Jill Sobule The Latest Musician To Embrace New Music Business Models

from the good-for-her dept

Last month we wrote about musician Kristin Hersh embracing a version of the new business model we suggested for musicians way back in 2003. It's a model where the musician can actually embrace file sharing and do better because of it, by focusing on using the file sharing to sell more scarce goods, such as specific songs or access to the musician. One of my favorite ideas in that discussion was that the musician could offer up that he or she would play a backyard concert for a supporter. I've yet to see anyone else pick up on that suggestion... until now. Well-known singer-songwriter Jill Sobule has just announced her plans for a new album and it involves a website that allows people to buy in at different levels from $25 (you get the CD before it's released) all the way up to $10,000 (you actually get to sing or participate on the CD). At the $5,000 level, Jill will come and perform at your home. I still think the lowest level ($25) is a bit too high, but the various levels and the rewards at each level do seem about right for the model. It's not clear how Sobule feels about file sharing on top of this, but it's clear that she's really embraced this new business model -- so I'm hopeful that it works out for her. So here's a question: will all the folks who say that taking an idea without giving someone credit for it is "theft" claim that Sobule "stole" this idea from me or will they recognize how ridiculous that is and how we're all better off when infinite goods are spread freely?

Filed Under: business models, jill sobule, music

Violinist To Release Record For Free Online

from the power-of-free dept

Top British Violinist, Tasmin Little, has announced plans to release her next album Naked Violin for free online next week. Although fairly well known within classical music circles, Tasmin wanted to grow her fanbase, so her solution was to use the power of free. The classical music genre has seen a huge rebound as a result of the internet, so perhaps it's not surprising to see more classical musicians embracing its power more quickly. Seems like they're finally starting to realize that the actual problem isn't that people were "stealing" their music, but rather that not many people actually cared enough to bother.

Filed Under: classical, free, music

Sometimes You Wonder If The Recording Industry Is Purposely Destroying Itself

from the no-more-pandora-in-the-UK dept

Back in May, we noted that the recording industry, in a shooting-itself-in-the-foot method, was demanding that music discovery site Pandora block all non-US listeners, over an argument concerning the exact licensing terms of the music that Pandora streams. The recording industry has been demanding that Pandora sign separate licensing agreements in every country, or it must block them. Now, for anyone who has actually used Pandora, it takes all of about three seconds to recognize that it's the type of service that should be the recording industry's best friend. You put in songs, musicians or even styles of music that you like, and Pandora finds you new music that it plays in a stream, like a personalized radio station. Pandora makes it incredibly easy to both discover and buy new music. If I worked for a record label, I'd be running around the world heavily promoting Pandora, and working with it to promote new artists. Yet, instead, in true RIAA fashion, it's demanding a tithe instead. While Pandora has been blocked in many countries since back in July, it kept going in the UK, believing that it would work out a reasonable solution there. Apparently not. As countless UK-based Pandora fans have been submitting over and over again, Pandora is now shutting off access to UK listeners. What does this accomplish? As far as I can tell, all it does is take away a wonderful music discovery service that helped push people to actually buy music. Only in the minds of recording industry execs would a company doing free advertising for you be seen as something that needs to be shut down.

Filed Under: music, recommendations, streaming
Companies: pandora, riaa

Radiohead's Physical Album Selling Well

from the good-for-them dept

Despite what some claim, Radiohead made it abundantly clear from the very beginning that the "name your own price" download offering was part of a promotional campaign to get more people to buy the physical CD. And buy it, they are. Apparently, the physical Radiohead CD is topping the charts in the UK -- and I'd bet that an awful lot of those buyers also downloaded the music first (whether for free or not). While we still don't understand what benefit there was to closing down the download offering, it's hard to see how anyone can still claim that the promotional blitz was a dumb idea. Obviously, Radiohead would have received plenty of attention just for releasing an album. But, in doing it this way, Radiohead got even more publicity, and were able to do it for almost no promotional costs. So, even if Radiohead's lead singer actually is accusing his internet fans of being "sad loners," it appears that Radiohead's internet experiment has been quite a success.

Filed Under: cd sales, music, radiohead

How Dare You Make Our Service More Valuable! RealNetworks Shuts Down YottaMusic

from the not-allowed-to-make-things-more-valuable dept

It's sometimes amazing how shortsighted companies can be -- especially when they discover that others are making their own services better and more valuable. We've written about various threats and lawsuits against people who have made better interfaces for websites such as the Ellis Island listings and Odeon Cinemas' site in the UK. Now, as noted by Fred Wilson, it looks like the folks at RealNetworks have forced YottaMusic out of business for making Real's Rhapsody service a lot more userfriendly. TechCrunch suggests that there's some political reasons for the shutdown having to do with what APIs YottaMusic was using, but that's hardly an excuse for shutting down a popular site that only makes Rhapsody's service more valuable by creating an interface that many people prefer to Rhapsody's own interface. Users of YottaMusic still need to be Rhapsody subscribers, so it could only help to increase Real's subscriber numbers -- so it's hard to understand what the business rationale could be for shutting the site down.

Filed Under: apis, music, value added services
Companies: realnetworks, yottamusic

Another Musician Recognizing New Business Models

from the about-time dept

Way back in 2003, I wrote up one potential business model for musicians who want to embrace file sharing, but who still want to make money (i.e., most of them). It was never intended to be "the" business model for embracing free file sharing, but it always seemed like a good one to me. While we've seen tons of interesting, innovative, unique and creative business models from musicians over the years, I still haven't come across one who completely followed the plan I described. The basics of the business model are easily recognizable to those who have read my series on economics, but it again, focuses on giving away the infinite goods and charging for scarce goods -- in this case, in the form of a "membership" or "subscription" that gets fans additional (scarce) benefits not available to those who don't pay the subscription. Thus, if you're a subscriber, you might get to come visit the musician in the studio, get early access to new songs, be a part of the song-writing process, early access to concert ticket sales or perhaps the chance to have the musician play a private concert for you and your friends.

The Penny Distribution blog has alerted us to the news that musician Kristin Hersh has actually adopted something very much like the model I described. Her plan is even a little more advanced, as there are different "levels" of membership with different benefits included. At the base level of $10/quarter (which still seems a bit pricey to me -- I would think that it would help more to have an opening level that costs less than a big record label CD per year), you get a sticker, a poster and a copy of her new CD before anyone else does. As the prices get higher, she starts to get more creative. For $30/quarter, you'll also get "a works in progress sampler CD" of new music that she's working on, plus you'll get yourself and one other person on the guest list for one of her shows. There are even higher levels of support, including one where you'd get to spend time in the studio with Kristin all the way up to getting executive producer credits on her next album.

I think this is definitely a move in the right direction -- and I'm hopeful that other bands will start to adopt similar policies. In this case, it feels like the prices are a little too high, and the benefits are a little too low, but it may depend on how popular the artist is (Penny Distribution says Hersh is popular -- I've never heard of her). Also, in her mission statement about the new model, she seems to be suggesting that this model is "principles over profit" where she's unlikely to profit as much through it. That doesn't sound right either. If you embrace this model properly, you should certainly be able to profit nicely from it -- as you can drum up a larger, more committed following who are more willing to pay sums of money directly to you, rather than filtered through a bunch of middlemen all taking their cuts.

Filed Under: business models, copyright, kristin hersh, music

David Byrne Breaks Down New Business Models For Musicians; Confirms Radiohead's Success

from the changing-world dept

Wired is running a couple of stories involving well-known musician David Byrne. The first is an interview with Thom Yorke from Radiohead, where he confirms what a huge success the "name your own price" offering was, contrary to CNN's editors calling it dumb. According to Yorke: "In terms of digital income, we've made more money out of this record than out of all the other Radiohead albums put together, forever." Yorke also confirms other things that we've said about new business models, where touring can be a big part of the model (contrary to people who insist that's impossible). Yorke notes: "at the moment we make money principally from touring." Yorke admits that he's not a fan of touring (partly for ecological reasons), but that's how the band makes money (this is similar to what we've heard from other bands as well). So, again, given all the publicity around the "name your own price" deal (which Yorke admits they basically tried on a lark and only agreed to it right before announcing it), it should pay off well with more people willing to pay more money to see the band on tour. The one thing Yorke says that I disagree with is the idea that the model only works for Radiohead due to its following. As we've pointed out, most of the examples of bands successfully trying similar models involve much less well known acts. In fact, Byrne himself later points to the success of Jane Siberry, who tried a name your own price model years before Radiohead, and certainly didn't have the same huge following, but found that the model was quite successful.

The second article is by Byrne himself, where he does a nice job breaking down the business models of the recording industry. Much of what he says will sound familiar to folks around here, though he adds in some interesting numbers concerning how much a musician makes per CD and per iTunes download (it's not much). He points out that the value proposition of a record label is decreasing rapidly as areas where they used to be needed (money for recording, promotion and distribution) are approaching free in cost, meaning the labels provide little, if any, value on those points. He then lists out what he believes are the six business models a musician can adopt these days, noting that it's nice to see more than just a single option. This highlights another point we've tried to make: the new business models for the music industry mean that there isn't just one business model for every musician. In fact, just about every successful new business model we see is slightly different -- though most pick up on some important economic cues. The one problem I have with Byrne's explanation is that it still mainly focuses on one thing: how do you sell the music itself. This comes even after he talks about how the idea of selling music is only a recent phenomenon, and historically, music was always tied to the performance itself. The less bands focus on "selling music" and the more they focus on using the music to sell other stuff, the faster a path to success will become clear.

Filed Under: business models, david byrne, music, radiohead, record labels, thom yorke

Sellaband CDs To Be Available On Amazon; Not As Big A Deal As You Think

from the step-in-the-right-direction dept

For all the awful stories we have around here concerning the record labels making dumb mistakes in dealing with the modern market, we've always been optimistic that others will figure out the new business models eventually (and what's left of the record labels will either co-opt those models or die). There are certainly a few interesting companies out there, experimenting with a variety of models -- and one of the most interesting has been Sellaband. The Amsterdam-based company has put in place a more formalized version of a model that's been discussed for years: getting a wide variety of fans to pony up small amounts of money into a pool, which the band can then use to record, press and distribute its album. Sellaband has done a few nice things on top of that. Everyone who ponies up for a "share" has the potential of getting some money back from sales of the albums or from ad revenue from the band's page. The music is still given away for free for promotional purposes, and there are a number of other nice features as well -- including letting the band (rather than the company) retain the rights to the music after a certain time period. While some folks may never get their money back, they're still supporting the music, and at least there's a chance they'd get their money back, rather than shipping it off to an RIAA label.

Of course, the big trick for an outfit like Sellaband is getting that critical mass of users, and certainly a deal with Amazon.com could help, which is why it was exciting to see a bunch of headlines indicating that Amazon has now partnered with Sellaband. However, the details suggest this may not be as big a deal as various blogs and press outlets are making it out to be. It doesn't sound like this is really Amazon supporting the Sellaband process -- just selling the completed CDs that Sellaband releases. That's really not such a big deal, as it's not all that hard to get your CDs sold via Amazon. In fact, while the announcements keep saying that Amazon "announced a partnership" with Sellaband, the details suggest that Sellaband simply secured distribution through Amazon via Digital Orchard -- who helps lots of musicians sell their stuff on Amazon. Amazon doesn't seem to have a press release up or anything -- so it may just be Sellaband "announcing" things and the press misinterpreting it (though, Sellaband did get a quote from someone at Amazon). It would be a lot more powerful if the rest of the Sellaband process was available via Amazon and if Amazon were really bought into the process, rather than just offering a simple retail outlet that almost anyone can sign up for. Also, while many are saying that this covers all of Amazon, it appears that it's really only for Amazon UK. Overall, this isn't a bad thing, but it may not be as big a deal as some think it is.

Filed Under: business models, music
Companies: amazon, sellaband

More Bands Experimenting With Free As A Part Of The Business Model

from the good-for-them dept

Eric the Grey writes in to let us know about yet another band understanding the economics facing the music industry. Apparently the band Big Head Todd and the Monsters isn't just giving away free downloads of their new album, but are also giving away 500,000 CDs. They're actually doing it in an interesting way. Somewhat similar to Prince's recent offering to give away CDs with newspapers, BHTM is giving the CDs away via radio stations. Fans could sign up on the band's website for the CDs or get them from radio stations who are being given the CDs in batches to be given away. While giving away physical CDs doesn't make as much sense as just offering the downloads (it's a lot costlier...), it appears that the folks involved with this project understand the basics: "This sort of thing might very well be the future of music distribution. Give away the music, build a bigger fan base [and] generate revenue through live shows, merchandising and other platforms." That, of course, is what plenty of folks have been suggesting for years, while having record label execs insist it would never fly. Where are they now that it's flying? Oh, right, playing dumb.

Filed Under: big head todd and the monsters, copyright, economics, free, give away, music

50 Cent Is The Latest Artist To Understand The Economics Of Music

from the not-so-hard dept

More and more musicians seem to be recognizing what fans have been trying to tell them since Napster first came on the scene nearly a decade ago: it's not file sharing that hurts the music business, it's treating your fans badly that hurts the business. We've been seeing more and more musicians recognize this over the past few months, and the latest to join the pack is Curtis James Jackson III, better known as 50 Cent. In an interview, he noted that while file sharing may hurt record labels, it doesn't seem to hurt artists or any other part of the music business: "What is important for the music industry to understand is that this really doesn't hurt the artists." He notes that shows are still packed and fans are fans no matter how they first hear the music. He says that the labels need to learn to adapt and embrace the technology while noting that the thing labels should be doing is making money on the scarce goods that are made valuable by the music: "The concerts are crowded and the industry must understand that they have to manage all the 360 degrees around an artist. They, (the industry), have to maximize their income from concerts and merchandise. It is the only way they can get their marketing money back." This isn't that surprising or new, and we've noted recently that hip hop stars seemed to implicitly realize this well before most of the rest of the industry. However, it is yet another big music industry name saying this. Yet, why is it that the RIAA is still out there insisting that suing fans is the right strategy? Why is it that the RIAA claims it's trying to protect the artists, and even getting new legislation moved forward, when the very artists it's trying to protect are arguing against those policies?

Filed Under: 50 cent, economics, music, recording industry