{"id":3844,"date":"2011-02-18T15:41:43","date_gmt":"2011-02-18T23:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=3844"},"modified":"2011-02-18T15:41:43","modified_gmt":"2011-02-18T23:41:43","slug":"update-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2011\/02\/18\/update-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

IAN’S PRESENTATION<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
Getting Practical: A Step-By-Step Guide to Building an Online Marketing Plan That Works (Ian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Presentation From New Music Seminar Los Angeles, February 2011)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There’s a lot of good stuff here.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’m going to excerpt a few quotes for those who may not click through:<\/p>\n

\n
"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."<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In other words, don’t go for the short term money.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re looking to get paid today, there’s a good chance you’re hurting your future.<\/p>\n

\n
\n"As Tim O’Reilly famously said, ‘An artist’s enemy is obscurity, not piracy.’"<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you’re more interested in getting paid than being heard, you’re not really an artist.<\/p>\n

\n
"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."<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

PORTLANDIA<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
Sorry About the Music Industry’s Downfall, Aimee Mann and Sarah Mclachlan<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You’ll be forwarding this to everybody you know.<\/p>\n

I ignored the hype on this show, because that’s what it was, hype.\u00c2\u00a0 But when a trusted filter e-mailed me this link, I checked it out.\u00c2\u00a0 And the reason I’m sending it to you is it’s so damn good…\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

TODAY’S FASCINATING HEAT MAP<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
2010 Music Website Heat Map<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

RE: CHART OF THE DAY<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
The REAL Death Of The Music Industry<\/a><\/p>\n

The History of Recording Industry Sales, 1973-2010…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where people care more about money than music?<\/p>\n

Well, it appears they’re caring about music again.\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t that the Mumford & Sons story?<\/p>\n

I believe these charts are gaining traction in the virtual world because everybody hates the labels.\u00c2\u00a0 And reading bad numbers and passing them around is a way to have smug satisfaction.<\/p>\n

Think about it, how are the rights holders supposed to turn their fortunes around when the general public hates their guts?\u00c2\u00a0 If recording industry executives were politicians, not only would they be run from office, they’d be put in jail.\u00c2\u00a0 Believe me, if you can’t find an exec who’s done something legally questionable, you don’t know any.<\/p>\n

But what do we know?<\/p>\n

That music is plentiful and reaches more people than ever before.\u00c2\u00a0 How do we decide what gets traction, how do we compensate the creators?\u00c2\u00a0 Those are different questions.<\/p>\n

Now we’ve got a fight between the old and the new.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only the labels, but the songwriters and old performers too.\u00c2\u00a0 No one is guaranteed that their life will stay the same forever.\u00c2\u00a0 If you can’t secure yourself against catastrophic illness, what makes you think nothing will change in the world of recordings?\u00c2\u00a0 To put it another way, the highly reviewed <\/p>\n

\n
"The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you want to go back to those old days, or figure out the new?<\/p>\n

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.\u00c2\u00a0 Better to follow Ian’s prescriptions than complain.<\/p>\n

As for what’s popular…\u00c2\u00a0 The starmaking machinery fed by the labels and the media is fading, we just haven’t established the new paradigm.\u00c2\u00a0 But you’ll bitch when we get there too.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it too will leave you out.\u00c2\u00a0 Because you want to be rich and famous and you’re just not that good a musician.\u00c2\u00a0 You bought all the gear, you planned your route, you just didn’t pay your dues.<\/p>\n

CD SALES<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
From:
Subject: CHART OF THE DAY- The Death Of The Music Industry
Date: February 17, 2011 7:56:01 AM PST
To: Bob Lefsetz<\/p>\n

No name please.<\/p>\n

Pretty sure the graph is correct – I generated one from the RIAA data last year and it looked pretty much the same.\u00c2\u00a0 You can download the historical RIAA stats for $25 and generate it yourself (you need to factor in an inflation adjustment).\u00c2\u00a0 http:\/\/bit.ly\/dHsmGa<\/p>\n

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).\u00c2\u00a0 Was likely even less in 2010.\u00c2\u00a0 2010 soundscan stats below – converting tracks to albums at a ratio of 10:1 (TEAs):<\/p>\n

237 million physical albums (73% of total albums; 53% of albums w\/TEAs)<\/p>\n

86 million digital albums (27% of total albums; 19% of albums w\/TEAs)<\/p>\n

326 million total albums <\/p>\n

1.2 billion tracks = 120 million TEAs (27% of albums w\/TEAs)<\/p>\n

So albums are 53% of the sales volume when you factor in tracks.\u00c2\u00a0 Add in licensing, D2C revenue, and other revenue streams and it’s clearly already below 50%… (in the US).\u00c2\u00a0 Int’l market’s are still higher…\u00c2\u00a0 but it’s all coming down.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IAN’S PRESENTATION Getting Practical: A Step-By-Step Guide to Building an Online Marketing Plan That Works (Ian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Presentation From New Music Seminar Los Angeles, February 2011) There’s a lot of good stuff here.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’m going to excerpt a few quotes for those who may not click through: "I have what I hope is good news: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-100","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3845,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3844\/revisions\/3845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}