Goodnight Kiss (BMI) Scene Stealer Music (ASCAP) Songwriter Daily Updates

Goodnight Kiss Music
www.goodnightkiss.com

June 20-30, 1999

TODAY's TOPIC ~ Internet Music Marketing

Do you know what a Paradigm Shift is? It is when the standard, the norm, the world as you know it suddenly experiences a dramatic change that forever impacts the way your reality is viewed or the aforementioned operate. The Internet has certainly done that to our world, and Music is as affected by this as any other area of business or life in general.

Musicians who are new to the Internet feel that "all they need is a webpage" and they can expose their music to the world. Once one has learned a bit about the Net, one has a tendency to spend time with "meta tags" and "search engine results", MP3 files, and other bells and whistles. Then, you realize that you need ecommerce and shopping carts and things that take any hope of profit from your CD distribution. And you realize how hard it is just to get people to your site, let alone buying your product.

Songwriters use Real Audio and MP3 hoping that an artist or producer will "stumble" onto their song (which is usually on a page promoting an artist, or mixed among songwriters at an MP3 site, sometimes for a fee.) I can't help but tell you that a person who is ACTIVE in the Music Industry does not spend much time hitting unknown artist sites (let alone writer sites) unless she or he has been sent there by a "buzz" from somewhere else, or a personal recommendation by someone whose opinion he respects. There just isn't time for that. It can happen.... but I would bet you a big stack of royalties that there are not 2 songs on the Billboard Charts this year that sprung from a "stumbled across a song on the Internet".

So, great. What is it good for? As usual, this is just my opinion, but I see the Net as a potential for many things. First, it gives people a reference as to where to locate you, if nothing else. Pick a domain name you're going to stay with... perhaps your ownname.com or whatever, so that you are easy to find from memory. Then make a page that has your contact info.
Now, sit and think for awhile about your own behavior on the net, ok?

Do you shop on the net for anything? What?
If it's music, is it KNOWN groups, or Independents?
How many Independent CDs have you purchased where you did NOT know anyone connected to the project in some way?
How much did you pay? Were you able to order and pay for it immediately? Did you pay to download it?
Do you have a plan to sell your music on your site? How? How will you promote it? Will you encode it? Will you have immediate ecommerce options available? How much of a percentage will you give up to be carried on a site that is NOT yours?

I have my own ideas about what is desirable in any project, Internet or not. But until I apply these theories on the Net, they remain theories. In September, we start are producing product for an Internet Marketing venture with an Online Store, and I would love to hear about any experiences and/or opinions you have on the topic before then. As always, I will write about it here.

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