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presents

MUSIC BIZ INSIGHT

Issue I: 3

written by

Peter Spellman

E-mail [email protected]

Web Site www.mbsolutions.com

Copyright © 1997 MUSIC BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

P.O. Box 230266, Astor Station

Boston MA 02123-0266

617/639-1971

Edited by Gunharth Randolf

for

Guitar4u.com

www.guitar4u.com

e-mail: [email protected]

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MUSIC BIZ INSIGHT

Issue I:2

In This Issue:

* Creative Marketing* News You Can Use

* Reads & Resources

Topics include:

€ Making Media Waves

€ How Much Can a Successful Indie Label Sell For?

€ Music Biz News You Can Use€ Conference Call: seminars, workshops, events...

€ Plus: Reads & Resources, and MORE!

CREATIVE MARKETING

Making Media Waves : Creating a Scheduled Publicity Plan

Let me ask you a question. Can you remember what the lead feature was on the

evening news three nights ago? All businesses take heed! John and Mary Public have

an attention span of miniscule duration and a memory which is even shorter.

This is why your publicity objectives can only be realized through successive "waves" of

media exposure. Each wave "coats" your market, raising the consciousness of your

audience. These waves must come at regular, considered intervals so that your

offerings are perceived as inevitabilities.

How many waves should you launch and how often? Each wave needs a promotional

spearhead. For musicians this spearhead can take many forms: a high-profile

performance, record release, important contract signing, endorsement, contest award,

etc. The more of these you have the more waves you can organize. A well-targeted

press release every two months or six a year will be more than sufficient.

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The most important part of your press release is the hook, the angle with which you

stimulate the interest of your reader. To find the hook that will make you and your

business newsworthy, be alert to the issues, events, fads, problems, and concerns

being addressed by the media to which your clients and customers tune in, be they

trade journals, newspapers, newsletters, radio, or television.

Do you have a new product or service that addresses one of your client's major

concerns? Do you offer an improvement to products or services currently being

discussed? Have you discovered a new way to do something your competitors have

touted already? Are you doing something that hasn't been done before? Have you

responded to a community crisis or need? Could you hold an event or sponsor an

activity that would call positive attention to your work? Jump at any opportunity to send

a news release about each such development.

Of course all of this assumes a good amount of planning . Get yourself one of those

year-at-a-glance wall calendars. Set some goals for yourself for the coming year and

mark their realization dates on your calendar: I want to set up a small tour for my act;

I will record a full-length CD; I will organize a show to benefit the environment.

Whatever it is you'll want to incorporate it into your publicity wave. Five or six well-

organized waves per year will reap publicity aplenty.

Remember, 75% of all the news you read is "planted", that is, it came from the

outside, from people and companies like you. The media depends on you to make

waves.

)))))))) WAVE MAKERS ((((((((

There are plenty of great resources available to help with your publicity efforts. Here

are some of the best:

Software and Online

PublicityBuilder (JIAN Tools for Sale, Inc.) Worksheets, press release templates and a

great workbook ($129)

The Online Media Directory (http://www.mediafinder.com): a collection of newspapers,

magazines, TV stations and other media that accept electronic submissions.

Complete Online News Index: national & international

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Audio Tapes

"How to Create Your PR Buzz: A Musician's Guide to the Zen of Hype", by Raleigh

Pinskey. Application of Pinskey's famous Zen of Hype to the specific needs of

musicians and music businesses. Inspiring and instructive. 4 cassettes and a 28 page

booklet ($49.95; call 310/998-0034; credit card orders accepted).

NEWS YOU CAN USE

There's a publication you should definitely know about. It's called Rock & Rap

Confidential . Veteran music journalist Dave Marsh publishes it and does most of the

writing. He covers the edges and corners of the music biz like no one else can. Good

eyes. Here are a couple of news samples from R&RC;'s hot pages:

"According to Ed Christman in the October 22 ['94] Billboard, 90,347 albums were

tracked by the point-of-purchase SoundScan system between 1991 and the end of

1993. Of that total, only 554 albums sold more than 500,000 units and they

accounted for a whopping 43% of all album purchases. On the other hand, 52,078

albums sold less than 1,000 copies each. Instead of asking for more promotion of

slow-selling albums by record labels, retail chains are urging them to simply put out

less music. 'I don't want to spend 45% of my time on product that will only account for

5% of my business,' one major chain exec told Christman. Yet another reason we'll be

dancing in the streets the day the new technology drives the chains out of business..."

"Joseph Hart's 'Muzak Nation' in the October 19 City Pages not only gives us

fascinating facts about that easy-listening monster ([Muzak] was founded in the

1920s by an Army general; SubPop founders Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Ponemean

were shitworkers at the Seattle-based company when they started their label but gives

an insightful overview of how background music has been used to increase

productivity, influence consumer 1 choices, and 'encourage people to act in a

predictable way.' Hart also describes how the background music industry is changing

from easy-listening sounds to a focus on current pop. In the wake of Victoria's Secret

releasing its own in-store music tape on CD last year, Hart speculates that we will soon

see commercially viable artists who start by appearing in the videos in stores like the

Gap..."

Reprinted with permission from Rock & Rap Confidential (subscriptions: $15

domestic/Canadian; $26 foreign to Rock & Rap Confidential, Box 34105, Los Angeles,

CA 90034. Phone 310/398-4477; fax 310/398-8190.

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How Much Can an Indie Label Sell For?

Seller Yr. founded Buyer Year Amount

Asylum 1970 Warner 1972 $7m

Motown 1959 MCA 1988 $61m

Island 1973 Polygram 1989 $272m

Chrysalis(50%) 1972 EMI 1989 $75m

A&M; 1962 Polygram 1989 $460m

Virgin 1973 EMI 1991 $872m

Windham Hill 1976 BMG 1991/96 $40m

SubPop(45%) 1986 Elektra 1994 $20m

READS & RESOURCES

BOOKS

Off the Charts: Ruthless Days and Reckless Nights Inside the Music Industry by Bruce

Haring (Birch Lane Press, 1996, $19.95 hb). In the tradition of Frederick DannenÕs Hit

Men, Haring, a music journalist, seeks to once again blow the lid off of music industry

corruption. In this account it¶s Charles Koppelman, head of EMI Records North

America, who becomes the pariah embodying all that¶s wrong (and sometimes right)

with the contemporary music industry. While Off the Charts lacks the investigative

depth and cogent writing style of Hit Men, it nevertheless succeeds in tearing the veil

of appearances away from industry protocol and penetrating to why things pan out the

way they do.

The theme is familiar: major record labels are mere divisions of multinational

corporations whose interests range well beyond music to things like refrigerators and

defense hardware. While mouthing platitudes of artistic integrity company executives

are nevertheless under constant pressure to deliver quarter-by-quarter sales, maintain

market share or risk loosing their expense accounts and/or their jobs. How this plays

out in the careers of musicians like Vanilla Ice, Wilson Phillips and Arrested

Development is detailed in the second half of the book.

Haring opens up the thinking (or lack thereof) behind the merger mania currently

gripping the industry. He explores overall goals and strategies that animate

companies like EMI, Capitol and Warner Bros., providing telling insights into how

decisions are really made at major record companies. How these decisions and guiding

values affect artists is the author¶s patent concern. A sobering read; get out your

handkerchiefs.

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SPOTLIGHT: DOING BUSINESS ON THE INTERNET

There have been a spate of books recently on this subject. I'd say avoid about 90% of

them. The two best I've seen are:

The Internet Business Guide by Rosalind Resnick & Dave Taylor (1995, SAMS

Publishing, $25.). Very well-organized. Provides real-world examples and expert

advice on everything from obtaining Net access to protecting your system from vandals

and hackers.

Online Marketing Handbook by Daniel Janal (1995, Van Nostrand Reinhold, $24.95).

The Internet is a culture with its own "netiquette". Janal helps us understand this

culture so we can communicate more effectively within it. Numerous tips on

establishing and enhancing a strong business presence on the Net. Excellent!

-----------------------------

Music, Money & Success: The Insider's Guide to the Music Industry by Jeffrey and

Todd Brabec (1994, Schirmer Books, $31.95). The "inside" story of the music biz is

publishing and that's what this book covers. Publishing is perhaps the most complex

part of the biz and few books have been able to decipher and explain the many

dynamics that animate it like this book does. The authors, two entertainment

attorneys, disclose lots of useful information in fourteen well-organized chapters.

Highly recommended.

The Studio Business Book: A Guide to Professional Recording Studio Business and

Management, 2nd ed. by Jim Mandell (1995, MixBooks, $34.95). Excellent real-world

view of the recording studio as seen by the owner. Covers writing a business plan,

getting funding, finding partners, bidding projects, developing new income sources,

studio politics and psychology, and much more. VERY resourceful for anyone

considering starting a commercial recording studio in any sense of the word.

PERIODICALS

The NEC Job Bulletin . One of the country's most comprehensive monthly job listings

for musicians. It includes teaching, performing, and administrative opportunities, as

well as competition, festival, and grant information. Plus, career-building tips. $28/yr.

to: New England Conservatory, Career Services Center, 290 Huntington Ave., Boston

MA 02115. Phone: 617/262-1120, x230.

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Upside: The Business Magazine for the Technology Elite. Despite its uppity subtitle,

this mag delivers instructive coverage about how businesses are putting technology to

work in a myriad of ways. Good for trend watching too. $48/yr. to: Upside Publications,

P.O. Box 469023, Escondido, CA 92046-9944.

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"Art flourishes where

there is a sense of adventure."

- Alfred North Whitehead

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