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The Future of the Music Business

Jeff Pollack wrote a great article about the future of the music business that I feel you'll find beneficial. It has a great quote from John McCrea, the lead singer of Cake...

"Can you put food on the table with music? Probably not. I see music as a really great hobby for most people in five or ten years. I see everybody I know, some of them really important artists, studying how to do other jobs."

Depressing. But is it correct?

Post your comments below...

Grammy Awards - Why They Don't Matter Anymore

The Grammy Awards is this Sunday. It used to be a big deal and the "old school" industry is still putting on a brave face and acting like it still is.

I think it's great that people in an industry are honored by their peers, and that's nice for this weekend, but shortly thereafter, possibly the next morning, the only thing that will matter is what the fans think. The "industry" doesn't count like it once did. That's because the "industry" is biased, self-absorbed, and stuck in a "this is the way we do things, because we've always done it this way" mindset, totally oblivious of everything around us.

Fans know better. About music styles, about music distribution, about everything... Always.

So, in honor of the Grammy Awards, here are some equally worthless awards for you to add to your bio. 

1. Lifetime Achievement in Autotune 
2. Most Brazen Madonna Ripoff
3. Best Use of the 987 CDs (of a 1000-CD Run) That Didn't Sell
4. Most Outrageous Photoshop Treatment
5. The Jethro Tull Award (a hard rock/metal performance award given to an act that is NEITHER Hard Rock nor Metal)

People buy music because they connect with it, not because it won a Grammy. Remember that. 

Die With Your Boots On

And by die, I mean sell records...

Iron Maiden has been around for 30+ years and is still kicking ass.

This is how you sell music.

Christmas Number One 2009

Anybody from England knows what a big deal Christmas Number One is.  And Christmas Number One for 2009 is...

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!!

Not just any Rage Against the Machine, but 1992's "Killing in the Name."

How did it happen?  Well, social media had a lot to do with it...

More info here.

Thoughts?

Why Nashville is Badass

People in Nashville, as well as those within the industry, have always known what we have here.  This city is more than country or Christian music, although both are major exports for us.

Major media is starting to catch on.  This article in the Atlantic calls Nashville, "the Silicon Valley of the music business."

How did this happen?

The infrastructure here, and the reason Nashville is a music business center, is because the business was built by marketing people.  It's been that way from the beginning.  The reason you think of country or Christian music when you think of Nashville is because we've made it that way. 

Although we're still happy to take your money for country and Christian music, for the last decade, there has been an active campaign to change perception of the city.  Taking on such a major challenge doesn't happen overnight, so it's good to see that word is finally spreading outside the inner circle of the music industry.

New Guns N' Roses - There Was A Time

Was just talking to Bob Baker, author of the Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook, about how it's almost always more advantageous for bands and musicians to release something now, whatever it is, than wait around and release it when it's "perfect."

And as luck would have it, after more than a decade, here's something new by Guns N' Roses...

My questions to you...

Was it a good move (or bad one) to wait so long?

Did the wait make it any better than something Guns N' Roses could have released 10 years ago?  Any worse?

Does anybody still care?

Let me know your thoughts...

CD Baby Sold to Disc Makers

CD Baby has been sold to Disc Makers.

I think it's great.  Derek Sivers is a sharp guy and he's doing what he feels is best for the company and its customers.  And this leaves him free to pursue other opportunities, which will help musicians in other ways.

If Derek had simply wanted to "cash in" on CD Baby, he could have done it a long time ago.  I know he's had plenty of opportunities to.

Disc Makers is a company which has been helping independent musicians to get their music released since 1946.  They're committed to the same things as CD Baby, so it's a good match.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Disc Makers, here's an interview I did with of their top guys, Andre Calilhanna, for Music Business Radio.  He talks about the history of the company as well as what they're doing to help independent music, including their annual Independent Music World Series.

I'm excited to see what they do with CD Baby!

Thoughts?  Post 'em below...

Big Budget Porn (and Judas Priest)

I've said it for years and here's yet another example that I'm right...

If you want to see trends in the online and entertainment industries, from both marketing to product creation, watch what the adult industry is doing.

For example, the current edition of AVN (Adult Video News) has a cover story on how big budget adult features are making a comeback.

Why?  Because in a crowded marketplace, you have to do what you can to set yourself apart from everybody else.  And any idiot with a video camera can record people having sex...but only the big boys, who have lots of money, years of project management experience, and superior marketing power, can successfully create and market something huge.

We're going to see the same from music companies also.  For example, the new Judas Priest album is a 2-CD (or 3-LP) concept album about the life of 16th century prophet, Nostradamus.

And the album is just the beginning... Expect to see a huge live show, a video release with "making of" footage, and lots of other products and services which will make this an "event" that will set the band apart from similar sounding acts.