF THE DAY- The Death Of The Music Industry
Date: February 17, 2011 7:56:01 AM PST
To: Bob LefsetzNo name please.
Pretty sure the graph is correct – I generated one from the RIAA data last year and it looked pretty much the same. You can download the historical RIAA stats for $25 and generate it yourself (you need to factor in an inflation adjustment). http://bit.ly/dHsmGa
The stat that CDs are 74% of sales is wrong (I think Tom Silverman said it in reference to CDs as a % of album sales, not overall sales and it got misquoted)… In 2009, physical revenues were only 55% of the US market (according to the IFPI). Was likely even less in 2010. 2010 soundscan stats below – converting tracks to albums at a ratio of 10:1 (TEAs):
237 million physical albums (73% of total albums; 53% of albums w/TEAs)
86 million digital albums (27% of total albums; 19% of albums w/TEAs)
326 million total albums
1.2 billion tracks = 120 million TEAs (27% of albums w/TEAs)
So albums are 53% of the sales volume when you factor in tracks. Add in licensing, D2C revenue, and other revenue streams and it’s clearly already below 50%… (in the US). Int’l market’s are still higher… but it’s all coming down.
