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Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Public Procurement Policies: That don't include the Music Act hurt economy


BRIEFING: Strengthening US Manufacturing with Buy America and Domestic Content Policies
  •   
  • 2167 Rayburn
Please join Reps. Dan Lipinski and David P. Joyce, Co-Chairs of the Buy America Caucus, on Tuesday, December 8th at 2:00 p.m. in 2167 Rayburn HOB for a briefing on the release of the report:
How Procurement Policies Can Promote
Innovation and Good Jobs
By Robert Pollin, James Heintz, and Jeannette Wicks-Lim
Department of Economics and Political Economy Research Institute
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
The only thing I'm going to say is that there will be no mention of USMadeMusic and the MusicAct that is buried in Congress that I have to ask why?    As well seeing how US Made Music was one of our largest export categories (prerecording music 33612) and now it's negative -397 that leaving this unaddress represents a collosale failure.

Frankly the USA doesn't have all that much of value in 
comparison {manufactured and export} besides our Culture and Entertainment --IP-- and according to the Cenus Trade Data today We're
Entertaining our Economy To Death 

Doesn't anyone else notice that all the Top US act are owned by Overseas Corporations? 

Music Policy Briefing

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Until the EOY let's look at the UK's trade balance in Prerecorded music.

For the Datanerds, the following is the breakdown in trade of Software and Prerecording music between the USA and the UK for the year 2015 presently cited as Cat 334614*.  I'm posting it here because I believe in the next month trade data will have the Adele release totals.  And, this one artists is enough to move the needle of trade between the US and the UK;  And,  that the saturation of all things Adele between now and the New Year's will benefit the UK much more then the USA and this blog will be the only one mentioning it. 




"Adele’s 25 (due November 20) could go double platinum in less than a week. According to Hits Daily Double, industry insiders now predict an opening tally in the region of two million copies. That would rank as the second highest debut of all time behind NSYNC’sNo Strings Attached, which sold 2.4 million copies in its first seven days of release back in 2000. The Brit’s third LP already has 250,000 preorders."


Based upon these numbers alone it's clear that 25 is going to sell it's just at what point in time does anyone in the USA wake up to realization that this is Entertaining our Economy to death. And, just to put a fine pine upon it... I'm saying that the UK will be importing more Cat 33614 into the USA than we export to them (US Made Music) and Adele will be the tipping point and just about no one in the USA sees this as a bad thing.

I have to say.... When a county stops exporting it's culture it's only left with war and the Irony of on this Thanksgiving that a UK artists will outsell US's based artists and most of the help doing s0 comes from the USA; And the headline is about how great Adele is, which is true... it's just she's an import. 

NRJ

From the whole Altavoz Family to your have a blessed Thanks Giving. 

PS of the 5,049,000 units sold only for week ending 11/19/2015  2,245 where digital or 44% 


*The  Categories used to be 334612 for Prerecorded music and now it's combined with software into 334614.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Check out @sonofnels's Tweet: https://twitter.com/sonofnels/status/660534331287445504?s=09
Check out @sonofnels's Tweet: https://twitter.com/sonofnels/status/660534331287445504?s=09

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Hello! I would love to thank Adele for proving my point?


With the release of the single Hello, from 25,  Adele will make my point about the US  entertaining it's economy to death as we climb all each other to get this release in any form or fashion.
I would like to thank Adele for releasing a new record so that we can watch the trade imbalance…

Since this is not US Made Music and it comes in as an import.

 "Chairman of Adele's US record distributor, Columbia Records, also denied a "sneak attack" release after being directly asked whether or not Adele would follow in labelmate BeyoncĂ©'s surprise release technique. [24] "

Mean while the MusicCitiesConvention.com is gearing up for it's 1st US appearance and I'll bet more than one panel will talk about how great this release is without noting the irony that it's taking shekels from local US Made Music artists, bands, and groups.


Follow #musiccitiesdc for updates from the socials during the convention.  Click on the link (I would like to thank Adel, again nothing personal, it's just about culture and who's the US is supporting) to read my Medium post about how the USA is Entertaining our Economy to Death and the Majors Suck. 

Monday, October 5, 2015

Max Media Group, Inc. OTC MXMI Announces Transfer of Majority Control to Altavoz

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/max-media-group-inc-announces-transfer-of-majority-control-to-altavoz-2015-09-25



This is important because it now units a public stock to a plan to place artists, bands, labels and managers into ownership of a company that totally dependent upon this very group for it's content.  And no matter how much money you throw at someone it's not the same as ownership.



http://artistsowneddistribution.com/




Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Vinyl which is 10% of physical sales generates more revenue than streaming which is to be saving the world




















Last week I saw this go up on a digital news site.  L O L*...  and it caught not only my attention, many of my friends have been emailing, texting and face booking me about the fact that vinyl makes more for the creators than streaming, which any reader of this blog already knows

LINK to the original article about this on Digital Music News)

So, let's really break down this situation. (Industry technical term I got a situation) By taking the numbers via Nielsen SoundScan (BTW this week there was a surge in digital going up 33 percent WTW for a total of 49% of sales - to round it up-  out of it's 2015 range of 43-46 % of sales.

Now as I pointed out in the title, Streaming is supposes to be the format saving the world and the Vinyl Records was supposed to be dead back in the 2000's.   Think about this streaming is supposed to be the fasting and best hope of the offerings from even the best Digital Distribution Deal

Considering I say all the time Vinyl wholesales for what CD's retail and now it's clear steaming within digital don't pay that well.   Sadly the all digital all the time manta still wins and  is the prevailing mindset way to often in artists and the press ~  just not the fans they want it physical always have and always will.

Vinyl as a format that was just .08 precent of total sales back in 2008 go to earning more than all of streaming the savior of music (or maker of tech dork billionaires) today in 2015 doesn't get near enough press coverage I have to ask?. 

We know elected officials are blind to the existence of what a vinyl pressing plant (story about DistrictVinyl.com coming next blog) or these independent merchants (mom & pops like CrookedBeat Records  to regionals like Dimple Records) are doing for their communities while dealing with local government that doesn't get or even want them sometimes, Not to leave out  Congress which keeps failing to fund creators on the front end via the MusicAct* when we already know that investing in Music raised our GDP and will continue to do so if we only start to support US Made Music.  Now  what do we have to do to get the ourselves out of this induced stupor for all things only one way.

Let's remember each (artists, band or ground - creators) is a means in and of themselves for commerce, culture and jobs in our local economy an when connected together {Network Effect} with labels, managers, promoters, studios, socials/pr and wholesalers we're now talking about trillions of dollars. Furthermore!  None of the Majors are offering to help any local community. And, in fact drain the best talent out of them as they Haliburtonize music by failing to export their artists bands and groups as Made in the USA products.

Since none of Majors export their music from US shores it would seem getting the non Majors or the the local music makers as our product to support would be on the top of every US officials agenda -- from Commerce, EXIM Bank, to State that keeps taking about "Cultural Diplomacy" via music which is impossible since we don't export it.  Not sure how we got so lost, yet lost we are and until we start rethinking some of what folks assume is working reality (Digital Rule) our Nation's and our future is being robed from us one song at a time.

Let me just say it here,  If we took one place DC and the Mayor, who is a smart capable leader, put the same amount of money into #DCMusic as #DCTech I would wager that at the end of one year that the payouts, earning and accolades for DC and the businesses involved would strongly favor the Music.

"I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft."  --"Remarks at Amherst College upon receiving an Honorary Degree (439)," October 26, 1963, Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1963.

W/ Jess at the NEA 50th Anniversary in DC


*This will be one of the most visited post's for them and its not the stories that they thought they'd be publishing when naming it Digital Music News....

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

There are 4 Majors in distribution again.

I don't normally do multiple posts;  However this is really too big to let slip into our existence since there are economic ramifications and there's a very good reason why -- Money... While a lot is written about our industry there is as pointed out already almost no coverage about this aspect of it and since Distribution is Everything it makes no sense to me. Yet here we are...

"BERLIN, 14 SEPTEMBER 2015 – BMG recording artists Iron Maiden and Scarface have burst into the Top 10 of the US SoundScan albums chart, marking a new milestone for the new model music company less than 18 months since the company announced its entry into the frontline of the US record business."

The re-arrival of BMG into the "frontline of the US record business" is happening because no in the US could give two cows about it and another multi-national company (mmc) is stepping into the US market place and handing our economic assess to as with another US based distributor because there is a market for them to come into already.   So sure they're coming with some bad ass music and some is even made in the USA - it's just sold to us via a MNC and to add insult to trade imbalance -- then not exported out of the USA.  This is a missed opportunity for a US based company and from what I understand this is not the last of the old oversea's players plotting a path back into US distribution.  And why not it's wide open. 

As for what does this mean here in the states, Certainly there will also be a number of impacts.  The first is that another major entertainment company means more money for the whole sector and hopefully more awarenes in general as they fight it out for stars, time and attention of the public.  Another part of this will be in the way BMG itself operates having not been active in US distribution for almost a decade there's few in the industry others than those left know about the serious ball that BMG plays. Lastly,  this could also mean some more consolidation in the indie ranks as they considering getting market share and assets that help them compete in the US though acquisitions.    

Here's the link to the release

PS they're preparing to release  Alabama (18 September) and Janet Jackson (2 October).


A Major is a record label that has guaranteed distribution from the likes of Sony, Universal, and WEA and now of course BMG. 

Monday, September 14, 2015

Mic check looking for the Press you're needed in aisle 1-100


With the start of the ramp-up for fall and holiday sales the story still unfolding is the inability of digital to take away market share from physical sales.   There's a number of reason why this is happening; However the issue at hand today is the continued obsession by the press to cover only the digital side of music.

The lack of focused journalize and technical analysis keeps one of the US's best industries in check. 


The shear amount of press that Digital music get's vs physical on the market share alone shows something is amiss.  If 56 precent of the sales are physical why is digital covered at twice the rate of it's market share.   Or! perhaps worse is the complete lack of coverage in the US Press about our top culture export (Entertainment)  should be another sign.  Sadly the only story I've found about physical is from overseas.

"While HMV saw declines across both video and gaming, it held its value for physical music, helped by new releases including English Graffiti by The Vaccines and How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, the third album from Florence and the Machine. With the re-launch of its online store in June 2015, HMV now has access to the 3.8 million shoppers who purchased physical music and video in this way in the last quarter, which should improve its performance. "  Author Fiona Keenan


How does the USA compete if we're not even in the game or the chosen market to be in pays in cents. It makes no sense.  Yet, that is the state of the art for today knowing the wrong data and acting in the wrong markets. 





DCMadeMusic.com

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Physical music sales where almost 57% of sales last week; Yet still reported as bygone product.



Yet! here we are in the dog days of August and looking at the National Sales report from Nielsen Soundscan that shows of the 3,753,000 units sold 2,150,000 where in physical format for the weekending 08/06.   Now this has happened without and huge releases coming out or a major event like a Jackson Family Tour meanwhile the major of the press in music, was about anything, but physical music.

For anyone thinking that last week was just a blip in the total of digital albums (or equivalent - whatever that really means) sold for the year being 63,205,0000 of the 137,165.000 or 44 percent of your marketplace. Here's the funny part . There's  really one business that can convince all of the new entrants and most of the existing ones to concentrate all of their efforts into the purple part of the pie, aka the smallest part and that's the New Record Business.

Now for those that like profits, it seems the Majors, Sony UNI WEA still concentrate on BOTH and that's why they make billions of dollars and the rest are fighting over pennies almost like being the crustless bread that no one really buys.  Speaking of BuyingThis it was this time last year when the bottom fell out on digital sales and I wonder if this is another signal that same trend will repeat.  Lastly, will this holiday's music catalogs be filled with physical music goodies? I hope so...























  Stupid quotes for the past...
“Keep up the artist awareness and don’t get caught in the common trap of signing both physical and digital distribution deals with the same company.” written by Selenna Nieva, Valleyarm

Why is this Stupid in the Next blog......

PS Come Sept Walmart will be sporting a lot of vinyl.  Read it here first.....





Sunday, August 9, 2015

Your Cities Music is the next big thing and now has a Convention


















Sound Diplomacy are proud to present a new day-long conference series focused on exploring new ideas and strategies between music industry development and issues surrounding city planning, diversity, employment, education, regulation and urban quality of life.  The MusicCitiesConvention mission statement. 
The conference from the looks of it is going to be a good one and  having a convention titled Music Cities is an obvious indicator that a Cities music needs to be taken seriously and now it might get some needed attention -- thanks to the organizers of this conference.  Personally I'm looking forward to attending and more importably showing what we've been doing with our USAMusicCitites.com

Which BTW,  This attention to music is just something the US has not done. Let lone been on anyones agenda, calendar or mind on the national level Save the few Mayors and local planners that have braved the tides of untrue music lies or just ignorance of some techonoblogger that didn't work a day in a legit music business and therefore has ZERO understanding of it.

Now to counter this and make sure that something as important as your cities music is being cared for and treated with dignity and economy fairness the artists, bands, groups, labels, clubs, studios that make this city music to begin which need to be part of this discussion; So please register  (It's the day before Future of Music Conference) and if you can't use the #musiccities hagtag to let the world know.


SINCE THIS WHOLE cities music theme is something that I've been working after it hit me that most music from an artists, band or group won't be more important or overshadow the music culture aka Local Music, that is/was all around them especially here where the notion of music cities in the US is such an important cultural and economy by-product of music.

Music is simply unlike any other item sold, merchandize or manufactured by man or machine.  << ME 

Lastly,  Just for fun, the CITYMUSICDEAL (TM) has a great social media promotion going on and I'd suggest taking up the challenge to follow them on Instagram & Twitter


Thursday, June 25, 2015

ProfessorVC: Please Don't Celebrate Failure!

"ProfessorVC: Please Don't Celebrate Failure!: Silicon Valley and the venture capital industry were built on taking risks and making big bets on technology, teams, and markets."

It's not working is still a failure....is what this blog is saying and I happen to know Paul, somewhat from trying to get him to pay attention to entertainment in the mix of companies that he was investing in,  and he and every other VC in the DMV has said no to content plays. And, funded apps and concepts that aren't even grounded in existing marketplaces and most are failing or moved out of the DMV area.

On an corresponding note a local dad I hang out with that happens to invents for a very large LP said "after the top 10 VC nothing matters"   So this might account for the fodder that is happening downstream from the big winners and lifestyles being promoted like 80's rock & rap stars. There's just not that many companies can can make hits and it's really around asymmetric information more than lack of trying.

Irony is that AltavozEntmt's  products and services BuyingThis(TM) and FanHeatMap(TM) serve to help the whole Entertainment Supply chain figure out the 5w's and again since physical sales are still over 56 percent of sales it's a pretty good strategy to include Bricks and Clicks when considering distribution solutions.




Happy Summer Everyone.



Friday, June 19, 2015

Buy Veteran this Veterans Day













Over the years at Altavoz Entertainment I made a concerted effort to make sure that we worked with US Military Veterans. From spending hours on the phone with new label owners helping them understand the ins-n-outs of entertainment today to pushing out releases from veterans because their story's matter and I've always felt they needed to be heard.



In 2015 - Altavoz launched a VetMusicDeal and it was working with some of the releases that are coming from this that Altavoz decided to bring as many Veteran made releases out for Veterans Day this year.  And! readers here will of course be hearing more about this effort shortly.


Moreover; I hope others see the light and help to ensure that come Nov that we're all able to offer something made from Veterans to be purchased; So, they too can enjoy the Holiday of Sales err Veterans

This Veterans Day  lets all push #BuyVeteran not deals.  Oh yeah, from the looks of sales make sure it's in a physical format since it's still the majority of the sales.


Saturday, May 23, 2015

Changing the game sometimes is just adding a new paint job and snappy name.


For a while we've all heard the cry for innovation, the people aka crowd has been clamoring for it in Music since, well the start of the music biz, and we're hearing about it from citizens demanding and getting their local libraries to open up new activities from 3D printers to installing recording facilities such as DC's Martin Luther King Library as done going back at least a decade.  As I was front row for DC's Mayor Williams ground breaking public libraries effort as a conversation facilitator in the 2005 Speak Out America public forum. And seeing this come to pass a decade later is uplifting.

To that end our company +Altavoz Entmt just launched something so new and innovating that it's making heads scratch, artists get in line and some in DCTech down right upset*


An Exclusive Library Release (TM) ELR thats right since there are 120,000 public libraries and they carry digital & physical entertainment with Altavoz Emtnt as one of the few companies that can upload content into the public libraries via it's LibraryDistributionDeal.com

What remarkable about ELR is that it was done digitally, and ensured that the label was able to participate without subjecting itself to demands of physical manufacturing and now set this release up to be always known as the 1st Exclusive Library Release (TM).  For  Phillip, his record label, Altavoz and the Public Libraries will have a connection that will ensure a unique marketing angle once it's made available to the public on Amazon, iTunes, Spotify and retailers.  We'll also have for every to convince all 120,000 libraries to pick up a copy of history.


To learn more please visit ExclusiveLibraryRelease.com And, for those that wonder why we still try to sell records, according to those that keep track of such things it's still 54% of the market for music sales.

* I posted the news of this release on a local DCTech facebook page and the administrator deleted it without notice. I asked the admin why he censored it and he said that it wasn't relevant to DCTech.  

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Every major city in the USA has same problem the Halibutronization of culture

And, the theft of it's music to the world and enumeration for it. 

I wanted this to be the whole blog title; However, life is too short and most or my titles aren't normally. So what am I saying.   For one the Majors, each use the Import Export Bank IMEX to finance US Made Film, NPR News even made a point of it yesterday when covering President Obama's plea in front of Nike (irony) for more Exporting of US goods.

However what he didn't say nor has any news outlet even hinted at is that the same Majors don't use the Import Export Bank to finance US Made Music.

Think about it the biggest stars in the world, well most of them, are US Recording Artists. Don't use the IMEX bank nor are any of their release being tagged Made in the USA and exported out of it. Now when you here major country stars that sings about the their love of the USA how about asking them how come their releases aren't exported out of it?

We've Halliburtonized the Music of America.  I personally feel this is a real conspiracy; Since every day someone at the Department of State is going on about Cultural diplomacy and even crowing about the impact of Arts. When we don't even bother to export the one art form that we dominate --Music. Last year we exported -397 % in this trade category.

 Change.org petition to support US Made Music

So what does this mean for our USMusicCities It means that the voice of the streets, the soul of the home, the lift in the heart is stuck there just like them.  Meanwhile the best artists, bands, groups are zipped up into the Majors and that city and it's culture will never get another dime from it and the US will lose yet another important exporter of American made Intellectual Property, which is another twist in President Obama's speech yesterday which was protested and I have to ask how come no one is calling out this Administration on it's role in undermining US Made Music?

The two artists that President is most widely know for hanging with don't export one single unit of pre-recorded music out of the USA.  I'd say if the better half of the two alone did that we'd have a trade surplus and our local Blu-Ray, Cassette, CD, DVD, manufacturing plants, not just vinyl operations would be working around the clock.

Here's where it comes home to roost, beside the loss of local economic co-development that Music industry is know for the voices from the people aren't getting out.  Think about it we've had a number of large civil movement in the last decade and not one protest song has made it into the stream of media.    There is a very simple reason.  Most of the protests are about large multi-national companies are taking over the world and guess what they did and likes frogs in pot we're boiling over and protest like the one in Ferguson and Baltimore will keep happening.

What's more American than the Copyright, it's the one thing what we can agree is in the Constitution for our Government to protect and for what it's worth last weeks sells 57% where physical and I dare say not one of these will be backed by the IMEX or Congress via the MUSIC ACT or this President to be exported out of America and fulfilling the need to lift out communities, in music case one song at a time.


Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Top title for Record Store Day is a Cassette Tape from Metallica

Nothing is over until the Fans say it's over.....

According to the Digital  Music News, irony, one of the top release for Record Store Day was not a record it was a Cassette Tape. Let's let that sink in for a moment and thank Metallica for opening the door to a wider audience understanding that fans will still buy physical entertainment, ask the gaming industry, and the #Musicbiz part of it just needs to start asking them who, what, where and when they're BuyingThis(TM) next release.

2. Metallica – “No Life Til Leather” cassette


And this is the very reason why my company @AltavozEntmt has always offered a CassetteDistributionDeal.com  and artists bands and labels can get it very our PhysicalDistributionDeal.com or DigitalPhysicalDistributionDeal.com

There is a reason why we say Altavoz is the Future of Entertainment Today is because the ground work for it is in the past and it needs to be considered since, what goes around comes around and with entertainment that's Gospel. 


BTW I was wrong I thought that Physical would be higher than 55.3% of sales. Part of that is because the majors have occupied the pressing plants and Indie Artists, Bands and Labels aren't able to get time to press their releases and the consumer is getting what the Majors are cramming down their throats and it's another reason that Cassettes are making a come back.   


The Artists that said I won't release on CD and really wanted to do Vinyl can't so then when to the next not-CD item that was cool and that just so happens to be the Cassette Tape.  I sure a reading is scratching their head and saying that makes no sense; However, the hate that has been ginned up for CD's (They're just good enough) makes it hard for some artists bands and labels to understand the Musicnomics of their chosen profession and they often make decisions on how they feel or what they want to believe. 

As I've pointed out before  millennials and small children are obsessed with them and who knows, that walkman in your parents house might be the perfect gift for someones next birthday. And for next year's Record Store Day, I'm going to say that more than vinyl will be on the BuyingThis(TM) list. And! let's get back to VinylRecordDay.com being the day that is just about Vinyl and RecordStoreDay.com.com about the stores and all things music. 

Please  join my @Pintrest board  iLoveCassettes.com and share some Cassette Love on it.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Stop the Tidal wave of BS there's only 1 aritstsowned.co














So the big news was to be that Tidal is artists owned.
TIDAL is an artist majority owned company with a mission to reestablish the value of music, the protection of the sustainability of the music industry rooted in creativity and expression.
In fact there where 2.3 million articles according to the Google about "Tidal Artists Owned" and it wasn't too long for the Internets to figure out that this was more of a needle then the haystack.   And from the press each of these artists have a 3% stake in this company or if my math service me is 36% and not majority. Moreover, owing one channel in an ever going universe of options means nothing.

Let's face it Distribution is King and until Indie Artists Bands and Labels own part of a Worldwide Entertainment Distribution Co. the there, there is just not well, there... I so often love to point out that Digital is only (as of last week's sales)  45% of the sales and that makes having a Physical Distribution Deal more important that being on Tidal or any digital only service. ((See the chart below))

Having talked about a Clicks to Brick Distribution solution for years, I'm glad to see that most aren't buying this notion that owning a digital outlet is the way to go. The real challenge has been to talk on the last mile of cluster fuck that is the music business.  Ownership.   Again, since Distribution is King it stands to reason that having artists bands and labels as owners of the distribution channel is the missing key.  Not inventing a new one single source use of music.

It's also being clear that the existing digital outlets and new ones like Public Libraries are pretty good if not some of them great and when artists, bands and labels sign a Digital Distribution Deal with AltavozEntmt they're music is in every channel and store if you opt for the Digital Physical Distribution Deal 

When Altavoz says every -- we mean every and the power of that was on display last week with the US debut of John Bull and The Bandits, EP Word to the Wise who was on every digital outlet and streaming service and it charted on the iTunes Blues chart #73 and Amazon UK at #8.  This was done with less than the majors monthly coffee budget.


So here's the part that is getting lost IMHO, there is an ArtistsOwned.Co in the music business my wife and I (re)started it in 2011 and I'm very excited to say that we're now going to the next logical progression.  

Unofficially announce CrowdFundedMusic.co Just waiting on the date to be fixed and once we're done the Crowd will have financed the taking over of a Public Co Shell Corporation and making it the ownership vessel for the artists and the crowd to come together and what really is the Future of Entertainment Today 






See everyone at MusicBiz.org annual convention. MusicBiz2015

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Library’s 
local music collection is a huge hit your's is next











This article, Newton library’s 
local music collection is a huge hit  by Boston Herald's Jed Gottlieb and it's about an emerging trend of libraries and local music meeting up at the last place most would think to look --  Public Libraries. However it's so new that many Cities are unaware that their own libraries even could be host to the local musician and I believe this is about to change.

For one,  I happen to know quite a bit about this since my company AltavozEntmt has been partnering with two companies for the last three years to do just this and this channel has now been formalized into our our CityMusicDeal (TM)  and very soon a new deal that will reach into each and every community in the US and bring full circle the  the artists, communities and libraries.

I've always believed that where you buy or consume music is not as important as the fact that consumers and fans are still very interested in music and every TechDork that has ever been shot down in a band and thought that they would via Technology have the upper hand just doesn't understand the love affair that we have with music and it's perhaps the deepest connection we as humans share with the universe and mother nature.  

Now for any Artists Bands or Labels that are wondering how they can get into their local librarians then look no further than Altavoz's DigitalDistributionDeal.com or PhysicalDistributionDeal.com

PS Digital is still below Physical in sales for those that keep count.


Thursday, February 12, 2015

Digital sill below 50% CityMusicDeals and MUSICAct

Let's be clear Physical Music Sales are 55%, if not more* of music sales and the only people that don't get it are the sales reps for digital distribution companies and Indie Musicians.  Just look, the numbers don't add up and investors are realizing that having a PhysicalDistribuitonDeal.com is vital to any companies, artists, band or labels success hence the drop in Digital Only companies stocks.

Who competes in only 45 percent of a market place, again -- Indie Musicans that's who does. And it's because they are lied to or to stupid to understand that 45 percent of a market (that is really dominated by one company) is not a success strategy. Meanwhile the Majors --you know the model that is the "WORSE BUSINESS IN THE WORLD" proclamation made by every CEO of a Digital Music play and most of their recording artists --

Yet! they are still making billions of dollars and they ain't doing it selling downloads or streams 


Now what is the end goal, clearly the multinational companies are not only interested in profits there has to be something else playing out; Because, there is more then money involved and at stake when it comes to music and it's not a good story for US Music; however, that's another blog post called Entertaining our Economy to Death.

I've been really thinking about how we frame the success of some artists when in fact their success is really from the music that came for the city or town that they happened to have been born or moved into and the City's music became part of their DNA as much if not more then they made the City's.  Since it's the City's music that is what frames the larger narrative Chicago Blues, DC's GoGO Seattle Rock, 

Looking at the simple economics of music over a few decades and the new push for US Mayors to export products nicly comes together with a project USMadeMusic.org that seeks promote the export of American made music, the idea dawned upon me to launch a City by City music deal, now called CityMusicDeal(TM) in the top USA Music Cities and (one by one) CityMusicDeal.com will turn into AustinMusicDeal.com, DCMusicDeal.com,  NashvilleMusicDeal.com and etc. connecting the local chambers of commerce, music and arts advocates and any artists band and label that wants a distribution deal. Read more on the website.


Having recently, talked with many of our US Music City Mayor's during the recent Winter Meeting 2015 they heard very clearly that getting exports out was key and most insticlly knew or have come to find out that local music is a priority; However in Washington, DC  music is an after thought other then talks of Cultural Diplomacy which it cannot do if we don't export it.

Really you say an after thought and I say yes! So much so that the only piece of legislation or trade actives I've seen carried out to help US Made Music the M.U.S.I.C. ACT has been in the waiting room for legislation and no one really talks about it.   What is this act?  It would give millions of dollars to local music makes to do just that and export it out of the USA.

Here's the quote from the intro to the legislation

“Our small, independent music labels are finding it increasingly difficult to sell their goods in the global marketplace,” said Nadler.  “This bill would help promote U. S. exports in an extremely competitive industry whose talents cannot be outsourced.  Helping these businesses access foreign markets is also an important part of President Obama’s goal to double U. S. exports in five years – an effort in which New York, home to many independent music labels and artists, continues to take the lead.”  
http://nadler.house.gov/press-release/nadler-seeks-bolster-global-market-american-independent-music

Now I'm not sure why Congress and the Administration aren't supporting this however I've stated a Change.org petition urging Congress to take this up NOW and get support to the one set of Small - large business need and that is working capital and exporting help and that is just what the MUSICAct delivers. Please sign the petition and let folks know about the CityMusicDeal.com it really make an impact on our economy and the lives of some many American's and who can't support that in the USA?

*Vinyl sales is something that I've been involved with for decades and know that what is reported in sales is not reflective of the true volume of vinyl sales.  One of the main reasons being that much of it is sold at shows by indie bands. However the upsurge is just the natural lift that comes from Majors jumping back into it which now means that all of the plants are occupied.   Kinda funny dontcha think.  Majors Occupied the Record Plants that they tried to kill.  

PS get ready for Major back titles on Vinyl to be at $45-55 dollars. 

Monday, January 19, 2015

Co op + iteration is key to release success 2015

Co op,
noun informal

  1.  a cooperative society, business, or enterprise.
Iteration,
noun
    1. the repetition of a process or utterance.
    2. repetition of a mathematical or computational procedure applied to the result of a previous application, typically as a means of obtaining successively closer approximations to the solution of a problem.
    3. a new version of a piece of computer hardware or software.
plural noun: iterations

    C      Coopiterations,
             noun informal
    1.  a co op creating new versions of entertainment, 
    2. Creators of entertainment working with business partners to maximize sell through distribution, means if it's not sold to end user it will come back to supplier of it at a cost. 
Therefore if you have a release coming out your -- already doing it!

Carrying this to the next level,  Your release presumably has a marketing and promotion plan and inside of each of these plans need to be a cooperative marketing and advertisements plans for each phase of the release after manufacturing.

Planning > Recording > Mastering > Manufacturing > Distribution > Retail > Fans 

Check out the Steps outlined in making one commercial song. 


Thursday, January 15, 2015

Welcome to the Year of the local and Musicnomics 101


If you didn't know. 2015 is the year of the local and there is nothing more local then music and a surf spot.  That said what how and when this local trend gears up was not something I wanted to sit on the sidelines of so starting last year I join a local DC group DC Advocates for the Arts and started something called DCMadeMusic.com which is an effort to get DC made music out of DC since that is my local music scene.

However once I really started thinking about our city's music and having read just about every economic paper on what cities have done to bring music into their development and export plans the idea struck to go about this city by city enabling the existing networks to connect to national and global distribution. This way it get to boats, planes and trains for distribution instead of the bands van or car trunk.

So Altavoz and it's partners took some time to review what was happening and also looked at the data coming from the National Endowment for Arts on artistic impacts on the economy my own back ground in music and economics I've come up with a new word to describe what is needed to be taken into consideration

.  Musicnomics an online education in the business of music. 

It's on this new crazy way to secure a music deal   www.CityMusicDeal.com 

Friday, January 2, 2015

Forget about 20what ever... it's 2015 and what does it mean

So things don't always turnout the way the so called experts say they will.  Remember when the CEO of MP3 said that there would be ZERO CD sales in 2015.  Well I bought a CD release yesterday and know that he's full of it. As is anyone telling you to now release you next EP or LP in Physical formats. I also hope that my slide into the beating of all things digital vs physicals can now be tamed by me and we can get on to discussion the economic of what is happening in the music biz today.

Safe to say have the release in Digital and Physical formats across a wide range of formats, ACC, CD, Cass, Flac, WAV, or Vinyl is and asking the fans how and where they're BuyingThis (TM) needs to be your core activity for 2015 and any releases that are planned.

Knowing where to plan based upon where the fans are willing to pay....what if you had two choices in a market place trying to do a tour. One of the markets has more fans willing to be BuyingThis(TM) in physical format over digital formats. Wouldn't this market intelligence be a great piece of information when everyone is planning on supporting a release?

This willingness to pay extends down the whole eco system of the entertainment business.  The Creators and Distributors are now able to talk to the retail channels physical and online and prepare them and include them in an on going dialogue about an individual release in a way never before possible.

When you and your distributor, Distribution is King, are talking about the 16 weeks that you want to spending getting each release ready for it's street date and now having BuyThis(TM) and other technologies are extracting from the waves of chaos that is social media collective intelligence on what a fans whats where when and how.
And since we know that 35% of all social media post involve entertainment it's safe to say that's fishing where the fish are.... Social@Olgvey  - recent survey

Look the magic is the music not the tech and if you have the next big hit there exist, because I helped to create them any kind of deal for your next release and every single pevayor of entertainment on the planet can be a partner.

1. DigitalDistributionDeal.com
2. PhysicalDistributionDeal.com
3. DigitalPhysicalDistributionDeal.com

There now no excuse that you can't get you're music into the system.  The system today is better geared for the independent than ever before. With the majority of this years Grammy nominations going to Independent Artists, the advent of Cities getting behind their music sense and realize beside the sound of it's culture the exporting it is good business.

The Buy Indie Support Local movement is going to be the economy revitalization that non-creatives could never plan for and hopefully would kill it by trying to over bureaucratize it on the way to taking credit for it too.  The music business is not just our culture is part of our economic future and we have work together in a way that most are used to in today Network economies that are more Cities making up Metropolitan areas than State or the Federal Gov. I've been reading a great book called "The Metropolitan Revolution" by Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley and I highly recommend it to readers of this blog because I'm going to be on it like Denver.....

Finally while I don't want to talk about 2014 I do want to say that without Anthony Dunn most of the great artwork that Altavoz has become know for, well Ant is very sick and I've started a GoFundMe campaign to help him. http://www.gofundme.com/helpanthonydunn