Music Marketing [dot] com

God Hates Fags - The Viral Marketing Campaign

First there was the music video, which was supposedly banned by YouTube, MySpace, and Google.  Now this...

And just so you know, Donnie Davies is actually actor Joey Oglesby.

Pirate Bay Will Not Buy Sealand - Goes to Plan B

It was a fun idea while it lasted...

After raising a little more than $20,000 to buy Sealand, a former British naval platform and self-proclaimed principality six miles (10 kilometers) off the eastern coast of Britain, The Pirate Bay has decided to go for an island instead.  They're currently looking at options and should come back with a plan in the next few days.

I found it interesting that they brought in such little money, but not surprising.  After all, The Pirate Bay is wildly popular because it's free.  If people wanted to pay for something, they'd be on a site like iTunes or Amazon.

Fileshare Island

STOCKHOLM--The Pirate Bay, one of the world's most popular websites for the illegal downloading of films through filesharing, said on Friday it wanted to buy its own island in a bid to avoid copyright laws.

"It's not only about Pirate Bay, it's more about having a nation with no copyright laws," one of those behind the site, who gave his name only as Peter, told Agence France-Presse.

The group said it would consider any territory in international waters to avoid copyright legislation.

"For Pirate Bay it would be awesome to have no copyright law. All countries today are based on the old economy and old ideas and we want to do something new," he added.

On Friday the group established a website -- www.buysealand.com -- as a discussion forum and to raise funds to buy Sealand, a former British naval platform and self-proclaimed principality six miles (10 kilometers) off the eastern coast of Britain.

No country recognizes Sealand.

"We would love Sealand because its history is perfect for us as pirate radio used to be broadcast from there. If we don't get enough money for Sealand we are going to try for a small island somewhere," Peter said.

Pirate Bay was undeterred by Sealand's two-billion-dollar price tag.

The amount was a "show price," Peter said. "We would love to move there and move all our servers there."

The Pirate Bay site -- www.thepiratebay.org -- was shut down by Swedish police in May 2006. The site then reopened using servers in The Netherlands before returning to Sweden in June.

The Pirate Bay provides instructions on how to share music and film files using links offered on the site and attracts some 1.5 million users throughout the world everyday.

In 2005 the Scandinavian country passed a law banning the sharing of copyrighted material on the Internet without payment of royalties, in a bid to crack down on free downloading of music, films and computer games.

Filesharing in Sweden carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

Timbaland Ripping Off Tracks?

A musician named Tempest is claiming that this song was taken by Timbaland and turned into "Do It" by Nelly Furtado. 

The video evidence...

Nashville Star - Audition for Season 5

Once again, "Nashville Star" will be holding open auditions in several towns across America. Official dates and locations will be announced at www.USANetwork.com/NashvilleStar on August 1st.

How it will work:

1. Those auditioning will have one minute to perform a song off an approved song list.

2. A select few of the most talented will be invited back the next day for a chance to sing either two (2) cover songs from the approved song list or one (1) song off the list and one (1) original song.

3. The top contestants then proceed to one of two regional competitions to again audition for a chance to appear on the show.

The auditions are open to women and men, ages 18 and over (as of January 1, 2007), who think they have what it takes to become the next "Nashville Star." Updated information on auditions including cities, locations and times, song lists and applications can be found on www.USANetwork.com/NashvilleStar.

As in the past, the winner of this season's "Nashville Star." will receive a major music recording contract with a top-level record label.

The first four seasons of the series have launched the careers of promising artists including Buddy Jewell, Miranda Lambert and Erika Jo, and the winner of "Nashville Star" 2006, Chris Young whose first single, "Drinkin' Me Lonely" on RCA Records can currently be heard on the radio and his self titled album will be in stores September 26th.

"Nashville Star" is currently on tour performing a series of concerts across the country. Featured on the 2006 "Nashville Star" Tour are this season's final four contestants - Nicole Jamrose, Matt Mason, Casey Rivers and Chris Young - along with John Bohlinger and the "Nashville Star" Band.

Do What Movie Studios Do...

If you've ever been to a movie in the theater or seen one on video or DVD, you've seen previews of other movies before the feature presentation.  Some people like them, others don't...

Some major labels have done a similar thing with records...and you should think about doing it too.

A CD is going to cost you the same amount to press, regardless of whether you've got 5 minutes of music on it or 80.  Why not throw something at the very end which says, "If you enjoyed this album, you'll love..." with some samples (or maybe an entire song) from another act? 

And then have them do the same for you.  Or, do something to promote other releases that you have.

My label had big success doing a similar version of this technique with our releases in the late 90s.  We used the inside of the booklet to promote other releases from the label as well as additional merchandise we had for sale.

Tha Band with a Plan

Check out what happens when your band has a plan...

Billboard Ringtone Chart

Ringtones are getting so popular that Billboard now has a chart which tracks them.  And rather than pay once and keep a ringtone forever, the going rate is now $3/quarter.

And if that wasn't enough, mobile phone users can now spend more money to give their callers something to listen to while the phone is ringing...

With the market getting more and more saturated, providers are doing everything they can to make ringtones stand out.  Animated ringtones are becoming more and more popular, as people upgrade to phones with that capability.

Upcoming artist Skull is using this to make his mark, as the first urban artist to release an animated ringtone.  And he's doing it exclusively via MySpace.  Get more info...

Did You Reach Your 2006 Goals?

Almost a year ago, I posted something about Jeffree Starr.  In the post, I mentioned how Jeffree talked about starting a line of makeup, putting out an album, and doing a reality show for MTV.

Did he do any of it?  Not that I can find...

Why?  No telling.  But keep in mind when you're putting together your music business goals this year that talk is cheap and the fantasy of doing these things is often times more fun than the reality.

There is certainly an ease to doing what you love, but there is more to being successful in any entertainment business than more people let on.  Paris Hilton works.  Kate Moss works.  Eminem works.

This year, I encourage you to really think about what you want in the music business...and then go after it.  Talking about something without any intention of really going for it only wastes valuable energy that could be used elsewhere.

It's 2007!

It's 2007 and time for a few changes...

1. I'm relaxing on my publishing schedule for this blog.  No more daily posts...

The best way to keep up with everything here is to subscribe via RSS.  You can do that by clicking on one of the links to the right, under "Subscribe to Feed."  I recommend Yahoo!

If you don't see what you need there, http://feeds.feedburner.com/MusicBusiness will work in any RSS reader.

2. In 2006, I decided to bring back my record label.  Right now, we have about 50 releases.  Over the next year, I'm going to add about 50 more.

Please note that this is niche product (comedy, spoken word, audio books, specialty compilations) and I am not currently looking for acts to sign.  The good news, for all the bands looking for a deal, is that this adds to the hands on marketing experience the I can pass along to you.

3. I'm back on the road again...a lot.  I'll be hitting more music conferences this year than I did in 2006.  With Music Business Radio going into syndication, we'd be out and about getting new content to air.

4. More books, more marketing strategies, and more ways for you to sell music, get people to shows, and make more money in the music business...

I hope everybody has a great year!!  If you haven't already, I encourage you to write down your goals.  Goals which aren't written down are just dreams...  If you need a place to put everything in order, try Music Business Goal Planner.