Unsprung Media

The Celestial Jukebox
Perhaps you’ve heard about the “Celestial Jukebox”?  It’s the notion that anyone, anywhere will be able to listen to a continual and personalized stream of digital music through devices and computers connected to the Internet.  By the end of 2008, the Celestial Jukebox will have just about arrived.

The Celestial Jukebox is great news for artists.  The technology that powers the Celestial Jukebox will recommend you and your songs to those seeking your style of music.  The same technology will ultimately generate royalties and opportunities from sources you could only dream about three years ago.

To succeed in the Celestial Jukebox, make it though the Celestial Funnel.
Before you make any money from the Celestial Jukebox, your songs will have to make it through the Celestial Funnel. The Celestial Funnel is the widespread availability of, and the pervasive and coordinated reliance upon Same Sonic Science, Social Validation, Big Brother Systems, and upon Trusted Curators (all explained below).
 

The Celestial Funnel is the Music 2.0 phenomenon artists have been waiting for, and it’s the absence of it, that made Music 2.0 the bitch you didn’t expect.  Digital music was supposed to change everything.  Instead, it ushered in an unprecedented tidal wave of crap competition and clutter that’s unlike anything anyone had ever seen before.  The Celestial Funnel is game changing; it cuts out the chafe, eliminates the clutter, and it enables great artists and songs to be found…rather effortlessly.

Who will use the Celestial Funnel?
Eventually everyone.  However, since most people still find out about music the old fashioned ways, all of the gatekeepers that make and break artists, such as record labels, programming directors, music supervisors, booking agents and anyone with gravity in the music industry, will use the Celestial Funnel to find the best songs and artists.  

The Celestial Funnel will end music promotion, as you know it today.
By 2012, pre-popularity promotion will cease to be effective.  Prior to participating in any music related opportunity that’s bigger than a backyard barbeque, you and/or your songs will have to make it through the Celestial Funnel.  Artists should take note: no amount of indie promotion will take you or your songs through the funnel faster.  As the Celestial Funnel envelops the marketplace, you will no longer be able to put lipstick on the proverbial pig.

Why will the Celestial Funnel work?
My job is to understand the depth and capabilities of the new technologies and services that are being built for the music industry.  I can tell you that the technology that I am about to describe works well, and that it’s only getting better.  Second, and more importantly, the technology doesn’t have to work perfectly; it only has to cut the size of the haystack by 80% to enable those that need to find the needles…a simpler and less-labor intensive way to find them.  The people that are charged with sifting through mounds of songs and piles of artist profiles will readily embrace this timesaving technology.  

Stages of the funnel.  Stage One - Same Sonic Science
Same Sonic Science, also known as Music Information Retrieval, includes software and services that can:

• Recommend songs that truly sound like another song (the seed song).
• Funnel out songs that do not have the attributes that a listener is seeking.
• Measure a songs proximity to a cluster(s) of songs.
• Measure potential popularity (by counting charting-songs or by any subjective criteria) of songs in a cluster.
• And, many other related propositions via database design and user interfaces.

I call all this technology Same Sonic Science because when we describe or search for songs, we begin by describing some sameness to, and a relevancy/proximity around, a preexisting song or sound.  Same Sonic Science mimics the way music has always been described and discovered.  Go way back to the first song.  Eve said: “Give me a song that sounds like little morning birds, but not like the sound that comes out of Adam’s ass when he eats goat.”  Seeking some sameness in music is something we all do naturally.

There’s no danger that Same Sonic Science will cause every song to sound the same.  Any song is a jumping off point for seeking sameness.  This technology works, it will cut out huge buckets of bad, and it’s being glued into every single digital music proposition on earth.

Stages of the funnel.  Stage Two - Social Validation
Moving down the funnel, the next stage is Social Validation; it’s the first stage of the funnel that enables humans to correct the inaccuracies of, or the inconsistencies within, the Same Sonic Science.  Social Validation is what happens after someone pushes the Same Sonic Button on a digital music site, or within a digital music system.  It’s the next thing(s) people do after listening.  In no specific order, they bookmark, they add to a playlist, they share, they recommend, they tag, they buy, they vote, they download, they steal, they play again, they leave a comment, or they basically do anything that causes an information system to record a positive or negative event.  The data that’s generated from social validation will be observable everywhere.

Stages of the funnel.  Stage Three - Big Brother Systems
The next stage of the funnel is the use of systems that combine Same Sonic Science with as much Social Validation data that can be collected.  Huge pools of song consumption/activity data are accumulating across the Internet and elsewhere.  It’s now possible to monitor the world for songs that are bubbling under the radar in every niche.  It’s also possible to identify emerging trends and new niche genres.  Right now, there are a few gatekeepers that are preparing to act upon this data.  In the near future, every professional in the music industry will use this data to some extent.  Within five years, presentations of this data, through stunning user interfaces, will be available to everyone.     
 
Stages of the funnel.  Stage Four - Trusted Curators
Stages one, two, and three of the funnel, will eliminate 80% to 90% of the songs entering the funnel each year.  However, the funnel keeps getting bigger.  New songs mingle with old songs, and there are still too many songs for the average consumer to listen to.  Trusted Curators (refernce) are those that know how to extract the gems from the bottom of the funnel, and consumers will still rely upon these people to make recommendations.  Trusted Curators are record labels (still), programming directors, music bloggers, music supervisors, talent buyers, booking agents, others, and my favorite: artists that brand together to build a brand on the Internet.

Funnel Strategies For Artists  - 2010 and onward.
There will be no fooling the funnel.  There are too many sites and systems, and everything can be crosschecked and correlated.  Don’t waste your time buying plays or trying to find ways to game the funnel.  Eventually, you will be exposed as a fraud.

Hedge your bets and create a mutual fund for songs.  If you have some business sense and if you are skilled at promotion, become a Trusted Curator.  Pull numerous artists into a unified brand where everyone involved shares in some of the upside.

If I were an aspiring artist today, I wouldn’t spend much effort on promotion (single artist no, multi-artist brand yes).  I would wait for the funnel to evolve.  Your songs are going to settle into their natural place in the funnel regardless of how much or little noise you make about yourself.

Stop editing your own work.  Find a great producer / engineer to help you make the best songs possible.  Make lots of songs, and seek every bit of rip-it-apart, put-it-back-together feedback as possible.

Absolutely wipe the following thought from your brain: “If I could get a record deal and get my songs into heavy rotation on FM radio, everyone would love me.”  That’s never going to happen.  Record labels will be the biggest users of the funnel; especially Stage Three (Big Brother Analysis).  It’s all going to be about song quality (finally).  You can’t promote your way to a “deal”.  Make songs, obtain super critical feedback, fix and repair songs, repeat process; this is your best option.

Prior to becoming reasonably popular, putting numerous, iteratively improved and produced songs into the Celestial Funnel will generate more career progress than going on tour.  In my opinion, you are better off working the best day job you can find, and then investing in professional help to make your songs better (versus touring as an unknown).  

How do I put songs into the funnel?
Make sure you have a Free Song Strategy and a Digital Manager (a human) that seeks the most efficient way to manage your presence on anything and everything on the Internet.  Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to create profiles and to continually load songs into everything on the Internet, but you have to do it for now.

• TuneCore can help you move your songs around, but TuneCore’s reach is limited.
• ArtistData can help you move your data around, but not your songs.
• ReverbNation and TuneCore can help you monitor progress.
• All three of the propositions above need to be combined.

At what rate do songs travel through the funnel?
It’s early days for the funnel.  2008 is barely year one of the Celestial Funnel.  It will take several years for everyone to fully adopt most of this technology.  By 2011, fresh songs will take a year (one million new songs a year) to succeed or fail.  I have nothing to base this upon; it's just my estimate.

A word of caution…
I am always ahead of my time.  If you are 2/3 into your plan for success, you may want to ignore me and continue.  If you are just starting out, hit print and read again…

I am taking the advice I give to Brand Together.  You will be able to find new articles I post on Music Think Tank.  I am flattered to be part of such a great group of people.   

 

 

In Previous Posts
Previously, I wrote about the demise of traditional record deals.  I also stated that investors would find great songs and offer Single-Song-Investment-Deals to artists.  I also told you that record labels need to consider a new model where data is more important than marketing, and that marketing and promotion as you understand it today will cease to be entirely useful.  What I did not demonstrate is a clear example of how this will happen.

In This Post
I will show you one of the methods that will be used to find hit songs, and the example will demonstrate why promotion will take a back seat to data.  This post will also describe a $100,000,000 business that will unfold over the next 24 to 36 months.  I will also offer advice to artists as they prepare for this future.

Advertisement & Disclaimer
I will work with any artist-friendly company on refining and applying this vision.  My goal is to never have a great song go unheard again.  Also, I have no connection to Hit Song Science.   Although I have tried their technology, my analysis of their business model is based upon speculation.

How Songs Will Be Found
With millions of songs in existence and with hundreds of thousands of songs created each year, it’s hard to envision how Song Investors will find the needles in the giant haystack.  Imagine putting all of the songs in the world into a huge funnel.  The first step is to funnel out the 80% that are potentially unpopular; thus leaving the decent songs to be further funneled and analyzed by computers and humans (hopefully).

Hit Song Science   
Companies like Hit Song Science (read article) already have the tools that could be used to funnel out the first 80%.  A song can be loaded into Hit Song Science’s computers and they can measure within acceptable accuracy limits if a song could be a hit.  Click here to learn how Hit Song Science does this.  

I tried out Hit Song Science and I am satisfied that this tool could be used as I describe below.  To save you the trouble of loading up a bunch of songs, all of Jediah’s Hit Song Science reports are at the bottom of this post.  You can download or listen to Jediah’s songs and read the reports to see if you think they are accurate.

Hit Song Science just raised $7,000,000.  Don’t judge the company by their old website.  

The $100,000,000 Business
“Let me see your Hit Song Science Reports.”  Imagine if every label, club, talent buyer, booking agent, ad agency, filmmaker, television show, manager, promotion company, music supervisor, publishing firm and fans wanted to see your Hit Song Science Reports prior to moving an inch!  $10 times 10,000,000 songs is a $100,000,000 business.  Within three years, the phrase “Let me see your Hit Song Science Reports” will be as common as “How many friends and plays do you have on MySpace?”.  

Acceptable Accuracy Limits
I mentioned the concept of “acceptable accuracy limits”.  It will not matter to many of the report readers listed above if technology like Hit Song Science is less than 100% accurate; here’s why: in every segment of the music industry margins are slim; any tool that can reduce overhead and increase odds will be rapidly embraced.  100% accurate or not, (numerous) tools like Hit Song Science are going to be part of the future.

The Problems I Envision
This is not an obstacle that can’t be overcome.  The biggest problem with systems like this is: when it comes to music, the past or even the near past, is not the best predictor of the future.  Systems like Hit Song Science use previous hits to predict the future.  The problem with using previous hits as a baseline is that they were funneled using the smallest funnel on earth.  Small committees or a single person within a record label picked the potential hits.  If all of the hits in the comparative database had been organically crowd-sourced over the past fifty years then this would not be an issue (for me at least).  However, since the prior hits were picked by experts and not by the masses, I am pretty sure they will have to adjust for trends and tastes that were missed and (over or under) exploited.

If you want to dig deeply into music recommendation and discovery subscribe to Paul Lamere's blog titled Duke Listens  I would also go to this post on Paul's blog, scroll to the bottom and download his excellent PowerPoint presentation.  I have come to beleive that Paul generally knows as much or more about this stuff as anyone working in the field; if only I could get him to invite me up to Sun Microsystems for a visit.

Other Systems & Companies
Hit Song Science seems like an interesting spin on what you already know as music recommendation systems.  Companies like Pandora, MyStrands, iLike, Last FM, Music IP, and others should be able to offer differentiated services that perhaps predict entirely different outcomes, as each of these companies is approaching the prediction and discovery business differently.  The bottom line is: you will not be able to hide from the data your songs generate.

Science Wins - Marketing Changes
Surely you can see how this type of system changes marketing and promotion.  Artists will hold up their scores like a restaurant boasts about a five star rating or a great review.  Moreover, there will be companies that feature, promote and pay for highly rated songs.  On the other hand, marketing will cease to be effective for artists that can’t score a hit report.  

Preparing For Hit Song Science
The best way for an artist to prepare for a world that runs on these types of systems is to ignore them.  Well, sort of.  If I had the option to spend time and money right now on promotion versus creating, I would pick creating.  Making great songs will pay bigger dividends than adding fans to your fan base.  Don’t get me wrong, fans are great, but you could spend the next 24 months building a fan base, or you could just pop out on a report and get picked up by a national radio group.  One effort may get you 10,000 fans, but the other effort will get you 1,000,000 fans.  
        
Final Note
When iTunes was born everyone thought it was great that the music distribution barrier had been broken.  Then everyone found out that there is this HUGE HUGE HUGE promotion barrier.  When companies like Hit Song Science go live with their new tools (hopefully I have accurately predicted what their product will be), 80% of the promotion barrier will be gone.  With a good report card you will be able to jump to the head of the line.

Jediah’s Songs 
I will say that some of Jediah’s lowest rated songs are some of my favorites (such as Come Around and The Fears) and the fan-favorite (Butterfly) scored below eight other songs on their recent album; this was a big surprise.  However, I do see the validity of the analysis in the reports.  In addition, we could have used this data to alter the mix on several songs to improve our scores, and I may have used the data to push Don't Die or Flight instead of Butterfly.

To review Jediah's reports on a page with a song player click here (best option). 

Invidual Reports Below.  
Jediah’s songs are sorted from highest to lowest (as rated by Hit Song Science).  
Song Page     Hit Song Science Report     DON'T DIE
Song Page     Hit Song Science Report     FLIGHT
Song Page     Hit Song Science Report     EVERYONE IS FINE (REMIX)
Song Page     Hit Song Science Report     NIGHT'S A PUPPY
Song Page     Hit Song Science Report     EVERY SONG
Song Page     Hit Song Science Report     ALTER EGO
Song Page     Hit Song Science Report     EVERYONE IS FINE
Song Page     Hit Song Science Report     CRY DON'T CRY
Song Page     Hit Song Science Report     BUTTERFLY
Song Page     Hit Song Science Report     UNFAITHFUL YOU
Song Page     Hit Song Science Report     THE FEARS
Song Page     Hit Song Science Report     AS WE WERE
Song Page     Hit Song Science Report     COME AROUND

You can also quickly download all of Jediah's songs at Jamendo. 

If you are going to try Hit Song Science make sure your MP3s are encoded at the proper rate.  I believe Jediah would have scored higher if I had encoded the MP3s properly.

 

DARK GLOOM
Everybody from Gene Simmons (Kiss Fame) to 50% of the artists I encounter blogging - are freaking out about the future.  Some of the comments are outright nasty; some would rather die than give away their music; some hate the notion of ad-supported music; some hate Apple and iPods; and others can’t believe it’s come to t-shirts and touring to make money.
 

 

CHILL OUT
The sky isn’t falling, and your music will have value beyond the pennies you are currently making from selling MP3s.  The future is bright.  Go back to making music and let the industry get over this unpleasant hump.  Things are going to change and you will make money.

GIVE AWAY YOUR MP3s
I regularly advise artists NOT to hold out for download revenue.  You can read this, this, and this to find out why I recommend giving away at least a demo version (or better) of your MP3s.   

THE CD IS ALL DONE
I no longer consider selling CDs as a serious revenue option (depends on the genre).  Hoping that CD sales will magically rebound is for dreamers.  This blog and this post are for those that have moved beyond the CD.  You may sell some CDs in 2008-2009, but beyond 2010, CDs will become the novelty item that vinyl is today.

THE MP3 SHOULD BE ALL DONE
The MP3 sucks as a package; it was invented twenty years ago when Jimmy Carter was president, and at a time when computers had about as much power as today’s Happy Meal toys.  The MP3 was a necessary evil that changed everything, but its’ time has come.  It’s a blasted little invention that TRANSPORTS (key term here) nothing but a hearing problem.  When Apple can transport 60 minutes of color television programming, soundtrack included, to your pocket for $1.99, you know the MP3 is a dinosaur in comparison.  

YOU WILL MAKE MONEY
Here’s why you don’t have to freak out about the future: Fat Packages (FP) and Cool Streams (CS).  (I know what you’re thinking – it’s a physical contradiction.)

FP - FAT PACKAGES

FP - ROLL YOUR OWN
In the near future, you will be able to sit down in front of something I will call your Digital Asset Browser; it’s something like iTunes for ALL of your digital stuff - including: your songs, your images, your blog entries, your videos, your show schedule, your fan widgets, your multi-player fan games, your friends list, your comments, your art, your lyrics, your links, your ringtones, YOUR advertisers, and etc.  You will then be able to CUSTOM ROLL all of this stuff into a tidy FAT PACKAGE and sell it to your fans.  

FP - RUNS ON EVERY DEVICE AND EVERYWHERE
Your Fat Package will run on every single capable mobile and desktop device on earth including television, and it will be deployable upon every social network on the planet.

FP - THE FREE AD-SUPPORTED VERSION
The FREE, sharable, tradable version will be ad-supported.  You will receive a portion of the ad revenue when users interact with your Fat Package.  If you are worried about a world gone crazy with advertising, then you should know that this type of package would be one of the most attractive advertising vehicles on earth.  The matrix of quality user info (iPhones spitting out profile data for example) combined with the “information-generating” value of this type of engaging content will attract higher CPMs (dollars per thousand impressions) then web pages do now.

FP - THE NO ADS VERSION
Consumers will purchase buckets of ad-free time, and they will have the option of applying these minutes to playing with your FAT Package without being molested by intrusive ads.  You will also have the option of turning features on and off depending on which version (ads or not) of your FAT Package fans are using.

FP - THEFT WON’T MATTER
As soon as it’s “stolen” these things will switch to ad-mode.  So, it doesn’t matter; theft (sharing) becomes a good thing.  

FP - DYNAMIC PUBLISHING
Everything you change from your songs to your schedule is automatically reflected in every FAT Package you put into the marketplace.  This isn’t MySpace or Facebook, this is your own FAT Package of things you will simply publish and sell.  These things can appear everywhere and anywhere; fans will collect them, display them and trade them.

FP - HOW MUCH MONEY WILL YOU MAKE?
Like anything that is desirable or not, it depends on the quality of your package.  Over time, I believe a single copy of a FAT Package will generate twenty times the revenue of an MP3.  And don’t forget, you will be updating your package continually; thus increasing its’ value over time.  

FP - PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
Since this stuff is not in the marketplace yet, you should be asking yourself what you could do to get ready for the future?  I am going to follow up with more on this later, but my primary advice is to learn how to be “episodic”.  Your FAT package will have more value when fans know that it’s constantly and continually updated with a stream of good stuff.  You may want to reconsider the notion of a “band”; team up with a filmmaker, a writer, a cartoonist, a photographer, and/or other creative people.  

At the very least, you should reconsider the notion of an album and/or what a song is.  Where a song was a permanent snapshot in time, and an album was a time capsule, with FAT Packages this no longer has to be the case; songs could evolve forever, and albums will become journeys.  You have to learn how to think like a television series writer; tell a story, develop characters, create drama and mysteries, lash your music to visuals, release things over a multi-year period, and continually evolve your “art”.  (etc. etc. etc.).

Yeah, this raises the bar and makes life more challenging, however think about this: in 2007-2008 there is barely a circumstance where people listen to music – when a screen or monitor is not present; this includes the car, the gym, the desk, and the pocket.  The ability to have a visual or interactive component is always there now.  This is not unprecedented; think back one hundred years – this was the only way music was experienced – live, with visuals, and/or attached to a story.

The notion of JUST listening to music without experiencing something visual, physical or interactive is only 100 years old.  All throughout the rest of time, “music” was always more than just an auditory experience.

You can read more about my vision for FAT Packages by clicking here.

CS - COOL STREAMS

CS - COOL STREAMS – THE NEW RADIO
If a FAT Package is the new “album” that fans acquire when they believe in an artist, then a Cool Stream is the new “radio” that consumers will use when they want to passively listen to music.

CS - COOL STREAMS ARE CUSTOM STREAMS
Music recommendation engines combined with music streaming services will enable anyone, almost anywhere, to dial into their own custom stream of music.  Simple interfaces already enable users to funnel and filter music like never before.  Basic programming options such as these (basic examples below) will continually shape the streams of music we passively listen to.

• Enter twenty songs you like.
• Enter five songs you hate.
• Press/Click here if you never want to here that song again.
• Press/Click here to skip that song into next week.
• Press/Click here to put that song into heavy rotation.
• Slide this dial to balance your playlist between existing hits and new music.
• Press/Click here to add that song to your favorites.
• Enable my friends to add songs to my playlist.

CS - COOL STREAMS EVERYWHERE
It won’t be long before you can listen to your own cool stream everywhere.  Cool streams are already available on your computer, and more and more handheld devices will offer this capability.  The automotive industry is embracing this technology, and you will even be able to push your stream into the locations you are traveling to such as bars and nightclubs, albeit with some restrictions.

CS - CROSS STREAMING
What happens when 100 people are trying to push their streams into the same bar?  The "stream god" puts all of the streams into a funnel and plays what makes sense – given everyone’s lists and preferences.  

CS - STREAM BIDDING
Want to listen to your Cool Stream in the pub between 9:00 PM and 10:00 PM?  Using your mobile phone, outbid the other patrons for the right to listen to your stream.  Stream bidding is another example of the “user interfaces” that will change how music is consumed.

CS - GETTING IN WILL BE EASY
Have you heard the phrase “an ass for every seat”?  Music recommendation engines will become so freaking useful over the next three years that it will be possible for the listeners that enjoy your exact flavor, color, genre, niche and brand of music, even if it’s just one listener, to FINALLY find your music.  Every artist will have an opportunity to find the perfect genetic mate between his/her music and the fan(s) that may love it.

CS - EVERYWHERE AND ANYWHERE
The type of streaming services described here will be EVERYWHERE and ANYWHERE.  This is a bit of important redundancy, however this stuff will be so prevalent in life that it will seem like “pennies from heaven” for artists.  Meaning: your music will be placed into so many streams, so often, and in so many places, that the micro revenue opportunities will be endless.  Remember, these things will find the “ass for every seat”.

CS - GETTING PUSHED OUT WILL BE EASY
While getting into these streams may just mean passing some quality threshold standards, I believe getting pushed out may be just as easy.  Let’s say your new song has been streamed 99 times, and on every occasion someone pushes the “I never want to hear that song again” button - well, your song may be on the way out of the system for good - or at the very least, your play frequency will drop to minimal.

CS - WITH ADS OR WITHOUT
It’s probably obvious, but services offering Cool Streams will make streams available with ads or without.  In the case of without, consumers will purchase buckets of ad-free time.  Either way, you will share in the revenue streams that are generated from the use of these services.

CS - HOW MUCH MONEY WILL YOU MAKE?
Unfortunately, I believe that the amount of, or fraction of “pennies” you may make from each stream is still unsettled, or it has not been clearly established in my mind.  Some services are paying artists directly, while other services are using the established industry-royalty-infrastructure.  What’s more clear to me is this: while today’s music industry can be characterized as “hit driven”, tomorrows music industry will be characterized as a “slow burn”.

CS - THE SLOW BURN
Let’s say for example that you have just created a very good (subjective - I know) alternative rock song; you entered the song into the recommendation-god-machine, and then you went about the business of your life.  Given the complexity of the machine, the ebb and flow of popular culture, the size of the population, the amount of songs in the machine, and the durability of good songs – I would say that it MAY take two years to generate a return you can make a car payment with.  Of course some songs will go like wildfire, but other songs may just slowly burn until they have been filtered into the adoption curve; which is continually shaped by culture and technology.

CS - WHAT CAN YOU DO NOW?
As I said at the top of this post, go back to making great music; that’s the best thing an artist can do period.  There are a couple of other things you should consider:  The Copyright Royalty Board is going to rule on the royalty rates that webcasters must pay when offering services such as those described here; you should consider how this may impact your future.  I plan to look deeply into this – stay tuned.  Also, be careful about tossing around your publishing rights.  You may not be generating much of an income from publishing now, however this may be the horse that generates all of your winnings in the future.

The is a follow up to my previous post where I discuss the value and convenience of new file formats.  If you click HERE, you will be downloading a simple file (about 5K).  I promise you will not suffer any adverse consequences from downloading this file.  You will have to have ad-blocking software turned off (the size 300 by 250 is blocked). 

Click this file to open it in your browser.

This is a format we call PUSH.HTML that we make available to users of SONGboost.

SONGboost is now a closed system.  New applications and services are coming in 2008.  If you need something we make, email me for a user ID and a password. 

The notable features of the PUSH.HTML format are:

• It is sharable
• it is emailable
• It is collectable
  
• It is extremely light-weight
• It integrates lyrics, liner notes, songwriter notes, and important links
• It can be updated at any time by the artist
• It can carry an advertisement
• It has a strong visual element
  
• It is built around a 300 by 250 rectangle for banner ad placement
• If you are using OSX-Leopard with Safari you can make it into a desktop widget
  

If you have a software background you might say that this format is PUSH.BULL; as this was trivial for SONGboost to create; we understand that.

My point: In a connected world, why are we using MP3s?  Take the PUSH.HTML demo; put it on steroids and growth hormones; make it usable on every device; make a web or desktop environment for it; layer in an ad targeting system, and you will have the future of music formats. 

 

The solution to making money in the music business is to kill the MP3 and any other single-purpose file format used by the music industry.

The industry will return to profitability when we put bundled digital packages into the marketplace.  

I am going to use the graph below to illustrate what I mean.

Prior to 2000, the primary focus of the recorded music industry was on everything prior to MUSIC ACQUISITION.  Record labels were staffed, and resources were allocated to find great songs and talented artists; to create great records; to build global distribution; and to promote all the way through retail.  Very little consideration was given to post-acquisition fan-activities.

From 2003 through 2006, the demise of the CD accelerated; distribution and retail were merging into iTunes; and labels were beginning to dabble in post-acquisition promotion, which is the process of aiding consumers in their efforts to be passionate about music after the sale.  You can witness labels engaging in this activity on sites like MySpace and Last.fm.
 
By 2006, the ball had moved.  A MAJORITY of consumers had become skilled in the art of using the Internet to hunt, test drive and research music.  Blog sites, television shows, video games, films and even commercials were becoming the music promotion vehicles that drove fans to digital music stores.  Moreover, a new set of post-purchase activities had become indivisible from digital music.

Fans were no longer satisfied with just obtaining an MP3; they were now looking for and acquiring lyrics, videos, ringtones and images.  They were trafficking the MySpace pages of artists, sharing music, promoting music, and organizing and backing-up their collections.  In addition, fans were now purchasing tickets to see bands they had discovered on the Internet.   
 
The problem is: all of the activities that consumers do in 2006-2007, from HUNTING through TICKETING, are discrete actions that not only require an investment in time by consumers, but each one of these activities has it’s own revenue model, transaction system, layer cake, value chain and consequences.  As a result, the recorded music industry is cut out of 50% of the activity silo, and the other 50% is bloated with too many fingers dipping into a low-margin pie.

Just for giggles, I want to narrate what I see:  

• Consumers hunt all over the Internet for great new songs.
• They test drive them on multiple sites, downloading what they can.
  
• They click over to MySpace to do a bit of research.
• They go to iTunes to purchase (hopefully).
• They go someplace else to find lyrics (although that’s changing).
• They go to YouTube to watch artist videos.
• They use their cellphones to obtain ringtones.
• They use Google Image Search to find unauthorized images.
• They return to MySpace to interact with the artist’s fake friends.
• They use P2P to share; then they get sued.
• They use IM to evangelize; then they get nothing.
• They use the iTunes client to organize.
• They backup using $149, external Firewire hard drives.
• They buy tickets anyplace where they won’t get screwed.

The moneymaking solution for the music industry is to move away from separate file formats such as the MP3 and into new bundled and non-proprietary formats that combine all of the activities above into one high-value package of interactive convenience.

Look at the 2009 column on the graphic above.  It’s technically possible to combine everything in green, including advertising revenue support, into one inseparable (optional) and convenient “deck” of connected content, interactivity and commerce.  This new format will:

• Work on every capable device.
• Be legally sharable.
• Give incentives to consumers that engage in promotion.
• Be forever updatable and backed up.

You can read all about the new file format and the companion service that SONGboost is working on by clicking here.