From the start, it was clear that Music Matters has a distinctly different feel from most other conferences, more of what I’d call a ‘family affair’. Unlike other conferences that offer a plethora of simultaneous, often lightly attended, Music Matters sets a unified program followed by all delegates. The message is clear: If you want to understand the Asian market, here is the information you will need. And whereas the other conferences make participants available to facilitate scheduling meetings in advance, Music Matters takes a completely opposite approach. “We want a free-flowing networking event where everyone has access to everyone else in a open format,” explained Commercial Director Stan Ruza.

While I was initially skeptical that this would work, it ended up being a nice and productive change, especially for someone looking to build up a broad base of contacts in Asia. I left with as many contacts as I do from other conferences, even though it was much smaller — composed mostly of decision makers from all the major Asian markets: from Tokyo to Mumbai, Sidney to Kuala Lumpur.

Japanese Nirvana

While I learned a lot about the Asian market in those 2 days, the most surprising “revelation” was actually a question: when will the Japanese music market surpass the US for the #1 position? More shocking were the estimates ranging from only 5-10 years.

So what exactly is happening to justify this doomsday scenario (at least from the US perspective)? Simple: the Japanese love music, and are still more than willing to pay for it, whether old or young. Kei Ishizaka, CEO & Chairman of Universal Music LLC Japan and RIAJ (Recording Industry Association of Japan) Chairman presented some facts in his opening keynote “New Strategies & Opportunities in Japan” that might make some in the West red with envy:

* Digital sales in Japan have increased from 7.5% in 2005 to 20% in 2008
* Mobile is the driver, accounting for 89% digital sales in 2008
* Note that this is a slight drop from 94% in 2005, credited to iTunes Japan which, accounts for 50% of online sales
* Japan is the only music market where digital sales have made up for losses in physical sales – that is until 2008, when physical losses appear to be outpacing the growth of digital sales
* Japanese music consumers appear relatively price inelastic, with a willingness to pay the highest prices of any country for music: up to $4/ringtone and $30+/CD album
* The Japanese music industry is still a hit-driven one

Perhaps most importantly, the Japanese music industry has not abandoned its most profitable customers: those over 40. The dirty little secret in the US is that according to Soundscan, CD sales have fallen faster amongst those over 40, largely out of neglect by labels focused on the youth market. The Japanese music companies on the other hand, have consciously developed products for the over 40 demographic, which (i) do not download music and (ii) are willing to pay big bucks ($30+) for a high-quality CD (ie music, packaging…).

This is not to say that Japan is a complete musical nirvana: more music was acquired via illegal means (407 million tracks) than legal (329 million tracks) on mobile platforms. In 2006, the RIAJ sent over 220,000 takedown notices, and have since filed criminal charges against mobile BBS (Bulletin Board System) site operators. But despite these challenges, the Japanese market has been growing non- stop, with the exception of 2008 when it recorded a measly 3% drop in sales, which is not generally viewed as a trend for the coming years.

Get Me A Piece Of That Pie!

By this point, you’re probably trying to devise ways to grab of a piece of the Asian pie. Think again! You’re still more likely to make it in the US or Europe than earning any yens or yuans. Just like the Great Wall of China, the Asian market presents nearly insurmountable challenges for even the most savvy western artists.

First, the Asian market is completely dominated by local repertoire. Japan is actually one of the more accessible markets, with international repertoire accounting for a little over 20%; though, this has been decreasing over recent years. Look outside of Japan and the numbers are downright depressing. Take the fastest growing markets such as Malaysia, Indonesia, India and China; and their local repertoires accounts for nearly 99% of total.

Put simply, Asians want music that they are culturally/linguistically comfortable with and can relate too. Of course there is Hip Hop, Pop, and Rock throughout Asia, but it is all sung in their respective native language, with their cultural nuances. This is in complete contrast with the West where English is, for all intents and purposes, a necessity to become an international star, whether you’re called Shakira, Bjork or The Scorpions.

In addition, Asia has no long-tail effect. It is still a hit-driven market, which tends to play against foreign acts. The general consensus among conference speakers and attendees appears to be that Asian consumers are just too busy working to go hunting for new music, to listen to podcasts, or to endlessly surf social media sites.

As such, Asian consumers are much more ‘captive’ to recommendations and editorial leads than say the US, where we have a proud tradition of bin-diving for that rare LP – wasn’t the old Napster and today’s MySpace simply the digital shape of this art form? The fact that mobile drives music consumption as opposed to the net, has some part to play in this as well. For the same reason, all-you-can-eat subscription services competing with iTunes are not likely to gain a sufficient subscriber base despite the markets’ sizes.

But let us say, for argument’s sake, that you do develop some recognition in an Asian market. How do you expect to generate money from it? You’ve all heard of the scourge of piracy in Asia, so I don’t want to rehash the topic. Let me just leave you with this fact from Google China’s Bin Lin: of the 7,000+ music services in China, only 0.1% of their offerings are legal downloads.

Licensing isn’t much help either. Unlike North America and Europe, where Performing Rights Organizations (PROs) have a long history, collection agencies are relatively young in Asia and have yet to get a grip on the digital market. As a consequence, there is a lot of mistrust between publishers and PROs, which significantly hampers licensing opportunities. If one takes the Indian market for example, where 70% of music consists of soundtracks (courtesy of Bollywood), music labels have been collecting all relevant rights until recently.

Even the mature Japanese market has its eccentricities, such as songs being available free of sync licensing for commercial purposes up to one year after its release. As a consequence, success in the Japanese market may well depend on a willingness to waive sync rights for commercial use, representing an important way to break a song, explained Kimitaka Kato, Universal International Managing Director.

Are You Depressed Yet?

Frankly, I’m not! My recommendation is too look at the Far East as the Wild West: full of opportunity for those with the patience and guts too tough it out. The first lesson is that you are nobody unless you are here. Thus I made the trip to Music Matters and then to Beijing, where I met a successful music pioneer, Kenny Bloom.

Bloom, who was kindly referred to me by NARIP’s (National Association of Record Industry Professionals) Tess Taylor, came to China over 20 years ago to launch Warner Music. He now runs Mogo (www.mogo.com.cn), one of the coolest video sites in China serving the young, hip (undeserved) Chinese urban youth. So why is he still in China with everything I previously mentioned?

(i) China has the largest internet population (around 300 million, ie, the entire US population)
(ii) Around 80% of Chinese internet users are music consumers (240 million)
(iii) Music was the #2 search term for the last 3 years
(iv) At $50 billion annually, China is now the 2nd largest advertising market (It just recently surpassed Japan for the #2 position)

He also has a different take on the Chinese consumer. According to Bloom, it’s not so much that the Chinese are busier or harder working, but that they are in an underdeveloped media market. Media in China (TV, radio and to some extent the internet) is directly or indirectly controlled by the Communist government.

As The Economist recently noted “the proliferation of channels for media, information and entertainment offers unbounded scope for the [Chinese Communist] party to get its message across, abetted by commercial operators.” One consequence of this is the sanitizing of media in order to appeal to a national audience that includes rural peasants as well as urban dwellers. It’s a process not unlike our over-conglomeratized radio or broadcast TV markets, which is suffering from competition by more original and niche programming on cable, satellite and the internet.

The upside is that this presents unique opportunities to serve the growing chique urban class, which the centralized media market is incapable of satisfying; a segment Bloom estimates to be 40 million and growing. By serving this high-value segment with high-quality, original video programming, Mogo is able to attract big-name brands such as Converse that place a premium on this demographic. To some extent, Mogo is trying to do for China today what MTV did for the U.S. in the 80′s.

Another Beijing-based company to watch is Yobo Music (www.yobo.com), a recommendation and discovery site for music. Its founder Allen Guo was perhaps the most eloquent at Music Matters on the need to offer Chinese consumers a variety of models and services that enhance their music experience. Only by meeting the various needs of different consumer segments — as the Japanese music market has done so successfully — will alternatives to piracy be sustainable. make bath salts

Future revenues will be driven by value-added music services rather than easily pirated downloads or ringtones. And while advertising may seem a panacea to many in the U.S. and China (did I mention they are the 2 largest advertising markets), Allen noted some success by Yobo Music with other revenue models such as micro-payments and music gifting.

The Silver Lining

In the end, the Wild West was tamed and I believe the same will happen with China. America in its first 50 years was home to pirates (ie., privateers) and some of the worst copyright/patent infringers of the time. This is part of what lead to the growth of the young, scrappy republic. But as it matured, and itself became more of a creator/innovator, America began to place increasing value on protecting copyright/patents.

The same will be true for China. As Bloom noted, “How do you expect a people that had no concept of private ownership 10 years ago to understand, let alone value, something like copyright?” In other words, not only has copyright been a foreign concept, it would have been counter-productive to the country’s development. But as it begins to export more cultural goods and develop new patents, that trend will reverse as surely as it did in the US. The only question is whether it can put the genie back in the bottle when the time comes.

I happened to arrive in Beijing on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square incident. Sure enough, I could not access Twitter or YouTube, and any coverage on foreign TV channels, like BBC were blocked by a blank screen. Once the Communist Party determines that copyright is something worth putting the effort towards protecting, I wouldn’t give those 7,000+ so-called music services much of a chance.

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Whether they’re into punk music, grunge bands, vintage music, or hard rock and roll music, fans want more from their favorites and want to hear the voices of new, unsigned bands. They show their appreciation by wearing rock and roll T-shirts or their favorite band T-shirts, and by displaying rock music posters, rock concert posters and other band posters on their walls.

Myspacedotcom have launched its online charts of unsigned rock bands. Myspacedotcom provides unsigned band reviews and information to many publications throughout the world wide and to online sites throughout the World and came across this cool new site….not seen anything like this before. If you are an unsigned band of any kind you can email them your Myspacedotcom link- looks uncomplicated and you could get a review from some music industry people……

Does anyone know of anything else this promising…..if so I would like to hear from you as I am finding it difficult to get beyond playing a few gigs here and there ….have sent press kits to some magazines and record labels but nothing has come of it yet!

Promotion and internet publicity for musicians to genre specific radio stations, online music magazines, directories, blogs and other media. Submits your music to genre-specific radio stations, online music magazines, online music directories, blogs, podcasts, indie record labels, and other electronic music media.

Myspacedotcom promotes Unsigned Rock Bands providing imaginative ways to get Bands noticed. We pride ourselves on being different to other Music Websites refusing to become a Website that focuses on Member Numbers.

The biggest difference you will find with Rock bands is that you can not Join our website or create a Band Profile. Why become a needle in a haystack fighting with the thousands of other Bands using profile Websites? Who actually goes looking through these profile sites? The truth is, no one! We have come up with new ways of Promoting Band’s that offers quality exposure. We also come with the personal touch, all our services are handed edited and not database driven, you will talk to real people and not auto responses.

Promoting Metal Bands is our speciality, we spend day after day forming relationships, submitting press releases and begging for features. We also happen to be very good at it! Myspacedotcom has always been about Unsigned Bands and all our staff has either been in a Band or worked very close with one at some point. We understand how Bands work and the finances that are available.

We work for you, no fixed contracts, terms, limitations. You control your projects by setting how much time and money you want to invest in them. Whether you’re looking for a few graphics designed or a full Website development, we will be happy to work with you.

Think this through and move things around on the calendar until you’ve got one or two great ideas listed for each month. Doing this will give you a promotional roadmap so you know the best ways to spend your time and energy every month. Your efforts will be more focused this way and more likely to generate results. Our site will be giving this great idea. Our site will be promoting your Metal and Rock bands.

The biggest challenge when planning a PR campaign for you band is getting contacts. You can spend months looking up publication/zine contacts on the web only to have your press packs returned undeliverable. This is especially true with webzines, they are often started with fantastic exuberance by the people behind them, then left to rot after a few weeks.

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Indie music promotion has no limits when it comes to creative ways of promoting a band. I’m sure by now that you have tried many different strategies and continue to use techniques that are working for you. In this article I will cover an often overlooked but extremely effective tool that you should start using today for your indie music promotion. I am talking about the autoresponder, which is also known as a mailing list but has built in features to make promoting much easier.

Search online for an autoresponder service. Some are free but I find that the paid services are much better and are worth every penny for what you can get from them. The monthly costs are low and it makes your email list much easier to use during your promotion efforts.

Now that you have an autoresponder lets go over how to use it. Generate a web form and install the html or javascript into your website, blog, and band promotion sites. Potential fans will have an opportunity to sign up to your list when they are browsing over your site. It is very important to give something away for free in exchange for their name and email. This gives the customer an incentive to sign up. I suggest you give away a free download of one of your songs. This is a great form of indie music promotion as more people will become familiar with your music and you will have email addresses to post updates about your band.

Now that you have a list of fans that continues to grow a couple of great things are happening. One, you are gaining more fans of your music, and two you have access to every one of them. With your autoreponder you can set up emails to be released on future dates. You can set up immediate broadcasts of your messages that can also be connected to all of your social networking accounts. You write one email and it will be sent out to thousands of people. As your fan base grows you wouldn’t be able to keep up with sending emails individually.

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Here is how to become a booking agent without having first acquired any experience of your own; learn from the years of experience that others who have risen to success before you can provide for you. Pretty darned simple, isn’t it? It sure seems so… but who in their right mind would mentor a growing source of competition? Who in this line of work would freely give out such invaluable data which was all hard-earned throughout many long years of trial and error?

Truth be told, there are many who have worked in this field for years, even decades, and have now moved on to guiding and mentoring anyone hoping to learn how to become a booking agent who have just begun to play this particular game. Such masters are the ones you need to be searching for, as the rich wisdom they wish to impart to you is nothing short of a treasure.

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These days a recording contract is nothing more than a big advance of money to be recouped by the recording company through sales of your product. If it doesn’t sell to expectation you still have to pay the money back somehow. Music companies are a business and they are there to make money not lose it. It is no different than going to a bank and getting a loan to market your music your self, except the recording companies have the methods to make the product sell, get airplay and distribute the product throughout the country or even the world. Recording companies loan you the money to make the music and get their money back by distributing it. Typically artists make a small fraction on CDs- most of the money comes through merchandise and tours.

If you can get a recording company to get behind your music, that’s good. But beware of recording companies who try to influence and change your sound, often to the point of rewriting your songs and even changing members of your band or, worse still forcing you to record songs made by other peoples.

Here are some difficulties that can happen to musicians who get signed and think they are on their way to fill stadiums around the world.

Getting shelved!
A band gets signed, gets some cash advanced for recording. The songs are recorded and completed but the record company ‘shelves’ your act and you never sees the light of day but you can’t take your product anywhere else because you are already signed. Often you can’t even play live gigs without giving a % of your performance fee to the record company. This happened to Billy Joel who waited his five year contract out playing in piano bars.

The song gets changed.
Often you will be all ready to record your songs and the record company will bring in a co-writer or producer who alters your compositions beyond all recognition to “fit in with label’s style.” You started to make a hard rock album and you end up with a rap album with all your instruments removed and samples replacing them. You thought you were Metallica only to end up like Jack Johnson. Then you have to go and promote something you really hate and your product is no longer recognizable.

Where did all the money go?
Beware the big advance of money, to make and promote your music. If it doesn’t sell you will have to pay the money back, with interest, just like the banks. How do you pay it back? Live gigs, touring, radio shows, shopping centers for the next ten years. How do all those artists who make millions of dollars end up bankrupt? All the bills they didn’t know they had to pay. They had so much fun, they never watched where the money was going. Read the fine print so you don’t end up like MC Hammer.

Where did my band go?
Quite often musical differences between band members and record companies are solved by the company getting rid of and replacing any member of the band who doesn’t agree with them. They are always trying to get work for their own players and artists who have already been signed. Quite often you will find all your guitar player’s work re-recorded by the studio guy or producer to fit in with the label’s sound or smooth over tensions within the band.

I thought I was a musician not a pop star.
Increasingly recording companies are trying to “cross media” any act in anyway they can. They will market you anyway they can, and they will get you to do things to increase your and their exposure any way they can. You may end up on dog food commercial, on big brother or, god forbid, on Australian Idol. Many recording companies are just offshoots of the big media groups who control TV, radio, music, and the print media, and they will market you anyway they see fit to re-coup their investment in you. Most musicians have a short shelf life so companies want to maximize their profit now before the public listens to the next big thing. (We’ve all heard of the sophomore slump!)

Remember that the music business is 95% business and 5% music. Try to go independent if you can, promote yourself on the web at sites like Axebay and build your own presence in the world. The more successful you are in the beginning the more bargaining power you have with the recording companies. If you do get an offer, get a good lawyer. You don’t want to waste five years in piano bars.

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Frills and fluff do not make a . Buy yourself some two-pocket folders at any stationery store. Buy a good median-priced folder; you don’t want the most expensive, but you don’t want the cheapest folder either. Inside the folder include copies of any articles or interviews you have appeared in, a fact sheet, a short bio about you and your company, a press release, and any visuals or photos that you believe are important. No fluff, only include the pertinent stuff. That is your press kit. First send a release, make a follow-up call. If a producer or editor asks for a kit, send one, but only to people who have requested it. Be selective. Be smart.

Also, modify your press kit to fit the media that you’re sending to. You may not want to send the same press kit to Time magazine that you would to Runner’s World or Forbes. Be discerning in who you send the kits to and in the materials you include. It will pay off in the long run.

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First let’s make it clear that not every act deserves an artist showcase, at least not in the light of pandering to record labels in an ongoing campaign to secure a record deal. If you’ve read any of my articles, you know I try to tell it like it is and so once again, I will not shy away from the truth that not every artist deserves an outlet to showcase their “talent.” The reason is not simply because the band is no good, but because maybe there is not a maturity or serious quality from the members or a definitive goal in place that everyone is rallying around. Other reasons may include lack of a unique playing quality or an act that is simply playing cover tunes. Let’s talk about cover tunes for a minute.

Don’t play cover tunes unless they are specifically asked for, or unless you are a cover band playing wedding gigs, etc. If you are truly looking to get a record deal, then showcase your own music. This notion that your audience can relate to you and your band simply because you are playing music that everyone knows is false and misguided logic. Would you have cared, the first time you heard one of your favorite groups, that you knew any of the material – I bet not. You were so into the music and groove you wanted to hear more and buy the record. You think of big groups today that at one point were nobody, and just imagine hearing them for the first time, would it have mattered? – I bet I’m right again. Moral of the story, play your own music.

Before you begin to look at the possibility of a showcase, look at your objectives. Each showcase doesn’t necessarily have to be about the record deal, but that should certainly be your ultimate objective and therefore, everything that you bring to the table ought to encompass and revolve around that goal. For example, you might showcase a particular groove and set of songs, which you would like to take out on the track and test. Is the audience really digging it or is it not you. Likewise, you can showcase for a lesser goal, but yet an important stepping stone to a record deal signing like pushing upcoming events or visibility to obtain additional bookings, etc.

As you start planning a showcase, who will attend? – Friends or will music industry personnel be present? Each artist showcase ought to be driven by a marketing approach. Do you have an artist logo, professional bios, pictures and press kits made? These can not be a “friend of the group did it for us,” looking press kits. They have to shine and look pro like music industry individuals are already in play and are looking at your act. Don’t overlook these elements. You might check out artist press kits, bios and press blurb writing at ReelMusician.com.

How will you go about promoting your showcase? You have to look beyond stapling flyers to telephone polls, etc. Have you thought about creating a jingle or station ID or local radio personality piece for free in hopes that you will get some radio and TV exposure? You ought to look at local radio stations and write a mix according to the style of the station and your band – see if you can’t get some promotion that way. Cable TV advertising is fairly inexpensive. You might consider going in with everyone in the band and buying some advertising from cable or local TV stations.

If you don’t already have it, and I’m sure most do, get your web site up and going and make sure that you have a page for upcoming events along with pictures, bio, contact page. Websites do not have to be expensive. You can get your website hosted for $5 – $10 a month. You most likely won’t get a lot of traffic, but you will get credibility with the public and within the music industry crowd – This will prove to be invaluable later on down the road.

What will your showcase consist of and what can you do to stand out from the crowd? Your act needs to look like they’ve been at this for years with a comfort level exuding from who the band is. How long is the showcase? You’ve heard the old expression, always leave the crowd wanting to hear more. Far better to do a rather short showcase with knock out tunes then a lengthy, drawn out, can’t wait to get out of there, gig. Work with your song lineup and tweak the number and length of your set at rehearsal until it feels right. Have everything figured right up front. Who’s going to speak when and try to hit all of the “what ifs,” as much as you can. You want this showcase to “wow” the listeners and create some momentum and energy.

Re-think your image and make sure that it matches who you are. People are not that stupid and can almost immediately recognize when an image is forced and manipulated and not natural to the group. Better to have a natural image, true to who you are, than an image that you think just has to go with your style of music.

In closing, make each and every showcase count, with calculated marketing and a thought through line-up so when the music industry execs start showing up, they have something to go back to the office with!