Confessions of a pirate

I have to confess. I've been known to use the p2p networks to seek out content and acquire it from nefarious sources. I suppose the right thing to do would be to contact the parties I've infringed against and say "You're welcome."

Now there's no doubt that what I did was technically against the rules. But here's how it worked out for the "victims" of my horrible deeds:

Example #1

I was introduced to the LOST series about 1/3 of the way through season 1. The episode I saw was so engrossing that I couldn't help but to delve into the deprived world of p2p file sharing and pick up the episodes I had missed. The result was that I got completely hooked on the show and did everything I could to catch the next episode as soon as it came out on tv, commercials and all. Since then, every time I miss an episode I grab it from the interweb and get caught up. The following week, I'm back to the network choking back their advertising. If I didn't catch up on the missed episodes, I probably wouldn't watch the series on TV at all. Instead, I would wait until the season completed so I could buy the DVD and watch every episode back to back in a glorious display of tele-gluttony.

Example #2

I attended a conference in LA quite a ways back. During my visit I learned of a musical group called Band of Horses. When I returned home I tried going to their site to buy the mp3 album. No dice. I tried their label's site. Nada. eMusic. Nope. Amazon MP3, not in Canada my friend. iTunes? Who knows, I never bothered to see if there was a DRM laden version available. So, darkside did I go. Outcome, I loved the album so much that the very next day I went down to the big brick building full of plastic and bought myself a copy. I'm a fan for life. You can be sure I'll be buying the next album as soon as it comes out and the first place I'm going to look for it will be the band's site.

The lesson here is that unofficial discovery channels have just as much potential as any other to help keep and grow your fan base. It's all in how you look at the phenomenon.

The majors are still winning at their old game

I recently read a stat that claimed 90% of the music sold on sites like Amazon MP3 and iTunes belongs to the majors (if I could remember where I read it, I'd quote the source). If the stat is accurate, it tells me that the majors are still very good at what they've always been good at, controlling distribution channels. So their game hasn't really changed. The difference this time around is that an independent label or artist can actually do something about it.

I haven't done the research myself but I'm willing to bet that, given the choice, 99 times out of 100 a fan will choose to buy directly from the artist. The problem is, most fans don't have that choice or they don't know they have the choice.

So independents need to do two things: empower themselves to sell directly to their fans and work to educate music lovers in general that they should first seek to purchase music directly from the artist. These two actions will have two immediate effects: a greater slice of the total money spent on music will be spent on independently produced music and the profits garnered by the artist per transaction will dramatically increase.

If you can't beat 'em.....

Recently, a client was explaining how discouraged he was. An album that he, as a label owner, had invested a great deal of time and money in was being made available online for free within days of its release. Having spent the past two decades doing business in the old world, his knee-jerk reaction was to go after the offenders and attempt to stop them from distributing his music. He quickly realized how daunting and futile a task this would be.

It sucks that people are going to steal your music but that's a fact we all have to come to terms with. In the midst of your frustration, don't forget that not everyone is a thief. Some people who discover your band through "grey" discovery conduits will come back and buy your tunes because they have become a genuine fan. So go where your music is being given away and do your best to make sure there's clear signage for those people, who want to give you the credit you deserve, to find you.

CD Ripper

The most common mistake we see our clients make is that many of them use iTunes to rip their CDs to create their MP3 files. iTunes does some funky stuff to files. It's fine for consumers but horrible for vendors. Not only does it do a crappy job of ripping, but iTunes' Terms of Use prohibits you from using it for commercial purposes. If you care about your music, don't rip it with iTunes.

We've been testing a few different programs here in the office. So far we're pretty happy with the job Freerip has been doing. It uses the LAME encoder and has some very robust ID3 tag editing abilities. It'll encode wav, mp3, wma and flac.

We encourage our clients to output mp3s in stereo (not joint stereo) at 224 average bit rate. This gives a slightly larger file size than normal but provides a level of quality that the most fanatical of audiophiles should find "acceptable".

Settling in to the new music business

I'm excited about the shift we're seeing at the music industry / technology conferences this fall. This time last year the bulk of the talk surrounded DRM and piracy. This year those voices aren't so dominant. Sure, you still hear the odd reference to the subjects during a conversation, but it's usually just an aside or a footnote. We seem to have turned the corner as the major record labels relinquish their grip on the world's distribution channels or more accurately, fail to control the emerging channels.

There is a striking difference in that today the discussions are focusing on not what has been lost but what is now possible. There is wild experimentation going on. Most experiments have failed as they've echoed 1999's "new economy" mistakes of traffic=profit, but some of them are sticking. I think we still have a ways to go before things stabilize but the signs are pointing to a profitable, sustainable industry.

Which of today's music services do you think are going to stick? Which ones will fade away?

A Red Velvet love story

It starts with a Fan. A Fan that is going to love what you’ve created. A Fan that wants to find you. The only problem is she doesn’t yet know that she’s looking for you, specifically. Right now, she just knows she’s looking for something new.

As she begins her search, she makes her first decision. “Where am I going to start looking?” Immediately, she has a dizzying array of discovery conduits to choose from. What’s a discovery conduit? A discovery conduit is any service, event or voice that serves the purpose of introducing a person to something new. In the world of music, the discovery conduits come in the form of social networks, blogs, the media, streaming services, online retailers, brick and mortar retailers… The list goes on and on.

While these conduits all play a vital role in the discovery process, the benefits they provide are not without their challenges. Like a noisy club, there’s a lot going on in these environments. In order for our Fan to find you, she has to sort through literally millions of other pieces of art; all fighting for just a fraction of a second of her attention. It’s within these conduits that you will have to fight hardest to let our Fan know that you’re looking for her too. Once you actually manage to find each other, the most difficult part is over but the relationship is brand new. It’s still fragile.

Things are going well and our Fan wants to take things to the next level (she’s always in control of the situation). She wants to tell you that she’s ready to make a commitment. She wants to buy your art.

Unfortunately, this is where things can break down. You and your fan are engaged in a dialogue. She’s expressed a liking for you and wants to keep talking. It’s in this part of the conversation that you’re forced to stop and say “Hey, I really like you too but I need to send you away. I’ll tell you exactly where to find me but you need to go look for me somewhere else.” This is where the discovery conduit will send your Fan off to a place of the discovery conduit’s choosing. In most cases, these conduits will send your fan off to a 3rd party retailer like iTunes, Amazon MP3 or eMusic.

While it’s great that these retailers are there to help the relationship along, it’s risky business sending our Fan off into the care of someone else. You see, the online retailer doesn’t care who connects to whom. Nor do they care about the quality of a connection. What makes them feel good is how many connections they can make. Sure, they’ll make an initial effort to guide our Fan back to your table, but they take little care in maintaining the fragile connection that’s been made. Once again she is basically left to fend for herself. Once again the other voices rise up and cry “Pick me! Choose me! Love me!”. If she gets distracted along the way, if one of these other voices wins out, you may have lost her forever.

Even if she stays focused and does find you again, you may never know that the connection was made. You see, the retailer is so focused on making as many connections as possible that they can’t even afford the time to tell you that our Fan has found what she was looking for. The only evidence that she has fallen in love with your art will be the sound of a few nickels falling into the can that you hold out as you stand in the line of the long tail.

If a purchase is one of the ways she can express her commitment, why should we be willing to let these retailers devalue that expression and treat it as if it’s something that belongs to them? How much better would it be if the conduit didn't send her away and instead you could say “Hey, let’s get out of here. I know somewhere quiet where we can talk.”? How much better would it be if you could tell her “I appreciate your attention. I value you. I want to get to know you.”

This is what Red Velvet is about. It’s is a website platform that enables you to engage your Fan in your own environment. Communication and Commerce. To create a space where you can carry on a private conversation and take her on a tour of your world. Content and Correspondence. It’s a place where she can really get to know you and she can express herself openly. Courtship and Commitment.

We created Red Velvet because it’s your business, not theirs. Because it's not just a transaction, it's a relationship. We created Red Velvet for you and your music. We created Red Velvet for her.




To learn more about Red Velvet, go to RedVelvet.com, give us a call at 1-866-788-0516 or email us at redvelvet@rook.ca

You can also see Red Velvet in action at IONWorship.org