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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 |
April 26, 2011 Stop the Presses: Most Self-Released Artists Earn Very Little from Digital Music Salesby David Harrell Paul Resnikoff of Digital Music News seems surprised that the average TuneCore artist is earning just $179 a year from digital music sales, and cites a similar figure ($174) for CD Baby artists. As a self-released musician who uses both services, I'm not. I'd also point out that these averages are probably boosted by the sales of the top-selling artists in both catalogs. The median annual sales figure -- the dollar amount that divides the artists into two equal groups, one earning more than the median and one earning less -- might be even smaller. (Though it's also mathematically possible for the median to be more than the mean, which would occur if large numbers of self-released artists are selling just a few dollars worth of digital music each year.) I'm working on an in-depth post about the economics and pricing of both services, but I really have nothing negative to say about either company -- both provide access to worldwide distribution that was unthinkable for a self-released musician a decade ago. Yet while the total sales for TuneCore and CD Baby artists add up to some impressive numbers, the actual market for most individual self-released (and self-promoted) artists is minimal. tags: digital music TuneCore CD Baby self-released music link 1 comments e-mail listen to the Layaways on Spotify Follow @digitalaudio Tweet April 25, 2011 Would 99-Cent Albums Find the Same Success as 99-Cent Books?by David Harrell There was a fascinating story in the Wall Street Journal last week about self-published authors who are selling a ton of bargain-priced digital books at Amazon.com: Mr. Locke, who published his first paperback two years ago at age 58, says he decided to jump into digital publishing in March 2010 after studying e-book pricing.The article doesn't specify if these ultra-cheap books are crowding out sales of higher-priced digital books or if it's an example of the price elasticity of demand, where the cheap goods are causing consumers of digital books to purchase more than they would at traditional prices. My immediate question -- would 99-cent digital albums from unknown musicians find similar chart success at Amazon MP3 (and iTunes), or are book fans more likely than music fans to accept low-cost substitutes for name brand content? One anecdotal example is the daily digital special at Amazon MP3, which invariably tops Amazon MP3's download chart (or at least lands in the top five), even when the artist is relatively unknown. Yet with thousands of musicians already trying to give away free music, music fans have almost endless choices for free downloads, even without turning to P2P networks. And while free digital books are available for thousands of out-of-copyright works, readers looking to fill their Kindles have fewer options than music fans for finding free versions of recent works. Then again, free mp3s on artist websites, music blogs, MySpace, Facebook, etc., are a different matter than bargain-priced material sold within the dominant digital marketplace. If promoted on the homepages of iTunes and Amazon MP3, it seems likely that the highest-quality bargain albums (as determined by customer reviews) might climb the download charts. tags: digital music Amazon MP3 iTunes price elasticity of demand digital content pricing link 0 comments e-mail listen to the Layaways on Spotify Follow @digitalaudio Tweet April 08, 2011 Cloudy Logicby David Harrell After last week's announcement of Amazon's Cloud Drive and Cloud Player, several digital music commentators wrote that storing music in the cloud might hamper subscriptions to music streaming services -- and maybe even result in an increase in illegal downloads from P2P platforms. While it's not an unreasonable conclusion that some consumers will prefer streaming their own music collections from the cloud over paying for subscription services (and that some of those online collections will include music that was illegally downloaded), I doubt that cloud storage is a cause for alarm when it comes to music subscriptions. Music subscription services are, without a doubt, an incredible value proposition. They provide access to literally millions of tracks for as little as $5 a month (That's what I'm paying for my "computer only" MOG subscription, mobile phone access brings the price to $10 a month). Yet music fans have yet to embrace them, on a large scale, as a substitute for owning music. From what I've read, their appeal (so far) is mostly to voracious listeners who want easy access to the immense music catalogs they offer. While many of these current subscribers have large music collections, it seems unlikely that having access to their libraries via the cloud would diminish the appeal of a music subscription. Even the largest private digital music collection pales in comparison to the catalogs of Rhapsody, Napster, MOG, and Spotify. And commercial cloud storage won't be free -- my iTunes library would cost $100 a year to store on Amazon's Cloud Drive and I've ripped just half of my CD collection to mp3. Indeed, for these music fans, it seems more likely that a music subscription would discourage cloud storage, not the other way around. (Though I personally want both -- all of my digital music in the cloud AND access to the entire catalog of a subscription service.) It remains to be seen if music subscriptions will ever take off -- maybe the U.S. launch of Spotify will be the best test of the viability of the subscription model. But if the public continues to snub subscriptions, I won't be blaming music lockers. What do you think -- does the prospect of cloud storage make subscription services less appealing? tags: digital music music subscriptions Spotify Napster Rhapsody MOG Amazon Cloud Drive Amazon Cloud Player AMZN link 4 comments e-mail listen to the Layaways on Spotify Follow @digitalaudio Tweet 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: 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: "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. "...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. "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. "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: the layaways website |