Piracy

Here's my version of music piracy:

This past weekend my sister's car got broken into, and they stole the master CD of my Christmas album out of the car. Initially I thought, "How strange!" But then I realised that music does actually have VALUE! As a musician, I sometimes forget that music is emotional currency and that people desire it. Now of course, it depends on whether or not the thief/thieves are part of my target market or not. If they're not, they will listen to the intro of the first song and chuck the CD away. If they are, the might well listen to the first track and be overcome with remorse and mend their ways - since the first track is O Holy Night!

Sometimes ya just gotta laugh at life...

When love takes over...

You have to admire Kelly Rowland. In the face of superstar Beyoncé, whose career has gone from strength to strength since the days of Destiny's Child, it would be easy to wilt under the pressure and feel the urge to succumb to Beyoncé's ostensibly bigger profile. There have no doubt been days when she's thought, "What the hell happened to me?" After all, Matthew Knowles also used to manage her. People have no doubt spent many an hour comparing the two artists. And since then Beyoncé's had more hits, got the man who owns music in America right now, has had roles in movies, has graced Oprah, and is loved the world over for her booty.

But Kelly seems like a real comeback girl. First there was the hit Dilemma with Nelly, which, in my opinion, is right up there with the best of Beyoncé, and now her collab with David Guetta has seen her extend her profile in Europe with "When Love Takes Over" burning up the charts and the airwaves all over the globe.

Not to take anything away from Beyoncé, but I have always loved the underdog. You go girl! Kelly's a survivor.

More at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Love_Takes_Over

Mickey J.

The tragic events surrounding Michael Jackson's death means that he is now forever etched in immortality. Sadly, it seems the more tumultuous the life of the artist, the more salient their brand becomes: Elvis... Kurt Cobain... Janis Joplin... John Lennon...

Still, there are exceptions: Madonna... Lionel Richie... Stevie Wonder...

Amazing that close to 30 years on, Thriller is still the biggest selling album of all time - more than double its closest competitors, according to Wikipedia. Will the music industry ever reach such zeniths again? And I wonder what Malcolm Gladwell would make of the fact that Mickey and Madge were both born in 1958. An Outlier story, perhaps?

Music education

SAMRO has approached MBAC partner Jon Shaw to set in place a new course to help educate SAMRO members about the music business. As Gilli Moon says, artists must wear two hats (especially indie ones): musician, and business person.

Education is the cry of the hour.

For more please check out www.mbac.co.za.

South Africa has 2 new Idols so now it's twice as irritating...

Due to a technical glitch, the latest winner of Idols SA, Sasha-Lee Davids, was actually beaten by around 200,000 votes in last Sunday's competition by Jason Hartman.

In a media interview, when asked how she felt, Sasha-Lee explained that what she wanted was the recording contract (M-Net has decided to declare both joint winners and double the prize money, while both will also get contracts from Sony BMG). Davids went on to say that it was the contract that she was after. Sadly, spoken like a true amateur... The South African media wasteland is literally strewn with the corpses of past Idols finalists who really have not had very successful careers, when compared with their American counterparts.

In the Idols vein, a recent article in the Saturday Star explains that real success actually means looking beyond the recording contract to the future by having the business savvy to see Idols as a means to an end, not the end in itself. Despite the hype, Idols is not a one-way ticket to Superstardom Nirvana, with untold riches, millions of adoring fans, massive CD sales and endless A-list gigs - it's merely a starting point and an opportunity.

For anyone who wants to really achieve sustainable success in the music industry, that's an important lesson to learn...

SA & India

Was watching CNN/BBC/Sky the other night about the Indian election. They said that the best way to reach the 700 MILLION Indian voters Barack Obama-style was through the cell phone, since like SA, India has very low market penetration with the Internet (only about 7%).

The lesson for music in developing world countries? The cell phone is king over the Net, any day of the week, and twice on Sundays. The cell phone may well be the CD player and the radio of the next 10 years.

Poor Solomon Linda

I saw "The Bucket List" again recently. Fab movie - loved the message behind it, that you should get done those important things in life that should not be left undone.

But I do have a problem with it. In the movie, after Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson fly to Johannesburg (or at that point they might have been in Tanzania) and then go on safari, they sing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," the uber hit from the 60s that made The Tokens famous and became an anthem in The Lion King. The original writer and creator of the song was Solomon Linda.

Linda got his foot in the door at a record company the old-fashioned way: he worked there as a cleaner, using his contacts to get what was first "Mbube" (and then later became "The Lion Sleeps Tonight") exposed to the public. He died in abject poverty in 1962, not knowing that his song was about to become a smash hit (the typical story of a musician being sold down the river by unscrupulous record labels). His family was eventually paid out in a settlement from the rights owners of the song. The full story with links can be accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Linda.

But here's the problem: if you read the listing of songs at the end of the movie, you'll see that creative credit for the song lists Creatore, Peretti and Weiss, NOT Linda, as the composers. It's not enough that the Linda family got paid out for the use of the song. Solomon Linda should also be credited as the originator and creator of the song in any and all references to it. Musicians don't just want the money - they also want to be recognised for their work and their creativity. This is a wrong that should really be righted.

For more detail, click on the following links:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2006/03/26/solomon-linda-songwriter-who-penned-the-lion-finally-gets-his-just-desserts/
http://www.3rdearmusic.com/forum/mbube2.html.

Mobile Music

So a recent article by Nicola Mawson in the Business Day (http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/national.aspx?ID=BD4A969800) suggests that South Africa has not yet been fully hit by the digital revolution because only 10% of the market has access to the Internet (and not too many have high-speed connections). The same article says that cell phone penetration of the market stands at 70-75%, which is massive, and therefore the digital revolution is still on its way, so watch out...

Speakers at Moshito last year said the same: it's just a matter of time... Is this the same across the whole of the developing world? SA tends to be more cell-savvy like Asia. The answer is complex: both digital and CD will enjoy continued sales. Astute musos need to make sure they always have both available. Let your customers decide what they want.

The big question is: will the Chinese equivalent of Britney one day top the charts in her own country, or maybe even the United States? Bring on the Bollywood...

The New Music Frontier Part 2

One thing, however, has not changed: it can still be a challenge to get people to listen to and like new music, which is why marketing and branding is playing an increasingly important role in the music industry for both new and established acts. Many of today’s successful and well-known artists started out running their own mini record labels, and this is still true today of new artists. Ironically though, perhaps, is that many of the 2 million bands or artists on MySpace (and there are many other networks) still do not know enough about the music industry, how it runs, what the pitfalls are, how to have a successful career and what dangers to avoid. Now more than ever, BANDS have to become BRANDS to get their message heard.

The good news is that the information is easier than ever to get, thanks to a wonderful invention and application called the Internet. In much the same way that doctors today are astounded by the amount of knowledge patients come to them with about an ailment (thanks to a quick Google search or a visit to Wikipedia), to be successful in today’s music world means that the bass player and the drummer or the Idols hopeful should at least know the basics about the music industry, not just about their instruments. That is, of course, unless they want to continue being the proverbial garage band or karaoke singer, keeping their music firmly in hobby mode by playing Guitar Hero or Singstar on their XBOX 360.

One thing that hasn’t changed at all is that artists have to be dedicated, passionate and hard-working if they are to turn a hobby into a career. Not even the Internet and Facebook can magically wave that wand to make the hard work disappear. As in the past, the groups or individuals who put in the hours and do the work will succeed with mathematical inevitability. There are still huge rewards to be had if a band or singer “cracks it” in the elusive game of music. And instead of the information being coveted by a few in the record industry, anyone who now wants to learn has the means, if only they have the will.

Certainly, without doubt, interesting times lie ahead…

Author Rob Rodell is a founding member of MBAC, the Music Business Academy (www.mbac.co.za). Rodell is also a singer-songwriter and indie record label owner who is starting his doctorate on music branding and marketing, and when not recording and releasing his own music, he teaches singing to students.

The New Music Frontier Part 1

The music industry is a paradox. Sales of CDs, which peaked in 2000, have dropped every year since, yet Internet and cellphone downloads have soared in the past few years, but not enough to replace CD sales yet. Likewise, record companies have downsized and retrenched staff, yet music consumption is at an all-time high thanks to nifty inventions like the MP3 player and cost-effective big car sound systems.

So where does this leave both the music creator and music consumer today? The saying “the more things change the more they stay the same” has never rung more true: the players may have changed but the game is still music. Some suggest that companies like Apple with the iPod and MTN with music-enabled cellphones are the new industry moguls, but old established record companies like EMI or Universal won’t simply give up their positions that easily. Whatever the status of the music industry, there will always be people who make music and there will always be people who listen to it and, if they like it, buy it (or swap it with friends).

But a certain theme has emerged in the past few years, fuelled by trends in the United States, which still controls more than a third of the world’s music market: DIY (do-it-yourself) music. This can be seen on both fronts: more bands or singers record their own demos, EPs or full albums in small efficient electronic home studios, while listeners have found new and interesting ways of discovering music other than what they hear on the radio. The numbers have changed, though: for example, there are over 2 million registered bands on MySpace, with more people making music now than at any other time in history. Given the fact that the world now has the biggest population it has ever had, this makes sense.

Multiple Streams of Musical Income

I really have Deborah Russell, whom I met in Los Angeles, to thank for the term.

Here's the article:

I had been trying for years to break into the music industry. Many people, as is the case with a lot of artists, gently told me not to bother. Even professionals encouraged me to keep it a hobby, such were the perceived barriers to entry.

But I persisted. After doing the music business course at Wits, I had newfound knowledge and energy which allowed me to keep moving toward my stated objectives and goals. More than a year after finishing the Wits course, I went to Los Angeles for a music conference. One of the most valuable lessons I learnt there was the concept of multiple streams of music income (MSMI). The basic idea behind MSMI is that instead of artists hoping to earn an income solely from record sales and gigs, they find other music-related ways of making money.

Given the downturn in sales from CDs and the increase in illegal downloads, the advice given was: find alternative sources of music income until you reach a critical mass where you can sustain yourself from CD sales, legal downloads and gigs alone.

Enter the opportunity to conduct research for the Gauteng Government on the music industry: this was a great way for me to earn an income doing something music-related (as long as it’s in music I’m very happy; the minute it’s not music-related I become frustrated). Not only that, but it also gave me the chance to increase my skills base concerning the local music industry, collect and gather research data for my PhD in music marketing and branding, and grow my music industry network, while also becoming more of a recognised face in the industry (because it’s a very small industry, actually).

The research also gave me the opportunity to continue working with Jonathan Shaw on various music projects including the Music Business Academy (MBAC), hone my skills as a music business entrepreneur, and position myself as an expert in the industry. This, together with teaching vocals, doing gigs, selling CDs and merchandise, teaching music business courses and consulting to the industry has created a sustainable income within the broader scope of music, while I’m waiting for my proverbial ship to come in. In the meantime, I am still in music, having fun, making money, and living happy.

The G20

It was very interesting to see how the leaders of the G20 met in London yesterday and today. All the news bulletins collectively spoke about the rise and rise of emerging market economies, and how they represent the future of the world from a social and economic perspective. The US will continue to dominate economically, but its role is diminishing.

Among the emerging market economies represented in the G20 are Brazil, Russia, India, China (BRIC), Mexico, Argentina, Indonesia, Turkey and South Africa. With almost 50% of the world's population included in that list, there is a huge market for music from the emerging world.

Watch this space...

The 4Ps of Music Marketing

The 4Ps is 1950s marketing theory, so it's really out of date if you don't see it in the context of contemporary marketing, but it still provides the basic framework for a good marketing plan and it's still widely used today.

The 4Ps are product, price, place, promotion.

Product: as an artist you have to view yourself and your CD as products. Tom Peters will tell you everyone is a brand - so are you. Think of your CD as a brand extension or marketing collateral (like merchandise is - T-shirts, badges, buttons, caps).

Price: not too high or too low. Too high = you won't make the sale (people must sense there is value in what you're offering - as your perceived value increases you can push up your price). Too low = people will also not buy (they will question why it's so cheap).

Place: this is distribution. If you create demand for your product (CD) and it's not available in stores/online, you lose the sale. Try to create demand so that you have clout in the channel (i.e. nobody is gonna turn down stocking a Madonna CD because she's Madonna).

Promotion: also known as marketing communications. How do you TELL people that you exist? Traditionally included advertising, public relations/publicity, personal sales and sales promotion. Don't forget digital media, which today are more important for entry-level artists.

Wanna know more? Check out www.mbac.co.za.

Music in Emerging Markets Part 2

And how has “the New Music Industry” affected SA? With lower Internet connectivity, the biggest winner in the new game is the cell phone. There are only around 6 million Internet users out of a population of 45 million, and only 700,000 of those with high-speed broadband connections, thus P2P file sharing is limited to the tech-savvy few, while paying for music content online is rarer still. Where there is more access to high-speed connections at work, companies tend to block sites which may cause a drop in productivity (such as Facebook).

The general consensus is that the ratios between the developed world and the developing world (the term “Third World” is so passé) are reversed in terms of mobile download vs online download (the extent to which people use mobile devices to connect to the Net and download to cell phones is still in its infancy). Thus, in the US it would be 9:1 (for every 9 Net downloads there is 1 mobile download), while in SA it would be 1:9 (the exact opposite). SA therefore exhibits the same trend as Asia – a very sophisticated mobile phone network with use of premium content sms/mms downloads for music, and/or illegal file sharing using Bluetooth capabilities, with the cell phone doubling as an MP3 player.

To this end, MTN, the second-largest cell operator which has now also moved into Africa (Nigeria, for example), is the content aggregator which is becoming a de facto new record label. MTN has teamed up with a local company to source new talent and plug it using the cell operator as an interface, in much the same way some have suggested that Apple may become the biggest record company in the world by 2015. Ironically, Apple has enjoyed only moderate success in SA with the iPod, iPhone and Mac, mostly because the country is used to PC and because of Apple’s prohibitively expensive price. It is thus viewed as an aspirational product.

The use of podcasts, vodcasts, blogs and RSS feeds to create, promote and share content is all but non-existent and in this area the market demonstrates a relative lack of sophistication. In terms of 360º deals, some music managers and booking agents are starting to combine resources to offer the “one-stop-shop” for clients and act as funnels for musicians, but this is also relatively new and small-scale. Unfortunately, the artist mentality of “a major label is gonna come rescue me” persists, with a few music entrepreneurs making a whack of money.

And what of the future? While it’s difficult to predict, US and UK mainstream music will continue to dominate radio airplay (Amy Winehouse selling 30,000 copies of her album in SA was considered a successful release), with quotas enforced to provide local artists with a voice. SA looks more like the US every day, tempered by local cultural conditions. It will be an interesting ride!

Rob Rodell is a singer-songwriter based in Johannesburg. He is currently doing his PhD on trends in music marketing and branding and is one of the partners of the Music Business Academy, a school aimed at addressing the skills shortage in the music industry in Africa while also empowering artists with music business skills. For details check out www.mbac.co.za or www.robrodell.com.

Music in Emerging Markets Part 1

This post was originally intended for another blog, but there's no harm in duplication, hey?

I can only speak from a South African perspective, but as Raiser and Volkmann (Google it) point out, Johannesburg has a lot in common with Sao Paulo, Mumbai and Shanghai, so you could easily change it from BRIC to BRICA (Brazil, Russia, India, China, Africa).

Here goes:

Despite the increasingly global economy and the rise and rise of Web 2.0, many people in the Western world especially remain ignorant about the state of affairs in Southern Africa, often thought of as an AIDS-infected, crime-affected region with lions roaming the streets and no electricity.

Yet according to Billboard, South Africa specifically was one of only two growth markets in 2007, the other being India. Sources at Universal Music (local) report, however, that there was an 8% decrease in CD sales in 2008, and while this is significant, it is nowhere near the 23% average that CD sales have dropped in larger markets every year since 2000, without a concomitant rise in digital download sales.

A little perspective: South Africa’s music sales contribute about 1% to the globe, compared with about 36% for the musical juggernaut which is the United States. While Apartheid is long dead and gone, the historical make-up of the country can still be clearly seen in its music. SA is a juxtaposition of rich and poor, of sophisticated and urbane versus uneducated and parochial. The emerging Black middle class increasingly mirrors the formerly privileged White minority, although their tastes in music are quite different. Johannesburg is a vast city which, it is estimated, will be bigger than Los Angeles in 10 years (with the same freeway snarl-ups).

Generally, this is how the industry looks: the small English speaking populace centred in the urban areas of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban are true rockers at heart. They form rock bands and make music that would fit comfortably in the mainstream US and UK music markets (think of SA’s biggest music exports, including Dave Matthews, Mutt Lange and Seether). The larger Afrikaans market have spawned a counter-culture all their own which has a dedicated following such that bigger Afrikaans artists can do exceptionally well from CD sales and gigs. Although this is a simplistic taxonomy, the Black market (no pun intended) can be split into two groups: the Gospel/traditional African market (think Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Soweto Gospel Choir, both Grammy winners); and the newer Afro-Pop scene, which could be genre-fied as “world music.” Kwaito, for example, is the local equivalent of rap music, complete with upbeat drum loops and spoken word verse-chorus configurations in Zulu. The jury is still out on whether this music form is losing ground to mainstream contemporary African pop.

But Gospel is the biggest selling genre in SA, where it’s not unusual for tapes still to be sold in very small rural areas. A successful Gospel or Afro-Pop album might sell 100,000 copies, which is 5 times gold (20,000 copies in SA) or more than double platinum (40,000 copies, according to RISA, the local equivalent of the RIAA).

In the beginning...

It sounds so prophetic...

Welcome. This blog is for those who wish to inform themselves on the music biz as it applies to the devloping world, but also to the developed world.

There are lots of blogs which will tell you how the music industry is changing. Here's another one!

I have always said, "Music is spiritual. The music business is not." You have to protect your soul as you enter this industry.

But another tale of caution: nobody is going to do this for you. If you have the heart, you, like those before you, must find the way.

I am based in Johannesburg, a forward-thinking, entrepreneurial city of go-getters and high-fliers. That's why they call it the New York of Africa. But I am shocked at the number of artists here who are waiting for a major label to come and rescue them.

Read on and empower yourself... For starters, connect to http://www.mbac.co.za/ for more info.