Making money off of what has become free

In what is slowly becoming a free market, music executives and musicians are finding themselves in need of finding new ways to make money. They have tried everything from Kanye West vs 50, to Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” with modest success. Kanye West outsold 50 cent 957,000 to 691,000 (Wiki), while Radiohead sold 3 million copies worldwide in physical and digital sales.

In 2007 Saul Williams attempted to use the same strategy as Radiohead. The following is from his wiki page:

“154,449 people had downloaded ‘Niggy Tardust’. Of that number, 28,322 people chose to pay the asked price of $5 USD ($141,610 USD Total)”

Let’s compare these numbers to Williams’ previous self-titled album, which sold 30,000 copies. His recent “pay what you want” release helped expand his exposure. He made less money, but reached more fans than his previous release by using the “In Rainbows” model.

All that is old news, but where has the next “big marketing idea” been for the masses? People come up with ideas for their niche markets, but worldwide sales have declined along with pop artists’ talent.

As a former hater of Lil Wayne I have learned to respect him. While he has not the best talent in my opinion, he shows emotion in his music and when he is serious you feel what he is talking about. With a constant onslaught of material for fans (mixtape after mixtape) he doesn’t give them a chance to give up. His last album, “Tha Carter 3″ sold 2.88 million copies by New Years Eve in 2008 making it the largest selling album of the year. Wayne has built a broad fan base over a long time.

So in an era of music where the value is lost, how do we make money in this industry?

Don’t give up, keep making contacts, and always make content for the fans. Money is not something you can make overnight and if you have true talent, don’t hold it in. You have to let the world hear it.

For those in the business world: Just because you can’t find “marketable artists” as available as before, it does not mean that the industry is dead. We just need something new, so find artists that sound different. As I told many people recommending artists who sound similar to Lil Wayne, “when his career is dead so will yours be”. Artists have to make their own sound and they’ll make their own path.

It’s not about strictly talent or marketing anymore, but drive as well. Never give up. For every person that does quit there’s somebody who hasn’t.

From the mind of
Keveeno Reeverts

A brand of a band

Throughout my short music career (about 7 years if you include me writing songs and recording artists through a $20 4-track, and $20 radio shack microphone), I had many artists that were a favorite because of their “off camera” lifestyle. They had a brand, an image that has been latched onto them that surpassed their music and sometimes surpassed real life. Their image made them seem larger than life, and it made fans spend money to go see their “god comparative” performances. Where did all that go wrong? It seems now because of the internet, we as fans of music know some things about these artists that they probably forgot. It became so easily accessible that no more were their fanatic fans since we all became one. Being a fanatic takes a lot of work and that “god comparative” performances became just something we can see on youtube now.

Right now there is no god figure because a god would last longer than a year or two. We saw the god in Michael Jackson try to break out and look what happened to him to keep up his “appearance”. What happened to the large marketing teams? What happened to the people that made gods out of musicians? To break a god costs money that not many people have any more with very little return. We turned to demi-gods of niche’s, or the long tale. I finally got to read this book by Chris Anderson and I’m learning that in today’s world there almost can’t be that “hit” no more. We broke genre’s up to the hundreds and now they are breaking into their own thing. Underground rap is not underground anymore if billions have a chance to listen. Same thing with punk rock! You are fighting the “man” yet you are on Robert Murdoch’s myspace.

-Look at the Beetles in their day. They were compared to a religion. They had people who murdered to go to the shows, and had fans that would camp out just to see it.

- Look at Lil Wayne now. He is huge, people want him on their album, and he is willing to put his name out there. Will his fame fade? All depends if he ever decides to quit.

discography

-The Jonas Brothers is now a branding icon. Connecting with Hannah Montanna and DIsney channel has been a merchandisers dream.

Jone Bro’s merch

-Battling the merch and brand even has its branding. One of my personal favorite artists, Immortal Technique is a good example of fighting the mainstream with good results. His music is politically motivated, as well as connecting with millions of americans on day to day issues that they deal with.

Immortal Technique’s 3rd world album

A brand is an image that artists either keep or fall (Name another Sir Mix A lot song other than Baby got Back). People say artists sell out when they break their brand of before mainstream, so starting with a brand is key for any artist or band. A brand of a band is like something you live with. Their are a few exceptions, but that is very few. If there was an emergence of marketing of the brands of bands than I think their is salvage in this industry. Instead of hits we have niche’s and demi-hits, and its about finding your own and making it big there. Specific Branding.

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

Why 99 cents is too much for a song.

I know this is looong overdue, but it doesn’t matter. 99 cents is still standard for a song and it’s too much. Think about this, a cd costs, lets go for the low, $15 for a cd with 16 songs. Minus $6 for distribution the cd is $9 to send to best buy. Best buy gets their profit loss cut (They take a loss because you buy a cd and they make a profit on the cd player; they win) and lets say the cd is worth $6. I’m not good at math, so my calculator says each song is 40 cents. Without the cuts, the songs are worth roughly 94 cents.

Now why pay 99 cents? I would love to support your artists, love to support your million dollar condo’s for the big artists, and for the struggling artists, I would love to support your music if it went back to the bootleg $5 cd days, maybe $10 for your cd if I got to listen to it first. But really, I myself have been on the roman noodle diet trying to pay off my loans, how am I gonna for over 99 cents for a song that I can hear on the radio if I had one, overplayed on MTV if I had cable? When somebody came to me trying to sell their independent album for $8, I talked them down to five.

With the recording process getting cheaper because of Pro Tools LE, mbox and not even needing pure acoustics no more, why should the fans still pay the same price? I say with all these lay offs of the major labels come through, at least have online MP3’s DRM free, and maybe 50 cents. Why pay cd price for an mp3 you can even easier get for free. Sell more at shows, with other things, get creative with it. With computers getting cheaper, free wi fi, people can more easily access iTunes, but even easier access these downloading sites to get all songs for free. The rich complain because their money flow is slowing, and the not so rich are over saturating the industry online, somebody either needs to stand out now, or make the mp3’s cheaper or free with ticket sales. You get better quality for free than paid for now and its crazy.

I’ve been coming up with my own plans on ways to boost the industry and most of them have one thing. Make mp3’s cheapers, cd’s cheaper, more profit to the artist means more power to their music, and most importantly, although Lil Wayne is close to double platinum or already made it… does not mean you will. One strategy is not the same for the next anymore, get creative or get lost in this huge sea of too many fish with not enough bait. Please comment and tell me what yall think.

From the mind of Keveeno