A New Deal for Musicians
Techcrunch reports that “360″ Music Deals Become Mandatory As Labels Prepare For Free Music - as announced by Edgar Bronfman, CEO of Warner Music. Fair enough I say, for those that want to get into bed with the majors. Its a simple deal: they invest in you, they own your IP, and they get a return on everything. This makes perfect business sense to me, if you want to submit yourself to that ham-fisted machine and accept the consequences.
Thankfully there’s an alternative 360 approach that a lot of artists are (perhaps unwittingly) pursuing, as characterised by the luminous Andrew Ferris of Smalltown America, who stood head and shoulders above many of the panelists at Thursday’s NIMIC ‘The Way Forward’ conference.
Andrew described how STA have been an unashamedly 360-degree operation since day one, except they aren’t a record label collecting copyrights, but a creative services agency that offers a range of skillsets and services. If they really believe in your music, they’ll invest, but if you just need to access some expertise in distribution, touring or merchandise, they can help you out for a fair price. Similarly, Nick Fitzsimons’ Penny Distribution service is designed to demystify licensing and publishing for acts, whilst offering access to targeted online marketing and internet radio contacts that would otherwise take considerable effort to reach. Both of these music businesses are based in Northern Ireland 
Many artists I come into contact with ‘don’t know where to start’ - and I guess that is a fair point, it can be overwhelming but the information is out there. Blogs like New Music Strategies and Hypebot offer ongoing commentary and analysis of the many new tools and ideologies that have developed in music recently, particularly the convergence of music, marketing, social media, attention and commerce. There are no solid answers, but that’s half the fun. One thing is certain: musicians can no longer afford to bury their heads in the sand when it comes to ‘business’, they will simply be left behind.
These services complement the many areas that artists can manage directly, such as digital distribution, building fan mailing lists and social interaction, forming part of an inspired new music ecosystem that is fair and respects all the skills needed in a successful music enterprise.
Categorized as friends, music industry