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Mp3 Music Downloads
A REALLY COOL INDEPENDENT MUSIC WEB
SITE
A REALLY COOL INDEPENDENT MUSIC WEB SITE
Today there is a massive market in the Mp3 and music world, now
with the edition of podcasting and faster broadband we can see
what the...
Music Business Lessons From The Village People
Just saw Can't Stop the Music, which is the Village People's big screen debut...
What a great movie. Lots of inside jokes, a good "time capsule" of disco culture, and a great lesson on the music business.
The movie wasn't entirely true, but the...
Online Recording Studios - A New Player in the Music Industry
The World of Drum Recording
Many people today, especially in home studios where you often have only two inputs to record at once, record their songs one track at a time. Most people starting a home studio can easily acquire the basic...
The Various Countries - A Rant About Country Music
It is no secret that over the past couple decades country music has struggled with it’s identity far more than any other genre in the industry. At this point nobody can really claim to be a country music fan without being questioned what kind of...
Why are so many music sites making these mistakes?
The fundamentals of any site, especially music sites
(where the competition is harsh) is to 1) keep the
visitors and 2) for the visitors to find you. Most of the
methods listed have the other advantage of being search...
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How Record Pools Can Make Musicians Rich!
Record pools...ever heard of them? The chance is that you have
not. And, there is an equal reason that you have not. And, even
though major record labels have used them for years, and
continue to use record pools extensively, record pools are one
of the most secretive elements within the Music industry.
Yet, although record pools can literally make you and your music
project an overnight success, they can also make you filthy
rich. And, if you utilize enough of them often enough, you can
get filthy rich!
But, let's answer the foremost question first...what are record
pools?
Record pools are music organizations that distribute the music
from labels and artists to deejays who are pool members for the
express purpose of obtaining music for the nightclubs in which
they play/spin records. The pool is overseen by an individual
referred to as a pool director.
Record labels and artists send music to record pools in order to
test market their music at the least expensive cost, as well as
a fast way of getting paid. Likewise, labels and artists do not
charge pools for copies that they send them. Additionally,
record pools are probably the fastest way to get exposure for a
new release.
Okay, the pools win by getting music from labels and artists,
which attracts deejays as members. Accordingly, deejays win by
eliminating the need to purchase music for their nightclubs.
But! How do labels and artists win? What's in it for them?
What is in the deal for labels and artists is:
* Quick exposure directly to music listeners
* Quick exposure directly to music buyers
But, how does the process really work? Glad you asked, because
now, I have a chance to give you a step-by-step approach:
1. First, you need to have a very strong single (or singles) if
you desire to release more than one single release. My advice
is, regardless of your genre, if your music falls within a
"commercial" aspect, i.e., Pop, Rock, Dance, Urban, Country, or
any hybrid or sub genre thereof, your preference, first and
foremost, should be either:
a.) A hot dance single or...
b.) A very strong tear-jerk, heart-wrenching ballad
Anything in between will simply not suffice because club goers
are in clubs for (primarily) one thing...to dance, whether that
is shaking their gluteus maximi to an uptempo beat, or
"slow-dragging" <=(old school term for grinding ever so closely
while not necessarily being in love).
2. Take your selected single(s) and enhance it/them to some
degree that will make the song(s) slightly different from your
radio version. Ways to do that include:
* Extending the song(s) from the radio versions' 3-4 minutes in
length to 5-6 minutes in length for the nightclub versions',
since people prefer longer versions in clubs.
* Adding or modifying sound effects.
* Dropping out or fading certain instruments, or incorporating
new instruments not heard in the radio version.
I believe you get the point...
3. Place your club version on vinyl, as most nightclub deejays
still prefer vinyl (wax), although there are now a number of
deejays that will also accept your enhanced version on CD. To
cover all bases, consider placing your club versions on both
vinyl and CD, if it is affordable to do so.
4. Contact record pools to learn if they have member deejays who
play your genre of music in their nightclubs and, if so, the
number of such deejays they have. This number from each pool
will allow you to determine the number of pieces you will need
for the pool(s).
Note: One such pool that actually distributes on a worldwide
level is Dixie Dance Kings at http://www.dancekings.com DDK also
holds the honor of being both the 2002 and 2003 International
Dance Music Association pool of the year. DDK's service areas
include: United States, Alaska, Japan, Europe, South America,
the Caribbean, Saipan and Guam.
Even so, there are a number of additional record pools, however,
DDK is an excellent one to begin with.
5. Once you have the number of pieces for the pool(s), and after
the pool receives them, it will usually take 1-2 weeks before
your music begins getting club play. Then, the response is
almost instantaneous.
Note: Prior to sending out to pools, you should also ensure that
you have your offline retail distribution covered so that you
can get sales as a result of the club play. A good place to
begin for offline retail sales is with The Orchard, with its
website at http://www.theorchard.com and New Artist Direct, with
its website at http://www.newartistdirect.com
The Orchard
currently pays for sales on a quarterly basis, while
New Artist Direct currently pays on a monthly basis. Combined
with CD Baby paying weekly, you can realize income on a weekly,
monthly and quarterly basis. Such a setup is unheard of with
traditional distributors, and you will now have money in your
pocket a lot sooner and more consistently.
There was a time that, when an independent artist was fortunate
enough to get airplay outside of his local or regional area a
couple of thousand miles away, equally unfortunate was that
there wasn't a thing he could do about it, in terms of sales. He
could only weep at his potential sales losses
These two organizations eliminate that loss, of which they have
a 90%-95% concentration into offline retail stores, both major
chain stores as well as independent music stores.
6. The point of making sure that your music is set up with these
particular organizations is that, when club goers hear a "hot"
record that they like, naturally, they want it, and they want it
NOW!
And, while these two distributors do not take hundreds of your
CD at a time (which is a great thing for you, as it does not tie
up your product and make it difficult to get back, as with
traditional distributors), these particular distributors make
your music available through a national retail database so that
stores can place orders instantly for their customers.
They operate much like online music sales sites CD Baby and
Amazon.com do, again, with accepting only a few copies at any
given time, but they are the offline versions, reaching music
retailers while giving you the best of both online and offline
sales worlds.
Now, you have already seen the wide distribution area of the
Dixie Dance Kings record pool and, if you have not, I encourage
you to review it. And, again, there are quite a number of
additional record pools that, in general, serve as specialty
pools to particular genres, or serve virtually all commercially
viable music releases, regardless of genre.
In fact, I now encourage my radio promotion and publicity
clients to try to make record pools the very first aspect of
their promotion and publicity campaigns.
7. Nightclub deejays must report their club responses to your
music to the pool director, generally, between 2-4 weeks. Each
deejay compiles his own club response report, which he then
turns in to the pool director.
The pool director then compiles a final report from each deejays
report, and provides you with a copy. This report generally
includes each club's listing, address, the response rating to
your music, along with an overall average score. You can then
use your report as influence to obtain; more radio airplay,
press coverage, distribution deals, and more.
8. Now, in addition to having a completely different version of
your song(s), you also have another version of the song(s) that
you can sell at retail if you wish and, as the saying goes,
"getting two bangs for your buck," or as I like to put a twist
on it, "getting two bucks for your bang," as a certain number of
people will also be interested in your enhanced club version.
9. An added and peripheral benefit of having a club version of
your music is that a number of record pool deejays also have
specialty/mix shows on stations in their area or, they may even
be a part of the main staff on their area stations.
Thus, should a nightclub deejay really like your music, and is
not simply fulfilling the obligation to play your music in his
club, it is very likely that you will begin receiving airplay on
his area station as well.
One final note is that radio and retail work very closely within
their own local and regional areas, with each apprising each
other of what is getting response from listeners, and what is
being asked for at retail, respectively. This is why it is
vitally important that you are set up with the two
aforementioned offline retail distribution services and others
like them.
Now, when you begin the radio promotion and press publicity
aspects of your marketing campaign, they can merely serve as
"icing on the cake," so to speak, as opposed to being the only
driving factors you have to make the public aware of your music.
In fact, with now including record pools within your marketing,
and being able to provide proof to both radio and press of your
music's club response, you are likely to experience much easier
access to the media. And, wouldn't that be a good thing?
About the author:
Kenny Love is president of MuBiz.com, a multi-service music firm
providing radio promotion, media publicity, gig publicity and
business services for musicians. Get complete details at
http://www.myspace.com/kenlove
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