Julie's Music Book

Music Hype blog....

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:19:10 +1300

here is a link to a blog I wrote for Music Hype about the Big Day Out.

Farewell Big Day Out Auckland

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:02:26 +1300

Personally I am sad that Big Day Out Auckland has been cancelled as of next year. I got to see a lot of great bands there (Neil Young, LCD Soundsystem, Primal Scream, Hole, Arcade Fire, Girl Talk, Peaches, The Greenhornes, The Horrors, Elastica, Bily Bragg, to name a few) and it was the first festival I ever went to. Working on the artist signing tent was always a lot of fun too. I have noticed that some of the people who are saying ‘good riddance’ to Big Day Out never go to music festivals, and some are in bands who I can guarantee would jump at the chance if they were asked to play Big Day Out. Not surprising as it was a great opportunity for NZ artists. So they may be laughing but the reality is that it does not bode well for future music festivals in NZ. So thank you Big Day Out Auckland for the years of entertainment, you will be missed.

Google Music gives indie artists direct sales platform

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:29:00 +1300

Google looks set to challenge Apple with their announcement this week of a Google Music store. Google Music has a range of new services for both fans and bands. one of the most exciting announcements is that they have created a sales platform for indie artists.

People can now purchase tracks through an Android music store and stream these tracks from their android device.
The Google Music beta which was launched earlier in the year to a small group of testers has now been opened up to the general public (USA only)
Google Music will be integrated with the social network Google + enabling users to share a track which their friends can listen to for free (once only)
Artist Hubs where artists can customise their page, set their own prices and sell directly to fans.

Not only does Google Music provide an alternative to iTunes for Android users, but it also creates another discovery platform for music fans. Apple launched the social network Ping within the Itunes store over a year ago which failed to make any traction with music fans. Facebook recently launched a partnership with Spotify, Rdio and Mog in the USA where users can access tunes from these services and share them within Facebook. Could Google Music do for music fans and social networking what Ping failed to do?

it is great to see that Google Music is not just focusing on artists from the major labels. The Artist Hub allows unsigned artists to set up an artist page to sell from and connect with fans, and even integrates YouTube so that artist can sell songs via a buy link in their music videos.

Time will tell what uptake Google have integrating their music service with their social platform but more competition means there are more opportunities for fans to discover new music and for artists to find new fans.

The Steve Jobs Music Revolution

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:39:30 +1300

Steve Jobs the founder of Apple died today at 56. His focus on building products that looked and felt beautiful to use was visionary. His influence will no doubt create a benchmark for many new entrepreneurs but more than that he changed the way we listened to and purchased music.

In 2001 he created the iconic iPod. Sure there had been other MP3 players before the iPod but none of them looked or felt quite as cool. The rotating wheel was one of it’s signature features which made it not only look different but feel different to use. The iPod was the first experience of an mp3 player for a lot of people including myself. Until then people were either listening to music on CD or vinyl or downloading illegally.

Then in 2005 Jobs transformed the music industry with the iTunes store. What he created was a legitimate way for fans to purchase music digitally at a time when the labels were battling against pirated music. It became the number one destination for selling digital music and ate up most of the market share despite competition who copied his original vision. It is hard to know how recorded sales may have plummeted even further without the iTunes store. More recently Jobs announced another innovative product the iCloud which would enable people to access their music collection on the go via wi-fi.

Then of course there was the iPhone which changed the way we communicate with each other. It became a tool for bands on the road to communicate with their fans. He even revolutionised film editing with MAC computers, making it affordable for aspiring music video producers and bands to edit their own videos.

What Apple came to be known for was Steve Job’s innovation. You always knew that when there was an Apple announcement that some cool piece of technology would be unleashed on the world which would change the way we interact with the world. He became the George Lucas of technology.

Last week when I was looking for inspiration to write my own business pitch I turned to You Tube to find some great speeches to inspire me. I came across Steve Jobs address to Stanford University graduates which left me inspired to follow my own passions. I will leave you with the video to this speech as well as one of the quotes that inspired me. Steve Jobs was certainly someone who never compromised on his vision.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Booktrack - a new revenue stream for composers and musicians

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:33:00 +1200

In my last post I wrote about the importance of a great soundtrack in a film. This week I am investigating a new product which claims to have invented a new genre of entertainment for book readers.

Booktrack, a product that matches soundtracks to ebooks could be a profitable revenue stream for both writers and musicians if it takes off. The company has big named investors such as Kiwi Derek Handley (Hyperfactory), Peter Thiel (PayPal, Facebook) and Mark D’Arcy (Facebook). Created by kiwi brothers Mark and Paul Cameron, it claims to be a world first.

Their website states that Booktrack “matches synchronized music, sound effects and ambient sound to the text of ebooks.” But it starts to get really interesting when they say the product is automatically paced to your reading speed. According to Booktrack they spent years developing this technology. Naturally I was curious and wanted to give it a go.

As an introduction offer Booktrack are giving away a free download of a chapter of Sherlock Holmes for users to test the product. Overall I was impressed at it’s ability to pace the music to my reading speed, however I did manage to trick it a few times by either reading really fast or very slow. As a person who loves to read a book in peace and quiet, I was unsure how I would feel about reading and listening to audio at the same time. After using it I can see how this product could catch on for the right audience, although my feeling is that it’s biggest market might be children’s books. However I did enjoy reading Sherlock Homes with the sound of the fire crackling and footsteps drawing near in the background.

The most interesting part of this new product to me is that it is another revenue stream for composers and musicians. Of course the product could be subject to the same piracy issues as music and film, but given they have spent years developing the technology and intellectual property right perhaps this will protect them for awhile.

I tried to get hold of Paul Cameron who is one of the inventors of this product to ask him a few questions around the benefits of this product for composers and musicians and how they can get in contact to work with Booktrack. Unfortunately I have not heard anything back just yet. I do know that Booktrack are working with Park Road Post and Sony ATV Publishing so if you are a composer for either of those that seems to be the best route for now. One of the books available from Booktrack is “The Power of Six” which includes 70 original compositions (contributed by Stephen Gallagher). That is a lot of composition! I will keep you posted as more news becomes available of how musicians can work with Booktrack.

The importance of a great film soundtrack

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:19:00 +1200

I was lucky to see an advance preview of the movie Drive starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan at this years New Zealand international Film Festival. It is an outstanding film and I was not surprised to find out it took the Best Director’s laurels at Cannes this year.

However, it was not just the acting or direction that I loved. The soundtrack was one of the best I have heard in a film in recent years and got me thinking about how a meaningful soundtrack can add so much to a film experience.

The importance of sound in a film cannot be underestimated and the role of a film music supervisor is an important one. Music can help distinguish scenes, build a feeling around a character, and remind viewers of particular sentiments the director is trying to convey.

I left the film Drive not being able to get the film OR the music out of my head. You will have to see the film when it comes out to fully experience the way the soundtrack weaves itself into the psyche of the film. Music synchronisation is an important revenue for artists, not just in terms of the money to be made but also because of the valuable marketing and audience opportunities. I would advise artists before they sign with a music publisher to make sure that they throughly investigate the publishers history of sync licensing for other artists and sub publisher networks. For now I will leave you with a few of the tracks from the film.

Kavinsky - Nightcall

Chromatic - Tick of the clock

Desire - Under Your Spell

College Feat Electric Youth - A Real Hero

Indies take on Spotify

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:36:00 +1200

Spotify the music streaming service popular in Europe and growing in the USA, has been attacked by independent labels. Century Media and Mode Records have both criticised Spotify for the meager payments it gives to independent artists.

Century Media has gone as far as withdrawing their artist catalogues from Spotify’s platform and have accused them being responsible for the drop in physical sales of music in countries where Spotify is active. You can read their full statement here.

Although it is true that CD sales have been falling for years and the rise in digital sales has not matched the decline, this is a worldwide trend and Spotify is not available in all territories. It is possible Spotify is responsible for the decline in physical sales in countries where the service is active, but it is hard to measure this accurately.

The most convincing argument against Spotify comes from Brian Brandt of Mode Records. In his blog ‘Is the Spotify model really the answer’ Brandt says that Spotify squeezes independent labels out of the picture. He gives an example of an artist Luciano Berio who was streamed 1,326 times on Spotify but brought in only $4.18 in revenue, that is 1/3 penny per stream. This income then has to be split with artists and composers. In comparison Mode Records makes $3 - $4 on a CD or an Itunes sale. Brandt goes on to say “While the major labels and pop music may be able to reap a real income stream from Spotify simply due to the sheer volume of streams, the Spotify model is not financially sustainable for any indie niche label.”

Spotify reacted to these labels by issuing the following media release defending their position:

“We are sorry that Century Media have opted not to offer its music to their fans through Spotify. Spotify has one of the biggest music libraries in the world - of over 15 million tracks - and is committed to offering our users the widest possible selection of music across artists and genres from around the world.

“Spotify was launched out of a desire to develop a better, more convenient and legal alternative to music piracy. Spotify now monetises an audience the large majority of whom were downloading illegally (and therefore not making any money for the industry) before Spotify was available.

“Spotify is now generating serious revenues for rights holders; since our launch just three years ago, we have paid over $100 million to labels and publishers, who, in turn, pass this on to the artists, composers and authors they represent. Indeed, a top Swedish music executive was recently quoted as saying that Spotify is currently the biggest single revenue source for the music industry in Scandinavia.

“Spotify is now also the second single largest source of digital music revenue for labels in Europe (IFPI, Apr 2011). Billboard reported in April that Spotify territories saw an average digital growth rate of 43% last year. By contrast, neighbouring countries (without Spotify) saw only 9.3% digital growth.”

Streaming services are great tools for music discovery which can help bands build a fan base and are an alternative to piracy, but are independent labels getting a bad deal from streaming services?

Facebook releases Musician's Playbook

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:47:00 +1200

It seems Facebook are finally getting serious about creating a space for musicians. Up until now most artists have concentrated on building their own networks on Facebook and using tools such as Root Music to customise their page (I thoroughly recommend artists to use Root Music by the way).

Facebook have now released a Musician’s Playbook which will help musicians and marketers learn how to fully utilise Facebook Pages and use Facebook Connect on artist websites. Facebook say the aim of the guide is to ” integrate social experiences into your direct to fan strategy to drive results”.

The obvious draw card for musicians using Facebook is the number of overall users Facebook has. This guidebook is full of lots of tips to help artists engage with fans, but I would like to see Facebook create a music discovery app that aggregates artist pages by genre. It is easy to discover artists through friends, but Facebook does nothing to help you search for new music. You can read Facebook’s Musician’s Playbook here. Do you think this guide will help your band find new fans?

OK GO 'All is not Lost'

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:19:14 +1200

Experts in the art of viral video making, OK Go’s latest is an interactive video created in partnership with Google’s Play With Chrome project.

The video for ‘All is not Lost’ has the band and a dance troupe using their bodies to spell words and create shapes. Visually the video is great, it appears as if the user is viewing dancers through a glass ceiling. The choreography creates a kaleidoscopic effect. Viewers are asked to submit a message and then get to see their message played out in letters by the band and their dance troupe. It is a very similar concept to the Wilderness Down video Arcade Fire made with Google Chrome last year in that it uses fans input to make them part of the finished video. In ‘All is not lost’ users become the choreographers which is a really neat way to engage fans.
How important is Ok Go’s music to you over their videos?

Cloud based service for musicians

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:45:00 +1200

Do you often write songs while out on tour and save them to your laptop or hard drive? Do you have various versions of tracks on multiple computers, discs and hard drives?

Gobbler is a new service aimed at musicians and producers which uses desktop software and cloud technology to backup and organise audio digital files across both internal and external hard drives. Once you store your audio on Gobbler you can tag and send and receive these files making it easy to collaborate with others. Once a file is edited the speed of sending and receiving it to a collaborator is faster than using other file sharing platforms because the cloud recognises the changed components. Another nice feature is the way it creates a revision history of files meaning you can easily track and edit previous versions of a recording. Does this product sound useful to you? Have a play and let me know what you think.

Kanye West and Google+

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 22:18:00 +1200

A quick update since my last post about what influence Google+ will have on music. I came across Kanye West on Google’s new social network. This is the first artist I have seen on it.

The headline on his profile reads: “I’m not playing to the press - G+ for all my fans and supporters.”

Well it may be true, but an artist like Kanye should know the press will follow.

What influence will Google+ have on music?

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:20:00 +1200

It is going to be interesting to see how musicians adopt Google+. There are already a couple of brands using it but so far I have not come across any musicians using it. Once the momentum builds musicians are sure to try it out.

The fact that Google+ have already stated they are going to launch a service for brands makes me think that this will quickly extend to the music community. There are many reasons why I think musicians are going to find this new social network useful, but here are just a few for thought:

One Stop Shop

These days musicians are in charge of their own online presence and marketing. One thing I hear from musicians is how time consuming it is looking after multiple online profiles. Google offers a one stop login for email, blogging, chat, photo sharing, video, documents and advertising. Add Google+ to the mix and artists have a seamless integration of Google products at their fingertips rather than having to log into multiple sites.

Circles

Circles allows users to share different content with sets of users. It has the potential to be a great tool for musicians to arrange their followers into circles of fans and circles of industry and business contacts. Promoters and venue circles could be in one circle for all their touring needs. Bloggers and media could be given upcoming release details before the general public via a circle rather than through email lists. Fans could be put into Circles by region to make it easier for artists to distribute tour information to fans in particular towns. Imagine being able to create a Circle for Super Fans who are rewarded for their loyalty by being given exclusive content. Artists would be able to easily monitor how these key influencers are spreading the word.

Hangouts

You may remember when Orcon partnered with Iggy Pop to find a virtual band to re-record The Passenger. Well Google+ Hangouts enables multiple users to chat via video making this kind of promotion easy to replicate. Perhaps American Idol could start real time global auditions with this service? Hangouts would also be a great alternative to online chat rooms and listening parties and is a great tool for artists to connect directly with fans.

Music Beta

Google has it’s own music service - currently only available in the USA - which allows users to store their music and have access to it on multiple devices. Integrating this with Google+ could mean this social network becomes a really important place for music discovery and recommendation. Let’s face it, Facebook was slow to capitalise on music and although there are substantial rumours that they will launch a music offering in partnership with Spotify, there is an opportunity here for Google to be first to market with an integrated service.

You Tube

You Tube is one of the world’s most popular destinations for viewing music videos and one of the most common places people share You Tube urls is on Facebook. Being a Google property it would be easy for it to be heavily integrated into Google+ making this new social network a completely immersive and viral music discovery platform.

Sparks

Spark’s is the Google+ content stream which allows users to select topics that interest them and aggregates this content for the user to watch when they are ready. So rather than a fan of Arcade Fire randomly coming across their latest interview on Pitchfork via the busy activity stream of Facebook, the user can easily find the music content that interests them.

Android

Google’s advantage over both Facebook and Twitter is that it has it’s own smartphone operating system. Google+ has already released a native app that allows users to send super-fast messages via Huddle to groups or individuals, and store photo’s and videos in the cloud to share on the go. There is also an app in the pipeline for IOS users. Imagine touring artists using Huddle to create treasure hunts for fans by planting clues via group alerts.

SEO

It is inevitable that Google+ is going to influence Page Rank and replace Twitter in real time search. It is not a case of if, but when.

Google+ looks set to be taking Facebook head on and already reports are that they have 3.5 million users. Google+’s social tools could be utilised by musicians to connect with fans and become a hotspot for music content and recommendation. What would make it even more powerful is if third party developers were able to introduce applications to enable artists to make direct sales to fans. Any musicians out there keen to give it a try? Tell me what role you think Google+ play in the future music.

MySpace: Not being Facebook is a good thing

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 09:37:11 +1200

So the news hit the internet yesterday that Newscorp has sold MySpace for $35m dollars. That is $545 million less than it was valued only 6 years ago.

It illustrates how fickle the social network space is (hello Bebo? Friendster?) but also raises an important question. What now for MySpace? While everyone may be calling this event the Fall of MySpace, the reality is that Specific Media (and Justin Timberlake) have plans for the social network.

So what are the chances of MySpace gaining traction again? Before you post your sad emoticon have a read of this blog written by one of my MySpace’s current staff, a former colleague of mine, Rosyln Cobarrubias. She makes it clear that Myspace plans to go back to what it became best known for – music.

“We’re going to revert back to what the core of Myspace is – the connections through music and the platform to share our passions.”

Focusing solely on one form of entertainment is what MySpace should have done years ago (it certainly would have made my job easier as the sole marketing employee for MySpace in NZ). Sean Parker was quoted as saying recently that “MySpace could have been Facebook” which I totally disagree with. This does not take into consideration the fact that Facebook came long at a time when the number of people using the internet was growing considerably faster than anytime in the history of the internet, before that MySpace was really quite niche in terms of where the internet was heading. The majority of my friends who were early adopters and long terms users of MySpace were into music and pop culture. You would never have seen my whole family on it like you would with Facebook. MySpace definitely could have enticed a load more users through product development (have a read of this article from Business Week which from my perspective is pretty spot on in regards to how Newscorp changed MySpace’s ability to adapt to technology), but I still do not believe it would have gained an audience as big as Facebook. In fact I think the ignorance from people that MySpace should have the broad appeal of Facebook was the thing that hurt it the most. MySpace had always attracted a subset of people who wanted to express themselves creatively, from bands, artists, comedians, through to their fans.

This brings me on to my second point. There is power in being able to deliver something of quality and core to one demo and I predict that these smaller communities on the web will become recognised as valuable. I used to laugh when people would try and tell me with sweeping generalisation that “no one uses MySpace anymore.” Nevermind that it was still the biggest online social network for music specifically in New Zealand and the world at that time. My point is that not every social network will have the broad appeal of Facebook, and this is not a bad thing. Although I would love MySpace to go back to it’s roots and revitalise itself as a music platform, if it does not I would be perfectly happy to find an alternative site for all my music needs, but it is unlikely to be behemoth site like Facebook because lets face not everyone shares my passion for music.

ReDigi: recycle your digital music

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:46:09 +1200

ReDigi is the world’s first recycled digital music store. Think of it as the ebay of digital music, a platform to sell those digital music files on your hard drive that you no longer use and buy discounted used digital music files. Not convinced? What is not to love? For a start there is no risk of scratches, and as ReDigi states on their website “we believe your legally purchased music comes with legal rights. It is your music, you have the right to sell it.” I could not agree more, though I wonder how many music fans would still prefer to illegally acquire downloads rather than pay. Time will tell, but for now this is an excellent idea.

Songkick launches a kicker of an app

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 08:31:48 +1200

I’ve been waiting for a concert listings app to appear on the market that will be useful and easy to use. Songkick have created just what I wanted.

For anyone new to Songkick, this service tracks your favourite artists and notifies you when concerts are coming up in your area. The website and the app both use your location to help you create a calendar of upcoming events. The app scans your iPhone music library to find artists to track, but you can also just log onto the web based service and it will sync with the app. I am looking forward to using it when I go out to to spontaneously find a gig to go to.

The great thing about Songkick is that it is not connected to any particular ticketing agency so they are not limited by the events they track for you. Shapehq from Denmark are the company who built this app for Songkick and they have done an excellent job.

QR Codes: How do you make them pretty?

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 00:07:31 +1200

QR Codes can be an excellent tool to engage and track fans via band merchandise and advertising but I sure am looking forward to the day when QR Codes look pretty. It is definitely a challenge for all you tour poster designers out there.

Tweetlouder: Find your favourite bands on Twitter

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 23:02:00 +1200

This new service has been around for a few months but I have just started to use it. Tweetlouder syncs with Twitter and your music libraries on iTunes, Spotify, Last FM and Rdio to allow you to find and follow your favourite artists. They also allow you to easily add these to a Twitter list and provide a list concerts these acts are playing via a site called SonicLiving. It is an very useful tool that is incredibly easy to use. Get syncing!

iCloud launches: What deal did Apple do with the record labels?

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 08:46:06 +1200

So Apple finally announced the launch of iCloud at their Developers Conference in San Francisco. iCloud scans your itunes library with a service called Itunes Match to find tracks in your collection that you are permitted to stream on other Apple devices. Users need only pay a one off payment of $24.99 (US) for this service. If a track is not in the iTunes library users will have the option to upload other tracks from their hard drive. The offer extends to e-books, documents and photo’s as well as music. There seems little information available on just what kind of deal Apple struck with the major record labels. If artists are able to get streaming royalties then $24.99 is not going to go far by the time it gets divided between the thousands of artists in your iTunes library. Perhaps it was a case of Apple paying advanced royalties to the record companies to them on board for what is likely going to be a dominant service in the cloud marketplace.

Facebook to launch music service with Spotify

Thu, 26 May 2011 07:12:48 +1200

It is widely rumoured that Facebook and the Spotify are working together on a music service. Although neither company has officially confirmed the partnership, it is thought that the streaming service could launch in two weeks according to Forbes.

Facebook users will be able to listen to millions of songs from Spotify’s library. By clicking on the Spotify icon on the left of their news feed users will launch spotify on their desktop.

However, this is only if Spotify is available in your country. Currently Spotify is only available in Sweden, the UK, France, Spain, FInland, Norway and the Netherlands. The streaming service has been having trouble reaching an agreement with record labels in the USA, but this partnership could make the negotiation sweeter for the labels with the service having a potential US audience of 155 million on Facebook. Perhaps this will help Spotify launch in other markets, including New Zealand and Australia.

The age of the amateur music critic?

Mon, 23 May 2011 23:57:00 +1200

Sadly news was released today that New Zealand’s weekly music publication Groove Guide would publish their final issue this week. This is a big loss for the music community here. According to the NZ Herald “Publisher Vincent Heeringa said Groove Guide was not financially sustainable in a modern music market marked by the rise of social media.”

What I found really interesting was that Vincent went on to say ““We’re heading into the age of the amateur. We’re actually already in it, which is good and bad. It’s hard for people to make a career out of it now.”

What we are witnessing is just another symptom of change within the music and publishing industries. More people than ever consume their music content online, but there are benefits for the consumer. No longer are the media companies the gatekeepers to content and discovery, this is now in the hands of the bloggers.

Eventually the consumer will filter through all these people and define the new gatekeepers.