The Berkleemusic Blog Network brings together music industry professionals, music educators, and Berklee College of Music faculty to discuss topics and current events relating to the music business, music production, songwriting, music theory, performance, and online education.
Sibelius has a very handy plug-in when you are dealing with real-time input and/or importing MIDI files.
Renotate Performance Plug-in
There is a plug-in called Renotate Performance. It does an amazing job of renotating and simplifying notation.
I also use it when step entering notation. It will often correct mistakes that I make such as placing quarter notes over beats 2 and 3 in 4/4 time. It is an amazing tool. It is a snap to use and if the change is not what you want just undo it and return to the original.
Applying the Renotate Performance Plug-in
I entered the following notation in real-time using Flexi-time.
Here’s what the Renotate Performance plug-in produced:
To run the Renotate Performance plug-in:
1. Select the source notation. You can select one or more bars and up to two staves at a time.
2. Choose Plug-ins > Simplify Notation > Renotate Performance
3. When the dialog box came up, I checked the Overwrite option. If you don’t check this box, the renotated version will be placed in a new staff.
I find that this plug-in is tremendous especially if you are playing in real-time and want to quickly clean up the notation.
Limitations
You can’t apply the plug-in to multiple staves. You are limited to 2 staves at a time. And, sometimes it will make adjustments to the notation and change the actual rhythms. When this happens, I undo the plug-in and make the edits manually.
We dip once again into the Bonzai Vaults for this 1989 interview with trumpeter and record company executive Herb Alpert. Alpert reflects on his humble beginnings, his lucky breaks, his work as a musician, the artists he helped to develop, and the evolution of an incredibly successful record company in an era that will never return. Shortly after the interview, Alpert and A&M partner Jerry Moss sold their company to Polygram Records for a reported sum of approximately $500 million.
Herb Alpert at Bernie Grundman Mastering in 1999. Photo by Mr. Bonzai.
In 1962, Herb Alpert emerged from his little garage studio with a moody blend of melancholy trumpet, bullfight cheers, and dreamy ahh-ahh girls. “The Lonely Bull” launched a career that has racked up 72 million records to date, seven Grammy Awards, and five Number One albums.
If we listen back to his Greatest Hits we find that sound effects and graphic instrumentation were trademarks of many tunes: from the oogah horn of “Tijuana Taxi” to the clapping, whistling and party animals of “America.” “A Taste of Honey” features drummer Hal Blaine’s solitary “bomp, bomp, bomp” and that brassy “boowah” — what a sample! In the Summer of ‘65, not everyone was acting “Like a Rolling Stone” — a lot of folks did the funky chicken and frugged carelessly to “Whipped Cream.” The records are straightforward — we’ve got concept here with sonic imagery and impeccable musicianship.
A&M Records, co-owned by Herb and partner Jerry Moss, has been home to a rather diversified group of chartbusters over the past three decades: Cat Stevens, The Carpenters, Peter Frampton, Supertramp, The Go-Go’s, The Police, Bryan Adams, Janet Jackson, Joan Baez, Quincy Jones, Joe Cocker, the Captain and Tennille, Billy Preston, Suzanne Vega and more than enough gold records to rock a trade balance.
When we arrive at A&M, we pass through the gates of an old movie studio where Charlie Chaplin once called it home. The guard politely directs us down a tree-lined pathway to a rustic little bungalow. If we’re lucky, the softspoken Mr. Alpert might open up.
From Hypebot. It’s no secret that the amount of money artists are earning from recorded music is declining. But by how much? And as digital sales replace physical and streaming music gains traction do the numbers shift in the artist’s…
From Hypebot. It’s no secret that the amount of money artists are earning from recorded music is declining. But by how much? And as digital sales replace physical and streaming music gains traction do the numbers shift in the artist’s…
The entire music industry has been driven by new formats, new music and innovation over the past 70 years. This has been fueled with the passion to be a star and receive the adoration of millions.
In the industry equivalent of changing from winter to summer clothes in the closet or re-planting the flowers in the garden, the music publishing biz is in a spring fever of buying and selling, with companies changing hands with a frenzy over the past few weeks. The newcomer with a basket full of cash, BMG Rights, bought up Cherry Lane Music; Bicycle Music grabbed up the TVT masters and songs from the closet of that legendary music company Prudential Securities Credit Corp. (where the catalog had been placed for safe-keeping after being lost in a long-disputed bankruptcy case), and S1 Songs and State One Music, along with it’s money-men over at First State Media Group, were acquired by Chrysalis Music. And of course, that doesn’t even address the rumors swirling around EMI Music Publishing and BMG.
None of this spring cleaning is entirely unexpected. The pressure of the falling revenues in the record industry; the impatience of some of the investors who bought heavily into music publishing several years ago only to find that this seemingly safe and steady business is neither; the credit crunch that set in last year; and the recession’s effect on the advertising, broadcasting, and media businesses that make up much of the music market these days, have all done considerable damage over the long two or three year winter of our discontent. Now, everyone’s wandering out into the backyard, surveying the damage, and getting out some pruning shears and fertilizer to see what gets burned, what can be saved, and what it would take to actually get things growing again.
The interesting thing is that most of the recent acquisitions have not involved the usual suspects. The major companies like Sony ATV, Warner Chappell, Universal and EMI have not been making any big purchases. Maybe they’re saving their pennies for that rainy day when something really exciting goes on the block, like EMI, or a handful of the catalogs from EMI. Maybe they’ve got their own financial pressures, as most of the major publishers’ parent companies have been buffeted by the storms at their associated record labels, electronics companies, or film studios. Nor have some of the most active independent players, like Imagem, been involved in the recent hunting and gathering. This could reflect a desire to consolidate what’s already been acquired before going out to buy more. It could be that the current crop of catalogs for sale just wasn’t all that attractive. Or perhaps BMG Rights, in an effort to get on the map, is buying at a premium price, and simply outbidding everyone else.
So what does all this mean to the music weasels and those who love/hate them? Other than a reassuring statement that life does indeed go on, that even in the deadliest of times there are new things coming to life, or perhaps that there is a sucker born every minute, the spring season shopping spree also confirms a couple of inescapable facts:
1. At the moment, this is a shrinking business when it comes to employment opportunities.
While only Chrysalis has made a public statement about “synergies” and a “reduction in the overall cost base” (which in office-speak means “chopping heads”), it’s obvious that most of these moves will result in a few less weasels on the job. That’s not new news to those in the A&R world, who have seen constant cutbacks both in numbers and in salary over the past years. A word of career advice to those graduating this spring: A&R is not a growth sector. If you think you have an ability to recognize and develop talent, become a manager. Book clubs or festivals. Start your own company. Do NOT spend your time applying for jobs at major record labels or music publishers. It’s like becoming a blacksmith at the dawn of the Automobile Age.
2. Songs last. Companies don’t.
No one purchases a music publishing company because of its brilliant infrastructure, executive team, or efficient operation. They buy ‘em for the songs. Other than the BMG purchase of Cherry Lane, which may have been partly an effort to acquire a North American office and infrastructure, most of the recent purchases and acquisitions are about what music acquisitions have always been about: music. A few years from now, no one other than the people directly involved with the company will remember the existence of S1 Songs. But radio will still be playing Sheryl Crow’s “Everyday Is a Winding Road” and people will be dancing to “Disco Inferno”. Indeed, “Take Me Home Country Roads” and “Leaving On A Jet Plane” had been with Dreamworks Music Publishing (remember those guys?) before Dreamworks went to Dimensional Music and then on to S1, and now to Chrysalis. I rest my point.
3. There are still bulls in the china shop.
As fragile as the music publishing business feels at the moment, with mechanical incomes plummeting, film and television fees falling, performance fees stagnating in the face of dropping revenues at the broadcasting companies, and even the concept of copyright being under attack, the investment community has not given up on music publishing. Or at least not entirely. While a number of investment-backed publishing companies like S1 have long been on the selling block, there are others who have had enough success in the music industry to re-up their financial stakes, and seek out new buying opportunities. Bicycle Music is one of these, as is BMG Rights, which is funded by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. As is usually the case, alot of money men went into the jungle– a few played sensibly and conservatively and are still standing on solid ground. Others overpaid, over-borrowed, or over-promised and found themselves knee-deep in something less than terra firma.
More importantly though, what does all of the buying and selling mean to small independent music publishers? For most of us, there are no wolves at the door, but no big benefactors either. It’s easy to assume that what’s happening with the bigger players doesn’t impact us. But to do that would be to miss some opportunities that may grow out of the March and April madness. Here are a couple of things to consider:
1. It’s a good time to build your team.
While no one likes the idea of people losing their jobs, the prospect of a lot of idle weasels out on the street could mean a chance for you to pick up a few additions to your own company at a very low cost. While you probably won’t be looking to hire people at their old salaries, you may be able to employ some very experienced people on a short-term consulting basis to help you address challenges in your business, make a few key introductions, or expand into markets where you lack experience. If you need help in a specific area, try putting an ad in the Billboard classified section, or an online posting for “help wanted”. You may be surprised at the people you hear from.
2. Keep an eye out for investors that might be in buying mode, and build your network of music attorneys to help you find them, or them find you.
Now that the economy is rebounding, Wall Street is bonusing, and interest rates are staying relatively low, there will be people with money looking at buying up copyrights. As we said earlier, for all the problems, music publishing still looks like a sound (heh heh) investment to the financial wizards. After all, these are the guys that thought mortgage-backed securities were a great place to park money. At least with music publishing, they can hang out at clubs with musicians and feel cool. If you can find even one or two wealthy backers not afraid to make a modest investment, you may be able to go out and acquire a few solid, proven catalogs or copyrights that will add huge value to your business.
The key to finding either prize (the money-bags investor or the songs for sale) is to build your network, particularly among music lawyers. The attorneys are the ones on the front lines of daily deal-making, and all information flows through them: who’s buying, who’s selling, who’s looking to get into the business and who’s desperate to get out. The more solid and extensive your lines of communication with the music legal community are, the better your chances of meeting a potential buyer, or hearing about an upcoming sale.
4. Sometimes it’s good to be the little guy. Look for writers who want personal attention and service with a smile.
Having been through several purchases and mergers myself, the one thing I can guarantee is that this summer and fall, chaos will reign. Companies who have made big purchases will be faced with the prospect of trying to absorb thousands of new copyrights into their already overwhelmed systems. Employees will be consumed with trying to figure out who their new boss is, and how long he, she or they will be around. And songwriters, faced with the absence of the A&R person that signed them, will be completely lost in the shuffle and be searching wildly for any way out.
If you can offer a well-organized, aggressive, small publishing operation with an emphasis on personal attention, you may be a very attractive option, even to writers with big hits on their discography. In fact, the big writers may be the ones most interested in working with you, as they have less need for a big advance upon signing. Despite what many in the corporate world think, most songwriters are not impressed by big offices or the size of a company. They’re looking for people who understand their music, are as ambitious and driven as they are, and who pick up the phone when they call. That’s going to be hard for them to find as all of these mergers start to overwhelm the companies involved. Don’t underestimate the power of the personal touch.
The real truth about music publishing is that bigger is better only when the company is up for sale– on a day to day level, most songwriters are far happier at a small or mid-size publisher that can focus on them and their music, rather than on the logistical challenge of administering thousands, or hundreds of thousands of copyrights. In truth, most creative executives are happier in a smaller environment as well. And in a rapidly-changing industry in which lean and mean is a necessity, and speed and adaptability are survival skills, many of the light-weights will fare better than the heavy-weights. It’s going to be a busy spring and summer in the music publishing world. My advice is: keep one eye on the action, and the other on the prize. When everyone is cleaning house, they’re bound to leave some good stuff behind…
One of the things I learned about Germans while in Berlin is that they love their hardware. While two of the most important music software companies on the planet, Ableton and Native Instruments, make their home in Berlin, just about everyone I met on my trip there earlier this year had at least one piece of gear that was a source of great pride. Laptop jams came into vogue around 2000 when seeing someone on stage with one was a novelty, so at this point, performing with software is taken for granted. So what gets an audience’s attention these days? Cool hardware, and not just a couple of hot-rodded speak and spells, but lots of it, piles of it.
Groupshow is a Berlin-based electronic performance collective trio that is known for extended improvisations using tables full of vintage electronic gadgets and gizmos. For CTM 2010, Groupshow put on an extended performance accompanying Andy Warhol’s film Empire. Or perhaps the film accompanied Groupshow since Empire is eight hours long and consists of a single shot of New York’s Empire State building made from 6 hours and 36 minutes of 24 fps footage slowed down to play at 16 fps. Both the film and Groupshow’s extended performance consider the issue of art as process, and as such, it was an ideal event to drop in on, not necessarily to sit through. That said, the members of Groupshow were able to coax a lot of interesting sound from their collection, and the result was something that just couldn’t possibly come from software.
Hi everyone, I hope you are enjoying the exploration!
In previous posts I’ve presented a couple of different techniques for putting together an ordered 12-pitch series of notes (also known as a “row”), using your name or any other group of letters that are important to you. I also presented a technique to restrict the notes you compose with to a scale of your choice (Diatonic Restriction). This resulted in composing with seven notes and putting the other five aside.
Now lets go further and include the other five notes as well as the previously restricted seven notes. The pdf below describes the technique. If you are new to this blog you might want to go back and work through the previous two posts first.
One point of confusion I see in a lot of student scores is a confusion between slurs and ties.
They look very similar. They are both curved lines connecting 2 or more notes. However, they have very different functions. Ties are used to connect two notes of the same pitch, essentially turning them into one note. Slurs are used to connect two notes of different pitches, ensuring a legato performance.
Below is an example of a tie.
This is essentially a single note that lasts four beats.
By contrast, a slur connects two notes of different pitches. Below is an example.
A slur results in a connected performance of two different notes. In the case of woodwinds and brass, they would not tongue the second note connected with a slur. In this case, the C would not be tongued. In the case of strings, they will not change bow direction in the middle of a slur, so the F and C above would be played with the same bow direction.
Notably, a single slur can be used to connect multiple notes. Below is an example.
In this case, brass and woodwind players would tongue the initial “F” but not the subsequent E-D-C. Strings players would initiate the F and play E-D-C without changing bow direction.
Multiple notes can be combined with multiple ties. Below is an example.
In the case above, the ties create what is essentially a single note that lasts seven beats.
Probably the most common mistake is to attempt to connect notes of different pitches using a tie. Two examples are below.
In both of these cases, slurs should be used to create a connected performance.
Been a while since I’ve written here because I’ve been feverishly trying to get this new online course out to you. Its called Pro Tools: Virtual Instruments and Effects. The course starts on Monday, April 5, 2010. Here’s a video and some information about it:
An industry standard for years, Pro Tools expanded its scope and functionality with the release of Pro Tools 8, which contains six new powerful virtual instruments and twenty new great-sounding effects. In this course, you will learn how to play these new instruments to improve your overall musical productions, whether for TV, film, commercials, Web sites, video games, or the productions of artists you may be working with. You will learn what each parameter in each instrument and effect can do, how they work in concert with each other, how to design sounds based on those parameters, how to be more creative with the effects and instruments in Pro Tools, and how to improve the overall sound of your musical productions.
The first six weeks of the course cover each of the six new virtual instruments in Pro Tools: Boom, Vacuum, DB-33, XPand! 2, Structure Free, and Mini Grand. The second six weeks focus on how to use effects plug-ins by category: EQ & Filters, Dynamics Processing, Delay & Modulation, Reverb, Harmonic/Distortion Effects, and finally Pitch Shift, Time Shift, Stereo Width Phase Scope, and Dither. You will learn about the parameters that control each virtual instrument and effect and be given tasks that put your new knowledge to practical use. You will work on weekly projects that build to create several larger projects and, by the end of the course, you will have created several pieces of music using the virtual instruments and effects in Pro Tools.
You will also learn important background information about each instrument and effect, and listen to examples of how they are properly used. The course features a wide array of artist examples, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Fiona Apple, Stevie Wonder, Edgar Winter, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, Talking Heads, Prince, Justin Timberlake, The Beastie Boys, Human League, Chicago, Harold Faltermeyer, Tangerine Dream, Tears for Fears, Jimmy Smith, Deep Purple, Bob Marley, The Meters, Joey DeFrancesco, Spencer Davis Group, Radiohead, Elton John, Coldplay, Thelonius Monk, Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Glenn Gould, Maurice Ravel, Rachmaninov, and George Gershwin.
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
* utilize automation and MIDI Learn functions
* create, edit, and arrange drum beats in Boom
* adjust VTOs, Filters, Envelopes, Modulation, and Arpeggiators to create new sounds using Vacuum
* tweak the Tonewheels, Vibrato, Drawbars, and Cabinet to create new organ sounds in DB-33
* use the Smart Knobs to modify all the synthesizer parameters to edit sounds in Xpand!2
* use Structure Free to load, play, and edit sample-based instruments
* choose and fine tune a piano sound by changing the Model, Dynamic Response, Tuning, and Room sound in Mini Grand
* use EQ plug-ins for improved and more creative mixing
* utilize compressors, limiters, de-essers, gates, expanders, and side chains for many mixing applications
* make use of delay, modulation, and “spreader” plug-ins for more creative mixing
* adjust the parameters on a reverb effect to create an appropriate ambiance for a track
* set up an effects loop and add effects to other effects
* use distortion and harmonic effects to your advantage while mixing
* apply Pitch Shift and Time Shift to alter the pitch and length of audio regions
* utilize Stereo Width, Phase Scope, and Dither to put the finishing touches on a mix
As a musician in the 21st century, you need to learn how to define your expectations. Otherwise, how will you know when you have achieved your goal, or even what to aim for? For a project, for a tour, for…
Producer, engineer, musician, and expert Pro Tools user Dave Franz takes you inside his new studio, Underground Sun in Venice, CA—and inside his new Berkleemusic online course, Pro Tools: Virtual Instruments and Effects.
The course focuses on creating music with all of the new A.I.R. instruments and effects in Pro Tools 8, including the six free instruments and 20 new effects.
“The first six weeks of the course are devoted to covering one instrument per week (Boom, Vacuum, DB-33, Xpand!2, Structure Free, and Mini Grand) where we’ll go through what every single control on each instrument does and use them to create our own sounds and music,” says Franz.
“In the following six weeks, we’ll concentrate on the variety of new A.I.R. effects that are included with Pro Tools 8, with lessons on EQ, Dynamics (compression, etc), Delay & Modulation, Reverb, Harmonic/Distortion, and all more.”
The course begins on April 5, 2010 and is now enrolling. Learn more at Berkleemusic.com.
This post I am going to spotlight a very cool pedal that I recently acquired: the Jetter Gear Vibe. We cover the vibe effect in my online course, Funk/Rock and R&B Guitar Soloing, and I give a little video demo of my larger pedal board components for the on-line students.
Some consider the original uni-vibe the “best.” Of course, finding the “best” vibe pedal if you don’t have the big bucks needed to get an original can be a challenge. But I have found that you don’t have to compromise your need for good tone just because you are budgeting for meals in addition to pedals… and “best” is a term that is purely subjective when dealing with effect pedals. Beyond a certain quality of manufacturing, “different” might be a more appropriate word.
Every vibe I have tried seems to have a fundamentally different character. Of course, the combination of many other variables can add worlds of other possibilites… the pickups on your guitar, placement in the effects chain, the amp, the speakers, the patch chords, the list goes on and on.
I tried testing the Jetter Gear Vibe through a number of configurations and I loved it through everything. This pedal is, without a doubt, the smallest true four-stage light driven ciruit. This pedal fits in the palm of you hand! It is SMALLER than a phase 90!
Features a solid, sturdy construction, beautiful artwork, and will even run on a 9v battery for about an hour if you need it to in a pinch. The two knobs control rate and intensity/depth. Although I wish it had a volume control to compensate for the apparent reduction in signal that happens with most pedals that deliver chorus-like effects, I was able to dial in unity gain sounds that made me very very happy; especially when compared to larger vibe pedals and when considering the small amount of pedal board real estate that that the Jetter Vibe demands. Tones from fat and lush to subtle and warm were within a few small tweak between the two knobs. I found the depth-intensity to be quite sensitive and the range ran the gamut from a subtle chorus to full on intense vibe throb.
The Jetter Gear Vibe retails for around $229 and I think it is worth every penny. I have recently outfitted a small pedalboard with a number of high quality smaller pedals for gigs where I don’t have much time to set much up. It is actually a big relief to travel with a small pedalboard that gets me some of the big sounds I need without the back-ache. The convenience of the Jetter Vibe with the powerful tone it gives is unmatched!
As I get older, (in addition to good tone) portability and ease of use weighs in high on the criteria for a pedal making it to my pedalboard and the Jetter Vibe wins on ALL fronts!
Here are some of the product highlights from the website:
THE JETTER GEAR VIBE
True four-stage classic light driven circuit. Each stage is electrically matched.
Each unit individually calibrated for consistent performance.
Modern circuit interpretation that retains the critical aspects of the classic vibe.
High input impedance — it will not load down your guitar signal.
Unity gain output — no fooling around with a volume control.
Custom voicing circuit provides a sweet, liquid tone.
The smallest four-stage vibe that is pedalboard friendly.
True Bypass
Operates on any high quality 9V power supply such as the Boss PSA-120, Voodoo Lab Pedal Power, or the Visual Sound 1-Spot.
It will work with a 9V battery (not included) for up to one hour — it can get you through a set in a pinch.
Custom, USA, made steel enclosure with fully welded seams.
Hand built in the USA with the highest quality components—no SMD technology!
Pulsing status LED that indicates Intensity as well as Rate.
Don’t you think it is interesting that most vibe demos sooner or later, play a lick or song from Band of Gypsies? The Gold Standard!!!
I always sequence my drum beats in real-time, using a MIDI controller, such as my keyboard or drum pads. But, I understand that not everybody feels confident enough to knock out their beats in this manner. And, if you don’t feel confident about playing a drum beat it makes perfect sense to gravitate towards a drum pattern sequencer (such as the one found on Redrum). Feeling out drum beats using step keys, as the pattern loops over and over, is a great way to get your feet wet. Plus, there’s definitely something positive to be said about the pattern sequencer “feel” and what it can add to dance, hop-hop, and other styles of electronic influenced music.
That said, I’m here to tell you that there’s a better way to pattern sequence. Using your DAW program’s snap to grid mode, Pencil Tool, and MIDI editing tools you can knock out superior sounding pattern sequences and arrange your patterns into a song in a fraction of the time that it would take you to automate all of your patterns using a traditional pattern sequencer. Students often ask me how to program beats in their DAW, and this is the secret. So, drop your virtual drum instrument’s built-in pattern sequencer and start using your DAW program’s Pencil Tool and snap to grid function instead. If you’re going to program beats, and you’re already using a pro DAW (such as Pro Tools, Digital Performer, Record, and Logic), this is a great way to drop your beats. Have fun!
Oops, I hit the maximum allotted time for a video on YouTube. Here’s the second half.
PS — Remember, if you double click on these videos you can watch them in HD on the YouTube site.
I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Hypebot’s Kyle Bylin (@kbylin) about online music marketing and my Berkleemusic Topspin online course. The interview originally ran on Hypebot in two parts, both of which are below.
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Kyle Bylin: Over the course of the last ten weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of taking Online Music Marketing with Topspin through Berkleemusic with Mike King (@atomzooey) as my instructor. Though, to be sure, I’m likely to a biased opinion of the course — for some reasons I can account for and others that I’m not as obvious to – I have to honestly say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the class and have thus far gained deeper understanding of online music marketing. Being that much of my work consists of exploring the more ‘theoretical constructs’ of the music industries, it has been great to gain actionable insights into the landscape before us.
I have had nothing but a positive experience with the online course, and although I do encourage you to take my perspective with as many grains of salt as you’d like, in my humble opinion Berkleemusic and Topspin have come together, synthesized a wealth of information, and made it accessible to people across various backgrounds, goals, and experience, which is no easy task. That said I do believe that the course achieves this very difficult task of both communicating this knowledge and making it so that it’s relevant and actionable to musicians, business people, and even minor media theorists like myself.
Since the semester is winding down and starting up again on April 5, and no doubt many you probably have questions regarding the course and about Topspin in general, it felt appropriate to speak with Mike King and open up the dialog on this subject. If anyone has more specific questions about the course for Mike or myself, please post them in the comments, and we’ll both do our best to respond. In the meantime though, do enjoy this interview with Mike (after the jump), and I hope, like I anticipate — that it’s of great interest to you.
For those of you who may not be familiar, Mike (@atomzooey) is Associate Director of Marketing at Berkleemusic, Berklee College of Music’s online school and author of Music Marketing: Press, Promotion, Distribution, and Retail, which you can get a free chapter of here.
Mike, one of the things we talked quite a bit about is ‘the curse of knowledge,’ which is, as brothers Chip and Dan Heath of Made to Stick have explained it, what happens when we know something, and it becomes hard for us to imagine not knowing it. In co-authoring a course like this one, how does ‘the curse of knowledge’ come into play, why is it so easy to take for granted what we know, and how did you overcome it, without oversimplifying the course material?
Mike King: That’s a good question. I’ve been working at Berkleemusic for seven years and teaching here for the past three, and it’s been really interesting to see the change in perspective from students. Early on, I’d see a certain percentage of students that were more focused on the old business model, like how to get on commercial radio, what do they have to do to get a record deal, how do they get coverage in Rolling Stone, and so on. I do think it’s based on what folks have grown up with and what they know. Back in the day, there were limited options for visibility; it was primarily TV or radio, and the record label was the necessary vehicle for getting this visibility. In a way, from an outside perspective, I can see that it is somewhat comforting to break up music marketing in these easy to understand segments, but the reality is that the options that worked for years—such as retail visibility via a co-op campaign, a national radio campaign, and print advertising—are not really viable options for most artists.
Over the past year or so, I have seen fewer and fewer students coming into the online classes focused on moving their career forward via those old school methods. There are folks out there— like Ian Rogers, Dave Allen, Jed Carlson, Mike Masnick, Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Hugh McLeod, Dave Kusek, Patrick Faucher, Bruce Houghton, and yourself—driving home the fact that there are new and alternative ways to advance your career, which has really helped to enlighten a large subset of artists.
In terms of the Topspin course, I start off by presenting a sort of a “state of the union” of the record / music industry and let the facts speak on their own. For example, the top seven physical chain retailers accounted for 44% of music sales in 2008, and the fact is it’s getting harder and harder for the labels to work with these outlets. Last year, Circuit City—which was the 9th largest music retailer in 2008—ceased operations and Virgin Megastore began closing all of their U.S. stores. Borders (the 6th largest retailer of music) has cut back in-store floor space by 30% to 7% of total floor space. Transworld has been hemorrhaging money, too. Similar changes have occurred throughout other segments of the traditional music industry, too.
I don’t assume too much in terms of what folks know or what they don’t. I’m more interested in talking about facts and data, and presenting a toolset that musicians and managers can use to acquire more fans, create an optimized Website with an effective offer page, determine what the proper offerings should be for your specific tribe, and create an overall online sales and marketing plan that works for a student’s particular situation.
Out of ignorance, or maybe just plain excitement, some people in the marketing advice business tend to write off traditional institutions, in favor of the shiny new things that the Internet has come to offer, whereas you’ve taken a stand — even written a book I hear — empathizing the importance of the roles that they still play. Why is it crucial to have a dynamic marketing mix, on- and offline, and how does a platform like Topspin play into this equation?
Mike King: I think you have to engage in all marketing activities that apply to you. I have students that are at completely different stages in their careers, students that are focused on completely different genres, and students that are touring consistently and those who are not. It’s not right to tell someone to focus exclusively on digital if that person is selling CDs consistently on the road or if that person is creating music for a genre or psychographic that still wants CDs. For example, I’ve been working with a fantastic children’s music band called Debbie and Friends, and once you look at the demographic and psychographic of her fans (and the parents of those fans!), you can see why some traditional options — like the creation of CDs — make sense for her.
Certainly touring and a solid merch plan, both traditional marketing initiatives, make sense to engage in. And there are still examples of developing bands that have emerged from indie physical retail. Physical retail and distribution are much more convoluted than online retail and distribution from a process standpoint, primarily due to co-op and the returns process. But again, I think that retail still makes sense for a subset of artists at a certain stage of their career. Of course distribution follows marketing and it does not make sense to look for a distribution deal prior to demand for your product, but if there is demand and you are not fulfilling it, I think you are leaving money on the table.
I think it comes down to the fact that the Internet has provided much more choice and an opportunity for musicians to participate in the process where in the past they might have been left out. But I don’t think it’s a best practice to completely omit physical marketing from your overall campaign strategy if you are at the right stage in your career for it, or if your psychographic dictates that you engage with them in that way.
In terms of Topspin, I think the major benefit of the software in terms of creating a dynamic mix of online and offline strategies is multifaceted. First, there’s rich data pulled in from a number of sources right into the platform. You can see in real time what folks are saying about you on blogs and on Twitter, and engage with these folks immediately. You can see spikes in activity on Last.fm, Facebook, and MySpace, and use that information in whatever way you want to help focus and direct your campaign. You can also see how your fanbase is interacting with your content, both in terms of sales from your site, as well as with any widgets that you have released in the wild. From a physical standpoint, I think the data that you gather from Topspin can help you to more effectively nurture the artist/fan relationship, too. For example, you can sort your list of fans in any number of different ways, including by geography or by rank in terms of sales. So as an example, if my band is touring in San Francisco, I can sort my fans by those that live in the area, and then cut that list into those that have purchased from me in the past. I could then provide these super fans with free tickets to the show, or any other value-add to help nurture the relationship. Also, because all of the Topspin widgets are trackable, you can also set up content sharing contests, and reward your core influencers with something of value, or encourage them to take their online support offline per market. It’s a really robust and customizable tool, and Topspin supports creativity with its use.
More importantly, what segments of an artist’s marketing strategy doesn’t Topspin replace? And, why do you think it’s important to clarify that Topspin isn’t — at least not anytime soon — the music marketing equivalent of the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie Oven, you don’t just “Set it, and forget it!!” There will be countless hours (still) spent thinking, planning, testing, succeeding, failing, and trying the process all over again — with the exception that, for the most part, your efforts will be contained under one umbrella — that’s driven by data.
Mike King: I think Topspin is not a cure-all for the industry, nor is it the only tool that you should be using to put together an effective marketing campaign. There is no doubt in my mind that it is a great tool, and will benefit artists tremendously. But I think anyone who claims that they you can use their service to “set it and forget it,” as you say, is being disingenuous. There are truly so many variables and outlets that you need to think about and keep track of when you pull off your marketing campaign. For example, one thing that Topspin doesn’t do is distribute to third party online retail outlets like iTunes. Certainly the best practice for artists is to direct fans to their own site where they can provide tiered product offerings that are specifically geared to their fanbase, but the fact is that many fans are set in their ways and will continue to only look for you on iTunes or wherever else they routinely shop for music. I interviewed Derek Sivers for my book awhile back, and he had a really succinct thought on this topic: “There are millions of people who get all of their music from Rhapsody. If they search for you on Rhapsody, and you’re not there, they’ll forget you and move on. Same with eMusic. Same with iTunes. Same with Napster, etc. So make sure you’re available on all of these services. You are not hurting your iTunes sales by being on Rhapsody; you are only adding to your income.” I think this is accurate, and extends to direct-to-fan sales as well. While an artist’s sales margin can certainly be greater when selling direct to fan, the volume of sales an artist can see from established third-party outlets can outpace DTF sales, particularly for established artists. I would not recommend directing folks to a third party retailer from your site, but at the same point, you’d likely be losing sales if you do not have your music available on third party retail sites.
You also mention data in your question. Topspin is tremendous with data and analytics, but it’s not the only tool you should be using, in my opinion. Google Analytics is a fantastic tool for musicians (and Topspin integrates with it well). I also think Duncan Freeman is doing some really interesting things with Band Metrics, and there are dozens of other tools out there that help with analyzing other verticals like Twitter. I think that Topspin is a fantastic tool, but not the only tool you should consider.
Now, to maintain a certain degree of objectivity here and, at the same time, address an issue that’s sure to be brought up in the comments, I have to talk about the price tag on the course. It’s rather expensive. Blah, Blah, musicians don’t have that much money. But, to frame this differently, as put forth by Randy Pausch in The Last Lecture, “Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something.” Why do you think there are there brick walls, like this and others, surrounding Topspin Media? What purpose do they serve? Are they there for a reason?
Mike King: I really think the course can be considered an investment in your future. I don’t see it as all that different than an artist investing in a new guitar or amp to improve their sound, or investing in Pro Tools to produce their music themselves. Along with super-serving your existing fanbase, a big part of direct-to-fan marketing is to use certain tools and techniques to acquire new fans that you can continue to communicate with for years to come. I don’t think it is unrealistic to think that the course is an expense that musicians can recoup down the line.
The course is three months long, and over that period we’re doing a dozen hour-long chats covering all aspects of online marketing in near real time, on top of the extensive written content and multimedia content. To be honest, the course would make a 250 page book if I was to print it all out, and it took about a year to write. The course was written by myself and Shamal, with input from multiple people at Topspin, including Ian, Gary Brotman (who runs the artist services side of Topspin), Adam Bates (who is the Director of Marketing and R&D), and many others. Also, I’m inviting many of the Topspin folks to our weekly video/audio chats, so you have the opportunity to interact on a one-on-one basis with them (and me) directly. I’ve also got a ton of media throughout the course, including exclusive videos with Ian, Adam, Peter Brambl, and Shamal covering general best marketing practices as well as presenting an in-depth view of everything you need to know about the software.
Plus, I’ve also got some top-notch instructors teaching the course, like Jason Feinberg, Jason Kadlec, and Jeff Straw, who are all living online music marketing and Topspin everyday. They are incredible resources. Lastly, there is no other course out there that teaches this stuff. I feel really proud of the content that we’ve created, and I legitimately feel it’s beneficial for all artists/managers that want to understand Topspin in-depth, and gain a professional level understanding of online marketing. In terms of the criteria that Topspin has set up for artists to use their software directly, I’m probably not the best person to ask. It’s public knowledge that Topspin’s business plan is fundamentally different than other services, which charge artists a fee, no matter how many sales they generate using their software. Topspin only makes money when the artist does.
From what I understand, part of the reason for the brick walls surrounding Topspin Media is to ensure that “best practices” are being used. For the most part, because of how radically they are intertwined with the degree of success that one might hope for when using the service. It’s sort of a “preventative measure.” To ‘prevent’ people who don’t know ‘best practices’ from using the service, from not getting the results they were expecting, and from getting upset with the service because it didn’t work like they thought it would. Why are best practices so important? How have you integrated them into the course material? And, why do they have such an impact on results?
Mike King: Certainly with any service—be it ReverbNation, Topspin, Nimbit, Bandcamp, or any others—it’s in everyone’s best interest that folks are properly trained on using the software, as well as properly trained on overall best marketing practices. You don’t want folks out there unhappy with the service when, in reality, it was a lack of understanding of marketing principles and best practices that is the core reason they are not seeing growth in their acquisition or sales numbers. All these services are just tools, basically, and like any tool, if you are not using it properly your results will not be fantastic. The course is filled with best practices, from proper optimization techniques to help with search visibility (which along with direct traffic is usually one of the highest converting areas), to ways you can help identify your psychographic, best practices with third party social media outlets and other acquisition focused techniques. We also go in-depth on forecasting models designed to help you estimate how much income you might see from your digital touch points.
As a side note, there are real numbers and strategies presented in this course from several artists that have been kind enough to provide a look under the hood of their campaign. So when we talk about best practices with landing pages and offer pages, or when we talk about the importance of upselling, we can see exactly what other bands have done, and what the results were. I think it’s very helpful to take this information out of the theoretical and bring it all into real life, which we do in most all of the lessons throughout the course. Overall, I think the course helps to provide a road map for best practices in one of the only growth areas in marketing, and in terms of results, because Topspin has been so open with sharing their data, you can see exactly what happens when best practices are not followed, too.
This, of course, brings up another important question… How would an artist or their manager for that matter, know if they are at the point in their career where an investment like this is justifiable. When you have conversations like this, as I imagine you have—countless times—what do you tell people? How do you go about determining if they would benefit from TopSpin Media, and whether or not they are capable of taking things to the next level?
Mike King: On the core level, I think you shouldn’t be marketing yourself unless there is a demand for what you do. This also goes back to your question on integrating physical and digital marketing. Let’s look at live events as an example. If you are playing in your local area, and you are not gaining traction, folks are not blown away by your show, there is little momentum with the fans, and your permission-based sign up list is not growing, then it probably makes sense to hit the woodshed and work on your music first. Topspin will not make your music good, and without amazing music and a killer live show, it does not make sense to spend the money on a marketing campaign. There are millions of bands out there, and your your music has to connect with folks in a way that 99% of the music out there does not. Once you start generating a real following, have demand for your product, and you can effectively identify your psychographic—this is when you should start marketing yourself. So I think you have to look at what is happening with your music and the response to it. Start small with your marketing efforts and, as you grow, think how a tool like Topspin or others can help amplify your existing efforts. Marketing tools are good at amplifying your efforts, but you have to have something there to work with first.
To sort of cap this off, what has your experience been like teaching a course like this for the first time? What are some of the biggest challenges you had to overcome—beyond “the curse of knowledge”—in writing this course? And, now that you and the other teachers have seen students interact with and learn the material, what are some of the realizations you’ve had, in trying to make your insights are as actionable as possible for everyone in the course?
Mike King: Writing and teaching this course has been deeply fulfilling for me. I was just at SXSW and met up with some of my students down there, including LJ Scott, Anthony Erickson from a band called Fulton Reed, and Susie Codd. We’re in week eleven in the course, and these folks are putting the best practices to use right now, and it’s just amazing to see the stuff we have been talking about for three months being implemented in a way that positively effects these musicians. I think all of us are looking for the way forward in the new music business landscape, and I feel grateful to present real information to artists, based on data and real world examples, that actually helps musicians to navigate their careers in a positive way.
In terms of challenges, some of this stuff is not easy to grasp the first time through. I’ve created flash animations, use videos, and have some audio in the course to help explain some of the more difficult concepts we discuss, such as the product pricing and forecasting documents that we go through. It was also challenging to present everything in a way that folks who are less familiar with the concepts could easily understand it, while also presenting the material in a dynamic way for students who are more advanced. Also, Topspin is developing new initiatives so quickly, that it has been challenging to keep up with them! The great part about the online course is that I can update this information on the fly—it is a living, breathing entity that I can adjust as necessary as new features are released by Topspin, as new third party entities are unveiled, and as some of the best practices that exist today change tomorrow. It’s definitely been interesting to see how the students have interacted with the material that we have written, and I’m sure we’ll make some adjustments based on the feedback.
The CTM and Transmediale festivals I attended earlier this year each had a different focus, however the clear connection was in how each explored relationships between sound and vision. Pattern Recognition was a concert performance sponsored by both festivals that featured two works. Materia Obscura by Jürgen Reble & Thomas Köner clearly focused on visual imagery while Test Pattern by Ryoji Ikeda was a stunning, immersive experience exploring sound mapped to visuals. Ikeda is primarily known as electronic sound artist, although his performances are always constructed around some sort of visualization of the sound elements he’s working with. His work examines the relationships found in data structures, and he uses patterns found in various types of computer data to generate both sound and image. From this, he has created a body of work that includes both performance and installation pieces. Transmediale 2010 included both with data.tron (3 SXGA+version) as an installation along with his Test Pattern performance.
Ryoji Ikeda
Ikeda’s work extends from the idea that data itself, the actual patterns of ones and zeros, can be perceived as sound and visual elements in an artistic presentation. When asked about his influences in a 2008 Japan Times interview, Ikeda lists not musicians or visual artists, but mathematicians, and in examining raw data, he uses mathematical relationships to create form and structure. His conversations with Harvard mathematician Benedict Gross have led to the data.tron series of installations that include (3 SXGA+version) exhibited at Transmediale. In this large scale video projection that covers an entire wall of a gallery space, Ikeda creates a kind of 21st century pointillistic mural using raw data taken from complex predictive models scientist use to predict future events, to create a blizzard of numbers and geometrical shapes.
data.tron (3 SXGA+version) at Transmediale 2010
In Test Pattern, raw data is converted to bar codes, the kind found on just about everything you buy in a store, and mapped to a variety of noise sources, presumably generated from the same data. The bar code patterns are projected at a high rate on two sectors of a large screen. The synchronization here is very tight, and the visual patterns represent a kind of rhythmic visualization where placement and width of the bars represent attack and duration patterns in the sound. In performance, Ikeda plays with relationships between left and right stereo channels and the patterns appearing on the screen sectors. Part of what the audience experiences is a kind of manipulation of perceptual coordination. This can be jarring for some, and indeed there is a warning before the performance that those with epileptic tendencies might want to excuse themselves.
Test Pattern (live) at Transmediale 2010
So what does all this actually sound like? One of the points in Ikeda’s work is that data has a structure that can be assembled into recognizable patterns. These in turn, can be interpreted as rhythmic structures, so what we hear from this are clearly recognizable patterns that might sound like they’re coming from a drum machine on steroids. Nothing sounds random, and bursts of pure noise, clicks, and beeps punctuate these patterns, giving them a kind of musical form and structure. It’s hard to say whether this is the result of algorithmic processes or of painstaking orchestration through digital editing. While Ikeda is on stage for the performance, it’s not clear what he might be doing to effect the piece in realtime. While we’re used to seeing a clear correspondence between gesture and sound in a musical performance, perhaps one can think of the performer more as the captain of some sort of multimedia mothership in this type of work.
While "glitch" has become a recent buzz word for all sorts of music that incorporates noise, the work Ryoji Ikeda is doing here has a deep connection to a larger artistic vision, and in that sense, it transcends the whole idea of a popular style or genre.
If you’ve ever felt grateful for the list of titles and track lengths that appear when you pop a CD into your player, David Hyman’s Gracenote is the company to thank. It enters all that data so you don’t have…
Hello all, one of my students was asking about using white noise and filter sweeps to create dramatic transitions. I started experimenting with the idea and had a ball playing with the possibilities and exploring sound. So, here is how I responded:
Hey guys, the white noise sweep is a cool effect, here is my version. I have attached the screenshot and the preset, you can drop it into a MIDI track and hold down any note to hear the sweep.
The noise generator is Operator, I have the first two oscillators set to create noise.
Noise Operator
Then the filter in Operator is used to create the sweep, It is a band pass filter and its envelop is controlling the cutoff frequency of the filter. You may want to adjust the Attack parameter of the filter envelope to control how fast the filter moves to the top, Resonance will change how obvious the filter is, and you may want to play with the Shaper and Drive amount, very cool.
Filter section of Operator
After the operator is a Frequency Shifter that adds a nice movement to the noise, notice the settings, I am using a tiny amount of shift, I find that is the best way to use the effect(it adds a nice modulating phasey quality, any more and it turns into a crazy Dr. Who effect), and Dry/Wet is set below 50%.
Frequency Shifter and delay
Next is a delay to add some lingering motion to help glue the sections and an EQ to tame the high end and boost the bass.
Drop it into a MIDI track and hit a key on your keyboard to hear it in action.
Enjoy, and thanks for the challenge I enjoyed building the patch, and I will probably use it in my future productions. Feel free to use it yourself, and explore explore explore!
Loudon
Watch a short video with our Student Advisors discussing Berkleemusic’s Certificate Programs. These multi-course online programs provide students with:
Solid qualifications and marketable skills for success
1-3 years of extensive training with Berklee faculty
It’s a new era for the music business. The music industry is rapidly changing, the traditional gatekeepers are evolving (or disappearing), and new distribution outlets, marketing techniques, and business models are popping up all the time. For those that are educated on these changes, there is more opportunity in the “new” music business than ever.
Berkleemusic’s Music Business Handbook collects some of the essential knowledge from our instructors in one easy-to-navigate guide. The music industry of the future will be driven by educated, focused, entrepreneurship-minded individuals, and this handbook will prove to be a starting point in your lifelong music business education.
Topics Include:
Past, Present, and Future of Music
Direct-to-Fan Marketing
Music Publishing
Music Licensing
Challenges of the Music Industry
Music Royalties
Contributors Include:
Dave Kusek
Vice President at Berklee College of Music. Co-author of the book The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution. Kusek is also the founder of musicpowernetwork.com
Mike King
Author of Online Music Marketing with Topspin; Music Marketing: Press, Promotion, Distribution, and Retail; and Online Music Marketing: Campaign Strategies, Social Media, and Digital Distribution.
Eric Beall
Former Vice President, Creative at Sony/ATV Music and current A&R executive for Shapiro Bernstein. Author/instructor of Music Publishing 101.
It’s a new era for the music business. The music industry is rapidly changing, the traditional gatekeepers are evolving (or disappearing), and new distribution outlets, marketing techniques, and business models are popping up all the time. For those that are…
It occurred to me as I walked the same quarter mile circuit along Sixth Street for the three hundredth time in three days that the primary benefit of SXSW for A&R people is not the opportunity to hear hundreds of up and coming bands in a single four day span. The primary benefit of SXSW for the music weasel is exercise. Instead of sitting around an office all day, the middle-aged weasel is forced to actually walk from place to place, thus ensuring more aerobic activity than most of us have seen in months. Many also seemed to be working on their arm muscles as well, with lots of pouring and heavy glass-lifting to build those biceps.
During Austin’s giant music-fest, it also occurred to me that the only thing sustaining the music industry at the moment has nothing to do with music. The only people at SXSW that brought their checkbooks and actually had money in their accounts were the media and branding companies. Record label A&R were there of course– after all, there were parties with free food– but there were far fewer than in years past, with whole major label teams missing in action. Music publishers were there too, hoping to meet people in the advertising business. Of course, the music supervision crew was in full effect, but unlike the good old days of two years ago, they were no longer the coolest kids in the room. Given the falling revenue at most broadcast companies and the ridiculous glut of music that is chasing the same gratis spot on The Hills, synchronization licensing fees have dropped to the point where even indie bands desperate for a break have realized that there is no pot of gold at the end of the Hollywood rainbow.
The only people left with any juice at SXSW are the magazines, the websites, clothing brands, car companies, or beer companies. Like it or not, music’s greatest value at the moment is as a marketing or branding tool for companies eager to target a very specific, target audience. Musicians of course are eager to embrace what they see as crucial avenues of exposure– meanwhile, the brands view music as simply one more way to attract the all-important but ever-elusive, A.D.D.-addled college and post-college demographic. The music industry may think they’re using the media. But it’s clear from the amount of music being used by the media, advertising and branding businesses, compared to the amount of music actually being sold, that it’s the media, advertising and branding people using us.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just that once more, the music industry finds itself a pawn in a game that it doesn’t control, a plight that seems to be the underlying theme of music business history. First it was radio– since the Fifties, the record industry has found itself on bended knee, pleading (or paying) for any favors that the gatekeepers of radio might dole out. Then it was television, with MTV able to extract free 24-hour programming courtesy of the record labels. Make a half a million dollar video, give it to MTV for free, then hope they choose to play that video from among the other fifty half a million dollar videos they received that week. Wow, what a business model.
Of course, the previous decade brought us a new power player in Apple, and once again, the record industry was left at the mercy of a different business, which sees music largely as a means of selling electronic equipment. And now, with the loss of album sales draining any profitability from the business of selling music to the consumer, there’s a new power alignment emerging– and once again, the music industry finds itself a supporting actor in someone else’s play.
Why couldn’t music companies have created Sirius Radio or iTunes? Why could a music company not have diversified into the advertising business? How did Sony, which is an electronics company as well as a record company, manage to get beaten so badly with the iPod? Why do music companies not own music magazines or music websites? Even when someone tries to create some synergies with moves like the Time-Warner-AOL merger, they manage to let the politics of the various businesses impede all attempts to make the companies work together. Only a handful of organizations, Disney being the most obvious example, actually seem to have understood that controlling the means by which the music reaches the audience (the Disney Channel, Disney Radio, Disney Girl magazine, even Disneyland) or the merchandise related to the music is far more valuable than simply finding and developing artists and leaving the rest to someone else.
Just as musicians often seem to have a blindspot when it comes to realizing that there’s more to music than simply the technical level of musicianship, music business types seem to be unable to see that the power lies with those who understand how to use music to attract an audience (radio, television, internet companies and other brands) rather than those who simply discover and manufacture the music. As a result, the music weasels are left outside the Levi FADER Fort trying to talk their way past the doorman so that they can see their own band perform.
Of course, there’s not much we can do now to undo the mistakes of the past. So given this new world order, what can a savvy publisher or songwriter do to make sure that his or her music is a media magnet, that it’s brand-friendly and advertising-attractive? The one thing that even the most short-sighted weasel can see is where the money is– and ain’t in radio and records. Here are four things to keep in mind when you’re making music as a marketing tool:
1. Versatility is not an asset.
The only time versatility is valuable to a musician today is in a wedding band. The rest of the world is all about narrow-casting, about appealing to a specific, definable core audience and being immediately recognizable to that group of people. Take a look at the magazine stand– there are very few general interest magazines left. Most media companies, whatever their format, work hard to appeal to a very specific, specialized audience. That’s what gives their advertising space value. In the same way, when they consider an artist or a band, they don’t want someone that appeals a little to a lot of different types of people. They want someone that appeals a lot to a very specific group of people.
2. Know your audience.
This does not mean being acquainted with everyone that shows up at a gig or having a million MySpace or Facebook friends. It means understanding exactly who your audience is– demographically, emotionally, and financially. What is the age range of your audience? What do they do (school, work, retirement)? What are their hobbies? What movies do they see? What books do they read? What other music do they listen to?
If you can’t define your audience in that way, then a brand, advertising exec, or press person probably can’t either. That means they have no reason to think that you would help them sell jeans or makeup or alcohol or magazines (which of course also need to sell jeans and makeup and alcohol). Bands that work in the Marketing Age have easily identified audiences, which is sometimes more valuable even than the size of the audience, as measured by record sales or downloads.
For those who are songwriters, rather than artists, the point remains the same. If you wish to write for a specific artist, you need to have some idea as to the nature of the artist’s audience, and what that audience wants to hear about. A song will define the person that sings it to his or her audience, so you have to be sure that the song is presenting the artist to that audience in a way they will understand and appreciate. I’m not suggesting you write jingles. I’m urging you to do your homework, and know how the artist for whom you’re writing is trying to define himself or herself.
3. Understand music as fashion.
The branding, advertising and media worlds are not in music for the long haul. They’re not in anything for the long haul. The media business relies on constant change and ever-shifting sands, that’s what keeps it relevant and entertaining. Fashions will change every spring– they have to, because there are magazines and new clothing collections to sell. Likewise, your music, when it’s part of the media world, has to be up to the minute, reflective of the moment, and sonically on the cutting edge. And then it has to change as times do.
There’s no point in criticizing fashion for being “trendy”. That’s the nature of it. It would be like complaining that water is wet. Likewise, there’s nothing wrong with music that’s trendy. But to be effective in this new media world, you have to stay one step ahead of the trends, knowing which sounds are in vogue and which are getting worn out, what subjects are ripe for picking and which ones are past their sell date, and when it’s time to move on and re-invent your whole musical approach. The advertising, media and fashion worlds make the weasels back at the record company look like long-term thinkers by comparison. In this world everything is always changing, and fast. Which leads us to:
4. Seize the Moment.
A music manager was recently telling me about an incredible placement he had just obtained for his artist, which had the young artist featured prominently in a major national advertising campaign for a big consumer product. If this artist had already landed one such huge opportunity, he suggested, imagine how many other brand or advertising related calls were going to come his way, once people saw this campaign?
My first thought was: None. The problem in working with a brand is that it is “branding”– the brand is now identified with the artist, and the artist with the brand. The bigger the campaign, the more “branding” takes place. Once you have defined yourself to your audience, and closely identified yourself with a particular product, it becomes harder, not easier, for other brands to embrace you. Once you’re on the cover of Rolling Stone, you’re not going to get hyped in Brooklyn Vegan. Because advertising agencies or products are focused on using your music to define their brand, it will, by definition (pardon the pun), take you out of the running for many other related products, who don’t wish to share their definition with any other company. In this media/advertising world, you’ll only get a couple of big chances.
That means you have to make the opportunity work for you. If you know that you’re going to be working with a particular brand, or getting a key placement at an important media outlet, then you have to build an entire strategy around that, making sure that you are prepared to use that exposure to build your audience (and database), drive sales (which means making sure music is ready and available) and establish yourself as a key part of the brand’s identity (which means supporting the company in every and any way possible).
This is not like the old music business, where you could tour around without too much planning, and slowly build a fan at a time for as long as it took. These opportunities are windows that open and close rapidly. You have to have your social networking, music distribution, touring and marketing campaigns ready to capitalize on whatever opportunity you get, and be prepared to measure and document the results. You also have to fully embrace the brand, to make sure you hold onto the chance for as long as you can. If it means going to Phoenix to play for a room full of car salesman or softdrink manfacturers one day, then you better do it with a smile. Trust me, it will be far more useful than any conflicting gigs your record company might have put on the schedule.
This week, I’m in Miami trick! I’ll be at the Winter Music Conference and Ultra Fest on Thursday and Friday– give me a shout if you’re down there. Or I’ll see you at the Beatport Party, or the Belvedere Vodka/Sirius Radio Listening Lounge, or…. you get the idea. If you can’t beat ‘em, let ‘em throw you a party.
Last week host of Networking Musician Radio, David Vignola interviewed me about Music Power Network and the Future of Music. Here is the audio interview along with a link to David’s site. Great resource for indie artists.
Do you want to create a successful career in music? How you think about your future is critically important. Always be as positive as you possibly can be. Think about what success means to you and how you can get…
A couple of years ago, a family member gave me a book called You Will Make Money In Your Sleep. I think it was intended to encourage me to get more than four or five hours a night—a carry-over from my days as a musician and record-producer. That haggard, post-all-nighter look starts to get a little scary when you reach my age bracket. Unfortunately, the generous gift-giver apparently hadn’t given the text much of a look, as You Will Make Money in your Sleep turned out not to be a brilliant get-rich quick scheme or a story of the salutary effects of slumber, but rather an expose of “the financier to the stars”, Dana Ghiaccetto. Ghiacetto was a high-profile investment advisor in the Nineties, who managed to swindle people like Toby Maguire, Michael Ovitz and Phish with that tempting come-on line.
So I admit to a little trepidation when I found out that I would be a panelist at “Music Publishing– Making Money In Your Sleep” at South By Southwest this week:
Thankfully, I’m not providing any investment advice. Or at least, not exactly. Instead, we’ll be looking at ways to try to make your music work for you. That’s a good topic, especially for the singer-songwriters and indie bands that throng to SXSW each year.
As many of you have probably noticed, the downside to the grass-roots, indie approach to making it in the music business is that so much of the work requires the direct involvement of you, the artist and/or songwriter. In this new 21st century business model, you can only succeed by getting out and building your fanbase person by person, show by show, and that means a lot of hands-on work for the musicians. Now, not only do you have to gig continuously, with all the drive-time, set-up and tear-down effort that is an inevitable part of rock ‘n’ roll touring, you also have to book the gigs, sell your merch, coordinate your own publicity campaign in each town, and spend at least a couple of hours on your social networking site, making sure your fans feel connected. And don’t forget to Twitter while you’re at it.
Not only do you need something that will help make you money in your sleep– you need to find the time to sleep. Probably, you are not in the mood to hear that you now need to become a music publisher as well.
But you do. In fact, as I’ve said so many times, you already are a music publisher– you have been since you wrote your first song. You are not only the author and composer of your song, you’re also the music publisher. The problem is that most songwriters haven’t learned to be effective music publishers. Of course, that’s what my book, Making Music Make Money, is all about. My course, Music Publishing 101 at Berkleemusic, goes even further, and provides a week by week guide to setting up your own music publishing company.
Unfortunately, I can’t promise that having your own music publishing company comes without effort. You have to gather the knowledge you’ll need to be effective. You will need to set up the structure and systems necessary to operate the business, administer copyrights, and issue licenses. You’ll have to strategize about the opportunities that exist for your music, and then make the calls to get your music out there. Maybe you can find an intern or a colleague to help you with the day to day operation of the company. Perhaps you can even partner with a larger, already established music publisher, who can take on most of the responsibility for pitching, licensing and administration. Still, there’s no use kidding yourself that this is a small undertaking. At any level, music publishing is a big, complex job.
Nevertheless, here’s my investment advice for the day (and most certainly, the ONLY investment advice you should ever take from me):
Do it. Stop treating your songs as something more than simply the material you perform or record– start seeing them as the primary assets of your business. Stop viewing your songwriting as inherently intertwined with your performing career. Your songs, and your songwriting talent, can generate income on their own. That’s what music publishing is all about. Here are just a few opportunities that an investment in music publishing could yield:
Place your songs with other recording artists. Let them do the touring and the twittering, while you earn money.
Place your songs in films and television shows. Not only does it publicize you as an artist—it generates sync fees and performance income.
Place your songs in video games or other products. The licensing rates are pretty low, but the exposure is ridiculously high. And you don’t have to travel in a van, tear-down or set-up.
Place your songs in advertisements. It’s not only about grabbing that Apple iPod spot. There are national, local and international advertising opportunities that could fund your band’s next road-trip.
Create new music for film/TV libraries, which license “needle-drop” music to a wide variety of media. The sync fees are virtually non-existent, but because these are non-exclusive licenses, the same piece can be used again and again, generating significant performance money.
Write new songs for projects not tied to you as a performer. Of course, your artist career or your band’s development are the priority. But you’re also a songwriter, and not every song has to be for you to sing. There are artists around the country, and especially outside the US that are looking for songs. Why not spend a few weeks a year taking aim at those?
This last strategy was one that our company, Shapiro Bernstein & Co, Inc., and our partner, Tosha Music, recently employed with one of our top songwriters, Marti Dodson, from the Ohio-based band, Saving Jane. When Saving Jane’s first single “Girl Next Door” (Dodson/Buzzard/Goodman/Martin/Misevski) became a Top Forty pop hit, showed up on NOW (That’s What I Call Music) 22, and was covered by country artist Julie Roberts, we knew that Marti had the potential to be an important pop songwriter, and not only for Saving Jane. We suggested that she spend two weeks traveling to Stockholm, which is the pop-song factory for all of Europe and much of America, and the home of many of the industry’s best production and writing teams. Marti’s first trip yielded Saving Jane’s subsequent hit single, “Supergirl” (written with Mats Valentin from Sweden), which was later covered by Suzie McNeil in Canada, who took the song Top Ten in that territory. The song was used as a theme song by superstar auto racer Danica Patrick, gymnast Nastia Lukin, and showed up once again at the recent Winter Olympics.
Through the investment of a couple of writing trips to Sweden, Marti has now had songs cut by artists from South Africa to Germany (where she recently had the theme song to the German Popstars television show). When your songs are being played on TV in Europe, you’re literally making money in your sleep. That’s the goal. And that’s what music publishing is all about.
You can’t be everywhere at once and you can’t do everything all the time. If your business plan is predicated solely on your performance schedule, you will eventually reach the end of your earning potential, because you can only play so many gigs in a week. But if you have an effective music publishing operation, your songs can indeed be everywhere at once, earning money all the time. Of course, it’s not easy getting your music out there or locating the right opportunities. Yet it’s the best investment you can make, as there’s no limit to the ultimate pay-off. Do it right, and you might even be able to get some shut-eye once or twice a week.
If you’re going to SXSW, be sure to catch this panel. Afterward I’ll be at the South By Bookstore, selling some books:
While the CTM Festival was truly an international event, featuring artists from around the world, there was a significant showing from German artists, and in particular artists featured on the label Raster Noton. Several upcoming blog entries will feature reviews and thoughts on specific artists, but to put things in a context, I want to take a look at Raster Noton.
Scenes and styles in general are often associated with specific labels. While there are a number of artists and labels that one might categorize as IDM (Intelligent Dance Music), Warp Records is recognized as the mothership of that particular genre, being the home of artists such as Aphex Twin and Squarepusher. To me, one of the most interesting things happening in electronic music right now is minimal noise techno, and if there’s an aesthetic motherlode for this music, it’s Raster Noton. The label was founded by three like-minded German artists, and came about through a merger of Olaf Bender and Frank Bretschneider’s Rastermusik and Carsten Nicolai’s Noton labels in 1999. The three are active performers, Bender as Byetone and Nicolai as Alva Noto. All three come from a background in visual arts, and visual presentation is a strong component of Raster Noton releases, as well as their artists’ performances.
Minimal noise techno really has two roots, German club music and a variety of noise musics. Minimalism in the arts has had a German home since the Bauhaus movement in the early 20th century. Bauhaus as an aesthetic seeks to strip elements of design to the bare essentials, combining form and function, finding beauty in commonplace objects. German electro-pop music going back to Kraftwerk has this kind of stripped-down elegance, where only the bare essentials are part of an electronic arrangement. Techno music, which had it’s origins in late 1980’s Detroit shares this aesthetic if only by virtue of the spare means of production available to it’s early practitioners. While it’s roots are still in the Motor City, (or what used to be the Motor City) Techno, and a multitude of sub-genres, thrives in Germany.
Noise in music goes back to the early 20th century with Luigi Russolo’sArt of Noises manifesto. Since then, waves of concert music composers, experimentalists, sound artists, and pop producers have used various kinds of noise as a structural element in their music and art. As visual artists, many of the Raster Noton artists look to pure sound and it’s relation to rhythm, form, and structure. Notable works among these are Ryoji Ikeda’sDataplex, that uses various sounds from malfunctioning computers as source material; Alvo Noto’s Xerrox 1 and 2 that use environmental noise, and Noto’s Unitxt that uses data from Microsoft Office documents, as well as other file types, converted to audio data. These artists are looking for all sorts of connections between the audio and visual worlds, and their work offers a fresh approach to electronic music that’s radically different. I’ll be talking a closer look at some examples of this work in my next several blog entries.
In the last post I mentioned that creating your personal row was a way to simply generate some notes, in a given order, to work with. In the pdf below I’ve outlined an easy way to extract notes from the initial row to get a simple, but no less useful, phrase. The process is called, Diatonic Restriction. Simply put, you decide what key area you want to work with (normally seven notes) and put the other five pitches to the side – for now (7 + 5 = 12). We’ll get back to those remaining five soon
The audio can be found at:
classes.berklee.edu/jgates/CW255
