Interesting article on music business models

[BKK-OZ]

I thought some Motunationers might be interested in this article in the Guardian by Amanda Palmer about art/music business: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... -decisions

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Have to finish reading the article but right off the bat I never think of those purchasing licenses for my work (the only way they get legal access) as "customers." Patrons, collaborators, clients, 'end users' but never "customers." Probably because I don't think of myself as a "merchant" but as a creator and/or manipulator of content. And there is no standard pricing. Each project has unique parameters and a unique price. I just don't think about them as consumers in the traditional sense. Maybe a carryover from my thinking a bit like an 18/19th century composer who gets grants and commissions. It's how I approach every project. Add to that the fact that I don't ever see myself in competition with others and offer fairly unique "services." Customers? Nah, never.

[BKK-OZ]

Another (longer and different) take on how music business models are changing http://www.digitalamerica.org/how-the-i ... l-johnson/

A quote from the end of the article:

The ability to not only download but share and promote music to anyone dramatically changes how performers go about pursuing their careers. While there may be lost revenue in royalties, additional revenue is gained by exposing music to a much broader audience. The Internet has effectively caused the slow but consistent collapse of the traditional record company dominance over the industry. Without these companies, the debt they impose on their signed performers vanishes with them.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Again playing devil's advocate, the "record industry" is virtually irrelevant as far as my work is concerned. TV is critical as is live performance.

[BKK-OZ]

You devil you.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Ha ha ha! Thanks again fir the interesting article.

[Shooshie]

I spent half my life making tours work. For several of those years I was an actual agent, working for an international agency that booked about 40 shows on nationwide tours, and occasionally the overseas or South American tour. We also brought in shows from China, Taiwan, Mexico, Canada, Eastern Europe, Thailand, and others. That job was the music education I never got in school.

Then I went back out on the road as MD, and I had to use what I had learned to help the tours make money. One thing that Amanda Palmer does not seem to realize, and is unwisely advising others to follow in her footsteps, is that loss-leaders are not the best way to go in the arts, unless you REALLY have a solid, fool-proof plan. The things on which she described spending her $million Kickstarter funding were truly frivolous and terribly unwise. I'd wager she could have done her tours for half, maybe even ¼ the cost that she spent. That would have left her with $500,000 to $750,000 to bankroll the next tour, and it would have given her enough of a paid career to learn how to turn a profit.

She speaks of having all these things made, 1st class all the way, and spending money out the wazoo for things that just don't matter. Maybe embossed programs are momentarily impressive, but audiences don't remember an artist for those kinds of things. Sets can be built by the people who do them for the Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd. Or, they can be designed and bid out to local carpenters, welders, and electricians who work for a normal wage, and you spend about a tenth as much. Seriously. People always assumed that our sets alone cost us a million bucks, and they often said so. Usually they were probably under $35,000. You have to shop around... a LOT. Bargain with people. People want to work. Someone will always do the same job for less if someone else is about to yank it out from under them.

Then, there's something to be said for someone who comes out and performs on a bare stage. Mandy Patinkin did a tour on a bare stage, in t-shirt and jeans, and he left 'em crying and wanting more. Of course, he's Mandy Patinkin. How do you do that if you're NOT Mandy Patinkin? By going out and knocking their socks off. Rocking them to their cores. Talent.

You can have jeweled costumes made with real jewels, because you think it'll add the sparkle that an audience will remember. Or, you can go to thrift stores in Hollywood and find old Nudie outfits, and literally tons of old film costumes and props. Guess how much you can save by doing that. Often it looks 100 times better, because we grew up on Nudie costumes, so they just naturally look authentic. Or whomever... Nudie Cohn certainly wasn't the only one.

Then there is the art of negotiating dates. That really takes connections and experience, so it's best left to an agent, but you can do it yourself if you're willing to spend three years working constantly toward your first tour. Literally... three years. That's how long it takes to join all the presenter organizations, make the showcase circuits, meet people, call them, learn when they book their dates, call them relentlessly at those times, and get on the books for dates 1 year in the future. The club circuit is another thing entirely, and you can use it for fill-in dates, when you have to travel across the vast stretches west of the Mississippi where people have low budgets and few booking opportunities. Getting from the East to California is the touring company's nightmare. And don't fly when driving is adequate! If you fly, find budget flights. None of this first-class stuff. That's for the Stones. Charter flights are for saving money, not for going in style. Don't do them if they don't save you money on a large group. Remember also that while you don't want to expose your crews to seedy hotels in violent neighborhoods, a tour is work, not vacation.

Speaking of large groups, if your crew can double between roadie and stage functions, you save on wages. Maybe pay them a little more to sweeten the deal, but most experienced roadies don't blink an eye at that. They're used to loading in a few tons of equipment, stringing up the electrics, then doing FOH, stage directing, light directing, stagehand, and even ushering or security. And roadies LOVE to sell merchandise and bask in the glow of fans asking "so, do you know the star? Have you talked to her/him?" ("Oh yeah... we go WAYY back. Had dinner with her last year!") Selling merchandise is often the difference between profit and loss, so negotiate with the venues so that you can keep your profits. ("...but we only sell a few hundred; hardly worth your time collecting a percentage... and it would mean SO much to us... we'll knock $300 off the booking price.")

Get TV, radio, and alternative press. Without those, you're a shooting star fizzling over the arctic tundra; nobody knew you were there. Nobody saw you. Nobody knew when you crashed and burned to an empty house. Everyone is fighting for it, so you have to come up with an angle. "Band's bus plunges into river! Show must go on! They perform naked, wet and shivering for rest of tour!" Do the morning shows while people are commuting to work.

The real professionals put on shows that look like they cost millions, and they do it on a shoestring budget. The difference, in the end, is a profit. If you go home with a profit, you can start working on the next tour. Plus, you can show your cards to next-year's venues to prove that you run a profitable show, and that they won't be losing money on your date.

A loss-leader sounds cool, but it means "loss of short-term profit for guarantee of long-term profit." If you don't know how you're going to guarantee it will turn into long-term profit, you're screwed. That's just called "loss." And those hand-drawn and beaded doilies in every program are going to be remembered as "$25,000 down the drain."

When I read the stuff about people trying to find their ways in this business, I have to shake my head and just hope that they finally learn something. Lots of small acts tour for their entire lives, making enough profit to live on, and sometimes even breaking into big-time. Brave Combo, Pat Metheny, Riders in the Sky... these are small acts with huge talents, who've done their shows year after year, usually at a profit (they HAD to, or they couldn't come back next year), and they did it by being great, and by not writing a lot of checks on those tours. To use the kind of analogies Amanda Palmer was using, regarding other kinds of businesses with factories and work forces, they didn't provide a break room with a Steinway in it. They didn't put Perrier in the refrigerator for quenching every employee's thirst. They ran a safe shop with no frills. They did great shows that make their audiences and crews want to come back, even at last year's wages. And they became well known on the circuits because they just kept coming back for more.

Longevity. It only happens with profit.

Shooshie

[Michael Canavan]

Meanwhile, even as I was only breaking even on the Kickstarter with an optimistic vision of future earnings (which did eventually manifest as a larger fanbase, more profitable tours, and a book advance), I got widely raked over the coals in the media for not paying fans who’d volunteered to come to my show and play with me and the band for two or three songs in exchange for tickets, backstage beers and hugs. This wasn’t my salaried band or crew we’re talking about – these were local sax and violin players showing up for an impromptu jam session that lasted one evening. I’d been doing these sorts of trades for years and they’d worked out just fine for everyone, until people got the sense that I was a millionaire (or, at least the wife of one) running a rock’n’roll sweat shop.

This is BS, she asked for musicians to play her shows for free, it wasn't a meet and greet only one time deal etc. She's reinventing the story.... I really can't take anything she says with any amount of seriousness, because she's one of those people that has her own 'truth'.

[BKK-OZ]

This is BS, she asked for musicians to play her shows for free, it wasn't a meet and greet only one time deal etc. She's reinventing the story.... I really can't take anything she says with any amount of seriousness, because she's one of those people that has her own 'truth'.

I think you are partly right - she has made a big song and dance (pun intended!) of asking for contributions to her work all along the way (wrote a book about it too). But in terms of the Kickstarter campaign, she did detail how the money was spent, and as far as I can tell, she paid everyone that worked for her.

If you are interested in how she spent the Kickstarter $$$, read it here: http://amandapalmer.net/blog/20120522/

[BKK-OZ]

Longevity. It only happens with profit.
Shooshie

Thoughtful post as always Shooshie, and I couldn't fault any of it.

The only thing I would say (and I am not interested in defending Palmer's point of view, I just thought it interesting) is one's point of view depends on what business you are actually in.

By this I mean that, while you might make a loss in one area, it can be OK if your business is really designed to profit in another. One example is the gas (petrol here) station. They lose money on the air hose (because they don't charge) but they make money elsewhere because their business isn't selling air, it is in the petrol (or $5 milk cartons).

Another example is MacDonalds. I don't know if it is true or not because I just heard it from a friend once and through any not from any authoritative source, but I understand that Mackas, the corporation that gives out franchises, sees their core business as real estate development (the setting up of new stores) and not selling hamburgers. Now that could be wrong, but if it is, and if they make a ton of money setting up new stores, they might not mind losing on the burgers.

Which all means to me that if we understand our business, that is, what we are actually profiting from, our calculus should be based on that. For example, radio air-play (nowadays, SoundCloud) is given away free, but we charge for iTunes. It all comes down to where you expect to make your money, and that can be different for different people.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

The bottom line is whether or not one treats *their* art as a business and in that I have no doubt. It is essential to do so.

[BKK-OZ]

Unless you are (were) Charles Ives.

He made his money from insurance, apparently he didn't want to sell/earn from his music.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I sometimes make money from insurance. They're called copyrights. If you can write stuff good enough to steal and then nab the bastards who steal it. Mind the shallow pockets. Lol

[Shooshie]

Unless you are (were) Charles Ives.

He made his money from insurance, apparently he didn't want to sell/earn from his music.

Interestingly, so was Wallace Stevens, the poet. The two were almost contemporary to each other, Stevens probably being a bit younger than Ives, but they were both in the same business, and not far from each other. Back then, the secretaries did the actual work. An executive could arrive in the morning, answer a few calls, dictate a few letters, then go to the golf course. Ives and Stevens apparently had better things to do with their time. Stevens even used his secretary to type up his poetry and send it off to potential publishers. I doubt there were many secretaries who could do that for Ives! Also interesting is that both these insurance executives were very talented, but wrote stuff that was incomprehensible to the layman, but garnered respect from their peers. Maybe the pressure of running a casino in disguise causes talent to shoot out the fingers with no regard for convention!

Both being Connecticut Yankees, the differences between the two men were these:

• 1) Ives' work was almost completely ignored during his lifetime. Stevens wasn't.
  2) Wallace Stevens provoked Earnest Hemingway in Key West and got his jaw busted. Ive's didn't.

Shooshie

[mikehalloran]

The article reminds me of the old joke-

"A bookseller loses a little money on every copy he sells. How does he stay in business?"

"Volume"

The problem is that too many believe it's a valid business model for music today. It's a joke!