Music Industry predictions for 2010!

O.k been reading up a ton on the music industry predictions for 2010 and have come up with a few, if I dare take a crack at this and by all means feel free to share your predictions or POV in the comments :) Thanks to the resources that have helped some of my research: Wired.com, Mashable.com, Headliner.fm, Alexa.com, Forrester.com

10 BandMark  Music Industry predictions for 2010:

``I see... me and David Bowie having sushi! but more importantly...``

``I see... me and David Bowie having sushi! but more importantly...``

1. Venture capitalists and big named brands will further finance musicians

As record labels merge and swallow up partners, (Warner+EMI? Like when Polygram merged with Universal in the 80`s) marketing budgets will be slashed once again so the once 100k budget which got cut int0 50k last year, will likely be cut again to 25k. This wont be as tragic as it seems because big named brands and the film industry will gladly spot these artists with some nice budgets for appearances and brand vanity and  smaller artists will opt for their own investors. This will force bands to be doing a lot of hands on marketing to stand out in what has become a huge sea of new music and very tough competition.

2. Fan clubs and street teams will come together as direct-to-fan platforms evolve

As a music fan, you can sign up to newsletters, fan-clubs, VIP offers, the record label store, Street teams, mobile alerts and the list goes on. Well with more and more artists selling directly to their fans, it is inevitable that a solution emerges that handles everything. Fan logs into the ultimate Direct-to-Fan club and specifies purchasing habits, street team activities, news alert delivery options etc… and everything after than is one cleverly marketed click away where fans interacts with band offerings, demand new versions and get rewarded with prime goodies like shout outs on stage for sharing content. I see the monthly and yearly subscription fee model popularize itself in these clubs as well as in on-line music stores.

3. Artists will make more music on demand

With more and more bonds being built via web 2.0 technologies, the artist and fan relationship will continue to grow and I predict that fans will start to create their own mini EPs by directing the artist to get re-mixed by producers they like, release acoustic and live versions and even integrate raw studio cuts and include tracks from talented fans  as well. A sort of Choose-Your-Own-Audio venture with all the emerging remix and interactive technologies at the forefront.  I`d like to see these mini EPs come in a digital bundle, return of the 45 vinyl and have basically 3 songs: fan made re-mix, fan demanded acoustic version and raw studio cut.

4. Music will be seen less on a CD rack and more in the clouds…

CD sales will continue their steady decline and the music population will turn into digital and vinyl heads for the most part.  Watch as vinyl reach out to the hardcore fans who want the immediacy of digital AND the physical fix. Subscription based streaming music stores like Grooveshark and Spotify will become a serious business model for labels to consider. Grooveshark`s traffic has a really healthy up-and-to-the-right metric line and really if you think about it – it`s the perfect compromise for the majority of the digital music community.  Faster than utorrent, cheaper than Itunes and trendier than Twilight, these subscription based stream stores are clearly making their mark in the music market place.

5. An artist`s database will turn into a fairly measurable currency with social metrics

The more time we spend on-line, the more valuable a musician`s database will become (users are expected to be spending EVEN more time in 2010).  All artists will experience an increase of virtual fans simply by putting themselves out there but also the clever musician, management and label will be harvesting and analyzing fan data with the new social metrics coming out.  The simple: enter email, tweet, share this for a track models will only amplify this virtual currency.

6. Interactive touch screens will start showing up at concerts

I don’t mean the kind you see at music festivals with SMS streams and the next band info with sponsors and ads. I mean a truly interactive experience where one can sign up to fan clubs,  shop,  join a contest request shout outs (I know I’m obsessed with shout outs and honestly think it’s the best way to reward and keep a fan loyal). In my perfect vision of the future, one that my inner geek truly adores, the interactive touch screens are so paper thin and huge and now after having seen AVATAR they are probably 3D as well!

7. MySpace will offer musicians a lot more options and will not go away

I was honestly laughing when respectable journalists were writing about “The Death of MySpace”  ”Facebook will take over MySpace”. Look, no matter how much you have a hate on for Tom and no matter how fk* irritating that damn CSS is to code around – MySpace is still the #1 place online that music fans go to check out an artist’s music. If you don’t care about all that and you are just looking at the numbers, well their actual traffic has been pretty stable for the past 3 months (Oct-o9 to Dec-09). So although things look promising, we`ll have to check the numbers again in the next 3 months…

“Indie musicians now have a new way to make money online by adding their songs directly to MySpace Music in exchange for sharing in the ad revenue with the service.” Original post by Elliot Van Buskirk @ Wired.com click MORE for further information.

8. Facebook will release a highly customizable new version

I have to say that I am not impressed with the rate in which Face book releases new versions or fixes bugs… the only reason why I use Facebook (and I likely speak for most)  is that everyone is on it and I really have little choice.  At least MySpace has an excuse for it’s bugginess - it was built in the dinosaur era with some lame programming language.  I am hoping that with a huge fan page community, Facebook steps up to the plate and actually pimps up the code a bit so that one can customize way more and turn their fan page into highly interactive music fan playgrounds of stuff to do, purchase and without error messages with apps not working. Recently, either the ilike app had a bug in it or the steps to add it to your fan page were totally convoluted cause almost every music client of mine was calling me about it!  So Crackbook, I’m unliking you a bit until you impress me with a new version…

9. More street stars like G-Funk RED will be discovered

I think after over a decade of really wimpy commercial rap, hip hop and urban beats it’s time to get back to the simple stories and sounds of the untrained street songs BEFORE the musician has someone else writing their rhymes and picking their outfits. Who says teenagers need cheesy synthesized effects and big studio sound to make them happy? O.K well they sort of do BUT unlike our grandparents, kids are growing up on decades of classical, blues, rock, electronic and are totally into experiencing new stuff – although there will always be at the perfect age for pop. I was lucky, I had an older brother making sure between Madonna and Wham I had Led Belly, Chet Baker, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bob Marley, Iggy Pop…  well tell u what, these kids have a realllly big brother called the internet allowing them to discover more music than ever before subjecting people like G-funk RED and others to get international exposure from sites like YouTube.

10. America will have a full year of discovering more oddities like Susan Boyle

It really doesn’t take a genius to figure out that after Susan Boyle, America’s Got Talent is going to experience both an increase in unusual auditions from older and oddball performers but will also be prioritizing them especially after seeing Susan`s popularity skyrocket and set new standards for discovery.

Capture your fans at concerts

It’s no secret that the Internet is filled with music fans who are starting to figure out how to navigate in the wild waters of web 2.0 and social media.  But what about off-line fans?  Concert goers are actually your #1 BEST FANS for 2 reasons:  They actually are willing to leave their house to enjoy your music AND they are willing to pay for your most expensive product -your live show.

It is almost a given that a majority of these people are your best buyers of everything else (physical, digital music and merch) yet a lot of people do very little to start conversations with these fans and reward them on the spot.  Here are 3 EASY WAYS to capture fans at your concerts:

Merch tags

I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen this even being done yet so if you go forward with the idea, you would likely be one of the first. I proposed it to one of my fashion clients: GROGGY and then instantly realized how every band could benefit from this extremely inexpensive way to turn show attendees into a virtual fan base.

Chances are at every show you will have a little merch like T-shirts with your latest EP art or whatever. Well on those T-Shirts just add a little sticker or paper tag that has the directions for a free music download to get into the fan club. If you do not have a fan club, list your social media profiles like “Friend me, Follow me, Face me with the MySpace/Twitter/Facebook Page urls.  Imagine, you are now keeping track of your MOST valuable fans, those who went to a show AND purchased band wear!

Mobile Fanclubs

With the rising popularity of smart phones,  why not use mobile technology to communicate LIVE with your fans at a show.  In some cases they will have to pay to receive the text message but they just paid to see your show, the 0.75 cent fee wont freak them out, plus you’ll be giving them a free song so it will more than balance out.  You can do this in 2 ways: As part of your live visuals, you can have a message in between songs and the singer could actually let people know as well to send a text to a particular number in order to get a text back with the promo code or URL for the fan club or download.

There are mobile clubs like Broadtexter, which can set a lot of this up for free!  If you are not able to integrate the graphics into the visuals or the band does not wish to push their own fan-club, you can have a small table (could be the merch table) set up with a few net-books where people can join the fan club on the spot.  We have actually done this for clients like SOUNDCAGE at music festivals and it works very well. People are generally in a great mood, a little tipsy and are more than willing to give you their information. The conversion is great too – those people are typically up to 85% receptive to future communications.

Download cards given at the exit

Having the band toss out a limited number of cards is key to bring awareness with the singer mentioning that everyone will have a chance to get one when they leave. Not everyone will make it to the merch table, some people will not want to line up, others will prioritize all their money buying beer but everyone there is a fan. Therefore making sure to capture them all would be getting them on the way out. At some point, everyone of them will have to leave!  Hiring a presentable young and dynamic person who looks very much like a fan of the band, to thank people for coming and handing out a download card is money well spent. He or she will cost you nothing (especially if they’re are part of your street team) and the download cards will not hurt your marketing budget either.

There are many services which provide this service, like FizzKicks but ideally you should have your own Fan club set up and get a cheap local printer to make you cards since really all they have to do is direct your fans to the free music download page. You don’t really have to get into promotional codes etc.. this will save you money in the long run.