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Scott Cohen: ‘The music industry isn’t broken. It never was’ (#SlushMusic)

November 29, 2017

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Tags: scott cohen Slush Music The Orchard

Attendees at the Slush Music conference in Helsinki this morning may have turned up expecting to hear The Orchard co-founder Scott Cohen telling them why the music industry is broken, and how he’s going to fix it. That was, after all, the title of his session. It was a red herring.

“Once a week somebody comes into my office to tell me ‘the music business is broken and I know how to fix it’. And I started thinking about that a bit, and I couldn’t find the reason it was broken,” he said, by way of introduction.

“I looked at the labels. Is it broken for the major labels? I looked at the charts: they seem to have all the hits, they have the back catalogue. Doesn’t seem to be broken for them. The independent community is thriving and their market share is growing every year. It doesn’t seem to be broken for the record labels.”

Cohen suggested that the music industry actually handled its 15-year decline in revenues “very well” in terms of cutting costs, preparing for the return of growth, and now scaling up again when it arrived. “They didn’t go out of business. It’s not broken for record companies,” he said.

“And then I looked at artists? Is the music industry broken for them? You think Justin Bieber doesn’t make any fucking money, poor guy?! I think artists make more money now than ever before. We’re talking about not just the recordings, but their touring, their merchandise.

“If you’re a big artist today and you have a following, people will literally pay you for it. If you have Instagram, Twitter, Facebook followers, brands will pay you a fortune to reach your audience. This is the best time ever to be an artist. You certainly wouldn’t want to go back to the days when artists got these single-digit royalty rates and were screwed out of all their money. Remember those stories? It doesn’t exist any more. Artists are at the top of the food chain making more money than ever before.”

Cohen moved on to the streaming services. “100 million subscribers and going up. It doesn’t sound broken. People will throw around ‘Oh Spotify doesn’t make a profit’. Who cares? That’s not the business they’re in right now. Last I checked, their valuation is $16bn. What was the value of the company five years ago? I would say if I’m an investor in Spotify, it’s amazing. It’s not broken.”

“There’s lots of headroom. If I was an investor in them and they said ‘I’m going to start taking profits, I’d say then you’re not using your money right. This is a growth phase of the business. it’s not a time to settle in and take profits. It’s not a little mom-and pop-industry. This is a big, scalable industry. And if you’re a record label or the music industry in general working with these services, you’re getting 70% of the revenue. So it’s certainly not broken with the new services.”

Cohen moved on to the situation for music fans? “This is the greatest time ever to be a music fan. You have the entire history of the recorded music industry at your fingertips. You can pay a monthly subscription fee, you can pay per item, you can get it for free. You can get physical… It doesn’t matter how you want it, you can get music any way possible for any price point that suits you. And you have no problem discovering music,” he said.

Cohen took a jab at heritage artists complaining that the industry is broken for them. “Maybe, but maybe we just don’t want their new album any more. They were popular in the 80s, the 90s or the early part of this century. and we’ve moved on,” he said.

“It doesn’t mean they’re bad people, but the public wants different music. It’s not that there’s something fundamentally wrong with the business model because they’re not making as much money as they once did… Artists that were big in the 50s weren’t big in the 60s. Artists that were popular in the 60s were not big in the 70s. But they didn’t complain it was because of the business model. It was just because that was the end of their career.”

Cohen also talked about the landscape for unsigned artists. “You can record virtually for free. You can do it on a laptop if you want, and you have access to markets. When I started the industry, if you were an independent artist you had no way to sell your music. You couldn’t get in to stores… You were not allowed to put your music in a store. But now any independent artist can make their music available to the world,” he said, noting that social networks and apps also help them communicate with their audience.

The thrust of Cohen’s speech was that while the music industry isn’t broken, that doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges in the market, and opportunities to solve those challenges.

One of those: how will we market and promote music in a world of voice-enabled services: Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri and their associated smart speakers as the gatekeepers for music discovery and consumption.

“This is where we need some thought… What happens in a voice-activation environment where you can’t see anything? You just have to speak. How are you going to market and promote? What will this change in the music industry? Will artists start changing the song titles to make them more searchable? Is it better to have a song title that says ‘running’ in it because that’s a highly-searched term? Does it become SEO instead of an artistic expression?” said Cohen.

On AR: “Imagine that the world now is having an information layer wrapped around it, kinda like the electrical grid. Everything will either contain information or you’ll be able to get the information out of it? What’s that going to mean for music?” he said. “We don’t need to fix the past: we need to go forward and say ‘wait a minute, what will that mean for music creators?’.”

As for VR:. “Music is also about experiences… You get people that say ‘Oh yeah, you can put on a VR headset and then you can watch a concert. You can look around and see the people next to you and the band on the stage’. Well I can just go to a concert! I don’t even have to put a headset on for that,” he said.

“If I put on a VR headset I want something that I can’t do in real life. I want something to blow my fucking mind! Not see a band on the stage. That I can do in real life. So what are the experiences that you’re going to create in a virtual reality environment?

“Think back to the early filmmaking when they put a camera on a tripod and they filmed a play, and then you were supposed to watch it. Well, that was fine, but then the craft of filmmaking came along and you made films differently than you made plays. I don’t want to put a VR headset on and listen to an album or watch a concert. I want a unique experience. And this is going to open up a whole new side of the industry.”

Finally, Cohen talked about big data and analytics, where he sees huge opportunities for an industry that has always thrived on metrics – chart positions, unit shipments, sales. But now with the torrent of streaming data, the industry must get smarter at understanding what’s happening, and the triggers driving it.

Cohen warned that current analytics tell us a lot about the past: what happened on Spotify – the streams, the skips, the saves to people’s libraries. “But we need to go into a new world where we’re looking forward. If I have this information, what does it mean? What am I supposed to do? If you get added on Spotify’s New Music Friday, that’s amazing for Friday, but what happens next week? What are you supposed to do next week? What does the data tell you? If you don’t know how to answer that, you’re going to be struggling in the industry,” he said.

“In the old world, if you had a song played on the radio and it got into heavy rotation, you knew what to do… you booked some TV appearances, you get some more articles, you ship extra units to the stores because you know you’re going to sell them. You book a headline tour, you increase the size of the venue you’re going to play. You know what to do next. But I’m not sure everyone knows what to do next now. When things happen for you online, what do you do next?”

Cohen concluded. “The music industry is not broken, it never was broken, and it doesn’t need to be fixed. It is an amazing industry, it’s the best time ever to enter it, there’s huge opportunities and problems that need to be solved, but having problems that need to be solved is very different from saying the music industry is broken,” he said.

Cohen was then joined by Peter Vesterbacka, formerly of Angry Birds developer Rovio, for a discussion of those next steps, including his views on those new AR and VR experiences. Cohen said he’s hoping for “a world of dynamic recording” where music can change and morph over time, and according to who’s listening to it – but still with the artist as the creative force.

“There’s so many amazing, talented artists, songwriters, performers, but for me personally it’s been a long time since I saw something new when I went ‘holy shit, that’s new’,” he said.

“I’m waiting for young artists, tech companies, music companies… rather than just to put a song out there, to say ‘We’re going to create a new experience that nobody’s done yet’. I’m waiting for that, and I want it to be a young artist. There’s nothing wrong with the older artists, but it should be someone who’s 18 years old who grew up in the 21st century and says ‘I’m not going to do it like my parents did it. I’m going to create something new’.”

He later returned to the theme. “In 2017, I don’t even need a physical manifestation of an instrument to produce music. I just need to have great thoughts, amazing ideas and an iPhone, and I can be a creator. It is moving, so where will we be in five years? If today we can make music without an instrument, what will the next five, ten years look like?” he said.

“Who’s going to take it one step further than that, and create experiences – dynamic recordings that change over time, that change based on the user?”

Cohen also talked about his other current focus on ‘implantables’ via his Cyborg Nest startup, which has started out with a device designed to be embedded in your chest, which vibrates when facing north. What does this have to do with music though?

“I don’t want to use technology: I want to become technology. And as we become one with it, the experiences that we receive are going to change. What kind of experiences will come directly to me? Not through my eyes, not through my ears… Instead of having to look at a screen. I don’t want to put glasses or a headset on, or interfere with my hearing by putting on earbuds. I want experiences to come directly to me. And I don’t mean with a neural implant, I mean directly to my body,” he said.

“Like when you go to a nightclub and you feel the music, pushing on your chest with that bass. There’s other ways that you can experience creative ideas that can come to you, and it’s not just visuals and it’s not just sound… I think experiences are going to continue to be fundamental to the creative industries.”

Record Labels Are Rebounding, But This Startup Could Shake Their Dominance

UnitedMasters offers artists a combination of distribution across digital music services and detailed analytics.

BY JOHN PAUL TITLOW4 MINUTE READ

For over a decade, it’s been tempting to write off record labels for dead. Maybe it’s about taking revenge for the schoolyard bully reputation they earned by overpricing CDs for years and then suing consumers when file-sharing upended their business model. Or perhaps the internet-driven disruption of the last 15 years makes it easy to boldly declare that labelsare, as Techcrunch puts it, “obsolete.” Or maybe we just like watching giants fall.

But record labels aren’t dying, at least not anytime soon. In fact, for the first time in years, their quarterly revenues are growing (thanks to the explosion of music subscriptions). What ishappening is that labels’ resources and influence have dwindled dramatically since the music industry’s pre-Napster heyday. And increasingly, they’re being forced to share their longtime role as the chief conduit between artists and audiences with technology companies–from giants like Apple, Google, and Spotify to a parade of startups promising to empower artists in new ways.

UnitedMasters is the latest company to leap into this space between artists and listeners, promising to reinvent the business model of music and hand over more power to musicians. The startup, which recently landed a $70 million investment from the likes of Alphabet and Andreesen Horowitz, pitches itself in David taking on Goliath terms, an industry-disrupting story  that tech industry utopians crave: “Your future has no labels,” proclaims the marketing copy on its website.

UnitedMasters probably won’t replace record labels, but it has a decent shot at helping tech further increase its role–not to mention power–in the music industry. The service offers artists a combination of distribution across digital music services and detailed analytics about their listeners–including the ability to identify so-called “super fans” and target them with special promotions and opportunities to buy merch and concert tickets. Essentially, it’s a music distribution tool in the vein of TuneCore and CDBaby merged with the kind of data-powered fan engagement that Spotify recently started digging into.

UnitedMasters, which was founded by Interscope Records vet Steve Stoute, then takes things to the next level–and guns more directly for the labels–by letting artists keep the rights to their master recordings and by nurturing up-and-coming musicians on their platform, offering them access to a creative team that can help promote and market their music. This artist incubation and investment is the most uniquely label-esque thing UnitedMasters is setting out to do (aside from distributing the music itself, but DIY music distribution services have existed for years now).

Steve Stoute [Photo: Marsha Miller/LBJ Library]

UnitedMasters is the latest startup to take a crack at rewiring some aspect of the music business. Companies like Stem and Audiam tackle the distribution of royalty payments to artists with new, data-powered innovations. So does Kobalt (which, like UnitedMasters, has received an investment from Google/Alphabet), while also offering music publishing, data analytics, and other label-like services for artists.  Meanwhile, A&R (or artists and repertoire,  industry lingo for spotting and developing new talent)–one of the traditional functions of record labels hardest hit by shrinking budgets–is being tackled with technology by companies like ReverbNation, Music XRay, and Tradiio.

But perhaps the most direct and obvious challenge to the role of labels comes from streaming services. Not only are services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Prime Music taking over the distribution side of music as physical album sales keep declining, but they’re inching into other aspects of the business and finding new ways to buoy artists’s careers; As Spotify scales beyond 100 million listeners, its playlists are becoming promotional powerhouses that could one day rival the reach of terrestrial radio. Spotify’s huge audience and data science prowess also make the company well-positioned to dabble in more artist development, should it choose to.  In the meantime, it’s ramping up investment in data-powered, artist-facing tools that are already helping musicians and their managers do things like plan tours and sell more merch.

While no such plans have been publicly announced, it’s not hard to envision a future in which Spotify and other streamers start signing direct deals with artists, bypassing traditional labels entirely. Mega-successful artists like Chance the Rapper (who has no label) and Frank Ocean (whose last album dropped exclusively on Apple Music, just after his contract with Universal was fulfilled) have already offered a sneak peek at the blueprint artists would need to skip the label deal and use the explosive growth of streaming music to their advantage.

FL "$1,000 Bands"

The ATL ("FL") are an American Southern Hip Hop duo from Atlanta GA. Comprising members Stand Out and Alveo Da Great (ADG).

FL "U & I"

The ATL ("FL") are an American Southern Hip Hop duo from Atlanta GA. Comprising members Stand Out and Alveo Da Great (ADG).

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ROD C----------STANDOUT---------- ALVEO

FL | SOB's

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HOW DOES STREAMING FIT INTO THE MUSIC MARKETING MANIFESTO MODEL?

 July 17th, 2017  

If you’ve watched the Music Marketing Blueprint then you know that the MMM model is focused on driving traffic, building a fanbase, and selling music, tickets, and merchandise DIRECTLY to those fans.

ONE OF THE COMMON QUESTIONS I GET ASKED IS: HOW DOES STREAMING FIT INTO THIS WHOLE THING?

There is this assumption that even though I am making the argument that you can generate a substantial income by selling music directly to your fans, obviously streaming must fit into this somehow because everyone knows that physical sales are on the decline and for the most part “nobody buys music anymore, right?

…well, errr, not exactly…

While streaming may have its place for some artists, it is not really a part of the MMM strategy because I don’t believe that it serves independent artists well to release their entire catalogues to the streaming platforms. While there is a benefit to having a presence on these platforms, (for purposes of engagement and music discovery), if your goal is to SELL albums then making that album available to your fans for free will certainly hurt your chances.

BECAUSE HERE’S THE REALITY… NO ONE IS GOING TO BUY YOUR MUSIC IF IT’S ALREADY IN THEIR POCKET.

I realize that this flies in the face of so much of what you hear out there, but I think this is yet another example of independent artists copying what major label artists are doing because they simply don’t know what else to do. Streaming has its place, but it’s minimal in the “Direct to Fan” model.

But why is selling albums important? Isn’t the whole point that we no longer need to worry about selling music because streaming has replaced it?

In short, no. As independent recording artists, we absolutely need to stay focused on selling albums (and other items) directly to our fans if we are going to succeed.

Because here’s the thing that a lot of people miss . . .  There is an “all or nothing” dichotomy in the traditional music business.

Record labels are not in the business of developing thousands of artists and making a small amount of money from a large number of sustainable careers. They have shareholders to appease and as such, they are in it for the big wins. In order for that to happen, they need to go where the market is and attempt to dominate that market. That means that they cannot ignore streaming.

But in order for something like streaming to be lucrative, you need to have tens, even hundreds of millions of streams. Multiple articles (like this one and that one) have recently broken down examples of artists getting incredible numbers of streams only to make (give or take) about $5,000 per ONE MILLION streams (this number will vary). So to make even the equivalent of the average American salary, you would need to receive approximately 10,000,000 streams per year.

Insert tumbleweeds here…

10,000,000 streams only happens as a result of a heck of a lot of interest and awareness. There are only two ways that is likely to happen…

1. Do what the major labels do and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in the hope of creating national awareness for your music and brand.
2. Experience the musical equivalent of being struck by lightning and get really, really

Unfortunately, most independent artists can’t afford to engage in six figure branding strategies, and luck… well, that’s not a strategy.

BUT IF YOU HAVE THE ATTENTION OF YOUR AUDIENCE, THEY WILL SPEND MONEY ON YOUR MUSIC, NO MATTER WHAT THE FORMAT IS.

And here’s the thing…

The average dollar earned per LISTEN is infinitely higher when people PURCHASE our music in album form, rather then if that music is listened to via a streaming platform like Spotify. This is especially true when you are an independent artist who is not benefiting from millions of impulse or curiosity-streams or being added to untold numbers of playlists as most mainstream artists are.

Just to illustrate the point, as most of us are aware Adele chose not to release her album “25” to the streaming services initially. Despite the stated reasons why, this was almost certainly so she (and the label) could maximize profits. Fair enough. Of course, after sales died down the album was released to Spotify and the like.

According to the old interweb, Adele’s album “25” would have needed to be streamed 16 Billion times in order to make the same amount of money she made in initial sales of that album (which was $115 MM dollars).

So I tallied up all of the streams that “25” has received on Spotify over the last 13 months since the album was released on the platform (let’s just call it a year to make the math easy) and it appears that “25 has been streamed 1,468,340,709 times as of this writing. That’s nearly 1.5 BILLION streams. Not bad right?

That would mean… and get ready for this…

It would take 10 YEARS and 10 months for her to make the same amount of money on Spotify as she did in album sales. I’ll give you a moment to get your jaw back into position.

Furthermore, just under half of those streams were generated from a single song (Hello), which she still could have released to Spotify as a single without releasing the album. If you remove “Hello” from the equation this would increase that figure to over 21 YEARS.

So…

If album sales generate more money than streaming… and you have a loyal following of fans that will support you when you ask them to (which you WILL need in order to succeed as an independent artist regardless) . . . Why in the world would you release your entire album to the streaming platforms when doing so would likely kill any incentive to buy that album?

Answer: You shouldn’t. At least initially, and/or in its entirety.

Now, none of this is to say that streaming does not have its place. 30 million songs in your pocket (the most recent number posted by Spotify) is fantastic for the consumer and as such, the platform can’t be ignored completely. Moreover, music IS being consumed on the streaming platforms, and money IS being generated. It’s become a necessary part of those “all or nothing” major-label branding campaigns. And there is also value there for independent artists in terms of music discovery, fan engagement, and the chance that you might get lucky and get added to a few big playlists. After all, you don’t want your fans NOT to engage with your music just because it can’t be found on their favourite listening platform.

THE SOLUTION IS TO WITHHOLD YOUR ALBUM FROM THE STREAMING PLATFORMS, INITIALLY…

Instead of releasing the entire album for streaming, my advice would instead be to make just a single track or two available. As such, you can insure that your album will generate maximum profit when sold directly to your fans. And in time – as album sales slowdown – you can consider releasing more (or all) of the album to the streaming platforms.

Note*** This is accomplished with digital music distributors like CD Baby by declining streaming distribution on your album, and then re-submitting a single or EP exclusively to the streaming platforms.

So in short… despite what the recent studies from BuzzAngle and Nielsen revealed about the predicted growth in the music industry in 2017 – which was pinned directly on the 10% growth in streaming that we should see by years end – These statistics have little bearing on the average musicians chances of actually making a living from their music.

SO WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

Look, here’s the deal. If you are one of those artists who believes that “the cream rises to the top” or “if you build it they will come” and you are just not interested in actively marketing or promoting your music and brand, then honestly… stick with streaming. Get your music up there because you are counting on success to happen of its own accord. I mean it sincerely when I say, “good luck with that”!

But if you are a musician who embraces the value of marketing and is willing to take deliberate action to influence your chances of success… Here, in a nutshell, is a basic approach to generating income from your music that I think will serve you much better . . .

1. Put all of your focus into creating an engaged audience of email and, to a lesser extent, social media subscribers and followers.
2. Be so interesting, entertaining, and exceptional that you effectively EARN the right to ask your followers for a bit of financial support every few months. Ask your fans to show that support by purchasing albums, merchandise, tickets, access to a membership site, or by backing a crowd funding campaign.
3. Release 1 – 3 tracks of each album to the streaming platforms (so that you have a presence there) but withhold the majority of the album until sales have slowed down and you have moved on to promoting the next album.
4. Seek additional revenue streams from touring and licensing when possible.
5. Feed your music business with paid advertising so there is steady growth regardless of touring activity.

If the ideas expressed above resonate with you and you would like me to show you HOW to build the system described above and generate income from direct-to-fan sales instead of relying on streaming revenue (which tends to pale by comparison), then consider joining me on July 26th (just a few days away) for the release of Music Marketing Manifesto 4.0. Everyone who registers on launch day or shortly thereafter will receive a special Early Bird Discount. Click here to learn more.

Thanks for reading and be sure to leave me a comment, with any questions, feedback, or just to say hey.

                       http://www.musicmarketingmanifesto.com/music-marketing-blueprint/

One World Media and Sheffield Marketing Group to spend $19.4B in Entertainment Industry for Job Creation

ATLANTA, Jan. 21, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- In 1948 during the signing of the U.N. Charter, a World Media Council was planned that eventually became a Media Conglomerate, and a World Media Distribution plan was born in the interest of the unification of world media to enhance the distribution of media and television projects.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140121/CL49606LOGO)

One World Media entered into a 157 movie deal worth 19.46 Billion dollars with Sheffield Marketing Group, the silent partner behind some of the largest marketing projects in the world. The two companies are coming together in the interest of Global Economic Recovery to meet what was thought to be an unrealistic goal of 98% employment in the Entertainment Industry.

One World Media and Sheffield Marketing Group are in meetings to determine which companies will be the recipients of project funds. Some of the companies being considered include:

• DreamWorks SKG
• DreamWorks Animation          
• Overture Films
• Screen Media Films
• Pacific International Enterprises             
• IFC Films 
• Vision One Media
• Hannover House    
• Spiderwood Productions       
• Vivendi Entertainment
• Tyler Perry Studios 
• 20th Century Fox           
• 20th Century Fox Animation
• Fox Searchlight Pictures             
• Fox Atomic             
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation
• Orion Pictures Corporation  
• American International Pictures             
• Filmways
• Focus Features
• Rogue Pictures
• Paramount Vantage
• Screen Gems                         
• Destination Films    
• Castle Rock Entertainment
• Walt Disney Pictures              
• Marvel Studios                       
• Touchstone Pictures
• Hollywood Pictures
• Miramax Films                         
• Artisan Entertainment
• The Weinstein Company
• Troma Entertainment              
• Elevating Entertainment Motion Pictures
• Gener8Xion Entertainment     
• Promenade Pictures               
• Sherwood Pictures
• PolyGram Filmed Entertainment              
• Trimark Pictures     
• Samuel Goldwyn Films                                                           
• Magnolia Pictures   
• Uncommon Productions
• American Technologies
• Friendware

One World Media and Sheffield Marketing Group also plan to hold the 1^st Annual Global Media Awards with categories such as

• Largest Sponsor
• Best overall concept
• Best Innovations
• Most Humanitarian and Historical value
• Realism  
• Quality of Special Effects

We are told the award show will be a two day event because of the vast variety of talent to recognize and the total amount of awards to be given.

One World Media is currently holding a Worldwide Talent Search looking for Models, Actors and Actresses, Comedians, Dancers, Writers, Rappers, Singers, etc. for a host of Action Movies, Comedies, Sitcoms, and all things Entertainment. 2014 is going to be an exciting year!

All participants will need to register to receive placement in major upcoming projects funded by the two powerhouses. Registration also includes vouchers for aspiring artists to use on Photo shoots (to include hair and makeup), Complete EPK'S, Bio's, etc.

Investors and Program Sponsors are also encouraged to register to become eligible for The Global Media Awards Ceremony.  

********************Must be enrolled to be nominated********************

For more information: email us!               
To register for  registration@one-worldmedia.net               
For Job Placement and intern opportunities casting@one-worldmedia.net                 
Please visit One World Media Facebook Pg. For Entertainment Job listing Listings.             
To book appointments for an audition send an email with your press kit (8x10 Head Shot, Autobiography, Demo Reel or links to YouTube, oneworldmediaatlanta@gmail.com            
Funding resources provided for The Global Economic Recovery Council by U.S. Capital Funding II Series Trust I.  http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/13/idUS105078+13-Jun-2011+BW20110613#!                  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aQdpZQ-VwQ  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-Dnq_sgdKo                               
Find us on LinkedIn at: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/hrh-robert-fowler/17/560/b34
Follow us on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/djcasanovany  

One World Media: The One World Media website is currently under reconstruction. We will issue a press release prior to its unveiling. It will be an unforgettable experience.

One World Media             An irrevocable Express Trust under Common Law                
6555 Sugar Loaf Parkway, 307-113                 
Duluth GA 30097             
HRH Robert Fowler                  
Tel. 678-920-5701                      
trustee@one-worldmedia.net