What needs to DIE in 2014

1. To be banished from our world is D I Y.  If you're Doing it yourself you're ALONE. and it takes a Team to make it in entertainment and life. 
2. Only digital for the win.   Since there are currently only four digital distributors the choke point has been reached and the biggest just raised the bar on who gets to come out via their platform. So unless your song can prove it going to do tens of thousand of dollars in sales via proven sales - NO digital for you in 2014.
3. Don't forget the merger of the year ANEC & SDID (IMHO  not enough people are talking about it) we're now seeing the ramification unfolding and the face of physical distribution just changed a great deal. Again, like #2  everyone that thought they had an Indie distro deal needs to get ready for a reality check. 
4. And,  if you're not joining Digital and Physical distribution strategies using a Clicks to Bricks mindset you're not in the game. Repeat this until it sinks in.  Distribution is Everything
5. Yet at the end of the day the one reality is that we are all beholden to is the fans, consumers, enthusiast of entertainment and learning to adjust to them is the Future of Entertainment Today. 

Beyonce was a one time stunt get over it.

Before this Beyonce ordeal gets out of hand,  this is the 1st (and probably the last) successful stunt release. There are only a handful of artists that are internationally known by a single name who have the ability/ego to even attempt this...so while people are talking about it as a major stunt, others will try this approach. The problem with that route is there is more to doing a digital only release than what meets the eye.

 I put up one of the first digital distribution outlets on the internet starting as ~Altavoz moving to Altavoz.com in May of 1995.

There's a shrinking number of people that have been on the Internetwork let alone attempting to be a digital distributor longer than I have had the privilege to.  

The one thing that most don't know is that itunes in the USA doesn't fully represent what the rest of the world can purchase.  To attempt to have your music distributed worldwide, you have to have a relationship with the various territories of iTunes. On top of that hurdle, each of the iTunes territories has a different criteria for releasing a song.  To do this, you either need to get to the distributor of that artists digital content (definitely under a contract) or bypass them. Again, only internationally recognized single named artists are heffed up enough to try this route, but the fools will follow.

There is one fickle thing about our business that drives people crazy, and that is we have a quirky reporting system. This system definitely ain't perfect, however, the success of this system is ultimately for the 99.1 percent of recording artists who are selling digital and physical copies of their releases. Despite what all of my older friends want to believe physical outsells digital 2 to 1. The success of this release just got a bit rougher for said internationally known artist as the number one retailer of music said...

"Talk to the Hand Queen B." AKA, we ain't carrying it.  

Now that she just snubbed the entire ecosystem of music stores and every partner channels (save the one that sells music to sell hardware) the final year end count is still out; so calling this a success based on her past sales, we'll all have to wait to see....

PS

Don't take my word on why music matter ~ watch this guy in a fancy suit say it.

Ave wage of US worker 27k. The average working musicians is way better.

According to berklee.edu nice chart over here we can see that we are not only talking about more than comparable wages ~working with the Music in the equation.

The VALUE doesn't stop here, since presumably these endeavors are producing some kind of output in the biz sometimes music is Magic or not so much;   However! each time it's Intellectual Property and the mere act of is (if you've been reading by blog) just raised the whole GPD of the USA by upwards of 3 percent.


So, as the demand for American music is growing (Ad Hoc - since music is something that everyone on the planet and perhaps others experience. Ergo Hoc  in case you didn't know it there are more customers every day.  Proctor Hoc more people to make more music. DUH [homersimpson voice])

I'm not sure why I would have to pitch USMADEMUSIC to US leadership however I do and under the current Administration we are on track to become a NET Importer of Music into the USA.   Again, let me let this sink in we will have more CD's shipped into the USA then we ship out.

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE THE BIGGEST RECORDING STARS and we're becoming a net IMPORTER come back for that blog too.  

So while I'm sure all the tech incubator are full on powerpoint and fluff blogs the WORLD revolves around music and thanks to our lack of leadership USMADEMUSIC is only 10 percent of it.   Again let this SINK in.

IMHO more music is needed here and around the world we do nothing to support meeting this demand. And, all of the jobs and educational investment to day has gotten us this.

The "raw" average wage, computed as net compensation divided by the number of wage earners, is $6,529,097,960,690.75 divided by 153,632,290, or $42,498.21. Based on data in the table below, about 67.1 percent of wage earners had net compensation less than or equal to the $42,498.21 raw average wage. By definition, 50 percent of wage earners had net compensation less than or equal to the median wage, which is estimated to be $27,519.10 for 2012.  http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2012

Again, Leaders are pouring money hand over fist into Job training however it doesn't include  STEAM. Proof is in the budget that Washington and your home towns put out and there's very little is for the Arts.  I've blogged about this...see here;  However, I'ma gonna do another one on it because there is more so... come back for that blog too.  

I'd love to hear from someone in the US as to why we're not beating drums and talking about building upon USMADEMUSIC. Since  the average wage is better and it comes with groupies (that go out and spend money.  I know we can do better, we deserve better and frankly the world needs USMADEMUSIC.

THINK about this Amerika it will keep to the politicians out of defining who we are as a nation overseas and that mostly tasseless and valueless Major Record Label music (aka part of a Multinational Corporation ) ya know they've haliburtonized the US Record Biz!

Let's face I'd rater have Doyle Wolf Gang Von FrankenStein then Joe WolfGang Biden reppin me in China. come back for that blog too