Kaiser Chiefs singer Ricky Wilson performs in 2005. – Photo: Andrew Kendall.

“If you haven’t got a scene you’ve gotta’ set your own scene” said Kaiser Chiefs singer Ricky Wilson at 31:40 and “keep your ears peeled” for song ideas said drummer Nick Hodgson at 51:00 during their interview below with Steve Lamacq on BBC Music:

Get On Bits.

Digital is the bomb. When I say ‘get on bits’ I mean get digital. Get on YouTube. Get on Facebook. Get indexed. Become bits. Bits outlive memories. Legacies live on bits. ‘All we are is bits in the cloud.’

Bring Me The Horizon singer Oliver Sykes pushes the edge of the Vans Warped Tour 2010 stage in Dallas, TX.
Photo: earlylove/Flickr

YouTube it.

In 2010, YouTube takes the cake as being the sweet spot for music. Their fact sheet reads currently that “people are watching 2 billion videos a day on YouTube” and that “52 percent of 18-34 year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues.” Vevo, which launched in late 2009, saw screaming growth through 2010 largely due to its integration with YouTube. It’s pretty understandable why video is so engaging—it combines multiple senses: sight, hearing, and—if you’re pressing a keypad or touchscreen—touch. Triggering the brain from multiple angles makes for strong communication and vivid memories. Video influences people. Last month in Wired, TED curator Chris Anderson and Jon Chu talked about how access to free online video accelerates innovation. Chu used the example of kids who learned dance moves by watching videos of other dancers, “Kids in Japan are taking moves from a YouTube video created in Detroit, building on it within days and releasing a new video, while teenagers in California are taking the Japanese video and remixing it to create a whole new dance style in itself. This is happening every day. And from these bedrooms and living rooms and garages with cheap webcams come the world’s great dancers of tomorrow.”

Live is unique.

Seeing a live show is an experience—it’s not a product, but that’s not to say that it can’t be captured on one. Ask Aderra, a company who “records live concerts to flash drives and MicroSD wristbands which are available to the audience immediately after the performance.” Their USB drives can also be used to access exclusive content on the web. It’s important to realize that experiences have more intrinsic value than products.

Cut the intro.

Get right to the hook. Two time lessons in 2010 were seconds and clicks. At NMS NYC 2010, Jay Frank (@futurehitdna) said that artists have, “10 seconds to engage someone—to impress them.” He said to “clicks to content,” because the more clicks it takes, the more it’s bye-bye attention span. In a way this explains the addiction to YouTube, whose videos are one mere click beyond Google search results. “Anything more than two clicks and you’re missing out on the majority. … Impress them fast.” If you’ve made it this far into the post, you’re a champion, and deserve a video for the rest of the ride.

API breakout.

Expect to see more mashups based on music APIs. Most notable IMO are mashups built on APIs from The Echo Nest and from SoundCloud. The Echo Nest is a data-driven startup that launched in 2008. Its platform is in use on MTV Music Meter, MOG All Access, Indaba Music, Bandintown, exfm, and more. Based on data from Compete, web visits to SoundCloud were up 850% in 2010. A number of apps—many mobile ones—support integration with SoundCloud. Keep Grooveshark on the radar, their web visits were up 235% based on Compete, and unofficial Grooveshark API documentation is available on APIshark. The Grooveshark library is also accessible through the Tinysong API. Spotify too has potential for a mashup explosion. See the API list: 30 Music APIs.

Mystery tour.

There are several events/ticketing services out there beyond Ticketmaster/Live Nation, such as Eventful, Songkick, Ticketfly, and Live Music Machine. Ticketing is mysterious and because of that I think less music startups have gone in its direction. But live music is really what music is all about, and I think we’re going to see a lot more action in this space, especially when more people have smartphones and are using location-based apps. But the question I’m asking about ticketing is, ‘what could possibly stop Facebook from wiping away the entire online ticketing industry with an official ticketing service within Facebook Events?’

Brainmelt.

I’d like to write about licensing, but it’s just so boring and complicated, still, in 2011, and this article is already way to long for the YouTube Generation. I do think something about the licensing needs to change, especially in the U.S. where “WTF is SoundExchange?” is the typical reaction, and many musicians believe that receiving payouts from rights organizations is a straight-up myth—it’s not, but setting it up may melt your brain. For now what I think is worth knowing is that the majority of money that SoundExchange pays out comes from Pandora. So if you’re on Pandora, then you definitely want to be registered with SoundExchange. If you’re asking “how do I get on Pandora?” then read this. First, push to the end of this article. You made it this far. I promise you it’s worth it.

Born free.

If you asked Austin Powers what he thought about the internet, I know exactly what he would say..: “it’s freedom, baby, yeah!” His nemesis, Dr. Evil, would be saying “throw me a frickin’ bone here!” Who would you rather be? Free is the nature of the internet and what makes it such an advance. If you’re not embracing that free spirit, then you’re in the wrong industry. It’s like the accelerated innovation I mentioned at the start of this rap. Everyone is building on each other’s work. It’s human nature. Pablo Picasso would tell you that “good artists copy—great artists steal.” Picasso didn’t become famous by making a few great paintings. He became famous by making thousands of them. He only sold the ones that he needed to, keeping the rest in his possession, and nowadays I can’t help but wonder if he’d be getting them on bits. Really it comes down to more than creating fresh music, but being innovative on every front, and living it. That, my friends, is art. // @ryanve

The median price point on RocketHub…and other crowdfunding platforms for that matter…is 20 bucks. … Make your $20 price point really jump off the shelf. –Brian Meece, RocketHub co-founder.

Crowdfunding website RocketHub was launched in January 2010 by three musicians/entrepreneurs—Brian Meece, Vladimir Vukicevic, and Jed Cohen. (tonic.com)  Meece was speaking above in his August 2010 interview with CDBaby podcaster Kevin Breuner. Meece continued with more details:

“The single most popular price point on RocketHub, by far, across the board, is $20. So what that means is make your $20 price point really jump off the shelf. Make it really exciting, make it really fun, because that’s what you’re going to move the most of likely. Another very popular price point is the $100 price point, which I also found very intriguing. The $100 price point typically are folks that have built up a lot of trust, or have been following you a little longer. They may be inner-circle folks, you know, your Uncle Bobby from Texas that loves everything that you do and buys 20 of your CD’s everytime they come out, but, you know just loves the fact that he’s got a nephew who’s making records. That’s where he’s probably gonna’ land. You’d be surprised who lands there, but it’s a very, very popular price point. … As a result the average contribution, it hovers day to day, but it’s in about the upper $50s. $57–$59 is the average across the board. So that’s very interesting because when we look at that average number, we could start to say if I wanna’ hit $500, then I need about 8–12 people to really hit that number—not a lot.” (CDBaby Podcast #098)

Guided by my own DIY business rule #6, I don’t need to waste time or money researching market price points for people who buy music. There’s already a company who’s perfected them—Apple:

2010 Apple iPod price comparison (source: apple.com)

Earlier this year Shamal Ranasinghe (@shamalman) presented marketing data from TopSpin Media at MIDEM 2010 in Cannes, France in series of slides. This one displays the advantage of selling at every price point—everything from frequent cheap buys to rare premium package deals:

“Consider Premium Offers”—slide 11. (source: Topspin Media)

On tour » another issue to consider is that location changes value/price.

Graphics: iPod, Topspin, and ‘price shuffle‘ graphics were remixed by RVE.

“I play it like I stole it and the guy I stole it from is about to break down the door and take the guitar from me.” –Chris Dinardo, SLeuX guitarist.

The building used to be a bank. But in December, 2004, when I first met Chris Dinardo, the sign on its door read “SMR Studios.” Chris, and two of his hard-rock bandmates, from DownNeck had opened the rehearsal/recording space there in Garfield, NJ and were running their own record label, Saturday Morning Records. I discovered the newly-opened studio via Craigslist—when nobody here knew about Craigslist—and I knew Chris could be trusted when he told me he knew who Matt Skiba was. Inside SMR, walls were decorated with brilliant paintings by Paul Jach, who rented space upstairs. Their engineer Jamie ate voltage and loved Primus almost as much as Chris loves KISS. Let me tell you, there’s nothing like recording vocals in a vault.

But years passed, and it was a strain for the rest of the original DownNeck to keep focus on the SMR venture when they, unlike Chris, had proverbial day jobs. (One we suspect was CIA, although he won’t admit it, and the other may have built your house.) The studio closed and DownNeck split. Chris, who had studied TV/film production and broadcasting, needed a better way to fuse creativity, music, and video production, so he decided to start his own company, NeverImage Entertainment. His latest music project SLeuX came about last year, which Chris started with James Donovan, DownNeck’s singer in their later years. Chris is no stranger to the NYC/NJ underground scene or to indie music business, and he had a lot of great stuff to tell us, so let’s cut right to it.

Tell me more about your vision for NeverImage. I mean, when you were starting it a few years back you saw it as an entertainment company rather than a traditional record label. Are you taking on other artists with NeverImage?

CD: I think with the way things are today you can’t be a traditional label and survive. With NeverImage we’re doing albums but we’re also able to get into other areas like film, video, DVD’s, webvids, and whatever else we feel like doing. The key is to have an artist own what they do content-wise and have the vision to present it. NeverImage started as a home for me and my friends to have place to put out their stuff, my crazy projects, and stuff I produced with other artists. Now with the release of SLeuX it’s a nice way to start off what we’re going to do in the future. We’re not taking on artists, but with that said, I’ll never say no to a good idea.

You mentioned producing a video for every track on the new SLeuX album. Awesome. Is that still the plan? What’s your approach on that?

CD: Well we got two so far…10 to go…(laughs). It’s a task, that’s for sure. I know five songs on the album have video treatments. The approach is as footage is collected and ideas get filmed, we’ll put the videos together. There’s no time frame, but we’d like to have all of them done before the next album comes out…(laughs)…in 2023.

Old school vs. new school—who wins?

CD: Old school recording, performing, and music wins for me. The new school way of the music business wins over the old school model.

Dinardo lies amidst his influences, who include KISS, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Quicksand, Rush, Dinosaur Jr., and The Misfits: “If you don’t own at least 5 things in this pic ya’ need to reconsider your taste music n’ DVD’s.”

Tell me about the lead up to SLeuX and the production of the debut album.

CD: Well we went in wanting to give the music justice. We wanted to record old-school style on 2-inch analog tape. We had 22 songs. We wanted that down to 12. For the production I wanted a sound like Rock and Roll Over by KISS. I realized pretty quick that I wasn’t Eddie Kramer either…(laughs)…I wanted the musicianship to jump out…I wanted guitars up. I wanted to play the fuck out of the guitar on this record. So many new guitarists play two strings and don’t know what the hell they are doing. I play it like I stole it and the guy I stole it from is about to break down the door and take the guitar from me. I wanted harmonies. Character-driven lyrics. We definitely achieved what we set out to do. People are gonna dig it.

You imposed at least one rule on SLeuX so far: don’t make the same song twice. Are there any more…or is that the only one you need?

CD: Yeah, never say no to a musical idea without trying it or feeling it out. It’s no fun making the same song over and over,or getting held down in one sound. It’s exciting because when someone brings a song in it could be anything in any style. It may never even have a style. You have to take the song where it should go and that could be anywhere. To me that’s where the fun is—creation.

Dinardo, on surviving the industry: “It’s like you’re playing a football game and the rules keep changing every minute. It’s impossible to navigate. But if you make your own playbook and play by your own rules it makes things easier.”

With the industry in hyper flux, how are you adapting on the business side? What are you doing the same/differently now with SLeuX and NeverImage?

CD: It’s insane. The way the music business is now, it’s like you’re playing a football game and the rules keep changing every minute. It’s impossible to navigate. But if you make your own playbook and play by your own rules it makes things easier. I love the way the music business is. I think if you are an artist who can create good songs, have a decent idea of promotion and kick ass live, you will be fine. Business-wise we have ideas on this release. We haven’t decided the exact route yet. We know it will be on iTunes first before it’s anywhere else. Then we’re gonna get crafty with the actual CD. Not too many people buy CD’s but we want to make it special for the ones who still do. I’m hoping to have it released as a CD/DVD and keep it at a low price. We do all the DVD production in house so it lets us keep our stuff low in price. We’re not into over pricing anything we do.

What’s your take on free media, P2P, and alternative pricing like pay-what-you-want?

CD: I don’t have a take. Everyone can decide how they want to present their music. An idea might be perfect for one artist and a disaster for another.

What’s one thing that’s wrong with the music industry, and one thing that’s right?

CD: What’s wrong is artists looking at getting signed as the be all end all. It’s not. Every deal is different for every artist. You have to make it on your own before anyone invests in you. Hard work pays off. The thing that’s right is artists can have total control. As long as you have tunes that people love you’ll be okay. Trust your vision.

What’s the SLeuX album called?

CD: It’s gonna be self-titled. But like everything with SLeuX, it’s subject to change. The thing that won’t change is NeverImage. I will be involved in several projects in the future and NeverImage will be the home base for everything. I can’t stop making music and I see myself being in several different projects. I love what I do. Music is my passion. Plenty of good shit is coming from the NeverImage camp—stay tuned.

Dinardo has a mysterious affinity for anything silver. I recommend you ask him about it via Twitter @DiNardoSleux or, even better, in person on Saturday, November 27 at Dingbatz in Clifton, NJ, where SLeuX will be performing their entire debut album live for the first time. Also performing will be The 33rd Revolution, Lowdown, and Object 7. I’ll be there too, because, “It’s going to be one hell of a party, and you don’t wanna miss it!”

U.S. Cost of Living Comparison: an infographic comparing estimated livings costs in 100 cities based on military BAH rates and categorized by region; West, Midwest, Northeast, and South. The ten most expensive cities or metro areas are New York, San Francisco, Long Island, Boston, New Haven, Northern New Jersey, Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington DC, and Baltimore. Many of the most expensive cities (shown in dark purple) are located in California or the Northeast. (Image: virtualmusictv/Flickr)

While not exactly proportional, it’s reasonably assumed that entertainment spending goes up with housing spending. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that for the average American in 2009, 5.5% of total spending was on entertainment and 34.4% was on housing—both down slightly from 2008. The funny thing though is that online retailers don’t (or can’t) change their price based on location like a merch booth can. An mp3 from iTunes costs the same from no matter where you buy it, right? The same goes for almost everything else you buy online—with the exception of shipping rates. Any bands out there already doing price variation or pay what you want on the road? Any stories from the most expensive or cheapest places you’ve ever toured?

Photo: bjornkeizers/flickr.

10 seconds to engage someone—to impress them.

In his research for Futurehit.DNA, Jay Frank discovered an impressive trend: Shorter song intros lead to better sales. “2/3 of bestselling songs have an intro that’s less than 7 seconds.” The average intro length for Top 25 songs is 6.6 seconds. “You really have 10 seconds to engage people.” Get to the hook. “Make it impactable.”

Frank stated that “people are going to come to you first through song.” Through Google. Essentially, bands can expect fans to find them through song names and lyric clips because that’s how fans search and discover. “Make sure you search your own song.” That is, search the title before you release it suggested both Jay Frank and Ariel Hyatt. Based on the initial search results an artist can tweak their titles for SEO.

NMS NYC 2010 | Day 1 | First Movement: The Next Music Business Unveiled
LTR: Ariel Hyatt (moderator/Ariel Publicity), Jay Frank (Futurehit.DNA), Gwen Lipsky (SoundThinkingNY), Eric Garland (BigChampange), and Mike Doernberg (ReverbNation). On this slide they brought up the issue that a lot of artists are trying to monetize too early. Create, grow, and then sell. Photo: virtualmusictv/flickr.

“Don’t try to sell something if you’re trying to get fans because that’s an obstacle when what you want is their attention.” –Mike Doernberg, CEO, ReverbNation.

Even superstar Rihanna had trouble getting high in Google with “Russian Roulette” because there were already so many results for that term. What an artist can do is either make titles more unique, or, even better, tag-along existing popular search terms by using slight variations. Be clever—keep a handle on artistic integrity. Ralph Simon later pointed out that based on Google Trends, people search for ‘lyrics’ more than they search for ‘sex.’

10 seconds. You already lost me. 28 hours later a different panel, The Creative Conundrum, critiqued the three artists who made it to the Artist On The Verge finals. Only half the panel had seen the show the night before and the rest were judging based on a 10-second video clip. Were they insensitive? Yes. They were ruthless. But were they true to life? You tell me.

In a VideoSong

1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice).

2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).

VideoSong is medium defined by Jack Conte with those two rules. In addition to his solo production, Jack is the orchestration half of the indie music duo Pomplamoose, who chose video as their social medium of choice largely due to the magnetic attraction emitted by YouTube. They popularized their music on YouTube with videosong—a format that seemed functional and easy—and inspired viewers.

Last Friday, Kevin Breuner at CD Baby interviewed Jack Conte in DIY Musician Podcast #096. I recommend giving the full podcast a listen. Jack explained why he and Nataly chose to cover the songs that they did, and how it helped them become sustainable on mp3 downloads alone—covers and originals. Here are two excerpts from the podcast—the first is about the attraction to videosongs, and the second is about why Pomplamoose resisted record deals from all four major labels.