My take away from Future of Music Conference 14

So having attend this conference off and on since it's start I have to say that it might be hitting it's stride as conference for a number of reason however for the sake of this post the one that stands out the most is what I would call inter-musicbiz dialogue.   The nature of our business leads individuals, bands, professionals so exposed that the last ten years has been a reaction to over protect and make it seem like everything is alright, easy and just a click away.

Look it's time to face the music in the Music Biz.  Our product, is woefully unprepared to be "fungible" in the marketplace of a thousand cats which is really what our business is more than a thousand washing machines.  Since each artists and band is different, the system cannot adjust to them alone.   Now if one million artists said let's do this, that is another story.  However; We know that artists are artists and the music business is a business.

So the first thing first.  If your getting into our biz go get a real attorney one that tell you what the difference between mechanical and performance rights are and lastly for the rest of us in the business if we're not selling you, we're selling to you and you do need more the former to make it.

Wouldn't be here today w/o Tommy's help, THKS...

Music 360: Americans Make Music Their Top Entertainment Choice

Music 360: Americans Make Music Their Top Entertainment Choice



Nielsen’s third annual in-depth study of the tastes, habits and preferences of U.S. music listeners, 93% of the country's population listens to music, spending more than 25 hours each week tuning into their favorite tunes. 



If you have a bigger audience and potential please let me know, otherwise it's clearly time to start investing in Music especially @USMADEMUSIC 

Music sales are down, however is the musicbiz selling it and is Congress helping or hurting?

So the news in Musicbiz for the last couple of day is that compared to last year at this time sales are down. I however look at things another way. Sales are going elsewhere and not until the industry can give consumers something they want the refrain I'm BuyingThis will mean I'm buying something besides music.

So besides the obvious --that not enough good music is in the marketplace, what else is happening?

There is a term in business called capacity restrain* and this is when you have something great however you don't have the fire power to get it out very far if at all. This is where we find ourselves today in the music business. As a distributor I get to sit in on the conversations of many artists bands and labels about project that are coming, in the works, and in the marketplace now.

The number one things they are scrambling for is capitalization.

From the Pressing plants are are now running full time and dealing with the bigger customers first, to the marketing channels that have prices driven up during the 4th quarter economically stopping the independents from even being in the game, our culture is now hi-jacked by Multi-National Entertainment companies that don't export top US artist out of the USA and get us to entertain our own economy to death.

Meanwhile Congress and the Administration do nothing.....From the USMADEMUSIC.org site we can see that there is a bill in Congress that would be a pretty good first step. Well guess what on Oct 14 members of the recording academy will be going to their local Congressional office and demanding a few things and I believe this is another and should be at the top of the list. Supporting US Made Music seems like a no brainer if you are a member of the US Congress. Click to learn more http://usmademusic.org/8-us-music-news/7-lobby-your-local-rep-day-oct-14th

*Factories are getting busier, notably in industries such as auto making and aircraft construction, increasing the incentive to expand operations. Businesses ran at 79.2% of capacity in July, still about a percentage point below the historical average, but at a level that implies some industries are nearing production limits. http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/business/T019-S000-kiplinger-s-economic-outlooks/ PS here the Weekly Music Marketplace sales