Why most digital distribution start-ups will fail

CNET.com ^ | March 5, 2008 | Matt Rosoff

[Mad Dawgg]

Music industry blog Coolfer has an interesting post this week about online tools for do-it-yourself musicians in which he points to a relatively new service called Speakerheart. I checked out the service, and while I agree with his assessment of the interface--it's based on Adobe's Flex (an offshoot of Flash) and is very slick and easy to use--I think that Speakerheart, like most other digital distribution start-ups, is going to have a very hard time.

The process is pretty straightforward: Artists sign up with Speakerheart to sell their songs through a digital storefront on the site. Artists have complete pricing discretion, but Speakerheart takes $0.25 per song. Speakerheart's big differentiator, though, are the widgets (known as "Shelves") that offer streaming samples ("Speakers") and the ability for listeners to bookmark songs that they like ("Hearts"). Musicians and fans can place these Shelves on any site that accepts Flash, including MySpace pages. For artists, the idea is that users will be able to stumble across your music on a wide variety of sites, sample your music, then proceed to your storefront to buy a song or two.

[Mad Dawgg]

Check the article out, they mention other services that seem to already have a foothold into massive digital distribution for New or Small bands just entering the market.

Company's Like Emusic and Tunecore who are targeted at Small Bands and Artists that can get their Music Recorded but not get it into distrbution without the OK from Big Media.

And from what I have seen the prices are dirt cheap. And they can get you On iTunes and Amazon and so on.

Looks like Big Media's Lock on Music Distribution has been busted wide open.

[Mad Dawgg]

Here is a link to how such Sites as Tunecore and such work Distribute Yourself World-Wide with TuneCore

[advance_copy]

Bookmark for later

[fightinJAG]

For artists, the idea is that users will be able to stumble across your music on a wide variety of sites, sample your music, then proceed to your storefront to buy a song or two.

Situation normal (and forever) in any form of self-publishing.

Whether it's books, music, vid or whatever, publishing and distribution just keeps getting easier and easier. Selling, however, remains extremely difficult (if not more so).

Just guessing, but it seems like at least one-third of people's purchases of "creative property" is herd behavior. And of course, 99% of sales of all the "big" acts is herd behavior. Millions of little girls do not independently conclude that they love Hannah Montana's music so much, they want to buy her new cd.

By definition, indie musicians/authors are not going to benefit from any herd behavior. So putting the product on a website for sale still doesn't solve the problem of selling.

What these services do facilitate, however, is one's ability to be a working musician the old-fashioned way. IOW, you still have to pursue gig after gig and sell merch out of your van, but now you can incorporate digital products as well. Plus it's more profitable (which might not be saying much!) to be a working musician now because it's possible to produce your merch much cheaper than previously. DiscRevolt attempted to meld downloads into the model of live gig sales. Don't know if that company made it. Anyway, my random thoughts over a cup o joe.

[Mad Dawgg]

"What these services do facilitate, however, is one's ability to be a working musician the old-fashioned way. IOW, you still have to pursue gig after gig and sell merch out of your van, but now you can incorporate digital products as well."

I would agree up to a point. However if you spend some bucks on Some decent video equipment for your band and incorporate YouTube and MySpace into your band's Promotional Philosophy and get your Fans to become Diggers for your Band's Myspace and YouTube stuff. You can become fairly well know without the aide of Big Media.

And if you then incorporate your download links into your Web Presence, you can become fairly successful even being a small Bar Band if your tunes are well recorded and quality Music.

After checking this all out I predict that within a very short time we will have the NEW wave of Net Bands as akin to the British Wave and the MTV wave.

I predict the Next really big band or artist will be someone who has never preformed Live and is only a Web presence, maybe never even showing his/her/their face(s).

[fightinJAG]

The only thing you said that I’m not completely cool with is the part about performing live.

I think the only way to get a *substantial* number of fans, and get the word of mouth thing going, is to perform live. At least right now.

Once you get a certain number of fans that way, then what you are talking about can kick in.

It’s not the fact that a performance is live that “creates” fans, it’s just that that’s usually about the only way to expose numbers of people to your music. Of course, there are exceptions.

Anyway, I find it all absolutely great that, more and more, musicians and authors will be able to be working artists and make a living at it.

[Mad Dawgg]

"I think the only way to get a *substantial* number of fans, and get the word of mouth thing going, is to perform live. At least right now."

A few years back I would have agreed totally, but once I started checking into how MySpace and YouTube and DIGG all sort of work together (not to mention Google and the other search sites) and with the Newcomers on the Scene like Facebook the "word of mouth" spreads fairly quick.

Also factor in the literal Hate of the RIAA by the music buying public and alot of the established bands and a large chunk of new bands choosing direct distribution (like Tunecore and Emusic and via their own Band Websites) and you've got nearly the "Perfect Storm" for a new type of musician.

That new type of Musician is the "Pure Recording Artist" like the Beatles eventually became. But instead of becoming well known through playing live they will do so using Digital Video making 3-4 minute videos that premiere on MySpace and YouTube.

In fact it maybe the ultimate flip flop. Eventually someone will offer these new Net Sensations tons of money to play live. In other words you used to tour and play gigs in hopes of getting a recording contract, now you may record and distribute you music in hopes of getting a Big Performance Contract.

[philled]

Look at the Arctic Monkeys success. Their fans built such a huge online presence through MySpace, etc, prior to the band actually releasing the big single on a small label. It went at #1 on the singles charts. They released their debut album three and a half months (Jan 2006) later it and it was the fastest selling debut UK ever- with much of it leaked online prior to the release.

[Mad Dawgg]

Look at the Arctic Monkeys success.

Just did a fast net snoop on them...

Seems they have the inside track on Viral Marketing.

Cheers to 'em I sez!