The Reality Of The Music Industry Holiday Shutdown

Thanksgiving is a time for family gatherings and banquets, but it also marks the beginning of a time of year that those in the business of music either love or hate - the Holiday Shutdown.

The Holiday Shutdown is the toughest time of the year to do business because the execs that can green light a project begin their extended vacations, so they're rarely in the office. It begins on Thanksgiving week (some leaving on Monday rather than Wednesday), and really continues until about the second week in January. Oh, they'll be back in the office between now and then, but they're usually so backed up with work that if you're not on the top of the pile you'll be pushed to next year.

One of the reasons why record execs leave is that the release schedules for the year and even into the first quarter of next year are set in stone. The Christmas releases are out by now, and while there may be a record that might drop in the first week of December, it's a rarity. It's a slow season work-wise, so why stick around?

On the other hand, agents and managers are still working as they line up fill-in dates for the end of the year and work on tours for the new year, merch vendors are still working because it's a prime time of the year for retail sales, and publishers are still getting payments and working on synch licenses for television shows and movies (although many of the producers have also left unless they're still in production).

This is also the time of year where bands may still be negotiating for a New Years Eve gig, which may be the best paying, but the worst gig of year, as the audience tries too hard to have the good time they think they're supposed to have.

With all that being said, it's a good time of year to get your marketing in order for 2016, since there's bound to be some downtime in whatever sector of the business that you're involved it. We'll review that more in an upcoming post, but in the meantime, have a great Thanksgiving and don't eat too much turkey!

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This Is The Revenue From A Single Taylor Swift Concert

If you ever wondered where the money goes when an A-list artist gives a concert, the Tampa Bay Times laid it out pretty well.

Most of the time the income and expenses for a concert are hidden, but in this case the venue (Raymond James Stadium) is publicly owned and operated so most of the data is readily available.

This is financially what happened during a Halloween concert given at the venue by Taylor Swift:

• The show was a sellout at 56,987. Swift received 100% of the ticket sales, which initially amounted to almost $4 million, including a $2.75 million guarantee.

• But there's some intrigue here, as at the last minute Swift's production company became the concert promoter, which means she may see even more money in the end since the final income from tickets was actually more like $5.8 million.

• $843,947 of that was split between the Tampa Bay Sports Authority and Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team.

• Merchandise sales brought in $40,784 (which sounds low to me).

• Food and drink sales amounted to another $244,626.

• Parking is always a big money maker at concerts and this one was no exception at $127,798.

So the concert brought in about $6.2 million and Taylor Swift kept over $4 million of it, which just goes to show how much money is generated by an A-list artist on the road.

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Google's Removal Of Pirate Links Soars

If you're a content creator, then you may know how it feels when someone steals your content and passes it off as their own.

There is something that you can do about it online though. You can appeal to Google to delete the links to the pirated content via what's known as a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) Takedown Notice.

Google has been flooded with these requests lately to the tune of 1,500 per minute (25 per second, or 2 million a year), so it's happening more and more these days.

Over the last month alone, Google received notices from more than 5,600 different copyright holders targeting more than 65 million links spanning more than 68,000 domain names.

Amazingly, Google does respond in a timely manner and most links are removed quickly, although duplicate requests are common, which can slow things up.

Prior to actually removing the link, Google will downrank the URL in its search results, which is one of the main reasons that pirated content via torrent sites doesn't show up as high as it used to.

This applies not only to Google searches, but Blogger posts and YouTube posts as well, so be careful when you post something. If you don't have the rights, it could cost you your search engine ranking. On the other hand, if you feel that your content has been infringed, start here first.

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Gigmor's David Baird On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast

David Baird of Gigmor

If you ever wanted to replace a player in a band or find a band to join, you know how difficult the process can be. Finding players of the same interests and proficiency levels really complicate things.

David Baird had the same problem when he moved to Los Angles (just about the last place you'd think that would happen), so the savvy technologist built a new platform called Gigmor that allows not only players to connect with each other, but bands and artists with venues as well.

On this week's podcast David will tell us how Gigmor got started and how to get the most from this innovative website.

In the intro, I'll talk about the implications of Pandora buying some of the assets of the Rdio streaming service, and the hi-res music logo that the RIAA just introduced that seems to cause more confusion than it solves.

Remember that you can find the podcast at BobbyOInnerCircle.com, or either on iTunes, Stitcher and now on Mixcloud and Google Play.

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Adele Foregoes Streaming In A Last Dash For Cash

Adele’s new album 25 was released last week and, as many predicted, it won’t be on any streaming services, as she and her record label make what might be the last attempt at some serious money from physical product before the format disappears.

That Adele should even be in this position speaks well of her music and her generally older fanbase, as the music deeply motivates fans to acquire her music at any cost (just like Taylor Swift and her last album 1989).

Although the songs from 25 won’t be on any of the major streaming services at least initially, you can be sure that by latter today it will be spread all over YouTube by zealous fans posting audio-only and lyric videos. Of course, these will be joined by official Adele videos, so at least some of her music will still be available on the largest streaming network currently available, especially now that YouTube Red and Music have launched.

While it’s easy to see why Adele (or her management or label) chose to forego streaming, the decision only postpones the inevitable. It might take 90 days or more before 25 appears on Spotify or Apple Music, but rest-assured it will be there eventually. 

The real question is how much sales might have been hurt had the decision been made to go the streaming route the day of the release of the physical album. In fact, it’s likely that the songs from 25 would have racked up some massive numbers on the various streaming services and might have even caused some new fans to register, which would have been a win for entire music business. Read more on Forbes.

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Google+ Revamping Again

Google+ Collections

It looks like Google+ is giving it another shot, revamping the current service to better reflect what its users were requesting.

And what did they want? The most asked-for features were Communities and Collections, which the service is now emphasizing, making it easier for people to share their passions.

It looks like Communities is indeed going to be popular, with an average of 1.2 million new joins per day. Collections is still so new that most users haven't gotten their arms around it yet (see the graphic on the left to see what it looks like).

The new G+ has streamlined other functions too, making it easier to post, search and connect as well.

The new UI change can be a shock to users, so it's possible to toggle back to the "classic" design, although it will be eventually phased out.

To get started with the new Google+, just click on the "Let's go" prompt when you first log in.

Let me know if you think this is a good idea and if you'll use it more now.

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The Pros And Cons Of Pandora’s Rdio Acquisition

The music streaming wars just became a bit more interesting early this week when Pandora agreed to acquire some critical assets of the Rdio streaming service out of bankruptcy for a reported $75 million. This will the second strategic acquisition that Pandora has pulled off recently, following its $450 million purchase of Ticketfly a few months ago.

On the surface this seems like it could be a huge positive for the company, but there are also a few potential land mines that come with the deal. Let’s look at the pros and cons.

Pro: On-Demand Infrastructure Can Provide Growth
Pandora is acquiring Rdio’s streaming technology (as well as some of its staff), which could be key to its global expansion. Right now the service is only available in the United States, and to a lesser degree, Australia and New Zealand.

A real problem for Pandora until now has been its ability to expand beyond those territories, mostly due to the company not being able to come to a suitable agreement with the licensing organizations in various countries (which all seem to favor on-demand streaming).

The company is now more more likely to be able to grow, as having Rdio’s on-demand streaming infrastructure available as an integral part of the service not only makes for a more attractive package for the consumer, but may make it easier to gain approval to operate in other countries.

Pro: The Public Prefer’s On-Demand
Give Pandora credit, as it saw the writing on the wall that on-demand streaming would eventually become a clear winner with consumers over the radio-like non-interactive service that it currently provides.

This was blatantly evident with Apple’s recent entry into the market with it’s on-demand Apple Music after only offering the Pandora competitor Apple Radio previously. You could see the trend in user numbers as well, as on-demand Spotify’s numbers continue to grow while Pandora’s have been relatively stagnant.

Con: On-Demand Licensing Costs Are Considerable
While that on-demand infrastructure is important, Pandora didn’t inherit any of Rdio’s roughly 1 million customers in deal, mainly because it’s not buying the Rdio business itself. Maybe more importantly, it didn’t get any of its licenses with the record labels, which were non-transferable. That means that the company will need to negotiate these deals, which can be both costly and time-consuming. Read more on Forbes.

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