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Digital Music Prices: Is Cheaper Better?
Source:
HypeBot
If you visit Amazon's digital music store and browse the top albums chart one thing you might notice is how low the prices are. Almost every album is “on sale" in some way making it one of the cheapest places to buy digital music. On the other side, glancing at the iTunes top album charts you notice a stark contrast with almost every album over $10. Using some basic math, the average price of an album in the 'top 10' ...
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How Music Streaming Services Could Help Artists, Fans, Labels, Charities and the Music Industry
Source:
HypeBot
Guest post by Benji Rogers (@benjikrogers), Founder & CEO of PledgeMusic. I'm not into streaming. I've never really made a secret of that, and as such it occurred to me that rather than simply bashing it and those who seek to profit from it, I should come up with a solution that would make it work for everybody. And yes, this includes the independent artist as well. The Problem As I See It Streaming services do nothing to motivate anyone ...
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Are Music Fans Craving Exclusivity?
Source:
HypeBot
Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you'll most likely be familiar with Amanda Palmer's impressive KickStarter campaign (she's raised over $750,000 through the crowd-funding platform). At risk of being 'one more to add to the list', I want to focus on what we can learn from her and what the success of her campaign suggests to me about how music fans are showing cravings for exclusivity. Amanda's campaign teaches us the importance of building an army over time, being ...
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Can We Rebuild/Reboot the Jazz Audience?
Source:
The Independent Ear by Willard Jenkins
In the always thoughtful NPR jazz blog A Blog Supreme editor Patrick Jarenwattonan poses the question “IF not jazz education, what will rebuild the jazz audience.” In the piece he cites a music educator who questions the tired old saw that suggests that if we just pour more money into jazz/music/arts education in general we will reap the audience development benefits in the end analysis. The educator in question points to the wide gulf disconnect between the increased education dollars ...
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New Music Stats - Yearning for Audio Quality
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Digital Cowboys By Dave Kusek
Here are some sobering stats that I found on the Smart Money site and a great infographic that sums them up. The most frustrating thing for everyone in the music industry these days is the reality of digital music sales. As you can see in the graphic, digital sales have not replaced the revenue from the good old days of CD sales and the whole pie has pretty much shriveled up. Its kind of like hoping to eat a ripe ...
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Fanculture: Building a Fanbase as a Lifetime Relationship
Source:
HypeBot
FanCulture: The Evolution of Influence is a nearly 30-minute documentary focused on the relationship of brands with their fans. Created by Amplify, an agency specializing in “brand strategy, experiences and amplification," the documentary is somewhat of a meditation on the nature of fans and their interest in brands from a group of marketers and superfans. In some cases the brands are bands and in all cases the discussion is relevant to marketing music. Amplify's FanCulture: The Evolution of Influence won't ...
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'Taps' Turns 150 Years Old
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Taps—the American bugle call that today is played solemnly at memorials and soldiers' funerals—has a fascinating history. In today's Wall Street Journal (or online here), I write about why the 24-note song was conceived in 1862 and how it evolved over the years. In the longer online version at WSJ.com, I also include rock and jazz references. [Pictured above: Jari Villanueva sounds Taps at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery] In essence, this is the story of ...
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Musicians: Stop Building an Email List
Source:
HypeBot
Guest post by Chris Rockett of Music Marketing Classroom. I know the title of this post may seem a little bit weird considering I have been banging on about fan capture for the past guzumteen years, but hear me out... Something was buzzing around my head this morning that I probably stole from somewhere but let's pretend that's it my own original thought ;-). Here goes... You need to stop building an email list...or in other words you need to ...
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