Here’s a quick video from CyberPR’s show “Sound Advice” with Derek too.

[via cyberPR]

Derek Sivers 7 Critical Marketing Basics Every Musicians Should Know

Here are 7 wonderful lessons, which are great to revisit no matter how strong your marketing muscles are.

But before I dive in I want to start with how Derek got his own music career off of the ground. This speaks volumes about how he achieved his CD Baby success later in his career.  There is a huge marketing lesson in this story…

When he was a student at Berklee College of Music, Derek was attending a music business lecture.  Before the lecture started, he overheard his professor whispering to the guest speaker, Mark Fried from Warner Chappell Music, that there would be no time to eat before the lecture and it was a 3-hour talk. Mark was looking hungry and there had clearly been a miscommunication about eating before the class started. So, Derek slipped out of the room to a pay phone and ordered pizza for Mark and for the entire class.  Forty-five minutes into his lecture, Mark was eating pizza with the class and was extremely grateful to Derek (who was one of many students in the room) who went out of his way to help him.

After the lecture, Mark gave Derek his card and told him to keep in touch, which Derek did for the remaining 2 years he was at Berklee.  When he came to New York he would meet Mark for coffee and their friendship grew.  A week before his graduation, Derek called Mark to ask if there were any jobs at Warner Chappell opening up. Seven days later Derek had a job working at Warner Chappell in the tape room.

Lesson #1 A Marketing Golden Rule: It’s about THEM Not YOU

What struck me about this story is a simple marketing lesson that is also one of the golden rules. Always think about this question: How can I be helpful to other people?  That is what will make you memorable in the long run. It was Derek’s courteous consideration that opened all doors for him in the music business.

The pizza took Derek one phone call and $25 and it secured him a job in the music industry.  There were probably 45 students sitting in that lecture hall that day and he was the one who ended up with a relationship with Mark and in the end…a job.

Lesson #2: Unsolicited Actions Will Get You Nowhere

Derek then went on to explain what it was like in the tape room at Warner Chappell.  It was there he got to see first hand what it looks like from the inside when indie musicians send unsolicited music to a publishing company.  Warner Chappell is a large publishing company that was not looking to sign new artists and Derek saw the packages arrive by the dozen on a daily basis. From this he learned exactly what never to do.

Lesson #3: No One Is Coming To Save You In The Music Industry

Derek points out (and I have repeated this line in my own talks) that no one will come along and be your music business “fairy godfather”, it all has to start internally.  If you hire anyone to be on your team, no matter what they are doing for you, you must understand that that person is your hired partner.  You will both have to work to achieve your desired result. This is especially true in the realm of social media and online marketing.

Lesson #4: Marketing = Consideration

Reach People the Way You Want to Be Reached

Stop thinking of it as Marketing and start thinking of it as creative ways to be considerate. Think of things from the other person’s point of view: Imagine if you called your friend up and screamed into the phone: “THURSDAY COME SEE ME PLAY NEXT THURSDAY!” (HANG UP)

You probably would not show up if you were spoken to that rudely and then hung up on and it was funny to see Derek act this out but his point was: This is exactly the way most musicians speak to their newsletter lists.

If your friends spoke to you the way you speak to them on your newsletter list you wouldn’t be friends. Begin to pay attention to other artist’s messages and notice what works on you. The considerate thing is to be so novel and creative and innovative so that people say: you have GOT to see / hear this musician play!

Lesson #5:  Sharply Define What You Do

You cannot slice through the world’s attention if you are using a blunt knife and you will most definitely be blunt if you are trying to be all things to all people.  Your message must be sharp and pointed. It’s OK to exclude 99% and have 1% worship you! Be unapologetic in your bluntness.

3 CD Baby Artists Who Are Sharply Focused

Eileen Quinn – Create A Niche

One of CD Baby’s all time top-sellers is an artist named Eileen Hoyton. Eileen is from Nova Scotia and she owns a boat.  She recorded her music on the boat and the title of her album is called Songs For Sailors, and it’s a top seller at CD Baby. Why? Because it’s laser focused. It speaks directly to a niche audience. I bet you can find a copy of her album on every boat that you set foot on. Eileen also laser focused her PR and marketing efforts on her niche audience.  Since sailors read boating magazines, she went after reviews and features in boating mags, (she could have cared LESS about Spin and Rolling Stone) and she got publicized to a select group of people she knew would love her music and she sold tens of thousands of albums!

Regina Spektor – Don’t Be Afraid To Be “Out There”

Regina Spektor also understood laser focus but it took time. She did a Tori Amos style thing for years and with those albums, she did OK but when she added the hiccups and the “weird” themes and she started banging on her piano bench with a drumstick while she played people really started to notice her. This is what led her to her record deal and to her popularity.  She really stood out from the crowd.

David m. Bailey – Find A Small Hill To Dominate

David was a lawyer who was diagnosed with brain cancer. Out of that experience he became a top seller at CD Baby. David was given a few months to live and he immediately quit his job and decided to record an album.  He beat the odds and he survived brain cancer.  He is now the poster child of surviving brain cancer.  He has since recorded 7 albums and brain cancer patients often find him online through research, they then logon to CD Baby and buy all 7 of his albums at once.

Lesson #5: DIY Does Not Mean Do It All Yourself – Decide It Yourself

DIY does not have to mean do it all yourself.  Doing it all yourself will surely set you up for exhaustion and will leave you no time to be creative.

Instead Derek recommends that you think of DIY as: Decide It Yourself – you call the shots but you MUST learn how to delegate, put your fans to work and get things off of your plate. If you have a sense of STRESS and UPSET around every decision and everything becomes so important you really miss the point. Just try delegating things and don’t make it all so serious and significant. Start every decision with: Let’s see what happens if… and try it!

Lesson #6: Act AS IF….

“You are whatever you pretend to be.”

-          Kurt Vonnegut

This part of the talk really inspired me….  Most people do not know this: Derek Sivers is an introvert by nature.  His instinct when at a music conference is to retreat to his hotel room. To combat this he ACTS as if he is an extrovert. Pretend to be the biggest extrovert possible for an hour at a networking event or at a party.

Lesson #7: It’s Who You Know Mixed With How You Persevere

Everything major that happens in your career starts with someone you know.  Here’s Derek’s story of how he got the gig touring with world-renowned Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamato:  Derek’s roommate from school was working wrapping cables in a studio and he overheard the musicians saying that they needed a guitar player to go on an upcoming tour.

To prove that he was the perfect guitarist for the gig, Derek got a hold of some of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s music that he was in the process of recording, wrote all of the guitar parts and mixed it and sent it back.

After a few days when he did not hear from Ryuichi he wrote a cello part out of another one of his songs and sent that to the studio.

After the third day he got the call and toured Japan for 2 months in front of 20,000 people each night.

But Derek proves that it’s not only who you know but also what you do once you get the connection.  He demonstrates how to fully take advantage of each situation.

Persevere With People

Get used to staying in touch with hundreds of people with blogs and with your newsletter – it’s a psychological shift in your head but once you can make it you can be very very effective staying in touch with many people.  This is the miracle of technology.

Make yourself meet 3 new people every single week: Do this by picking up the phone – people get hundreds of emails and dozens of phone calls.

TIP: AVOID saying the words “pick your brain” to anyone.  That says: I want something from you….  and when you do talk to people, prove that you have already done your research.  Derek says that people will ask him: So, what does CD Baby do?  And It’s totally disrespectful – you want to let them know that you care enough to have spent some time learning about them before you talk / meet.

PR Tips With Derek Sivers is a post from: wax&wires

WAXandWIRES TV – EPISODE 5

In this episode:
The state of The Album V Singles
Apple Cocktail album format
Muse gets creative with releasing their new single

I’m trying out a new format. Rather than full, crazy long episodes covering the gamut, I’ll put out shorter videos of just one topic at a time. Not as much fancy lighting, production quality, motion graphics, credit rolls, etc. Hopefully it will let me get the content out more timely though, and give you a chance to watch without getting bored or having to reschedule your day! The content ought to be driving the show more than the production anyway, so let me know what you think!

In this episode, the big topic is how to create an experience behind your music. Like it or not, your songs are free (somewhere) on the net. You can fight that all you want, but what you ought to do is accept that the songs are given away. Count money you make off of song sales as bonus. From there you need to figure out how to create added incentive to get listeners to buy into an EXPERIENCE around those songs; whether it be exclusive behind the scenes content, concert tickets, t-shirts, whatever. Muse did a great job with that on their latest release, creating an entire interactive experience and geo-tagging hunt for their fans. Apple is doing this in an official way with “Cocktail,” but bands have been independently up to it for a while.

Remember back when CDs first came out and they would have “secret tracks?” That’s totally played out now, and went through a period of almost being expected on every album. We need a resurgence of that mindset in a fresh way though, artists who will put a little something special in the album in order to create excitement around picking it up. All the little hidden treasures that add a personal and original touch to the album, thus helping it find a home in your memory.

What are you doing to bring an experience along with your songs?

Email me with any questions or comments. I welcome them all. Thanks!

tim@waxandwires.com

wax&wires tv – Episode 005: Music is more than songs is a post from: wax&wires

In this episode:
- Performance Rights Organizations (BMI vs. ASCAP vs…)
- Aqualung
- Parallel and Two-Stage Compression

Read up on PROs: ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.
You can check out the third-party companies like Taxi and CD Baby too, which can help you distribute your music, or land it in TV, film and radio.

I couldn’t find a place to download Aqualung’s album, Memory Man, legally online. Here’s a link to buy it on Amazon for just a couple bucks; you can also check out sound clips on there to scope it out:

Aqualung – Memory Man

I would love your feedback (good or bad!), just shoot me an email: tim@waxandwires.com.

wax&wires tv – Episode 004 is a post from: wax&wires

Do you think the App will replace the Album in the near future? Has it already happened?

[via Eliot Van Buskirk @ wired]

The iTunes music store sells single songs at approximately the same price, with artist presented in more or less the same way.

Apple’s app store, however, is still somewhat like the wild west (at least as far as music goes), where the rules are being made up in real time. Artists and labels can sell music alongside other digital offerings through the app store at any price from zero to $999.99.

As we suggested last summer, this creates an opportunity for artists and labels to distribute a new type of product, especially because the app store concept is spreading to other mobile phone platforms.

On Monday, six of the 20 most recently submitted music apps to appear in the App Store featured a single artist: Jason Carver, Jessica Harp, Jimmy Cliff, John Butler Trio, Kadence, or The Cribs. Each showcases music videos, photos, news, photo-jumble games, concert listings, and/or community features that let fans share photos with each other. And all of them were made with iLike’s iPhone app toolkit — as was Ingrid Michaelson’s app, pictured to the right.

Since iLike launched the service in May, about 250 of the over 300,000 artists with access to iLike’s dashboard feature have launched customized iPhone apps through the system.

“We’re encouraged by the positive response our create-your-own-app platform has generated, and this is only the beginning,” said iLike CEO Ali Partovi. (The company also announced a new version of its Local Concerts app on Tuesday, with concert listings based on your music library, push notification for shows, maps to venues, and concert information sharing.)

These artist-specific apps, which labels also develop in-house, place a constantly-updating tattoo on fans’ phones. It’s like having a music subscription, but in the sense of a fan club, rather than in the sense of subscribing to music in general as one would with Rhapsody.

Many of iLike’s music apps are free and promotional. Other apps contain full songs, and cost money.

Dave Dederer, former singer and guitarist for the Presidents of the United States of America and current Melodeo business development vice president, released one of the first of these, which charged $3 for four albums plus exclusive material. His company sells another $3 app containing streaming versions of top 100 hip hop songs in the iTunes store (iTunes link).

The app store broke the rules for selling music through iTunes, and the ramifications of that are beginning to be felt. Now that iLike has allowed app creation to scale across hundreds of thousands of bands, and other mobile platforms are emulating Apple’s modular app concept, the artist-specific app could — in addition to being the new MySpace page — become a formidable music format in its own right.

If that happens, the idea of buying a bundle of music won’t die with the album — it will survive with the app.

The Album Is Dead, Long Live the App is a post from: wax&wires

The project has a codename of “Cocktail,” and will reportedly launch this upcoming September; right around the time Apple plans to release a tablet touch-screen computer with 3G connectivity.

We’ve talked at length about the future of the album, different artists even abandoning the album in favor of singles-only releases (see the Barcelona segment of wwtv #001). We’ve discussed at nauseum ways to create incentive for fans to buy your album, or larger packages based around your music.

What you need to realize, is that you’re no longer selling your music. Like it or not, your music is free. You might not have priced it as such, or want it to be so, but the reality of it is (especiall for the big 4) all of your music is available somewhere for free. What you need to do now, is figure out how to monetize and capitalize on the exposure that your free music has given you. You’re selling an experience around the music, since the music itself isn’t going to pay your rent. Shift back to classic marketting. Shick and Gillette will be happy to give you a free razor, because they know that you’ll buy razor blades from them in the future. Microsoft is happy to take a loss on the XBOX 360 console itself, to sell you video games and downloadable content in the future.

The razor blade still has to be good. The video games still have to be stellar. The XBOX still has to work. So don’t think you can give out terrible music and sell your would-be fans an ugly sleeveless acid wash t-shirt. Your music still needs to be good, along with your bonus content, but think beyond your music as the thing that will earn you money. It might be the catalyst that drives your production, but it is not the bread-winner.

What are your video games? What are your razor blades? What are you offering people to create in them a DESIRE to purchase your goods?

Apple And The Big 4 Look For Ways To Resurrect The Full Album is a post from: wax&wires

In this episode:
- Skunks
- Royalties, Pandora and the New Deal
- Spotify U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!
- EMI in the troubles
- The Bird And The Bee
- Promoting your band (get off the internet!)

If you missed the article on the new net royalties deal, you can find it here, as well as read the Pandora blog post I mentioned down in the followup section to that article, or go directly to it here.

You can find more info about Spotify’s US deal in this Forbes.com article, which I referenced on the show.

Since the taping, EMI has taken some steps to dig themselves out. They’re currently being advised to issue some high-yield bonds to repay the Citigroup loan. That worked for Warner a month or two back, so maybe that could help knock down the $4.2 Billion they need to pay off by 2015. Citi, as suspected, is quite reluctant to forgo the debt.

Here’s Bob Baker’s article on getting your music heard, as well as Trent Reznor’s blog post, both of which I touched on during the Wires section of this episode.

Here’s a link up to The Bird And The Bee’s album, Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future.

I would love your feedback (good or bad!), just shoot me an email: tim@waxandwires.com and be sure to check out the main site, waxandwires.com!

wax&wires tv – Episode 003 is a post from: wax&wires

I’m going to use up this entire article dealing with one subject, because I think it’s vital to the success of your music promotion efforts. Every day I see the same mistakes being made in this area and feel I owe it to you to drive this crucial point home.

Suppose you walked into your local record store and one of the employees (a complete stranger to you) came up and handed you a box filled with CDs and said, “Here, these are extra promo copies. You can have any CD you want out of the box.”

Now let’s pretend that you were not familiar with any of these artists. As you picked up each CD to consider whether or not you wanted it, what would be the first question to pop into your head? In other words, what basic question would you need to answer first before you could make an intelligent (and quick) decision on which one you’d take?

Would it be “Who produced this CD?”

No.

Would it be “What record label put this out?”

No.

How about “What are the names of the musicians and what instruments do they play?”

No.

Would it be “I wonder how great these folks think their own music is?”

No.

Is That Your Final Answer?

Hopefully, you’ve come to the same conclusion that I have. The first question that anyone asks when encountering new music is: “What kind of music is this?”

I’ve used this box of free CDs example to make a point: This is exactly the same position that music editors, radio program directors, A&R people and music publishers are in when they receive your unsolicited recordings along with dozens of others. Even though it’s great to think that everyone already knows who you are and what you do, the sad truth is that most of your contacts will be clueless. That’s why giving them the first (and most important) clue up front is essential.

Human beings need some way to process information and file it away in the proper place in their heads before proceeding to any follow-up questions, such as “Where is this band from?” or “What unique spin do they put on this genre?” Without creating a mental category or comparison to something fans are already familiar with, it’s nearly impossible to get to these important follow-up questions. And if you can’t move this sorting-out process along in a swift manner, your music marketing efforts end up dead in the water.

Why, then, do so many people who promote music either ignore answering this fundamental question — “What kind of music is this?” — or bury the answer so deep in their press materials that the reader gives up out of frustration before ever uncovering it?

Unless you are (or are working with) a well-known artist, the people receiving your promo kits will be in the dark as to who you are and what you play. Your job, therefore, is to answer that first all-important question right off the bat: “What kind of music is this?” It should be one of the first things people see when viewing your press package.

Straight From the Slush Pile

Here’s an example I randomly pulled out of the overflowing box of review CDs in my office not long ago when I was a music editor. When opening the package, the first thing I see is a cover letter. Here’s how it reads (I’ve changed the name of the person, label and band to protect the misguided):

“My name is John Jones, vice-president of Widget Records, here in New York. I’m writing to announce that one of our bands, the Losers, will be playing in St. Louis on July 24.”

It’s important to Jones that he announces who he is and what he does right off the bat. I’m sure this makes him feel good about himself. But how does this introduction move him closer to his goal of getting media coverage for the poor Losers? At least I know about the St. Louis date, something that should matter to me. But since I don’t know what kind of music this is, I’m not impressed. On to the next paragraph.

“The Losers’ music is already on national college and commercial radio.”

Excellent. His mother must be very proud of him. But is this jazz radio? Alternative radio? Polka radio? Ten stations? Eight hundred stations? Huh? I’m still being kept in the dark.

“The Losers are a new band founded in 1994 in New York City. These shows are part of the year-long tour to promote their debut album.”

More senseless background details before I even know what kind of music this band plays. But one thing I do know is that Jones sure likes talking about his band and its accomplishments. Now I’m starting to doze off from reading this.

The Music Needle in the Haystack

Finally, I come across this line …

“The Losers’ music combines Celtic violin with punk-influenced distorted guitars and melodic rock vocals …

What? A description of the music? Say it isn’t so! And I only had to wait till the fourth paragraph to get it. And it ends up being a pretty cool description: Celtic violin with punk guitars. Now that’s different. That’s something I’d like to pop in the CD player and check out. What a great media hook for the band.

Unfortunately, the label’s vice-president has done the group a disservice by burying this vital piece of information in a dreary cover letter. Most media people would have given up on it long before they got to the intriguing description.

But this never occurred to Jones. It was much more important for him to pound his chest and proclaim his name, title, city and the fact that his as-yet-undefined band was getting radio airplay. What a missed opportunity! Don’t make this same error.

How much better it would have been if his letter went something like this:

“Dear Bob,
When we first told people we had signed a band that combined Celtic violins with distorted punk guitars and melodic rock vocals, they told us we were crazy. But we proved them all wrong with the Losers, a band that is now on a major roll. Last month alone, over 325 college stations around the country were playing cuts off the band’s new self-titled CD. And now you can experience the Losers for yourself when they come to St. Louis on July 24. I think your readers would get a kick out of hearing about this unusual Celtic/violin/ punk/melodic mixture …”

This version (though it could probably be reshaped and made even stronger) pulls you in and lets you know what you’re dealing with quickly and interestingly — as opposed to Jones’s dry resume listings.

Are You Guilty of a PR Felony?

Now take a look at some of the promotional tools you’re using right now. What’s the first thing you see? Your address? The band members’ names? The record label name? Some vague reference to how impressive your music is without a specific definition of it?

Stop beating around the bush and start getting to the heart of the matter. Media and industry people are partly overworked and partly lazy. Don’t shroud your message in mystery, hoping it will tease people and make them read further. Remember this important rule: No one will ever be as interested in reading your press materials as you will. So give them what they need up front, fast and simple.

And answer the most important question first: “What kind of music is this?”

The First Question You Must Answer When Promoting Your Music is a post from: wax&wires

This music video was shot for Sour’s ‘Hibi no Neiro’ (Tone of everyday) from their first mini album ‘Water Flavor EP’. The cast were selected from the actual Sour fan base, from many countries around the world. Each person and scene was filmed purely via webcam.

Director: Masashi Kawamura + Hal Kirkland + Magico Nakamura + Masayoshi Nakamura

SOUR official site: sour-web.com

2009 Neutral Nine Records

SOUR’s 日々の音色 (Hibi no Neiro) Music Video is a post from: wax&wires

The song and video concept isn’t half bad either. Guess who just gained exposure to tens of thousands of new listeners that would have never heard his music otherwise? Brilliant.

Play by BJSR. This Music Video was shot entirely on the new iPhone 3GS. Produced by Showdown Productions, LLC. Check out myspace.com/bjsrmusic and krop.com/kennymosher for more music and videos. Music mixed and mastered by Connor Smith.

Music Video Shot On iPhone 3Gs is a post from: wax&wires

(disclaimer)
This was written on a bumpy Euro-bus ride across the wilderness – may ramble a bit but I think the point gets across.
TR

I posted a message on Twitter yesterday stating I thought The Beastie Boys and TopSpin Media “got it right” regarding how to sell music in this day and age. Here’s a link to their store:

[illcommunication.beastieboys.com]

Shortly thereafter, I got some responses from people stating the usual “yeah, if you’re an established artist – what if you’re just trying to get heard?” argument. In an interview I did recently this topic came up and I’ll reiterate what I said here.

If you are an unknown / lesser-known artist trying to get noticed / established:

* Establish your goals. What are you trying to do / accomplish? If you are looking for mainstream super-success (think Lady GaGa, Coldplay, U2, Justin Timberlake) – your best bet in my opinion is to look at major labels and prepare to share all revenue streams / creative control / music ownership. To reach that kind of critical mass these days your need old-school marketing muscle and that only comes from major labels. Good luck with that one.

If you’re forging your own path, read on.

* Forget thinking you are going to make any real money from record sales. Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY. As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters.
To clarify:
Parter with a TopSpin or similar or build your own website, but what you NEED to do is this – give your music away as high-quality DRM-free MP3s. Collect people’s email info in exchange (which means having the infrastructure to do so) and start building your database of potential customers. Then, offer a variety of premium packages for sale and make them limited editions / scarce goods. Base the price and amount available on what you think you can sell. Make the packages special – make them by hand, sign them, make them unique, make them something YOU would want to have as a fan. Make a premium download available that includes high-resolution versions (for sale at a reasonable price) and include the download as something immediately available with any physical purchase. Sell T-shirts. Sell buttons, posters… whatever.

Don’t have a TopSpin as a partner? Use Amazon for your transactions and fulfillment. [www.amazon.com]

Use TuneCore to get your music everywhere. [www.tunecore.com]

Have a realistic idea of what you can expect to make from these and budget your recording appropriately.
The point is this: music IS free whether you want to believe that or not. Every piece of music you can think of is available free right now a click away. This is a fact – it sucks as the musician BUT THAT’S THE WAY IT IS (for now). So… have the public get what they want FROM YOU instead of a torrent site and garner good will in the process (plus build your database).

The Beastie Boys’ site offers everything you could possibly want in the formats you would want it in – available right from them, right now. The prices they are charging are more than you should be charging – they are established and you are not. Think this through.

The database you are amassing should not be abused, but used to inform people that are interested in what you do when you have something going on – like a few shows, or a tour, or a new record, or a webcast, etc.
Have your MySpace page, but get a site outside MySpace – it’s dying and reads as cheap / generic. Remove all Flash from your website. Remove all stupid intros and load-times. MAKE IT SIMPLE TO NAVIGATE AND EASY TO FIND AND HEAR MUSIC (but don’t autoplay). Constantly update your site with content – pictures, blogs, whatever. Give people a reason to return to your site all the time. Put up a bulletin board and start a community. Engage your fans (with caution!) Make cheap videos. Film yourself talking. Play shows. Make interesting things. Get a Twitter account. Be interesting. Be real. Submit your music to blogs that may be interested. NEVER CHASE TRENDS. Utilize the multitude of tools available to you for very little cost of any – Flickr / YouTube / Vimeo / SoundCloud / Twitter etc.

If you don’t know anything about new media or how people communicate these days, none of this will work. The role of an independent musician these days requires a mastery of first hand use of these tools. If you don’t get it – find someone who does to do this for you. If you are waiting around for the phone to ring or that A & R guy to show up at your gig – good luck, you’re going to be waiting a while.

Hope this helps, and I’ll scour responses for intelligent comments I can respond to.

TR

TopSpin Media info:
[topspinmedia.com]

** quick update:
Thanks for the insightful comments already – when I get a moment (and a reliable internet connection) I’ll respond to some of your very valid points. Please keep in mind – these were just some thoughts I quickly wrote down and posted and not meant to be a complete guide by any means. I’ve neglected to get into publishing and some other things. I’ll update pretty soon.

You can read the comments and any updates here.

It’s difficult to assess whether or not Trent’s advice is sound, based on the fact that he never did it from the ground up on the indie front. He has seen the major side and the indie side, but only after his major label success (which is the exact argument he’s trying to refute above). At the same time, I would hazard a guess that he has more experience and knows more about the music industry from the artists’ perspective than you do, so you may as well heed his words.

Trent Reznor On What To Do As A New/Unknown Artist is a post from: wax&wires

Josh has racked up credentials drumming for everybody from The Vandals, A Perfect Circle, Guns N’ Roses, to Nine Inch Nails and has priced his new album in various packages ranging from $7 to $75,000,000. What’s included? Everything from digital downloads to Josh himself joining your band; click here for details.

In these videos, Josh fills in Joe Escalante, from Indie 103, on how well the different packages have been selling. Marketing ploy or not, he’s made some bucks and gotten more than a fair share of press for it.

Josh Freese On Variable Pricing – How To Sell An Album For $75k is a post from: wax&wires

Indie label Equal Vision Records is asking fans to do just that. With the launch of EVR365, fans can select from 3 packages allowing them to get prereleased copies of EVR albums through the whole year. They throw in some other schwag like t-shirts and such too, to add incentive. The packages are priced between $60 and $200. At the $60 price point, the purchaser gets a digital download of every EVR album released, and to be released, in 2009. Future albums will be given to EVR365 members one week before the street release. The deluxe package sells for $200 and includes an EVR T-shirt, a signed copy of every CD and DVD for 2009 plus the corresponding pre-order shirt, and free shipping after the first order sends out.

I applaud Equal Vision for considering a new means of album sales, but I’m not sure this one will fly. I don’t know that I spent $200 on any single label’s releases last year, much less a smaller indie label like EVR. Who this will appeal to is the younger scenester crowd who would buy every EVR release anyway, and is anxious to gain bragging rights for getting albums early, and having them all signed.

The cool thing about this, from the label’s end, is it essentially lets them raise revenue to fund future product. If they’re making a ton of money on it, they know ahead of time that they can splurge on a particular album or two. If it tanks, then they know to return to the usual mode of operation. It takes some of the risk out of the risky business of record labels since you have some sort of idea as to your take before you go forking out the money to make the albums. Well played EVR, and kudos for breaking out of the norm to try and find new means of sales in this tough climate.

You can see the details of EVR365 here.

Equal Vision Records Tries New Means Of Album Sales is a post from: wax&wires