Brian Eno’s deep and submersible 19th studio album, The Ship, is the first LP in a 45-year career that combines the art-rock vocals of albums like 1975’s Another Green World with the free-flowing, pulseless drifts of his pioneering ambient work. Mixing song, texture and his recent explorations with immersive installations,…
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My Band Got 1.4 Million Streams. Here’s What We Got Paid…
Songwriters have long complained about streaming rates on internet radio, with major publishers and even members of Congress getting involved. But what about on-demand streaming services like Spotify, Tidal, Google Play Music, Deezer, and Xbox Music?
Just this morning, DMN received this anonymous email from an ‘average american band’ that received more than 1.4 million streams last year. It goes into heavy detail on a variety of streaming services, not to mention downloads (or, what’s left of them).
Hi Paul.
These are royalty statements from my band for 2015. We released our first album in February and have been playing out pretty regularly since then. I don’t want to the publicity so I’d like to remain anonymous. Plus the rest of my band doesn’t […]
Our marketing plans have shifted since the release. Early on we REALLY pushed iTunes on business cards at our shows with QR codes to our album on the iTunes Store. We picked up some decent radio play regionally through mostly college stations and I think that really helped our streaming numbers. But as time went on, we started seeing our streaming base grow as we focused more on social media and internet marketing in general. Now we HEAVILY promote our music on Microsoft Groove and Tidal.
But as you can see, downloads are dead. Hell, we made more on Microsoft Groove in 4 months than we did in 11 months of iTunes downloads. And as far as I can tell, we didn’t see ANY downloads form Google Play. The numbers we have all appear to be streams.
Tidal pays really well…when they pay. As you can see from the numbers below, it looks like they aren’t reporting all the plays we are getting. I find it really hard to believe that we can get a few thousand plays one month and then under 40 for 3 months in a row and then all of a sudden shoot up to over 8,000. We didn’t’ change anything we were doing. But I guess this is why they are being sued, right?
Streams.
Royalties.
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How I Defrauded Warner Music Of $1.3 Million…
DMN first wrote about this case back in 2014, when former Warner Music exec Danielle Smith was accused of embezzling $1.3 million from Warner Music.
Smith worked at Atlantic Records in the Urban Music division, and throughout her time with Atlantic, the former exec helped to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Obama campaign.
Smith’s role was to scout and sign artists as well as arrange their travel details, according to the New York Post. But Smith resigned in 2011 after she was accused of booking hotel rooms and personal trips for herself on the company’s credit card. Indeed, this elaborate scam wasn’t elaborate enough, with a long paper trail unearthed involving false charges on artist and executive accounts. Those charges were either used for entirely non-business purposes by Smith and those conspiring with her, milked for cash, or some combination thereof.
Warner Music eventually reported their suspicions to a Manhattan District’s Attorney’s office, and it was later revealed that there were several ‘non-business’ payments made during 2007 and 2011. Smith turned herself in back in 2011, but pleaded ‘not guilty’.
Now, more details on these ‘mis-charges’ are starting to spill. Ultimately, the $1.3 million that was reportedly used for a number of lavish vacations, a series of luxury goods and other personal expenses.
I know I said that I didn’t steal Warner Music’s money, but I did…
Now, two years later Smith has admitted to defrauding the record label of the money on grand larceny charges. In a Manhattan courtroom this week, the 47 year-old has also agreed to pay $500,000 in restitution.
(Image by Picturesofmoney, Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic, cc by 2.0)
The post How I Defrauded Warner Music Of $1.3 Million… appeared first on Digital Music News.
3 Important Independent Music Business Trends
Rather than play by the rules and stick to industry conventions, it has become important for those operating independently within the music business to pursue trends which will allow them greater control over their work. Here we look at three such trends which are expected to gain prominence in the coming year.
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Guest Post by Bas Grasmayer, from the MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE weekly mailing
As an independent artist or label, it’s important to realize what rules you are playing by. Too often, indies follow the rules set by the status quo, while it’s actually in the interest of indies to disrupt the status quo.
When you play by rules set by the status quo, all you can do is lose.
Instead, indies should be playing their own game, particularly the ones that don’t care about exact market share percentages. It’s up to you to decide what it means to be in music. You don’t have the budgets that major-backed artists have and you don’t own part of the streaming platforms where you’re competing for attention (eg. Spotify, Soundcloud).
In anticipation of the panel I’ll be in at AIM’s Music Connected (April 27, London), let’s look at some of the most important trends that let indies determine their own reality.
Fair Trade Music
A couple of years ago, discussions about how bad piracy is were replaced with the ‘rage against the stream’. People were upset with streaming platforms’ low payouts and growing increasingly impatient for their promises of a better tomorrow. A strange blame game started, obscuring what was really going on, but also bringing attention to issues with the way parts of the industry do their accounting. Where was the money going?
As a consequence, some have started looking for better ways to do things. The most famous example is Benji Roger’s blockchain initiative: he hopes to get the industry to use blockchain technology to create a worldwide transparent database that makes it easier to understand who to pay, how much, and for what. There’s also a public survey underway for it.
Other examples of music service initiatives that aim to provide something more fair and transparent are:
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Resonate, a cooperative that lets indie artists & labels own the platform
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The POLR, which believes micropayments can enable more autonomy
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Whitestone, which aims to reward anyone who contributes value
If you know of more, send me an email or tweet me.
New formats means new monetization options
Expect early adopters of VR to be an easy to monetize group, because they’re hungry for cool experiences on their new devices. They want you to show them all the things you can do with this medium and they’re happy to pay for it. Freemium models should work well here: give people something good for free and let them pay to upgrade or extend the experience.
YouTube channels and Twitch livestreams are other formats to consider. Further reading:
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Virtual Reality is going to change our music experience, forever >>>
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Streaming is not the future of the music economy >>>
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What the musicbiz can learn from YouTubers >>>
Direct-to-Fan Platforms (D2F)
An old theme, but there are some important developments to pay attention to this year, namely: consolidation. Crowdfunding platform PledgeMusic acquired fan engagement platform NoiseTrade and set.fm which makes it easy to sell high quality recordings of live performances.
Meanwhile Fullscreen, a Multi Channel Network (MCN) for YouTube, acquired direct-to-fan platform StageBloc, and rebranded it to Fullscreen Direct. Kickstarter made its first acquisition by taking in Drip, a direct-to-label subscription service on the verge of shutting down.
These acquisitions are meaningful and as product teams merge and collaborate, we’ll see an integration of these tools to become more full suites. This evolution is something many were hoping for when Beats Music acquired Topspin Media.
This time the acquisitions are coming from companies that are already inherently D2F. 2016 is going to be an important year for D2F services.
The Future of the (Indie) Music Business
If you’re in London on the 27th, be sure to catch the panel I’m in with Benji Rogers (PledgeMusic) and Philip Hutcheon (Dice.fm), chaired by Karim Fanous (Music Ally) at Music Connect. I imagine we’ll be going into depth on a lot of these topics.
The future is what you make it.
Design your strategy, plan carefully and support independent platforms and initiatives.
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Lady Antebellum to Kick Off Kentucky Derby With National Anthem
As Lady Antebellum gear up for a series of concert dates in late May and throughout June, the group has been tapped to perform “The Star Spangled Banner” ahead of the festivities surrounding the 142nd Kentucky Derby, set for May 7th at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.
More than 170,000 spectators…