The Nashville Feed

Social networking Web sites, devoted to hosting interactions among members, were once like metaphorical lakes, each stocked with similar fish. Today, these sites have become virtual oceans, filled with millions of species, small recreational boats and massive supertankers.

The popularity of these sites has increased so quickly and dramatically that it’s impossible to say exactly how many total users they draw. The numbers are bigger than many people would suspect, though, and they grow every day.

According to a report published in June 2007 by Forrester Research, the two most popular social networking sites — www.MySpace.com and www.Facebook.com – have more than 63 million U.S. visitors each month. A report that aired in 2008 on PBS’ “Frontline” stated that the number of members for the two sites combined has reached a staggering 160 million.

With numbers like these, it follows that many commercial entities consider it essential to maintain a presence on these sites and others. The lesson has certainly not escaped the Country Music industry, as suggested by the Top 15 acts on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for Feb. 2, 2008 — each of whom has a MySpace page.

“Two key things about Country Music are the relatability of the artist and access to the artist,” said Heather McBee, VP, Digital Business, Sony BMG Nashville. “That’s the great thing about social networking sites: They give fans the opportunity to connect and interact with the artist.”

Certainly that’s true for Kenny Chesney, whose fans have streamed more than 25 million song plays on his MySpace page and Taylor Swift, whose MySpace streams have topped 40 million. And while their numbers may be smaller, this online connection is even more important to artists who haven’t yet started selling out stadium shows. A case in point is Chuck Wicks, who scored a major hit with “Stealing Cinderella,” from his debut album on RCA Records, Starting Now.

“What we’re doing with the social networking sites is giving fans a chance to experience more of Chuck as an artist,” said McBee. “People who go to his MySpace page can learn more about him, hear his music, see interviews, read his blog and experience a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a music video. Chuck has been very involved with what goes on at his site. He invests in communicating with his fans.”

Artists’ pages on MySpace are increasingly offering various ways to purchase music. Some artists provide links to iTunes or to their own online store. Others offer downloads for sale. The company Snocap, launched in 2002 by Napster founder Shawn Fanning and his partners, facilitates such transactions by adding a “store” onto the artist’s MySpace page, with earnings divided according to arrangements made between the artists, their label and Snocap. Among the artists who have gone this route are Clint Black, Little Big Town, Gillian Welch and Chris Cagle, who sells downloads of entire albums at his MySpace page.

Also in the game is www.imeem.com, a San Francisco-based networking site that boasts more than 20 million unique users each month. More important, as far as the music industry is concerned, imeem has transformed the online landscape by negotiating licensing deals with all four major record label groups (EMI Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group) as well as thousands of independent labels. These arrangements allow imeem to offer free, on-demand streaming of the label’s entire music and video catalogs, in exchange for which music companies receive a share of imeem’s advertising revenue.

Beyond providing a central location where users can listen to entire songs and watch videos, imeem also facilitates online sales. If a user wants to download a track, imeem provides links to Amazon and iTunes, where the track can be purchased.

Universal Music Group inked its deal with imeem in December 2007. “imeem has developed an innovative way to make our artists’ music a central park of the social networking experience,” explained Doug Morris, Chairman/CEO, UMG. “More importantly, they’ve done so the right way, by working with UMG to provide an exciting musical experience for consumers, while ensuring that our artists are compensated fairly for use of their works.”

Like most social networking sites, imeem is free to join and highly interactive, with users being able to upload songs and videos, create custom playlists and share photos and blogs.

In January, imeem announced a partnership with MTV Networks to offer video clips and episodes. This allows imeem users to view and share clips from CMT, MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and more.

The site has featured artists in unique online events, including exclusive listening parties and recorded introductions to imeem playlists. Faith Hill, Blake Shelton and The Wreckers are among the acts who have participated thus far.

Executives at imeem feel they’ve devised a system where everyone involved — the artist, the label, the advertiser and the consumer — is a winner.

The ad-supported model is a totally new business model and revenue stream for the music industry,” said Steve Jang, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Business Development, imeem. “In essence, we’re harnessing the user’s attention. It’s the overall experience on imeem that we’re monetizing. We created a revenue-sharing model where we share roughly half of our advertising revenue with the content owners. Labels and artists promote themselves in a colorful way on imeem. Advertisers come to create brand awareness and real engagement with our users. Then the advertising revenue is split with the content owners. The idea is, ‘Hey, let’s work together and I’ll share with you what I make.’ That’s a fundamental human concept. People just get that.”

The imeem advertising revenue-sharing program is available to a variety of content owners — unknown songwriters as well as major companies. The number of streamed plays is tracked, so that payments are made in proportion to a song’s popularity.

The imeem experience also helps deter unauthorized downloads of digital music files. “Piracy flourishes when it’s easier than the alternative that the industry is offering,” said James McQuivey, a media and technology analyst at Forrester Research, who studies the music industry. “And imeem is now offering an incredibly easy alternative. They compete successfully with piracy. Not only is [the imeem site] easy to use and satisfying, but it appeals particularly to the exact age demographic that is so fond of piracy.”

Although the gap is shrinking, a significant difference remains between the use of social networking sites by younger (Generation Y) consumers and baby boomers. According to Forrester Research, 80 percent of young adults (ages 18-21) in the United States use these sites, compared to only 30 percent of adults ages 18 and older. Among youthful users (ages 12-21) who visit social networking sites daily, more than 40 percent said that they listened to music the last time they visited such a site; about 25 percent said that they watched a video.

People in general are devoting more and more of their free time to Internet activities. As a result, ad revenues for the Web are predicted to skyrocket. A study by the Internet market researcher www.eMarketer.com predicts that worldwide spending on social network advertising will reach $2.9 billion in 2009, up from $1.2 billion in 2007.

“About $70 billion is spent on television advertising in the U.S. every year, compared to about $24 billion that people spend on DVDs every year,” McQuivey noted. “So in television, advertisers spend nearly three times what consumers do to buy their own videos. When it comes to Internet-delivered content, there’s going to be a similar ratio, meaning that advertisers will spend more money to reach people through music experiences like imeem or Internet radio than there will be by people buying their own music directly online.”

Sony BMG’s McGee, whose professional Web experience dates back to 1996, knows how important it is to adapt. “The challenging balance is to try to stay ahead of the users while following them at the same time,” she said. “We’re trying to be in the right place at the right time.”

By Bobby Reed | © 2008 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

'bout damn time! Another rock and roll weekend, yeehaw!

Seriously good stuff happening...in addition to the killer rock shows, the Belcourt is giving you the opportunity to see Star Trek: The Wrath of KAHN! at midnight Friday and Saturday...also happening at the Belcourt this weekend: Body of War opens Friday. On Saturday at 7pm the subject of the film, Tomas Young will be in attendance.

Friday!

• AutoVaughn and De Novo Dahl Doulble CD Release w/ The Pink Spiders at the Cannery Ballroom. 9pm ($8 - $10)
• The Shazam w/ The Ettes & Whip (MySpace) at the Basement. 9pm ($7)

Saturday!

• Pat Buchanan at 3rd & Lindsley. 7pm ($7)
• Matt King at Family Wash. 9pm (Free, but don't forget cash for the hat!)
• Chris Crofton Almost Standing Up w/ Apollo Up at the Basement. 9pm ($5)

Sunday!

• Lovenoise at the Place. 9pm
• DeVotchka w/ Basia Bulat & more at Mercy Lounge. 9pm ($18 - $20)

Hot Nashville Music Sales of the Week

Grimey's Best Sellers for April 28 - May 4, 2008

Flight of the Conchords fall of the list this week and Portishead appears on the top of the list.

1. Portishead - Third
2. Mudcrutch - Mudcrutch
3. Boris - Smile
4. Elvis Costello - Momufuku
5. M83 - Saturdays = Youth
6. Justin Townes Earle - The Good Life
7. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
8. She & Him - Volume One
9. The Roots - Rising Down
10. Hayes Carll - Trouble In Mind

We only list the top 10 for the rest of the top 50 visit Grimeys.com. (Please note that Amazon.com links are provided for those not in Nashville, if Grimeys had an online store we would link there.)

Have a super safe and awesome weekend!

Peace,
j.

Technorati Tags: weekend, nashville, it list, de novo dahl, the shazam

Happy Cinco de Mayo everybody! Wish I had a list of things for you to day tonight but it looks like everything happened over the weekend. I only found one event going on at the foobar over on the east side.

Talking about parties has it come to this. In our digital connected world has dating been reduced to texting? Have you been in a texting relationship? Leave a comment and tell your story.

Social networking is a very powerful tool that empowers artists and allows them to easily reach out to their fans. The two biggies in the general category are Facebook and MySpace. Each has very different demographics meaning you probably should be on both of them. Be careful how much you push them to grow your audience because you can get deleted. Here’s some tips and information that will prevent a lot of pain and time lost later.

Different Profiles for Different Purposes Maybe

MySpace has a few different profiles but most people use either the stander member or the musician profiles. MySpace really doesn’t care what you use it for even though their terms of use states otherwise. Facebook
is a very different beast in the sense that they have many profiles for business. They really do care what you use your profile for and will disable your account if you don’t follow the rules. If you’re a Band each person should have a Facebook profile and the band itself would have a music Facebook Page and maybe a group.

Are You Human?

MySpace has Captcha so when you add too many friends, or send too many emails it pops up asking you to read and type in the squiggly text shown. Basically it’s a test to see if you’re a human or an internet bot (spam). Facebook has none of these tests except for sign-up.

Don’t Push the Facebook System

The company I work for started our Facebook profile before there were Facebook Pages available and so we used it to start a group. Without going into too much detail adding too many friends at a time can cause your profile to be disabled for a few hours at first. If you do it again the next time they disable you it will be longer. And finally you’re gone. Everything you had built gone in one digital poof! That’s not the worst of it. If you’ve created groups around the profile and only have one administrator you could be screwed. When that main administrator profile disappears it opens up the group to anybody. The first person to click “make me administrator” owns the group. There is no message send to your members saying what has happened. Meaning they can send messages to the group and most will think it is you. This had happened to our group. We got it back afterward but it was 24 hours of sweating.

Facebook Pages/Profiles Advice and Tips

• Set up individual Facebook profiles for each member of a band and a back up profile for sole artists.
• Set up a Facebook Page for Bands and solo Artists. Yes, solo Artists too.
• Promote the Page and Group; do not worry about building friends list on your personal profile. If anything let that build organically.
• If you get disabled on Facebook wait a few hours and I will come back. They don’t give you the thresholds that causes “disabling” so don’t push-it if it happens.

If you follow some of this advice you won’t go through what we did. Use the system to it’s fullest for maximum benefit but don’t abuse the Facebook system.

Technorati Tags: facebook, disabled profiles, music business, how to, social networking

Another linkfest for you today.

Report: Amazon MP3 Gains Don't Affect iTunes - News and Analysis by PC Magazine
Gains for Amazon's MP3 service have not significantly affected Apple iTunes sales, due largely to the different demographics the two services attract, according to a report from NPD Group .

Anybody See My 4.9 Billion? : Teenage Music Purchases - Chuck Klosterman
There's a lot of money out there in the economy that people used to spend on CDs. The question is, where, exactly, did it go?

How can I sell my music online? | New Music Strategies
When I go and give lectures and seminars, this is by far the most frequently asked question by the musicians in the audience. There are variations on this theme, but essentially it boils down to this very simple question: now that there’s this internet thing, where’s the money and how do I get at it?
What’s the best way to sell music online?

Fine On Media The Wisdom Of The Commenters - BusinessWeek
When I’m coldish and kvetching and dizzy from decongestants, it’s nice that some smart commenters can stop by and make arguments better than I could make even if I weren’t totally coldish and kvetching and etc.

Radiohead allows fans to remix new single | Technology | Reuters
LONDON (Billboard) - Radiohead is using the Internet for another initiative built around its chart-topping album, "In Rainbows."

The UK rock act has teamed with iTunes and GarageBand for an interactive project that allows fans to rework the album's second single, "Nude."

Are Always-Connected Consumers Really Virtual Crackheads? - Advertising Age - The Media Guy
Look out! The internet is ruining your life! Again!

Last week the blogosphere busied itself with obsessing over the publication of an editorial in the American Journal of Psychiatry by Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health & Science University, in which he argued that internet addiction should be included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

The Year's Hottest New Music Stars - Forbes.com
Some recording artists toil for years without ever scoring a big hit. Then there's the fortunate few who skip all the dues-paying hardships and skyrocket straight to stardom.

That pretty much sums up the experience of Sean Kingston, Colbie Caillat, Flo Rida and other new music acts on our list of music's hottest new stars.

These crazy bloggers still think they understand the music business | Internet Marketing News and Blog | E-consultancy.com
In an op-ed piece in the New York Times on Saturday, British musician Billy Bragg suggests that social networks like Bebo and MySpace should pay royalties for the music that is made available through their services.

He argues against the notion that the "free promotion" provided makes a royalty unreasonable, pointing out that radio stations, which also provide "free promotion," pay royalties.

Can't wait for a linkfest post? Follow what I'm bookmarking on del.icio.us.

Technorati Tags: linkfest, itunes, music business, how to, news

I’ve been slacking on the site and podcast lately people. My free time seems to be short for writing and podcasting. Today I found out a friend of mine who also is a well respected musician and industry leader has his own podcast. He only has a few podcasts up but he is really in tune with music and not just Nashville. I’ve listened to them and really dig what he’s doing. Maybe I can talk him into guess DJing some of the Nashville Feed podcasts. Until then go and enjoy “Music I’m Diggin On Podcast” with Justin Levenson.

Our web host has some technical issues over the weekend so we didn't get the "It" list up in time but it's posted for those who want to see what they missed. We'll have a new post sometime today. Until then enjoy a nice spoof video of David Blaine.