Unconvention Manchester... Thursday Opening Thoughts

Thursday afternoon got off to a great start, meeting up with a couple of people whom I've been in contact with but not met before in person. Putting faces to blogs and tweets is always a nice thing, and at a relatively small event like this, it is easy to go around and introduce yourself to new faces too.

The artist's panel on Thursday afternoon was a lively one. The discussion seemed to start from building a buzz around your music / band / etc, touching on PR companies and if they offer value for independent artists. Cutting through the networking and get those CDs to the all-important ears of magazine and radio tastemakers is an crucial matter. Personally, I would say that if you are truly dedicated to your niche genre then you should already have been in touch with these people directly. You listen to the specialist podcasts and shows with similar sounding artists, go direct, send an mp3, send a CD, chase it up, meet the people at shows and events, build a relationship DIRECTLY with your industry peers and the job of PR companies is not only defunct , but you can do a better job by being genuine and approachable.

The topic of musicians 'working' for 'nothing' was brought up; in other words, free downloading. I have to say that I think a couple of the artists missed the point of how to reap not only useful information but also indirect revenue from free downloading, be that legal or otherwise. Some of the older artists (no offence, but there is a certain amount of generational differences relating to how to conduct your online strategies), were sticking to the old mantra of 'if you don't pay for the musician's music then they will not / can not make any more music'; believing that you cannot build a successful project from giving your music away for free means that you should re-evaluate your ideas of 'success'. Success is not just about selling records anymore. If you do not consider other factors such as building extensive mailing list, concert ticket sales, a busy gig diary, steady merchandise sales and a strong online presence (be that youtube views, twitter followers etc), then you are missing out on great opportunities to build your reputation and career. As an independent artist, you should relish the fact that you can distribute 10,000 digital copies of your song for the same cost as distributing just 1. The tools and advice are all available online to help you promote your music to an immense audience, and you should try and learn to see success in the fact that if, after giving away 10,000 copies, some of those will pass onto friends, create further fans and so on, to the extent that your music can reach more people in more places than ever before. Just because you don't receive a measly sum from a profitable record label in return doesn't mean that you are not achieving results (many of them tangible, too). Following the artists panel, I stuck around for a few of the bands, chatted with the Un-convention Belfast contingent for a while, and then headed off for dinner.

On a side note, I didn't quite expect so much swearing at the discussion - not that i'm adverse at all, but our venue for the discussion is The Sacred Trinity Church in Salford(!) Then again, I had been drinking beer throughout.

Stay Tuned for Friday's thoughts :-)

Lee Jarvis.

I'm back! ...and I'm off again, to Un-Convention Manchester

Apologies for a lack of blogging recently, a number of reason, and all music-related so I'll fill you in...

I've been DJing a fair bit, at a label showcase in a warehouse in Chicago, a fun trip up to Madison, Wisconsin, and then back to Chicago again for my debut at Smart Bar. That soon eats away at your working / sleeping regular hours. Then I flew to London, and tomorrow I'm on a train up to Manchester, then over to Newcastle and back south again. phew.

But, all is well, and tomorrow will see the start of Un-Convention Manchester, hence my continued travels. The Un-Convention way of thinking is something I latched onto very quickly, and why I am so excited to head along and get involved with the like-minded folk there. In their words, "Un-convention is a new music industry event. It’s about being independent. It’s about facing up to the current changing music scene and looking for innovative and creative solutions. It’s about discussion, debate and most of all – meeting new people with different perspectives and sharing knowledge, experience and contacts". You can see why I'm so keen to get there ;-)

You can still buy tickets and I strongly suggest you get along to any part of the event that you can, even if it's just one day panel or networking, although if you can't, then check back in at the blog here, or follow my Twitter or Facebook updates, as I'll be attempting to document as much of the idea-sharing, trend-mongering and ground-breaking collaborating as possible.

Oh yes, and there will be cake.


Lee Jarvis.

Future of the Music Business presentation

(screenshot)
I've discovered a great keynote presentation from the Leadership Music Digital Summit, where Mike Masnick of Techdirt shares the details of Trent Reznor' and Nine Inch Nails' recent ventures, and how he believes they are pushing the music industry forward.

"That's great", I hear you say, "you're always going on about NIN, but we can't afford to do this or have as many resources". Well, Masnick also shares how other musicians are using similar ideas and implementing them in their own careers. It's not about copying what Reznor thinks, he's a pioneer and can do things on a grand scale thanks to selling million of albums, concert tickets and merchandise items. But you can learn to think outside the box; detach yourself from the idea that music is a product that you must sell via a record label. Experiment, and think about all the revenue streams, technical possibilities, and other perks and positive impacts that you can generate from your music endeavours.

It's only 25 minutes long, so grab some coffee and head over to the US Music Jobs blog post to check out the video...


Lee Jarvis.

The Camden Crawl = Discover Indie Artists + Networking + Free Music!

Culture, music, beer, sunshine. This weekend sees one of the ultimate offerings of all these elements under one roof. And by roof I mean ‘district’ of London. And when I say sunshine I mean more beer.

The Camden Crawl is a two day event spanning Friday 25th and Saturday 25th April, showcasing 150 bands, artists, poets and film pieces across 40 venues, ending up on Saturday Night at the Roundhouse with performances from Kasabian and Madness.

As a preview, the lovely people at The Londonist have compiled a collection of free, legal mp3s from the majority of the bands performing. There’s 65 free tracks to download, so you can select your favourites, share the love, and make sure you don’t miss out.

Before this starts to seem like a big promotional ploy or sponsorship for event or website, I’ve no affiliation with either. My reasoning is that music discovery has changed. You don’t hear ‘new’ bands on national radio anymore. Up and coming artists aren’t getting the support of CD sales that they used to, and so live events are becoming extremely important for both performer and punter. Yes, the internet is a great source of new music, but you need a very good filter or the patience of a saint to wade through the endless streams of average (and below) music.

Why the Camden Crawl? Why not? It’s today, you have nothing better to do, and the free download taster just tops it all off (oh, did I mention the beer?). Head over there now and buy your tickets before it’s too late.

Unfortunately I won’t be there this year, but you can certainly thank me at future events. I accept beer, in case you’re wondering.


Lee Jarvis.

Cross-posted at UK Music Jobs Blog Music Industry News, Career advice and Job links

Pirate Bay trial: The verdict, and the future of P2P sites and the ‘pirates’

To bring everyone up to speed, there has been an ongoing case in Swedish court that the four owners and heads of Peer2Peer (file sharing) site The Pirate Bay were in mass breach of copyright laws, not just within the music industry but also regarding movies and video games. The case has received a lot of attention and also incredible support from torrent and P2P websites and their users. Roger Wallis, who spoke in favour of The Pirate Bay at the trial, received a colossal amount of floral tributes, sent to his wife at their home.

The verdict was announced today, and all four men (Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, and Carl Lundström) received 1 year in jail each and fines totaling $3,620,000. The prosecutors were aiming for much higher compensation, although their calculations are often very misguided; 10,000 free transfers of your song does not mean you lost 10,000 times the sale price of that record. Do they take into account the people who downloaded a few free tracks and then bought the actual album? I thought not.

Having said that, I am not in favour of people setting up software allowing the public to trade music and other files for free without artists' consent. Let alone the people who shoot their mouth off, claiming "all music is free" and the like. Yes, all music is probably available for free if you wanted to find it online, but I am in favour of letting the artists (and the copyright owners) make that decision, controlling and profiting from the distribution of their work in some way, be that financially or by building their contact list. As content creators, that is their choice, and one of the reasons I am a huge fan of Creative Commons licenses.

People are using over-stretched analogies such as 'if you hold the P2P site accountable then you must also prosecute ISPs'. There are also many, many comments across the web from people claiming it is a sad day and that there is no way this should have happened. I'd like to hear them come up with a solution, as to how artists can retain control of their work, be compensated where appropriate, and how they will be able to fund and market future creations and music projects.

You can't really go and prosecute the millions of end users who take the music and other files. The RIAA have tried and failed more than 35,000 times, receiving nothing but bad press, fueling angst and probably instigating further file sharing. If there was a system in place by the websites to charge the users a subscription fee, then maybe that could work, and they could then reimburse the labels and artists. But they have not chose this route. So, do you hold the P2P sites and owners viable? Maybe. If their business model does not compensate the artist in any way, then I think they should be charged somehow. Governing bodies should aim to control this cause though, rather than react to the aftermath. The P2P sites could avoid legal wranglings themselves by striking up deals with labels, but as they are sworn enemies, how about independent artists? If the artists can register their music with a site and give permission to distribute and share globally then the P2P sites can still aid the discovery and sharing of new music and building of artists careers, which they are so fond of using as their mission statement.

What will the devastating effect be on the music industry? Not much. For a start there will be months of appeals, more uneducated blabberings in the press, and probably more flowers. 'Pirates' will continue to vent and despise the major labels and government prosecutors. P2P file sharing is rampant, and as much a part of a schoolkid's daily life today as dolls, toy cars and baseballs were decades ago - it's not going to disappear. Major labels will continue to push in this wrong direction instead of focusing their efforts on restructuring their business models, and to get to the route of the problem, that is that they have mistreated musicians and music fans for many years now. Creating value, authenticity and transparency within their brands should be at the top of their agenda, not 'hire more lawyers'.

Who wins? Neither side. Certainly not the Pirate Bay owners (lend me $905,000 will you, mate?), and not the labels who struggle to recoup a few million bucks when they have just spent the same amount on forcing untalented acts into their hit-machine mould, only to be forgotten by this time next year. There are some people out there who have a collection of thousands of unpurchased songs that they will hardly listen to who think they are on the winning side. Congratulations, you're very clever.

Who loses? Artists. Artists may move to gigging like crazy in order to subsidise the record sales gap in their revenue compared to previous years. Which is fine if they are able to do so and the people who listen to their music online genuinely like them and willingly support them when they come to town.

So do me (or more accurately, the music industry) a favour. Find a new, upcoming artist / band / rapper / DJ-producer from your iPod collection who is performing in your town this weekend, and go out to see their show / gig / concert. Use the $15 you just saved from purchasing their album... you will then be giving something back to the industry that you 'care about' so much. Heck, you may even have a good time. Yo-ho-ho.


Lee Jarvis.

Cross-posted at US Music Jobs Blog - Music Industry news and career advice

NINJA 2009 - A lesson in tour promotion

NIN does it again.

Trent Reznor has a great project called NIN|JA 2009 , giving away a 6 track EP from three different bands (Nine Inch Nails, Jane's Addiction and Street Sweeper) to help promote their extensive summer ’09 tour.

Any readers of my blogs know that I’m not just a Nine Inch Nails fan, but a huge supporter of Reznor’s music strategies. Giving your music away in order to raise awareness and generate future revenue, in this case, ticket sales. The idea worked very well for the Ghosts I-IV album last year, where releasing the first volume for free download not only resulted in $1.6m in first week sales (of physical CDs, deluxe boxsets and digital downloads), but also helped contribute to a hugely popular 2008 tour of both South and North America.

Obviously NIN are a globally famous band, but that’s not to say that lesser-known artists can’t use the same idea to help raise awareness. Imagine how impressed any venue booker would be if you could help sell out a show. Not to mention that while you have a captive audience, a well placed and stocked merchandise table will help recoup any ‘losses’ of giving away a free download or two.

Making money because of your music instead of directly from it is a lesson that many artists can learn from.


Lee Jarvis.

Cross-posted at US Music Jobs - The premier online community for US music industry professionals

Tough Times....

Is the music industry in serious decline or is it booming? Well... both.

‘Economy’, ‘Credit Crunch’, ‘Recession’. All very real to some people, but at the same time as the job cuts, the music industry is reaching more people who are consuming more music and more artists are making a living from it (some are even selling downloads and merchandise by the truckload). So what IS going on?

Forward thinking music 2.0 businesses that should be expanding are being forced to cut back. Sirius XM laid off 50 staff including some disc jockeys, Pandora had to cut their team from 140 to 120.

These businesses are thriving in one sense, with more members, fans and subscribers every day - Pandora also stated that their listenership is ‘growing rapidly’ - and yet they are still struggling to fund their staffing costs. I think that this is because their ideas and business models are sound, but the market and industry as a whole is just not ready for them. Not just yet. The ones that aren’t adapting are looking even gloomier; Time Warner is expecting to cut 1,250 jobs across the media and entertainment sectors following it’s recently reported fourth quarter loss.....

Read the full article over at the UK Music Jobs Blog.


Lee Jarvis.

I will stop buying CDs...

...soon. Millions of consumers are already asking ‘Why would I get up from my computer, go down to a (musically speaking) uncaring Best Buy(US)/ Tesco(UK) store to find they don’t stock the album I want, and I can’t listen to anything else that I want to try, when instead I can search, try and download a great album online within minutes?’. Why indeed, hence the insane uptake to digital downloads and the equally insane decline in CD sales. At the end of the day, for the majority, convenience wins.

I’ve continued to buy CDs instead of individual downloads because I love holding the album in my hand and reading the inlay while I listen to it for the first time, and it pretty much costs about the same.

But I can see the day approaching when I stop buying CDs. My love of music is stronger than ever, but my physical purchases have already decreased and I have also cutback on downloading tracks as the option to stream has become more widely available and more convenient for me. The reason I would stop buying CDs altogether is not that I want my entire music collection based on my mobile device / laptop (although my life is becoming evermore online and technology based), but I will stop buying them when the ‘music like water’ concept really takes off and a wealth of music from major labels and independents is available to me anytime anywhere.

David Kusek and Gerd Leonhard talked about it in 2005. Jim Griffin talked bout it with Warner in 2008. I really hope that someday soon we will see something like this become a reality. I love CDs and the aspect of buying a physical product, and I’m sure I will continue to on special occasions (Michael Jackson boxsets?) or for gifts for other people (nothing says ‘I love you’ like an online subscription receipt, right?), but as someone who consumes music and is often consumed by it, how could I resist...?

I see this type of consumption as being extremely popular with general music fans, as the appeal of being able to listen to all the music they already know and love is a great one, and they can then also experiment a little with new artists without the risk of purchasing a disappointing album and feeling cheated. I see most people struggling with the ‘music like water’ comparison as it sounds a little too futuristic or idealistic, but it would be easy for the average consumer to adapt to this situation if they simply compare it to their internet, cable or mobile phone packages, most of which offer a similar ‘unlimited access’ usage for a set monthly fee.

The big convenience difference between an ‘Ad-supported Streaming Model’ and the ‘Utility Model’ is that you are required to be online to stream music, whereas once you download music via the ‘Utility” service you are free to play it anywhere and on a variety of formats and devices.

There is also a licensing issue that differs the ‘Utility Model’ from physical and digital purchases, and that is that some people will want the freedom to burn a copy to a blank CD and play their favourite music in their car, or give a copy to their friends. This is something that is technically illegal to do from physical products, but with the ‘Utility’ service, the current relative copyright laws would be suspended in exchange for a licensing fee, paid by the ‘Music Utility Bill’. With this in place, recommendations and discovery can flourish, having a huge impact on the way music is uncovered and shared, creating and aiding successful music careers. Something that surely all artists and writers can be excited about is the opportunity to be known and appreciated to a wider audience and being financially compensated via the licensing fees.

For me, this is also one of the biggest reasons why I cannot wait for the ‘music like water’ train of thought to catch on; a digital world where sharing music can be encouraged instead of penalised, and is truly beneficial to both fans and artists alike.


Lee Jarvis.

(photo credit JaulaDeArdilla)

The future of remixing?

I have recently discovered the genius of Kutiman and his incredible Thru-You project. He has created brand new songs and videos by remixing various unrelated Youtube music clips. I'm just hoping that the music industry (Youtube, PRS, various labels etc) will share my view that this guy is a huge talent and not a criminal for doing so.

After my recent Creative Commons post (or maybe just before, I can't remember!), Lawrence Lessig appeared on the Colbert Report, and in between the usual top-notch humour managed to instigate a remix frenzy of said interview with various dance beats. Colbert (knowingly) fuelled the fire further by explicitly stating that people did NOT have his permission to do so. After the huge publicity that generated for all parties he (and Comedy Central) also went on to create his own remix.



This was a great example of the kind of fun and creativity that people can generate and share with a bit of open-mindedness. Kutiman takes this to another level with the amount if skill that he has to craft these videos and tracks, and any clued-up label scout should snap him up for some kind of project. As Merlin Mann says over at 43 folders, "somebody will figure out (and publicly admit) that Kutiman, and any number of his peers on the “To-Sue” list, should be passed from Legal down to A&R". This really could be the future of remixing, and is a culture that should be welcomed, and talent nurtured. Copyright is still a major issue for the old-school players, whereas the new wave of talented, forward-thinking artists and companies are embracing a new way of discovering, creating and remixing that is the future of the industry. Artist must learn to make income from several revenue streams - i.e. make money because of their music, not directly from it, and be prepared to use it as a promotion tool (Giving it away and Going Indie).

Out-of-date copyright laws need to be changed, and the shift in power that we are already seeing towards a sharing yet respectful culture should be embraced from all parties. Those resistant to it will be left behind (and lose millions of dollars in the process *cough* major labels *cough*).



I thought i'd share some of the Thru-You project videos here for you to enjoy. Please add your thoughts in the comment section below :)


Lee Jarvis.

Media, Entertainment and Technology Summit 2009, Chicago: Part 1 - Panel sessions

This was the first MET summit, organised by Chicago Booth GSB Students and held at the Harper Center, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who considered it a great success. The summit focused on Media, Entertainment and Technology (there's the 'M', 'E' and 'T' for those of you paying attention), and featured some well chosen panelists and keynote speakers from a variety of backgrounds. I chose to follow the Social Entertainment and Music panels and will touch on them here as I feel they all shared good advice that you can apply to promotion of your music career / artist management / online marketing / record labels and much more. (note: Part 2 next week will go into the keynote speeches)

Session 1.....

Full review at http://www.us.music-jobs.com The premier online community for US music industry professionals.


For more info on each of the panelists and keynote speakers, as well as general MET summit details is at www.metsummit.com, and I strongly suggest that you keep an eye out for next year's event; if it is carried out as passionately and as smoothly as this year's then I see it being a great opportunity for young entrepreneurs to enhance their knowledge and a key event to forge interesting relationships with intelligent forward-thinking media companies in 2010.



Lee Jarvis.