New Music Seminar Concludes 2014 Conference Featuring Keynotes by SiriusXM President Scott Greenstein, CBS Radio President and CEO, and Music Subscription Leaders on Path to Bigger Music Business

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Indie Rock Band VanLadyLove Takes Home “Artist on the Verge” Honor

NEW YORK, June 11, 2014 – New Music Seminar (NMS) wrapped its 2014 edition yesterday, once again asserting itself as one of the premier conferences for the evolving music business and festival for emerging acts. Held over three days at the Wyndham New Yorker Hotel, NMS brought together more than 1,400 delegates, including label heads, A&R representatives, songwriters, artists, and technology executives to discuss the future of the music business.

NMS boasted a stellar roster of speakers that included music legends and notable industry titans, including Nile Rodgers, Al Bell, Kenny Gamble, Desmond Child, Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison, Scott Greenstein, Dan Mason, Billy Mann, Jason Flom, Julie Greenwald and more, who led panels that touched on all aspects of the music business, including production advice, legal issues, the impact of new technologies, and overall, how to reach music consumers in ways that benefit all parties.

The conference also amplified its global representation this year, with delegates from over 45 countries. The festival featured several international acts that performed throughout the three days, even featuring a dedicated Sweden showcase.
 

Key conference highlights:

• Without music, FM radio wouldn’t exist: SoundExchange President & CEO Michael Huppe’s controversial keynote noting that, contrary to popular belief, radio actually follows the tastes of listeners, rather than sets them. He cited Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” as a song that emerged on social media and digital services, and only after gaining popularity through those mediums did radio take notice. Huppe concluded his speech on a bold note: “Radio needs you more than you need them."
• Music subscription services pave the way to better music industry economics: Will Page, chief economist for Spotify, pointed to trends in music, while top executives from Google Play Music, Rhapsody/Napster, Wimp, Sirius/XM, and Deezer explained the power of bundling with automobiles and mobile service providers to grow the number of music subscribers to 100 million, and eventually to billions.
• People expect new: Iconic performer and producer Nile Rodgers led the Producers Movement alongside Atlantic Records CEO Craig Kallman, discussing the evolving role of the producer and the need for artists to reinvent themselves in order to keep the attention of music consumers. The players also addressed the lack of female engineers and producers, and why the industry should support growth in this area.
• Hi-res audio is imminent: Audiophiles including Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison, executives from Gibson, Warner Music Group and more highlighted the renaissance of music quality made possible by increasing bandwidth and inexpensive storage, and why today’s recording process has to change.
• Radio still breaks most music: Keynotes by CBS CEO Dan Mason and SiriusXM President Scott Greenstein, and a panel of the heads of programming at America’s biggest radio groups explained why, after 20 years of music on the web, most music breaks on radio.
• A&R will find you: Young A&R executives helped close out the conference by offering insight into what they look for when signing new artists. Among the many considerations, the players emphasized the importance of having an existing fan base, being able to perform well, and agreed that a good song can move anywhere – across genres, platforms and audience bases.
• VanLadyLove wins Artist on the Verge Class of 2014 project: On Sunday through Tuesday nights, NMS hosted New Music Nights kicking off Sunday with the Red Carpet Party at Webster Hall, then continuing throughout venues in the East Village and Lower East Side of Manhattan. The top three acts that performed, VanLadyLove, Kiah Victoria, and June Divided, competed in a dedicated showcase on Monday to win the coveted Artist on the Verge Reflection Award, as voted on by those in attendance. VanLadyLove took back to Utah the AOV grand prize, winning more than $100,000 in consultations, promotion, marketing, music equipment and more.
• Music is the cheapest way to happiness: NMS Founder/Executive Director and TommY BoY Founder/CEO Tom Silverman gave closing remarks on Tuesday evening, stressing, “the world needs music more than it needs anything.” He noted that music is the most effective and inexpensive route to happiness and that the value of music must increase to match its impact on the overall well being of society.

“This was a breakthrough NMS. We achieved the perfect balance of the leaders in the future of the creation, exposure and monetization of music,” said Silverman. “Delegate interaction reached a new high and many concepts were discussed that had never been considered before in a pubic forum. I am pleased to see the industry coming together to move toward a common goal of greater value for music.”

 
For more information on New Music Seminar, please visit www.newmusicseminar.comor follow on Facebook and Twitter.
 
About NMS:
The New Music Seminar is the world’s most influential Music Business convention, led by the voices that disrupt the conventional, tackling key issues and providing a stage for trailblazing artists to shine. NMS is the place to network, engage, and discuss the future of the art and business of music.
 
From 1980-1994, NMS established itself as the Music Business Conference of its time. In 2009, NMS was revived to assemble today’s visionaries and industry leaders – paving a way to move past the dying record business. After 12 years of cleansing decline, we have a new attitude; a new optimism, a clear path to a bigger, more engaged, more inclusive, more sustainable music ecosystem. 
 
The New Music Seminar is perfect for anyone looking to further their career in any and all facets of the music business. Recording Companies, Music Publishers, Music Technologies, Managers, Agents, Artists, Songwriters, Producers, and artist & label services from around the world come together each June in New York City to cross-pollinate, share ideas, and create new opportunities.
 
See more at: http://www.newmusicseminar.com
 

UNL's Music Industry Leadership 101 Launches

8th graders at Wendell Middle School in Wake County, NC learn about marketing and leadership from UNL. Learn more about the Entertainment Career Pathway course launching this fall! http://ushersnewlook.org/ushers-new-l...

8 Rules: Marketing in the Music Industry

So youʼve been doing the local open-mic night circuit for a while now, youʼve just recorded your first EP or album and are ready to start getting the word out about your brand. Hereʼs a quick music marketing check-list to help you get on your way:

1. Define your brand – Ensure you branding is clear, consistent and professional across all your online and offline platforms. Define your identity who/where you target audience are. Go to your fans, donʼt expect them to come to you.


2. Collect “currency” – Email addresses, mobile numbers and zip codes are the new currency of the music industry. Email is one the most effective direct marketing channels to fans. Make sure you are collecting fan data wherever you are both onlineand offline. Two great newsletter services are mailchimp.com or fanbridge.com

3. Create a website – having your own website instantly create a professional brand. It also acts as a uniting hub for all your other social networking sites. Remember, if Myspace or Facebook died tomorrow, all your fan data would be lost. Having a website ensure you are in total control of your brand and fan data. If you canʼt afford a website yet, then just get a holding page with a newsletter sign-up on it and links to your social networking sites.

4. Prioritize quality over quantity – Prioritize connecting with fans one by one over applications that “autobot” fans onto your social networking sites. This will inspire loyalty in your fan base and will ultimately be the most effective way in turning potential fans into super fans.

5. Be media ready – Ensure you have both physical and digital copies of your music available, and a biography and/or press release too. Many journalists still want to receive physical product in order to judge the professionalism of an artist. However make sure you also have your full album available for download via a hidden website. I recommend Soundcloud for this.

6. Donʼt forget about offline marketing – Online marketing has made connecting with fans on a global level so much easier. We can now communicate with people in real time all over the world. However, donʼt forget about your offline marketing. Your live performance, fan interaction at gigs, and face to face networking are still fundamental. Be aggressive (but nice!) in BOTH your offline and online marketing.

7. Know your rights – Ensure you aware of the different ways of earning money online and offline. Make sure you sign up to SoundExchange (itʼs free!) in order to collect your digital royalties and keep up to date with issues affecting musicians by checking in with The Future of Music Coalition.

8. Be creative, be personal - Donʼt be afraid to ask your fans for input into your creative process. If they see you are listening to them, it will incentivize their loyalty and you will create word-of-mouth buzz.

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Jem Bahaijoub is the founder of imaginePR, a music PR and marketing company based in
Washington, DC. You can connect with her on twitter @jembahaijoub or Facebook
www.facebook.com/imaginePR

The Music Industry Sinks, While P.R.O.s Are Sittin' Pretty

Ever wonder why P.R.O.s (performing rights' organizations) like BMI and ASCAP have steadily rising profits, while the rest of the music industry has lost some 60 percent of its income in recent years? One reason: They embrace new technologies where others scoff or tremble. The same technologies that make it easier to listen to and distribute music often also make it easier to collect royalties on it. So when Napster shows up, BMI cuts a deal with them. Same with Rhapsody. According to BMI President Del Bryant, the deal needn't be all that binding or even all that heavily monetized. They just want in on the ground floor.

The New York Times Sunday mag has a pretty interesting story this week on all that, told from the vantage point of how they track down and (inevitably) collect licensing fees from every hole-in-the-wall bar, venue or beauty parlor that plays their artists' music. But this isn't a tale about labels suing grandmothers and college kids who download illegally. It's about tracking down the lady who runs the Coyote Flats Cafe and Bar in Aguila, Texas, so she'll cough up the $16 a week in fees for the music she pipes in through a karaoke machine, TVs, and CD players.

The story follows Devon Baker, a woman who works out of BMI's Nashville HQ and travels the country trying to get people to pay anywhere from $300 to $9,000 a year to play tunes. (If you know anyone who's come out of the recording industry program at MTSU, you probably know someone who's worked at BMI or in publishing at Sony, scanning in copyright info or tracking down licensing violators on the phone.)

And surprisingly, she isn't as aggressive as you'd imagine: Because BMI has never lost a case they've tried in 51 years, they're able to approach the whole thing more like a chess game in the mail. They'll call, and call back. They'll send letters, maybe drop by. The reason? It's easier to rest easy when you're a little bit ahead of the game. They're like the Netflix of the music industry:

“We’re not about shutting things down,” [Richard Conlon, V.P. of new media at BMI] told me. “We’re about nurturing markets. We don’t want people NOT to use it. We know the market is fractionalizing. You wanna take our music and stream it and have electronic whatevers that play when you stick a chip into something or somebody? Go ahead! Do it! Just pay us!”

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2010/08/09/the-music-industry-sinks-while-pros-are-sittin-pretty