Youtube as marketing tool

Nick Cave did four lovely, silly marketing videos for his new album and put them on Youtube a while before the release of his latest album “Dig Lazarus, Dig!!!”. It was a greatcampaign. A bit humourus, a bit strange and also with a spice that hinted something about the feel of the new music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mAh8nF-cko

Portishead is releasing their new album in the end of April, and they have found a problem with Youtube, since many of their coming songs are available there as some kind of raw videos with simple graphics. Since mashups are used by the listeners, they are also found elswhere, like on Portisheads Last FM-site. The videos are being blocked, but republished in this competition between record company and listeners. Here are some of them:
Magic doors: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqITyRdNTws
Hunter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6h_-JAlLnI
The Rip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPDMLq4TtrI
On Last FM: http://www.last.fm/music/Portishead

So there are different angles of the use of Youtube. I read a while ago about different departments in one and the same company, where the economy department demanded a quick removal of some videos from Youtube, while the marketing department called a few days later and asked where the material had gone…

Myself, I love Youtube. As a child of the cassette generation, I have no problem with the crappy sound quality and small screen. Its lovely to find all these rarities and culture treasures, as well as Portisheads coming album. Im not even illegal in any sense, since I dont download it. It has become a kind of radio for me and a source to find new music. And I will buy the Portishead album. On CD. For anyone wondering.

Quality record stores survive

Maybe, just maybe, we have choosen the right way. Today there were two articles in the Swedish newspaper SVD about record stores, The conclusion is that stores that work with high quality and profile themselves to a certain group of customers survives. Most swedish record stores have closed down during the last few years, but the ones that survive is not doing bad at all.  Some of the stores we have deals with show very good results indeed. Pet Sounds in Stockholm is a very obvious example on this.

There are some ideas in the article on what a record store can be like in the future. Interactive products, where customers put together the content and looks of the product is one trend seen in other areas like sport shoes.

Also, the articles nuances the debate on file sharing, which I apreciate. It statse three more reasons than just the common “file sharing kills music industry”:

• Web shops has taken a large part of the market, they often offer records to a signifacantly lower price than traditional shops.

• Music is bought in other forms than on record. Todays music consumers buy songs to their mobile phones and computers without ever owning them on plastic.

• High rents in the shopping malls. Somthing that made for example Bengans in Kista to close down.

Music industry saved by copyright compensation

In an interview, the swedish/british professor Roger Wallis tells that the music industry in Sweden gets 250 million sek a year from the copyright compensation on cassette tapes and mp3-players – it used to be called cassette fee. That equals 26 million Euro or 40 million US dollars.

Wallis used to be a musician and started the record company MNW. Nowadays he is a guestprofessor at The Swedish Royal Technical University and works in the government IT-council with a EU project called “Peer-to-Peer Next ”, which tries to find new business models based on file sharing that works with copyright rules.

He supports the idea of a fee on internet connections, for people who want to download material. But at the same time he understands that the internet providers does not want this fee. I would really like to have a chat with this fellow, he seems to have insight in the subject. 

The interview is excellent, but only in Swedish:
http://computersweden.idg.se/2.2683/1.149367

Swedish government on file sharing

Today the swedish minister of justice and minister of culture writes about the governments ideas regarding file sharing, copyright and entertainment on the web. The main idea is that artists should have the right to get IP-addresses via courts, from the internet provider, if the artists find someone using their material illegally. This has lots of practical problems attached to it: How do you know who uses an IP-address in a company or a collective?

But there are some very good points made. Above all: The industry concerned must take its responsibility to develop. If the copyright is used to protect aged business models, it will be impossible to defend the copyright. Very well expressed!

Also, the “Renforsutredningen” which is an inquiry regarding file sharing, recommended that illegal file sharing should render the user’s internet connection to be blocked. I beleive that it is a dangerous and primitive way to go, which the minister of justice and minister of culture also identifies. This will not happen, luckily. Internet is becoming a central arena for citizens to be active in society. A block could be devastating for many, even if they act in illegal matters. I know some european countries have the option of blocking in the laws. That is something that society should be able to handle in more constructive ways.

 Here is a link to the text, but only in swedish: http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/artikel_972903.svd

New idea: A way to make file sharing legal

The Swedish performing rights society, Stim, revealed today an idea to sell certain internet connections at higher cost, for the musicians to get some of the amount as a payment for their music to be used on the web. They state that they want to discuss the question and that they dont want to dig more trenches.

I like that they want to find new ways, and I like their discussive tone. As I have stated earlier, I am tired of the extremism in this question. Just a lot of thinkers, throwing bad language at each other is quite boring.

The pricing? I dont know. Stim writes that a normal Internet users fee is raised with an amount that is proportionate to the total use of music on the web. I have no idea what that would mean in real money.

The idea itself is not new or innovative: Thoughts of subscriptions, certain accounts and licenses have been flourishing for some time now. I can see a trend that the political parties and the large interest organizations hook on to the license-part of these matters. From the record companies point of view, I tend to hear about subscriptions to their respective catalogue. From artists themselves, I think I can hear more account-like ideas, that would bring th artists closer to the audience.

There are some problems in Stim:s proposal that I can see already, without a lot of thinking on the matter:

The license fee is only for downloading music. If this is a way to go, there would be new fees for downloading movies, games, programs and stuff that we dont imagine downloading today. There is a risk of a quite expensive fee.

Today, local radio stations already pay this type of fee, and the money go to the bestsellers on the official charts, not the artists that are actually played. If my music is downloaded, Kent (Swedish popular band) gets money. As we all know, the use of Internet as a source for new exciting music and a cultural history resource to find strange old bootlegs, are very vivid. The listening environment have changed so that the music on the sales charts and the music people download to on the web, is not the same music. So the fees can be transferred to the wrong people.

Will a license really matter? Stim examplify with a parent not comfortable about their teenage kid downloading illegaly. But there are and will be huge amounts of parents downloading illegaly too.

The pricing is crucial. If its too expensive, very few would get it. If its just a small amount, very few would care. So there is a fine balance I think. They use phrases like “free and legal” and “kravmärkt” – which is a metaphore for a swedish environmental marking of goods. Inviting to a discussion is healthy, so it will be interesting to follow the edvelopment.

If you want to read their pressrelease:
English: http://www.stim.se/stim/prod/stimv4eng.nsf/alldocuments/1D66451CBE1B0F81C12573F4002E1CCC

Swedish: http://www.gp.se/gp/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=114&a=400060

Vision of a new way to find audience and artists

In five years time, there will be powerful tools called “Social Operating Systems” in wide use, according to The Horizon report, an initiative from a joint venture in USA. This report i suseful in many aspects of my work. Here is a quote:

“The first social operating system tools, only just emerging now, understand who we know, how we know them, and how deep our relationships actually are. They can lead us to connections we would otherwise have missed. As they develop further, these tools will transform the academy in significant ways we can only begin to imagine.”

I can immediately see a great way of connecting artists, music publishers and audience through the coming technique. Imagine an artist having a loose network of all his/her connections, other artists in the same genre, finding the right music publisher and together through a wider network find a larger audience, in which there may be even more cooperation and better deals. As one of the biggest problems for people in the music business is to find the right partners, this may help.

Also, in a developed Social OS, it is foreseeable that business can be made. You have your network, your business and your tools in the same hand. If you also have a computerized music studio, it will be very interesting to record over the web, release/sell the music as it is created, maybe releasing interactive songs to your audience/network and get back in developed ways, just as I visionized earlier.

We are only in the start of this evolution. I would suggest all music publishers to dig into this, and find tools, build tools and for once, be on the front line of something.

Read the Horizon report here: http://www.nmc.org/horizon

Prospects

We have contact with two really great artists and will try to release their music as soon as possible. I cant tell you too much about them yet, but there is one scottish/swedish band with wonderful pop songs. I cant get enough of them.

Also there is this blues duo, with two very experienced musicians. Lovely atmosphere, acoustic and warm. I cant stop myself from revealing their portfolio. Tom Waits and Elvis Costello… Soon you will get some more info on this matter.