Week Eight: SURPRISE!

In 2013, the surprise album became a thing. "This year's most obvious examples are Kanye West's Yeezus, Jay Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail and Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience, but there are also others, like Sleigh Bells, who only gave fans and the press a month's notice that its third album Bitter Rivals would be coming in early October." Most recently, Drake dropped his If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late album. In contrast to films, artists earn a high profit from surprise albums. Growing in popularity, surprise albums will not work for every artist. To try and understand this approach, Eric Ducker got on the phone with Amaechi Uzoigwe, who has been a manager for two decades.

Drake's surprise album cover

Uzoigwe says that surprise albums are both a marketing technique and the reality of how audiences consume music now. He explains that musicians use it because if their album gets leaked it impacts sales, thus promoting and marketing an album months in advance isn’t always the best thing for an artist to do. “[Surprise albums are] an adaption by people on the marketing side to get in front of these things. It can be really savvy and smart, but a very important consideration is that the artist has to already be very established.” He continues to explain by comparing Jay-Z to Four Tet. Jay-Z is a huge superstar while Four Tet has been around forever and has a strong fan base. People know both artist but, if an unknown musician releases a surprise album, it’s compared to having a tree fall down in the forest and no one hears it. When an artist has a brand, surprise albums can be a marketing tool as well as great press. “ It's exciting to people, because everything moves at such a high velocity these days. The enormous volume of music out there also plays a role.”

Amaechi Uzoigwe

Ducker asked, “ If they keep hearing about something, but don't hear it soon, now they're going to lose interest in it.” Uzoigwe responded by say that once the musicians tell press about their album, it's going to get leaked. He emphasizes the fact that it’s inevitable and once an album leaks it’s everywhere. “They don't care if it leaks and destroys your campaign. I'm not saying they don't care in some malicious way, but I don't even think this new generation of music consumer even thinks that way.” Uzoigwe believes that musicians should use audiences behavior as an advantage. In addition, Uzoigwe mentions that surprise album sales are all luck and having good quality music.

Ducker’s question was, if artists, labels and managers were adapting to this or do are they still stuck up on older models? Uzoigwe response was in-between, it depends on age. “The younger artists, they didn't grow up even knowing the old model, so it doesn't matter to them. They're all about immediacy. It's frustrating to them, especially those who end up getting signed by a label who then has a more traditional approach.”

http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2013/10/21/239071510/a-rational-conversation-manager-amaechi-uzoigwe-on-surprise-album-releases

Ducker, E. (2013, October 21). A Rational Conversation: Manager Amaechi Uzoigwe On Surprise Album Releases. Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2013/10/21/239071510/a-rational-conversation-manager-amaechi-uzoigwe-on-surprise-album-releases

Week Seven: The Future Music Industry

 Ten years from now, all major labels will go under and self-publishing and do it yourself labels will boom. "As the internet grows and becomes even more accessible, the tools to do all of the label’s work will gradually shift to the hands of the people." However, this projected idea will only happen if audiences reinvest in the music industry. Not reinvest their money, but reinvest their interest in music. Music became valueless for two reasons: the amount of music online and the quality that musicians are releasing. The abundance of music on online platforms and the amount platforms expect consumers to pay is driving consumers listen to their music on free platforms. While platforms like iTunes has customers pay $15 plus for an album or $1 a song, Pandora or Spotify are free and pay artists next to nothing. "Because there is always more to hear, and to listen thoroughly is either an expensive or illegal prospect, all albums carry less artistic weight and feel more disposable."The quality of music artists are creating are vacuous, and purposeless. Music executives chose hit songs, which win Grammy's and then its off to the next hit single. Executives are trying to make a profit so the more songs they chose to release the more money they make. "Few songs receive widespread audience by emerging from the ground up because the system is no longer organized to facilitate that.The trickle-down industry apparatus has to be flipped and reformatted to match the way that quality music is shared and spread on the Internet and in the blogosphere."
     The newest music and ideas are spread from music blogs. The trend in the music industry are music blogs. Blogs seek new music to share inspiring music. "They have similar intentions to the artists they publicize. Blog traffic is what launches and sustains careers like those of Odd Future, Tame Impala, and Azealia Banks. Label support comes after the fact and does relatively little to further them." In ten years, blogs will be the main method for distributing and promoting music. Musicians may need a publicist but they will not need the resources offered from a record companies. Music executives have to understand that music will never be as profitable as it once was. The industry should make cheaper albums instead of making consumers guilty of not supporting their favorite artist when not purchasing the artists album. Music executives should also release that sharing only a fraction of the profit they make to artists is not a good business model. "Outlawing torrents won't do that much if the legitimate music market continues to be overpriced and inaccessible. People will just find new ways to share music. Torrents do need to be outlawed; I’m convinced of that now. But the music industry’s exploitation of both artists and consumers also has to stop, or we’ll just revert to the toilet state we have now once torrenting is outlawed."

     The music industry has to start working with artists, and not use them as possessions in order to satisfy audiences.  Music should allow artists to record, distribute and profit from their music their way. Executives won't be able to receive profits off of musicians if the industry changes. The predicted music industry will allow artists to produce and release better quality music."It'll also help people realize that musical artistry is something worth paying for, which is what will ultimately allow what’ll be left of the industry to become profitable again."

http://mic.com/articles/28146/what-will-the-music-industry-look-like-in-10-years
Barnes, T. (2013, February 27). What Will the Music Industry Look Like in 10 Years? Retrieved February 22, 2015, from http://mic.com/articles/28146/what-will-the-music-industry-look-like-in-10-years

Week Six: Music Thinking Skills

    "Did you hear Blank's new album," and "Oh My Gosh this song is my jam," are popular sayings teenagers use when talking about music. "Teenagers listen to an average of nearly 2.5 hours of music per day." They spend more time listening to music then they do watching TV. Artists as well as their music play a massive role on the very persuasive teenager. 

     According to a new report by The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescence Medicine, 1 in every 3 songs teens listen to use drug or alcohol references."Studies have long shown that media messages have a pronounced impact on childhood risk behaviors." Teens can't stop musicians from writing about drugs or alcohol but their different tastes in music saves some while destroying others. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine conducted a study using 279 songs released in 2005. This research shows that 9 percent of pop songs, 14 percent for rock songs, 20 percent for R&B and hip-hop songs, 36 percent for country songs and 77 percent for rap songs had lyrics relating to drugs or alcohol. "The study authors noted that

music represents a pervasive source of exposure to positive images of substance use." 
     I think that artists have a choice to use their music as a positive or negative influence. But, I understand that teens are also peer pressured into participating in drugs and drinking. I think that every musician has a choice and there's no way to change it. Music is following trends in society and right now having a WILD time is one trend.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/under-the-influence-ofmusic/?_r=1
Under the Influence of...Music? (2008, February 5). Retrieved February 14, 2015, from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/under-the-influence-ofmusic/?_r=1

Week Five: Marketing Plan-The Future (3 of 3)

     So far, the greatest marketing plan has consisted of an artist having a strong online presence and how to release new music in the most effective way. This part in the marketing plan is about the future. An artist second plus record sales depend on how relevant they stay in the present. Musicians should change it up after new albums such as adding merchandise. It is important for a musician to keep putting music videos out and maybe even a tour. This part of the plan is all about music, social media, and performing live.
     "Gone are the days of releasing an album once every couple of years and leaving it at that, today’s artists need to be constantly feeding their fanbase new music." Releasing new music keeps their audience engaged. For example, Austin Mahone, an artist from Florida who has released zero albums, but has sang plus or minus 69 songs. This nineteen year-old has almost 8 million follows on Twitter and has 5.5 million on Instagram. Artists don't need to release only new work, they can sing a cover, or create a mixed tape of one song, and it will still keep their fans interested. "Please note, to legally sell a cover song artists will need to obtain and pay for a mechanical license." 
     The smartest investment an artist can have is to have social media. Even when taking a break, musicians should ALWAYS be on social media- most importantly Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Musicians should also keep up with their newsletters. In this newsletter, artists should talk about similar things that were on their social media but with more details or something completely different. Newsletters are influential because it keeps musicians fans in the loop. 
     Artists should continue to tour and travel. If their is a problem and artists can't travel internationally or even to a specific place musicians could do live streams. Live streaming is just like FaceTime but musicians can't see their fans. On the other hand, they can read fans comments live. It is a solution to interact with their fans. Using social media artists can tell their fan base what time their doing the Live stream and how to get to it. Each live stream, if an artist choose to use, should be different from the last. They can play games, sing covers, have guests on their "show". Their guests could be a singer, or a friend and family member. " The goal of all this activity is to get people excited so they are telling their friends about the upcoming release and will buy it the minute it’s available!"

http://cyberprmusic.com/2014/10/24/musicmarketingplan-3/
The Musician's Guide to Creating an Effective Music Marketing Plan (Part 3 of 3) - CyberPR Music. (2014, October 24). Retrieved February 7, 2015, from http://cyberprmusic.com/2014/10/24/musicmarketingplan-3/