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

Fame? Money? Success? Pick one

The state of the industry is becoming sort of like a scientific hypothesis. You can’t just make a star overnight like you did with some of the greats from before. It is more of a guessing game with a lot more dedication and hard work from the start. Instead of just telling an artist your going to get the fame/ money/ success that comes with a rock star, you let them choose, and it becomes more like a step program.
Through youtube, fame can be reached easily. Just look at these numbers comparing 2006 to now

(Information from wiki)

August 2006- Youtube hosted about 6.1 million video’s, requiring bout 45 terabytes of storage space .

April 2008- 83.4 million video’s, requiring the amount of the bandwidth of the whole internet in 2000, costing roughly $1 million a day.

Now if you wanted your company to get any fame, getting on the front page of youtube would be great publicity. That would run you about $175,000 a day! So it does cost money to get fame, so the question is…. What is the return? Is it worth your investment? The price of fame has become cheaper over the years so the return has dropped considerable. I’ve known people to get over 1 million people to check their youtube video, and has yet to see a cent. Brings me to the next step after you get fame…. Money.

This breakdown is derived from Coolfer.com

Their breakdown is of TI’s new album, Paper Trail.

Alight so paper trail’s first week sales were 568,000, the single ‘whatever you like’ moved almost 335,000 units. Now comes in the fame aspect with Myspace. With the new Myspace music, you get around a penny a song if you’re with a major label. So if you average 1.5 million views a day, that’s $15,000 a day of extra income.

Combine sales of cd’s, single song downloads, myspace streams, and any other source and you come close to success. You’ll have fame and money, but of course happiness is most important. Success is how you define it personally, and not what anybody else tells you. I say in today’s terms, you have to pick one of the three because they don’t all come together like paper and glue like they use to. You can have a number 1 song with no income, so it is not a success. You may get a whole bunch of money from so many sources with your music from shows, but your still not in the light of fame which many die for. Success is to each their own, so fame and money may not be involved. What I am studying and working on now is a business plan to reach all three for artists I work with. There are many more steps, but like I said before it is all a scientific hypothesis that all comes back to the artists and how hard they are willing to work for. You can’t just be a internet star cause we got millions of them.. and you can’t just be the biggest local act ever if it stays local, but you have to start somewhere. No more overnight artists, it is all about the struggle of making music a career and not a hobby. It is all about picking one of the 3, or going for the long run of all of them.

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts.

The music investor

I have read about several websites that have this idea of investing into the artists music, and I have written something about it awhile ago that I have actually removed by accident. I will say it again that it’s almost like the entertainment stock market. You find a artist you like, and you put money into them hoping they can do something with it that could possible get you money as well. It’s all good until you realize the state of the industry and the fact that this artist is working on art… NOT a business. Music is a business, but most artists do not see it as such, and dissipate after awhile for steady income jobs elsewhere. Lets say you have a favorite artist and you invest a large amount, lets say $20,000. The artist goes to the studio and records a nice EP that is fully mastered, has a great marketing plan, and the album goes on iTunes and sells under 5,000 single sale copies, with a few hundred album copies. Lets say the artist we’ll call, The Electric Italiano, makes around $2-3000 in a month. Thats a good months salary and now you want your money back. You make just under a grand back with a $-19,000 mark in your checkbook.  Now what?

I have been blogging, talking about how the major industry is going to shit and indies are the future, individual artists are coming through tough times, and there is a future for music yet. I have worked out a few idea’s than and out, but now I want to do something as well. I won’t get into detail, but I would like to make a social networking site (waiting for gasps as something so revolutionary as that), but instead of joining networks, you join artists. We allow artists for a one time fee to build a full fan site with different levels and we put a price on the levels. Fans can join for free for the basic, but for different prices or “investments” they can receive benefits such such as a free concert tickets, free cd’s, free posters, tee’s, and more. This is a new idea to my head that has probably been done but I will do more research.

If a fan who enjoys an artists music so much that they purchase an album, why can’t they get to know the artist more? Know why the artist wrote each song, the background of the artist past their bio, a chance to speak to the artist such as The Electric Italiano (a combination of The Electric Fetus (a record store here), and Italiano Coffee… words that I randomly saw on the wall here), and possible a chance to meet up with other fans of the artist. I want to bring fan interaction to a whole new level but set it up as a template like a social networking site that would litterally be for networking instead of picking up underage kids by the likes of copykat michael jacksons (myspace). I will have a full blueprint that I will work on, and hope nobody takes this idea because it is only partial on what I have an idea for in the back of my head.

Remember music is a way to express your soul, and it can get to be expensive. Most fall out the game because of money problems, but those who stick it out and call music a career and not a hobby will prosper. Its a matter of patience and perseverance, for outlasting this depression in the music industry will be difficult but if we can find a way to settle differences we can do this. Music will once again be a source of enjoyment instead of stress soon. We just have to work together.
From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts