How will music be profitable in the future? In the recent Rolling Stone article, “The Fall of the Record Business: What Next?” five music industry pros theorize on possible scenarios.

Theory 1: Ad-Supported Music
Yahoo! Music General Manager Ian Rogers says all music will be free - paid for by ads - and any song by any artist will be accessible from anywhere in the world.

“I can imagine a future where you just consume a hell of a lot of music - just hit ‘play’ on any player, and hear music. There’s an ad experience there, and we’ll pay the labels a percentage of that ad revenue. All devices will be connected to a network and we can find anything we want and hit ‘play’ without connecting our device to our computer and dragging a physical file over. People are going to have the expectation that they can get to anything whenever they want to.”

There is already evidence to support this idea in companies like We7 and the number of media sites integrating the model of ad revenue sharing. Another theory in the article speculates labels will change their stripes and take on more management and publishing roles. A solution that makes sense, but not likely to see this in the near future. Terry McBride, who I am usually a big fan of, presents the idea that consumers might become retailers. I see that as a logistical nightmare. Read the other four theories here.

For well over a year I have been encouraging bands to start their own blogs. I even started this blog to give advice on how to start one and what to do once it’s up. So it gives me great pleasure to see two of my most beloved bands listening to my advice.

The Upsidedown and Saturna. I have worked with both bands on and off over the last four years. I’ve watched them go through band members, image changes and recording records that take years. Now, I get to see them be some of the first bands to embrace the new world and start their own blogs. And they are doing a marvelous job with them!

The Upsidedown - This blog is not only gorgeous, but reflects the personality of the band to a tee. I know everything about them (well, I like to think I do) and still, I want to see every page. Fantastic job guys.

Saturna - A simple, clean and informative blog. They are smart about how they structure their headlines (always using their name - good for search engine optimization) and the content in their post. Lots of links, photos and thank yous! Brilliant!

If you are in a band and are still not sure of how to jump into the blogosphere - use these bands as examples. They are doing it right.

LAMbCase enables artists to sell their entire CD in a digital file using a technology similar to Win Zip. They were featured in the CMJ newsletter today. Here is what the company has to say about their product:

“LAMbCase is the name of our patented container format which allows easy distribution and payments of digital products. Using our system, content owners can sell retail equivalent CD and DVD titles along with web based formats such as MP3 and iPod compatible video.

Our services are intended for content owners serious about delivering digital goods with the quality and standards consumers expect from retail products.

Our system works in 3 easy steps:

Your content is stored under a dual layer AES 256 shell! This is double the security used by governments using password protected Zip files.

We provide sellers with extra features such as:

A HTML badge which can be placed on your website or MySpace page:

And advanced features such as real-time payments and “point of sale” split payments for up to 3 partners!

“

In July Spin.com will be featuring unsigned musicians as Artists of the Day. To post your band’s profile, music and videos go to Spin.com

We7 is a company that is taking on the world of FREE music with a new slant. By placing an ad in the digital file, they can make DRM free MP3s available for FREE download AND the artist gets paid. Once the file has been played a few times, the ad disappears. Sounds good, right? Check our their site here - We7.com

Let me know if you like it.

Reactee is a t-shirt company that custom prints text codes and messages on shirts.

The options are limitless…

The RIAA front group, SoundExchange, is threatening to take away our Internet radio! This is a very serious issue and if we don’t do something about it - we will no longer have Little Radio, last.fm, Live365 or any other Internet radio station you listen to.

Here’s the lowdown from the SaveNetRadio site:

“The future of Internet radio is in immediate danger. Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). If the increased rates remain unchanged, the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date. Internet radio needs your help! The Internet Radio Equality Act has recently been introduced in both the House (H.R. 2060) and Senate (S. 1353) to save the Internet radio industry. Please call your senators and your representative to ask them to co-sponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act by clicking HERE or going to SaveNetRadio.”

It only takes a few minutes to fill out the form. Please act NOW. If they take away our access to free radio, imagine what they’ll think they can take next. Don’t let this happen.

The first time I heard about Freemium was on my new favorite blog A VC.
Who knew a Venture Capitalist could be so cool!

I highly recommend reading his article on Freemium and the music business.

“I’ve riffed on the notion of free as a business model frequently on this blog. We’ve even come up with a name for a business model that uses free as its foundational element - ie freemium.

The fact is that the Internet demands a free business model. It’s a network where content flows freely in abundance. Scarcity works great for physical goods, but crumbles in a digital world.” Read more…

Some of us in the music biz have been waiting for something like this to materialize for the last few years. Although this may not be the brass ring - it is an option worth exploring.

The jackpot:

An ‘07 Ford Econoline Van
$5000 cash
Apple Macbook
One Year of Internet Access
$500 gas card
A case of ramen noodles

To enter the contest you will need to get out your pens and put your thinkin’ caps on, cause they want to know a few things:

*How your band could benefit from a sweet new van
*Your best tour story or best tour story of the future
*10 things your band would always have in the van
*The dedication of your band members to its craft

ENTER

RULES

GOOD LUCK!

From TuneCore’s website:

TuneCore is a music delivery and distribution service that gets artists’ original music (even cover versions) and record label releases up for sale on iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody, Sony Connect, MusicNet and Napster without asking for your rights or taking any money from the sale or use of your music. (I’ve heard pretty good things about them)