Sacrilicious Marketing

Join Mike Fabio of Warner Music Group, Bruce Houghton of Hypebot and me (Fuel Records, EMI Music) Thursday November 19, 2009 at 3:30PM EST on SnazL, Digital Partner of New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW),  for a  featured Digital Un-Panel on the Music & Social Media.  Learn how the music industry is changing to keep pace with technology, fight piracy and provide fans with a richer experience through social media and new music distribution models. If you are an artist, learn what it takes to get signed and what to expect from a label.

NYEW Music and Social Media Unpanel

Date: Nov 19, 2009

Time: 3:30PM EST

Place: SnazL

Panelists: Mike Fabio (Warner Bros), Mary McKnight (Fuel Records, an EMI distributed label).

I am Mary McKnight of Fuel Records an EMI Distributed Label and Sacrilicious Marketing a blog on the music industry and how it’s handling the internet revolution in the age of piracy.

The state of the music industry and record labels specifically is dire. Unless labels change the ways in which they do business, they may face extinction. Here are some staggering facts you may not know:

• ½ the recording studios in LA are failing or have already shut their doors.
• 35% of all traffic on the Internet is from file sharing AKA music, movie and software piracy
• RIAA has accused over 18K people of illegally downloading music, only 2 cases have ever seen trial – while the industry won both to the tune of millions in damages, the real damage was done to the industry’s reputation by negative press surrounding the cases
• Record sales have fell sharply from 1999’s high of $14.6 Billion to just over $10 billion in 2008 and labels rely more on artist hit songs than on full album sales which means labels must put more pressure on artists to produce hit singles than albums in a strategy the industry has termed a “hit parade.”
• Record labels unless they have 360 deals with artists absorb most of the marketing costs for an album release but do not share in the artists alternative and far more lucrative ancillary revenue sources like concerts, merchandise or endorsement deals.

I hear a lot about how greedy record labels are and how misguided we our in our pursuit of pirates. (OK, I’ll grant you that is misguided.. but that’s another story for another day) Let’s get this straight – record labels are not making money hand over fist these days and Forrester predicts that by 2013 we will have lost over 5 billion in sales from recorded music.

Some of the more interesting solutions to the problems facing the recording industry are:

• The free ad sponsored music model on par with the UKs Spotify.com which could represent an answer the revenue problem
• Reducing our marketing costs by promoting artists, songs and albums through social networks. Fore example, Shakira debuted her latest video exclusively through Facebook.
• EMI took decisive action last year by making artists work harder and cutting the fat even at the executive levels in the organization and laying off nearly half their workforce. Costs were cut by nearly $200 million, one factor that has catapulted them into having one of their best fiscal Quarters in recent history.
• Providing more robust experience based rich media through USB devices as we have seen with the recent EMI release of the Beatles as a branded USB

So, with so many people claiming the sky is falling for record labels, what do you think labels can do to make more money? Answer me in a video comment on SnazL! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

Learn more about me, Mary McKnight or learn more about Mike Fabio or industry veteran, Bruce Houghton.

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