stories filed under: "rtb"
News.com Interview On CwF+RtB
from the rage?-what-rage? dept
Greg Sandoval, over at News.com, ran an interview with me about both Techdirt and our CwF+RtB experiment. The only quibble is that "full of rage" bit. As most people who know me will tell you, I'm about as far from "filled with rage" as just about anyone. I'm a pretty laid back, happy, optimistic guy. Can't think of much to have rage about -- but I could see how some might misinterpret some of my writings that way. Anyway, I'm way behind on posting about some of our findings (though, the interview reveals a few), and will try to get to it very soon. There isn't much left to buy (and we're down to limited sizes on t-shirts/hoodies of what is left), but we'll try to do a refresh with some new offerings soon. In the meantime, we've started shipping stuff out, but we're still waiting on all the signed books/music to get that out, so please hold on if you haven't received yours yet...Reason To Buy? The $1 Million Wine Book
from the might-be-a-very-limited-audience dept
As book publishers are starting to struggle with the same business model issues facing the music industry and others, it seems at least one publisher has come up with a unique "reason to buy" -- though, it may be slightly out of your price range. johnjac points us to the news about the $1 million wine book. It is, as described, a book about wines that will run you a cool $1 million. Why? Well, because it comes with the wine it talks about. The book will list out the world's top 100 wineries, and with the book you'll get a six bottle case from each winery listed in the book. So, the book, plus 600 bottles of wine from the 100 best wineries in the world. They're only making 100 copies of the book... and 25 have already been pre-ordered, so hurry up and order.Filed Under: book, reason to buy, rtb, wine
Moldover Gives People A Reason To Buy His CD By Turning The Case Into An Instrument
from the rock-out dept
Another day, another example of a musician not freaking out about "piracy" but looking to create innovative reasons to actually buy something. The latest is the artist Moldover, who not only learned how to build circuit boards that display the album artwork and spell out the song titles, but he actually turned the CD case itself into a fully functional instrument. Check it out:It seems like every day we see new and different examples of artists coming up with cool reasons to actually buy product. While some critics insist that these sorts of things only work once, I tend to believe that creativity knows no bounds, and we'll keep seeing more and more unique ideas.
Filed Under: cd, instrument, moldover, reason to buy, rtb
Going Once... Going Twice... Almost Sold Out On Various Techdirt Offerings
from the get-'em-while-they're-hot dept
Just a quick update that we're getting close to shutting down a bunch of the limited edition offerings in our CwF+RtB experiment. So if you were thinking of ordering things like the t-shirts, hoodies, Book Club or Music Club do so soon. Most of them probably won't last more than another week... We'll eventually be offering up new tiers as well, but if you like what's there, don't miss 'em.Street Performer Explains His Experience Connecting With Fans, Giving Them A Reason To Buy
from the experiments-in-progress dept
Onyx Ashanti, a street musician ("busker") who has apparently been reading Techdirt for some time, has been trying to put some of what we discuss here into practice, looking for better ways to connect with fans, while also providing them something worthwhile to buy (noting that "tips" aren't a very good business). He recently alerted us to a blog post he wrote detailing the results of some of the experiments, which appear to be ongoing. He's tried a few different things, even trying to set up a WiFi connection where he's performing to let people download music (didn't work, as it was too confusing) or giving them flyers with a code to download (again, not very effective). He did realize that performing directly on the street enabled him to connect and build up a mailing list, but what could he give as the "reason to buy." He settled on a CD, but with cool (homemade) origami packaging. But he still wasn't sure on the pricing. He tried $10 -- which was decent. He then dropped the price to $5, which actually caused him to sell fewer CDs. But then he tried the model Dave Allen has suggested for merch: pay what you want, and found it worked wonders. He ended up making a lot more more money, though it helped that he explained the whole thing clearly on a sign. Allen, too, has mentioned that it all depends in how you explain the offering.I've said before that I'm not necessarily a fan of "pay what you want" pricing schemes, but I'm beginning to think there may be areas where they do make sense. The success stories of bands using it for merch over and over again are making me wonder what factors make "pay what you want" work. Any thoughts?
Either way, I'll be curious to find out more from Onyx as he continues to experiment.
Filed Under: cwf, onyx ashanti, rtb
Wired Reveals First Buyer Of The Techdirt Reviews Your Business Plan Offering
from the cwf+rtb dept
Wired's Epicenter blog has a nice writeup all about our Connecting with Fans Experiment, and got to break the news about the first buyer of the Techdirt Reviews Your Business Model offering, Didier Mary. We'll have more details on the overall program shortly, but wanted to make it through at least the first month to have enough data to start sharing some of our lessons. Still, I'll say that the program has been a success well beyond what we expected...Don Bartlett Explains How Joe Pug Gave Away Free CDs To Connect With Fans
from the and-it-worked dept
There are just a few hours left if you want in on the special promotion.With our CwF + RtB experiment in full swing, we've asked some of the participants involved to provide some guest posts about their own experience with new business models and new promotions. Don Bartlett manages Joe Pug, one of the artists involved in our Techdirt Music Club. If you order both the Techdirt Music Club and the Techdirt Book Club before midnight PT, tonight, we'll throw in a free Techdirt hoodie, or a free lunch with Mike Masnick. Bartlett and Pug ran a fascinating experiment starting last year, where they experimented with giving away totally free CDs (not just downloads). Bartlett agreed to write a guest post about what they learned:
It's hard to glance at a music blog these days without finding an article talking about the "new model" for the music industry. As the conversation advances, thoughtful commentary has popped up from sources as diverse as Mark Cuban and Trent Reznor. From my perspective, too many musicians have adopted the sound bytes that "labels are dead" and "you don't need a label" without fully thinking through the ramifications of that. While it is certainly true that many labels have backed themselves into a tough spot for a variety of reasons, the good ones still provide essential infrastructure such as distribution, publicity, financing, promotion and expertise. As we move towards a world where labels have less of a role, it's more important than ever for bands to become well-versed in how to handle these duties themselves.
For developing bands, one of the most critical parts is marketing and promotion. Fortunately, this is an area where the playing field is more open than ever. We are excited for Joe Pug to be a part of the Techdirt Music Club because we share the ideology of "Connect With Fans" and "Reason to Buy." These are core principles that every band should abide by. On the surface, it sounds very simple. The tricky part is to take your unique situation and determine what methods will achieve those goals.
In the case of Joe Pug, we felt very strongly that his songs would connect with people. This is not something we decided emotionally, but rather by looking at his history with existing fans, sales numbers, the responses he was getting from live shows, and other objective metrics. The challenge for us, then, became getting these songs in new ears in an efficient, cost effective way. We printed up CDs with two of his songs on them, along with contact info and a note that the full record was available on iTunes. We started by passing them out after shows at local venues. We had success, but we were casting too wide of a net, and it wasn't cost efficient. This is when it occurred to me that we should be inviting the people who are most excited about Joe's music to help. You can't possibly ask for more targeted marketing... people are intimately familiar with their friends' musical tastes, so if they're passing the CD along -- there is a high probability that they will be interested.
The results were instant, and overwhelming. Every possible metric jumped immediately... physical sales, digital sales, MySpace plays, Facebook friends, attendance at shows and merchandise sales. And somewhat unexpectedly, the fans who were requesting the samplers were emailing him about how excited they were to help. Without really intending to, we identified Joe's most enthusiastic fans in a place where we could interact with them and reward them with special treatment. It became one of our primary ways of connecting with fans, and the two songs were connecting well enough to give the new fans a reason to buy the full record or come out to a show. It is important to note here that it's not up to me to make moral judgments about the price of music. It's my job to look at the available revenue streams and find a way to maximize them for my client.
When it comes to connecting with fans, what worked for Joe may not work for someone else. Each situation has a unique path between band and fan. Identify your fan base (or distinct segments of your fan base for larger bands), then take a close look at how they interact with music. A younger fan might scan his RSS feed for blog posts and trade songs with his friends over AIM. An older fan might not even know how to download an mp3 into his iTunes. A busy professional might ask the clerk at a boutique what is playing while she shops. An electronic music fan is a whole lot more likely to share a widget than a folk music fan. Successfully identifying these factors within your fan base is probably the most crucial part of the equation, in my estimation.
There is a great deal of discussion these days about the "new model," but really it is only new to the music industry. Develop a truly great product that people are legitimately excited about. Invest the time, effort and money to market that product efficiently, and leverage small successes into larger ones. Eventually, the successes become large enough that everyone who gambled on the product gets their share of the profits. This is hardly MBA-level material.
What is "new" is that artists are more free than ever to execute their own marketing plans, rather than relying on the inefficient, bloated ones many labels push. I have been told many by people with nice cars, important business cards and famous friends that Joe's sampler CD program was wasteful and even "degrading to my artist." I respectfully disagreed. A year into his career, with only one EP released, Joe is playing Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Newport and touring with some of his idols. 14 months after its release, the EP sells more each month than the month previous. Is he rich? Is he famous? No. He is, however, making a very respectable living as a musician and laying the foundation for a fantastic career. That, I would hold, is the "new model".
For the Techdirt Music Club Joe is offering up a special version of the EP, with specially designed Techdirt-inspired cover art, and some unreleased songs. Check it out.
Filed Under: connecting with fans, cwf, don bartlett, joe pug, music, reason to buy, rtb
David Levine & Michele Boldrin On New Business Models Like CwF + RtB
from the explain-away... dept
Reminder: As stated below, our special promotion where you get a free hoodie or lunch with Mike for buying both the Music Club and the Book Club package ends tonight! Don't miss out...With our CwF + RtB experiment in full swing, we've asked some of the participants involved to provide some guest posts, including their thoughts on the experiment itself. Michele Boldrin and David Levine are two well-known economists who recently published Against Intellectual Monopoly, which is a part of our Techdirt Book Club (which gives you Against Monopoly along with four other excellent books, all signed by their authors). If you order both the Techdirt Book Club and the Techdirt Music Club before midnight PT tonight, we'll throw in a free Techdirt hoodie, or a free lunch with me (Mike). In the meantime, here's the guest post written by David and Michele:
On new business models for authors:
With copyright vanishing de facto, even as legal protections become more extreme, the question of how to get paid for creation without the monopoly granted by copyright becomes more salient. Historically one of the most important sources of revenue has been "complementary sales" -- the sale of something other than the copy. For example: in the case of music -- live performances; in the case of movies -- theatrical performances. In the case of news and blogs advertising has historically been the key, but the selling of the author is another potential source of revenue as the industry becomes more decentralized and competitive. Signed copies of books by authors is one possibility we'll be interested to see, but we also expect successful authors to extract substantial income from public speeches and similar events. Popularity, it seems clear, pays off quite well. Frankly, the two of us have a lot of confidence in the ability of the market to generate new and creative solutions even if we personally have no ability to predict what the specific outcomes will be. This period of experimentation with business models is essential and it will be interesting to see which models catch on. In the case of small comic strips the answer is already in -- comic strip based t-shirts amazingly enough turn out to be the trick.
Why we wrote Against Monopoly
The purpose of copyrights and patents is to grant a short-lived monopoly to encourage creation and innovation. We were led to write the book when we discovered that existing economic theory greatly exaggerated the importance of these temporary monopolies in providing incentives. This lead us to put into context a lot of data and case-studies showing that competitive markets work and work well even without these monopolies. The book (ironically under copyright, although a free copy is always available online) tried to put this all together in a way that would be comprehensible for a non-economists (that is, we tried to avoid the mathematics and jargon that economists love).
And thanks to Mike for the entrepreneurial spirit we academics can only admire.
Filed Under: business models, cwf, david levine, economics, michele boldrin, rtb
Jill Sobule Talks About Her Experience Connecting With Fans, Giving Them A Reason To Buy
from the stalkers-into-promoters dept
With our CwF + RtB experiment in full swing, we've asked some of the participants involved to provide some guest posts, including their thoughts on the experiment itself. Jill Sobule is a well-known singer/songwriter, who last year embraced the CwF + RtB spirit with her Jill's Next Record experiment. We asked her to share some of her experiences with it as a guest post:Around 2 years ago, I put up the website -- jillsnextrecord.com -- where fans, as well as semi-pressured family members and friends, could donate to the recording and release of my next record. I didn't want them to just give me money, so I came up with different levels of donation for various "gifts and services": For example: The $25 Polished Rock Level would get you an advance CD -- no big deal. But the $50 Pewter Level would place you in the liner notes. My favorite was the $500 Gold Level where I would write you your very own theme song -- just to let you know, the host of... "Dancing With The Stars" went for that one. Within two months, much to my surprise, I reached my goal. Not only have I bypassed that much maligned middleman (the record label) but I have developed and maintained a closer relationship to the one's that really matter: the fans. Someone asked me if I ever had any stalkers. I said yes, and I put them to work selling my merch at shows or helping me with my website... They do such a better job.Given her experience, we were thrilled that Jill agreed to be a part of the whole CwF + RtB program. Not only that, but she went above and beyond in enthusiastically volunteering to create custom, one-of-a-kind notebooks for everyone who orders the Techdirt Music Club. For each order, she'll take a brand new notebook, and jot down some song lyrics and some doodles on the first few pages -- so you'll get a totally unique "Jill Sobule original" notebook, along with a signed copy of her CD. If you order both the Techdirt Music Club and the Techdirt Book Club before midnight PT, August 3rd, we'll throw in a free Techdirt hoodie, or a free lunch with me (Mike).
I really like that Techdirt is promoting artists and writers who are trying to break the mold -- and in many cases, already succeeding. Also, as in my case, the creativity didn't stop at just the music itself... We worked together to figure out how to best to offer my work. Our first idea was a semi-lame faux cactus (to match the cactus on the album cover). We, thankfully, came up with a better one: handwritten lyrics on a moleskin journal to go along with the new record. Wish I would have thought of that before.
Filed Under: connecting with fans, cwf, jill sobule, jill's next record, rtb
