(MSc) Sebinomics

My friend Stefan Stöckli and I have been marketing buffs ever since our early university days. We immersed into the ‘New Marketing’, as championed by Seth Godin and Chris Anderson, ever since we discovered that our marketing professors were teaching us strategies that would have worked in the days of the TV-Industrial Complex but would not make any impact in the age of the Web 2.0. I agree that students need to understand old concepts but why the hell did we never learn any Web 2.0 or crowdsourcing concept in a marketing class? Well, that is a different story.

About one year or so ago, I read about websites that offer free community-building for people who want to create a social networking platform for market research on a specific topic. Unfortunately, I never tried it out myself up until now. Yesterday, Stefan told me to check out two of these Germany-based communities: Sixgroups.com and Mixxt.de, and I found Mixxt.de to be a great portal to create social networks. You can customize your community and control it to a very high degree. Some communities skim their applicants before allowing them in to maintain a certain level of commitment and quality. Say, you want to create a social network of people who work in the pharmaceutical industry in Basel, Switzerland. You only want people who are working there to join your community. You can ask specific questions during the signing up and according to their answers you can chose whether to accept or to reject them. Some communities just work better if only selected people take part in the building process.

Mixxt.de could be a platform where artists and bands can do research and build a different kind of platform for their closest fans. Bands usually use Myspace, Facebook, Reverb Nation and other platform to present and promote their music. Unfortunately, everybody is doing that and therefore it is nothing special anymore. Certain bands have thousands of fans and simply cannot keep in touch with them. There is no conversation anymore. As soon as you reach a critical mass your dialogue becomes a monologue.

This is why I suggest creating a community with your closest fans, the so-called innovators and early adopters. Use a closed community to improve your sound, your image, get to know your most influential fans, and give them something other fans cannot receive unless they become as important and trustworthy to you as the innovators and early adopters. This community has to remain a conversation otherwise it will become a second Myspace page, and you do not need that. A closed community for VIF (very important fans) is an addition to established social networking platforms. There is no need to make the VIF portal popular. Only invite those fans to become VIF, who want to be part of it and deserve to be part of it. And—very important—do always show them your highest degree of appreciation for what they do for you.

A social network like the above-mentioned can open up new opportunities for everyone involved. Bands and artists can benefit from very intensive buzz marketing and innovators can use the social network to expand their already established network with more influential people.

I just signed up to be a producer for Seth Horan’s forthcoming album. I will be investing $50 to be part of it. I will be able to work from my home or office in Switzerland whereas Seth will be in the USA or elsewhere. How is that going to work, you may ask.

 
Seth Horan is a very creative and innovative bass player who I have been admiring for years. Seth realized that the music industry is changing—or already changed—and wants to involve his fans into to the production process of his next album. He created a plan, which you can find in his 17 June 2008 blog entry on MySpace. In short: Fans can pay a certain amount of money and receive one song every week, which will be reviewed at the end of every month. After 20 weeks the best 10 songs will be chosen by the fan base, tweaked by Seth, and printed onto the final release. (You can find the details here.).
 
Seth put a lot of thought into his plan but somehow I am skeptical on how much to include people you do not know into the production process. Whenever I produce music, I am very careful in the selection of my partners. Recording engineers, producers, and techs—as well as studio visitors—can influence the production process in many ways. I like the idea of involving fans. Nonetheless, music is something very personal and it lives from the emotions of individuals who write and perform it. Many times music consumers do not know exactly what they like or dislike about a song. ‘It’s too dull, I don’t know’, they might say. Or, ‘Can you change that bridge to … hm?’ No concrete feedbacks. A producer usually sits in the control room or even next to you and might take you through the melody or harmony or both and gives you concrete inputs. She might even sing the part if she cannot play it, for you to understand her idea.
 
I think artists should learn from one album to the next by asking their fans and critics. Artists make albums for their fans and for themselves. They release it. They get their feedback on past releases, and they try to make it better next time. Seth wrote in his blog, ‘you can’t please all the people all the time… but you can try to please most of them most of the time.’ I agree and add that artists should stay true to themselves. They should not rearrange a song to please a few of their fans, if they do not like the new idea themselves. As mentioned before, it is still the artist’s music, which he is making for his fans and for himself. Fans love an artist’s music because it is that specific artist, who created that specific music.
 
In the case of niche music, such as bassable music, as I like to call it, there is the aspect of scarcity coming to it. Bassable music is very scarce, because only few musicians master the craft of creating such remarkable music. Therefore, bassable music is rather scarce. If an artist keeps her music rather secret and unavailable to the masses until the album is out, interest and demand can be generated through viral videos on the Internet—especially, in a niche market. That might happen through a crazy bass video or a sensational performance video on YouTube.
 
Just take a look at Apple’s product launch strategy. Apple announces a new product and on launch-day high demand generates scarcity, which generates fashion and in conclusion, more demand. All Apple does is to give incentive for people to talk about the experience and spread the word: this is perfect buzz marketing. Still, none of those future customers has seen the product in real life yet.
 
I suggest involving fans when the product comes out. They need to receive a free prize with the product, something that gives them an emotional value and a reason to talk about that product. If artists have their fans listening to their music during the production process what is going to happen after the album comes out? There must be something that keeps fans wanting more. After 20 weeks of listening to music and giving feedback, some may be tired of listening to it. I sure get tired of my own music after four weeks of recording sessions in the studio.
 
In any case, I am supporting Seth Horan’s new album and am very anxious to see the results of this crowdsourcing experiment. Maybe I am simply wrong and Seth will succeed big time with his idea. Only time will tell. I wish him all the best and a lot of fun with the production of his new record.

Ever since I wrote a research paper about the potential of Japanese pop/rock music in Europe in 2005, I kept being interested in Japanese music. My friend Taku, from EMI Music in Tokyo keeps providing me with great releases, which prove to be very remarkable and with a great additional value for us, the consumers.

I was considerably surprised when Taku told me that certain albums are still released as vinyl discs in Japan. According to the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) Yearbook 2008, the amount of domestic vinyl discs releases in 2007 in Japan was 87. Not many, some may say. I consider this to be a rather good amount in a time where digital music sharing has become easier and faster than ever before. Nonetheless, in Switzerland, a fair amount of record stores introduced vinyl discs again with very good response. Furthermore, the IFPI Jahreswirtschaftsbericht 2007 illustrates that in Germany, 700,000 vinyl copies were sold in 2007. That is 100,000 copies more than the year before. This shows that there are customers who are still interested in an old-fashioned way of listening to music. These music consumers like the feeling of analog music and large artwork, which give them an emotional value to simply enjoy or to show-off with. I belong to that group of people too. Maybe one day the old-fashioned way of listening to music will also be to listen to CDs. Actually, that day might be closer than we think. Or, it has already come.

Suggestion: Knowing that old-fashioned music listeners are rather price insensitive when it comes to products with emotional value, I suggest not putting all eggs in one basket and trying to sell as many CDs as possible, but to mainly print CDs for promotional purposes and push products that stand out of the mass. Also, have only CD single releases sent out for promotion, not whole albums. First of all, promoters, DJ, and event organizers might not want to listen to your full-length album. They just want to know within 10 minutes (or less) what you sound like and if it is worth while playing you on their station or hire you for a gig. Make money with products people really want to have. This includes an album that has great music on it and a great stage performance, obviously! It also encompasses great album artwork, remarkable packaging, and a free prize inside, as marketing whiz Seth Godin would put it. And many other things. The above-mentioned are just to give you an idea.

Let us take a look at three EMI Music Japan releases of Shiina Ringo, one of the most creative and innovative contemporary singers in Japan. Besides her music being unique in all aspects, Shiina has been releasing CDs and DVDs that just have something remarkable that adds an emotional value to the artist and her products.

My Power Generation

(1) Shiina Ringo’s tenth anniversary of her first major label release was celebrated with ‘My Power Generation’, a commemorative DVD clip collection, which includes all her music videos up to date. One very creative goody included in the DVD are the intermezzos between each video. These intermezzos show the physical CD singles being taken out of their cases and being inserted into a Mac computer. And, the Mac models shown are from the time when the respective video was made. For instance, for older videos CDs are being inserted into a Mac G3 or G4. Later on, the CD is played on a MacBook. The most recent video on the other hand is displayed on an iPod Touch. These videos are simply nice and I would not want to miss out on them. This is just one free prize you get for buying the DVD.

Heisei Fuzoku

(2) A different approach was used for Shiina Ringo’s 2007 Heisei Fuzoku release. I received the album as a 2 LP vinyl disc release and as DVD in a beautiful and very elegant black box. The DVD release includes different booklets and the whole album as a DVD with a video for each song in either stereo or 5.1 dolby digital. Very luxurious and noticeably affordable compared to other regular releases. No need to mentioned the great additional value you receive. If customers do not want that ‘shnick-shnack’, as we say in Swiss German, they can buy Shiina’s vinyl disc for the most analog sound they can get. I do not even know if this product was released as a CD, but if I were the label I would only release the above-mentioned products: DVD and vinyl disc, and sell the songs individually through iTunes or another online digital music store. This will also make it more difficult to distribute music illigally. Downloading a DVD is still a pain in the butt because it takes quite a while, and recording songs from a vinyl discs onto a computer is just nonsense. CDs have become a rather unspectacular medium with a very low emotional value in my opinion. Hence, let us focus on products we actually want to keep for a very long time.

(3) ‘Watashi to Hoden’ is Shiina Ringo’s latest release. The release I got came out in Japan on 2 July 2008 in a beautiful high gloss book-like 2 CD package—no digipack or jewel case. All lyrics are included in the booklet, which is attached to the package. Seth Godin made a very good point in his 2003 TED presentation: If you have a product sitting on a shelf next to another similar product, customers will not see your product because these products all look the same. I say, if you have a CD sitting next to another CD but your does not look like that other CD—say, it is not in a jewel case-it will be easier for customers to find yours. Just imagine, customers might go, ‘CD, CD, CD, not CD!’ They might pick it up and check it. And if your product can give them an emotional value, they might even be willing to spend more money than they would if they bought a ‘normal’ CD. We all have done that before. I still do that, and I am sure most of you still do that too.

Thomas Hesse, president of the Global Digital Business at SonyBMG Music Entertainment said, “The record business is turning into a true music entertainment business. We are breaking away from the single product format to a vast range of different and complementary products, all centered around the release of an artist.” I completely agree with him.

The IFPI Digital Music Report 2008 shows that digital music revenues went from 400 million dollars in 2004 to 2.4 billion dollars in 2007, or from 2 per cent market share to 15 per cent market share, and the trend is for digital music to gain terrain. The top three artists in this category come from three different countries and had more than 21 million specific digital downloads for one of their songs. This trend is clearly observable when analyzing the research done by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

The Internet is driving new opportunities for labels. 1.2 million rock acts and 1.7 million R&B acts alone clamoring for attention on MySpace and many more establishing sites on Facebook and other platforms. That is why record labels invest up to 20 per cent of their revenues in discovering and nurturing new talent. Nonetheless, it does not mean that they will find the right acts to foster.

Mark Hodgkinson, executive vice president of Global Marketing at EMI Music stated, “Digital technology has shifted power to consumers, and music marketing must evolve from ‘push’ to ‘pull’. Our focus is to embrace this power and become completely consumer focused. By listening to and responding to our consumers and to our artists we aim to unlock the incredible potential for music in the digital environment.” I like this quote and am very glad that some people in the music industry finally realized this.

Fact is that record companies never really listened to what audiences wanted. They created bands and artists they thought people wanted to listen to. And after many unsigned and independent acts started cultivating the Web 2.0 and sold more music than their major peers—especially in digital form—major record companies had to realize that there is a revolution going on. Unfortunately most majors tried to fight it and many of them lost the battle against the crowd. They thought they could teach fans how to behave when it comes to music, as they were doing for the past decades. But times changed drastically and the Web 2.0 empowers us, the crowd, to make our own decisions and acts are “our” acts, the crowd’s acts, not “theirs”, the record companies’ acts.

I truly believe the digital revolution has overtaken the music industry and will keep changing it. Facts are on the crowd’s table and we will see the digital world entertain us more and more with easier access to music and video.

Japanese rock music, also called J-Rock, is a niche market in Europe that has been growing like no other genre for the past 4 years. Bands such as Dir En Grey and The Gazette tour all over Europe and sell out concert halls within days and sometimes within minutes! Fans love Japanese bands’ different approach to music, their outfits, and having Japanese lyrics brings a completely new touch and freshness to songs for westerners. A few European labels have been very successful in releasing J-Rock albums and bringing respective artists to Europe. Electric Eel Shock, a Japanese rock band, is playing 16 European shows in July 2008, and they are not the only Japanese band this busy when touring the old continent.

Nonetheless, more genre differentiation has been asked since many fans find that J-Rock has been limited to Visual Kei bands, which are rather metal oriented. Japanese music forums show that there is a very large demand for J-Pop artists and other Japanese bands that are not connected to Visual Kei. Artists such as Koda Kumi and Ayumi Hamasaki are artists wanted by fans for European stages.

Fact is that Japanese music has something mystique that is conquering the hearts and ears of a strongly connected group of European music listeners who are fed up with western style music. And, like everything Japanese, it is more fashionable than what Westerners consider to be fashionable, which is very appealing to European audiences.

In my last blog entry I wrote about the Montreux Jazz Festival, which I find to be the greatest platform for a musician. Audiences at Montreux really care about music and that is in my opinion the most important point when trying to spread music that people do not know yet. If you are a musician that puts most energy into creating handmade music with a genuine performance it might be a great idea trying to get a spot on the open-air stage outside the Montreux performance halls where people sit and listen and are actually interested in good handmade music. Another possibility is to hook up with a music store in Montreux and give workshops at the promenade. That is a better way to get involved in conversations with people. Playing a gig on stage makes an artist rather unreachable because there is a certain space between stage and floor that separates the artist from the audience. Playing workshops puts you on the same floor with your audience, which can touch and feel you. Use this approach to get closer to your potential new fans.

I was at Montreux last Saturday and saw a drummer extraordinaire rocking his drums in a rather crazy but fantastic way. He was closer to the audience than any other artist I saw performing that day. He had no band whatsoever. It was only he and his drums but he was able to connect with everyone. People gathered around him and watched his crazy technique and approach.

My recommendation is to get out there and play in front of people who care. Do not just take a gig because you need a gig. Of course, it is essential to perform in front of people over and over again to gain experience and become better. Nonetheless, once you mastered your songs and need to spread the voice, go where people want to hear something new and are open to take it in. As a rock band, do not play at a hip-hop party. As a jazz combo, do not play at a metal festival. And so on. Do you homework and find the places where people might consider listening to your music. The more niche, the better.

The Montreux Jazz Festival is considered to be the most renowned music festival in the world. Almost every popular artist with a great performance has played on one of the two festival stages and year after year for the past decades musicians from all over the world have been playing free concerts on an open-air stage along Lac Lemon.

The 42nd edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival started last Friday and it has attracted already thousands of visitors to the city. Performances of Sheryl Crow and Joe Jackson might not be considered as ‘jazzy’ as Thelonious Monk or Miles Davis but the festival gives a platform to all kinds of genres as long as the music is the main subject of the performance. Metal bands such as Soulfly and hip-hop acts like the Wu-Tang Clan have also been playing the Montreux stages in past years and attracted a different kind of audience.

The difference between Montreux and other festivals might lie in the cultural aspect. At Montreux music is the main message of every performance. It does not matter if it is a 15-piece American big band playing swing standards or a Senegalese drum combo singing in their native language, drumming African rhythms and dancing widly. As long as the group can perform live music and teach the audience something about music culture, that act is right for Montreux.

Last year Prince surprised–or rather shocked–his pears from the music industry not for his all-of-a-sudden gig at Montreux, but for his decision to give-away his brand new album for free outside the doors of the Montreux Jazz Festival. Obviously, the festival can serve as a great mean to make news as an artist. Performers can either try to get a paid gig if you are a recognized act, they can apply to play a free concert on the open-air stage, give some instrument workshops, or simply set up some backline along the lake and play in front of people who walk by. Just keep in mind that you might need permission for performing if you organize the gig by yourself.

Montreux is a great place to meet and greet musicians and people interested in music. I highly recommend visiting the festival even if you do not have tickets for an evening concert. Artists performing on the open-air stages perform on a very high level and are able to inspire aspiring musicians as well as music lovers and people who just like to enjoy a good festival ambiance.
The Montreux Jazz Festival 2008 lasts until 19 July. Visit www.montreuxjazz.com for more detailed information.

In September 2007, I had the pleasure to interview the great blues guitar hero Popa Chubby for my Geekinomix show before his gig at Kofmehl, Switzerland. Popa Chubby is well known for encouraging artists to let go of old music business models and use the Internet and new technologies to create albums and promotional tools.

Popa Chubby signed with a label that belonged to Sony Music in 1994 and only two years later he lost the deal. This experience taught him to take his career in his own hands and keep more control over his band. He shopped for a rather small label, which he can actually trust more and where he is a more important act. That approach turned out to be the right thing to do and brought Popa Chubby back on track and his music was more successful than ever before. His latest album “Deliveries After Dark” debuted at #4 in the Billboard Blues Charts.

I believe that Popa Chubby is doing exactly the right thing and would encourage every newcomer band to take their fate into their own hands and work with record companies that “really care” about them. It does not have to be an independent label. Some major record companies work very close with their artists. Nonetheless, bands need to evaluate potential labels and decide for themselves how much power they are ready to give up.

I am sure many of you guys out there have been thinking about how a band–or a solo artist–can spread its music with the most impact? The internet gives that possibility, especially if your music is considerably niche. If your genre has a rather enthusiastic following, which is usually the case with niche music, such as bass guitar music, progrock, Japanese hiphop, or hardcore punk, to mention a few, what you need to do is finding people who blog or review music such as yours. These people might already have a following that likes to take advice from them. Provide specific bloggers with CDs, DVDs, presskits, or just links to audio and video files, and involve them into a conversation with you. Once they start talking about you on their blogs their readers will start discussing your music, downloading it, or bitching about it. No matter what they say about your music, discuss it with them online and learn from what they say. As long as they talk about it, they are interested, and that makes your music more popular. A friend of mine once noted, “If you don’t get any hate-mails your not interesting!” It is a rather harsh statement but I believe he is right.

Many bands involve their fans and third party bloggers into conversations online, and that is exactly the way to do it. Talking to fans gives bands new insights about what their fans like and dislike and about how to proceed from there. It is crucial to listen to fans and customers and involve them into “being a part of the band”. Human beings have a simple need to belonging to a society or community, and that is what a band needs to consider. Find a way to provide a place for fans in the band.

The internet is the fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to get in touch with fans and potential customers. No need to pay for packages sent all across the globe. Just send a link or a file attached to an email and the other person can review your music or video and read about your band.

Some bands and artists even give their music away for free on the internet. Pennywise, a rock band from California, gave away an entire album for free on Myspace. All I needed to do was to accept them as a friend and they sent me a message with how to proceed to download their music for free. Basically, I had to get involved into a conversation and my present was their brand new album.

Times have changed and artists hardly make any money of CD sales. Most of their money comes from merchandising and live concerts. No wonder Madonna signed up with a concert promotion company instead of sticking to the conventional record label gig. And, the more the Web 2.0 grows and people connect and interact with each other, using the internet for promo is the way to go for newcomers who what to build up a following in the most efficient and effective way.