The music business is crazy, unpredictable, volatile, and often revolutionary. I understand that, and despite the insanity, I can’t think of another industry I’d be suited to work in. The happiest periods in my career came when I was actually learning something. A new perspetive, a fresh outlook, a great contact — all meant more to me than the paycheck. Not that a nice paycheck wouldn’t hurt, but you get the message.
Over the last few jobs – both in the consulting and fulltime worlds – that learning curve, that opportunity to both share and receive guidance has been sorely missing. That’s not to say I haven’t been working hard and contributing to successes, but it’s becoming more of a rote exercise. So I thought I’d put it out there to the blogosphere: teach me something!
Much like my favorite marketing gurus, Paul Murky and Marge Innovera, I check the stats of this humble blog. I know that there are a whole lot of people reading what I post. Surely from this mass collective of music and marketing intelligentsia there must be something to share. Or perhaps you have questions – that’s great too! Either way, as we walk into this era of change, with hope we can believe in, and buzzwords we can rely on, let’s start the meaningful dialogue now.
Too often, I’ve seen folks get concerned with the direct and immediate effect of a situation. Ideas, like much of marketing, involve time to grow and flourish. The time spent building traction (climbing the mountain) should be as exciting as reaching the summit. If it’s not, you don’t really deserve to be there.
Maybe this ends up with another consulting gig for me, or a fulltime gig, or equally good, a solid discussion. Who knows…
I think I’d be hard pressed to teach you something you didn’t already know but I’ll give it a shot:
Did you know that an artist or label who sets up their own merchant account can pay as little as 3% + $0.20 in service fees on a transaction? That means if they sell just two tracks in a single transaction at $1 per track they would only have to cough up $0.26. The same sale through itunes would likely cost them as much as $0.73 ($.30 per track to itunes + 9% of remainder to a digital distributor)