Feel free to leave messages or comments, but again do not expect a response till after March.

Sincerely,
Jamille Luney

Main Stream Music Psychology Targets Kids as Consumers

The difference is children. What? Yes, this is why all the main stream songs have no depth. Main stream music industry targets children as primary consumers. Children (or people with child like minds) spend money on trends, fads and believe what is on television. A highly analytical well developed individual knows better. This is why concepts like Hanna Montana and Jonas Brothers are sooooooo financially successful. This also why so many indie artists are not.

Main Stream Music Psyche = Disney
Disney has played a huge role in music industry i.e. Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Zac Efron, Miley Cyrus….. the list goes on. As a result the music is simple and designed towards children and teenagers who spend money without thinking and rarely use the word budget. Disney is one of the worlds largest media and entertainment corporations owning an array of companies including ABC and ESPN. Disney has a lot of mass marketing power and uses all of it. As a result mainstream music has little to no depth and the majority of the singers cannot even sing. It is all about selling and they know kids are extremely naive and easy to coerce.

Indie Music Psychology……..
is in fact about the music. Indie artists cater to a much more mature audience. In fact their target audiences are true music lovers that are tired of main stream music and desire more intellectual stimulation. In essence they want depth. The downside to this is that indie music lovers due use the word “budget” and are a lot more cautious when it comes to spending money. They don’t just believe what is on television and it takes a lot to win them over. In short an indie artist must speak volumes through their music and the marketing must be done within the song.

Don’t Copy Main Stream Music
What does the statement above mean? It means you have got to make a song that stands out and sounds nothing like mainstream music. Remember people looking for Indie Music are roughly between the ages of 21-50 and extremely mature. They reject most of mainstream media and music. This is why they look for Indie Music. If your music sounds like what is on MTV and BET, they’re not going to buy it. What would be the point? They want something different, they want Indie Music!! When they arrive at your website they better find something they’ve never heard before.

Jamille Luney
Music Analyst

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Ring Tone Sales Count for 20% of Rihanna's Sales

Rio Caraeff, the executive vice president of Universal Music Group’s digital division, said 20% of Rihanna’s revenue came from ring tones. You can read the rest of what Mr. Caraeff told the New York Times in the article titled Music Sales Fell in 2008, but Climbed on The Web.

Web Sales Not Enough To Cover Losses
Rio Caraeff “said other income, like the fees collected when users stream a video online, had become an essential part of the pie” (SISARIO, BEN. Music Sales Fell in 2008, but Climbed on The Web , when mp3 players and New York Times). The reality is people are not buying CDs. In the people’s defense, why would you buy CDsipods are the primary music players? You would not. You would look for mp3 files to play on your mp3 player. This is why downloads are becoming the number one music format.

This is problem for the music industry because people are no longer buying whole albums. Instead they are buying a song here a song there. The advantage of CD sales, was that in forced the consumer to buy the whole album and spend around $12. This is why CD sales where the #1 form of profit. Downloads are up, but they do not generate as much profit because people buy one track at a time at around $.99 as opposed to $10.00 for a whole CD. The music industry realizes this and as a result “We [Universal Music Group] look at the total consolidated revenue from dozens of revenue lines behind a given artist or project, which include digital sales, the physical business, mobile sales and licensing income” (Rio Caraeff, the executive vice president of Universal Music Group’s digital division as quoted by SISARIO, BEN. Music Sales Fell in 2008, but Climbed on The Web , New York Times ).

Indie Artists Rely on Music Sales
The advantage of being an indie artist is that you can rely on music sales, you do not have to look to alternative revenue as a primary form of profit. In fact alternative music revenues are just added bonuses for indie music artists. If you become a popular indie artists on your own (without a record label) you will recoup all your royalties and alternative music sales. They are not primary sources of profit like they are for main stream artists. The downside is that you must to sell your music. The other advantage to not being a famous big named artist is that your music will probably not be all over LimeWire or BearShare like Rihanna, forcing people to buy your music legally.

Till next time,

Jamille Luney
Music Analyst

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Hitsamillion Focuses on Promoting Indie Music

Everyone knows a great way for Indie music artists to promote their music is on social networks. However, not every social network is effective. For example, MySpace is now a mainstream social network devoted to promoting major recording artists. Indie artists get lost among millions of MySpace pages and thousands of ads. This is not the case with Hitsamillion.ning.com.

Hitsamillion Features
The social network totes a little over 1,000 members giving indie artists a chance to be noticed (not lost in the shuffle like MySpace) and confirming the sites credibility. When I say it confirms the sites credibility, let’s remember that 1,000 is no shabby number and the site is steadily growing. However, it is not too large so people get lost.

Purposeful Groups
I myself am a member of Hitsamillion and I have received four group invites. The interesting thing to note is that the groups are actually purposeful not just for show, as is the case with so many other online networks. One group is called Virtual Studio Room and in its description the first line reads “This room is ONLY for those with webcams who want to collaborate on music and songs”. They’re serious. Don’t just sign up to sign up, it is actually interactive people are producing, recording and mixing music with one another.

Ning Users Support Each Other
In one of my past posts (link here) I recommended that Indie artists start their own social networks on ning to promote their music. I still stand by that statement and Hitsamillion.ning.com is a great place to promote your ning site as it totes a number of indie artists/producers/promoters etc… that have their own ning sites. Ning social site owners, creators and users are extremely supportive of each other.  Also the ning platforms automatically links you to friends you have on the ning platform.  What?

For example, say you are a member of  HotIndieMusicworld.ning.com and you have twenty friends.  Then you join Hitsamillion.ning.com where five of those twenty friends from Hot Indie Music World are already members on Hitsamillion.  Ning automatically ads them as friends to you when you join Hitsamillion (provided you sign up with the same email account and password).  Yes it carries your friends under your profile on ning to all ning sites you join.  Nice feature and it makes promotion a lot easier.

I am a relatively new ning site owner and that is how I discovered Hitsamillion. After joining Hitsamillion, a number of new readers began reading my blog and joining my ning site as well. Imagine if you’re an indie artist and people come to your page to hear your music. Do you know how effective that is?

Bottom Line
Indie artists Hitsamillion.ning.com is an extremely effective site for promotion. The users are very receptive and are online for music, not just for social purposes. It’s all about Indie Music at Hitsamillion and I’m all about that.

See you online at Hitsamillion.ning.com

Jamille Luney
Music Analyst

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Market Your Music on College Campuses

Yes, I retract what I said earlier. Indie Musicians the Internet is over saturated with marketing and it is time market more offline. Continue To Sell Your Music Online!! I cannot emphasize this enough. However, market your music more offline. Why?

People are becoming desensitized to Internet marketing. People now use a Google more for research than a first point of discovery. For example, you hear that a company is hiring from a friend, so you Google them to learn more about the company. Your first point of contact was your friend, you used Google for research. This is how most people interact with Google. Google knows this, that is why there are no ads on Google.com.

People are sick of all the Internet advertisements, therefore they’re skipping them. Everywhere you turn online somebody is trying to sell you something. Aren’t you sick of it? Yes. The other side is that major companies are hogging all the good ad space. Why? They can afford to pay top dollar for the best ad placement. Prime examples of this is are MySpace and Yahoo. No real indie artists can afford to buy ad space on those sites unless they inherited a seizable estate.

College Campuses & High Schools
Many of you don’t know where to start. You’re on a limited budget and you want to hit as many people as possible. College campuses are your best choice. You can target thousands on students at a time in one location. High Schools are your second choice, but you have the hurdle of the school board and principal to get around. Jill Scott started as an indie artist on a small unknown indie label. At the time the label owner did heavy marketing of Jill Scott on college campuses and college radio. The rest is history and Jill Scott eventually crossed into more mainstream markets and commercial radio. Her record label, Hidden Beach Records, is still classified as indie but picked up major distribution with other companies.

Be Unconventional
If you’re conventional and traditional, you won’t stand out. Try to think of things nobody has done. Over ten years ago one man went to local high schools and middle schools and handed out key chains of his rap group with the phone number of the radio station so they could call and request their music. Soon the song “Tootsee Roll” by 69 Boyz became a hit. Please note, if you’re going for the teeny bopper audience with a song like “Tootsee Roll”, success will probably be short lived (i.e. 69 Boyz). However, if you’re a an indie artist who wants a long term future, go the college campus marketing route like Jill Scott. Jill Scott’s fans are loyal and deep like her. Artists tend to attract who and what they are. Compare Soulja Boy fans to Jill Scott fans, huge difference.

Bottome Line
Be fearless, aggressive and unconventional in 2009. Happy New Year!!

Jamille Luney
Music Analyst

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Indie Artist Should Buy Indie Music For Holidays...Karma

It is the Holiday’s and it is time to give. We all know it is the giver that gets blessed. If you’re an indie artist trying to make it, use this Holiday season to buy indie music from other Indie artists. Yes, go online and do a google search for indie music. If you don’t feel like researching, visit HotIndieMusic.com, they do the work for you. I also recommend Iseecolor.com with Michael Baisden. He does an excellent job of promoting Indie Music Artists.

To give is to receive. Support your fellow Indie artists and buy an album or two. Happy Holidays

Jamille Luney
Music Analyst

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Dyme Def's Album Space Music CDBaby.com

Their best track is ‘I Ain’t No’ on their first album Space Music. This young male Indie Hip Hop group is serious!! They’ve had a good review in the Source and a couple of other magazines.

Just go listen to ‘I Ain’t No’ on their first album Space Music.

Trust Me,

Jamille Luney
Music Analyst

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Indie Artists Get Your Online Radio Stations Now!!

Indie Artists, get your own online radio shows and/or stations now!! I’ve preached this time and time again so I won’t go into depth. Radio stations are getting killed right now because companies are not buying ad time. New York Times just covered this story (read here) and if you still don’t believe it ask yourself one simple question. Is the economy bad? Are companies going broke and cutting budgets? Which do you listen to more, your ipod / mp3 player or the radio? Ahhhhh see?

Look For Yourself
If you don’t believe me simply google the subject and you’ll come up with a host of other indie music enthusiast preaching the same thing. Here’s a link to one site. Do some research on your own. If you’re nervous about getting into radio, consider doing blog talk radio first and then go bigger with a service linke Live 365.

Till Next Time,

Jamille Luney
Music Analyst

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Paper Press Release, Thing of Past

Have you ever written a press release? Well a press release is a great way for indie artists to promote their music, especially online. It can be a little pricey $80.00 – $360.00 depending on what you want to do. However, it does help your visibility on the web and improves your page rank among search engines such as Yahoo and Google.

I have heard of free press releases but I do not have much experience with them and question their credibility. However, at the same tim you must be careful of companies that charge. Some companies charge a flat fee, while others charge per release. Per release means you right a press release and you get charged every time the company sends your release to different websites. That being said if the price sounds to good to be true I recommend sending an email to the parties in charge and asking if the price is per release or a flat fee? Get it in writing.

Choose Carefully
Not all press release companies are credible, so do your homework. Make sure the company has a good track record and go with your gut. Get everything in writing. One fairly credible company I know of is PRWeb. They are a bit pricey, but they have a good track and record and they are reputable. There are many others out there, that is the one I’m most familiar with, but that does not mean there are not other good one’s out there. Just be on the look out.

Till Next Time,

Jamille Luney
Music Analyst

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Luda Picks Songs on WeMix

I recommend that all indie artists use social networks to help promote their music online. One of the social networks I recommend is Ludacris’ WeMix.com. The site is still a work in progress, but it has a very valuable feature that most social networks due not have. What is it? It’s Ludacris’ personal seal of approval on your song.

Luda’s Picks
There is a section on WeMix’s site called Luda’s Picks. These are songs created and uploaded by WeMix users that Luda deems as hot. Some of my pessimists are already saying “does Luda really pick those songs?” Stop being a hater, you have something in writing saying Ludacris approves your song.

Stop, Think and Use This Opportunity
Do you know what you can do with Luda’s approval on one of your songs in writing on the web? That is great promotion online. Put a link to it on all your websites, add it to your bio and discography. If you are one of those people who just asked “does Luda really pick those songs?” you need to look at things from another angle. You have something in writing with Ludacris’ name on it saying he likes your music. Instead of questioning him, thank Luda, WeMix and add his seal of approval in your bio and on all your web pages.

Be careful of the way you look at things, you may be missing out on promotional opportunities.

Till Next Time,

Jamille Luney
Music Analyst

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