Not EVERYONE who was an emperor of the Roman empire ran around fucking horses and what not.
Marcus Aurelius was the nice old bloke in "Gladiator".
The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
- Marcus Aurelius
The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away.
- Marcus Aurelius
The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.
- Marcus Aurelius
The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer.
- Marcus Aurelius
The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
- Marcus Aurelius
To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.
- Marcus Aurelius
Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.
- Marcus Aurelius
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
- Marcus Aurelius
We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.
- Marcus Aurelius
Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.
- Marcus Aurelius
When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
- Marcus Aurelius
You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
- Marcus Aurelius
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Friday, March 07, 2008
In fact I definately should
I actually got a PR3 just because this blog is like three years old.
I'm gonna have to come up with something.
I'm gonna have to come up with something.
Direction for Compassion fatigue
I don't know what I'm going to do with this blog put I'm not going to be posting any more promotions articles you can check that out at:
http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com
http://kurbpromotion.blogspot.com
http://www.kurb.co.nz
I'm sure I'll come up with something for compassion fatigue. Reinvent it as some kind of platform for something.
Let's wait and see.
http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com
http://kurbpromotion.blogspot.com
http://www.kurb.co.nz
I'm sure I'll come up with something for compassion fatigue. Reinvent it as some kind of platform for something.
Let's wait and see.
State of Compassion Fatigue
I'm just running around all my blogs just having a look at whats going on, tidying up anything and revising what I'm doing.
People get caught up in blogs as a business tool, a networking and social tool, and a search optimizer but they forget the timeless value of just simply using a journal to get your thoughts down and reflect on where you’re at.
Compassion fatigue was my original “other general stuff” blog,First on Blogger back in the day, then I added a blog on wordpress as well, then I started just piling on all the promo articles I was doing and it all got fairly pointless pretty swiftly as these posts are all well covered by my promotions blogs:Well yeah lets just have that blogroll again shall we?
Promo
http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com/http://kurbpromotion.blogspot.com/
http://www.kurb.co.nz/
covering music promotion and digital marketing stuff. These are my professional blogs I update most regularly
My Music
http://romantech.blogspot.com/
http://romantech.wordpress.com/
http://www.myspace.com/romantech
http://www.romantech.co.nz/
This is where you can follow stuff to do with tunes, drum’n bass, beats, gigs in Auckland other stuff.
http://realitycompound.com/
http://realitycompound.wordpress.com/
http://realitycompound.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/realitycompound
This is my crazy multi media project. I don’t really know whats going on with it right now but hey.
Other music
http://theinformedchoice.blogspot.com/
http://informedchoice.wordpress.com/
General mp3 blog. No posts yet.
http://starff.blogspot.com/
http://starf.wordpress.com/
Starf is for general copy I produce, especially “advertorial” type content for clients. No posts yet
Other stuff.
http://shutupandkissme.wordpress.com/
http://squeakybone.blogspot.com/
I also blog about girls because its of interest to me. It’s an interesting topic.
http://piratematty.wordpress.com/
http://piratematty.blogspot.com/
For my pirate stuff. I’m planning on getting back into childrens entertainment.
http://modernjourneys.wordpress.com/
http://modernjorneys.blogspot.com/
for my fiction and general creative writing. No posts yet.
People get caught up in blogs as a business tool, a networking and social tool, and a search optimizer but they forget the timeless value of just simply using a journal to get your thoughts down and reflect on where you’re at.
Compassion fatigue was my original “other general stuff” blog,First on Blogger back in the day, then I added a blog on wordpress as well, then I started just piling on all the promo articles I was doing and it all got fairly pointless pretty swiftly as these posts are all well covered by my promotions blogs:Well yeah lets just have that blogroll again shall we?
Promo
http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com/http://kurbpromotion.blogspot.com/
http://www.kurb.co.nz/
covering music promotion and digital marketing stuff. These are my professional blogs I update most regularly
My Music
http://romantech.blogspot.com/
http://romantech.wordpress.com/
http://www.myspace.com/romantech
http://www.romantech.co.nz/
This is where you can follow stuff to do with tunes, drum’n bass, beats, gigs in Auckland other stuff.
http://realitycompound.com/
http://realitycompound.wordpress.com/
http://realitycompound.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/realitycompound
This is my crazy multi media project. I don’t really know whats going on with it right now but hey.
Other music
http://theinformedchoice.blogspot.com/
http://informedchoice.wordpress.com/
General mp3 blog. No posts yet.
http://starff.blogspot.com/
http://starf.wordpress.com/
Starf is for general copy I produce, especially “advertorial” type content for clients. No posts yet
Other stuff.
http://shutupandkissme.wordpress.com/
http://squeakybone.blogspot.com/
I also blog about girls because its of interest to me. It’s an interesting topic.
http://piratematty.wordpress.com/
http://piratematty.blogspot.com/
For my pirate stuff. I’m planning on getting back into childrens entertainment.
http://modernjourneys.wordpress.com/
http://modernjorneys.blogspot.com/
for my fiction and general creative writing. No posts yet.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Facebook doesn't grab me but I'm grabbing it
FACEBOOK MUSIC IS ON!!!! GO! GO NOW! GET IN THERE.
More coming up on Googles new open social that should fix everything. I mean . . . well . . .
Social networks on the move: Facebook doesn’t grab me but I’m grabbing it
I don’t like Facebook! It doesn’t do much for me! Silly little stupid boxes everywhere and constantly updating streams of information every time someone on my friends list scratches their arse!
People I barely know off my address book are cyber “hugging” me with their crazy apps and widgets (these are little like mini websites embedded within a website page which are massive component for web 2.0 and distributing content) and “challenging me to an arm wrestle” or “buying me a drink”.
It’s bizarre. What does it mean? I came to network!
I came to represent what I have to offer! I came to reap the kudos of electro shocking music promotion techniques in New Zealand into the 21st century! I don’t want to exchange cutesy little trivialities, just read my damn blog feed – and where am I to pimp my big ass backlinks back to my blog and back to the kurb home site, where I’ve got you where I want you? I’ve got to say myspace is much better for marketing and branding. Facebook’s great if you want to mess around with your mates. But I don’t know about breaking new bands.
Oh I know what you’re thinking, I’m just put out because everyone’s leaving myspace and I can’t get them with my spam. Well just you shush up and don’t worry about that. I got all the spam I need – it just takes time to perfect the recipe and this one’s going to take an extra spoonful of my patented innocuous enthusiasm infused with mass produced sincerity too work the touchy feely environment of Facebook. And Bebo is much the same, but with much a much larger teen focus.
On Bebo the concept of a “band page” is more like a myspace group while Facebook you can’t even have a weird sounding name! To me, unless there’s a change in direction, it is even more of a call to develop your secondary content (video, blog, alternative audio content that you can still promote on facebook) as a strong brand for your band’s identity because on facebook . . . your band isn’t allowed an identity!
THAT of course could all be about to change with Facebook music rumours now flying all over the place.
BREAKING NEWS: FACEBOOK MUSIC IS NOW ON!!! GO GO GO!!!
This from Co-Ed magazine:
Here’s how it works:
Major and independent label artists and will register their sub-domain name through Facebook. Like “www.facebook.com/insertba
On this page Facebook users will be allowed to become “fans” of the artist and connect to the media hosted on the “artist page.”
In the first generation of Facebook Music “fans” will be allowed to listen to artist’s music, watch videos, upload pictures, add music to their page, receive tour information and interact with other fans. Online music moguls, be warned.
Future generations will come quickly and allow unprecedented targeted marketing, ad buys and media promotion. Facebook is developing artist specific sales widgets to allow for music sales through the site as well.
Of course there is an important reason I’m bringing up these new socials which relates to a common theme recently – go where the people are, carve your fanbase out of the traffic.
% of web traffic in NZ October 2007-10-25
1 – Google – 7.13%
2 – Trademe – 3.92%
4 – Bebo - 2.06%
8 – Facebook – 1.11%
9 – Youtube – 1.08%
20 – Myspace - .49%
You feeling me? Myspace is done. I hope you didn’t put too much effort like some.
Go where the people are. The kiddies are going to Bebo, and the grown ups are going to Facebook.
And of course, Kurb is offering all the tools to give you the edge. Seeya there.
Cheers for the connection with Kurb.
We’re supporting musicians with successful promotion strategies for a budget. Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and a dedicated online distribution, promotion and videomarketing program.
All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo
More coming up on Googles new open social that should fix everything. I mean . . . well . . .
Social networks on the move: Facebook doesn’t grab me but I’m grabbing it
I don’t like Facebook! It doesn’t do much for me! Silly little stupid boxes everywhere and constantly updating streams of information every time someone on my friends list scratches their arse!
People I barely know off my address book are cyber “hugging” me with their crazy apps and widgets (these are little like mini websites embedded within a website page which are massive component for web 2.0 and distributing content) and “challenging me to an arm wrestle” or “buying me a drink”.
It’s bizarre. What does it mean? I came to network!
I came to represent what I have to offer! I came to reap the kudos of electro shocking music promotion techniques in New Zealand into the 21st century! I don’t want to exchange cutesy little trivialities, just read my damn blog feed – and where am I to pimp my big ass backlinks back to my blog and back to the kurb home site, where I’ve got you where I want you? I’ve got to say myspace is much better for marketing and branding. Facebook’s great if you want to mess around with your mates. But I don’t know about breaking new bands.
Oh I know what you’re thinking, I’m just put out because everyone’s leaving myspace and I can’t get them with my spam. Well just you shush up and don’t worry about that. I got all the spam I need – it just takes time to perfect the recipe and this one’s going to take an extra spoonful of my patented innocuous enthusiasm infused with mass produced sincerity too work the touchy feely environment of Facebook. And Bebo is much the same, but with much a much larger teen focus.
On Bebo the concept of a “band page” is more like a myspace group while Facebook you can’t even have a weird sounding name! To me, unless there’s a change in direction, it is even more of a call to develop your secondary content (video, blog, alternative audio content that you can still promote on facebook) as a strong brand for your band’s identity because on facebook . . . your band isn’t allowed an identity!
THAT of course could all be about to change with Facebook music rumours now flying all over the place.
BREAKING NEWS: FACEBOOK MUSIC IS NOW ON!!! GO GO GO!!!
This from Co-Ed magazine:
Here’s how it works:
Major and independent label artists and will register their sub-domain name through Facebook. Like “www.facebook.com/insertba
On this page Facebook users will be allowed to become “fans” of the artist and connect to the media hosted on the “artist page.”
In the first generation of Facebook Music “fans” will be allowed to listen to artist’s music, watch videos, upload pictures, add music to their page, receive tour information and interact with other fans. Online music moguls, be warned.
Future generations will come quickly and allow unprecedented targeted marketing, ad buys and media promotion. Facebook is developing artist specific sales widgets to allow for music sales through the site as well.
Of course there is an important reason I’m bringing up these new socials which relates to a common theme recently – go where the people are, carve your fanbase out of the traffic.
% of web traffic in NZ October 2007-10-25
1 – Google – 7.13%
2 – Trademe – 3.92%
4 – Bebo - 2.06%
8 – Facebook – 1.11%
9 – Youtube – 1.08%
20 – Myspace - .49%
You feeling me? Myspace is done. I hope you didn’t put too much effort like some.
Go where the people are. The kiddies are going to Bebo, and the grown ups are going to Facebook.
And of course, Kurb is offering all the tools to give you the edge. Seeya there.
Cheers for the connection with Kurb.
We’re supporting musicians with successful promotion strategies for a budget. Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and a dedicated online distribution, promotion and videomarketing program.
All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo
Monday, October 15, 2007
Music videos go online - end of music TV era - MUST READ
Awesome article dropping down on the state of music videos as a promotional tool and source of revenue to the music industry.
- Don't forget now! Kurb is australasia's leader in dedicated techniques to market and distribute your videos online through Youtube and potential revenue generators such as megavideo, revver and over 15 other video sharing sites.
The economic model that MTV was built on has been shredded - big budget one off videos are out - the digital revolution is upon us! You have the power to cut an album and make a video in your own bedroom and distribute it worldwide!
So don't make one song, one video, keep making songs, keep uploading videos, film gigs, film band practices, make vblogs, make funny shorts, talk about your music, blog about your music, build your following, interact, be an entertainer, create meaning, connect with them and connect them to your music!
visit Business weeks gallery of 10 stars who revolutionised the industry and reflect how innovation, community and interaction could change your musical career.
This new article drops after Bob Lefsetz and other cutting edge media critics denounce the MTV awards and Top 40 becoming just a circus sideshow to what's really happening in the music industry today - as witnessed by the brutal cannibalising of one of it's own, Ms. Britney Spears.
This from indystar:
Consumers Bop to Rhythm of Online Music Videos
[who came up with that clanger of a headline for such a decent article? Don't they know that blogging is 50% headline and 50% content???]
Viewership of music videos moved from TV to the Web at such a fast pace that few saw it coming.
Yahoo, the Web's top music destination, streams 240 million music videos monthly. MTV, which defined the young music video medium but now devotes nearly all of its airtime to non-music video fare, attracted 1 million viewers in prime-time viewing in August.
"Online is the single-largest place where consumers are watching music videos," says Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of eLabs, Universal Music Group's digital division. "When we release a video, we still put it on MTV and BET, but in terms of the most impact from audience and revenue, it's online."
Videos used to be given to networks such as MTV to sell CDs. Now, labels charge for video usage. "It was clear that all of our content needed to be paid for," says Thomas Hesse, president of Sony BMG Music Entertainment's global digital business unit. "The times when we could make our content available for free so someone would buy the CD are over. We drive usage to the Internet sites, so we should be paid."
Hesse wouldn't disclose exact figures, but Caraeff says licensing of music videos to sites such as Yahoo, AOL Music and YouTube reaps $20 million yearly for Universal and is growing steadily.
YouTube has been at odds with much of the entertainment industry because some of its users digitize content on their own and put it on the site without compensating the content owner. MTV owner Viacom is suing YouTube owner Google in a copyright infringement case.
But Universal, Sony BMG, Warner Music and EMI have agreements allowing their music videos to be shown on YouTube. In exchange, they share in ad revenue. YouTube attracts the largest video viewing - including movie trailers, amateur productions and tech podcasts - on the Web, with 44.8 million visitors in August.
With 23.4 million visitors in August, Yahoo is the most-visited music site, followed by ArtistDirect, MySpace's music channel, AOL Music and MTV's music channels, including MTV.com, VH1.com and CMT, according to ComScore.
This summer, Yahoo began offering an application to post many of its videos onto pages of the wildly popular social-network site, Facebook. It has since expanded this concept, via a test site, to post videos from Universal and Sony BMG onto personal Web sites or blogs.
Once word gets out and music fans realize that they can take the latest videos by say, Justin Timberlake or Fergie, and post them to their blog, Yahoo Music general manager Ian Rogers believes the viewing of videos online will grow "from 10 to 100 times over the next one to two years," he says. "There's no question people want to do this."
He says Yahoo fought for several years to shut down sites that offered ways to hack into Yahoo Music and post videos. "We know the demand is there."
Demand and convenience caused music fans to migrate to the Web to watch the majority of their music videos, says Rogers.
"If you want to see a music video, why would you turn on MTV and hope to see the video you want, when you could go online and get it immediately?" he says. "The shift happened as music videos became more available online and less available on TV. This was a natural evolution."
MTV, the channel that defined music videos, isn't sitting out the digital revolution. On-air, the TV channel urges viewers to go to MTV.com to see the latest videos and video premieres. "We realize that we live in an on-demand culture," says MTV Executive Vice President Courtney Holt.
Holt says on-demand viewing is great, but it's TV exposure that still makes the difference for emerging bands. He cites groups such as OK Go and Paramore, which had major online exposure but took off after MTV started playing their videos.
MTV recently bought a 50 percent interest in digital music service Rhapsody to expand its online music reach. Both Rhapsody and MTV.com show music videos on their sites, while some sites - most notably Apple's iTunes - offer them for sale. Caraeff says streaming music videos represents the bulk of the action for music videos and that downloads represent a tiny fraction of sales. Hesse says his best-selling download of all time - a recent Timberlake song - clocked in at just 58,000 sales for $1.99 apiece.
"This is a good, growing business," he says. "As more people get video iPods, we'll start to see more people buying music videos."
Label executives are also looking for streams and downloads to mobile phones - currently a niche business - to explode in the coming years as more wireless customers get multimedia phones.
"The average usage time on a phone for entertainment programming is no more than two or three minutes," says Caraeff. "The short-form nature of music videos makes it a perfect fit."
Q&A with Rio Caraeff
USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham spoke with Caraeff about how music videos have shifted from TV distribution to the Web, and turned into a profit center.
Question: Is TV distribution for music videos still important?
Answer: Online is the single largest place where consumers are watching video. When we release a video, we still put it on MTV and BET, but in terms of the most impact from audience and revenue, it's online. We're reaching more people than we've ever reached before with our music, and have turned what was a promotional business into a revenue business, worth $20 million a year for us, and growing.
Q. Where are people viewing the music videos online?
A. YouTube and Yahoo Music are the lion's share, along with MySpace and AOL. In the last quarter, we had 265 million streams of our videos online, and that doesn't even include YouTube, which is just starting to report activity. We have a Universal channel on YouTube, and the last time I looked, we had 180 million streams. YouTube is becoming the largest place for where our videos are played.
Q. Talk about how you make money off videos.
A. We were the first major label to realize that the old ways of doing business with music videos wasn't working anymore. Twenty years of videos as a promo piece wasn't stimulating sales of CDs. We had to turn videos into a premium product that feels free and convince Web sites to pay license fees for usage. Now every time the video is played, we get paid. We also offer them for sale at sites like iTunes, and via mobile phones and Verizon and Sprint. Both are flourishing, but the lion's share of activity is via streaming.
Q. Music videos used to boast of million-dollar budgets and big-name directors. What's the state of music videos today?
A. Clearly, the days of multimillion production budgets for videos has waned, but we've been able to do more with less. The budgets have come down, but the creativity has risen. With the challenge of doing more with a smaller budget, some of the best videos have come in with no budget, using Mac computers, high-def cameras and a small crew.
I even envision a world where music videos are created by the fan, and collaboration that exists in a digital, all-Internet world - the artist creates the song, and fans can go online, and make the videos. We're going to see a lot more creativity. It's no longer just about one big company publishing, it's a two-way communication. This is completely new to our industry and something we embrace.
Cheers for the connection with Kurb.
Supporting musicians with successful strategies on a budget.
Kurb is NZ’s leader in online promotion strategies for artists and creative projects plus we offer the cheapest
CD/DVD reproduction and
cheap posters available.
Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and a dedicated online distribution, promotion and videomarketing program.
All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo
.....................
Kurb Myspace
- Don't forget now! Kurb is australasia's leader in dedicated techniques to market and distribute your videos online through Youtube and potential revenue generators such as megavideo, revver and over 15 other video sharing sites.
The economic model that MTV was built on has been shredded - big budget one off videos are out - the digital revolution is upon us! You have the power to cut an album and make a video in your own bedroom and distribute it worldwide!
So don't make one song, one video, keep making songs, keep uploading videos, film gigs, film band practices, make vblogs, make funny shorts, talk about your music, blog about your music, build your following, interact, be an entertainer, create meaning, connect with them and connect them to your music!
visit Business weeks gallery of 10 stars who revolutionised the industry and reflect how innovation, community and interaction could change your musical career.
This new article drops after Bob Lefsetz and other cutting edge media critics denounce the MTV awards and Top 40 becoming just a circus sideshow to what's really happening in the music industry today - as witnessed by the brutal cannibalising of one of it's own, Ms. Britney Spears.
This from indystar:
Consumers Bop to Rhythm of Online Music Videos
[who came up with that clanger of a headline for such a decent article? Don't they know that blogging is 50% headline and 50% content???]
Viewership of music videos moved from TV to the Web at such a fast pace that few saw it coming.
Yahoo, the Web's top music destination, streams 240 million music videos monthly. MTV, which defined the young music video medium but now devotes nearly all of its airtime to non-music video fare, attracted 1 million viewers in prime-time viewing in August.
"Online is the single-largest place where consumers are watching music videos," says Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of eLabs, Universal Music Group's digital division. "When we release a video, we still put it on MTV and BET, but in terms of the most impact from audience and revenue, it's online."
Videos used to be given to networks such as MTV to sell CDs. Now, labels charge for video usage. "It was clear that all of our content needed to be paid for," says Thomas Hesse, president of Sony BMG Music Entertainment's global digital business unit. "The times when we could make our content available for free so someone would buy the CD are over. We drive usage to the Internet sites, so we should be paid."
Hesse wouldn't disclose exact figures, but Caraeff says licensing of music videos to sites such as Yahoo, AOL Music and YouTube reaps $20 million yearly for Universal and is growing steadily.
YouTube has been at odds with much of the entertainment industry because some of its users digitize content on their own and put it on the site without compensating the content owner. MTV owner Viacom is suing YouTube owner Google in a copyright infringement case.
But Universal, Sony BMG, Warner Music and EMI have agreements allowing their music videos to be shown on YouTube. In exchange, they share in ad revenue. YouTube attracts the largest video viewing - including movie trailers, amateur productions and tech podcasts - on the Web, with 44.8 million visitors in August.
With 23.4 million visitors in August, Yahoo is the most-visited music site, followed by ArtistDirect, MySpace's music channel, AOL Music and MTV's music channels, including MTV.com, VH1.com and CMT, according to ComScore.
This summer, Yahoo began offering an application to post many of its videos onto pages of the wildly popular social-network site, Facebook. It has since expanded this concept, via a test site, to post videos from Universal and Sony BMG onto personal Web sites or blogs.
Once word gets out and music fans realize that they can take the latest videos by say, Justin Timberlake or Fergie, and post them to their blog, Yahoo Music general manager Ian Rogers believes the viewing of videos online will grow "from 10 to 100 times over the next one to two years," he says. "There's no question people want to do this."
He says Yahoo fought for several years to shut down sites that offered ways to hack into Yahoo Music and post videos. "We know the demand is there."
Demand and convenience caused music fans to migrate to the Web to watch the majority of their music videos, says Rogers.
"If you want to see a music video, why would you turn on MTV and hope to see the video you want, when you could go online and get it immediately?" he says. "The shift happened as music videos became more available online and less available on TV. This was a natural evolution."
MTV, the channel that defined music videos, isn't sitting out the digital revolution. On-air, the TV channel urges viewers to go to MTV.com to see the latest videos and video premieres. "We realize that we live in an on-demand culture," says MTV Executive Vice President Courtney Holt.
Holt says on-demand viewing is great, but it's TV exposure that still makes the difference for emerging bands. He cites groups such as OK Go and Paramore, which had major online exposure but took off after MTV started playing their videos.
MTV recently bought a 50 percent interest in digital music service Rhapsody to expand its online music reach. Both Rhapsody and MTV.com show music videos on their sites, while some sites - most notably Apple's iTunes - offer them for sale. Caraeff says streaming music videos represents the bulk of the action for music videos and that downloads represent a tiny fraction of sales. Hesse says his best-selling download of all time - a recent Timberlake song - clocked in at just 58,000 sales for $1.99 apiece.
"This is a good, growing business," he says. "As more people get video iPods, we'll start to see more people buying music videos."
Label executives are also looking for streams and downloads to mobile phones - currently a niche business - to explode in the coming years as more wireless customers get multimedia phones.
"The average usage time on a phone for entertainment programming is no more than two or three minutes," says Caraeff. "The short-form nature of music videos makes it a perfect fit."
Q&A with Rio Caraeff
USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham spoke with Caraeff about how music videos have shifted from TV distribution to the Web, and turned into a profit center.
Question: Is TV distribution for music videos still important?
Answer: Online is the single largest place where consumers are watching video. When we release a video, we still put it on MTV and BET, but in terms of the most impact from audience and revenue, it's online. We're reaching more people than we've ever reached before with our music, and have turned what was a promotional business into a revenue business, worth $20 million a year for us, and growing.
Q. Where are people viewing the music videos online?
A. YouTube and Yahoo Music are the lion's share, along with MySpace and AOL. In the last quarter, we had 265 million streams of our videos online, and that doesn't even include YouTube, which is just starting to report activity. We have a Universal channel on YouTube, and the last time I looked, we had 180 million streams. YouTube is becoming the largest place for where our videos are played.
Q. Talk about how you make money off videos.
A. We were the first major label to realize that the old ways of doing business with music videos wasn't working anymore. Twenty years of videos as a promo piece wasn't stimulating sales of CDs. We had to turn videos into a premium product that feels free and convince Web sites to pay license fees for usage. Now every time the video is played, we get paid. We also offer them for sale at sites like iTunes, and via mobile phones and Verizon and Sprint. Both are flourishing, but the lion's share of activity is via streaming.
Q. Music videos used to boast of million-dollar budgets and big-name directors. What's the state of music videos today?
A. Clearly, the days of multimillion production budgets for videos has waned, but we've been able to do more with less. The budgets have come down, but the creativity has risen. With the challenge of doing more with a smaller budget, some of the best videos have come in with no budget, using Mac computers, high-def cameras and a small crew.
I even envision a world where music videos are created by the fan, and collaboration that exists in a digital, all-Internet world - the artist creates the song, and fans can go online, and make the videos. We're going to see a lot more creativity. It's no longer just about one big company publishing, it's a two-way communication. This is completely new to our industry and something we embrace.
Cheers for the connection with Kurb.
Supporting musicians with successful strategies on a budget.
Kurb is NZ’s leader in online promotion strategies for artists and creative projects plus we offer the cheapest
CD/DVD reproduction and
cheap posters available.
Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and a dedicated online distribution, promotion and videomarketing program.
All the best with your music, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo
.....................
Kurb Myspace
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Marketing 2.0 for Web 2.0 - how your business can benefit
Marketing 2.0 for Web 2.0 – how can your business benefit?
The Internet is the most powerful and far reaching marketing tool available to small businesses and increasingly word of mouth is now word of blog, email or IM and thats what web 2.0 is - when we stop hearing the messages sent by those who can afford to send them and we just learn from the messages we share from the access the internet now provides to one another.
According to Tim O’Reilly who coined the phrase “Web 2.0” in 2004:
"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as a platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."
Web 2.0 presents opportunities to use the internet in new and interactive ways to deliver an unprecedented amount of information and choice to unprecedented audience numbers.
Unlike declining traditional media the internet offers users control over access and it gives consumers choice. Web 2.0 represents a major blow for traditional advertising methods because Web 2.0 is about the online experience the user has customised – and no one wants ads! Marketing is to survive only as part of a media experience that is embraced, not an unwelcome interruption to be filtered out.
Social Networking:
Social networking – the explosion of sites like Myspace, Bebo, and Facebook – has transformed the online social environment into a place where branding happens naturally. Myspace, the big daddy of social networking sites, created an online environment where brands as well as bands, characters and ideas could be accounted for with online identities.
You only have to go to the stats to see the wild popularity of these sites in New Zealand and around the world. Even I choked when the Herald quoted 800,000 kiwis use http://www.bebo.com/. It comes behind only Google and Trademe for volume of usage in NZ.
By creating a presence for your business on social networks you are able to present content and interact with other users participating in a massive global network either as an individual representing or creating awareness (this will be required on facebook and bebo which are not so friendly to commercial brands), a brand profile of your business, or even a key product! Or all three! There’s no rule against having multiple accounts.
SEO and web 2.0 - when content "goes viral"
It is still the truth that most of your website traffic will come from search engines and in New Zealand that is overwhelmingly accounted for by the Google search engine. To put what is often reported to be a complex and competitive study into simple terms, search engine optimisation (SEO) is based around keywords matched to your content, and the ranking of its relevancy in the search by the amount of links to it and the quality of those links.
Search engines can be influenced in two ways – by both the quality and quantity of written content you make available and the quantity and quality of backlinks created to your site from other sites. Distributing and sharing as much content furnished with links back to your site as you can make available is the most effective way to dramatically increase your search rank, send your brand around the world and bring traffic to your website.
All I will say is that websites that follow the web 2.0 format, which are some of the highest ranked in the world – myspace, youtube, blogger – the last two of which of course are owned by google, are ranked in a different way by google, and using these sites in different ways to make people aware and provide links to your website can have dramatic results.
But when your marketing message has assumed the appearance of a media experience – whether a blog, a podcast or a short video demonstration - that you have made available through your various online social network to share and enjoy as “infotainment” it’s no longer advertising! And when people are motivated to share the information you have provided they are not only building your search ranking but sharing your marketing message that your personal brand represents knowledge and experience of the products and services you provide.
Video Marketing
Video marketing is the hottest thing in internet promotion right now and youtube is popular with an older demographic where social networking hasn’t spread. Unlike everything else I’ve talked about – videos in themselves will not increase your search rank on google! But the message out there is if you can do it, prove it - film it! People want to see for themselves and now you can show them!
Video content provides important information, breaking down the anonymity that effects a potential customer or clients decision to purchase through an online connection based on trust. Video is also the most potentially effective opportunity to offer deeper understanding through presentation and demonstration.
many more people will connect with your marketing messages as a visual image and when it comes to media – the types of small businesses that could never dream of affording to market by broadcasting video can now provide it cheaply in a way that makes it accessible to targeted users long after it is first made available.
One of the most successful viral campaigns focused on a series of short clips experimenting with blending different unusual objects in a brand presentation for a blender called "will it blend?"– one of these quirky clips featuring an iphone received over 3 million views on youtube.
XML, RSS, P2P, Aggregation
Web 2.0 continues to present newer and better solutions for distributing and accessing information but unlike social networking and video marketing these concepts of syndicating content feeds and providing ever more options for choice and access are ideas which time is yet to come.
But it remains that web 2.0 marketing is about “pull” and not “push”. Using social networking, and sharing blogs and videos, generating content that appeals to users whether it be through information, experience, demonstration, experiments or simply just the quirky, entertaining or humourous is a chance to build awareness of your business while connecting with people in a way they will appreciate and remember.
People are far more likely to "go with what they know" so establishing social profiles and participating in online communities, providing content that people will use and value, in a way that supports higher ranking in searches for your site is the best way for generating leads and contacts in the new online environment.
Cheers for the connection with Kurb. Supporting musicians with successful strategies on a budget. Kurb in NZ’s leader in online promotion strategies for artists and creative projects plus we offer the cheapest CD/DVD reproduction and cheap posters available.
Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, o All the best with your music, from Kurb For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo ..................... Kurb Myspace
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Overview of online promotion strategies
how digital promotion and social marketing works
more indie self promotion articles hub
Our artist packages
Real cheap CD/DVD reproduction in NZ
postering – placement in Auckland / Free delivery in NZ
Okay people! This for all those on the artist packages and those maybe
interested in what the shape of a comprehensive online campaign looks
like.
Sorry if you haven't heard from me for awhile – on the road for a
month on tour while trying to keep the business going turned out to be
a real over commitment on my part!
Of course I learnt plenty of lessons on the nuts and bolts of putting
on shows around New Zealand so feel free to bend my ear if you're
headed in that direction.
There was a lot of housework to do once I got back but now I'm on top
of that it's back to all the good stuff we were bringing in.
What I've got for you today is a quick overview of everything we're
doing online. So this has got nothing to do with Web design, CD/DVD
Duplication and posters all of which is still going also with decent
discounts for those who are signed on.
However I am strictly limiting the number of acts I am working with
now - so we're starting at $NZ200 p/month but this is way more than
just myspace now. As before you're under no obligation month to month
BUT if things get too crazy with the amount of business we're doing
here you will have to wait for a spot!
My suggestion is this kind of promotion may not turn you into a global
internet superstar overnight but it puts you in the best position to
take advantage of the way the internet is currently completely
changing the music industry – this is the biggest revolution in music
since the phonograph!!!
My approach is dealing with you in a way to address which of these
services are going to be of most benefit to you according to what you
can afford.
But the basics are that I need strong and regular content
(music/video/blog) provided from you in order to make the distribution
and access that I provide to this content worthwhile.
attached is two HOT diagrams one is on online music listening trends
and the other is on future music revenue trends.
Breakdown:
Online distribution - full support
Search – high google rankings, google ad campaign
Social – ongoing automated targeted promotion on social sites, viral
triggers through access
Content (video etc.) – Automated distribution of video and other
content through content providers; automated promotion on youtube
Viral + Web 2.0 strategies – utilizing P2P sharing, Aggregation and RSS feeds
Content required
Online distro + players with storefronts
I can't set it up for you – that's too complicated when we want all
the money going straight to the artists, but I can pretty much walk
you through the whole process and make recommendations based on my
experience. In areas where income is derived from the sale of music my
aim is to keep clients up to date with the latest opportunities.
Search manipulation + advertising
Google search is obviously the main way New Zealanders find things,
it's the most frequently used site here. It is also the internal
search engine powered within myspace.
By generating backlinks from automated distribution of content, I've
learned to manipulate Google pretty successfully for Kurb, but results
come about slowly over the weeks and will vary depending on the nature
and volume of the content available (e.g. acts with a distinct name or
spelling have a distinct advantage on google!)
In addition, an ad campaign on Google on top of "organic search" is
inexpensive and easy to manage – giving the act a higher profile
through googles immense network while helping to underpin traffic
generated from key relevant phrases – for example:
"New Zeland Hip Hop" (back 2 basics was the first nz site a #4)
"Auckland Hardcore" etc. (the myspace of a band "Cell" from west
Auckland came up #1)
The result is obviously we want the name of the act to come up as
close as possible to first when its typed into google. We want the
myspace coming up and we want results from youtube coming up.
Automated social campaigns
Digital promotion on myspace you know about – regularly maintain
searching and requesting of targeted audiences of between 50-100 per
day, then following up with specific campaigns consisting of targeted
messages and comments related to content (new single, new video, tour
announcement, etc.) and offering direct links to downloads, videos,
blogs, backlinks to relevant sites and all relevant content.
The same applies to other social sites to varying extents, I am still
experimenting with this but we already know that Bebo is tremendously
popular with New Zealand teenagers while Facebook has started to
siphon off older and more sophisticated myspace users in there 20's.
A global campaign would involve applying this across many different
accounts with specific geographic or demographic targets assigned to
each account. A New Zealand focused campaign doesn't really require
more than one account.
In regards to security, I feel I need to create separate social
account that is managed separately from the original account
established by the act mainly because if I'm going to get the best
results I don't want to be worried about the consequences of taking
responsibility for a bands account being compromised – though this has
never happened - but just as important I need to know exactly whats
going on with that account, back up data, make specific content
available etc. – especially where key differences in the nature of
specific social sites in relation to artists (myspace/bebo/facebook)
may call for a different approach - without the artists getting
tetchy that im messing around with their personal profiles. This way
of course the artists also keep their privacy.
There needs to be some delineation between the bands own accounts
where the band can be contacted directly and the nature of the
"satellite" account as a promotional entity. obviously the term
"street team" is undesirable but there'll be something related to the
content that will be appropriate.
Again content is key. I can request, I can comment, but the audience
have got to engage with the content beyond another spam campaign
albeit a local one. Obviously providing access to the tools that allow
users to initiate the viral process (specifically promoting access to
the relevant codes that allow users to promote/share/embed content)
should be promoted, but the next step is encouraging/prompting users
to interact with the content – for example: users creating their own
videos applying audio content, making content freely available for
myspace bedroom producers to remix etc.
And once promotion has taken on a life of it's own separate from the
actions of you or me that's when it's "gone viral".
Also a thorough campaign will make use of all other aspects of social
sites available – forums, groups, bulletins etc. – to present content
and make it available for viral proliferation by again making relevant
codes easily accessible.
Youtube . . . + content sites for Video/Blogs/Free Mp3's
Again this applies the concept of taking artist generated content
(video/mp3/copy) and where possible automating distribution through as
many user channels and sites as is reasonable to create blanket
accessibility – Youtube obviously that dominates video content as
well as key social sites that offer content (Myspace, Bebo, Facebook),
key blog sites (Blogger, Wordpress, Livejournal), key mp3 sites
(mp3.com, soundclick, download.com) , reinforcing the presence of such
content online with appropriate and intelligent tagging (tags enable
searches within content providing sites), furnishing with other
content and backlinks to all relevant sites where possible.
Digital promotion allows for this kind of blanket distribution, while
the digital promotion techniques used on social sites (requesting
adds, messaging, commenting etc.) can also be applied on Youtube. The
time consuming part of this job is really in establishing the sites
and managing all the account information.
But the effect is that you're building up a massive self reinforcing
network. Some blogs, some videos may never even be seen, but they
still reinforce the acts presence by the benefit of the links, tags,
and key content phrases.
Viral tie ins
Video/Blog/Mp3 sites present content, social sites are a point of
first contact where promotion can be conducted in order to encourage
users to adopt, interact with and redistribute content and the acts
website is ultimately where we want users to end up – signing up for
mailing lists, seeking in depth information, interacting with primary
content and sharing secondary content with other users in a community
(48may nailed this one).
Players: players allow music to be provided to be presented for
listening (and digital downloads of content in multiple formats
retailed) in a full range of key online environments so are a key
viral tool. Right now many free services exist its just a matter of
utilizing the most useful amongst a range of competitors.
Spam fatigue: it's fundamental when automating promotion to conduct
this in a way that has some authenticity above your garden variety
spam campaign - creating relevance through whatever targeting is
available and creating interest by offering something of value – not
just another excuse to get in peoples faces.
Obviously the big push in in presence - awareness and accessibility,
not the hard sell to move units. But the key is creating as much ease
of access for those who just want to see the video or hear the song
and share it with their friends online to those who do want to
purchase downloads, merchandise, etc. or order cds.
P2P/RSS/Aggregation
P2P (Limewire, Bittorrent, Soulseek etc.) promotion is a forward
looking technique engaging viral users in their own environment, as
P2P is obviously the way most mp3 and increasingly video content is
distributed, albeit illegally. By making mp3 and video content
available 24 hours through all the most appropriate P2P networks,
you're releasing that content "into the wild" so to speak.
Much like creating searchability through the tagging of content, this
content can be duplicated and labelled in different ways to bring in a
broader range of search hits.
Aggregation services such as Last.fm are getting more popular as a
means to discover new music by recommending users music based on the
choices of other users who listen to the same music. As they expand on
the nature of the different music services they provide they're
crossing into providing content also, but creating access through
aggregration is the key.
Whereas RSS technology is still slowly catching on, when it reaches
critical mass, there will be an opportunity to respond by creating
access there.
Content required:
Obviously in terms of audio, video and written copy I work with
whatever I get, but images will be required as buttons and banners for
digital promotion and given the broad scale of promoting video and
audio content and the way that once it "goes viral" theres vey little
control over where it goes I think theres a need to include basic
information within the content – who the act is, their website, etc.
Alright! If you read all that you probably deserve a biscuit!
Don't be afraid to drop me a line!
Cheers all, Matt @ Kurb
more indie self promotion articles hub
Our artist packages
Real cheap CD/DVD reproduction in NZ
postering – placement in Auckland / Free delivery in NZ
Okay people! This for all those on the artist packages and those maybe
interested in what the shape of a comprehensive online campaign looks
like.
Sorry if you haven't heard from me for awhile – on the road for a
month on tour while trying to keep the business going turned out to be
a real over commitment on my part!
Of course I learnt plenty of lessons on the nuts and bolts of putting
on shows around New Zealand so feel free to bend my ear if you're
headed in that direction.
There was a lot of housework to do once I got back but now I'm on top
of that it's back to all the good stuff we were bringing in.
What I've got for you today is a quick overview of everything we're
doing online. So this has got nothing to do with Web design, CD/DVD
Duplication and posters all of which is still going also with decent
discounts for those who are signed on.
However I am strictly limiting the number of acts I am working with
now - so we're starting at $NZ200 p/month but this is way more than
just myspace now. As before you're under no obligation month to month
BUT if things get too crazy with the amount of business we're doing
here you will have to wait for a spot!
My suggestion is this kind of promotion may not turn you into a global
internet superstar overnight but it puts you in the best position to
take advantage of the way the internet is currently completely
changing the music industry – this is the biggest revolution in music
since the phonograph!!!
My approach is dealing with you in a way to address which of these
services are going to be of most benefit to you according to what you
can afford.
But the basics are that I need strong and regular content
(music/video/blog) provided from you in order to make the distribution
and access that I provide to this content worthwhile.
attached is two HOT diagrams one is on online music listening trends
and the other is on future music revenue trends.
Breakdown:
Online distribution - full support
Search – high google rankings, google ad campaign
Social – ongoing automated targeted promotion on social sites, viral
triggers through access
Content (video etc.) – Automated distribution of video and other
content through content providers; automated promotion on youtube
Viral + Web 2.0 strategies – utilizing P2P sharing, Aggregation and RSS feeds
Content required
Online distro + players with storefronts
I can't set it up for you – that's too complicated when we want all
the money going straight to the artists, but I can pretty much walk
you through the whole process and make recommendations based on my
experience. In areas where income is derived from the sale of music my
aim is to keep clients up to date with the latest opportunities.
Search manipulation + advertising
Google search is obviously the main way New Zealanders find things,
it's the most frequently used site here. It is also the internal
search engine powered within myspace.
By generating backlinks from automated distribution of content, I've
learned to manipulate Google pretty successfully for Kurb, but results
come about slowly over the weeks and will vary depending on the nature
and volume of the content available (e.g. acts with a distinct name or
spelling have a distinct advantage on google!)
In addition, an ad campaign on Google on top of "organic search" is
inexpensive and easy to manage – giving the act a higher profile
through googles immense network while helping to underpin traffic
generated from key relevant phrases – for example:
"New Zeland Hip Hop" (back 2 basics was the first nz site a #4)
"Auckland Hardcore" etc. (the myspace of a band "Cell" from west
Auckland came up #1)
The result is obviously we want the name of the act to come up as
close as possible to first when its typed into google. We want the
myspace coming up and we want results from youtube coming up.
Automated social campaigns
Digital promotion on myspace you know about – regularly maintain
searching and requesting of targeted audiences of between 50-100 per
day, then following up with specific campaigns consisting of targeted
messages and comments related to content (new single, new video, tour
announcement, etc.) and offering direct links to downloads, videos,
blogs, backlinks to relevant sites and all relevant content.
The same applies to other social sites to varying extents, I am still
experimenting with this but we already know that Bebo is tremendously
popular with New Zealand teenagers while Facebook has started to
siphon off older and more sophisticated myspace users in there 20's.
A global campaign would involve applying this across many different
accounts with specific geographic or demographic targets assigned to
each account. A New Zealand focused campaign doesn't really require
more than one account.
In regards to security, I feel I need to create separate social
account that is managed separately from the original account
established by the act mainly because if I'm going to get the best
results I don't want to be worried about the consequences of taking
responsibility for a bands account being compromised – though this has
never happened - but just as important I need to know exactly whats
going on with that account, back up data, make specific content
available etc. – especially where key differences in the nature of
specific social sites in relation to artists (myspace/bebo/facebook)
may call for a different approach - without the artists getting
tetchy that im messing around with their personal profiles. This way
of course the artists also keep their privacy.
There needs to be some delineation between the bands own accounts
where the band can be contacted directly and the nature of the
"satellite" account as a promotional entity. obviously the term
"street team" is undesirable but there'll be something related to the
content that will be appropriate.
Again content is key. I can request, I can comment, but the audience
have got to engage with the content beyond another spam campaign
albeit a local one. Obviously providing access to the tools that allow
users to initiate the viral process (specifically promoting access to
the relevant codes that allow users to promote/share/embed content)
should be promoted, but the next step is encouraging/prompting users
to interact with the content – for example: users creating their own
videos applying audio content, making content freely available for
myspace bedroom producers to remix etc.
And once promotion has taken on a life of it's own separate from the
actions of you or me that's when it's "gone viral".
Also a thorough campaign will make use of all other aspects of social
sites available – forums, groups, bulletins etc. – to present content
and make it available for viral proliferation by again making relevant
codes easily accessible.
Youtube . . . + content sites for Video/Blogs/Free Mp3's
Again this applies the concept of taking artist generated content
(video/mp3/copy) and where possible automating distribution through as
many user channels and sites as is reasonable to create blanket
accessibility – Youtube obviously that dominates video content as
well as key social sites that offer content (Myspace, Bebo, Facebook),
key blog sites (Blogger, Wordpress, Livejournal), key mp3 sites
(mp3.com, soundclick, download.com) , reinforcing the presence of such
content online with appropriate and intelligent tagging (tags enable
searches within content providing sites), furnishing with other
content and backlinks to all relevant sites where possible.
Digital promotion allows for this kind of blanket distribution, while
the digital promotion techniques used on social sites (requesting
adds, messaging, commenting etc.) can also be applied on Youtube. The
time consuming part of this job is really in establishing the sites
and managing all the account information.
But the effect is that you're building up a massive self reinforcing
network. Some blogs, some videos may never even be seen, but they
still reinforce the acts presence by the benefit of the links, tags,
and key content phrases.
Viral tie ins
Video/Blog/Mp3 sites present content, social sites are a point of
first contact where promotion can be conducted in order to encourage
users to adopt, interact with and redistribute content and the acts
website is ultimately where we want users to end up – signing up for
mailing lists, seeking in depth information, interacting with primary
content and sharing secondary content with other users in a community
(48may nailed this one).
Players: players allow music to be provided to be presented for
listening (and digital downloads of content in multiple formats
retailed) in a full range of key online environments so are a key
viral tool. Right now many free services exist its just a matter of
utilizing the most useful amongst a range of competitors.
Spam fatigue: it's fundamental when automating promotion to conduct
this in a way that has some authenticity above your garden variety
spam campaign - creating relevance through whatever targeting is
available and creating interest by offering something of value – not
just another excuse to get in peoples faces.
Obviously the big push in in presence - awareness and accessibility,
not the hard sell to move units. But the key is creating as much ease
of access for those who just want to see the video or hear the song
and share it with their friends online to those who do want to
purchase downloads, merchandise, etc. or order cds.
P2P/RSS/Aggregation
P2P (Limewire, Bittorrent, Soulseek etc.) promotion is a forward
looking technique engaging viral users in their own environment, as
P2P is obviously the way most mp3 and increasingly video content is
distributed, albeit illegally. By making mp3 and video content
available 24 hours through all the most appropriate P2P networks,
you're releasing that content "into the wild" so to speak.
Much like creating searchability through the tagging of content, this
content can be duplicated and labelled in different ways to bring in a
broader range of search hits.
Aggregation services such as Last.fm are getting more popular as a
means to discover new music by recommending users music based on the
choices of other users who listen to the same music. As they expand on
the nature of the different music services they provide they're
crossing into providing content also, but creating access through
aggregration is the key.
Whereas RSS technology is still slowly catching on, when it reaches
critical mass, there will be an opportunity to respond by creating
access there.
Content required:
Obviously in terms of audio, video and written copy I work with
whatever I get, but images will be required as buttons and banners for
digital promotion and given the broad scale of promoting video and
audio content and the way that once it "goes viral" theres vey little
control over where it goes I think theres a need to include basic
information within the content – who the act is, their website, etc.
Alright! If you read all that you probably deserve a biscuit!
Don't be afraid to drop me a line!
Cheers all, Matt @ Kurb
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Kurb is back
Alright . . . Kurb is BACK!!!
more indie self promotion articles hub
Artist promotions management packages
I've actually been back over a week but I quickly realised I wasn't going to just slot back into where my head was at before I attempted to do a 14 date tour while keeping kurb steaming along . . . as if that was ever gonna happen! More on that later.
Now by the end of july I had started to get a pretty good grasp on where things were headed from the crossroads of music and technology – and how what kurb does fits into that - the big question was the same one most clued up people are asking . . . we understand the direction new technology is taking the music industry, we're just not sure how to make money off it. Yet.
Many of the experts I follow almost religiously (Andrew Dubber, Gerd Leonhard, Bob Lefsetz) Seem to advocate an almost blind faith in a theoretical premise that if you're creating value (i.e free downloads) for users through content (Your songs etc.) and you can build recognition for your brand, you're gonna make some money one way or the other.
One fascinating thing Bob keeps banging on about is how little money there really is left in Top 40 music - his inference is that the people who listen to that music don't really care about it. Most of the biggest earning acts in the US are country acts I've barely ever heard of.
I keep referring back to local D'n B act Concord Dawn, who have accepted that filesharing is the reason they get good money playing to full houses in obscure east European cities they've barely heard of. Those who are the first to embrace the new technology will be the first to benefit.
Anyway, I didn't want to come back on it after my trip without something solid for people to get stuck into. Here's Gerd Leonhards latest slide on revenue streams.
Look at that. I think I'll have to take the time to analyse this in more detail at a later date.
For those looking at Kurbs agency fees of $200-300 p/month obviously it would be wonderful for us to guarantee a return on your investment, but like so many other comparable business models, building an enterprise in the music industry is about investing in your personal brand and creating value in it before seeing a return. Kurb is a business modelling itself to allow artists to take advantage of any proven opportunity the internet is creating an income from the content and brand provided by an artist.
So its situation Normal back at Kurb – you got New Zealand cheapest rates on short cd, dvd and poster runs – we're not talking about high end production standards we're talking about facilitating a multi level promotions strategy on a budget. We don't charge set up fees for graphics plus free delivery in New Zealand on all posters and CD's means you save on heaps of hidden costs on top of the saving you've already made.
So then it's about tackling the whole online situation because however you choose to see it, the internet is continuing to expand its ever growing influence on the music industry. This certainly doesn't mean we should turn our backs completely on traditional means, but in a country like New Zealand (where musicians are really feeling the pinch in a tiny market) you've got to be enthusiastic about how many more opportunities present themselves on a global level. I know this is pretty basic stuff but I'm just settling back in and all.
Though Kurb's key online strategies for artists can be divided into two distinct areas – Social (Myspace, Bebo, Facebook etc.) and Video (Youtube etc.) it's grounded in a concept that the artist is creating content (music, video, blogs, etc.) and we support the artist by mass distributing this content using all the "exclusive insider knowledge" (oooh! aaahhh!) I've built up - building and feeding a massive electronic information distribution network of digital pathways (profile pages, mp3 streaming, mini sites, blogs - lots of blogs) that reinforce themselves - and of course our particular skills and techniques for drawing on the massive audiences and opportunities for exposure and key network contacts created by a number of prominent internet communities – starting with this one.
Again, a future topic will definitely touch more how social networking is evolving – and more technical specifics of what I do for artists in networking and video promotion and why you've really got to approach your whole online marketing in terms of developing and maintaining a content "eco system" for your fans – it's not enough to have a free download on myspace or a cool video on youtube it will never be that simple anymore no matter what the press say.
I'm still watching the competition but still am not aware of anyone else doing everything I'm doing. When I'm talking about the techniques I use with Kurb I'm not talking about getting in amongst the throng, I'm talking about cutting through it and standing out - and using as many electronic loopholes and shortcuts as I'm aware of to get there.
I'm really excited about working with more artists and entrepreneurs who are serious about realising a vision and creating attention for those who are serious about delivering something people will treasure and gives them meaning. It's a really exciting time because what the internet has done is created an environment where quality and substance really does shine out amongst all the crap and for the first time in a while if you haven't got something to offer that's original and authentic you simply wont last.
I'm just getting back into it so drop me a line at kurbpromo@gmail.com
cheers, Matt
Kurb - a promotions company for artists serious about using the most effective online techniques to market their music. Come by our page and read our blogs on how the music industry is fundamentally changing now or check out:
how digital promotion and social marketing works
more indie self promotion articles hub
Our artist packages
Cheers and all the best with your music from Kurb
more indie self promotion articles hub
Artist promotions management packages
I've actually been back over a week but I quickly realised I wasn't going to just slot back into where my head was at before I attempted to do a 14 date tour while keeping kurb steaming along . . . as if that was ever gonna happen! More on that later.
Now by the end of july I had started to get a pretty good grasp on where things were headed from the crossroads of music and technology – and how what kurb does fits into that - the big question was the same one most clued up people are asking . . . we understand the direction new technology is taking the music industry, we're just not sure how to make money off it. Yet.
Many of the experts I follow almost religiously (Andrew Dubber, Gerd Leonhard, Bob Lefsetz) Seem to advocate an almost blind faith in a theoretical premise that if you're creating value (i.e free downloads) for users through content (Your songs etc.) and you can build recognition for your brand, you're gonna make some money one way or the other.
One fascinating thing Bob keeps banging on about is how little money there really is left in Top 40 music - his inference is that the people who listen to that music don't really care about it. Most of the biggest earning acts in the US are country acts I've barely ever heard of.
I keep referring back to local D'n B act Concord Dawn, who have accepted that filesharing is the reason they get good money playing to full houses in obscure east European cities they've barely heard of. Those who are the first to embrace the new technology will be the first to benefit.
Anyway, I didn't want to come back on it after my trip without something solid for people to get stuck into. Here's Gerd Leonhards latest slide on revenue streams.
Look at that. I think I'll have to take the time to analyse this in more detail at a later date.
For those looking at Kurbs agency fees of $200-300 p/month obviously it would be wonderful for us to guarantee a return on your investment, but like so many other comparable business models, building an enterprise in the music industry is about investing in your personal brand and creating value in it before seeing a return. Kurb is a business modelling itself to allow artists to take advantage of any proven opportunity the internet is creating an income from the content and brand provided by an artist.
So its situation Normal back at Kurb – you got New Zealand cheapest rates on short cd, dvd and poster runs – we're not talking about high end production standards we're talking about facilitating a multi level promotions strategy on a budget. We don't charge set up fees for graphics plus free delivery in New Zealand on all posters and CD's means you save on heaps of hidden costs on top of the saving you've already made.
So then it's about tackling the whole online situation because however you choose to see it, the internet is continuing to expand its ever growing influence on the music industry. This certainly doesn't mean we should turn our backs completely on traditional means, but in a country like New Zealand (where musicians are really feeling the pinch in a tiny market) you've got to be enthusiastic about how many more opportunities present themselves on a global level. I know this is pretty basic stuff but I'm just settling back in and all.
Though Kurb's key online strategies for artists can be divided into two distinct areas – Social (Myspace, Bebo, Facebook etc.) and Video (Youtube etc.) it's grounded in a concept that the artist is creating content (music, video, blogs, etc.) and we support the artist by mass distributing this content using all the "exclusive insider knowledge" (oooh! aaahhh!) I've built up - building and feeding a massive electronic information distribution network of digital pathways (profile pages, mp3 streaming, mini sites, blogs - lots of blogs) that reinforce themselves - and of course our particular skills and techniques for drawing on the massive audiences and opportunities for exposure and key network contacts created by a number of prominent internet communities – starting with this one.
Again, a future topic will definitely touch more how social networking is evolving – and more technical specifics of what I do for artists in networking and video promotion and why you've really got to approach your whole online marketing in terms of developing and maintaining a content "eco system" for your fans – it's not enough to have a free download on myspace or a cool video on youtube it will never be that simple anymore no matter what the press say.
I'm still watching the competition but still am not aware of anyone else doing everything I'm doing. When I'm talking about the techniques I use with Kurb I'm not talking about getting in amongst the throng, I'm talking about cutting through it and standing out - and using as many electronic loopholes and shortcuts as I'm aware of to get there.
I'm really excited about working with more artists and entrepreneurs who are serious about realising a vision and creating attention for those who are serious about delivering something people will treasure and gives them meaning. It's a really exciting time because what the internet has done is created an environment where quality and substance really does shine out amongst all the crap and for the first time in a while if you haven't got something to offer that's original and authentic you simply wont last.
I'm just getting back into it so drop me a line at kurbpromo@gmail.com
cheers, Matt
Kurb - a promotions company for artists serious about using the most effective online techniques to market their music. Come by our page and read our blogs on how the music industry is fundamentally changing now or check out:
how digital promotion and social marketing works
more indie self promotion articles hub
Our artist packages
Cheers and all the best with your music from Kurb
Monday, June 25, 2007
Viral video marketing and the dons of indie music self promotion
Yeah just before you have a peek - you really must recognise the media power broadband is delivering into the hands of every day artists.
I've been researching into publicity (ie how to get artists radio play) and a lot of pundits are just saying forget it. Get your myspace (social networking) down, get your youtube (viral video marketing) down forget about radioplay and paying grands to publicists.
Sure, the digital environment is slowly destroying the retail value of music (please - don't infer this is something I'm pessimistic about - 90% of sweet FA is still a lot better than a record deal where you end up having to pay them back because your album "only" sells a few thousand units!) but now it is making video making and sharing commonplace and putting the power to use video marketing in the hands of every indie artists and small entrepreneur.
Don't worry - my kurb presentation videos are coming soon, we're still building a shooting studio in our shed!
I'm just trying to throw up a blog here, but basically the uses to which video can be used to promote and advertise you, your music, who you are, and what your music really represents - and why people should make a connection with it - the newest and most powerful way of getting out there.
Hopefully you would have seen local Emo band False Start's album launch video in my blogs showing how simple yet powerful interactivity can be in marketing music and entertainment.
A video you upload and link to/share/embed (through a blog - like this, or in a bulletin, comment, message etc.) doesn't have to be a "music video" or a live clip or even an interview . . . it could be you talking, jamming, telling a story, baking a cake - a really effective technique is matching your music to some entertaining footage - a crazy cartoon or maybe some politicized news footage - and sharing that, so people have gotta ask . . . hey . . . I like that tune in the background! This is what happens when something goes "Viral". This is what web 2.0 is all about. user driven content created by users and promoted by other users. Not big money labels spending multi millions so you can't escape from Justin Timberlake and Beyonce.
All this of course is just the start. Once you add Kurb's revolutionary next level online promtions packages, we put the marketing and sharing of your videos into overdrive. Videos or "mobisodes" or "Vblogs" are not only powerful direct marketing and branding exercises but - just like blogs - create additional search traffic - thats why optimizing your keywords, tags and most importantly all linked out with all your relevant links (your homesite, your itunes, your your myspace, your youtube, your bebo - you do have a bebo don't you? in NZ Bebo isn't just for kids anymore!) is SO important.
But not just on Youtube, Google, Myspace etc. - At Kurb we're using over 20 sites to market videos including www... which not only has the highest resolution videos but is also leading the way with paid content for all submissions. Paid content is the go when the big boys are jumping up and down about copyright. And if that means US20c per view and you've got your video on 20 sites being watched as little as 10 times a day each thats still US$40 a day! Once you add Kurbs online promotion techniques on top of that well . . . add another zero!
Anyway - back to those videos.
First off we got Derek from CDbaby stating almost verbatim from the article I put out yesterday. But Derek's like a god to the indie music scene so that's okay.
Finally, if you've got a lot of time on your hands, discover how the internet and definitions of "shelf space" have given dominance to the economic theory of the "Long Tail" - in short the death of "hits" and "blockbusters" and the growth of niches and selectivity is good news for indie artists everywhere. What happens as the 75% ($30b) share of the market controlled by the majors crumbles and punters look to distribute that spend elsewhere?
Also just a reminder of how powerful and exciting embedding stuff is - you can buy cuts from my last album right here!!! I'm not saying you should want to but accesibility is everything! Thats what kurb is about - digital accesibility and digital marketing that will outstrip the effectiveness of anything thats ever come before.
Kurb is a powerful new presence for marketing in the 21st century. We know the economic models, we know the marketing models, we stay up to date on the latest techniques and services and most importantly we exponentialise all of this by using technology your average record exec hasn't even considered. What we're doing is new. Don't miss your opportunity to work with us.
kurbpromoATgmail.com
+64 (0)27 6848250
how our social networking marketing service works
indie self promotions hub
Artist packages
I've been researching into publicity (ie how to get artists radio play) and a lot of pundits are just saying forget it. Get your myspace (social networking) down, get your youtube (viral video marketing) down forget about radioplay and paying grands to publicists.
Sure, the digital environment is slowly destroying the retail value of music (please - don't infer this is something I'm pessimistic about - 90% of sweet FA is still a lot better than a record deal where you end up having to pay them back because your album "only" sells a few thousand units!) but now it is making video making and sharing commonplace and putting the power to use video marketing in the hands of every indie artists and small entrepreneur.
Don't worry - my kurb presentation videos are coming soon, we're still building a shooting studio in our shed!
I'm just trying to throw up a blog here, but basically the uses to which video can be used to promote and advertise you, your music, who you are, and what your music really represents - and why people should make a connection with it - the newest and most powerful way of getting out there.
Hopefully you would have seen local Emo band False Start's album launch video in my blogs showing how simple yet powerful interactivity can be in marketing music and entertainment.
A video you upload and link to/share/embed (through a blog - like this, or in a bulletin, comment, message etc.) doesn't have to be a "music video" or a live clip or even an interview . . . it could be you talking, jamming, telling a story, baking a cake - a really effective technique is matching your music to some entertaining footage - a crazy cartoon or maybe some politicized news footage - and sharing that, so people have gotta ask . . . hey . . . I like that tune in the background! This is what happens when something goes "Viral". This is what web 2.0 is all about. user driven content created by users and promoted by other users. Not big money labels spending multi millions so you can't escape from Justin Timberlake and Beyonce.
All this of course is just the start. Once you add Kurb's revolutionary next level online promtions packages, we put the marketing and sharing of your videos into overdrive. Videos or "mobisodes" or "Vblogs" are not only powerful direct marketing and branding exercises but - just like blogs - create additional search traffic - thats why optimizing your keywords, tags and most importantly all linked out with all your relevant links (your homesite, your itunes, your your myspace, your youtube, your bebo - you do have a bebo don't you? in NZ Bebo isn't just for kids anymore!) is SO important.
But not just on Youtube, Google, Myspace etc. - At Kurb we're using over 20 sites to market videos including www... which not only has the highest resolution videos but is also leading the way with paid content for all submissions. Paid content is the go when the big boys are jumping up and down about copyright. And if that means US20c per view and you've got your video on 20 sites being watched as little as 10 times a day each thats still US$40 a day! Once you add Kurbs online promotion techniques on top of that well . . . add another zero!
Anyway - back to those videos.
First off we got Derek from CDbaby stating almost verbatim from the article I put out yesterday. But Derek's like a god to the indie music scene so that's okay.
Finally, if you've got a lot of time on your hands, discover how the internet and definitions of "shelf space" have given dominance to the economic theory of the "Long Tail" - in short the death of "hits" and "blockbusters" and the growth of niches and selectivity is good news for indie artists everywhere. What happens as the 75% ($30b) share of the market controlled by the majors crumbles and punters look to distribute that spend elsewhere?
Also just a reminder of how powerful and exciting embedding stuff is - you can buy cuts from my last album right here!!! I'm not saying you should want to but accesibility is everything! Thats what kurb is about - digital accesibility and digital marketing that will outstrip the effectiveness of anything thats ever come before.
Kurb is a powerful new presence for marketing in the 21st century. We know the economic models, we know the marketing models, we stay up to date on the latest techniques and services and most importantly we exponentialise all of this by using technology your average record exec hasn't even considered. What we're doing is new. Don't miss your opportunity to work with us.
kurbpromoATgmail.com
+64 (0)27 6848250
how our social networking marketing service works
indie self promotions hub
Artist packages
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