Things are changing

Greetings and welcome.

In November of 2013. I will no longer be supporting this blog as I will move towards a full-scale online rebranding focused on my research and passion for music business marketing.  You can check out my new blog directly at my website which is:

www.jeremylarochelle.com

I will keep this blog active, as I feel there has been a lot of information shared for both drummers and musicians alike. Just remember, I will not be maintaining the new site. So please visit:

www.jeremylarochelle.com

I look forward to seeing you there!

Daisy: Direct to (streaming) fans, but not marketed to them.

Two weeks ago Beats Electronics, the company led by Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre., announced they were starting their own music streaming service called Daisy that they will launch later this year. In a related move, Beats also made an undisclosed investment in Topspin, the online business that provides back-end digital services for musicians and labels to facilitate the direct to fan model. You can read the full article here from The LA Times.

This business play was recently the theme of serious discussion on this past week's Hypebot's Upward Spiral podcast (by the way if you are a serious musician, or serious about the music industry, you probably should be listening to this podcast). After listening to the show and reading up on the venture. Only one thought comes to mind.

You can seriously tell that the business side of the music industry is run by musicians, and that isn't necessarily a good thing.

 Let me shed some light on this statement.

One of the biggest problems with most bands, is they don't give a damn about the fan, the person who pays for tickets, music, and merch; who, ultimately, puts food on the table for the artist. If they are a cover band, they normally choose songs they want to play, not what the fan wants to hear, and then they complain that nobody is showing up at their gigs. If the band is an all original unit, it is even worse. Most of the time, these groups refuse to play covers and try to force-feed their fans their own (mostly shitty) material. Then, they too, wonder why nobody shows up at their shows.

Now, before I get a million emails from bands telling me they don't do that, I must say this isn't an absolute truth, but I will guarantee it is well north of 80% of the acts out there.

And now we have Beats, run by a musician, moving into the streaming world. And they put another musician, Trent Reznor, in charge as Chief Creative Officer of the new initiative, whatever that means. No offense to Trent, he is one talented guy, and the founder of the CwF=RtB (connect with fans = reason to buy) model, but will this business venture work out with a musician in charge?

I can already see the problem with Daisy. The whole premise behind Daisy, is that it will give fans the chance to buy merchandise, tickets, and downloads direct from the artist, while they stream their favorite tunes. This doesn't appear to be a need set-fort by fans (consumer led marketing), but rather bands and labels (business to business marketing).

So here we go again. We are going to give the world another streaming service with no value proposition for the fans, but for the artists. So what is going to happen? Chances are Joe Blow the music fan won't give a shit, but Jimmy and His Big Dream Band will try, forcing Joe to change from Spotify to Daisy so he will buy concert tickets, merchandise, and music. They will send Joe emails, Twitter feeds, FaceBook Statuses, anything short of aerial cloud writing, hoping to get Joe to switch over from Spotify or Pandora, listen to their music, and hopefully impulse buy tickets.

Does this really appeal to the fan? The person who is the end consumer of the music industry?

My prediction is Daisy will show up with a big splash. It will appeal to bands and record labels, but not to fans. The service will survive with probably the same amount of users as MOG, which is around 500,000, and that will be it. Fans of music will stick to Spotify, Pandora, and iHeart and those ventures will see increased revenue.

That isn't to say the direct to streaming fan model isn't a great idea. It is so great that eventually Spotify, Pandora, and all the other streaming services will adopt Daisy's model. This will kill Beat's new business units value proposition, but will be awesome for musicians and labels. So at least some good will come of this. And for that I say thanks to Iovine, Dre, and Reznor.

The Degree is Over, But the Learning has Just Begun!

It has been a long time coming...This week I will graduate with my Bachelor of Science in Music Business Management.

Over the past two and a half years I have been studying, but not in a classroom.  Because I was "on the road" I had to obtain my degree with the help of technology...Online.

I chased that degree while I worked on cruise ships, paying 35¢ per minute to watch my lecturers, research and upload assignments, and participate in virtual discussions. At some times this cost me close to $200 per month in Internet bills alone.

For a while I got to study "on land" as I worked as a show band drummer for a five star resort nestled in northern New Hampshire. The remote spot where I lived lacked an Internet connection, so I went to my virtual classes via a mobile hot spot. It was slow, so slow that sometimes I drove an hour out of town seeking a stronger cell signal to upload my assignments.

I worked hard for those two and a half plus years. I think I averaged about 45 hours per week on school work while I traveled, played some late nights, and then traveled some more.

With a few months left before graduation I moved in with family in Florida and started working for Apple Retail. Luckily my sister had a really good Internet connection so I could finish my tenure at the college strong. I was up early every day and in bed late as I polished another assignment, researched another business topic, or read another chapter.

And in the end I got my last grades and was pleasantly surprised to find out that I had achieved a 4.0 for all of my hard work. The same hard work that put me at the top of my class in Music Business Management at Full Sail University.

Many people question the validity of such a degree. I do not.

The music business landscape has radically changed. Everything is different from marketing to promotions, artist management, the record deal, contracts, and, of course, distribution. What is funny is that if you asked any "Joe blow" on the street he would tell you the same, but for some reason so many artists think otherwise. They still dream of that big record contract, the globe trotting tour to packed football stadiums, the debut album that goes platinum in the first week.

Without people like me, people who have trained in the modern music business landscape, they would starve. Or worse yet return to a normal 9-5 job. You see during this degree that many would deem somewhat useless I have studied how artists can not only survive in this new marketplace, but also prosper.

In the end I am proud of what I have accomplished thus far, but I am even more excited of what is to come. If the music business has shown me one thing, it is that the Internet is here to stay and those who don't hop on board will wither and die. I have studied one industry that almost died at the hands of an interlinked world, now I will learn how to leverage that power to help both myself and the lucky organization I will eventually work for succeed in the modern marketplace.

So you may see my posts change a bit.  I will continue to talk about the drumming world, but you will probably see more research on the modern music business landscape and the power of the Internet taking a larger role.

I look forward to sharing my experiences with you!