By Karsten Schwardt, March 2006, Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Degree of BA(Hons) Recording Arts, SAE Byron Bay, Submission Due Date: March 10th, 2006
Hypothesis
That contemporary web-based distribution and promotion methods offer a viable alternative to traditional methods for the unsigned, home-based producer/ musician/ artist.
This dissertation undertook to compare and contrast traditional music distribution and promotion means with contemporary web-based distribution and promotion from the point of view of the unsigned artist. The aim was to examine the effects traditional marketing strategies such as recording contracts and radio airplay may have on the artist, then investigate the opportunities the Internet is opening up for music distribution and promotion, and to establish reasons for unsigned artists to pursue these opportunities in order to expose their product to an online audience.
During the course of the project, a collection of ten songs was produced and released online as an album called ‘The Ground Below’ by The Electric Era. The album was performed and produced by the researcher and made available through an internet distributor/ retailer of independent music. A web site was built and put up at www.theelectricera.com to support the marketing of the album and to establish an image for the artist. The artist was neither playing live events, receiving any radio airplay, nor was he signed to a recording contract. His public presence was exclusively online.
Qualitative market research on the album and web site was undertaken to evaluate public and professional response to the product. The album, web site and market research served as a means to investigate an alternative method of distribution and promotion to the traditional marketing of musical product, and to develop a prototype model for this. The challenges and opportunities in developing this prototype were illustrated and explained and conclusions as to its viability were drawn.
Music production from the ‘bedroom’ i.e. music that was not produced in a professional environment, has pervaded the industry at all levels. The advances in computer technology have made sophisticated studio tools available to everyone who can afford a computer with reasonable specifications while reducing the necessity for expensive studio hardware. However, until very recently successful distribution and promotion has still largely been dependent upon a small number of record companies that have control over the market.
This means that artists who are looking to reach a large audience with their product are usually required to enter into a business relationship with these companies. Traditionally, the relationship between artists and companies was often of fraught with suspicions and misunderstandings. There are many prominent examples of artists suing their record companies and vice versa. For example, just recently, the case of Universal Music against Courtney Love has received a lot of publicity.(1)
Some of the potential for conflict can be found in the underlying predicaments of the contractual partners. Record companies have specialised in a highly risky investment market, the music industry, on average seeing more than ninety percent of their signed artists failing to recoup the investment. They rely on the remaining ten percent to compensate for their investment losses. As such, some of the imposed contractual obligations for artists are implemented to offset risks that are inherent in the prevailing music business model.
Artists, on the other hand, more often than not enter into a recording contract primarily as a way of securing support for the realisation of their projects, and only secondarily as financial security and profit. However, they will often feel betrayed when they reach a certain level of success and develop an expectation that they should be adequately rewarded, only to discover how limiting and strangling their contracts turn out to be.
The entire business model makes endeavours into commercial recording a high-risk and extremely expensive undertaking that requires full commitment from artists and holds no guarantees whatsoever for monetary reward. Conversely, anyone reluctant to enter into this kind of legal relationship has traditionally found themselves with a limited number of options for the commercial exploitation of their music, making a career in the music business an all-or-nothing proposition.
This study explores the possibilities presented to the unsigned artist through distribution of their music via the Internet. I will be researching to find out whether new distribution methods springing up on the Internet are likely to merely co-exist with and complement known traditional industry practices or whether they have the potential to transform the way music is distributed and promoted. I will also be investigating the extent to which these new methods enable a greater proliferation of the access to global distribution and the likelihood of increased empowerment and adequate commercial compensation for the recording artist. In order to define the scope of the case study, I have opted to focus my research on the situation of unsigned artists, the proverbial ‘bedroom producers’.
Consequently, the project title ‘Under The Duvet’ alludes to a production ethic that makes use of low-budget, but nevertheless effective solutions to problems encountered in the bedroom production environment; in this case the use of a duvet to solve acoustic shortcomings of a recording space. The duvet symbolizes the do-it-yourself attitude and the striving for independence that characterizes many bedroom producers.
I am motivated to undertake this project because of my extensive background in the music business. I have been a guitarist, vocalist and producer of my own material for more than twenty years, but apart from a 7” single release, the inclusion of one track on a 12” compilation record and the selling of cassettes during live concerts, I have not released any of my own material commercially. However, I have been involved in the production of numerous releases by other artists, mainly in my capacity as a sound engineer and technician.
The reasons why my own material has never been released can partly be found in the limitations of my musicianship. Being a practising musician not only requires a certain level of expertise on your instrument of choice but also notable sacrifices in your lifestyle and a tendency to enjoy exposing yourself to an audience. I have always found the threshold to becoming a professional musician to be out of reach and unrealistic for myself. My passion for music, although strong, was not singular enough. I therefore channeled it into a career as a sound engineer, both live and in the studio, and later as a radio producer, teacher and audio consultant.
Another factor that contributed to my lack of a viable music career in the traditional sense is an affinity to alternative music that does not command any mainstream attention. In my formative years as a musician, a strong dislike of musical clichés drove me to listen to music with a high degree of originality paired with an unpolished, non-commercial sound. Lacking representation of these genres on radio and in record stores, I went out to find new interesting groups in the local live venues and club environment. Applying similar attributes to the music I wrote and performed led to material that prided itself in inaccessibility, i.e. raw sonic quality and avoidance of musical stereotypes.
Bands displaying a similar attitude in their production history are Joy Division, The Cure, Bauhaus, Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Chameleons. While some of these bands enjoyed some commercial success it was with their later mainstream material.
After suffering an extended period of musical and creative inertia while concentrating on making a living from recording other artists’ materials, I became intrigued by recent advances in music and communication technology, such as broadband Internet and the production tools available to home studio owners. This has revived the old ambitions around producing and releasing my own material. My impression is that the entry threshold for artists into the music business has been lowered significantly over the last decade, as far as their required commitment to an artistic career and impact on lifestyle is concerned. At the very least, the tools available to amateur musicians and recording enthusiasts have made this threshold less pronounced. I am interested in researching whether or not that is the case, and if true, what the implications of this change are for artists and music industry personnel alike.
Further personal motivations for the study include a deeper understanding of the Internet as a business tool, an opportunity to record and release new and old material of mine and an enhancement of my expertise in the music industry field. I am hoping that I will also benefit as an education professional from these personal advancements.
That contemporary web-based distribution and promotion methods offer a viable alternative to traditional methods for the unsigned, home-based producer/ musician/ artist.
Web-based music distribution services and promotional opportunities for music on the Internet enable artists to market their music to an online audience without relying on the established distribution and promotion mechanisms offered by the traditional system. The Internet provides a viable marketing alternative, i.e. unsigned artists are able to offer their musical products for sale and, in the process, enjoy greater freedom from the restricted access and restrictive contractual obligations found in most traditional music industry arrangements, without suffering significant financial and artistic disadvantages from a lack of established music industry support and audience exposure.
For detailed definitions of the terms used above please refer to Chapter 9.
I would like to thank the following people for their assistance and support:
In undertaking the research for this dissertation full account has been taken of ethical considerations. Those involved in the consultative and development process were fully informed as to the nature of the research and its final format and provided their free and informed verbal consent to their involvement in the appropriate activities. Survey participants were given the option to remain anonymous and, if elected, have been identified by their initials only. All those involved in the research have received thanks and will have access to the final dissertation via a link on the artist web site in order to show them the way in which their contribution has been used and acknowledged.
The research project will be conducted using qualitative research based around a case study. This involves the building of a web site and the licensing and/or commissioning of a self-recorded full length album featuring original compositions and artwork to online music outlets. The study will also investigate how the product and web site can be incorporated into a wider marketing approach involving a range of online services and other Internet features. The outcome of the case study shall be to present a prototype for methodical distribution and promotion of musical product by an unsigned artist.
The project will include a dissertation that reviews the traditional distribution channels and contrasts them with my research findings in regards to Internet distribution by unsigned, home-based artists. The dissertation will document the case study by way of a chronological report of the approach to the project and any modifications that became and may become necessary along the way.
As the author/ researcher is also the subject of the case study, extra care will be taken to validate the collected research findings in order to accomplish a high degree of objectivity. Due to the multi-disciplinary nature of the subject and the variety of necessary skills involved in the research project I opted for an exploratory case study as defined in the online encyclopedia ‘Wikipedia’: “Where considerable uncertainty exists about program operations, goals, and results, exploratory case studies help identify questions, select measurement constructs, and develop measures.”(2)
According to Michael D. Myers, University of Auckland, the presented research can also be classified as “being concerned with the uniqueness of [a] particular situation (idiographic) [and] aimed at explanation and understanding [as well as] taking an insider (emic) perspective”(3). Leonard Rogers defines the case study as “describing events in a framework within an environment. The problems are not always highlighted or even made clear; they emerge as the case material is subjected to analysis.”(4) These descriptions were deemed suitable for the study at hand, where music distribution and promotion is identified as the framework and the Internet is the research environment. Problems are identified, possible solutions as found in a variety of sources are investigated, analysed and either discarded or implemented. The process is repeated when the next problem surfaces.
Industry professionals will be interviewed where they can assist in substantiating any aspects of the research and initiate directions for the research to take. Further validation of the findings will come from publications such as relevant articles sourced through the Internet and from audio magazines, as well as data collated from market research conducted by means of distributing questionnaires to selected individuals via the web site. The market research is discussed in Chapters 15 and 16. A copy of the questionnaires, a detailed collation of the results and comments can be found in Appendices A, B, C and D.
In the context of this study, the term ‘traditional music distribution and promotion’ describes the practices of major record companies and the majority of independent labels as established and implemented throughout the last two decades of the twentieth century. This involves marketing strategies such as the signing of recording contracts and/or distribution and licensing deals with artists, the promotion of recorded product through radio airplay, magazine advertising and video clips for television and touring in support of released product. These practices and procedures have traditionally served as a commercial filtering process, excluding home-based artists, as defined below, from distribution channels and wide-spread exposure.
‘Contemporary web-based distribution and promotion’ is the term I have chosen to describe the distributional and promotional opportunities presented by marketing activities conducted on the worldwide web (Internet). This includes but is not limited to a promotional artist web site, internet labels and distributors, online music service providers, downloading and streaming practices, internet radio, forums and discussion groups. Web-based distribution at present has no established quality filters in the way described above, but allows every artist knowledgeable enough to utilise the available means to access to a global marketplace.
‘Unsigned, home-based producer/ musician’ is an individual (or band project/ music group) with no ambitions and/or prospects to be signed to a label or record company. The term describes an enthusiastic musician with a distinct do-it-yourself attitude, reasonable skills and means for the production of music, but with a limited budget and a limited inclination to depend on contractual obligations and high-risk business endeavours.
‘Commercial Filter’ is a term describing the selection process record companies and commercial radio perform. Artists are signed to a label if they meet a set of specific commercial quality criteria that may vary between different labels. Being signed to a label increases the likelihood of inclusion on a radio playlist. Receiving airplay on commercial radio exposes the artist to the public and increases the likelihood of album sales.
‘Advance’ is an upfront payment made by the record company to the artist. This is to be recouped from album sales later on. In some cases, the record company may not be able to recoup the entire advance due to poor album sales or because the artist was removed from the label roster for one reason or another.
‘Indie’ is a term used for independent promotion companies or individuals that promote music to radio stations. They are neither directly affiliated with record companies nor radio stations. Indies are paid a fee for their services by record companies and usually contribute financially to the radio station. The term can also be used to describe independent record labels but will not be used in this way in the study.
‘Artist & Repertoire’ or ‘A&R’ is a record company department that sources and develops new artistic talent for the company.
A ‘P2P network’ facilitates peer to peer computing. This is a means of sharing a partition or folder on your computer with other remote users. It requires a so-called file-sharing client which is an application that establishes a common protocol for the sharing to take place. The most well-known client of this kind was Napster.
‘Napster’ was a file-sharing client specifically designed and written for the exchange of MP3 files between connected users on the Internet. Its great efficiency was in providing a central index of connected users on a server operated from the Napster business premises. Napster existed for less than one and a half years before it was squashed by a lawsuit instigated by the RIAA in July 2000. During this time twenty million internet users made use of the opportunity to swap files. Napster was superseded by other P2P clients such as KaZaA, Limewire and Poisoned using networks such as the Gnutella network or freenet. As opposed to Napster, these networks and clients are typically ‘open source’ i.e. an online community of people maintains and contributes to them, making it harder for prosecutors to hold individuals liable for breaches of copyright.
The benefit of such a study will be to create awareness of existing and developing opportunities for the described group of artists. This may assist in understanding how existing online services and promotion through an artist’s web site can be utilised to form a strategic approach to online marketing of musical product.
The study aims to investigate whether the opportunities that have arisen from this shift benefit the unsigned artist and present a viable marketing alternative. The author thus considers the unsigned, home-based producer/ musician/ artist as the study’s main target demographic benefiting from its findings. Described marketing strategies are envisaged as having the potential to be utilised by the target demographic to develop and further a career in which they enjoy more control over the distribution and promotion of their musical product and more control over the extent of their obligations to labels and other music business parties.
Due to the vast complexity of the field it is pragmatic to define and limit the scope of the study. As a first step, there will be an investigation into traditional music distribution and promotion in order to highlight industry practices with regard to marketing music. This investigation will be limited to those practices as conducted by record companies and related personnel that create or extend market dynamics affecting the opportunities of unsigned artists.
Secondly, the investigation will expand into online distribution and promotion in a manner that serves to contrast the previous findings. It is not the intention to research the reciprocal effects developments in these two areas have on each other but to compare and contrast the opportunities each area holds for the unsigned artist.
The areas of music publishing, licensing, copyright protection, live performances, band management and media relations will only be mentioned where it is deemed necessary to establish an understanding of certain processes and dynamics.
The production process of the accompanying CD will be limited to events, timelines and decisions that had an impact on the quality and marketing of the final product. This assists in informing the reader about the scope and challenges of the project to form a more complete picture.
All marketing strategies involve a gestation period where the implemented factors come to fruition over extended periods of time. The study’s timeline implies that marketing strategies described and undertaken in this study will not be able to be fully tested with respect to their potential success, but merely serve as examples to highlight and illustrate aspects of the hypothesis. For the specific purpose of documenting and exemplifying the strategies, a promotional web site will be built and put up on the Internet. The aim of the web site is to promote musical product offered for sale via internet outlets and the web site itself.
Within the time frame available, the web site and musical product may indicate trends and tendencies regarding the findings but are not expected to provide empirically valid results. Validation of the findings will not be accomplished through quantitive means, but will instead be achieved by citations from relevant publications and industry professionals. Data collected from questionnaires provided to industry professionals and members of the target demographic will also be evaluated.
A number of online marketing strategies, such as bulletin boards, mailing list, webcasting, promotional giveaways, reciprocal links with other web sites, search engine ranking, specialised internet labels and much more will be included as recommendations but fall outside the scope and time frame of the study.
Record company representatives and radio programmers are seen as the traditional 'commercial filters' of the music industry, i.e. they determine whether a song or artist has the necessary qualities to be invested in and presented to the public.
In order for artists to be signed to a label, they will usually have to be committed to a musical career for a reasonable period of time, the so-called 'term' of their recording contract. They will typically have a strong, well-established fan base, be willing to tour in support of their product, shoot promotional videos and undertake media interviews.
In order to attract any significant radio airplay, artists typically need to be signed to a major label and write at least some radio-friendly material, i.e. songs that fit one or more of the common radio formats with respect to genre, length and structure, typically with lyrics that are not too offensive - although, in some genres it can be helpful to be sexually explicit.
Having passed these filters, artists have demonstrated their commercial potential and that they are worthy of record company support. This chapter looks at some of the business and marketing practices surrounding the traditional promotion and distribution, and their effects on the signed artist.
Up until the late 1990's, the commercial distribution and promotion of recorded music was executed and controlled predominantly by five major record companies: Warner, Sony, BMG, EMI and Universal.(5) There have also been minor distributors that operate in and serve specific markets, e.g. Global Routes for independent New Zealand music, but they have managed to co-exist in a niche within an infrastructure provided and controlled by the major distributors.
All of the major distributors also function as record companies. Although their main business focus in the 60's and 70's lay in signing and developing new artists, during the 80's and especially 90's they almost entirely withdrew from the risky business of new recording artist development and concentrated predominantly on distribution-only arrangements. In a feature article for Mix magazine's special edition 'What can save the Music industry?' in May 2003, Blair Jackson observes that "with a few exceptions, 'artist development' has become a cruel oxymoron at the major labels. More common is for labels to drop acts that don't show some commercial clout right away. Can you imagine if Bruce Springsteen was coming up in today's record business climate? He probably would have been dropped after his second album, The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle."(6)
Recording contracts reflect this profit-driven approach. They are 'exclusive', i.e. the artist cannot record for anyone other than the label they are signed to. A five-album deal means that the artist is committed to delivering five albums to the label, but the label can terminate the contract after the first album if they are not happy with the returns. However, if the artist becomes successful they will be bound to the company by a contract they signed when usually they had little negotiating power. Entertainment lawyer Michael McCready has this example: "REM recently finished out the last of their options with their record company. REM's new contract guarantees a $10 million advance per album in the future. Try getting that advance for your first contract!"(7)
On the other hand, it has become a common occurrence that artists are readily dropped from the roster when they are not an immediate success, or during a re-shuffling of personnel after a merger, company sale or even just after an Annual General Meeting.. British artist Jake Shillingford calls it "cut and thrust ... if you don't get in the top 20, you're looking at being dropped by a major label."(8)
This profit-driven trend is mirrored in the commercial radio broadcast industries, the primary medium for artist exposure. Program directors make decisions as to what is added to the station's playlist according to 'recommendations' made by independent record promoters known as 'indies'. These record promoters in turn make 'promotional payments' to the station, in appreciation of their business affiliation.
The indies are paid large sums by record companies to entice them to promote their records. Typically an indie will control a certain radio station or string of stations. The price they ask largely depends on the exposure gained for the artist via those stations. Journalist Eric Boehlert who writes for the renowned online magazine salon.com notes that "the days are long gone when a DJ made an impulsive decision about what song to spin. The music industry [in the US] is a $12 billion-a-year business; today, nearly every commercial music station in the country has an indie guarding its playlist. And for that right, the indies shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to individual stations - and collect lots more from the major record labels."(9)
Artists on a major label's roster cannot be charged directly for this kind of promotion, but record companies calculate royalty rates and write clauses for recording contracts with these costs in mind.
Artists that enter into a contract with one of the many independent record labels may initially get a better deal, since these labels are often more driven by artists’ interests rather than immediate profits. However, when it comes to promotion, independent labels often do not have the muscle to get a song included on a commercial station’s playlist, and have to rely on specialist distribution channels and second-rate promotion via specialised niche radio stations.
On one hand, this inevitably limits the exposure the artist receives. On the other hand, independent labels have found their strengths in utilising other promotional channels, such as the Internet and fringe networks, e.g. student radio. They also derive success from the fact that they are more attuned to the needs of the artists and the market alike. Lynne Margolis writes: “You won't hear many of these labels' artists on pop radio - and ironically, that's one of the secrets to their success. By avoiding the major expenses associated with getting a tune on the air - which can cost upwards of $400,000 or $500,000 per song - independent labels are able to turn a profit far more quickly, and share more of those profits with their artists. Another secret of their success is that the labels target consumers - namely, adults - who are still willing to pay for their music, rather than download it for free.”(10)
Being signed to an independent label is no guarantee for circumventing major label complications, as the example of recording artist Courtney Love demonstrates. She and her band Hole originally signed a recording contract with Geffen Records, the label of choice for ground-breaking bands such as Sonic Youth and Nirvana. Geffen Records were once considered an independent label. According to music journalist Heidi Drockelmann, they were renowned for “more development and a more creative climate for artistry”(11), which was a large factor in Love's agreement to sign with Geffen. Shortly after signing the contract, Geffen was sold to MCA which then was sold to Seagram. Geffen’s roster was then released to the Interscope division of Universal, a label whose offer Love had rejected in 1992 upon signing with Geffen. Consequently, Courtney Love became entangled in a legal battle with Universal, a major record company she never signed with, in a dispute over contractual obligations.
The discussed elaborate and expensive system of middlemen in the music industry has caused a number of flow-on effects.
Firstly, it has kept the entry threshold high and the royalty rate low for new recording artists with no commercial track record. Signing a new artist that has no proven drawing power with radio audiences can easily become a costly mistake for a label if the promotional investment does not translate into sufficient record sales.
Secondly, it has led to a number of ‘creative clauses’ in recording contracts in an attempt to pass on promotional costs to artists. Michael McCready illustrates this fact when stating that “the financial terms [of a recording contract] will run over 15 pages. … Your royalty rate is on the first page and the remaining pages are all your reductions [to that rate].”(12) This, in turn, has led artists to mistrust and feel deceived and exploited by record companies as they fail to recoup the record companies’ advances and to achieve royalty payouts.
A good example of these mechanics at work can be found in the article ‘The Problem With Music’ by producer and sound engineer Steve Albini who recorded Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’, amongst other numerous albums. Albini outlines what a typical recording contract of a fairly successful band generates in profits and income for the involved parties after selling a quarter million copies of their debut album. In summarising the article, at the end of his calculation the record company has grossed US$710,000 whereas each band member has netted $4031.25. In addition, “the band is now 1/4 of the way through its contract, has made the music industry more than 3 million dollars richer, but is in the hole $14,000 on royalties.”(13)
Thirdly, the expensive system has kept the price for compact discs high. The latter is especially felt by consumers when they compare the retail price of DVD-Video titles to that of CDs. Says Jackson, “the last couple of years marked the rise of DVD-Video — visuals and good sound (including surround!) and longer playing time for either movies or music/ concert videos — often priced below what a conventional CD costs, and all of a sudden the compact disc looks … like a big rip-off.”(14) By way of explanation, Boehlert offers that ”no other entertainment industry vests so much power and pays so much money to outside sources who do so little work.”(15)
In order to keep their distribution monopoly intact, the major labels have created an industry backend that invests extraordinary amounts of money into gatekeepers allowing the operation of “an abusive type of toll collections … creating burdensome costs and … screwing with the economics of the music business”(16), as one unnamed record company president put it. Ron Stone, an artist manager representing Beastie Boys, Beck, Bonnie Raitt and Foo Fighters, states that “the labels have created a monster.”(17)
The position of the artist consigned to traditional major label marketing mechanics is one of insecurity. The business environment they operate within is unsupportive of their needs, and the odds against building a sustainable career are huge. Citing statistics provided by Soundscan Inc., Belica states that “in 1999 there were 40,000 records released [but only] 200 of them sold over 100,000 copies.”(18) It is not known how many of these 200 artists broke even and received royalty payments from their efforts, but the presented evidence indicates that the probability is less if the artist was signed to a traditional deal with a major record company. In an interview published at the Music Biz Academy, David Nevue explains how he sees the predicament of the signed artist:
“The only way for a new artist to sell a large number of CDs through the traditional retail channel is to get a huge amount of commercial radio play. Unless you're signed to a major label, that's unlikely to happen … The downside, however, is that when you sign with a major label, you sign your music away [and] it's very possible to … get absolutely nothing in return.
“… If you define success as being famous and on MTV, then yes, a major label deal is what you want - but you'll pay for it later. If you view success as just being the quintessential musician, working on your art, and supporting yourself with your music, then no, you don't need a major label deal.”(19)
My initial idea for this project was to write, perform, program, record, mix and produce my own musical material and compile it as an album while documenting the ‘bedroom production’ process. I contemplated researching different bedroom producers’ approaches to production using an interview approach. The original working title of the project, ‘Under The Duvet – Doing It For Themselves’, was an allusion to this.
However, during the initial degree lectures delivered by Dr John Reynolds and Prof Clive Pascoe in February/ March 2004 it appeared to me that the project may not have the required merits and may lack in originality. Professor Clive Pascoe emphasised that the criterion that qualifies research is that it “adds something new to the existing body of knowledge.”(20) He suggested that our research project be “integrative, independent, interesting, intellectually challenging and innovative.”(21) So during ensuing informal discussions with colleagues and friends I came to the conclusion that in order to satisfy the project criteria and at the same time conduct a research project with a high level of personal motivation I would investigate an area that was new and challenging not only for myself but for the music industry as a whole.
Birgit Post, my partner of twenty years, provided me with the initial stimulus when questioning why I wanted to record another album if it was not going to be released anyway. This gave me the determination to find out whether my predicament as a part time amateur or even hobby musician seeking to release and market his material had been alleviated due to advances in technology, i.e. whether I could record material and find an audience via the Internet (and even make money with it).
When discussing this idea with Jeremy McPike of York Street Studio in Parnell, Auckland, he introduced me to the web site www.wingmusic.co.nz. This is run by online artist Wing who records her music at York Street recording Studio, an album in a day [sic!], and then sells it on the Internet. The quality of Wing’s music is quite arguable from a musical perspective, her production values are low and especially her singing is off key most of the time. However, she has a distinct novelty value as can be seen by her several high profile TV appearances in New Zealand and Australia. Although I did not want to produce music that has comical value in order to attract attention to myself, I was intrigued by the prospect of running my own artist web site with online options for purchasing songs.
At this stage I formulated my first title for the research proposal:
An investigation into the feasibility of creating a web-based model that will provide creative personnel with increased control over the promoting, marketing and distribution of their musical products.
The aim was to explore the implications for the recording artist/ songwriter/ bedroom producer of bypassing the music industry vendors and seeking alternative global distribution channels for their music that allow them to retain complete commercial control over their product.
I kept the project working title ‘Under The Duvet’, but replaced the caption ‘Doing It For Themselves’ with ‘Marketing Music Minus The Middle Man’ in order to align the title with the area under investigation.
This radical change of direction in my research project meant that the entire initial project concept of recording a self-reliant album became a mere pre-requisite for the new research project. Additionally, it would involve building a web site that promotes the self-produced record and offers samples for streaming. I also envisaged online facilities for the ordering or downloading of the product and for payment of the purchase. In order to direct visitors to the site I intended to ‘link’(22) to popular search engines and other promotional sites where possible. A pro-forma record label was to be set up.
I also intended to outline a model or a variety of models for online promotion and distribution of music from unsigned artists. In order to ensure validation of the findings, I planned to conduct interviews with experts in the field and develop a catalogue of quality criteria to be applied to the online vendors.
When I discovered that other people had already written very comprehensive how-to-guides about the subject I decided to abandon this approach in favour of the question why artists would use the Internet for marketing.
In order to gain an overview of the complex field under investigation I studied various sources. Since distribution and promotion are specific ways to create a link between the artist and the consumer I concentrated on getting an understanding of two specific areas:
This chapter investigates the state of online music business at and during the time of writing. Since the area under investigation is highly dynamic and in a state of flux I had to ensure that the researched information was current and presented in a chronological order.
From the perspective of music consumers’ behavioural patterns, the most prominent debate regarding the Internet was the unauthorised downloading of copyrighted music as spearheaded by the Napster P2P network. Although illegal, never before the emergence of this service had copying music been so easy and comprehensive.
Napster made the compact disc format favoured by the major record companies look like old, clumsy, restrictive and overpriced technology. Professional musician, engineer, producer, interface designer and Mix Magazine columnist Stephen St Croix sums up his perception of the compact disc: “There is no excuse for what these things cost … The technology is 21 years old … CDs are painfully slow … They scratch and crack … They have songs on them that I don’t want, in an order I don’t want … They are beyond obsolete.”(23) As a consequence, the retail sales figures of CDs declined. According to Greg Kot, “the statistics confirm a downward trend that has been gaining steam since 2001.”(24)
The repercussions of Napster’s brief one-and-a-half year existence spurred a large-scale debate about copyright that was dominated by two intensely opposing points of view.
The record companies spearheaded by the RIAA argued that P2P users are effectively robbing recording musicians of their livelihood.(25) However, Napster users and sympathising people said that record companies are making too much money and the pricing structure of CDs is a rip-off, the reasoning being that, in true Robin Hood manner, it is justified to steal back from the rich what they extorted from the public in the first place. St Croix observes, “if the public feels prices are too high, then they will simply steal the songs.”(26) Alluding to the argumentation found on many P2P friendly forums, Drummer Don Henley of supergroup The Eagles and founding member of the Recording Artists’ Coalition, points out that “many kids rationalise their P2P habit by pointing out that only record labels are hurt – that the labels don’t pay the artists anyway … Many perceive the music business as being dominated by rich multinational corporations, the pain felt by the artist has no public face.”(27)
During my research I came upon more and more supporters of a third point of view, transcending the antagonistic stance of the involved parties. This group argued that file-sharing, although not justifiable, was spurred by the record companies’ greed and backwardness, and in particular their unwillingness to adapt new business models based on widely available communication technologies.
In 2002, Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone magazine stated: “The industry isn’t searching for new marketing, pricing and distribution ideas … instead, they’ve raised CD prices and spent millions of dollars on lawsuits aimed at shutting down Internet file-sharing sites.”(28) In the same article Wenner asks “if music executives shouldn’t focus on finding a way to embrace the internet age instead of squashing it.”(29) Sarah Jones and Sarah Benzuly observe that “the media focused on illegal file sharing but largely ignored the other problem: There were no legitimate choices for those who wanted to download their favourite songs over the web.”(30)
After Napster, many professionals wondered whether selling music online was a feasible proposition. While selling CDs via renowned internet outlets such as amazon.com is a mere augmentation of the conventional retail market and is subjected to similar market dynamics, the digital download business is more closely related and thus more obviously affected by the file sharing phenomenon. Music service provider Emusic.com’s general manager Steve Grady explains:
“Those kids who are 10, 11 and 12 years old are growing up in a completely different world. It is not that they are not willing to pay for something, but they don’t associate the same kind of value with something that they are downloading over the Internet as they do a CD that’s bought in the store. That’s just reality. Let’s accept it and build something around that … What you have to do is get people to pay for some service around the music that makes it easier for them to pay for it than it is to steal it. That’s the battle: adding value to the music, adding value to the whole experience of finding the music that they want. That’s what people are ultimately going to pay for ... A lot of what we’re offering is a discovery service.”(31)
Other service providers such as Listen.com’s Rhapsody provide packages combining hardware and software to connect their service via PC right into the end user’s entertainment system. “The key is convenience: Consumers want the ability to find music easily, go mobile with their music easily and pay easily.”(32)
America Online teamed up with MusicNet to provide a legal download service that is “integrating into the trusted and familiar AOL customer service and billing. This way MusicNet is built right into a monthly ISP statement, making payment for the service a relatively transparent (read: easy) experience.”(33)
Apple’s iTunes Music Store also provides a complete experience, but has taken the concept a lot further. Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs managed to negotiate deals with all the major and a great number of independent record companies including online distributors that give consumers unprecedented freedom as how to use and copy their downloaded music. The store is accessed via the iTunes player that comes free with every Apple operating system and iPod, and has grown to include internet radio, podcasts(34) and recently video playback. iTunes is also fully PC-compatible and integrates nicely with the iPod hardware and its numerous accessories. The idea has recently found its way into mobile phones as well. iTunes terms-of-use are right at the edge at what’s legally possible, and as such the service is only available in countries with a suitable legal environment as far as copyright law is concerned. However, record labels of all shapes and sizes are queuing up for distribution deals with iTunes. And despite the limited global availability, an Apple press-release on 3 March 2005 stated “that music fans have purchased and downloaded more than 300 million songs from the iTunes® Music Store.”(35)
The major labels’ reluctance to embrace the marketing opportunities presented by the Internet encouraged others to fill the void and meet the needs of the online audience.
Around the turn of the century, smaller internet-only labels were springing up quickly. They were often run by musicians who had been using the Internet to promote their music and had acquired the necessary set of skills and contacts. However, some of them had trouble acquiring musical content as they did not have a proven track record yet, and artists were well advised to research the options provided by the labels. In December 1999, business, technology and music journalist Sean McManus writes, “oh how the tables have turned. They come crawling now. Where major labels binned your demos unheard, internet labels are advertising for your music in magazines and on web sites everywhere.”(36)
He continues to explain the questions musicians need to ask when signing up with internet labels. These include how well known the label is, how easy it is to be found on their web site, whether they have a catchy domain name, whether special software is needed for visitors to access the music, how often and what percentage the artist gets paid, whether the label requires exclusive rights to the music, how consistent the label’s roster is with the artist’s genre, how easy it is to terminate the contract and many more. Although some of these criteria are internet-specific, similar rules seem to apply to signing up with any label: what can they do for you, how well can they do it and what is it going to cost you.
Internet-based labels seem to be a useful link for artists with limited knowledge of the processes involved and limited access to the necessary tools. However, the labels themselves were operating in an unchartered environment. In the early ‘buzz’ days of internet commerce (around 2000), there was no one established way to reach the customers. Internet labels came up with all sorts of distribution ideas, with little guarantee that they would develop into a successful model.
Whereas in the ‘brick and mortar’ world independent labels specialise in developing and promoting their artists, the albums get into the shops via distribution deals with the major companies. Lacking the same distribution infrastructure on the net, internet labels often became shops in themselves, looking to sell to the public directly. The methods used to achieve this are as inventive as they are diverse.(37)
While the public was generally very appreciative of the multitude of options, and while traffic on these sites was healthy, they were often not inclined to part with their money. McManus reports that “one of the reasons for [internet label] voxpop’s low sales is the Internet’s giveaway culture, where visitors are happy to listen for free but click on by when faced with a bill … another limit on sales is consumer apprehension about the security of using credit cards online.”(38) Trask explains: ”Even assuming they have customers willing to pay for their music on the Internet, all of the smaller companies selling music via their web sites have a similar logistical problem … namely how to obtain the money people want to give them. As internet-based fraud becomes more widespread, many potential music consumers are reluctant to send their credit-card details off into the ether, and cheques are so slow that they negate much of the immediacy of internet transactions, especially for business conducted overseas.”(39)
It appears that internet customers’ willingness to commit money to what seems like experimental pioneering ideas is limited. Just because a fairly unknown label is taking a punt and looking for new ways to distribute music, does not mean that consumers will necessarily want to share in that risk.
The more well-known and established a company is on the net, the more people are willing to invest trust, and punch in their credit-card details. Amazon.com and Bestbuy are good examples. For the music sector the major record companies could have filled this role, establishing a similar distribution model as in the ‘brick and mortar’ world. However, it took these companies a long time to come to terms with the new online economy that they had fought so vigorously.(40) Up until 2002, there was no major online distributor with a feasible large-scale strategy that customers and artists could have turned to.
In April 2003, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers, launched the iTunes Music Store. The Wikipedia encyclopedia lists that “the store … has since been a dominant online music service and has proven the viability of online music sales. By far the most popular legal music download service, as of February 2006 it had sold over 950 million songs worldwide which accounts for over 80% of [all] digital music sales.”(41)
iTunes were not the first music provider but their catalogue included by far the most artists of any music service provider to date creating the first true one-stop shop for music on the Internet. ITunes’ features are described in detail in Chapter 14.i.
The unparalleled success of iTunes provided the missing link for small labels and distributors, and eventually unsigned artists. CD Baby is one of those independent distributors. Initially a retailer for physical CDs of independent artists, founder Derek Sivers saw iTunes’ potential very early and secured a licensing deal with Apple which was followed by more deals with music download services everywhere, such as Musicnet, Audio Lunchbox, Buymusic, Emusic, Musicmatch, Rhapsody, MSN Music, Napster and others. Trask refers to CD Baby as a “third-party digital licensing aggregator”(42), although this does not entirely do them justice, because CDs are still the larger part of their business.
Artists that subscribe to CD Baby pay US$35 to set up distribution for one of their CDs. CD Baby then charges a flat fee of US$4 for every CD sold through the shop, made up of a web page per artist. Promotion is limited to this page plus various lists sorted by genre, style, mood, occasion, top seller and new arrivals. Once signed up, artists are able to join CD Baby’s licensing service for free. Gross income from digital downloads incurs a fee of 9%.
Throughout my research various sources stated that their terms are musician-friendly and transparent. Trask writes: “Started in March 1998, … CD Baby have grown to become a very well regarded online resource for anyone looking to buy independent music … They are now second in size only to Amazon as a retailer of independent CDs.”(43) Jazz label ASR Records, based in Kansas City, comment that “CD Baby provides a vital empowerment resource to independent musicians … due to their reputation for e-commerce reliability, proven loyalty to artists and sales accounting credibility.”(44) AJ Charron writes in US Musicians’ magazine Performer: “The service of choice … is CD Baby. It’s the biggest indie distributor on the net, and it has a very indie-friendly reputation.”(45) In another article from the same magazine, Chris Florio writes that CD Baby “is an excellent and easy way to get started selling songs online without a major investment.”(46)
David Nevue, internet musician, founder of the Music Biz Academy and author of ‘How To Promote Your Music Successfully On The Internet’, the most comprehensive guide to online distribution and promotion I was able to source during my research, has included a list of the top ten places for distribution and promotion on the net. He rates CD Baby as number one. “CD Baby is the best organized, most talked about … solution for musicians … [their] service is, simply put, amazing … CD Baby gets my highest, but rarely given, 5-Star Award of Excellence.”(47)
CD Baby is a service that allows independent artists, irrespective of whether they are signed to a label or not, access to global distribution at a low cost, and thus a low risk. They neither advertise their services nor do they promote the products. They rely on the artists themselves to promote the music, and while doing so, to generate awareness of CD Baby’s services. This approach has secured them steady growth as well as credibility in the independent music community, and made them the number one choice for ten of thousands of unsigned artists. I will be referring to CD Baby as the distributor of choice for my musical product in Chapter 16.
In the following two chapters I am going to describe the practical components of the project, the problems and challenges I faced in the process of developing them and how the research findings affected and influenced their implementation. This chapter looks at the production of the musical product.
The prerequisite for exploration of the online distribution and promotional opportunities was a musical product. I decided to record an entire album of a minimum of 10 songs. This decision was based somewhat arbitrarily on David Nevue’s statement that “iTunes will pay you .65c for every song sold, or up to $6.50 for each entire album sold.”(48) From this calculation it appeared that an average album would have at least ten songs on it. In total, I worked on 13 songs, but only managed to finish 10 of those in time for the research project. Unfortunately, this left me with no options to replace unpopular tracks with other alternatives after the conducted market research.
The total playing time I aimed for was approximately 40 minutes. I had read several album reviews where the playing time was considered short and commented on negatively when it fell below the 40-minute mark.
Even with only ten songs, the album became the most time-consuming part of the entire project. This was due to a number of factors. Firstly, I wrote, performed, arranged, programmed, recorded, edited, mixed, produced and mastered the entire album by myself. I also created the photography, designed the cover artwork and burnt the initial run of 50 CDs. The only exceptions to this are the backing vocals on six of the tracks that were performed by Aroha Harawira, and bass guitar on two of the tracks performed by Matthias Postel. Originally, I had planned to include more musical collaborations to add a greater dimension to the recordings, but time restrictions made this too difficult. Due to work and family commitments, I worked on the album mainly at night, often with very little notice. This was not conducive to collaborations.
Another problem factor that made the album such a time-consuming undertaking was my lack of performance practice. I hadn’t seriously performed and recorded any musical material for close to a decade. Although this applied to all instruments, it was especially the most important component, the vocal performances, that lacked in quality. I tried to rectify this by practising in the car on my way to and from work. However, I significantly underestimated the amount of time and effort I had to invest to produce the quality material I had envisaged. Combining the research project with the recording of an album and, in the process, taking care of every aspect in the production myself put me under a lot of time pressure.
Notwithstanding the cost and depreciation of the recording equipment that had been purchased before the production started, the personal time that was invested and the electrical power that was used up, the total production cost for the album is around $150 for back-up CDs and $220 for printing costs. Collaborating musicians were not remunerated. Although I would have liked to employ higher quality equipment budgetary and logistical contraints did not allow this.
In terms of the quality of the performances and the song writing, I found it difficult to judge the results since they were generated by myself only. In the traditional system, before a song is released, it undergoes a thorough filtering process. Band members, live audiences, A&R representatives, producers, media critics, program directors and radio and television audiences will all, in one way or another, shape the song by way of their response. This may cause the songwriter/s to either discard or modify original version/s of the song.
Since there was no similar process in place for my songs I decided to circulate a questionnaire to some audio professionals as well as ‘average listeners’ i.e. people with no professional music background. I wanted to partially emulate the filters to find out which songs were popular and which weren’t. This was meant to help me create an effective track list and improve on the songs. Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby recommends: “As long as you are good … what you want are more filters … because these things weed out the ‘bad’ music.”(49)
Although I tried to ensure that the participants were spread evenly between the two groups (industry professionals and average listeners) I decided not to distinguish between the two when evaluating the results. This was because I deemed both groups equally important. The music professionals acted as a replacement commercial filter, but at the same time, the average listeners represented the audiences and were the primary group targeted by the marketing. Also, the cross-section of surveyed people was relatively small, and consequently I did not anticipate the results to yield any representative information if they were split into even smaller units.
Initially I circulated paper questionnaires to specific people but found that meeting all the participants in person or obtaining their mailing addresses was too difficult. So I added an online questionnaire and song download page to the web site. As some of the paper forms were not returned to me, I decided to do a group mail-out to almost my entire address book including a link to the rating pages on the site. Even with this measure, it turned out to be problematic to get volunteers to listen to the whole album and appraise it, as this can be quite a time-consuming process. As of writing, there have been a total of six replies.
The questionnaire document for the rating of the music is shown in Appendix A. The web site version can be found at http://www.theelectricera.com/rate_the_music.htm. Detailed results are listed in Appendix B.
The questionnaire was comprised of eight questions asking for comments on musical genre, references to famous artists, selection of one or more singles, reasons for this selection, favourite and least favourite songs, song that is most indicative of the genre and further comments.
In summarising the results, the collected data allowed me to make a number of decisions based on a broader set of opinions. These decisions were:
In concluding, as the sole creator of the album, it was difficult to step back and get an impartial perspective on the included material. Although I would have liked feedback from more participants, the information from the six questionnaires that were returned turned out to be tremendously helpful in making many decisions. Because the songs were finished so close to the deadline of the research project, improvements based on the feedback from the questionnaires were minimal. However, the results I did obtain were useful in deciding which songs to feature closer to the start of the album and on the web site. As a result, the track order of the CD was changed and two songs were remixed. This included ‘By A Third’ which was one of my favourite songs, but had not found the favours of a number of participants. Four out of six voted it their least favourite song. Other songs like ‘Small Horizon’ and ‘Watery Eyes’ were moved up the track list due to their unexpected popularity.
On one hand, it would have been valuable to ask further or more detailed questions about the reasoning for some of the responses, but on the other hand, the questionnaire was deliberately designed to be succinct in order for the participants to be manageable. Including more questions might have decreased the return rate even more.
Although the number of participants was too low to reliably emulate the traditional filters, most of them were sourced from my professional and personal acquaintances and have a strong background in music. The group included at least one person with a background in radio (Aroha Harawira), one record producer (Bob Shepheard) and one record label executive (Jeremy McPike). This added additional weight to the findings.
Given that I could repeat this marketing research exercise, I would start much earlier to seek outside opinions for the songs so I would have more time to incorporate the suggestions.
Originally, before I had researched the matter in any detail, my approach was to build the web site as a means of distributing the product. I envisaged promotion as a vehicle for making people aware where the web site was and what kind of product it contained. Discussing this proposition with Jeremy McPike of Jelly Music, he made me aware of their experience when setting up a commerce server for paid downloads: “It becomes extremely expensive really quickly if you want to accept credit cards and do business with the banks directly.”(50)
In order to gain certainty on the matter I turned to the Music Biz Academy, a net-based independent musician’s resource founded by internet musician David Nevue who has been using the Internet since 1995 as a tool to promote and sell music. He wrote and published a book called ‘How To Promote Your Music Successfully On The Internet’. Nevue explains:
To run a successful business on the Internet, credit card acceptance is an absolute must … unfortunately, accepting credit cards via your web site typically means setting up a merchant vendor account with a bank, setting up terminal software (and/or hardware), and paying the many monthly fees associated with having an account. This makes accepting credit cards a tough call for most musicians. The situation is very nearly catch-22: if you accept credit cards, you may not cover your monthly costs; if you don’t however, you’ll miss out on a great many sales.”(51)
David Nevue then continues to discuss the redirect approach as offered by the CD Baby web site. There are a number of different ways to link from the artist’s web site to CD Baby who will then process the order and accept the money on your behalf. This approach meant re-evaluating my concept. Rather than being a distribution web site, the artist runs a promotional web site and links to third party distributors such as CD Baby for the sale.
This approach involves signing up with CD Baby or a similar service. However, this is different to being signed to a label. Where a label typically requires the artist to sign away the exclusive rights to their music so the label can exploit the music as they see fit, CD Baby’s agreement with the artist is a mere distribution deal. Moreover, this deal is non-exclusive, i.e. CD Baby is quite happy for the artist to have arrangements with other distributors on the net too. Of course, this arrangement leaves the promotion largely up to the artist.
Nevue writes that “there are several advantages to using CD Baby as your credit card processor. First you never have to pay a monthly fee … Second, you never have to ship or fulfil orders. CD Baby ships orders for you … Third, your visitors can use CD Baby’s toll-free number to place orders … if someone isn’t comfortable giving their credit card number over the Internet.”(52) In Nevue’s opinion, this is the optimal way to start out as an independent musician.(53)
At this stage in the development of my research project I was simultaneously writing a music history essay about music piracy and was reviewing a considerable number of articles about Napster and file-sharing. The prevalent consumer behaviour of stealing songs put fundamental doubts in my mind as to the feasibility of selling music via the Internet.
However, I realised that I was not a mainstream artist who was sufficiently popular that people would share my music files on the networks. I was an independent professional artist with a finished album as a viable product and a target market on the Internet. Toby Slater, a London-based independent musician, explains his view on piracy: “Kazaa’s catalogue tends to be a little bit more mainstram, so people tend to be going on there to download well-known music … The piracy issue that the major labels are forever bringing up; that’s almost irrelevant for small artists.”(54)
The other consideration that had an effect on my marketing concept was the fact that internet customers trust well-established online companies more readily than an unknown independent musician, and thus are more likely to order the product online. CD Baby’s appeal as a distributor was already greatly enhanced by its licensing deals with a great number of download services, all well-established and reputable. So I decided to distribute through this service and link from my web site to my artist page on their site. So far I have not signed up for their digital distribution to iTunes and others as my investigations into this arrangement have not been entirely finalised.
The criteria for my design concept were derived from statements by SAE Creative Media lecturer Jon Walker and internet musician David Nevue, both of whom have created and studied numerous web sites. Walker states that “a good web page has a consistent interface, clear functionality and minimal clutter.”(55) Nevue writes that “in terms of web design, less is better … there is nothing wrong with using … even just white for your web site background. It looks more professional … Find a simple graphic theme … and repeat [it] throughout your web site.”(56)
As I did not have any prior experience with designing web sites I studied different examples on the net and found that I was attracted to this concept of simplicity. A representative example can be found at http://www.bomb-texas.com/. I wanted to avoid the use of complex artwork and gadgetry that slows down the loading of the page and reduces accessibility, as can be found on the Fur Patrol web site at http://www.furpatrol.com/.
After studying the artwork of releases from artists I was being compared to and felt influenced by I chose to portray myself in a similar fashion. Most of these releases were dominated by either white on black or black on white or shades of grey, such as the early Cure, Joy Division and Chameleons albums. Consequently, I chose a white background with a minimal and consistent use of graphics and colour. For interest, I added a few special effects that do not significantly slow down the loading or compromise the simplicity.(57)
Another important design aspect are the titles of the pages and windows as well as the wording of the page content and the labeling of the buttons and graphics. These were written and optimised with search engines such as Google in mind. Towards the end of the design process the pages were then submitted to Google to be included in their database. Appendix E shows the ranking of specific search words relating to the site in Google.
The criterion for navigation was to make it easy for the visitors to find their way around the web site. Walker summarises the objectives: “At all times the visitor needs to know: where am I, where can I go, how do I get back.”(58) Nevue argues, “Be aware that when someone visits your web site for the first time, they have no idea what to expect, nor do they know what you expect them to do … There is one question on their mind: Where do I go now? So, your job … is to make the answer to that question obvious.”(59)
To achieve this, I created different levels of pages. Primary or power pages are those that inform about the product and where and how to buy it. These are the Home, Listen and Buy pages(60), featured by prominent links on every page. According to Nevue, this will “draw your visitor gradually, but inevitably, to your order page.”(61) Secondary pages, such as Info, Lyrics, Pics, News and Contact, have less prominent links but are graphically consistent with the power pages. Generally, they inform the visitor about the artist(62) but do not sell the product directly.
When putting together a marketing campaign for a musical product record companies utilise radio airplay, press interviews and broadcast advertising alongside promotional tours. Web sites are usually part of the campaign and are typically built by professional web designers. For the research project, the web site is currently the main pillar for the promotion of the music. There is no radio airplay, no tours or press interviews. Thus the site’s appeal is immensely important in order to attract business.
Since the web site was designed by a layman without prior design knowledge, I decided to use market research again in order to test the web site’s effect on potential visitors. I was eager to find out what users thought of the utilised concepts in terms of design appeal and effectiveness of navigation. Often, when discovering a new area, one is prone to unknowingly fall for overused stereotypes. In this case, I considered using images of construction machinery as a temporary placeholder for pages under construction, until I found a web site that suggested that “the imagery of under construction icons on web pages is just some cute little joke which has, for no good reason, gone completely out of control. Time to quit it.”(63) Another web page asks to join the “People Against Under Construction Images”(64). Although both these pages could not be traced back to reputable sources I decided to heed their advice. I surmised that market research, especially involving seasoned professionals, would uncover any design and other flaws I may not be aware of.
Due to the nature of this survey, I created an online-only version of the questionnaire. I mailed the link to five participants that have a professional background in web design and internet promotion, and to five informed internet users. Since I have never had any significant tuition in this field I saw the opinions of the professional group as a type of mentoring process. The informed users acted as representatives of my target market. Two of the professionals (a Public Relations Manager from Germany and a New Zealand Web Designer and Creative Media Lecturer) and four from the informed users group replied.
The questionnaire, a copy of which is shown in Appendix C, asked the participants to rate and comment on the stylistic appeal and its relation to the musical genre, positive and negative design elements, ease of navigation and how well the site meets the visitor’s needs. The responses allowed me to optimise the web site’s style and design as well as its navigational features.
Judging by the research results, I considered the design exercise reasonably successful. Although the stylistic approach may have been a bit too monochrome and minimalistic, overall there were a lot of positive comments about the design and the navigational features. Critical comments usually concerned easily correctible aspects, and in some cases, features that were planned but had not been implemented yet, such as the links to CD Baby or the picture page. Appendix D features detailed responses and comments on the results.
The research was aimed at developing and/or uncovering viable web-based alternatives to traditional marketing methods for unsigned artists. Viability was described as gaining a less restricted access to marketing channels and more control over the exploitation of the product without suffering significant financial and artistic disadvantages.
When initially planning the research project it was difficult to determine the appropriate methodology for a variety of reasons:
On reflection, the method of an exploratory case study was appropriate because “considerable uncertainty [existed] about the operations, goals, and results [of the project]”(65), as stated in Chapter 8. This uncertainty has been addressed by the case study and, as a result, several new areas for further research have emerged.
The case study approach also allowed the scope of the practical aspects of the project to be effectively controlled. The research findings were applied to the practical component as they emerged. For example, when researched material indicated the importance of search engine ranking, the web site’s html code was modified to optimize the site for search engines. Conversely, any research findings that required a prolonged time period to be implemented could be omitted from the prototype model and consigned to further research. The target-by-site method discussed in the recommendations is an example of this.
In terms of the financial viability, the alternative means of distribution turned out to be reasonably inexpensive. Altogether I spent less than NZ$500 including the domain name, production, packaging, shipping and distribution of the product. The ongoing costs for broadband connection and web hosting are NZ$40 a month. The album is priced at US$10, so deducting distribution and other commissions the break-even point is estimated at less than 100 units.
Compared to the calculations made by Steve Albini in ‘The Problem With Music’ and mentioned earlier, this appears to be a more certain source of royalties than a major recording contract. Most major label artists earn around US$1 towards their recoupment for every unit they shift(66). Selling one unit on the Internet will earn myself between US$5 and US$6 towards recoupment. In addition to this, I still own the rights to my music and am free to exploit other avenues of distribution as the distribution agreement is non-exclusive. All of this indicates an extremely low-risk marketing method.
Despite the above indications, at this stage there is no data indicating whether the project is likely to break even. Due to time constraints, reliably quantifiable results were not obtained from the practical marketing experiment. Although this was anticipated, it did not allow me to directly compare traditional and contemporary methods. Hence, even though less restricted access to marketing channels and increased financial control were demonstrated, clear-cut conclusions as to the financial viability of such a model cannot be drawn without further development of the marketing strategy.
I discovered many avenues of marketing online and a lively community of musicians on the Internet. Most internet services were started by individuals with a great passion for music, seeking alternatives to the traditional system. Hence, their contracts and agreements are usually much more artist-friendly and easy to terminate, and the financial risk is much less oppressive than those in the established system. However, the findings reveal that not all of them have the capacity to help unsigned artists get sufficient exposure and accomplish satisfactory numbers of sales, and consequently artists are advised to continue to research their marketing efficacy.
I have also found several signs that the online marketing community is ‘growing up’. Starting as an amorphous movement of pioneers between 1995 and 2002, in the recent three years it has consolidated into forms that have demonstrated their feasibility, while other less viable forms have disappeared, leaving artists with proven options, such as CD Baby and iTunes, that are gaining increasing acceptance among musicians, a key reason why I selected these services for the case study.(67)
One major challenge I faced was the absence of filters on the Internet. On one hand, this allowed me to gain access to distribution without proven commercial value, on the other hand I did not have any way of determining whether I had a desirable product. The undertaken market research was helpful in its methodology but had shortcomings in its implementation. The sample size allowed trends to be recognised but was too small to yield statistically indicative data. I had underestimated how difficult it would be to collect the information from participants. In addition, the music survey was undertaken extremely close to the end of the project, and as a result, indicated modifications were not able to be implemented in time.
The web site survey was more efficient with regards to modifications. However, due to similar problems as described above, its scale was also very small. On reflection, the survey could also have tested more directly how well the site achieves its main goal of marketing the music. A question could have been included that asked about comments on the ease of the purchase process and whether the supplied information was helpful in persuading the visitor to make a purchase decision. At the time of circulating the questionnaire, the purchase buttons had not yet been linked. The artist page at CD Baby had not been set up as the CDs that I had shipped to the distributor in Oregon, USA, took a long time to arrive there. This was a missed opportunity.
In concluding, the hypothesis which states that contemporary web-based distribution and promotion methods offer a viable alternative to traditional methods for the unsigned, home-based producer/ musician/ artist, is partially confirmed. What has become clearly evident is the ease of access to internet distribution for unsigned artists and producers, and the varied choice of mature and freely combinable online services. The study has produced diverse evidence for artists strongly indicating that the Internet has numerous legal and financial advantages over the traditional system, as far as implementing distribution is concerned. However, while some promotional activities were researched and conducted, a substantial promotional strategy was found to be unattainable within the scope of the study and could only be hinted at. More research is recommended to ascertain as to what extent the suggested alternative marketing methods are financially viable, especially when the artist decides to do without traditional promotional activities such as live performance and radio airplay. In David Nevue’s words:
“To succeed on the Internet, you must prepare yourself for the long haul and prepare to work hard.”(68)
Recommended further research would mainly focus on the area of promotion. Nevue asks, “if [according to a Georgia Tech survey] 90% of the buyers out there already know what they are looking for and are searching the Internet for that particular item, how will they find you, someone whose music they have likely never heard of?”(69) The challenge that emerged from the project is to build an awareness of the product. Widespread marketing features will need to be implemented, especially when the artist relies solely on internet presence, such as the subject of this case study.
Further research may uncover how the artist can find out where their potential fans go on the Internet and what they are looking for, so that they can position themselves and their product accordingly. While the conducted research briefly covered aspects of this nature, such as search engine positioning, this particular principle requires closer attention in a successful online marketing strategy that aims at steadily increasing traffic to the site. Recommended research would include aspects such as achieving internet radio airplay, utilising forums and discussion groups, a bulletin board, a mailing list, video streaming, webcasting, promotional giveaways in exchange for market research and reciprocal links with other web sites. Another interesting approach is the ‘target by site’ marketing strategy promoted by Nevue.(70)
A further interesting aspect that may warrant more attention for future research, is the effect that the increasing viability of independent online marketing is having on the major record companies, changing their modes of operation, trimming down excessive expenditure and implementing more artist-friendly terms in their contracts.
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Networking In The Music Business, by Dan Kimpel, Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, Ohio 1993
Business Analysis For Marketing Managers, by Leonard Rogers, Heinemann, London 1978
The Future Of Music, by David Kusek & Gerd Leonhard, Berklee Press, Boston, MA, USA, 2005
Confessions Of A Record Producer, by Moses Avalon, Backbeat Books, San Francisco, CA, USA, 1998
A Fine Mess, by Blair Jackson, Mix Magazine, May 2003
Beat To Hell, by Stephen St Croix, Mix Magazine May 2003
Paying To Play, by Sarah Jones and Sarah Benzuly, Mix Magazine, May 2003
Digital Music Distribution, by Simon Trask, Sound On Sound Magazine, February 2004
The Problem With Music, by Steve Albini, Maximium Rock’n’Roll, Issue 133 found at www.negativland.com/albini.html
Pay For Play, by Eric Boehlert, salon.com, March 2001, found at www.salon.com/ent/feature/2001/03/14/payola/
Independents’ Day, by Lynne Margolis, The Christian Science Monitor, April 2003
Courtney Love – The Making Of A Martyr, by Heidi Drockelmann, Indie-Music.com, found at www.indie-music.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=819
Death Knell Sounds For The CD, by Greg Kot, Record Online, April 2003, found at www.recordonline.com/archive/2003/04/29/bz29.htm
Killing The Music, by Don Henley, Washington Post, 17 February 2004, found at www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A46669-2004Feb16?language=printer
The New Music Industry of Burning Compact Discs, by Aleigh Acerni, George Street Observer, 9 December 2002, found at www.thegsoonline.com/news/2002/9/12/Entertainment/The.New.Music.Industry.Of.Burning.Compact.Discs-269113.shtml
Music in the 00s, by David M. Fine, The Mill, date unknown, found at www.gristforthemill.org/010422music.html
Qualitative Research in Information Systems, by Michael D. Myers, Auckland University, found at www.qual.auckland.ac.nz/
Record Contract Basics, by Michael P. McCready, Music Law Offices, found at www.music-law.com/contractbasics.html
Choosing A Label, by Sean McManus, Making Music, December 1999, found at www.sean.co.uk/a/musicjournalism/var/choosy.shtm
The Lessons from Voxpop, by Sean McManus, Making Music, May 1999, found at www.sean.co.uk/a/musicjournalism/var/voxpop.shtm
Mp3.com buy: The Taming Of A Generation, by John Borland and Jim Hu, news.com, May 2001, found at news.com.com/MP3.com+buy+The+taming+of+a+generation/2100-1023_3-257993.html
DIY: Online Distribution, by AJ Charron, Performer (Date unknown), found at www.performermag.com/musicbiz.php
Make Your Music Available at Downloadable Music Stores, by Chris Florio, Performer June 2005, found at www.performermag.com/downloadablestores.php
Believe In Your Music: Go Where The Filters Are, by Derek Sivers, CDBaby Web Site, found at cdbaby.net/derek/filters.htm
Under Construction, by Gordon Kindlmann, found at www.cs.utah.edu/~gk/atwork/
People Against Under Construction Images, by Ricky, found at www.andrews.edu/~rickyr/noconst.html
Royalty Calculator, by Moses Avalon, found at www.mosesavalon.com/marc.htm
Speech To The Digital Hollywood Online Entertainment Conference (unedited transcript), by Courtney Love in New York on May 16, 2000, found at www.cdbaby.net/articles/courtney_love.html
Exile Online – Interview with Jake Shillingford, by Sean McManus, Making Music, Edition unknown, found at www.sean.co.uk/a/musicjournalism/exileinside.shtm
The Business Of Music: What Goes On Behind The Curtain, Presentation by Marina Belica at The Professional Women’s Exchange, New York, 2000, found at www.decembergirl.com/Resources/PWEpresentation.pdf
Interview with an Internet Music Marketing Pioneer, by Louise Hall, MusicBizAcademy, November 2003, found at www.musicbizacademy.com/internet/interview1103.htm
PR Releases Database, found at press-releases.techwhack.com/152/0303-itunes-music-store-downloads-surpass-300-million/
Kansas City Jazz label chooses CDBaby, press release by unknown, All About Jazz, August 2005, found at www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=6828
Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia, found at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Howstuffworks, found at entertainment.howstuffworks.com/
New Oxford American Dictionary (Second Edition), by Elizabeth J. Jewell and Frank R. Abate (Editors), Oxford University Press, New York City 2005
Lecture notes, Seminar by Clive Pascoe & John Reynolds, 27 February 2003
Lecture Notes, Basic Web Design, by Jon Walker, SAE Institute, January 2005
(1) Courtney Love was sued by Universal for breach of contract because she disputed her contractual obligations. She gives an informative account on her point of view of this conflict in her speech to the Digital Hollywood on-line entertainment conference. An unedited transcript of the speech can be found at http://www.cdbaby.net/articles/courtney_love.html
(2) Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_study
(3) Qualitative Research in Information Systems, by Michael D. Myers, http://www.qual.auckland.ac.nz/
(4) Business Analysis For Marketing Managers, by Leonard Rogers, Heinemann, London 1978
(5) Some of these companies have merged with other media companies since. Warner, for instance, became AOL Time Warner, and BMG and Sony have formed the Sony BMG Music Entertainment Group, reducing the number of major record companies to four.
(6) A Fine Mess, By Blair Jackson, Mix Magazine May 2003, pg 36
(7) Record Contract Basics, by Michael P. McCready, http://www.music-law.com/contractbasics.html
(8) Exile Online, by Sean McManus, http://www.sean.co.uk/a/musicjournalism/exileinside.shtm
(9) Pay For Play, by Eric Boehlert, salon.com, March 2001
(10) Independents’ Day, by Lynne Margolis, The Christian Science Monitor, April 2003
(11) Courtney Love – The Making Of A Martyr, by Heidi Drockelmann, Indie-Music.com, http://www.indie-music.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=819
(13) The Problem With Music, by Steve Albini, Maximium Rock’n’Roll, Issue 133
(18) The Business Of Music: What Goes On Behind The Curtain, presented by Marina Belica at The Professional Women’s Exchange, New York, 2000, http://www.decembergirl.com/Resources/PWEpresentation.pdf
(19) Interview with an Internet Music Marketing Pioneer, Louise Hall, November 2003, http://www.musicbizacademy.com/internet/interview1103.htm
(20) Lecture notes, Seminar by Clive Pascoe & John Reynolds, 27 February 2003
(21) Lecture notes, Seminar by Clive Pascoe & John Reynolds, 27 February 2003
(22) I found out later that one cannot link to a search engine the way I envisaged, hence the quotation marks.
(23) Beat To Hell, by Stephen St Croix, Mix Magazine May 2003, pg 20
(24) Death Knell Sounds For The CD, by Greg Kot, Record Online April 2003, http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2003/04/29/bz29.htm
(25) In their campaign against Napster, the RIAA who claimed to protect small artists’ livelihoods, was supported by a number of high profile musicians with major label recording contracts such as Metallica, Elton John, Alanis Morissette, Billy Joel and Lou Reed.
(27) Killing The Music, by Don Henley, Washington Post, 17 February 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A46669-2004Feb16?language=printer
(28) The New Music Industry of Burning Compact Discs, by Aleigh Acerni, 9 December 2002, George Street Observer, http://www.thegsoonline.com/news/2002/9/12/Entertainment/The.New.Music.Industry.Of.Burning.Compact.Discs-269113.shtml
(30) Paying To Play, by Sarah Jones and Sarah Benzuly, Mix Magazine May 2003, pg 72
(31) Sarah Jones and Sarah Benzuly, pg 74
(32) Sarah Jones and Sarah Benzuly, pg 74
(33) Sarah Jones and Sarah Benzuly, pg 75
(34) A digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player (New Oxford American Dictionary (Second Edition), by Elizabeth J. Jewell and Frank R. Abate (Editors), Oxford University Press, New York City 2005)
(35) PR Releases Database, http://press-releases.techwhack.com/152/0303-itunes-music-store-downloads-surpass-300-million/
(36) Choosing A Label, by Sean McManus, Making Music, December 1999, http://www.sean.co.uk/a/musicjournalism/var/choosy.shtm
(37) Some examples: Internet label Voxpop offered customised compilation discs of their artists for sale. Farfield Records and CD Baby initially specialised in the shipping of physical CDs, but later on, when legal download services had matured, added the licensing of music to these services to their catalogue. CD Baby accepts artists of all genres but is not actively involved in development or promotion. Farfield Records is specialised in selected ambient music and includes artist development and promotional activities. Magnatune is a cross-genre, online-only label with a selected artist catalogue providing download-only services. Their services include free high quality streaming, licensing to commercial users and a Creative Commons license that allows the customer to freely copy, remix and sample the downloaded music for non-commercial use. Other download-only services such as wippit.com and playlouder use the file-sharing protocol in conjunction with a subscription model. While wippit.com operates internet-wide, playlouder is an internet service provider offering broadband connections plus a download service exclusive to their subscribers.
(38) The Lessons from Voxpop, by Sean McManus, Making Music, May 1999, http://www.sean.co.uk/a/musicjournalism/var/voxpop.shtm
(39) Digital Music Distribution, by Simon Trask, Sound On Sound Magazine, February 2004, pg 126
(40) During 2000, BMG Entertainment was suing Napster while their parent company Bertelsmann AG, realising Napster’s business potential, was paying for Napster’s legal expenses.
(41) Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes_Music_Store
(44) Kansas City Jazz label chooses CD Baby, press release by unknown, All About Jazz, August 2005, http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=6828
(45) DIY: Online Distribution, by AJ Charron, Performer (Date unknown), http://www.performermag.com/musicbiz.php
(46) Make Your Music Available at Downloadable Music Stores, by Chris Florio, Performer June 2005, http://www.performermag.com/downloadablestores.php
(47) How To Promote Your Music Successfully On The Internet, 2005 Edition, by David Nevue, Music Biz Academy, pg98ff
(48) David Nevue, pg99
(49) Believe In Your Music: Go Where The Filters Are, by Derek Sivers, CD Baby Web Site, http://cdbaby.net/derek/filters.htm
(50) Interview with Jeremy McPike, conducted by Karsten Schwardt, March 2005
(51) David Nevue, pg35
(52) David Nevue, pg35
(53) A company called CCNow offers a similar shopping cart system to CD Baby that can be plugged into the artist’s web site. They take a smaller cut than CD Baby but monthly running costs mean it is only viable once monthly sales exceed US$100. According to Nevue, merchant vendor accounts are only profitable as of a minimum monthly turnover of US$500.
(55) Lecture Notes, Basic Web Design, by Jon Walker, SAE Institute, January 2005
(56) David Nevue, pg 22
(57) Examples of this are the rollover effect for the page header, the tube radio buttons, the lyrics buttons, the changing caption below the header, a few photos and the light switch on the enter page.
(59) David Nevue, pg 77
(60) The buy page features a shopping cart link to the CD Baby checkout, while the artist’s page remains open underneath so the buyer can return there.
(61) David Nevue, pg 77
(62) Some of these pages contain further links to less important pop-up windows. They have no navigation bar and a different graphic appearance. A visitor can view the site superficially by viewing the primary and secondary pages which will reveal the artist’s product and professional image. As the visitor decides to find out more about the artist they can follow the text links. The information contained on these pages becomes more detailed, in-depth and personal but also links to some outside sources.
(63) Under Construction, by unknown author, http://www.cs.utah.edu/~gk/atwork/
(64) People Against Under Construction Images, by Ricky, http://www.andrews.edu/~rickyr/noconst.html
(66) This calculation was made using Moses Avalon’s royalty calculator found at http://www.mosesavalon.com/calculator.htm
(67) Although signing up for digital distribution via iTunes and other services is part of the implemented distribution method I have not committed to it yet as it requires the promotional material provided to CD Baby to be finalised. This decision has not been made yet.
(68) David Nevue, pg 7
(69) David Nevue, pg 7
(70) This involves building a new site that targets people interested in a particular topic. The topical site also features a prominent link to the artist’s web site and an advertisement of the artist’s products. This would involve writing and publishing articles and may turn out to be a very time consuming technique, but with the potential to increase traffic to the artist’s web site.