iLike Offers New Tools To Concert Promoters

iLike is reaching out to concert promoters with a new set of tools designed to transform its social music discovery service into a more overt advertising platform.

The company has added new tools that let promoters, venue owners, booking agents and bands place advertising for upcoming shows on the iLike system on their own. These tools allow users to target their ads based on iLike members' professed musical tastes and location, as well as provide them various ad-building and distribution features such as the addition of audio song sampling video clips.

These tools add to iLike's existing social networking capabilities, which will allow users to invite friends to concerts they discover via the platform.

iLike says it now has 30 million registered users, and is taking additional steps to not only acquire more, but also add more value to those already on the system. It recently teamed with Rhapsody to offer full-song streaming downloads (25 per month, or unlimited for existing Rhapsody members).

On the heels of the concert ad-network announcement, iLike is also reaching out to third-party Web site developers with a deal that would let them use iLike to become their default music provider.

The service won't launch until later this quarter, but is designed to let developers embed all iLike functionality -- including full-song streaming -- into their sites. It's still unclear what type of personalized integration these developers will have to customize the iLike experience on their sites, or the costs involved.

Music In China... Part I

As in most other Asian markets, pop music has a real stranglehold over the mainstream
- Mando-Pop, Canto-Pop, J-Pop, K-Pop - glossy, inoffensive music that satisfies the censors as well as the ‘bland criteria’ necessary for across-the-board media coverage. Despite the diverse musical heritage of China, mainstream pop is almost entirely informed by western music, from the basic pop song format through to instrumentation and lyrical content, although general production quality is still fairly poor. The Chinese audience, therefore, are already well familiar with all of the stock traits of western music: Guitar solos, crap raps in the middle-eight of pop songs, warbly diva vocals, key changes at the end of ballads, pseudo-rock bands, pseudo-hip-hop bands etc.

Your average western band, therefore, does not sound totally alien, it's just that no one is willing to spend money promoting an international (and therefore niche) act when 90 per cent of CDs are counterfeit and an even higher percent of online music is pinched. It’s all about hitting the mass market straight out of the box and selling big, if you want a chance of making money.

Such a high piracy rate leaves you with a legitimate physical market of only $86m a year (2006 figures), making China - a country of 1.3 billion people, remember – into only the 20th largest market in the world. Physical has never really had a good time in China.

Artist Quote of the Week

"People don't want to see a whole lot of crap anymore than they want to see one piece of crap."

--Wayne Forte, ITC

1,000 True Fans

The long tail is famously good news for two classes of people; a few lucky aggregators, such as Amazon and Netflix, and 6 billion consumers. Of those two, I think consumers earn the greater reward from the wealth hidden in infinite niches.

But the long tail is a decidedly mixed blessing for creators. Individual artists, producers, inventors and makers are overlooked in the equation. The long tail does not raise the sales of creators much, but it does add massive competition and endless downward pressure on prices. Unless artists become a large aggregator of other artist's works, the long tail offers no path out of the quiet doldrums of minuscule sales.

Other than aim for a blockbuster hit, what can an artist do to escape the long tail?

One solution is to find 1,000 True Fans. While some artists have discovered this path without calling it that, I think it is worth trying to formalize. The gist of 1,000 True Fans can be stated simply:

A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.


read the entire article@http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php

Turn Off Radio, Tune Into Marketing

Music labels have depended on radio airplay for so long, they have never learned the art of effective and relevant marketing, a scenario that has contributed to the current industry slump.

That is the damning message from Terry McBride, co-founder/CEO of Canada's Nettwerk Music Group and author of the recently-published report "Meet the Millennials," which identifies and analyses the habits of young music fans born around the turn of the millennium.

"The record companies and the management companies should understand their audience," he says. "They should know what their audience do from when they wake up to when they go to bed. That is the marketing process."

McBride was speaking to Billboard.biz just before his arrival in London to host "Face to Face With the Millennials," an industry forum taking place July 17 at London's Imagination Gallery.

"The industry used to think that way in the past, but it was an add-on to the radio media. They based their strategies around radio, press coverage, and (point-of-sale) advertising. Everything else came after that," he added.

"But radio and traditional media have been thrown out the door," he continues. "Consumers now ignore the radio and print media, and they no longer go into stores."

McBride advised that the industry should now raise the bar of their previously neglected marketing skills. "The bastard child that used to be kept outside the door should now be made to feel welcome. All that lifestyle marketing is now much more relevant."

Several label and industry executives will also be among the discussion groups at Thursday's industry gathering, including former recording artist-turned-radio DJ Tom Robinson, who will interview a group of young consumers from the millennial age demographic.

New Music Web Sites...

A new website is promising to put the Music Industry on its' head. DanceFreeway.com is a new site dedicated to offering free MP3 downloads of Dance Music in an easy to use environment.

"So what's the catch?", asked Ron HIrsch of DanceFreeway.com. "There is no catch. Yes, you will see ads on the site, but they won't interfere with your ability to stream or download music...all at no charge."

The site is actually the brainchild of record label, Act 2 Records. So why would a record label design a site to give away their music and others'? Isn't that counter productive to making money? I asked this question to Act 2's President Ron Hirsch. He said that "the Economics of the Music Industry have changed so dramatically, that it has forced us to re-evaluate how people value music. Clearly people still enjoy music, but they're just not going to pay $16 for a CD anymore. And frankly, 99 cents or lower for a download is a good deal for the consumer, however it's too small a margin for a label to sustain itself."

So then what is the value of music? Mr. Hirsch believes that "music has value as a promotional product. And that the Music Industry's future will more closely resemble other mediums like radio and television. Specifically, we will offer a free product (ie music), and sustain ourselves by selling advertisements."

DanceFreeway.com (http://DanceFreeway.com) was launched in May 2008 with 2 sister sites (HipHopFreeway.com (http://hiphopfreeway.com) & RockFreeway.com (http://rockfreeway.com)) being launched in June. Mr. Hirsch states that "so far the amount of traffic and the amount of downloads has greatly surpassed our most aggressive estimates."

But not everything's free on the site. The basic premise for the site is that in exchange for Artist's offering songs for free, they will be allowed to post additional songs that people can purchase and they will receive 100% of the net proceeds.

"It's really a win-win-win & win concept", says Mr. Hirsch. "The User wins by getting free downloads in an easy to use legal environment. The Artist wins by getting exposure to new fans and incremental revenue. The Advertiser wins by getting a targeted consumer. And we win by creating an additional stream of revenue for ourselves."

Mr. Hirsch goes on to say: "It's really a fun process. It's like the old days again. We help new Artists' get exposure, (recently having one get signed to a major record deal), and we also get to turn people on to some great new music. What could be better?"

Artists may "Get On The Freeway (http://dancefreeway.com/Artist_Submission.html)" by submitting an application on line at one of the three current sites. Future sites include CountryFreeway, IndieFreeway, LatinFreeway, ChristianFreeway and others.