Learning about your market, part II

Okay, so I took the summer off from blogging. In the process, I finished and released a new edition of Record Label Marketing. Some of the changes include more emphasis on web marketing, digital music sales, and indie labels.
In the new edition of Record Label Marketing, I dig deeper into the realm of using the web to learn about your market. In the earlier post on the subject, I talked about the importance of analytics on your web site and how to use that information to improve your site and reach your goals.
There are other web services that can offer information on your fans and fans of similar artists.
Quantcast is a service that analyzes web visitors to sites (http://www.quantcast.com/). if you are an indie artist, they probably don't have much data on your web visitors. But you can use their site to find out about fans who visit sites of well known artists. Pick a few popular artists who appeal to the market that you are targeting with your music. Then study their quantcast data. You can get traffic, demographic and lifestyle information on those visitors. You can also get a list of other sites these fans visit. For example, when I type in http://www.davematthewsband.com/, I get information on what other sites these web visitors also frequent. And I find that Live Nation, CMT, Ticketmaster and Music Today are among the top mentions.

Another site to help musicians understand their web market is Band Metrics, who provide analytics specifically for the music industry. Their site boasts that they "assist artists in understanding their fans, while also helping them to manage their digital identity. It’s a great solution for independent artists, management companies, labels, venues, A&R reps, promoters, music supervisors, publicists, marketing agencies and others to understand fan activity, and fans’ sentiments towards artists." These analytics can incorporate aspects of the major social networks to show who's listening to, sharing and talking about their music across various social networking and blog sites.

Using the cell phone to promote your music, part 2

From the book Web Marketing for the Music Business

The future of "infotainment" or "communi-tainment" belongs to the cell phone or universal mobile device. Earlier, I talked of the benefits of gathering cell phone numbers from fans and sending the occasional text message promoting your live shows and recordings. Another are of mobile marketing involves the wireless application protocol. Mobile handsets rely on the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) to create web sites specifically formatted for mobile devices. The domain system used for wireless devices is the .mobi (top level) domain extension on the end of the URL address.

Just as with an Internet web site, design for a mobi site must be preceded with an understanding of goals for the site. What are you trying to accomplish and provide with a mobile web site? The goals may not be the same as for the computer-based site. An Internet site might focus on more detail, more long-term information, more entertainment, and creating branding and customer awareness. A mobile site will most likely be used by fans on the go who need quick access to information that they can use immediately. This may include information on live shows, such as directions to venues and start times. A tour schedule may be important if groups of fans are together and want to plan on attending an event at a future date; A quick glance at your tour schedule may be what they are looking for. Contests and coupons may be important for fans as well as access to music to download and listen to. Pull messages that appear on billboards, bus boards or in newspapers may create an immediate impulse among viewers to respond to the message via their cell phone, such as signing up to win something or downloading new content. With these goals in mind, a separate web site must be developed that allows the mobile fan to quickly access what they are looking for without scrolling through a lot of pages and screens. And the site must be updated often to reflect the changing needs of its visitors.

General WAP formatting rules
Creating mobile web sites may be as simple as stripping out all CSS formatting to reveal a text-only site similar to how a search engine spider renders a site, although much of the content must also be reduced for easier browsing. Or better yet, professional “mobi” developers can create a site that dynamically produces formatting from a variety of options depending upon the type of device accessing the site. In other words, the formatting of the site can vary, and for each visitor, the presentation is customized after the server detects what type of handset they are currently using.

Some basic rules to consider:
- Be realistic about what will fit on the small screen of a mobile device. Paring down your information for the screen size is first and foremost.
- Eliminate all information that is not important to the mobile user. Less is more on a mobile site. Visitors are usually looking for specific information or completing a specific task.
- Avoid vertical scrolling; web users don’t like it and it’s even less popular with mobile users.
- Reduce the number of clicks: don’t go deep in page numbers, it’s slow going for the mobile user.
- Keep it clean: use readable text on a readable background.
- Test your design on a variety of handheld devices to see if it holds up on all of them.
- Use abbreviations and succinct wording wherever possible
- Access keys are helpful in speeding up navigation. (Access keys are those just below the screen on the left and right that can take on a variety of functions, usually with the name of that function on the bottom of the screen just above the key.)

Mobile site design programs
Mobile web sites are still in the infancy stage of development, with new design ideas entering the marketplace almost every week. As of early 2008, the most common design elements include a small logo and company or site name at the top of the screen, followed by a short menu of options.

There are several professional web developers, such as TrioVisions, creating mobi web sites for major corporations and top-selling musical acts. Among the do-it-yourself options, Dev.mobi touts itself as mobile development community. Its development software is powered by mobiSiteGalore. The mobiSiteGalore offers a free WYSIWYG mobile web site builder including multiple pages, a link manager and image editor. Go Daddy offers .mobi web designer tools with its WebSite Tonight feature. Wirenode offers web design tools in a free, easy-to-use WYSIWIG format that allows for text, links, graphics, analytics and some minor formatting. Jagango offers free mobi sites, a series of templates and dialog boxes for easy formatting, and a mobi community for networking.



Mobi design web sites
Wirenode http://www.wirenode.com/
Jagango http://www.jagango.com/
WebSite Tonight https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/hosting/hosting_build_website.asp?ci=9028
Dev.mobi design site http://dev.mobi/
Mobi Site Galore http://www.mobisitegalore.com/
Updated information at http://www.wm4mb.com/



For artists who want to be ahead of the pack, creating a “mobi” site now may increase marketing success with a very small investment, and may generate incremental sales and broaden the fan base. The combination of viral/push text messaging and having a mobile web presence allows for two-stage marketing campaigns, where a push message is sent to fans who then can respond to the call for action by visiting the mobile site to buy music, check the tour schedule, or enter contests.

Learning about your market

From the books Web Marketing for the Music Business and Record Label Marketing

One of the first rules of marketing is identify your market. Get to know as much as you can about the people who are your fans and customers. The more you know, the better you can target your market, and the more successful your marketing efforts will be. This requires systematic effort but has been made much easier by the Internet. There are two methods for collecting data online about customers. One is to simply monitor their Internet travels and make deductions based upon where they go and how much time they spend on each page. The other involves directly asking your fans questions through an online survey.


Monitoring web traffic
Analytics

Most web sites these days employ analytics. Web analytics is defined as the use of data collected from a web site to determine which aspects of the web site work toward the business objectives. Many services on the Internet offer web analytics features. After asking a series of questions about how you want to track and compile information, the service will create the code to be inserted into every page of the web site. The code helps the service track activity on the site. The webmaster logs in to the service to view and download the statistics that the system has gathered. Analytic services are provided by Google, Quantcast and StatCounter.


Cookies
The Internet has made it easy to track what consumers do, where they go, and what interests they have. One way of keeping track of that data is through the use of cookies. Webopedia defines cookies as a “message given to a Web browser by a Web server. The browser stores the message in a text file. The message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.”

Webopedia explains: “The main purpose of cookies is to identify users and possibly prepare customized Web pages for them. When you enter a Web site using cookies, you may be asked to fill out a form providing such information as your name and interests. This information is packaged into a cookie and sent to your web browser which stores it for later use.” So when you return to that same web site, your browser will send the cookie to the web server letting it know who you are—it’s your ID card or your frequent shopper card. Then, the server can use this information to load up personalized web pages that may include content that interests you, based on information the site collected the last time you visited. So, for example, instead of seeing just a generic welcome page you might see a welcome page with your name and features on it. The use of cookies is frowned upon by privacy advocates but hailed by marketers and webmasters alike in its ability to offer customized information to visitors.


What to Measure
Some of the most important factors that are measured include the following:

1. The number of visitors. This is represented by the number of different people who access your web site over a period of time. From this information, you can determine which times are most popular for visitors. You can determine if your traffic is influenced by any marketing campaigns that may be unfolding, the impact of promotional materials such as e-mail blasts, and the impact of advertising. For example, you send out an e-mail blast to members of the fan club announcing a new tour schedule and notice a jump in the number of visitors to the site and the tour schedule page for the next couple of days.

2. Whether these visitors are new or returning. The effects of advertising and other marketing efforts to expand the market can be measured by observing the number of new visitors to the site. The number of returning visitors indicates the success level of efforts designed to bring visitors back to the site and generate fan loyalty.

3. The number of page views. This is a measurement of how many pages each visitor looks at on the site. If the ratio is high, meaning that each visitor on average visits a fair number of pages, that is an indication of the “stickiness” of the site. Stickiness means that the site is so compelling that visitors are inclined to stick around and visit other sections. However, this could also indicate that they are not finding what they are looking for, so they keep going on to the next page hoping to find what they need. Determining which of these two factors is in play is covered by the next measurement.

4. Time spent per page. If visitors are spending a lot of time on particular pages, one could conclude that these pages contain something of interest to the visitor. If other pages are glossed over quickly, then perhaps they are not as meaningful to the visitor or the visitor has not yet found what they are looking for. If certain pages don’t get much traffic, or visitors tend to spend little time on them, they should be reviewed to determine if the level of interest is appropriate (it may be a page designed for a subsection of visitors, such as the media) or whether the page should be revamped or combined with another page.

5. Time spent on the site. Visitors who spend a long time on the site are probably the most dedicated customers or fans, especially if they are returning visitors. The average amount of time spent on the site indicates the worthiness of the site in providing something of interest.

6. Date and time. It is helpful to know the most popular viewing times and days to plan when updates will be made to the site and if traffic is seasonal.

7. Where visitors reside. This information is not always accurate, as some visitors may use an Internet service provider (ISP) that reflects the location of the main servers instead of the visitor’s hometown. But for most systems, country of origin and city are listed in the visitor statistics. You can determine if there is more activity on the web site coming from areas where the artist is touring. Then by combining that with information on page hits, you can determine how important or useful the tour information page is to visitors.

8. Where visitors are coming from and which page they enter the site through. This information can help you to determine which outside URLs are providing most of the traffic, whether it’s other sites that link to yours, search engine traffic, or direct request (the user types in your domain name).

9. Exit page. Which page do visitors commonly view last before leaving your site? Sometimes the page content will help determine the reason people leave the site: they found what they were looking for, they didn’t find what they wanted, you directed them elsewhere, or they made the purchase.

10. The technology that visitors use. This function indicates the resolution of the monitor, connection type, browser type and operating system of each visitor. It is helpful in determining whether users have the technology to handle the latest bells and whistles before deciding to add those features to the site.


How to Use That Information
How much time a visitor spends viewing particular information, as well as how often visitors make a purchase and what they purchase, give marketing researchers feedback on their efforts. Other aspects of marketing research rely on input from customer feedback forms, surveys and other devices. Often this requires effort on the part of the consumer to provide this valuable information to market research experts. One of the great advantages of the Internet is that it offers marketing analysts a rich body of marketing information based on where web visitors go, what they click on, and how long they engage with the marketing message. In an article “Five Reasons to Track Web Site Traffic,” author Monte Enbysk pointed out that too many “small businesses build web sites, invest time in online marketing campaigns and then devote little or no effort to analyzing the return on their investment.” Here are some of the ways that web analytics tools can provide feedback on marketing strategy:

1. Evaluate the effectiveness of marketing efforts. You can see the results of each aspect of promotion and how it affects traffic to the site. You can find out what the keywords are that your customers use to find you, and how they respond to your marketing by showing up and reviewing your product information.

2. Figure out where your traffic is coming from. By knowing where your web visitors come from just before landing on your site, you can determine if your advertising is working.

3. Learn what your users like and don’t like about your products and messages. Find out if it’s time to replace or modify those underperforming products or messages featured on pages where visitors tend to bail out. You can assess modifications of an underperforming marketing campaign by changes in visitor activity.

4. Get to know your customers. After studying the data coming in and making adjustments to the site, you can learn what your visitors like and what they respond to. Tracking them can tell you what they are looking for when they visit your site.


Online Surveys

You can also learn about your market by asking them directly, through online surveys. A couple rules for doing online surveys: 1) don't ask too many questions, 2) don't ask personal or sensitive questions, 3) clearly state what you intend to do with the information (and what you will NOT be doing, such as selling the information to others), 4) provide an incentive for people to participate, a contest or giveaway.

Surveys can be embedded into the artist's web site, or visitors can be directed to a third-party site survey through a link. Survey Monkey is currently the top service for providing online survey services. The process is simple and the software is designed to generate basic reports without further statistical analysis. If more complex analysis is warranted, the raw data can be downloaded in CSV form and ported into Excel or any statistical software program.
Other services in competition with Survey Monkey include
Zoomerang - http://www.zoomerang.com/
Instant Survey - http://www.instantsurvey.com/
E-customer Survey - http://ecustomersurvey.com/
My Survey Lab - http://www.mysurveylab.com/
Vovici - www.vovici.com/
Survey Gizmo - http://www.surveygizmo.com/
Wufoo - http://wufoo.com/

Selling your music online through your web site

Selling Music Online

from the book Web Marketing for the Music Business by Tom Hutchison

For most artists and record labels, the ultimate goal is selling product, especially recordings and concert tickets. To do this, it is probably necessary to get into e-commerce: having a retail presence on the Web. The first decision involves whether to “set up shop” or leave it to the experts.
There are many online retail stores that handle either physical product, digital downloads, or both. Should you decide to do it yourself, there are several online services that handle the complex portions of self-distribution, including financial transactions, setting up the web site storefront, and inventory management and handling. Some of these services simply offer software to interface with your artist’s web site and use a database to manage shipping information, or they simply deal in financial transactions.

Doing it yourself
Doing it yourself requires several components in the process of engaging in commercial transactions: processing orders online, providing financial security, handling the financial transaction, inventory management, and shipping out orders.

Fulfillment
Fulfillment is defined as order processing that includes documenting when an order was received, when and how it was shipped, and when and how it was paid for. Record labels, artists, and their managers need to weigh the options when deciding whether to handle their own fulfillment. It requires persistent attention to the web site and prompt follow up on all orders received. If an artist is on the road touring, fulfillment should be left to a third party to handle. Advances in computer technology have streamlined the fulfillment process. With the right software program in place, much of the order processing can be automated, from keeping tabs on inventory levels to actually printing out shipping labels and bar codes for the delivery services.

Financial Transactions

Credit Cards
To set up shop, it is necessary to process transactions and collect money from your customers. Credit cards are the most popular form of financial exchange online because of their convenience and speedy processing. Years ago, mail-order businesses mostly requested money orders or cashiers checks; some would take personal checks but would then wait until the check had cleared before sending out the product. Back then it was common to see the disclaimer “allow four to six weeks for delivery.” In today’s immediate gratification society, four to six weeks is not an acceptable timeframe for most customers. Credit cards increase impulse buys. In “How to Promote Your Music Successfully on the Internet,” David Nevue (2007) stated, “To run a successful business on the Internet, credit card acceptance is an absolute must.” However, credit card processing is not without costs and requires an elaborate setup. There are web service companies now that provide the credit card processing services along with the software to integrate into your web site. To set up a site to accept credit cards, your company must have a merchant bank account, security and encryption measures in place (secure socket layer server or SSL), credit card verification services (also called a payment gateway), a shopping cart page, and the software to process and track orders and shipments. In addition, some customers are apprehensive about giving out their credit card numbers to an unknown vendor on a small web site and prefer to use a more reputable retailer or more secure service such as PayPal.

PayPal
PayPal is an online service that allows registered users to transfer funds to and from bank accounts set up as their PayPal accounts. It also allows nonregistered users to make a payment to a registered user via a major credit card. The payee will feel more secure providing his or her credit card number to PayPal than the small, unknown vendor who is selling items on the Internet. PayPal then credits the payment to the vendor’s account. The vendor pays a service fee of 30 cents plus a small percentage of each transaction. The service also offers online shopping cart services.

Google Checkout
New on the scene is Google Checkout, a service offered by Google. When combined with Google’s AdWords program (see Chapter 11, the costs are greatly reduced, with merchants waiving the monthly transaction fees on $10 in sales value for every dollar spent on advertising with Google.
Keep in mind that doing it yourself involves a commitment to maintain accurate accounts of inventory on the web site and to promptly respond to each transaction with a confirmation e-mail and shipping information. It also requires being ready to pack up and ship products out the door on a frequent and consistent basis. For musicians who are on the road, this responsibility is best left to the experts.

For handling e-commerce on the web site, it is necessary to follow these recommendations:
1. Provide thorough product descriptions, including graphics.
2. Prominently display the product name and price. If several formats are available, clearly identify the format.
3. Make it easy for the customer to purchase; the fewer clicks, the better. Make the “buy” button obvious.
4. Make sure the customer knows when the order is completed.
5. Once the order is placed, send an immediate e-mail confirmation.
6. Make sure the orders go out as quickly as possible.
7. Make sure the customer knows how long it will take to receive the order.
8. Make sure you have the inventory to fill the orders. If you are out of stock, modify the storefront page immediately to reflect this fact.

Using the Cell Phone to Promote Your Music: part 1

USING THE CELL PHONE TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC - part 1

from the book Web Marketing for the Music Business by Tom Hutchison

Many local musicians have yet to discover that the cell phone is a great promotional device for musicians--even at the local level. This new marketing avenue is still in the development stage, but there are some opportunities already for artists.

First, you should start collecting cell numbers from fans now, even if you don't plan on using them right away--much the same as you do for getting email addresses from fans and adding them to your friends list. You can do that at gigs and online with a simple form that your fans fill out.

At this point in mobile marketing, it is not cost-effective for local artists to purchase services for sending out bulk cell messages, so it might be best to have your fans sign up for one of the mobile social networking services (actually SMS--short message services) such as Twitter, Zlango, Jygy, or others. You can find a list at http://www.go2web20.net/. Then type in the keyword mobile.

Many of these services are still in beta testing mode, so they are not yet charging for the service. Try to find a service that will allow you to send a bulk text message to a group of fans at once. Then follow these very important rules for sending out text marketing messages.

1. Keep it simple: Include a link to your web site for further information.

2. Don't send out too many messsages. The majority of recipients pay per message so it will cost them money to participate.

3. Make it timely: Only send information that is not better served on the web site, such as a reminder about tonight's gig, etc.

4. Include a call to action: ask them to show up at your gig, listen to your new tune, check out your new album, etc.

I'll be including updates to this blog with more tips on using the web and new media for promoting your band. Meanwhile, check out Web Marketing for the Music Business

Providing Music Samples on Your Artist Web Site

PROVIDING MUSIC SAMPLES

from the book Web Marketing for the Music Business by Tom Hutchison

One safe way to preserve the value of an artist’s music is to provide 30-second samples instead of letting visitors download or listen to the entire song. No one wants to make and distribute copies of 30-second segments of a song. And the sample gives potential customers an idea of whether they might like the song or not. If the artist’s music is featured for sale on one of the major online download services, they usually provide 30-second samples, and it may not be necessary to create them for the artist’s site. Visitors can be redirected to one of those e-tailers to preview the music.

To provide samples on the artist’s web site, they must first be edited from the full song. The idea is to select a sample that best represents the aura of the song, not simply start at the song’s introduction and take the first 30 seconds. One general rule to follow is to capture the end portion of a verse and most of the first chorus. At Nashville Independent Music, John Haring tated, “We’ve found that offering 45 seconds of a song starting from the 20 second point forward captures most of a verse and chorus. We use this standard when creating clips in our automated
process for nashvilleim.com. We also automatically create a one second fade-in and a four second fade-out for better listenability.”

Creating Music Samples from Songs
The process of creating samples can be accomplished using any music editing software such as ProTools, Cakewalk, or one of the less expensive audio editing programs available on the Internet such as Audacity or Gold Wave. From the songs selected for sampling, simply open the song in an editing program and listen to various 30-second sections until you have found a section that best represents the overall song. Then follow these simple steps:

In most audio editing programs, the running time is listed either at the bottom or the top of the song file. The graphic representation is amplitude modulation, with loud parts of the song showing up with large bars and quieter section showing shorter bars. With the highlighting tool, you can select 30 seconds and preview it to determine its suitability.

Once a 30-second sample has been selected that is a good representation of the song, highlight it and copy it to a new file for further editing.

The new file will contain the sample filling up the entire running time of the file—in this case, 30 seconds. At this time, you may want to preview the sample again to verify that it is the best possible representation of the song. If it meets those requirements, it still needs some editing.

To sound like a normal sample, it will need a fade in and fade out. These can be accomplished by highlighting first the beginning section of the song. This will be the area selected for a fade in, from silence to full modulation, so that by the end of the highlighted section, the song is playing at normal volume.

The larger the highlighted section, the longer the fade in (see Figure). Select an appropriate size section for the fade in and use the fade-in tool to reshape the sound. First, highlight the section for the fade in. The appropriate fade-in rate may vary depending on the song and may take some experimentation.

Repeat the process in reverse at the end of the sample so that it fades out to silence. This will permanently alter the sample so that no further manipulation is necessary, and the listener will not be required to make any adjustments. Without this editing, the sample would have abrupt entry and exit points and not seem natural.

Then save the file as an MP3 file and upload it to the server. As each web visitor clicks on a link created to the MP3 file, the browser’s player will open the file and play it on the visitor’s computer. The alternative is to embed the player controls within the web page so that the visitor can click on them to access and listen to the sample. Most web design software programs include multimedia controls. This will allow the web designer to place more than one sample on a page.

When setting up the music file on the web page, the options will generally include the following:
Do you want this to play automatically when the page opens, or have the visitor select play?
Do you want the song to play once, several times, or loop continuously?
Do you want embedded user controls?

The advantage of having the user’s browser open the default media player is that the music will continue to play even if the user moves on to another web page. If the controls are embedded in the page, chances are that the music will quit when the user continues through the web site. However, if there are music files on several pages and all are set to open in the default media player when the page loads, several songs may play at the same time, confusing the visitor.

When including several music samples on one page, it is best not to have any of them play automatically, so that visitors can select if and when they want to listen. A page that automatically plays a sound clip when it’s opened may delay the loading process and cause the visitor to wait or give up.

AUDIO EDITING PROGRAMS
Goldwave audio editor, www.goldwave.com
Audacity audio editor, www.audacity.com
Audiobook Cutter, divides longer MP3 files into several smaller files; good for samples,
http://audiobookcutter.sourceforge.net
Kristal Audio Engine, www.kreatives.org/kristal winLAME, converts audio files from one format to another (use in conjunction with an audio editor)
Check www.WM4MB.com for updated lists.

WHERE IS THE MUSIC INDUSTRY HEADED?

I generally will not post blog entries that are editorials, but since this is the beginning of the New Year, I thought I would share some observations about the music business.

1. Is the long tail theory dead? Chris Anderson's much touted long tail theory has come under much scrutiny lately as marketing experts decry that there is no evidence that the Internet is causing a surge in sales from unknown, unsigned artists. MY theory is more about the belly bulge—the fact that it seems there is a middle class of musicians developing. Whereas there used to be signed artists (who were stars and rode in limos) and local musicians (who played in bars and drove broken down vans), and nothing in between, we now have a developing middle class of musicians who make a decent living. It remains to be seen whether this is in fact what is occurring, but the Internet does level the playing field and gives local musicians the opportunities to advance on their own. My book Web Marketing for the Music Business can help musicians move up to the next level in their careers.

2. Is there any life left in the CD format? My opinion—yes and no. Its days as the dominant format are numbered. Last year, CD sales dropped nearly 20% while digital sales were up 27%. One of the main advantages CDs have had over digital downloads is the absence of copy-protection, so consumers are free to transfer the music to any device they want. This advantage is ending very soon, as most download services, including iTunes, are moving to DRM-free tracks (that's digital rights management, or copy protection). Jupiter Research predicts that offline physical formats will only have 40% of the music market share by 2013, with digital formats making up 41%. So, if you are a musician, should you quit making CDs to sell? No, they are still important to sell at live performances. But you might want to consider going to a different medium for your physical product. Look at thumb drives or memory cards. The price has gone down, you can duplicate your music on them at home, if you don't sell them, you can use them again, and there is less waste and pollution than with optical discs. If you do this, and sell them at gigs, get some lanyards so purchasers can wear them around their neck. That might interest others into buying also—it's a viral effect.

3. Are music subscription services dead? No, just struggling. These services have not taken off as expected because consumers are used to owning, not renting music. There is concern that these files, which are taking up space on users' hard drives, will become useless when the subscription expires. The salvation will come with subscription, streaming-based services to mobile devices—Where the TIVO and the iPod merge. Consumers may be more likely to engage in a monthly subscription package if it is bundled with their cell phone service. Did you know that there are over 3.3 billion cell phones in service globally? Many more phones than computers! If the phone companies were to charge a universal service fee for subscription music service, the recorded music industry could expect income of 30 billion US$ annually (about the same as in 2007) by charging every cell customer a fee of…ten dollars a year! At $1 per month, the industry could see an increase in income to $36 billion annually just from subscription fees. WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?

4. 2009 could be the "year of cloud computing." If 2007 was the year of the widget and 2008 was the year of the mobile 3G handset, then this year could belong to cloud computing—that means storing your files "up in the cloud" on a server rather than on your desktop computer. More people are moving their photo collections online, along with their other assets such as email and videos. Music is perhaps the last holdout, mainly because of complex licensing restrictions. MP3 tried to do this after they were sued for file sharing. Their idea was to allow consumers to store their personal music collections on the MP3 site so they could access them from anywhere. Good idea, but the timing was not right. As consumers start to depend more on mobile handsets for information, cloud computing becomes more important. Check out what Amazon is doing with its new S3 (simple storage service) site. http://aws.amazon.com/s3/. This sticky wicket is all the legal posturing over who gets what share of the financial pie. That bickering will probably delay the onset of a music business renaissance.

5. So how sick or healthy is the recorded music industry? It is in a painful transitional state right now. The structure of the industry is geared around physical product delivered to retail stores. Much of the promotion around "records" deals with retail and motivating consumers to "purchase" their music. The future belongs to a model that is more likely to resemble the business model that television shows have always depended on: consumers may or may not purchase copies of television shows, but revenue is generated from other sources such as advertising or subscription fees…much like CBS and Showtime. Under this new model, payment is made based upon popularity of the show, or in our case, the song. So that the more people there are listening/watching, the more advertising revenue is generated or more royalty payments from subscription fees. Under this model, marketing is all about consumption, not purchase...in other words, the ads will ask consumers to "listen" to their product rather than "buy" it.So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. At least until some unforeseen force throws yet another monkey wrench into the gears.

Check out Web Marketing for the Music Business