Music Marketing [dot] com

How a Bad Economy Will Help Your Music Business

SXSW is about six weeks away.  Today, I was thinking about how much things have changed since I first attended in 1998.

Read some comments by Joe Taylor Jr. about wanting it more than ever, so here are some thoughts to go with his...

The music business is changing.  Beyond any changes in how the business is run though, this industry is still something that, like many things, requires effort to get the rewards from.  There is no "reaction" without the action.

In 1998, there were a ton of music conferences.  Sponsorship was heavy, thanks to a strong tech industry, and every company with a "dot com" at the end of its name had money to spend.

I started my company in 1995, while still in college.  By 1998, I was off and running, but certainly not comfortable.  It's not that I wasn't making money...the issue was that I was spending it was fast as it came in, testing new strategies like crazy and doing whatever it took to grow things for both me and my clients. 

I remember leaving Nashville to attend an industry event, about 1000 miles away, with $.11 in my bank account.  It's uncomfortable, no matter how you slice it, but very uncomfortable when the friends you're meeting there are either living on venture capital money or collecting fat salaries from major labels.

While I was there, one of these friends, a successful manager, asked me if I wanted to join her and some friends for a meal...at Denny's.  Thankfully, when I called my bank to check the balance of my account, I'd just received a $30 electronic deposit and was able to cover my food.

No money can be stressful.  When you don't have a net, you make sure things work the first time or you're out of business.  The "do or die" experiences I had early in my career are absolutely a major reason for my success at marketing. 

Being able to do things on a small budget works well for you when the "big budget" finally comes around.  The opposite doesn't happen though...and this is why most of the guys who were around in the mid-1990s, when I first started, are doing other things now.

A lot of people are complaining about the economy.  A lot of people are agitated that major labels no longer have the big budgets they once did.

You should be thankful for this.  It wipes out the people who aren't serious and don't really want it.

Never ask for things to be easier.  Instead, ask yourself what you can do to become better.

There is a great opportunity right now for all of us to become better.  It's easy to succeed when the wind blows us that way, but much harder when things shift.  But shifting winds can also be a great advantage to you, if you know how to set your sail and work with them.

Multi-Tasking as Time Mis-Management

The idea that multi-tasking is the answer to squeezing more work into the same eight hours is actually creating habits that cause you to mismanage time. Granted, some people can juggle a phone call and typing a report at the same time.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that if you could just do three things at once instead of two, then you would better manage your time. Actually, you create more potential for making mistakes because your attention is divide in several ways. Nothing muddles time management worse than the time necessary to correct mistakes.

Rather than depend on multi-tasking as your time use strategy, look again at some of the tried and true time management principles:

Keep an updated daily calendar. Whether you buy a sophisticated day planning system, an electronic calendar system or a small notebook, none of these systems work unless you make daily updates. If you rely of yellow sticky notes or writing on the margin of your checkbook, then you are not using your calendar to full advantage. 

Also, use only one calendar system. If you have a work calendar and a personal or family calendar, you’ll double the chances for forgetting something important. Take a few minutes to transfer all meeting notes, new items or added appointments promptly to your calendar so you don’t forget to do it later.

Divide project or jobs into smaller tasks and list each task. You can use an outline format or a tree format; just find a way to separate out each step in a process. That allows you to check off each item when done. You may also discover items that you can delegate to others. 

The project planning approach also gives you an idea of how much time each task requires so you know what time to estimate for completion of the project. This is also useful in determining what times and amounts of materials are needed for the project.

If you have to order any items, move up ordering to the top of the list so that the necessary materials are available when you get to that stage of the project. Having to wait for materials or run around time to find them is a definite time waster.

Work on one project at a time. In the construction or creative process, your attention must be on one thing at a time. Some tasks are less suitable for multitasking than others. Knowing what is needed for that developing stage also helps you choose the best time for this work.

You may prefer a block of time with fewer interruptions as you do the next phase. To get enough uninterrupted time, you may decide to work at home or at another location so minimize those drop-in visitors or ringing phones in the office.

Team projects need high level of coordination and time management. When you are working with a group, you must divide and assign each task. You also need a mutually agreed upon timetable for delivery of each segment. Working in a team can make a project go faster and easier or longer and slower, it all depends on the coordination of the project. 

Each team member needs to be accountable for his or her time so that the entire project stays on schedule. Trying to do your work and catch up on the work that another team member didn’t finish on schedule is a multitasking that rarely works and leaves frustration as well as bitterness among coworkers.

Your Music Sucks and You'll Never Get a Record Deal

Derek Sivers just forwarded me this article on "Radical Honesty" in Esquire.  Strangely enough, just got back from a few days in Los Angeles, where I talked about the concept with several people.

For those new to it, the concept of "Radical Honesty" comes from a self-improvement program developed by Brad Blanton, which challenges people to give up their addiction to lying. Since 2005, we've been practicing it weekly on Music Business Radio during the "demo review" section of the show...sort of.

From my experience, while "Radical Honesty" might work great in theory, it's not something that can be practiced 100% of the time in day-to-day life.  I think the demo review section of Music Business Radio is a great example of that.

We review, on average, about 5-7 songs per episode.  Most of the time, not all of those reviews make the final edit.  This is due to a number of things, mostly timing issues.  As a show on broadcast radio, we've only got an hour and the show has to be edited down to the second.  This causes some content to get cut.

Sometimes, reviews are edited not because of timing issues, but because the music we get is so bad, and the reviews so bad, we choose not to air them.

For example, we once taped a show with a very prominent manager whose comments could be summarized something like, "Hey, [name of artist], Starbucks is hiring."

And that's just one example...  While most of our guests are extremely nice, with good advice that will actually help an artist, even if the demo is bad, some just want a chance to play "Simon Cowell" for a few minutes.

Would it be entertaining?  To some, yes.  Funny?  To some, yes. 

Would it serve the music business community?  Probably not.

Our job is to give good advice, which will help musicians who send us their music.  It's to help further  careers, not bruise egos or discourage people.

Criticism can be a valuable tool for growth.  Honesty is an essential part of a healthy relationship.  How far does it go though?

Mothers everywhere will tell you, "If you can't say something nice, don't say it at all."

How do you feel about this when it comes to a music review being heard by tens of thousands of people? 

Would you want a "Don't quit your dayjob"-style review broadcast or otherwise distributed for the world to hear?

Leave comments below...

Barack Obama and Social Media

Barack Obama takes over as President of the United States today, so I thought it was a good time to talk about some of the interesting things his team are doing to get people excited about what is happening.

One of the things, specifically related to the music business, is a "Victory Lap" mix by DJ Z-Trip.  From a marketing standpoint, this is genius...

1. It associates Obama's inauguration, with some very powerful music that people are already connected to emotionally, which will add to the excitement people feel about having him as President.

2. It associates Z-Trip with a very powerful emotional event and the goodwill that Obama has will be spread to him.

Download Z-Trip's "Victory Lap" mix here.

One of the most powerful marketing concepts is getting involvement from the people you're marketing to.  That's the reason order forms have a "check here" box or ask you to peel off and place a "Yes!" sticker when ordering.  The more you're "involved" in the sales process, the greater chance you have of following through with the order.

Tonight, ABC will broadcast the Washington, D.C. Neighborhood Ball beginning at 8:00 pm Eastern, and people at Neighborhood Balls across the country will be sending in photos and videos of their celebrations. People are being encouraged to share their photos and stories at http://www.pic2009.org/celebrate.

Those with mobile phones can text OBAMA to 56333 for instructions on how to send in congratulation messages and pictures.

Facebook has an interactive application.

There is an app for iPhone.

You can follow the inaguration on Twitter.

Regardless of whether you're a fan, you should keep an eye on Obama's use of social media and Web 2.0 sites.  What he's doing is working and it will work for your music career also.

Music Business Conference Call - Tuesday, January 29th

If you're looking to sell more music, get more people to your shows, and make more money in 2009, you'll want to be on this free teleconference.

Here's the info.  Write it on your calendar now!

EVENT:  MusicMarketing.com: Your Success in 2009
DATE & TIME: Tuesday, January 27th at 9:00pm Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast -- your choice)

Phone-Number to Dial:  615-932-5997
Use Conference ID:  911902#

TO ATTEND THIS EVENT VIA THE WEB, CLICK THIS LINK.

The 80/20 Factor

Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto discovered that 80% of Italy’s wealth was in the hands of 20% of the population. This may not have been a revelation to the poorer class of Italians in the late 1800’s, but it did become a concept that has been widely applied in all types of business.

The Pareto Principle basically says that 80% of the outcome is from 20% of the input. In a time management context, you can say that 80% of your time is used by 20% of your clients.

Chances are you could easily name (and recall the phone numbers) for the 10 -20 most demanding clients that you serve. Those might be your 20%. The other 80% of clients are far less demanding and create little time demands.

Of course if 80% of your income is derived from the sales or service fees of that 20%, then you are less concerned about spending the extra time. Unfortunately, you may be overwhelmed by the demands of the 20% which do not generate the majority of your income.

Using your client contact time well is extremely important to increase your business. While you might think that continuing to provide a high level of service to existing clients is the way to go, you’ll quickly run out of time and fail to generate any new clients.

That’s there Pareto’s Principle works against you. As you bring in new clients to your business, you want to transition them to the 80% that require less service demands as soon as reasonable so that you have time to add new clients.

The first step is to analyze your client contact time for several days, preferably for one week. Just keep a notepad by your desk or an open file on your computer. Log your time with each client and a brief note about the conversation.

This will cause you to be more aware of time wasted in conversations with clients. Sure you want to be friendly and ask about their family, business, etc, but keep it short. As you get to know your clients better, it’s easier to spend too much time chatting about non-business matters.

You need to find a balance between being too curt and distant v. too much talk about trivial things.  If you reduced each of these conversations by 10 minutes, you could reclaim another hour easily, maybe more.

The second step is to structure your day for client contact. Even if your job is to be on the phone all day, make the effort to group your calls. Plan to make new client calls in the morning when you are fresh and enthusiastic. Set aside the afternoon for current client follow-up calls.

If you have any problem client calls to make, group those in a one hour block and get it over with at one time period. Decide in advance how much time you want to spend on each type of call, and then time yourself. As you get accustom to the flow of each type of call, you will begin to stay within the scheduled time naturally.

Finally, if 80% of your revenue or income consistently comes from 20% of your clients, consider hiring an assistant to work on some of the less important details in serving the other 80% of your clients.

That frees your time to spend with the 20% of clients who are supporting most of your lifestyle.  If you can make more money by working with fewer, qualified clients, then your time spent with them, no matter what you chat about, is time well spent.

Twitter Bites Man in Ass

Guy does a presentation for FedEx at its HQ in Memphis.

Guy makes a post on Twitter about how Memphis sucks.

FedEx finds out about the post.

Guy looks like an idiot.

Read the full story here.

Thoughts?  Post 'em below.   

Another Nail in the Coffin for Independent Music on Broadcast Radio?

Indie 103.1 in LA has pulled the plug on its terrestrial station.  But does it matter?  They're still online and don't most fans of independent music have Internet access?

Post thoughts below...

From the Indie 103.1 website:

Indie Activist:

This is an important message for the Indie 103.1 Radio Audience -

Indie 103.1 will cease broadcasting over this frequency effective immediately. Because of changes in the radio industry and the way radio audiences are measured, stations in this market are being forced to play too much Britney, Puffy and alternative music that is neither new nor cutting edge. Due to these challenges, Indie 103.1 was recently faced with only one option --- to play the corporate radio game.

We have decided not to play that game any longer. Rather than changing the sound, spirit, and soul of what has made Indie 103.1 great Indie 103.1 will bid farewell to the terrestrial airwaves and take an alternative course.

This could only be done on the Internet, a place where rules do not apply and where new music thrives; be it grunge, punk, or alternative - simply put, only the best music.

For those of you with a computer at home or at work, log on to www.indie1031.com and listen to the new Indie 103.1 - which is really the old Indie 103.1, not the version of Indie 103.1 we are removing from the broadcast airwaves.

We thank our listeners and advertisers for their support of the greatest radio station ever conceived, and look forward to continuing to deliver the famed Indie 103.1 music and spirit over the Internet to passionate music listeners around the world.

"The Dynamic Album" - Is This the Future of Music Distribution?

Yesterday, I taped an episode of Music Business Radio with an artist named Geoff Smith.  One of the things we talked about was his new album, Ones and 0s, which he calls a "Dynamic Album" and distributes via RSS.

Bonus material has been released with albums for years, many times in an effort to encourage people to purchase rather than download a bootleg copy.  The problem, at least when it comes to piracy, is that the bonus material can easily be copied, just like the album itself.

The "Dynamic Album" take bonus material one further in that it is updated over time via a feed, similar to the way a podcast or this blog is distributed, and includes ringtones, videos, bonus songs, and more.  If you want the latest stuff as soon as it's released, the easiest way to get it is to buy a copy.

It's a cool concept and I encourage you to spend $15 and buy it, if only to see how it's done.

Get more information on Geoff's new release and the "Dynamic Album" concept here.

Would You Sell Out Your Friends for a Hamburger?

As a vegetarian, I certainly would not, but there are plenty of people who are doing just that...all in good fun, of course.

"Free" is the most powerful word in marketing and Burger King has struck gold with a Facebook promotion called Whopper Sacrifice.

Thoughts?  How can you do something similar to promote your music?  Leave comments below...

1/16 UPDATE: Facebook disabled the application.  Perhaps because it's the online version of a Ponzi scheme?