Digital Audio Insider -- the economics of music and other digital content


  digital audio insider

home

about/contact
Digital Audio Insider is David Harrell's blog about the economics of music and other digital content. I write from the perspective of a musican who has self-released four albums with the indie rock band the Layaways.

My personal website has links to my LinkedIn and Google+ pages and you can send e-mail to david [at] thelayaways [dot] com.

Support
If you enjoy this site, please consider downloading a Layaways track or album from iTunes, Amazon MP3, Bandcamp, or eMusic. CDs are available from CD Baby and Amazon.

links

music/media/tech:
Analog Industries
Ars Technica
AppleInsider
Brad Sucks Blog
Broken Record
Digital Music News
Duke Listens
Future of Music Coalition Blog
Hypebot
LA Times Technology Blog
The ListeNerd
Medialoper
Mediashift
MP3 Insider
Music Ally
Music Machinery
Music Think Tank
MusicTank
The Music Void
New Music Strategies
Online Fandom
Pakman's Blog
RAIN
Rough Type
RoughlyDrafted
Swindleeeee
TuneTuzer
Virtual Economics

economics/markets:
The Big Picture
Core Economics
Freakonomics
The Long Tail
Marginal Revolution
The Undercover Economist

mp3/music:
17 Dots
3hive
Fingertips
Shake Your Fist
Sounds Like the 80s
Unleash the Love

archives
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
December 2009
January 2010
February 2010
March 2010
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
September 2010
October 2010
November 2010
December 2010
January 2011
February 2011
March 2011
April 2011
May 2011
June 2011
July 2011
August 2011
September 2011
October 2011
November 2011
December 2011
January 2012
February 2012
April 2012
May 2012
June 2012
August 2012
October 2012
November 2012
December 2012
January 2013
February 2013
March 2013
June 2013
August 2013
February 2014
March 2014
September 2014
December 2014
March 2015
October 2015
November 2015
December 2015
October 2016
May 2017

October 29, 2009

Thursday Odds and Ends/Blog Update
by David Harrell
A couple of follow-up items from some recent posts: Mojo Nixon's free Amazon MP3 giveaway moved some units -- more than 1 million downloads. Idolator also noted the lack of actual numbers in Amazon's press release touting pre-orders of the Susan Boyle CD, and provided a breakdown of first-week sales for other releases that had heavy pre-orders from Amazon customers.

Barnes & Noble's new Nook might mean less room for music in B&N stores:
There's lots of space devoted to music that will be replaced with nook areas.
Finally, my apologies for the infrequent posting as of late. I've been busy with recording and mixing tasks -- we're expanding the three-song free Christmas EP we released in 2006 to a full-length holiday album. We're mastering the album on November 10th, so blogging activity will probably be light until then. Unlike our three previous albums, we'll be using TuneCore for digital distribution instead of CD Baby -- look for some posts next month about the relative strengths of each service!

tags:

link 1 comments e-mail listen to the Layaways on Spotify


October 21, 2009

Wednesday Odds and Ends
by David Harrell
Amazon sent out a press release today, touting Susan Boyle's upcoming album as its largest-ever CD pre-order, but it didn't reveal the actual number of orders.

NME magazine is using Last.fm data to create artist pages for smaller acts, something I discovered when a web search turned up an NME page for my band.

How the Shazam song-identifying software works.

And Sunday's NY Times magazine has a long piece on Pandora and its process for catagorizing songs. One interesting fact: the current catalog is approximately 700,000 songs. That's small relative to the number of tracks available in iTunes or Spotify, but it no doubt dwarfs the number of tracks in any traditional radio station's rotation.

Maybe I just need to use it more (and perhaps listen to something beyond indie rock), but I've never been wild about the tracks that show in up Pandora stations I create. And I don't think it has anything to do with the size of the catalog. I completely understand what Pandora is trying to do with the Genome project, but I question the prioritization of the song attributes used to serve up songs. When I click "Why was this song selected," it seems like I always see things like "major key tonality" or "electric rock instrumentation", both of which seem less important than the way the vocalist sings, or -- for many listeners -- lyrical style/content. According the article, vocal style and lyrics are categorized (here's a Wikipedia list of Music Genome attributes), but the only explicit reference to vocals I ever see when using Pandora is "a subtle use of vocal harmony."

tags:

link 2 comments e-mail listen to the Layaways on Spotify


October 15, 2009

Big Fish, Small Pond
by David Harrell
It's tough to make sales evaluations based on chart rankings alone, without the underlying sales data. But I can't help thinking that an act like the Feelies gets a huge benefit from being a big fish in a relatively smaller pond -- the eMusic catalog. Because the eMusic catalog is smaller than the iTunes catalog, and lacks content from three of the four major label groups, when a critically acclaimed indie act releases new or reissued material, it garners a lot of attention from eMusic's indie-loving subscriber base. And the use-it-or-lose it component of the eMusic subscription model encourages customers to download something now, rather than later.

In this example, the band's recently reissued 1980 debut, Crazy Rhythms, has been one of eMusic's top 10 or 15 albums for the past month, and The Good Earth, from 1986, also makes the top 30. Yet neither album appears in top 100 in the iTunes store or Amazon MP3. (Crazy Rhythms is currently the 923rd best seller in the Amazon MP3 catalog.)

My guess is that the Feelies are moving far more units via eMusic than they're selling in the iTunes store or Amazon MP3. So even with eMusic's smaller per-track payout rate (30 - 35 cents vs. 70 cents for iTunes and Amazon MP3), the band might well earn most of its digital download income for the reissues from eMusic.


tags:

link 0 comments e-mail listen to the Layaways on Spotify


October 09, 2009

Track of the Day: David Fletcher's "Hometown"
by David Harrell
This is a music economics blog, not a music blog, but if you'll forgive the detour, I wanted to make a quick plug for David Fletcher. I suppose I'm not unbiased, as my good friend Christopher Cassels plays bass in Fletcher's band, but a song from his "Lunchbox Cowboy" release has been getting lots of play on my iPod over the past few months. While the rest of the album has more of a singer-songwriter vibe, "Hometown," which sounds like a rootsier version of Earlimart, is by far my favorite track:


If you don't see the embedded Lala.com widget above, you can hear the track on Facebook. The CD is available from CD Baby, with downloads at the usual digital retailers. And if you're in the San Francisco bay area, you can catch the band performing tomorrow night at the San-Rock-Fael show in San Rafeal.

tags:

link 0 comments e-mail listen to the Layaways on Spotify


When Free Works
by David Harrell
Free music is getting a bad rap as of late by some industry analysts (see Mark Mulligan's recent post), but -- in certain circumstances -- I still think it can work. I agree with the skeptics -- having all artists give away digital downloads of all their music isn't a long-term solution for the industry. However, it's important to distinguish between what works for the entire industry and what works for an individual artist.

Here's a recent example that I think is going to succeed, in the sense that free music is going to increase both the attention the artist receives, and his long-term income: Mojo Nixon, of "Elvis Is Everywhere" and "Don Henley Must Die" fame (and currently a DJ at Sirius XM), is giving away his entire catalog via Amazon MP3.

It works because:

1. It's a limited-time offering -- it's not free forever, just the next few weeks.

2. Mojo Nixon is already relatively well known, but I'm guessing he's not selling a ton of music these days. So he's receiving some attention for it, while there's limited downside in that he's probably not giving up much by forgoing his sales for a few weeks. (Though you could also argue that he's giving up some future sales as well.)

3. The free music isn't coming directly from the artist -- you download it from an actual digital store. I doubt the free music gambit would work as well for Nixon if the files were coming from his own website. There's already too much artist (and MySpace) hosted content for listeners to digest. Having the free music come from an established store makes it relatively unique. It also enhances the perceived value of the tracks -- you see them listed as "free" among other downloads that cost anywhere from 89 cents to $1.29.

What does Nixon expect to gain from it? From an an e-mail interview with Hypebot:
i bet in the long run this will be a greater financal pleasure than the status quo
Of course, what works for Mojo Nixon isn't going to work for every artist. Lesser-known acts would probably have a hard time getting Amazon to sponsor such a giveaway. (According to a comment to the Hypebot story, Nixon's agent/manager is an Amazon employee.) And there's also a value to being a trendsetter. I doubt the attention Radiohead garnered for its "In Rainbows" experiment will be equaled by the next big-name act who tries it.

Going forward, it will be harder for labels and artists to gain attention with free music promotions. But for the next couple of years, it seems like individual acts will still benefit from strategic giveaways. Look for a follow-up post next week on the results of my own band's giveaway of our last album.

tags:

link 1 comments e-mail listen to the Layaways on Spotify


October 06, 2009

Lala.com Gets Cheap With Pitchfork
by David Harrell
Pitchfork has a nice tie-in with Lala.com for its Top Albums of the 2000s list: The mp3 versions of many of the list-toppers are on sale at Lala.com, some for just $1.99. And Radiohead's "Kid A," Pitchfork's top album of the decade, is just a buck!

tags:

link 0 comments e-mail listen to the Layaways on Spotify


More Digital Audio Insider: Newer Posts Older Posts



Subscribe:   RSS Feed



Add this blog to Del.icio.us, Digg, or Furl. Follow David Harrell on Google+.





The Digital Audio Insider Twitter feed:
    Apple stock analysis


    Digital music jobs: Looking to hire? Looking for a job? Check out the digital audio insider job board.



    Popular Posts

    A Long Tail Experiment
    By the Numbers: Using Last.fm Statistics to Quantify Audience Devotion
    Lala.com Owes Me Sixty Cents
    An Interview with Jonathan Segel of Camper Van Beethoven
    Price Elasticity of Demand for McCartney
    Sony and eMusic: What I Missed

    The Digital Pricing Conundrum series:
    Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four





    THE LAYAWAYS

    Out Now -- "Maybe Next Year" -- The New Holiday Album:

    <a href="http://thelayaways.bandcamp.com/album/maybe-next-year">Joy To The World by The Layaways</a>

    "This is a sweet treat, deliciously musical without being overbaked for mass media consumption." -- Hyperbolium

    "Perfect listening to accompany whatever holiday preparations you may be making today." -- Bag of Songs


    O Christmas Tree - free mp3 lyrics and song details
    Away In A Manger - free mp3

    Download from eMusic, iTunes, Amazon MP3, or Bandcamp. Listen to free streams at Last.fm.



    album cover art from The Space Between

    <a href="http://thelayaways.bandcamp.com/album/the-space-between">Keep It To Yourself by The Layaways</a>

    "...about as melodic and hooky as indie pop can get." -- Absolute Powerpop

    "Their laid-back, '60s era sounds are absolutely delightening." -- 3hive

    "...melodic, garage-influenced shoegaze." -- RCRD LBL

    Where The Conversation Ends - free mp3
    January - free mp3
    Keep It To Yourself - free mp3

    Download from eMusic, iTunes, Amazon MP3, or CD Baby, stream it at Last.fm or Napster.



    album cover art from We've Been Lost

    <a href="http://thelayaways.bandcamp.com/album/weve-been-lost">Silence by The Layaways</a>

    "The Layaways make fine indie pop. Hushed vocals interweave with understated buzzing guitars. The whole LP is a revelation from the start." -- Lost Music

    "Catchy Guided by Voices-like rockers who lay it on sweetly and sincerely, just like Lionel Richie." -- WRUV Radio

    Silence - free mp3 lyrics and song details
    The Long Night - free mp3

    Download from eMusic, Amazon MP3, or iTunes, stream it at Last.fm, Napster, or Rhapsody.



    album cover art from More Than Happy

    "These are songs that you want to take home with you, curl up with, hold them close -- and pray that they are still with you when you wake up." -- The Big Takeover

    Let Me In - free mp3
    Ocean Blue - free mp3

    Download from eMusic, Amazon MP3, or iTunes, stream it at Last.fm, Napster, or Rhapsody.

    More Layaways downloads:

    download the Layaways at eMusic download the Layaways at iTunes

    the layaways website