#13: Ask More Questions ❓ Gender Equality in Music 👫 First Rule of Pricing 💵 Design for Humanity 🏡 - MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE
Hey everyone!
Had a great time in London last week, meeting loads of interesting people at Music Connected (summary of my panel) and in the days after. If you’re working on something interesting that you feel is relevant, get in touch.
Now looking forward to spending the last week of May in Berlin for Music Tech Fest, where I’ll be working blockchain solutions for music and hopefully something with interactive music during the hackathon.
Love,
Bas
Asking Your Way to Success
I was glad to be on an excellent panel last week at Music Connected about shaping the future of the music business. At some point the conversation centered around artist-to-fan models, which, in the US alone, could add up to $2.6 billion in revenues annually to the music business.
Instead of spending their conferences letting anti-piracy services, I recommended music companies spend more time finding new ways to talk to fans. Benji Rogers, from PledgeMusic, added that artists should literally ask fans what they want. “87% [of fans] ignore it. It’s the remaining percent who say ‘well we’d like this, and here’s what we’d be willing to pay…’”
This may sound difficult to some people. The music industry has long been a place where albums are worked on privately until they’re finished. Then they’re priced and sold. Fans were not involved in the production process. The age of networks makes it easier to involve fans at earlier stages. Maybe your fans would love to pay for some of the notes you took in the creative process or a hand-written version of the liner notes. You won’t know until you ask. Without asking you might not find out until it’s too late and you’re struggling to earn back the money you invested in recording your album.
YouTubers and video game streamers are constantly talking to their audiences. This is what gives them their appeal. This is also what helps them identify new business models. In short the strategy for the networked age is:
Get discovered by making great music and getting it heard by relevant audiences (use “other people’s audience”)
Retain: when someone discovers you make sure you direct them to FB, Twitter, Instagram, your newsletter, etc., so that you have a way to keep their attention
Turn this into a fan community and be a part of it, rather than broadcasting down through channels
Listen to your community to discover new means of monetization you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise
It IS that simple: just ask.
Top stories from the music business
Gender equality in music: the next steps 👫
Shazam looks for revenue from outside the music business and launches Shazam For Brands 💰
Responsive audio startup RjDj is back and launched Hear, a new way to listen to the world 👽
Truly, Madly, Deeply: mental health and the psychology behind fandom 💋
Spotify acquires live event content aggregator CrowdAlbum to add to “team building products for artists” 🎷
Indian streaming service Saavn expands into Middle East 🇧🇭
iTunes is 13 years old—and it’s still awful 😖
Wide view
The first rule of pricing is: you do not talk about pricing – interesting piece about the psychology of pricing. Lots to learn here for music product & service pricing 💵
HTC launches $100 million VR startup accelerator – the hardware is here, but there’s a strong need for high quality content 👀
Design for Humanity: an interactive essay exploring the past, present, and future of anthropomorphic design 🏡
In closing
That’s all! If you know someone who might be interested in these mailings, please forward them this email or this link. You can further support me by retweeting this tweet - it helps your followers subscribe to MUSIC x TECH x FUTURE with just one click.
Love,
Bas
Regular insights about the future of music, media & tech. Written & composed by @basgras.
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