Price Per Play

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What is the value of the music experience to the consumer?

In the past, the value of the music experience might have been more connected to the community as music was likely one of very few entertainments the people could enjoy together. Moreover, the value of music and the music experience itself was more allied with live performance rather than selling volume units of CD's, records, or mP3 downloads.

The question here today is not whether or not music was better in the past compared to now, but whether or not the price of music is correct relative to other artforms?

When measured by each unit, by far, photographs, paintings, sketches, sculptures, DVD's, and any other kind of art you can think of is worth far more per unit than music. The only rivals to music in terms of art or entertainment are T.V. and film. Even though more people spend more of their time listening to music or attending a live music performance, music still receives far less monetary appreciation than do other art forms. 

Let's look at this issue another way. If a photograph or painting by a famous artist is valued at $5,000 or $15,000,000 and thousands of people flock to see either one of them at a museum, their values don't change or they might actually go up. But what happens when you buy a digital download or a musician releases a new album?

First of all, the price of a digital download is automatically priced at $.99 no matter what demand is like. Also, the label prices the entire album where it thinks demand will help them to recoup their cost from the production, promotion, and marketing costs related to the project.

But here are some essential differences between other art forms and music. In general, no part of the public ever gets to touch or own the original copies of an artist work unless they buy it. In other words, the general public never gets to own a Picasso painting, unless they can outbid another buyer. However, the general public can buy a poster size print or an art book full of samples of Picasso paintings along with biographical information concerning his development as a person and artist over time.

But with music, the general population almost always gets to have the thing itself. The music is the thing. The master copies of songs produced by a musician or composer are the equivalent items to original paintings by master artists. The master copies are what the labels and producers want to own, but the general public just wants the experience.

But if music is art then it should be prices accordingly in similar terms as art other art forms. A copy of an original photograph by a highly-acclaimed photographer will cost the consumer less than the original. Same thing goes when it comes to copies or prints of original paintings.

With music, though, many people mistakenly believe that composers and musicians are selling a performance when really they're selling ideas or a shared emotional experience. Music is a means of communicating ideas and emotions with sound waves made by instruments and/or voices.

In basic economics, we learn that the price of something goes up when demand increases, and that the price of something goes down when demand goes down. So in theory, as demand goes up, price goes up and when demand goes down, price also goes down.

So then why is the price of a song or piece of music stuck at about $.99 per track? Even if the music is in demand, the price never changes unless the artist wants it to, but under no other circumstances. 

Even though we live in a period of time where master paintings are selling for millions of dollars, the price of music is stable at $.99 per download. Looking around for digital music on Amazon you'll occasionally notice downloads selling for $1.50 or $2, but not often. 

The point here is: more plays = lower cost per play.

100 plays of a $.99 download = .01 per play

10 plays = $.09 per play

In my estimation, there's just no way that $.99 is the value or true price of the music experience that the audience receives when they listen to music they really connect with and enjoy often. Instead, the value of that experience is what the artist or consumer says it is. Therefore, price, when it comes to music, is an agreement made between the artist and consumer about the value of the experience they both think they are giving and receiving through the music.

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Marc

http://stereothesis.com/

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Music is Art

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In the modern era, musicians and composers have an opportunity to claim their status as artists equal and in many cases superior to other art forms and disciplines. 

Before recording, there really wasn't a way for composers and musicians to package and sell their compositions other than through performance or notation. 

In terms of performance, apprentices would learn from master musicians and the tradition would pass along from master to apprentice through the centuries. Throughout this process performance after painstaking study and practice was at the heart of the discipline.

Eventually, a notation system evolved which allowed composers to write down their ideas in order to preserve them, work them out on paper, and to communicate these ideas from person to person. Notation actually made music portable although a music score was not the end product, but rather a means of communicating the end product which was the music itself translated by musicians and performed live. 

Unfortunately, the weakness in the notation system lay in the interpretation which may or may not have been an accurate portrayal of the composer's thought and direction. The system wasn't perfect but it was a step in the right direction to where we are today.

As you can see, performance and portability were two essential steps that needed to be taken before we could arrive anywhere close to the final step of communicating the artist's ideas exactly as they intended. It's in this final step where music crosses over from a communal activity and into a medium similar to painting, sculpture, photography, and other crafts. 

Notice how almost every other art form and craft produces a physical product that can be bought, owned, sold, and circulated as an asset or personal possession. Whereas in the past, music lacked the ability to produce a physical product and therefore could not be bought, owned, sold, and circulated as an asset or personal possession. But this has all changed today.

Now, music can produce a physical product and like other art forms can be bought, sold and owned. But interestingly, the same technology that gave birth to the music recording industry is also destroying that industry and making more difficult for musicians and composers to maintain control over their work. 

Bootlegged music and other types of illegal duplication are pushing the price of the music experience so far down towards zero ($0) that each composer, musician, songwriter, and band have to consider themselves a brand in order to promote and market themselves according to a business model of their own choosing. 

This isn't necessarily a bad thing only because the artists can now decide how they want to package and sell their music. Selling digital downloads is just one type of package, other forms include music DVD's, box sets with the artist's autograph and photos, touring, creating T-shirts and other paraphernalia as well as composing for T.V., film, and video games. Each of these packages is made up of products, each with their own price model, mark ups, and profit potential.

Music is art and now has the potential to be sold by artists directly to buyers, but now it's up to the artist to determine whether or not they'll only sell music or if they'll also package their music with other products. Each artist has to determine what kind of music business they're going to run and try different approaches to find out what works, what doesn't work, and how much of a living they can make doing it.

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Marc

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The Music Vault: Overflow of Creativity - Revisited

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Creativity cannot be contained or regulated since it flows to hidden recesses in the mind or soul and pools into reserves waiting to be harnessed. When too much creative energy is forced into a pool of reserves and is not allowed to flow freely into artistic production, pressure builds in the mind of the individual restraining himself.

This scenario occurs all too often in the field of the arts and the entertainment business, which is totally out of alignment with the needs of the artist and their desire for complete freedom of artistic expression. Instead, what happens, for example as in the case of Prince, is the record label decides how much and how often the musician/composer will be allowed to release their work publicly, so the artist can either wait for the label to dictate their rate of production, break the contract to move forward on their own, but risking a lawsuit, or start a new project under a different moniker, then proceed from there.

Some of the recent revelations about Prince’s music vault illustrate how much unreleased material there must be in the music vaults of most top bands and other solo artists in the music industry that’s just waiting to see the light of day, but won’t because the record labels want to control as much of the production process as they can to protect their investments in the works of their artists. It can be safely assumed that there must be as much unreleased material as there is released material in every artistic field, but for financial reasons or investment purposes labels aren’t allowing the artist the freedom to push their material out publicly.

At one point, Prince in his battle with his record label demanded that he be allowed to release albums at a much faster rate than they were allowing him to, specifically 2 albums per year, in order to keep up with his speed of production and the immensity of his creative vision. This would account for his vast unreleased music collection as well as additional materials and media.

Interestingly, no one doubts that Prince was in possession of such material and that it consists of at least 50 fully produced music videos, full-length albums, and many other kinds of media produced by the artist. In total, there are probably hundreds of hours of music ready for release in the vaults, but rumors are that the material is likely to be released slowly over the next 2 decades. It is also believed that this material includes songs that the artist once said contained some of his finest work.

When a person’s creative capacity is restrained or unnaturally regulated, from within or without, the soul of the person quietly determines that the vehicle is inadequate to serve its aims, therefore the body or restraining influence must be destroyed. Whether the artist restrains their creative capacity by withholding their artistic output or by hiding or withholding their artistic creations, the pressure of withholding becomes a kind of psychic pain, which is formed from the artist’s inability to freely offer their creative work to their audience.

Without resolving this dilemma completely, the psychic pain can morph into physical pain, which forces the artist to find ways to reduce or eliminate the pain. Too often, when artists go through this process of degradation, they self-medicate and frequently overdose. When the artist destroys their body, using one method or another, their decision is swayed by choosing the lesser of two evils. Instead of fighting the record labels in court, which could completely wipe the artist out emotionally and financially, they find other ways to escape the situation.

Prince, along with the many other artists, musicians, and composers, who are trapped by the restraining influence of music labels made his choice and for that we lost a tremendous talent whose absence became an immense void in the soul of humanity. This type of artistic departure I term “black hole creativity” because of the vacuum it leaves in the collective creative mind of all people.

Creativity needs freedom of expression to ensure the physical and psychological health of the individual in possession of an immense artistic capacity. In fact, our physical bodies are the vehicles or tools for artistic production, so when a person works in harmony with their creative capacity, their mind and body are at ease with the nature of the creativity that resides within them. The artist must be free to create as often and as quickly as they are capable and for this they should be amply rewarded and revered.

Click here to learn more and read the article “Black Hole Creativity.”

Click here to learn more and read the article "The Overflow of Creativity: Why Artists Need to Find New Areas to Conquer, New Worlds to Explore"

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Marc

http://stereothesis.com/

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The Formula for Catchiness

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A(H) x P + M = C

Art multiplied by its Hypnotic elements plus the multiplied effect of Promotion and Marketing equals its Catchiness.

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Catchiness is a term that denotes a kind of attraction, emotional adhesive, or a way of binding two or more things via aesthetics. In the case of art and its catchiness, the artist is trying to catch the attention of the audience and bind the mind and emotions of the audience member together with a creative product.

In the formula above, art should be thought of as a creative idea, concept, design, or product. The human mind is the source of creativity and clearly differentiates us from other living beings.

Hypnotic elements refers to those items or qualities that an artist imbues their work with that is attention grabbing, technically superior, important, urgent, or emotionally meaningful. The dynamic components of each field of art construction mainly comprises its hypnotic elements, so it is an understanding and mastery of those elements that the artist must gain in order to produce effective emotional experiences in the mind of the audience member.

Once the artist has completed his creative work by carrying it from concept to construction, he must then start the process of making it known. This is what is referred to by promotion and marketing, the activity of communicating what one has to offer or what one has made available for sale. The business side of creative work is one of the most neglected aspects of the artist lifestyle, yet it is by far the most important. If one has the desire to make one’s living as an artist, then one has to know how to promote and market his work.

All together these 3 factors form the “catchiness” of art. Of all these factors the most difficult to learn is promotion and marketing because it is in itself the art of selling, which is how an artist makes money. The other 2 factors are the prime activities that define the artist, developing creative ideas and making them attractive to others.

One can visualize the artist as a fisherman with his artwork thrown out into the ocean as bait and the audience as a school of fish swimming aimlessly. Once the fish see the bait floating freely, they all move in unison toward it, and that’s how they are caught in the net and pulled aboard the fishing vessel. The net is a good symbol of the power of promotion and marketing to reel in fish.

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Marc

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How Royalties Can Help Artists Achieve Financial Freedom

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Financial Freedom and Wealth Defined
 
In the Rich Dad books, you'll find the simplest and most understandable definitions of financial freedom and wealth.
 
When the income from your assets equals or exceeds your living expenses, you're financially free. In other words, when you receive a steady stream of income that is not dependent on you working for it, then you are free from the necessity of labor. This is financial freedom and you can achieve it in part or completely with royalty income.  
 
Now the measure of your financial freedom is also the extent of your wealth. The measure of wealth can range from a few days time to infinity. In other words, wealth is measured in time. So the question is, "How many days can you survive without working?" If you're living paycheck to paycheck, then your wealth might only last a week to one month. If you have savings, actively flip homes, or trade stocks, then your wealth might last much longer. But if you work to generate cash flow or passive income for life, then your wealth is actually infinite. The beauty of the royalty is that not only can it make you financially free, but it can also make you truly wealthy.


Achieving Financial Freedom through Art Income
 
 

 
 
 

The secret to achieving financial freedom is really just a series of simple formulas. The formulas are easy to understand, but they all require discipline to follow. The success of each formula lies in the consistency to follow it. The consistency is the key.

Here are just a few formulas with which to get started.

1. Convert your time, energy, and talent into producing and promoting quality desirable creative products. Market them to the correct public and flow the income you receive into acquiring assets.

2. Convert your time, energy, and talent into producing and promoting quality desirable creative products. Discover ways of merchandising your artwork using a scalable approach to reach an ever greater audience or consumer base. Instead of playing or performing live consider investing in the production of a DVD of a live performance and letting each DVD earn money for you. The speed of distribution for 10,000 or 100,000 DVD's can far exceed, the speed of travel while touring. Touring can accelerate the rate of sales, but 100,000 DVD can have a far greater reach than touring can. Moreover, the profit potential on 10,000 or 100,000 DVD's will be much higher than each show without merchandise, so use merchandise.

Illustrators can try T-shirts or animated movies. Musicians and composers can work on getting their music into films and T.V. shows. Chefs can develop all kinds of dishes and sell books of recipes or start a network or on-line cooking show. Writers can think about audiobooks. Photographers and painters can think calendars or aligning themselves with home decorating magazines and T.V. shows. The list is endless and is limited only by imagination.

3. Convert your time, energy, and talent into producing and promoting quality desirable creative products. Leverage the success of all your previous promotional and marketing efforts in the negotiation of your royalty contract. After you've proven the profitability with the accounting from your creative business or company, you can negotiate the terms and percentages. Sign the contract and use your royalty income to pay for your expenses and for the additional purchasing of income producing assets.

Royalties

So what is a royalty? Basically, it is a contract between the distributor and the holder of a valued product (intellectual property) that agrees to pay the provider a percentage of profits for the life of the contract.

Royalties are the primary way a musician can generate passive income. Passive income is cash flow and cash flow is money that comes to you on a regular basis without you having to work for it. The contract guarantees the income and the value of the intellectual property is what produces the royalty. The royalty is a derivative of the intellectual property.

For artists, the way to begin producing royalty or passive income from their artwork is to start with the artwork itself. If your goal is to live off of the earnings from your artwork, you must first produce work that is desirable and profitable (in demand and selling). The more in demand it is the easier it will be to offer investors, publishers, and distributors as an intellectual property. They must see the profit potential in it for themselves before they will even consider purchasing rights for a piece (percentage) of the action.  

So step 1 is focus on the quality of the artwork itself.

Step 2 is focus on the marketing and promotion.
After you have a quality product which has that special something to it that's getting a positive response from the public, receiving the most attention, and producing the most income for you, then your efforts must turn to deepening that interest by focusing on marketing and promotion.

Your promotional efforts must test and locate the best channels for getting the word out about your creative products, while your marketing plan must specify how you will deliver those products to your public and get paid when those sales are made. Some artists will make the bulk of their money from touring, selling art or music on-line, by publishing e-books on Kindle, performing as opening acts, or by becoming well-known in a region or territory. Continue to feed the channels of your success with further investment of time, energy, and creative products.

The next stage of your development will come from finding new opportunities to scale up in your promotion and marketing. The highest success achievement for a creative person might be artistic saturation, which would be where their work seems to permeate the social fabric in our time and for future generations. Artistic saturation could also be seen as the point where the artist as an individual or their artwork is inseparable from the idea of human culture.

As your sales continue to grow, you must seriously consider transforming your love for art into a business by setting up a legal entity or company. Aside from your copyrights, your choice of business entity such as the S- or C-corporation, limited liability corporation (LLC), and limited partnership (LP) will also help to protect your assets (intellectual properties) from legal predators, family members, and other artists. These protections will also help you shield the income you produce from these individuals.

Consult with an intellectual property attorney for additional information, education, and to structure a company around your artwork. This is the best way to protect your song, painting, recipes, poetry, and designs from copyright infringement and counterfeiting.

So again, the royalty produces cash flow in the form of passive income (or money you don't have to work for) that comes to you on a regular basis. An asset is something that increases in value over time and the royalty is an income producing asset. To learn more about assets and cash flow read Rich Dad, Poor Dad and The Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki.

Here are several other creative approaches to generate artistic sources of royalty income: music compositions, jingles, publishing rights, inventions, methods, systems, or processes (such as video editing software or music recording hardware), and real estate that may hold valuable artistic significance such as historic hotels, homes, tours, and museums (think The Wax Museum in Hollywood and the Presley's Graceland). Wardrobe, jewelry, illustrations, old guitars, memorabilia from film, music history, the entertainment industry, or the personal lives of celebrities can also be excellent sources of income to add to your artist asset column.

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Marc

http://stereothesis.com/



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