Forbes recently sat down with Jermaine Dupri, the Grammy-winning songwriter, producer and rapper, who has worked with performers ranging from Mariah Carey to Jay-Z to Alicia Keys, to try to answer that question. Dupri, 35, is now the president of Island Def Jam’s Urban Music division. Here, he discusses how YouTube has taken the place of radio, how record companies need to do a better job of distributing music and why there needs to be the equivalent of a stock market crash in the music industry.

Forbes.com: What can a music label still do for an artist that he couldn’t do for himself?

Jermaine Dupri: The setup that comes from a record company is still the biggest setup. If somebody independent showed a real rollout, then I think that it would definitely pose a problem. But if a record company does what a record company is supposed to do–and we’ve seen that many times when an artist sells 10 million or whatever records–when a record company is dead balls on, it’s hard to beat the movement and the machine.

Do you think YouTube has taken the place of radio?

YouTube has taken the interest of radio. Radio is not interesting to fans. Radio has become lost basically. The fans are obviously showing me that radio is not the way they’re learning about an artist. The fans have spoken and said “we’re tired of not knowing about these artists you keep trying to force us to go buy. Let us know about the artist. Let us know the artist likes pink, let us know the artist lives in this place, let us know they drive this.” YouTube and MySpace have opened the door to fans actually getting to know the people that we’re putting out again. They offer more to a fan.

Madonna and Jay-Z both recently signed so-called 360 deals with LiveNation that include record sales, touring revenue, merchandising and sponsorship agreements. Do you think that these types of deals are good for the industry?

It’s great for the artist. The label, on the other hand, I don’t know. If the label does a 360 deal with an artist that’s got seven albums left in them and is really showing that they’ve got that many albums left in them, then it’s a smart deal to do. I think that right now they’re doing these deals with these older artists that have almost done 10 albums of a career. I don’t know how many albums Jay-Z has left in him. I don’t know how many albums Madonna has left in her.

What needs to change to get more people to buy music?

I have a new theory about record selling that I call my “quench my thirst theory.” When fans are hungry for music, we’re not giving it to them. Take movies. When a movie comes out, they promote the movie, they see the excitement, they give it. In the music business, we look for signs that don’t mean nothing really and we don’t pay attention to the signs that mean something. With that being said, put the records out faster, and you’ll see that people are still buying albums.

What signs should we be looking for?

MySpace, YouTube, Facebook–things where people are talking. I set my own channel up on YouTube, and I started promoting things. The comments are what I’m watching. I’m not watching the numbers.

What signs do people look at now that they shouldn’t?

They’re looking at signs of radio, signs of how much press they get, lot of things that don’t really matter like that. MTV and BET for example, they play our videos probably 20 times a week, if that. MTV wasn’t playing no videos a minute ago. YouTube, you can put a video up and get 200,000 plays in a week.

Is spending money on videos still worth it?

Yeah, based on the outlets that we have. When we put out Kriss Kross, there was no YouTube. You spent money on artists back then, and this was back in ‘91, ‘92. Big-money videos were coming out based on being seen on BET and MTV. It makes sense to spend money on a video if you put it in on YouTube because viewers will watch it endless times. They keep clicking on it, and you can see how many times they watch it and understand that you’re getting your money’s worth.

If you get a video seen 500,000 times, and you spent a nice piece of money on it, you should feel good about it because that’s 500,000 times on this one network. You could put it on MySpace and have another 500,000 times, and then you can take the little bitty spins that MTV and BET give you, and as far as I’m concerned you’ve had 2 million eyeballs see your video. I don’t believe that would have happened in ‘92.

Are you worried at all that people won’t buy a song because they can click and watch the video anytime?

No, because watching a video doesn’t really determine selling music. Watching a video to me is that you’re trying to get people to know who your artist is. You’re trying to introduce the artist to the world, and through the video is how the world sees the artist.

How do you deal with questions of piracy and illegal downloading?

I believe that works into the thirst thing. If a person posts your album early, that means they’re excited. That’s a sign that you should follow. If people are posting early, why are they posting early? Because I’m putting out the record too late, and this person already knows that the fans want it.

We buy bootlegs because we want to buy music when it comes out. I’m reading about this new album by Usher. I want to buy it because it sounds incredible. Then you walk down the street, and this dude is saying “I got Usher’s album.” All your excitement is right there. So they react on their excitement. That’s all it is. The bootleggers are beating the distribution to getting the record on the streets.

iTunes proves that nobody wants to steal music. If you were to ask Steve Jobs about that he’ll tell you, “Nobody wants to steal it, everybody wants to buy it. I put every record store out of the business the last five years because they all want to come to my store.” And iTunes was not meant to be like that. iTunes was something he just did based on the iPod.

Do you think that people still want to buy albums? Or are they only interested in buying singles?

We sell singles now because we don’t have the albums prepared, or we think that people don’t want to buy albums. People want to buy albums. It’s just like DVDs. People still buy things.

Do you think that singles will continue to sell for 99 cents online?

99-cent singles create excitement. Whoever came up with that was somebody who was a little bit older and remembered buying 45s. The thing about it is, once they buy the singles, what’s next. And that’s what the record companies are not doing.

Where do you think the industry is going?

I would hope that it crashes completely like the stock market and rebuilds because a person like myself would be able to deal with it. Only the strong can survive crashes. If you’re talented, the music business can’t crash; a crash won’t affect you. If you’re not talented and you just been bouncing from wall to wall and getting by, a crash will definitely destroy you. That’s what needs to happen.

We’ve got to weed out the ones who can’t keep pace with what’s going on because they’re hindering it. They’re still not doing anything about piracy. They’re still putting records out the same way they were putting records out when piracy first came in the game. Nobody’s changed.

Article Source: http://www.forbes.com

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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With Douglas Merrill’s hiring of Second Life co-founder Cory Ondrejka at EMI, at least one label is wising up to the fact that making music more difficult to buy and find is no way to compete with online file sharing. Say what you will about Second Life, but within the context of the virtual world it was very easy to participate in the economy (maybe even a little too easy) and buy and sell ephemeral, digital goods.

Now that labels have realized that their core business will no longer be moving units through outlets like the now-defunct Tower Records, they’re moving towards “360 degree” deals that ask for a piece of event income, licensing and merchandising. Which in the old model used to be the artist’s bread and butter, as musicians didn’t actually see much of a cut from album sales. The album was, as they say in Hollywood, a “tent pole” upon which other business opportunities were supported — and now the labels want the whole tent.

Reznor had the foresight to go independent as the old circus collapses around him. Owning his own production studio and promoting and distributing his content digitally means his costs are minimal. And production, promotion and distribution was exactly what labels used to lured artists into contractual cages. Reaching beyond the concept of moving units in mass volume and instead servicing hardcore fans with what they want, when and where they want it while making it easy for people to find and listen to his music, Reznor’s got an opportunity to make a lot more money for himself than he ever would have with a label — and more creative flexibility as well.

Article Source: http://valleywag.com

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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Why Independent Artists Fail at Music Promotion

It gets increasingly harder and consequently more expensive to promote music as an independent artist each year, by the year, regardless of whether those efforts are online or not. Until you cross the chasm to reach a success level where your popularity, music and finances catch up to each other, you are more likely to rely on a limited amount of information to determine the value of your music career. For example if you are a music artist with a fan base of 100, it is easy to believe that 80 people out of 100 think you are destined for worldwide success. This is a limited window of honesty that can cripple your efforts to reach a wider audience that spans beyond the local market to reach worldwide audiences.

Without a more concrete and easy-proof system in place, you can continue to create music that no one cares about and no one buys except the people in that window of 100. In order to broaden the listening audience it is important to understand their world view in three phases:

• How they viewed music in the past
• How they view music in the present
• How they “think” they will view music in the future

You should know that to reach mass audiences “nowadays” that they probably prefer to download your music easily, because it’s faster and they are not restricted to listen to your music where a CD player is present. This mis-understanding is an ignored flaw that results in a sharp line to failure. You can better judge almost everything you do to promote and further your career if you consider these two world views:

People with money don’t care what’s real to you… unless its presented in a way that is appealing and sensible to them.

No one in the hospital is going to suddenly panic and die if they don’t hear your music.

People with money are, have been, and will be used to buying music that sounds MAJOR… because 9/10 it invariably sounds better.

Why?

People who buy music, aren’t exposed to indie music as much as major music. Major music is like the GOD of music because its EVERYWHERE all at the same time… in someone else’s car down the street, at a store, in the mall, in a bathroom, on someone else’s iPod, on the radio, you see it on someone’s shirt, you hear people singing in walking down the street… and this is what creates an environment where… if you don’t sound major you don’t follow trends; its likely that it will be harder to get those music consumers to buy your music.

You can’t sell someone something they don’t want, or something they’re not familiar with. Period. I don’t care what you sell.

From strippers to music to houses and cars. People only buy things that solve their problems (permanent or not) AND they buy what they truly want.

Just look at the fact that we live in a world where NOBODY gives a damn about how healthy it is to eat organic food, people want what they’re used to. McDonald’s doesn’t get 23 million dollars in the bank because it tries to give people what’s healthy… it gives them what they want, fat and heart clogs included.

Why doesn’t originality sell? And why shouldn’t an artist make music that’s real to them?

ORIGINALITY is extremely important and yes you have to balance originality with trends… but there is a line between doing whats original to the point where its unenjoyable and doing what is most likely to sell. That’s another hard part of this particular business.

Because again, the people who worked their ass off this week in the office dealing with Bob and Sally have to deal with the fact that they got $200 taken out in taxes. So they’re not going to buy music just for the hell of it. Especially not when they can download it using Bit Torrent for free. The people, who ACTUALLY buy it and not DOWNLOAD it, will buy it if its music they are used to hearing AND what they WANT.

I love Herbie Hancock… he just got a super huge Grammy award but the majority of America isn’t blogging about him. They blog about Britney and her nipples or her panties (or not).

The majority of people don’t wake up in the morning looking for NEW JOBS… they go where they know they’re going to get a check. The majority of people don’t wake up searching for new MUSIC. They trust radio (declining) and friends to provide them with music that’s familiar and hot. The majority of people don’t wake up in the morning trying out different toothpastes everyday… they use what they know.

Human psychology suggests that people LIKE what they know. We hang around people who are like us, we buy things that are popular, we eat things that are the norm. They don’t really care about originality if its unfamiliar with them and they can’t relate to it.

So yes! You can be successful in a major way, still be original, but only if you can create something that people want.

THAT is where trends are extremely useful. Song keys, tempos, vocal styles, recording techniques, phrases, melodic motifs, chord progressions, reverb styles, compressor uses, 808 drums, synth sounds, etc. are trends that will never go away… and most chart topping songs have similar characteristics.

Besides… most everything we are familiar with uses a trend. Oh in the gum department… its teeth whitening. In fashion, its big 70s and 80s styled frames. In computers its dual processors. In cars its USB and voice activation. In TV its Hi-Def. In movies its shock factor & humor. On TV its 1 hour episodes instead of 30 minutes. In music… its the 80s sound, its the urban sound, its multi-genres. If you’re rock, you’re pop. If you’re pop, you’re urban. If you’re R&B, you’re hip-hop.

This is simple and its centered around the fact that you’re dealing with people who probably don’t want to PAY for the music in the first place and secondly, you had better create something that they can believe in, experience, and relate to.

Perhaps originality comes second to familiarity… for most music consumers.

Why won’t Record Labels put out an artist just because they’re on the roster?

Commerce. You can look at the billboard charts and tell that releasing a certain artist right now is probably not going to work. Especially when you have artists who dominate the entire scene with an album or song that everybody’s going crazy for. Every record label tries to do whats right for their survival and bank account at the same time. Record Labels are entities, but they operate much like humans do. There are bills that need to be paid and there is little time for experimentation with artists who have already proven they won’t sell that much, or based on statistics, prove that they will not sell that much.

So who CARES if you get signed. Doesn’t mean you’ll get released. Most record labels have more artists than they can manage… but to them each artist represents a specific financial forecast. You can BET that they have a net worth assigned to each artist, and if they think that it makes more sense to release artist A than artist B… then that’s what they do. That’s what they will continue to do… until about 6 years from now when everyone gets screwed and it all crashes all over again like it did in 2004.

Why do you have to cater to 10-18 year olds?

You don’t. You just have to decide who you are and what you want to do. What you want to start out doing and what you want to end up doing. Popular music is played everywhere… in clubs, in restaurants, in stores, you can’t deny it. People who listen and/or create country music are more exposed to pop/rock than they are exposed to country. You don’t walk into the mall and hear a lot of country… unless its mixed with… pop.

You have to decide if you want to:

a) make music that’s unfamiliar and work hard enough to get people to become familiar with it and then sell records or
b) make music thats familiar, increase popularity, and sell records faster/easier/better.

You can chose to side with the labels, be with the indies who achieve major label success, or be an indie whose totally organic and is more concerned with the art form than commercial appeal.

So if you want to sell something, at the same rate that major labels sell it, then you have to find a way to get consumers to LIKE you. Whether its unoriginal or not… the people who swipe their card aren’t critics, they don’t care whether you’re major or indie so much… that’s something that only us “music insiders” care about…

Why don’t record labels invest in artists who surpass the trends?

Record Labels do the best they can. They aren’t TRYING to fail, they’re just stupid when it comes to many things. But as the years go by, the pressure increases as does the competition to put out music that will sell and that can be marketed. It doesn’t make sense for record labels to run a development farm like they used to. They’re not going to spend 5 years babysitting artists trying to see which artist will turn out to be a golden egg. The likelihood of another pop icon like Beyonce’ coming along is slim, and she did most of her artist development by herself. Her dad quit his job to make that happen… that whole family went through turmoil just to get where they are today; and that was oh about a decade ago.

So what’s the bottom line?

The superstar formula HAS always revolved around hard work and creativity… Who cares what genre of music you make, the pool of listeners is relative to the genre. The Beatles? They have one of the most popular songs in history called “Yesterday” it’s been performed over seven million times… took them a year to even write that song, and it didn’t even GO mainstream at first. But that song has the record for being one of the most recorded COVER songs in history. The Jacksons? Everybody knows that they for damn sure worked their asses off. Beyonce? None of Beyonce’s success just landed in her lap. Britney Spears? Yeah this woman has been in the public spotlight since she was a kid, she’s been trained to BE the attention, GET attention, and KEEP attention.

Again, you’re not competing against people who haphazardly became successful. You’re competing against people like Miley Cyrus, people who are born into super stardom… or people who are willing to move clear across the country just to work with a producer who will give them the perfect sound. IF you aren’t willing to make those kind of sacrifices… then you’re handicapping yourself, I don’t care how you look at it.

You’re competing against people who don’t have ANY connections at all, but will spend a solid year to whip themselves into shape and go through hell JUST to put together a 7 song package that can be shopped to majors. You’re competing against people who DON’T CARE how long it takes until they get it right. And those are the most dangerous types.

I can type sentences all day and all night long. I could give history lessons all day long. But the bottom line is that yes connections are great… yes you should be original. Yes you should use trends… but the only thing that matters FIRST is if you have DAMN good music. And can you REPEAT it enough times to satisfy the appetite of people who are used to hearing DAMN Good music. Does your Myspace page have 3 songs that sound as good as the top 100 songs on Billboard?

If you want music industry contacts buy the A&R registry – it will cost you maybe $60 bucks. Its worth it. But even if you had Clive Davis’ #… what would you do with it? Which song are you SO confident in, that’d you’d be willing to bet your entire DREAM on it?!
It takes an ungodly amount of work to produce and create damn good music… on this kind of level.

Unless your music sounds MAJOR, no matter how original you are, then you’re already fighting an uphill battle. If it isn’t crisp, easy to listen to, flawless, and perfect… I say START OVER.
Music Superstar Formula is something I have fought with, I’ve cried over it, I’ve kicked, I’ve screamed, I’ve been just a few fries short of a happy meal sometimes… but you won’t see it until its right… because in the BIG LEAGUE… there is no 2nd chance. By the time you screw up and try again, something new and better has already come along.

If you ever get ONE chance, treat it like it IS your last simply because it COSTS too much to get people to give a damn about YOU or YOUR music. If they don’t pay attention to you, they’re not going to pay a penny for you.

Written by Howard Britt

Article Source: http://www.musicindustryschool.com

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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Gawley, an HLS graduate, focused his talk on the highly publicized all-in-one contracts of big-name stars such as Madonna and Jay-Z.

He said that despite the threat of music piracy to CD sales, the music industry continues to thrive with profitable tours and merchandising.

“Music has never been more popular,” said Gawley, adding that he is not convinced by claims of the record industry’s imminent demise. “The music industry will survive, but in what form?”

As consumer spending shifts from albums to live shows, Gawley said, celebrities like Jay-Z have left their record labels in favor of all-inclusive contracts with concert promoters such as LiveNation.

These promoters purchase the rights to an artist’s entire profitable output­—CDs, tours, T-shirts, and even collectible bobblehead dolls—for one lump sum.

Gawley predicts that record companies will ultimately embrace these so-called “360 deals” and will be best equipped for these contracts because of their experience in brand management.

Friday’s talk was hosted by the Harvard Law School Recording Artists Project (RAP), which provides legal services to local artists and hosts lectures on legal issues in the music industry.

According to RAP co-director Ethan B. Schiffres, lawyers will play an important role in the negotiations of these emerging 360 deals.

“Artists’ attorneys will continue to fight to allow more creative and financial control for their clients and will continue to play a role in the creative process of scouting and shopping acts,” Schiffres said.

Written by By MARK A. VANMIDDLESWORTH
Contributing Writer

Article Source: http://www.thecrimson.com

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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What are your goals?

Depending on your situation it may refer to simply goals with your music, but odds are if you want a career in music you will also have to consider all aspects of your life – at least in the short term [and by short term there I mean anywhere from the next 2-5 years].

It is hard to know if you are making progress if you don’t know where that progress should be taking you. The idea of releasing one album and selling out the pressing is a great goal and one almost any band that releases an album has. But it is such a small part of your band’s bigger, long term picture that if you don’t know what comes next or how the first release will help you build to the next step it is almost pointless [I am assuming you plan on doing this with some seriousness for as long as possible].

I recall reading a survey that polled a good majority of America’s richest people – the most common shared trait amongst them was that a large majority, I believe it was over 80% had written down their goals and/or plans to achieve them.

In my post M|E: An equation showing how FREE can = $$$ I noted the equation David from Digital Audio Insider posted:

(A x B x C) – E = D
A = the total # of people who acquire the work
B = the percent who actually pay for it
C = the average amount each person pays
D = the total revenue received
E = promotional and marketing expenses (not to mention recording, mixing, and mastering costs)

If I gave that equation to a number of bands I would bet my right pinky finger that the majority of them would start with A and likely base that number on the physical copies being pressed, maybe with some downloads added in, and proceed from there.

But where you should really start is with D. That’s your goal. In a four piece where everyone has agreed making $25k a year from music is enough to make them happy? Then your D is at minimum [have to account for expenses as well] $100K.

But in knowing you have a target of $100K you can tweak the other numbers as you go, monitering how close you are coming to your goal.

Quick example using live performances only as your revenue:
If your band reaches the point where you know you can receive a guarantee of $1000/night, you know based on selling no recordings or downloads or merch, you would have to play a 100 shows in a given year.

From there you could breakdown all revenue into a 100 units of a thousand for benchmarking your progress, so every 100 CDs sold for $10 is one less show you need to play.

Summary

1. Brainstorm with your band on goals/consider personal goals as well
2. Come to agreement with all band members on goals going forward – then write them down
3. Determine measures for measuring your progress
4. Get to it
5. Adjust accordingly
6. Repeat

Article Source: http://www.aquietrevolution.com

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For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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