Two weeks ago I was invited to participate in a PR stunt called the “Schwaggin’ Wagon” at the O’Reilly Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. I was more than happy to accept, the conference has been on my radar for three years now and the opportunity to attend was more exciting than free tickets to Coachella.

The Schwaggin’ Wagon was an idea conceived by Social Media Consultants, like myself, with the intention of collecting all the schwag from the conference that no one wants and donating it to charity. Sponsors like Heavy Bag Media and Mashable jumped on immediately and the van was decked out and ready to roll 6 days later.

The Schwaggin’ Wagon departed Los Angeles on Tuesday and before we even hit San Francisco, Jon Gordon from NPR’s Future Tense was interviewing Idea Meister and wagon driver Mike Liskin.

We stopped off in Turlock for some of Anna’s award-winning Pomegranate Martinis and some wireless Internet access. The laptops were fired up, Twitter was tweeting and the blog posts were rolling. Our Facebook friends had doubled and the Twitter and Britekite accounts were blowing up since pulling out of Los Angeles just four hours earlier.

We finally arrived in San Francisco, too late for any parties, but just in time for a good night’s rest. Thanks to the amazing work of Get It Done Queen, Marjorie Kase, the next day was packed with media interviews and the buzz about the wagon was all over the expo floor, all before we had even set out the first collection can! It became apparent quickly that the Schwaggin Wagon was going to be well received at the Expo.

My first article for Tunecore was published yesterday! I’m very excited to be working with this amazing group. For those of you unfamiliar with Tunecore, I suggest a quick perusal of their site asap. Tunecore is a digital distributor that allows you to keep 100% of your royalties and earnings. You pay a one-time fee for album placement and a yearly storage fee and nothing more!

The article, Why Every Band Needs a Blog, is the first in a series I’ll be writing for the Tunecore blog. Thank you to Ewald, COO of Tunecore, for a great opportunity.

I recently joined Advanced Operators; a blog carnival comprised of “super geeks” from my old stomping ground of Portland, OR, aka geektopia. The last few weeks I’ve had nothing to contribute, as I’ve not yet been elevated to “super geek” status and most of the topics go WAY over my head. This week, much to my surprise, the question at hand is regarding the future of the music industry. Finally! I think I’ve got a thing or two to say about that. But let’s follow the questions AO published as guidelines for the article to prevent too much hypothesizing and philosophizing:

1. Is the recording model still valid? If so, is it the bands that will be doing the recording and distribution?
2. If the money isn’t in a recording model, then what will the model of the future be?

I believe what they are referring to here is not the “recording” model but the “record industry” model. Recording music is still the only way to get music from artist to listener, until telepathy becomes a viable option. However, the record industry model is crumbling, as any Joe Public that has bought a track from iTunes or direct from the artist will tell you. The reason for this is not only because their commodity is loosing value in the marketplace, but because they have been slow to adapt to the changes happening in the music industry as a whole.

Record companies bring two vital services to the table, marketing and distribution. These are really the two points in question when talking about the record label business model, not recording. As for the future business model and what it will look like…that is anyone’s guess at this point. In a recent Rolling Stone article, “The Fall of the Record Business: What Next?” 5 prominent music professionals were interviewed and produced five totally different perspectives on how music will be profitable in the future. When the article was published I was in agreement with Ian Rodgers of Yahoo Music. He speculated that ad-supported music was the wave of the future. Today, after investigating many distribution options for an ebook I’m writing, I am starting to think that Nettwerk President, Terry McBride was onto something when he speculated that consumers will act as retailers. This is still a far off idea, but one that we might consider given the growing popularity of Long Tail filters like referrals and recommendations and the power of those filters in a social network community. If I like an artist I can post their music on my site for my friends to buy. I’ll make money and the artist will still make more off the sale than they would have through any other means than selling it themselves.

3. How will bands profit from the music they make?

Again, the specifics of how this will happen in the future are anyone’s guess. At the moment, artists with no record deal are making money by selling their CDs and tracks via iTunes, Snocap and other digital music stores. The beauty about cutting out the middleman is that it takes less sales to make more money for the artist. In a traditional record deal, an artist may be lucky to make 12%-20% on a record. This of course is after the advance, marketing, etc, has been recouped.

When the label and distribution company has been eliminated from the equation an artist can deliver a product from studio to consumer and retain a large portion of the profits. An artist by the name of Second Hand Serenade has become a poster child for this model. He registered his album with Tunecore, a digital distributor that charges artists a one time $30 fee per album to place on it on iTunes. Within less than a year Second Hand Serenade sold 200,000 copies of one track. After a 70/30 split with iTunes and the $30 he paid Tunecore, he made about $135,000.00 without a record label!

4. Is there a role for the Record Labels of yesteryear in the new world?

The labels will only have a place in the new world if they carve one out for themselves. By this I mean, they need to make themselves useful. Since the dawn of the record industry, they have dictated the terms and conditions of their relationship with the artist. The rules have changed and their job is now cheaply (often free) done digitally. Their new role will have to be based on a new profit center and that may be hard for them to do. For an artist at the level of Justin Timberlake, a label is a necessity. There will always be a need for a company that can negotiate corporate deals with Verizon and invest in an elaborate global tour. Most artists don’t fall under that category and may be served better managing their own career with a solid team of professionals and consultants rather than a corporate monster. Labels are taking more of an interest in touring, merchandise and publishing than that have in the past. This does not bode well for an smaller artist in the long run. They will get a nice chunk of change up front, but they are selling off more of their rights and assets than they may realize. Technology is making it possible for an artist to procure all of those services without selling their rights away, so that strategy may not be the long-term solution.

5. How do bands of the future promote themselves?

Promotion will be most effective modeled on the Long Tail theory of filters and community. Chris Andersen, author of The Long Tail, suggests that reputation is a new form of currency and this applies to musicians as well. It will take more one on one, personalized relationship building with their fans and that takes more time and energy. A band will have to WORK it harder than ever. Touring, blogging, texting, instant messaging, viral videos, and most important, being creative in how they communicate with their fans. Communication and community building are the two most crucial elements that any band must embrace to have a successful marketing and promotions plan.

6. Do you want to or think its “right” to pay for music?

I believe that artists should be compensated for their work. I also believe that HOW they are compensated is part of the new paradigm. Gerd Leonhard, a media futurist, illustrates this point in a video presentation on the future of the music industry. He claims that it is no longer a “pay first paradigm.” The recorded music is becoming a free promotional tool used to build a fan base, something that many bloggers may relate to. We give our most valuable commodity, our knowledge, away for free in hopes of building a reputation that will bring us the work we desire. A good song may bring another fan to a show, sell a t-shirt, get licensed in a movie, etc. The profit is coming at the end of the cycle, once a fan has been won and a relationship with them has been developed, not at the beginning or discovery phase. Consumers are now dictating what is popular, not the record labels. Our choices are no longer being shoved at us from the top down, we are pushing our choices upward.

Piracy is a serious issue of copyright violation. The defenders of copyrighted material are vehement in their crusade, but have done little to prevent rampant file sharing from Wisconsin to Beijing. The RIAA has done a pathetic job of convincing us that we are stealing if we don’t pay for music. Maybe because, for all their lawsuits and rabbel rousing, they have made us realize that corporations are greedy and that their least concern is the artists they claim to be protecting. What if, since the beginning of the record industry, records were free promotional tools that labels used to get people to a show? Would we consider it stealing if that had been the model all along? And remember, we are talking about the record industry, not the music industry as a whole. Music is thriving, despite the fact that the labels aren’t. Artists are still making money, just not from selling records. A recent documentary from our neighbors to the north is a very illuminating look at the subject of piracy in the music industry.

7. How important is rights management to the future of music?

I think the answer to this question is obvious…of course rights management is crucial, always has been and always will be. Whoever controls the master and the publishing is the one making the money.

The future of music is undeniably tied to technology, but which technology will produce the strongest business model is still up in the air. Perhaps it will consist of several models, depending on which direction the artist wants to take their career. And maybe it will be one that has not yet been conceived. Either way, it is apparent that it will unfold online and be community-based. I am very excited about the future of the music industry. But I see one great challenge ahead, the chasm that exists between technology (web developers, futurists, programmers, etc.) and the artist. I’ve sat in on many meetings with technology companies that have a great idea to capitalize on the music industry with no concept of how the artist thinks or works. In meetings with artists I find they are often clueless as to what the hell to do next. They are overwhelmed with options and can find no one to educate them. A bridge needs to be built between the artist and technology. Technology should reach out to better understand the genuine needs of an artist and how to facilitate them. Artists need to better understand what technology has to offer and how to utilize their services. Harmony between the two will bring about greater innovation and choice as well as a greater financial return for them both.

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Hello guys and gals. I’ve been on hiatus from my blog in August, feverishly working on my new book about blogs and blogging. Once it’s ready I’ll give you more details.

In the meantime…here is a video presentation of Gerd Leonhard on the Future of Music. Gerd is the head of Sonific, a streaming music application. He calls himself a Music Futurist and has written several books on the subject. Rick Rubin recently quoted some of his ideas on subscriptions services in an article for the New York Times. I have not read any of his books but based on this informational video, he knows his stuff.

Pay close attention to his new paradigm of purchasing. “It is no longer a pay first paradigm.” How true.

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.

Excellent article about how the music world has changed for the musician doing it DIY.
Read it!

Web Communities

Web Communities are places for you to create profiles, connect with people based on specific niches, share content, submit content to the community at large and market yourself all over the world for FREE.

All web communities are social sites. But some cater more to the experience of sharing yourself while others focus on your interests or what you have to sell. Here, Social Sites are ones based on interaction between the artist and other artists or fans. Music sites are sites where the community can find your profile with links to your information but not interact with you directly. Some are retails sites. Internet Radio Stations are sites to submit your music for addition in their rotation. Some require you to send the information to the station directly while others you add your music to the site or you build your own station. Today’s post lists the social sites that have a strong focus on music.

Social Sites

• Amie Street – Where music is free and referrals are rewarded
• Buzznet – Social site for musicians and music fans. They provide some cool technology. They have a MoBlog – a blog that can be updated with video and photos from your cell phone.
• Face Book – Started as a site for college students to connect but now has profiles open to everyone.
• Haystack - To help you collect your life on the web. Built for musicians and music fans.
• iLike – Recommendation and networking site owned by Ticketmaster.
• Indie 911 - By combining a social networking approach with an emerging artist network, indie911 takes the online music and film experience to a new level, where artists can interact directly with their audiences.
• iSound – Focuses on allowing all unsigned artists to easily create their own websites with every feature they could possibly want.
• Imeem - An online community where people and groups can upload, share, tag, and playlist the media they care about.
• Mog - Automatically builds you a web page that displays your music collection and real-time listening stats without you having to type it in. Built for music snobs.
• Mozes – Site similar to Buzznet. Allows band to choose a keyword and once that word is entered and sent to Mozes it will send photos and video updates to the cell phone.
• Myspace – Need I say more?
• Project Opus – Canadian company. Online music community designed to support artists, fans and local music. It is a single point of contact for discovery of new music.
• Pure Volume – A site for your profile and your songs.
• Ruckus – Site for college students that revolves around sharing music.
• Tag World – Built mainly for people connecting but music sharing is a part of the community.
• Uber – Funded by Universal Music Group, this site caters to the artist, journalist and musician by making their portfolios and music available for sharing and networking.
• Virb - A community website that combines social interaction with music and entertainment exploration.

It was only about a year ago that I first heard about blogs. The band I was managing at the time loved the word and used it to describe everything. Blog this and blog that and bloggity blog blog became the response to every question. A year later Web 2.0 has re-defined the way we use the Internet and blogs are more than a mere catch phrase. They are a valuable tool for sharing information. Every industry can capitalize on this new tool, especially the music industry. But what is a blog and why the hell should you have one??? Justin Kistner from Metafluence wrote a great post on what a blog is and the importance of having one:

“[Blogs] are intended to be a forum for an individual or group to publish information on a recurring basis. Blogs originated as online journals and the name blog itself comes from the mash up of Web+log. Blogs have been traditionally valued for their informal, chronologically-based structure because it frees writers to write with their flow. Blog posts differ from traditional articles because they are supposed to be personally biased and shared for the purpose of conversation, which is carried out through comments left on the post. They are a great way to gain search engine traffic because search engines like websites with frequent content additions. Blogs also foster relationships because of their conversational and opinionated nature.”

Now, as a musician or label, you probably have a Myspace page and some of you may even utilize your Myspace blog. Well, its time to take off the training wheels and join the Blogosphere. Having your own blog will allow you to connect with your fans without the restrictions of the Myspace template and, most importantly, your blog is your domain, not Rupert Murdoch’s.

In a blog post you can have five types of content:

1. Text
2. Photos
3. Links
4. MP3s
5. Video

What does this mean for you?? A few examples of potential content:

• Imagine being on the road, all those great moments in the van, and you wish you could share them. You have a video camera and a microphone. Record it and put it up on your blog.
• Your best friend is in a band and their new record rocks. Write about it on your blog and put an MP3 with it.
• You had an amazing show last night and you have some hilarious footage from the opening band, throw it up on your blog.
• Your favorite band is coming through town tomorrow, put their poster on your blog.

As long as you are not violating copyright laws, you can put up anything you want.

The next step is getting that information into the hands of your fans. This is another awesome component of having a blog – the RSS Feed. In a nutshell an RSS Feed is a way for you to get your content to people who want it. Rather than sending out an email to your lists every time you post something new, an RSS feed will automatically send your post – as you created it, with the text, video, photos and MP3s – to the people who have subscribed to your feed. In order to view the post your fans will need a Feed Reader, but they are free and easy to obtain from Google or Yahoo!. I think even Safari has a built in Reader.

As I mentioned in my previous post, content is king. As a band you are constantly creating content and now you have a way to share it.

Some tips on blog postings:

1. Use it as a forum to promote yourself as well as your friends and get them to do the same for you.
2. Don’t limit your postings to just band or music related content. Put up poetry, photos, funny stories, etc.
3. Study other band blogs but don’t feel like you have to be just like them. A blog is an opportunity for you to express the fullness of your personality. Your blog is an integral part of your promotional arsenal. It should be as unique as your music and the members of your project.
4. Use lots of pictures and videos. It makes the blog more interactive and interesting.
5. Register your blog with Technorati. (Technorati is a blog search engine. Once you register with Technorati your posts will automatically be included in all searches. Unlike with Google searches, Technorati responds to queries with the latest post that fits the query, not the ones that fit the current search algorithms. For instance, if you post something about your concerns regarding Net Neutrality, and someone goes to Technorati and puts in “Net Neutrality” if your post was the last to mention it, it will be the first in the search results. You also improve your status by having lots of links…)
6. LINK LINK LINK! When you link to someone ask them to link to you. The blogosphere is a community. Consider your Blog Roll to be like your friends on Myspace. You want lots of them!

Contact me if you need a blog or have questions about how to manage one. kyra@kyrareed.com

Since this is my first post I thought I’d tell you about a book that beautifully illustrates what this blog is about, the inevitable merger of music and technology.

Chris Anderson, editor for Wired Magazine, has written one of the most important books of the year, “The Long Tail.” Although the book was not written for the music industry specifically, its relevance to the future of the industry is vital information for anyone in the biz.

We all know that the industy is in flux. The old “hits” driven business model that the music industry was built on is crumbling. In its place is a long tail of semi-hits and decent successes. Rather than a fortunate few making all the money, it is now being spread across a greater number of smaller labels and independent musicians. Niche driven markets are replacing hit-driven markets. This translates to the possiblity of more career musicians that can support themselves and less superstars buying up acres of McMansions in Georgia.

Online music retailers such as I-Tunes can house millions of tracks in their monsterous libraries. Far more than the average brick and mortar retail music store. And while the storefront probably only sells about 20 percent of its total merchandise in a three month period, online retailers report 90-100 percent of their tracks are selling during that same time. It appears, the more that’s available the more that will sell.

So, how does a band or musician capitalize on this phenomenon?

Here are some suggestions:

1. Make as many of your tracks, past and present, available through as many online retailers as possible. Consider contacting a digital distributor like Iris or The Orchard to help you with the process. The Orchard has a list of Online retailers here.
2. Record the songs that didn’t make it on the record, dust off the songs you left behind and finish the ones you weren’t sure about. Create your content and make it availalbe. The more you have to offer the more you have to sell. It no longer takes a big budget to lay down a few tracks. Here are some great open source audio recording and editing software options: Ardour and Audacity
I highly recommend all musicians read The Long Tail.