Free Agents Abound

Trent Reznor is following in the footsteps of Radiohead by announcing on their blog that they are shifting to being free agents. Looks like the music industry is shifting, this time drastically, once again.

NIN announced on Monday via the bands personal website that they are pursuing being free agents to have more direct contact with fans.

Radiohead did the same this past week. In a bold business move Radiohead is selling their new album for whatever customers want to pay.. a dollar, a penny, a benjamin, you name the price. I think it will be a great move for the band, and so does the Economist:

"The Daily Telegraph speculates today that the free download is likely to pay off in increased demand for tour tickets and a flood of fan marketing data. Perhaps, but as the mounting number of news stories on the strategy attest, Radiohead hardly needs to struggle to find its way into the popular press. The new album will probably increase interest in subsequent tours, potentially increasing the band's ability to raise ticket prices, but such is the group's popularity that it could feasibly tour for years on end with no new album and still sell out venue after venue."

In fact, I expect that business professors across the country will be using Radiohead as a case study in the future.

Facebook Confessionals

Awhile ago I watched a video produced by Kevin Dugan of the blog Strategic Public Relations. Turned on to his series 'Facebook Confessionals' by a friend who knows I like the facts and figures supporting social media use, I've become a fan of his videos and blog. These videos highlight Dugan's own use of the site and his observations. The commentary and overall subject matter is funny but informative.

I was able to leverage the information in one particular video to make a case for using Facebook in discussions with a client. This client is an independent record label in Los Angeles. I've been working the idea over in calls since March and this video finally did most of the talking for me. By showing them Dugan's second episode to illustrate the number of different traditional media journalists who are registered the client was able to see a value in the service. So....after many long months of discussion we have a Facebook profile up and running profiling the label's electronic press kit. Aligned with the goal of forming relationship with journalists working for niche lifestyle and music publications, the venture has proved useful.

Many companies (and prospective clients) want to utilize social media and the tools which support it, but are scared to give up control-- it is something I see both in the contract work I'm involved in and my full time consulting position. I don't think organizations as a whole have a place on Facebook, but PR, marketing and media professionals are using the site to their own advantage. But just as Dugan mentions in his videos-- content is king. Make your page look as flashy as you want, but in the end viewers need useful and relevant content, it is best to have goals in mind before venturing out there unattended.

Below are the videos, to view more of Dugan's installments check out his YouTube page.

Episode One 'Facebook Video:Too Simple?'


Episode Two 'Fishing for Facebook PR Benefits'


Episode Three 'Is Friend a 4-letter Word on Facebook?':

Snocap is Melting

Snocap, a online music sales and distribution engine looks like it's heading for rough times-- or a buyout, whichever comes first. According to a Wired.com article a few days ago 60 percent of the staff were given pink slips.

Snocap is Shawn Fanning's second attempt at fameand fortune after his innovative.. but not so ethical attempt at music sharing online after founding Napster. Snocap is a ecommerce solution for independent record labels looking for a fast and easy way to license and distribute music online. Their digital music players are easy to embed into MySpace pages and web pages alike, and the players are dynamic, allowing listeners to select music to purchase before being brought to a registration and checkout page. This functionality also means no more intricate shopping carts or e commerce solutions that are tough on the budgets of small independent labels.

Here's a few reasons why I think Snocap failed (or is failing):

• A lack of bargaining power against iTunes
• Failure to work with sites like Rhapsody, Imeem and Last.fm where a brand presence could have been established to not only sell but also recommend music.
  
• Even though the core functionality of the site is similar to competitors the 'check out' model is difficult to follow, as far as I am concerned, filling out yet another registration for a site to download a song wasn't really worth it when I could use existing accounts on iTunes, Beatport and Traxsource.
• Margins are small for both Snocap and Labels. Artists and labels are given the chance to set their own prices with Snocap, but you've got to think that conversion rates of viewers to sales is small...even though I admittedly have no data. If a website is estactic to see a 3 percent conversion rate, I'd be surprised to expect much from a model like Snocap.
• The player looks like just that, a player, not a way to purchase-- therefore, no brand identity or hint at functionality within the palyer --no sales.

I'm no expert, but the above are pretty common sense from a consumer trying to use the service a few times for more of my own obscure music download needs.

Targeted Marketing on MySpace and Facebook-- Is it Really Worth the Hype?

I like research, and I like insight, and I always have. Marketing actions are always based on, or at least successful marketing actions, are based on facts and historical data. To easily keep myself in the know over the past few years, I have gotten email pings from various social media and SEO resources for a few years now. If you are interested in these email newsletters check out Marketing Sherpa's newsletter sign up page. You will see a plethora of publication and topics to choose from, however choose wisely or your email box will fill up faster than you can blink!

Today I was sent a notification from iMediaConnection, linking to an article written by Michael Estrin about Marketers using MySpace for 'interest' targeted marketing. MySpace has disclosed publicly that content of users pages will be searched and based on the interests listed, targeted ads will be deployed on a profile-by-profile bases. Estrin writes a well balanced article about both the positives and negatives with using these social networks as marketing tools. Any opinion I share is simply that- opinion and in no way a reflection on Michael Estrin's great piece.

It is only fitting that social networks leverage customer insights and interest to earn advertising dollars. Registrants fill in fields about their favorite: movies, music, books, interests and more. Each soical networking engine naturally gravitates to a specific audience, MySpace the younger generation interested in fashion, music and the like while Facebook has 'kept in real' in a sense by attracting professionals, journalists and other media folk.

However, in my own opinion that making MySpace and Facebook a case study, or thought leaders based on proposed targeted marketing plans, is inaccurate. AdSense is a application and advertising engine where Google utilizes proprietary search technology to place ads based on websites based on content, users locations, meta tags and other various criteria. AdSense was purchased by Google in 2003, and genuinely set the bar for targeted online marketing.

Both AdSense and the targeted marketing happening in the social networking space is inevitable, this information needs to be leveraged. On a more positive note, major players using consumer generated media (CGM) to garner insights on customers gives social networks and consumer generated media a deserved and overdue buzz. Maybe marketer and decision makers in some organizations will think twice about 'missing the boat' on gaining customer insights thorough CGM. Eventually I feel that online communities (either private or public) will almost replace focus group, formal surveys and other traditional market research methods.

It will be interesting to see what happens to my MySpace page once these changes are in order. As a plain ole registrant myself I've already seen ads on my personal backend page that are pretty irrelevant. After a bit of investigation I found that most of the information was really from the comments field of my public profile, very few of which have anything to do with what I would spend my disposable income on.

It will be insightful and telling to see how it all pans out-- not just in functionality but also pricing structure.

Welcome to The Cost of Doing Business

I've always been afraid of that feeling of 'what if I took that risk?'. With many changes on the horizon for my life in general I always have a feeling not of 'what if i took the risk', rather I think 'what if I fail?' I never remember the successes of my life during times like this, I sometimes think that since things are so good, they're bound to get bad eventually right? The reality is plain and simple: 90 percent of the unforgettably good times in my life trailed some of the most miserable and difficult periods I've known. I wouldn't be so grateful to be shown some kind of light without the dark days.

With that in mind, this is the exact reason I have decided to write this blog. I am a 25 year old marketing consultant. I've satisfied and happy at my current job and the experience I have gained in consulting and management of both projects and people will help me in the future regardless of my career path. However, I know there is more for me out there. Like many young professionals my age, with my work experience has come a realization of what I really want to do with my life and that's to work in the music industry. You will real abut my trials and tribulations in these posts surrounding taking the GRE's, working for an independent record label, applying for my masters and general career and business tips I find along the way. I'll share the good and bad in these post, because in the end, it's all about the cost of doing business.

To kick things off, the philosophy of this blog is really summed up in a speech from Steve Jobs which helped me put it all into perspective. Steve Jobs spoke at Stanford's commencement last year and had some great advice to anyone living in this stage of flux. Everyone knows the story of Job's and how even though he dropped out of college he followed his dreams, and his gut, to found Apple Computers.

In the speech (broadcast on YouTube) he tells three different stories to highlight the theme of following your heart. Here is a snapshot of all three stories:

Connect the dots: Jobs was given up for adoption by his biological mother at birth, she wanted him to go to a college educated home. However, after the first prospective parents decided they wanted a girl, Jobs mother had no choice but to allow her child to be adopted by a non-college educated family. The only promise made was that baby Steve would one day attend school. Steve goes on to talk about his decision to drop out of college because he had no interest in the 'required' courses, rather opting to attend a few courses of his own choice. He goes on to note that some of the things he learned in these courses truly benefited him in the future. He ends this story saying that 'you cannot connect the dots when looking forward, only when looking back'. This insinuates that as humans we learn in hindsight, that we have to trust that it's all going to be ok if we just take the risk.

Loss and Redemption: In this section of Jobs' speech is about personal failures being your strongest point in life for growth. Jobs' previous firing from Apple was a big media blitz, so was his return to the company years later. From his own experience Job's had great advice for the audience: 'failure is fine as long as you love what you do', he goes on to expand on the fact that sometimes you need to know what you don't like before you find out what you do enjoy. In fact, if he hadn't been fired from Apple he notes he wouldn't have founded Pixar, NEXT and he probably wouldn't have met his wife.

Death: Surprisingly Jobs even found a way to incorporate our own inevitable deaths to illustrate his point in this speech. He notes that he asks himself everyday 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I have to do'? if days go by and his answer is 'no' Jobs knows something in his life needs to change. He notes that after surviving a cancer scare, he learned that the best invention of life is death. For this invention makes people clean out the old and bring in the new, it reminds us not to live someone else's life. Finally, knowing we are all going to die kills the illusion that we have something to loose, instead, Jobs notes that we should all 'stay hungry and stay foolish'.