Don't Believe The Hype - Part 2

If you haven't read Part 1 of Don't Believe The Hype yet (posted below), it's a MUST READ! The post is based on a Twitter conversation between Sam and Derek Webb formerly of Caedmon's Call (and also one of the founders of NoiseTrade.com, a service which provides a vehicle through which Indie musicians can offer their content to potential fans for free and/or a "Tip" from those acquiring the content). The tweet directly following this paragraph is from Derek Webb:

“@SamFisherJr also, you have your facts wrong. i’m not nor have i ever been indie. so i make what i claimed to make. please correct your post” (link)

 Whenever I speak out against the myriad of third party services espousing that they’ve discovered the way to help indie artists “make it in the biz”, Im always troubled by the disconnect between what they’re saying and the reality of the “situation on the ground”.

If you “are not, nor have never been an indie” how on earth would you even begin to understand what an indie goes through? If Im going to get advice from someone and change my philosophy based on what they think, I want them to know what its like to walk in my shoes.

Do you wanna know why I fight so hard to protect indie artists and devote my whole career to trying to put more money in their pockets and give them the exposure they desperately need to survive?

Because I was one of you.

I know what its like to play covers in the corner of a bar and be completely ignored for three hours…

I know what its like to beg, borrow and sell blood to record and press a cd and play completely empty bars and clubs hoping to sell enough to buy a ham sandwich and gas.

I know what its like to sleep two to a bed in a Motel 6 outside of Hoboken NJ because we only made 70% of the money from people who paid to see us.

I’ve designed my own flyers and posted them.

I’ve collected email addresses the hard way (walking around the club after a set and writing each one down).

I’ve used Myspace, Facebook, Last FM, PureVolume, Twitter, Soundclick, etc.

You name it.

No label help.

No team of marketing people.

No publicist.

And guess what?

We succeeded.

We sold over 30,000 units independently.

We toured over 200 dates a year in a van we bought and paid for.

We sold out every club in our home state for 2-3 years before we stopped touring.

You see, Im not a label suit that’s trying to hold on to your last penny of revenue. I believe the majors will crumble and I believe industry will be better for it.

I’m one of you.

One day about 10 years ago, I promised that if I ever got to a position to help others like me, I would do EVERYTHING it took to do so. And here I am.

When I questioned Derek Webb in Part 1 of Dont Believe the Hype, I was again met with the “thousands of artists have made a living giving away their music” mantra. Yet, not one artist has come forward to support that claim. And, I’ll admit, I don’t have access to an artist’s accounting, but I find it curious that NO ONE has stepped forward to champion this strategy.

I’ve talked to a handful of artists who have used Noisetrade and yet they still have to set up Kickstarter campaigns to fund their next record or their next tour.

When I was an indie, we paid for our records using revenue from cd sales, tour revenue, merch sales and licensing.

News flash–if you’re giving away your music and you still can’t tour or make a record without asking for donations, you aint making it in the music biz.

But I digress…

I said that I would give my suggestions for making it in music. Just to be clear, I define making a living from music as earning revenue from selling cd, downloads, streams, touring, licensing and merchandise. You dont need a part time job. You dont need investors, you dont need donations. You are self-sufficient. Im also assuming you’ve put in the work to develop yourself. 

• Play shows ALL THE TIME – I’m always shocked when I look at an artist’s tour page and see one performance a month. Get out and PERFORM! Early on, you’ll have to play cover gigs, you’ll have to take free gigs, you’ll have to play coffee shops for tips. Doesn’t matter. Every time a human hears you, you should be singing something to them. This will hone your skills, give you confidence and give you the opportunity to…
• Collect contact information Just because everyone hangs out online for 4-6 hours a day doesn’t mean that you have to stalk them on Facebook to get them to support you. I’m amazed that the bands I work with now consider a robust email list an afterthought. The emotional connection Derek talked about in his post? Yeah, you blow someone’s mind playing a live show and they’ll get goosebumps every time they hear your name. Get their email. NOTE: you do know that with an email address you can get to them on Facebook right? And how cool would it be if you reached out to someone and led with “I enjoyed meeting you after my show. Thank you for taking time to speak. I’d love to update you whenever I have something significant coming up”. *Sidenote here: I said SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT. Dont bombard folks with updates of where you had lunch, the tv show you watched, etc. When something big happens let them know. Otherwise, leave them alone. Unless you plan to…
• Give them something People like stuff. They like to feel special. So make them feel special. Got a really cool sounding demo just laying around? Send it to them. Shot an awesome video of you covering one of their favorite artists? (everyone lists their favorite bands on Facebook, why don’t you know who they like?) Send it to them. Then you…
• Ask your fans to spread the word Every time you send them something, ask them if they will send it to their friends and ask their friends to support you. Just promise me that you’ll…
• Stop giving away VALUABLE content “But you just said to give them something!” I did. But you will never hear me say “Give away that studio recording you spent hundreds or thousands of dollars to produce. That’s asinine. This is where my frustration lies with Noisetrade and their ilk. I spent about 6 hours hanging around the site listening to songs on Noisetrade and noticed that the quality of recording was superb. Professional. Derek is ridiculously talented AND a producer. He can create amazing records all by himself with an mbox and a tin can. Unless you have the same skill, you’re probably paying someone to do it. (you should probably pay Derek; seriously, he’s THAT good) That’s expensive. Stop giving away your blood, sweat and tears. It cost money to make. It should cost money to hear it. “But I want people to hear my music so they’ll buy it” Fair enough. That’s why…
• You only stream samples from YOUR website What’s the deal with providing free streaming content on Reverbnation, Bandcamp, Bandpages, etc? Notice that iTunes and Amazon sell your music and won’t let a soul hear more than 90 seconds. Why should they care more about your music than you do? Again, you’re promoting the service more than you’re promoting you. Have they sent you any share of the ad revenue they receive? Do you get .0000229 per stream? Then why are you letting people listen to your blood, sweat and tears for FREE on someone else’s site. Your Facebook page, twitter stream, Google + stream should scream LISTEN TO SAMPLES ON MY WEBSITE.COM You’re most likely paying $4.99 a month to have a website + hosting. USE YOUR SITE. Now you’re ready to…
• Sell something The biggest hurdle for indie artists these days is that there are too many outlets available to give stuff away but not enough artists realize the revenue opportunities available to them. I started Lucas Gambit Music to assist indie artists in marketing and selling their music and finding all of the income streams for their assets. Shot an awesome video for your awesome single? You can get paid by Vevo and Youtube every time someone watches that puppy. Hang out at a church? Notice those really cool videos they play to give the band time to leave the stage? Did you know that Vimeo will sell your song to video producers who want to use your song in their bumper videos. Set up your own direct to fan solution to sell cds.  Put together a real digital sales strategy other than sending the album to Tunecore or CD Baby.  They take money too without doing anything to help you sale the music.  Be strategic.  Don’t just toss your music out there.  Maybe do an iTunes exclusive and then deliver the content to a handful of other services over time.  Streaming doesn’t pay much. But it pays more than free. Be careful with streaming though. Dont do it too early in what we call the “release cycle”. Let the record take its course. Hold off delivering your content to Spotify, Slacker, Pandora, etc until at least 12 months after the record has been released. People should only be able to hear a full song from you if they’ve paid something for it.
• You’re a business, act like one None of this “hand to mouth” stuff. Get and maintain a part time job to feed yourself, pay the rent and keep you warm. Every penny (or micro-penny) you make should go BACK into your music. Every dollar earned represents a dollar you can use to move your business forward. Work your way out of job. Have a separate account for cd sales, one for merchandise, and one for touring. Play the cover gigs (who often pay guarantees) to support a tour to new markets.

 I’m not saying that if you do all of these things, you will make a living. A number of factors (wrong timing, wrong sound, you’re not good enough, the economy stinks) prevent anyone from predicting success. What I can guarantee is that you will earn and keep more of YOUR money. Noisetrade sells ad space to artists for up to $500. How much of that is passed back to the artist? Again, I have nothing against Derek Webb the man. I have a HUGE beef with Derek Webb the business owner (or whoever owns Noisetrade now). Why not give that feature space to artists for free and then sell ad space to big companies with a marketing budget? Tell me how its fair that YOU pay them for ad space promoting your FREE product?! C’mon man.

Someone on Twitter asked me if I was trying to “pick a fight”. The answer is a resounding YES. For the past 100 years artists and songwriters have been getting robbed blind by people claiming to be on their side while lifting their wallet. Now artists are starving or leaving the business altogether. Without you, there is no music business. We NEED you to survive or we will miss out on the next Jeff Buckley or Switchfoot, or John Mark McMillan.

Im rooting for you.

About the Author:

Sam Fisher, Jr., a second-generation musician, has been making music since the mid-1990s including a stint as the frontman of independent powerhouse, Weekend Excursion, who over the course of nine years sold over 30,000 units while touring all over the world.

After the band disbanded, Sam released his critically acclaimed solo effort, People Living in 2006 on SBMG Records. In the years since, Sam has collaborated on several side projects (Caruso – contemporary blues, Mercury Blue – R&B and The Bristol Project – Trip Hop).

On September 21, 2010 Sam released his solo follow up: From Age to Age (cd) (mp3).

Sam is a voting member of the Recording Academy and staunch advocate for independent music, and he currently serves as worship leader and music director for Summit Church‘s North Durham Campus.

Don't Believe The Hype - Part 1

The following article is written by Sam Fisher of Lucas Gambit, a full-service media and entertainment company founded to serve the developing artist and independent label community. Definitely a MUST READ! Part 2 will follow tomorrow...



A very good friend of mine forwarded the link below to Derek Webb’s tumblr blog post where Derek (formerly of Caedmon's Call) makes the argument that giving away your music ultimately leads to long-term career sustainability.  As you can imagine, I had a very strong reaction to it,  so I thought that it made more sense to state my contentions here and let the world wide web hear the other side.

Giving it Away: How Free Music Makes More Than Sense

In theory, Derek makes sense.

In theory.

The problem is the reality that artists and bands find themselves in these days.  The general public (lets call them consumers) are listening to more music than they ever have at a time when revenue from music purchases is going down.  I’m not going to bore you spouting out the same statistics that you’ve heard everywhere else.  Yes, you have more options to market yourselves than you’ve ever had.  Yes, you can create music easier and cheaper than ever.  Yes, you have access to the world through social media and the world wide inter-web.  Derek’s insistence that you give away your music for free in order to build a career in music, is disingenuous and relies on a bunch of ideals…

Derek and I have had this conversation before via twitter when I challenged the notion that giving away music could earn more money for an artist in the long run.  At one point, Derek said “Sam, you’re still on the Titanic and we’re telling you the water’s fine”.   My response:  “I’m in a row boat telling you there’s a better way”. Below, I’ve included excerpts from Derek’s post followed by my thoughts on the matter.

There has never been a better moment to be a middle-class or an independently thinking artist making and performing music than right now.  The costs and complications of creating, recording, manufacturing, and distributing music are at an all-time low, enabling more music to be made and more artists to make a living than ever before.

Derek is only half right here.  It IS easier and cheaper to create and distribute music now.  More people are making music, including you, your neighbor, the frat boy with a macbook pro, the guy at church singing Chris Tomlin tunes —  you name it.  Here’s the thing:  NONE OF YOU ARE DEREK WEBB.  Or Radiohead.  Or Nine In Nails.  Or any of the other “use to be’s” that can now sell music directly to the fan bases that their major labels paid to help them cultivate.  The former major label artists once had the largest labels with the most robust networks marketing, promoting, and selling their music.  Just because they aren’t signed to a major label doesn’t mean their fans quit buying their music and supporting them.  Now these artists, armed with FB, Twitter, tumblr, wordpress, etc, can sell and market directly to their fans.  They are the middle-class artist.  No one outside your inner-circle knows who you are.  My guess is, this is where you say “but that’s why I GIVE my music away so I can promote myself”.

True, that’s one way to do it.

Is it the best way?

NoiseTrade has enabled thousands of artists (including myself) to have and cultivate direct relationships with their fans rather than having to depend on proprietary third parties such as Facebook, Twitter, and not so long ago, MySpace, and therefore, to have a job.

How many Twitter followers do you have?  Facebook fans?  Go ahead, check.  I’ll wait.  Now, how many email addresses do you have?  Cool.  Where do YOU cultivate direct relationships?  When was the last time you had a meaningful conversation with a stranger over email?  More to the point, when was the last time you responded to an email from someone selling you something (if you read it at all)?  This whole “give away a song for an email address then you’ll have hundreds of best friends clamoring to pay you money” is a fallacy.  That’s not how folks communicate.  And furthermore, people spend more time on Facebook and Twitter than they do talking to real live human beings.

Just sayin.

Now, lets try another exercise:  go back over the past 30 days and add up how much money you made selling t-shirts and playing live.  Add in CD and digital sales too.  Next, divide that number by the number of email addresses.  What do you get?

On Twitter, I recently said, “I make more money giving records away on @NoiseTrade (in exchange for info) than selling those same records on iTunes (let alone Spotify),” which resulted in some pretty interesting discussions.  I said that in response to questions I received after criticizing streaming services like Spotify, which claim to offer a viable alternative to “piracy,” when in reality they offer artists almost no meaningful revenue or fan connection.  And while iTunes is certainly a better financial model and more equitable for artists, it does almost nothing to connect the fans to the artists in a way that yields any long-term benefit.

For example, I am paid $0.00029 per stream of a song on Spotify, and even this amount depends on whether the song is being streamed by a paid user or someone using the service for free.  This means it will take upwards of 3,500 streams of a single song on Spotify to earn $1.00 versus that same revenue for one iTunes song purchase (not to mention the fact that Spotify refuses to pay the same amount to independent artists as they pay major labels, unlike iTunes).

Derek isn’t being totally forthright here.  He’s claiming that he’s one of you but then he quotes a royalty rate when comparing his iTunes revenue to Spotify revenue.  He’s right, you’ll get paid less than 3 one thousandths of a penny for every stream on Spotify, Slacker, Pandora, etc.  But iTunes pays out 70% of gross sales.


Period.

When Derek was signed to Columbia, he was more than likely making roughly 12-18% of net sales.  Which means if Columbia sold his album for $12.99 on iTunes, they would’ve received $9.09.  Let’s say Derek got paid 12% of that as a royalty.  He would net $1.09 for that album sale.

But he’s indie now, so he actually gets to keep all of the 70% that iTunes sends him.  UPDATE:  via Twitter, Derek reminded me that he is not an indie (and has never been an indie) and therefore makes the $1 per album he claims to make.   Fair enough.  YOU will make 5-7 times more than that because you’re not signed to a major label.  Why give away your music when you can make 5-7 times more than Derek makes?

FYI, Spotify pays the same amount per stream to EVERYONE.  However, they paid licensing fees to the majors in order to have the rights to stream their content.  Indie artists weren’t paid squat for giving their music to Spotify.  Wanna know why?  Spotify doesnt have to.  Indie artists gave it to ‘em. Why’s that you ask?  Its simple.  Spotify has 10 million subscribers and you have 200 Twitter followers.  They have the leverage, you don’t. Don’t hate the game, hate the playa.

Most would argue that it’s apples and oranges (no pun intended): iTunes is a digital storefront for artists while services like Spotify are about discovery.  People will argue that low-cost streaming is good for the market, that it’s good for the artists, and that it’s still better than people taking your music for free from BitTorrent.  But I tend to disagree on almost every point, mainly because it’s just not that simple.  It’s true that iTunes is a place for people to purchase music, but it offers all the same benefits of Spotify in terms of discovery.  And while Spotify is claiming to occupy the discovery space, it’s clear that the service is operating functionally as a storefront, since people are streaming music as an alternative to purchasing that same music.

I’ll go even further to say that I actually prefer illegal downloading over Spotify because when you get music illegally it’s at least implicit in the transaction that what you’re doing is potentially harmful to the artist.  But with Spotify, your conscience is clear because you’re either enduring ads or paying to use the service and access the music.  But from the blue-collar artist’s perspective, they’re not receiving any meaningful payment (there’s little discernible difference between $0.00029 and $0.00) and they are learning nothing about their fans, not to mention that music readily available on Spotify for little to no payment completely poaches the record sales upon which middle-class musicians are depending for survival (which is why I will withhold any new releases from Spotify in the future).

Derek is 100% right here.  Hard numbers:  sales have dropped for my releases by 25-35% since those releases became available on Spotify.  Streams have shot through the roof.  For instance, we received a $123 check for 34000 streams.  Consumers are starving artists by streaming their music.

If someone buys my music on iTunes, Amazon, or in a record store (remember those?), let alone streams it on Spotify, it’s all short-term money.  That might be the last interaction I have with that particular fan.  But if I give that fan the same record for free in exchange for a connection (an e-mail and a zip code), I can make that same money, if not double or triple that amount, over time.  And “over time” is key, since the ultimate career success is sustainability.  Longevity.  See, the reality is that out of a $10 iTunes album sale, I probably net around a dollar.  So if I give that record away, and as a result am able to get that fan out to a concert (I can use their zip code to specifically promote my shows in their area), I make approximately $10 back, and twice that if they visit the merch table.  I can sell them an older/newer album and make approximately $10 back.  The point is, if I can find some organic way to creatively engage them in a paid follow-up transaction, I increase my revenue 10 times on any one of these interactions.
This is all an equation of scale. I might be able to outright sell 20,000 albums for $10 each (again, netting around $1 each).  Or I can remove any barrier from someone hearing about or discovering my music by giving it away, which will result in an order of magnitude more albums distributed, maybe around 100,000.  If I can then convert 20% of those free downloads into paid transactions of any kind over time, I have probably well over doubled or tripled my money.  And I can do this repeatedly as I continue to grow, and learn more about and invest in my tribe, to whom I now have a direct connection (rather than having to go through Facebook, Twitter, or Lord forbid, MySpace to access them).

And all of this by giving the music away for free.

Again, Derek is fudging numbers.  This is the second time he’s tossed out the $1 royalty number so I’m gonna go ahead and say he’s using the royalty calculation of 12% of SRP (suggested retail price) of$12.99.  He’s also betting on a LOT of things going right “over time”.  He assumes that 20 % of folks that download a free album or song will pay $10 to see him play live.  He then assumes those same folks will “visit the merch table” and spend more money on t-shirts and merch.

Quick question:  when was the last time YOU sold 20,000 albums.

Next question:  when was the last time 100,000 people downloaded your music?
The reality is, you put your music up on Noisetrade, and Joe Music lover downloads the album then tweets “I just downloaded So and So on Noisetrade for free, get it here” with a link to the download (from Noisetrade mind you-not your website) to his 75 twitter followers.  Let’s say three of his followers pay attention to his twitter feed and click the link, two download the link and its broadcast to their 75 followers and so on and so on.  At that rate, you’ll have five people watching you play a show in Topeka KS and the club will ignore any other phone calls you make because you lost them money.  Further to that, I believe giving something away devalues the music AND you…

When you talk about free music, people who work in the music business will tell you you’ve gone too far.  They’ll say you’re devaluing the art itself, and that once you go there, there is no coming back.  I suppose I would agree if I thought that music’s only value was monetary.  But I don’t.

Music does have monetary value.  But more than its monetary value is its emotional value, its relational value, its artistic value, even its spiritual value.  When you make meaningful connections with people based on artistic self-expression, I think you’re actually increasing the value of that art based on the many ways it’s valued.

Permit an analogy if you will…  Lets say you’ve just transferred to a new college (and you’re drinking age).  In order to meet new people and hopefully make new friends, you plan a party and put up flyers announcing that you’re gonna have free beer.  That weekend, your house is packed.  Music is blaring, folks are hanging out and laughing talking about how awesome the party is.  Then about an hour in, the keg runs out.  The room clears in about ten minutes flat.  No one bothered to get your name.  So then you have a second party and order two kegs of beer.  Everyone shows up, trashes your house and bounces as soon as the kegs runs dry.  This time you were smart though.  You walked around, met people, exchanged iPhone numbers and found them on facebook.  The next week, you invite everyone over to your house for a get together.  What do they say?  Come on, you know…  “Is there gonna be free beer?”  How many people do YOU think will turn up if you say ‘no’?  Here’s the thing, humans are impressionable beings.  We’re easily conditioned.  Why on earth would someone BUY something that they can get for free?  When I ask if the consumer “values” your music, I really mean do they CARE about your music.  A very good friend of mine who gets music from Noisetrade told me that he’s got a few albums he hasn’t even unzipped yet.  You think he would’ve at least LISTENED to an album he got for FREE.  I bet if he’d paid for it, he would’ve listened.

The point is, if the only investment you’re asking folks to make is an email address and a zip code, then you’re in trouble.  I NEVER open solicitation emails.  But at least I see (we call them ‘impressions’ in the biz) a Facebook status update or a tweet.

This brings me to my final point.  I’m sure somewhere deep down Derek cares about you the indie artist.  But don’t get it twisted, Derek has to make a living.  There is value in him supporting this cause.  When someone downloads a song or album from Noisetrade, they provide their Twitter info, email and zip code.  How valuable is that to Noisetrade?  Very.  When that person tweets about your FREE music, who gets some of the credit?  Yup, Noisetrade.  Any money you get from folks leaving you tips or donations on Noisetrade is subject to a 20% fee.  That means you only get 80% of the money you earned GIVING away your music.

You’re not middle class and if you keep giving away your blood, sweat and tears for free you’ll never be middle class.

About the Author:

Sam Fisher, Jr., a second-generation musician, has been making music since the mid-1990s including a stint as the frontman of independent powerhouse, Weekend Excursion, who over the course of nine years sold over 30,000 units while touring all over the world.

After the band disbanded, Sam released his critically acclaimed solo effort, People Living in 2006 on SBMG Records. In the years since, Sam has collaborated on several side projects (Caruso – contemporary blues, Mercury Blue – R&B and The Bristol Project – Trip Hop).

On September 21, 2010 Sam released his solo follow up: From Age to Age (cd) (mp3).

Sam is a voting member of the Recording Academy and staunch advocate for independent music, and he currently serves as worship leader and music director for Summit Church‘s North Durham Campus.