2007 was an interesting year for the music business.? Music sales were up, and almost all of that boost came from digital downloads.? Physical sales took a whopping turn for the worse.? The AP asked a couple of industry-types what their take was, and here are some of the highlights:

“Big” Jon Platt, EMI: “…the problem, is that everyone is trying to fix the old model, and that’s obviously not working, so we need to build on a new model… The business itself has to get back into artist development…We just have to be creative in thinking of ways to grow an artist.”

50 Cent, Rap Superstar: “The actual record sales may be changing but people are actually getting the material the best way they can and coming out to see the show…When you have a record that doesn’t connect right away, if the company doesn’t have a passion behind an actual artist and feel like this kid is an actual star and support it, it’s just going to whither away.”

Michael McDonald, ATO Records: “The bottom line is if anyone had a simple answer, it would be in motion already…I do think music is as relevant and there’s more music out there than ever before…Everyone is looking for a solution, but the solution does not look like the music business has looked for the last 30 years.”

Mark Cuban, Sports Team Owner: “They sell music and they need to be everywhere and anywhere music generates revenue…their ultimate solution may be in reducing the price of CDs to under $5 across the board and building artists in order to monetize everywhere else.”

Bottom Line:? Even successful music business people are completely lost to what’s next.

The RIAA is funded by the big four record labels, to the tune of around $130 million per year for each label. EMI was recently bought by a private group, and are now considering drastically cutting their investment to the lobbying and enforcement arm of the music industry.

Given that the RIAA’s legal moves over the last few years have been disastrous at best, it’s a great sign for artists that the RIAA’s financial base may diminish significantly. The amount of money that the RIAA has spent suing mothers and college students as been astronomical, and has led to a severe loss of credibility toward the record business in the public eye. Let’s take a moment to look at what a world without the RIAA might look like.

Without constant legal pressure to buy, audiences would begin to feel confident that albums they buy are supporting artists’ careers (this is part of consumer confidence). File sharing would continue, but people would be more willing to buy music they love knowing that they aren’t labeled as criminals anymore. The business model of turning artists into products, overcharging for albums, and using hype instead of quality would fail.

The music industry would become a free market, where any artist with great music and dedication could create a viable career. Rather than a few mega platinum artists, we would begin to see a massive amount of artists selling between 50,000 – 200,000 units on releases. This level of sales can cause an artist to be dropped from a major, but on an indie label, this is a great living for an artist, and a massive success for the label. Royalty rates for artists would also become much higher. Some artists already see similar profits selling 200,000 units with an indie label that they would see selling a million on a major.

New contracts would become the industry standard, similar to Polyvibe’s practice of leasing artist’s copyrights rather than owning them. Artists would have freedom to call the shots in their careers. The industry would shift to artists owning their masters, with labels existing to empower artists rather than to exploit them. Album advances would shrink; the amount of money owed to labels would shrink, too. In the major label world, an artist owes almost every penny the label spends on them. Label investment in artists would become the cost of doing business, rather than a loan.

The practice of shelving albums would become non-existent, as artists would have the ability to have promises for release dates in their contracts. Polyvibe currently includes release dates in our contracts, with a provision that if deadlines are not met, we will set a new release date. We even promise in our contracts that if we do not release an album within a set span of time after receiving masters, the artists is free to go elsewhere with their album. This type of provision would be standard fare, as well as other artist protection clauses.

Marketing, promotion, and booking companies would become the major players in breaking artists. The media will flock to what people want instead of what the Big Four tell them to promote. New and far reaching models and methods of grass roots promotion will become the norm. Music quality will again become the primary factor in an artist’s success; promotion and hype will be a second tier service. Radio will begin to offer a wider variety.

Without the ability to force legislation in their favor, major labels would become the victim of a music economy they no longer control. Consider that what allows major labels to force low quality music down our throats at high prices is their ability to grab politicians ears, to threaten us with lawsuits, and their near domination of media exposure and radio. We are now at the tail end of a 60 year monopoly on the music business. Rats swarm off of sinking ships, a perfect analogy for the exodus of mega-artists from major labels (getting off the ship, not the rats). In this new music environment, there will be dozens (maybe hundreds) of popular labels, and everyone will have the opportunity to create success.

Bottom Line: Without the RIAA, the major label business model will be obsolete, and a new paradigm and renaissance for music will appear within five years.

Steve Albini speaks about DIY music promotion and bands operating in the music business.

The future for musicians looks like more than just great recordings and live shows. The opportunities that the internet provides modern artists is available to everyone, and thus its potential is diluted. One powerful tool in creating buzz around your project or career is to get noticed. And one way to get noticed is to generate interest in who you are, and what you’re saying. in other words, creating and maintaining a conversation with your audience.

Pop culture can overwhelm us with the personal lives of famous people, and annoy us to no end with the antics of celebrities. Billboard has an excellent article on the effect of this kind of marketing on the careers of the ultra-famous. Keeping themselves in the public eye is a critical element to the careers of these top tier entertainers. Even bad press is good press for them.

For the independent artist, this same technique can yield different results. We can expand our scope and reach by generating attention for who we are, and what we have to say. Marketing a personality is nothing new. Here’s an article from Time Magazine in 1978, looking at the same methods and issues we are discussing today.

Once you have fulfilled your artistic vision, and you’re putting yourself out there, the make-or-break factor in success becomes notoriety. While having ten thousand friends on Myspace seems like a powerful promotional tool, does it really measure anything other than the number of people that landed on your page and clicked add me?

One of the most effective tools for creating a buzz for yourself, your project, and what you’re up to is blogging, and blogging often. If you are anything like me, you spend at least some of your week surfing the internet and consuming content. You have sites that you visit regularly. Consider that what keeps you coming back to a site is the steady stream of new and interesting content. Content that speaks to you.

A healthy career is grown through a fanbase. Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Prince, and Madonna are able to free themselves from major labels and even give away their music because their fans are loyal, and people are tuning in.

While it may seem like the forward momentum is slow, steady and regular content on your project webpage, blog, or social networking page is critical to bring people back. And the more time people spend on your sites, the more interested they will be in supporting your cause.

I am guilty of not providing a steady stream of information on my blogs at times, and it impacts my return traffic, and the hype around my own projects and Polyvibe. I am preparing to condense this blog with my personal blog, providing the same great content with half the work. Like Uncle Scrooge says, work smarter, not harder.

For any artist who is committed to bringing viability to their career, having a powerful voice, and keeping the conversation going are critical elements to success.

I invite you to comment on this post with your opinions. If the waters ripple, we’ll talk more about creating a cult of personality, the results people are seeing from this kind of grassroots marketing, and methodology that can be implemented to increase your results.

CD sales are dropping, set to be a small fraction of overall sales – and sooner, rather than later. A recent survey of high school students showed that there is a downward trend in music downloading in that age group. This is the next generation of music buyers. Perhaps their actions are pointing to something.

The Freakonomics blog posted an editorial recently with analysis of the record industry by five people who ought to know. Koleman Strumpf, an economics professor at the University of Kansas, had this to say:

“If file sharing hurts record sales, then albums that are more heavily downloaded should experience lower sales than comparable albums that are less downloaded. But, after controlling for the role of popularity, we found that downloads had little effect on album sales.” He wrote a whole paper on the subject, if you want to find out more.

In other words, file sharing is not the source of the drop in album sales. A powerful insight like this is the last word on file sharing for me (although not for the RIAA).

Audioholics.com posted a great editorial on whether CDs are approaching the event horizon of obsolescence. They include a buffet of statistics showing that while physical sales are slumping, digital sales are growing with velocity.

As the digital music market overtakes physical sales, CDs will become less available (relegated to major chain stores like Wal-Mart). We can see this shift with the demise of? Tower Records. When people can get all the music they want without going to overpriced record stores, they will. This trend has yet to infect mom and pop record stores, like Orlando’s own Park Avenue CDs, and since most of these stores are seen as boutiques rather than purveyors of the lastest industry tripe, most of them will likely survive (don’t forget that most small record shops deal with smaller and indie labels, and used CDs and vinyl).

People are still buying tons of music, and if digital music sales are any indication, music will continue to be a commodity. Although most commentary is still focused on what major labels can do to revive sales, the real issue is becoming what can artists do to empower themselves in this new realm.

People are exposed to a larger variety of sounds than ever before. Demand for music has skyrocketed, while profits are shrinking. The idea that music has lost much of its monetary value in the current market is a two fold effect: the novelty of file sharing and mega hard drives, and the price difference between a digital single or download and a CD.

We live in an era of convenience, and audiences consistently choose the format which is most user friendly (think audio tapes in the 80′s). The shift toward digital libraries has been predicted for years, and even with DRM, digital is already the industry standard. I’m still surprised that such a well-known and predicted phenomenon can cause such panic among executives. It’s almost as if upper management in the record industry has been ignoring the experts.

The quality of the music is a major factor in sales when people have access to massive catalogs, too. Hip Hop is a great example of this trend. Collapsing under the weight of violence and misogyny, some hip hop artist still enjoy huge mainstream and underground success. And the cause of this slump seems to be the choices made my industry executives over the last ten years.

The reality is this: The fate of major record labels has nothing to do with whether or not musicians will be able to create fulfilling careers, absolutely nothing. With unlimited access, people aren’t compelled to buy any album unless they absolutely want it.

And in case you wanted to know the secret to success in the music business in any climate:
Make Great Music!

Ever since we launched our record label, the number of come-ons we receive from new artists (as opposed to artists we know and already have our eye on) has steadily increased. The avalanche of appeals from both talented and not-so-talented artists is both overwhelming and exciting. However, a pattern has emerged lately that I feel needs to get addressed. This pattern is largely made up of a mix of bad habits and laziness, coupled with a lack of knowledge about what it takes to properly promote yourself. In response, Polyvibe

Entertainment Group offers up the following tips for how to approach us (and anyone) about your creative project with more effectiveness.

• Formulate a full message. In other words, don’t send something out until you’ve spent sufficient time actually formulating what you want to say and ensuring that what you are saying is landing for the other person the way you intend. This means that you should craft a message that clearly states who you are, what kind of music (or other art) you create, what’s special about it, and why they should care. Write and Re-write it until it’s right. It will never be perfect, but if you’ve covered all your bases you’ll be in good shape.
• Stay On Topic. Take a page from political play books, and always stay on message. In other words, put together a total package. Every footprint you leave in the world should be reinforcing the same message. By all means tailor your message for your audience, but it should have a common theme running through it. This also applies to your visual communications as well. Everything you put out should have a similar look and feel, and include your logo or other unique graphics. Re-use and Re-mix the same colors, layouts and other distinct elements, whether you’re designing your web site, a newsletter to your fans, or a One Sheet you’re sending out to the press and promoters.
• Define Your Message. In order to stay on topic, first you need to figure out what your message is. One of the things that we do internally for our artists, and is provide them a worksheet in which to figure out what the message is. We adopted this worksheet from questions we wanted answered, and from information we got from Bob Baker’s “Guerrilla Music Marketing”. It’s an interesting process but what it brings to light is even more useful. It’s an exploration of what drives you as an artist, and forces you to connect with your fans by discovering what it is about you that inspires them to support what you’re up to in the world.
• Get a One Sheet. If this list was numbered, this would be #1. Think of a One Sheet as your musical resume. In one or two pages, you should be able to clearly state what your music sounds like, why your are unique, and why I should pay attention. List your biggest successes so far. Include links to your best tracks, and to your websites. In short, it should summarize your message and present that information in such a way that it literally turns heads, and motivates the reader to want to learn more. Here’s a decent template you can start with, that explains all the basics and has spots for everything that you’ll want to include. You should create a One Sheet for various purposes – including but not limited to: Seeking Distribution (the example provided above), Booking and Gigs (concentrate on what’s special about your live shows, and de-emphasize, but include information about any of your releases), and General Purpose (expand the info on your sound as well as you, and your accomplishments).
• Educate yourself about music marketing. You’ve already started doing that by reading this blog, and subscribing to our RSS feed and/or Newsletter. There are tons of books out there, so you need to start diving in and buying some of these books. Also, sites like Rhino’s R-Zine, Bob Baker’s Buzz Factor, and The Indie Bible newsletter, will also help get your marketing chops up to where they need to be. Marketing is an art, not a science, so be prepared for lots of trial and error, but if you present yourself in a clear, concise and professional manner, you will get noticed.
• Respect your self, and your audience. This can’t be stressed enough. All the bad habits, missing or misinformation, and laziness add up to a lack of respect. This is just how it comes across, even if it’s not intentional. If you don’t have enough respect for yourself to tell me about your project in a way that gets me excited, then how do you expect to have any results? You took the time to craft the music, arrange all of the elements, and get your master just how you like it… so don’t skimp on the time required to promote yourself. Remember, you’re not selling yourself, or even your music. You’re selling the experience, the headspace you and your music puts the listener in. If you’re inspired enough to make it, then take the time to put together a strong message that moves the reader to want to listen to your music. Plain and simple.

In the day and age of a 1:1 ratio of Content Maker to Content Consumer, you’ve got to do more than write a catchy hook to get noticed. If you’re approaching Record Labels to get signed, propositioning Press Contacts for reviews, or contacting Promoters and Club Owners to book you for gigs, then you obviously want to be taken seriously. And if that’s the case, then put on your game face, and suit up. Making music is only half the battle.

If after reading this you are still interested in submitting your music to be considered for release on Polyvibe Records, then put the above advice to work, and send us a One Sheet (PDF preferred), with links to your 5 best tracks and your websites, to press@polyvi.be. We’ll reply to each one of them, but you better come

correct if you want us to take notice. We look forward to your submissions!

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