Andy Lykens

Innovating and operating through growth

music business

How Does An Independent Artist Stay Relevant While Creating New Music?

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How often does a band you love come out with new music? If your answer is “typically once a year” you win the prize (which is getting to read the rest of this article). Last night at a happy hour with some clients I had the unique opportunity to chat with Wise Girl (an independent artist) and the CEO of Melody Robot (and freelance ad agency producer) at the same time. It was great. I love picking their brains to see how the two different sides think and bouncing ideas off of them to see how they resonate.

Looking to successful businesses and marketing campaigns can help eschew old music industry models to advance independent music. Lately my big thing is product cycle.

If you’re an avid Apple fan you really look forward to June, September, and January. Why? Because these are typically the big refresh dates for Apple products. If you watch Breaking Bad on TV chances are you look forward to every Sunday night for 13 weeks in a row and then download the series to watch it again in a few months. Or maybe you love to shop at J. Crew and can’t wait for Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer catalogs to show up in your mailbox.

What can successful brands teach us about marketing music?

Are you starting to formulate what I’m driving at? At its fastest music generally comes out once per year. You get 10 songs, sometimes as many as 16, and maybe a concert, and then it’s back into hibernation.

Now, for a band like Pearl Jam that has sold nearly 32 million records and has a huge global fan base, you can choose to release an album once a year (or longer) and go on tour for 3 months and know you’ll sell a ton of records. People will punch each other in the face just for the miniscule chance they’ll be able to buy a ticket to see a live performance too. Leading up to that release, they’ll scour the web searching for every tidbit they can about the band. They have the luxury of already having a hungry public in place. But what if you don’t have a huge fan base? What if you need to transition from being “this band I kind of like” to “I cannot wait for their next album!”?

Pearl Jam - Over 31 Million Albums SoldShouldn’t independent artists be in frequent contact with their fans? Shouldn’t they seem prolific? Wouldn’t scheduling yourself to write and record music be an insanely useful exercise? So why bust your ass to save up $5K, take FOREVER to complete a project, then release it and act surprised that you don’t immediately gain fame and fortune?

Here’s the deal: as a new artist you have a lot of work to do and only about 20 percent of it is actually writing music. You need to garner some attention from current fans, they need to know what you’re doing, hear the results, and get an exclusive look at how you did it. Fans need to be engaged in your work and encouraged to pass it around to their friends due to its raw magnetism. It is NOT good enough to release an album once a year or an EP every 6 months, play a few shows, and then go back to waiting tables while you wait for something to happen or try to shop your 10 songs around.

Share, Engage, Converse!The game has changed. Consider using a content calendar. Tweet photos, post temp tracks, ask for feedback, populate and maintain a mailing list (I LOVE Mail Chimp). Find ways to engage your fans, solicit new ones, and keep them posted with what you’re doing, what it looks like, how it’s sounding, and building that anticipation for the final product. After all, it works for Apple.

**Feel free to leave your ideas in the comments about how or if you currently do this, and note which tools you like best.

My Take: Yamaha Entertainment Group

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Today I saw that Yamaha is launching a new division entitled “Yamaha Entertainment Group.” It’s great to see new brand partnerships directly between a brand and a band – this is something that is very rare and unique, yet it it SHOULD be common place for ANY big brand (not just a music brand). I’ve been saying this for a long time!

Leogun: Yamaha Entertainment Group's First Signing

However this leaves a lot of questions, most of which could be answered by the terms of the record deal. But I thought of something else – will Yamaha pitch the record for use in advertising? This is something I would be really interested to know – because potentially it would be great exposure and money for the band and Yamaha. But it also seems like it could potentially create brand conflict. Would Yamaha Entertainment Group license its music to Harley Davidson? To Gibson? What about Guitar Center? Obviously it could create some very cool synergies too. Whatever the specific cases that crop up it will take some careful consideration.

Finally, what about music publishing? Does Yamaha intend to represent both the master and publishing? Obviously it would be great if they did, but it leaves a lot more questions to be asked by the band about possible revenue streams. How much time can Yamaha dedicate to fulfilling the roles of a label and publisher?

Good luck to YEG and their new signing Leogun! There are some great opportunities that I’m sure will arise from the partnership and I look forward to following it closely!

Excited to be part of the NFL Business of Music Boot Camp

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Recently I was asked to participate on a music supervisor panel at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Sound’s “NFL Business of Music Boot Camp.” As a music industry professional highly interested in music publishing, music licensing, and branding with music I think this a phenomenal event.

I’ll post more thoughts later, but for now here’s a link to an earlier press release about the event:

NFL Business of Music Boot Camp

If you’re going to be there, drop me a line in the comments and let me know what you’re looking forward to most!

Being a standout music industry candidate.

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The music industry is an interesting landscape to navigate. In the last 8 months I have met with a great many companies in the industry from EMI to Warner, from Amazon to some well-reputed independent shops large and small. I’ve met with ad agency contacts who need music, have done music marketing consulting, and interviewed for jobs. To top it off I have started my own independent music publisher and began producing my first artists this month. There are flaws everywhere in the music industry – some companies are aware of them and some are not. Some actively work to try to right their course, while others live it up in the old ways. The flaws are usually how they approach business development.

Many companies are greatly focused on themselves. How much value they have, what they’re worth, how cool they are. Others are starting to realize that their ways are the old ways. I have been writing for years about how the industry needs to change and needs a different approach. Most of the adjustments have to do with a loss of focus on their clients. Sooner or later, the client gets what they want. Someone supplies that demand. Simple.

Right now, the majors are STILL in a state of flux. Some are hiring more MBAs (which I think is a good first step because MBAs better understand the value of the client relationship) and ousting their old leadership. But knowing how the majors function, there’s a long way to go and it will take a long time to get there. And even when they arrive, will their relationships be salvageable?

Independents are all over the place. While they may definitely have a client focus, some may still be operating in the old music industry. Some are lead by stereo-typical creative personalities who may not understand how effective great business development and client relationship skills can be. Their hiring processes may be less defined and therefore makes it hard to attract top talent or find the right fit for their company.

For all these reasons if you find yourself applying for a job in the music industry it is important to be highly diligent in ANY meeting preparations. Whether it’s an interview, a freelance opportunity, or a gig. Have an idea of what problems the company is looking to solve BEFORE you show up. Prepare material that’s relevant to their needs and request to meet with heads of departments at companies BEFORE there are job openings (digging up a CEO or VP’s email is very easy).

If you really are a cut above the rest, show up with the ammunition to blow them away. There are a TON of problems to solve in the industry and the well-prepared can capitalize on the all of the great opportunities.

Spotify and Google Music leave me searching…

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In my opinion, there still isn’t a good solution. Granted, in a 2.0 world, these are 1.0’s. They’re the first music services of their kind, they probably won’t be the last, but I expected a lot more (and still do from Google).

Let’s start with Spotify: great idea, amazing implications, lack-luster executions. The best part about Spotify is that I could find an amazing array of music any time I wanted. The downfall is that after 2 months, I found myself barely using the app on my iPhone, and having never downloaded the desktop version. In fact, when I paid for premium service and found it wasn’t just a web app, I actually got mad. Not a good sign.

The iPhone app worked, but it left a lot to be desired. The interface isn’t terrible smooth, the playlists aren’t terribly well organized, and there just generally seems to be a lot missing from it.

So, when my credit card expired and Spotified notified me to update it, I just didn’t bother. I suppose I don’t find myself desperately needing to listen to music I don’t already own terribly often.

Google Music is different. The first and best thing I like about it is that it is an online interface, and the second is that the interface is nice and makes sense. Sure, I had to spend about two weeks uploading my music, and that really, really, really, really….really, really…really blows. But once it was up, it worked well.

The other big bummer is there is no iOS app for it.

I suppose you could say the verdict is still out for google, and sure, they’re probably just trying to avoid getting sued by basically everyone, but at the end of the day it just isn’t really doing it for me.

iTunes, you’re up next. Can’t wait to see what Apple brings to the table in the realm of hosted music services!

Too big of a ship or too big of a head?

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This week HP announced that they will no longer be competing in the PC industry, instead they will be focusing on cloud computing. Hold on. What? You mean the largest PC manufacturer in the world is going to just stop. And they’re going to stop making tablets and smart phones too? Yes, it’s true. In fact, if you’d like to read a great article about what this means to their industry, check out this one.

So why am I writing about this in a blog typically geared towards the music industry? Well, as usual it’s to point out the failings of the music industry. Let’s think: when the music industry was faced with a competitor that absolutely, 100% got something right, what did it do? What was the RIAA’s reaction to Napster? And what’s more, what does the industry continue to do?

The solution probably wouldn’t have been to resign the administration of all copyrights to Napster, but in the late 90’s and early 00’s, the industry was in pretty good fiscal shape and it’s my contention that they could have bought Napster, or at least made some sort of deal. But no. What did they do? Lawsuit.

And now the industry sits atop their recent “accomplishment” of having earned money instead of lost it for the first time in years. Wow. Way to set the bar high for yourselves. I’m not sure if you knew this music industry, but you’re actually supposed to make money in ever-increasing amounts EVERY year. Not fail miserably for 10 years and then trumpet your prestige when you finally earn a few pennies. Anyway, I digress.

What is really interesting and even quite cool about this HP thing is that they’re turning an awful big ship. Everyone uses the excuse in the music industry “well it’s just too big of a ship to turn quickly!” Really? Bigger than HP? Nope. Now what’s the excuse? Oops.

Now the only thing left to blame is the ‘vision’ (or blindness) of the leadership of the major music companies.