One of the reasons that I decided to screw with MySpace earlier this year was this; MySpace was floating around a future promise that indie musicians would eventually get paid.
See, the majors all signed deals with MySpace Music. Since music is a big part of social networking and drives a lot of traffic to MySpace it looked like a good idea. The details were fuzzy but, the pitch went something like; artists would get paid when their song was played, including plays on other users playlists. And, artists would also share in the ad revenue.
But…only the major label affiliated artists.
But…at some point indie artists would get the same opportunity. You know…big things around the corner type jive.
And really, it would only be right because there is so much of an indie presence on MySpace.
Anyway, MySpace Music has now, finally, started to fulfill that promise and guess what? They found an easy, sleazy, cheesy way to do it.
They are working in partner with TuneCore. Now, as far as I know, this only goes for the ad revenue part of it not the spins. In short, in order to ever have a ghost of a chance to see any dough, an artist has to have a TuneCore account and every song has to be distributed through TuneCore. Doesn’t matter if you’ve had your stuff up for years driving traffic to and filling MySpace’s pockets; you would need to re-upload them and distribute through TuneCore.
From Digital Music News…
Typical MySpace ads are low-CPM, and for smaller artists with niche or developing audiences, the payouts are likely to be paltry.
That introduces the question of whether artists will make substantially more than the TuneCore setup costs. Unfortunately, ad-based payouts are often so anemic that the question must be asked. In conversations Monday, neither MySpace nor TuneCore would offer Digital Music News any estimate of what an artist could expect to receive, or even percentage or CPM specifics.
But the TuneCore costs are easy to determine, depending on the number of songs. Starting fees are $19.98 (renewed annually) for any album, and each distribution point (iTunes, MySpace Music) requires a 99-cent, one-time fee per song.
One thing you don’t hear much about is how indie musicians get nickled and dimed to death in order to use the Internet to build revenue. I will flat guarantee you this; there is far more money being made by people who “offer services” to indie musicians than there is money being made by musicians.
How many plays on MySpace do you think it will take an indie to make $20.00 in ad money?
1. I guarantee you’ll never get an estimated number.
2. If you could, the number would blow your mind (100,000 plays=$20.00…1,000,000=$20.00? My guess…probably somewhere in between).
3. I GUARANTEE it’s no where close to the deal the majors are getting.
And here’s the thing, internet advertising efficiency isn’t determined by CPM. All advertising efficiency depends on the number of impressions…the number of times an ad is seen.
Here’s an example; a couple of people have told me they went to see the movie “Pirate Radio” after seeing the ad hundreds of times on my site. They didn’t click on the ad but, they put their dollars down after being saturated for a while. So, it isn’t easy math for the advertiser. They can’t judge success by any one source of impressions. They look at the number of total impressions and how many people went to see the film and then they do some ciphering and guesswork and theorize on what worked and what didn’t.
So, at a place like MySpace…they got zillions of users, zillions of bands and zillions of impressions. When they get the check from the people finder people or the cheesy dating service people, they cut a check to the labels for a disproportionate amount of the impressions, ’cause they have to have them on board.
The indies, aren’t going to be viewed on a basis of how many impressions they produce and, they will get a disproportionately low amount after they paid a fee to get their horse in the race (with no doubt, a kick back going back to MySpace) because, even if they garner the same amount of business, the proletariat is too spread out and lemming like.
That’s how the long tail gets screwed.
Bottom line is:
It’s House Odds…
…and…
MySpace Sucks Even More Than You Think!!!
From the AP…
The Marley name, look and sound are estimated to generate an estimated $600 million a year in sales of unlicensed wares. Legal sales are much smaller — just $4 million for his descendants in 2007, according to Forbes magazine. The Marleys refuse to give a figure.
Now the family has hired Toronto-based Hilco Consumer Capital to protect their rights to the brand. Hilco CEO Jamie Salter believes Marley products could be a $1 billion business in a few years.
Hey, a BILLION a year…that adds up pretty quick. But, it’s not about the money people…it’s about the message.
The family says it cares less about moving merchandise than about preserving the patriarch’s legacy in such efforts as the Marley organic coffee farm, whose product is dried, roasted and packaged in bags emblazoned with Marley song titles such as “One Love” and “Mystic Morning.”
“People need to know what they’re getting is from the Marley movement, a movement of sustainability,” said son Rohan
German band, Rammstein, has released a new album, Liebe ist für alle da (Love Is There For All Of Us). It appears that the group has embraced the “new business model” tenets; get viral and offer something above and beyond, something special, for the real fans.
To that end, Rammstein has unleashed a series of quirky TV/online ads. This one has a S&M theme…
Click pause on the music player located in the side bar before playing the video.
And…there is also a special edition boxed set available at What Records…
The Deluxe Aluminium Suit-Case contains a Special Edition CD, plus a bonus CD, 6 Pink Plastic Dildos, Handcuffs, Lube and much more. I hope to get more details shortly but I know it is a Fantastic item as no expense has been spared because the band cares about its fans.
£249.99
By the way, the band cares so much about their fans that the dildos are reproductions of the members actual members so, folks can feel a real connection to the objects of their fanaticism.
So, fezzes off to Rammstein for realizing their target demographics and market potential in these tough times.
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