Think International Not Just Local

Sometimes it is hard to think beyond life’s daily worries. Human nature is to become parochial or near sighted while coping with the stresses of bills and income. As a result we forget to look at the bigger picture and outside of our own community. Independent recording artists cannot afford to do this. You must look at the whole picture.

Did you know that one of the major buyers of music is Japan? I used to live in Japan and I remember their fondness of soul music, R&B and Gospel. Yes I did type Gospel. CDBaby even states on their website that Japan is their biggest buyer (click here to read). On a more personal note, one of my friends released her album via CDBaby a little over a year ago. She tried to pinpoint where her sales were coming from and low and behold it was Japan. She contacted one of the buyers and he explained that CD stores in Japan buy indie music in bulk from CDBaby. This makes sense considering the structure of the Japanese music market.

International Markets Differ From US
Millions of Americans have never visited another country so they tend to only see music through American eyes. Record labels do not and the majority of them have offices in Japan and Europe. This is another reason record labels have been more successful at marketing. Michael Jackson is not as well received in the United States, but he is worshiped in England. Nick Lachey could not give away a CD in the US, but Europe loves him.

Example Japan
The interesting thing about the Japanese music market is that their government regulates their economic market so that local stores cannot be overpowered. What does this mean? You know how Best Buy opened and put a lot of CD stores out of business in the US? That will not happen in Japan. There are laws that protect small store owners and it was one of those small CD store owners that my friend spoke to when she was tracking her CD sales in Japan. The local CD store owners in Japan go online to find foreign indie music and they buy in bulk.

I Made A Mistake
Remember when I told you guys not to waste time making CDs just sell digitally? This is true of the US market, but not with markets like Japan. The Japanese do not like downloading. In fact they do not like doing things online at all. They rarely use credit cards and pay cash for almost everything. So you’ll have to get CDs made to sell in Japan. Again I recommend using CDBaby to sell your CDs, they have a great reputation internationally and in the United States.

On a stranger note, your CD must have picture of you somewhere on the album or jewel insert. The Japanese store owner explained to my friend that pictures are very important in selling CDs in Japan. The Japanese actually like to build some kinds of relationship with their artists. No, they don’t want to talk to you, but they like to put a face with a name and voice, making it more intimate.

Think Beyond The Waters
In past posts I have explained the advantages of doing things online. One of them is attracting a foreign market. By selling and marketing online you can reach these countries without even entering them, my friend did. Europe and Japan love good quality music, not just the commercial crap that comes on MTV and BET. Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong and other jazz greats would tour overseas frequently because they were better received in other countries. Part of this was due to American racism, the other part is other countries were cultured enough focus on the music, not race.

When it comes to fine arts, America tends to not be as cultured. Before you jump down my throat for such a remark let me ask you this, have you ever been outside the United States? Your mother’s womb does not count. Crank Dat Soulja Boy is hot in the US, but it won’t fly in some countries. They prefer to be stimulated through choice words, vibrato, annunciation and well crafted artistic styles as opposed to just a “hot beat”. When it comes to selling and marketing your music, look beyond the waters and don’t be afraid to cross borders.

Till next time,

By Jamille Luney
Music Analyst

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HELLO 2008.

The music industry as we have known it is dead. The industry as we presently know it, well the truth is we don’t know it. Nobody knows what is going on, how to stop downloading, let alone what does P. Diddy want to be called this year? Diddy right, no ‘P’? Here is what we do know. Computers are more affordable then ever, they are only going to become more accessible, and you can make a hit song on Fruity Loops music production software for around $250. Put all this together, there is going to be a lot of music being created. We’re in a huge economic recession and people are broke and depressed. Economic depressions have been the birth places of cultural and artistic renaissance periods. Big Band swing music is a prime examples of artistic musical expression that was birthed out of The Great Depression.

2008 will prove to be one of the most explosive musical creative years. Why? In addition to an economic crisis we have an international one. WAR. Artists do not like war and the negative energy dramatically impacts creativity. Look at Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, Billie Holiday’s famous ‘Strange Fruit’ which referred to black lynchings and civil unrest of a divided America. Even King David was writing songs (psalms) through Wars and chaos. Every true artists will write from their pain and turmoil. However, don’t look to mainstream artists like Jessica Simpson to sing about Iraq unless Daddy rights her a song to increase promotion (he’s probably doing that right now, her numbers are down). You’ll find the birth of music in the streets, in the underground, undefiled by globalization and money hungry record labels.

Independent artists have something Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, Billie Holiday, and the like never dreamed of: Affordable recording technology. Half the battle has been one, a well fought victory. HOWEVER, the other half is still up for grabs. It is the one vehicle that today’s artists, yesterday’s artists, and deceased artists, have not been able to master: Marketing and Promotion. This is where the snakes come in and this is how royalties are lost. As of toady, there seem to be few ways to mass market or effectively determine a target audience to promote music without capital investors (big boys with money). A few success stories have hit the press, but these people were truly blessed in that God delivered their target audience too them (i.e people stumbled on too them on MySpace, YouTube, or FaceBook). The labels are holding on to the marketing and promotion powers, or at least they’re trying to. I don’t know how much longer they can hold out. You can get a computer for $500, Fruity Loops for $250 or less, Internet for $30/mo or less (or free), and people like staying at home not spending money surfing the web. Hmmm…. I wonder what is going to happen?

The word on the street is there is a hot live track (or snippet of one) with Beyonce on the vocals. The track was produced by Jamille Luney, the upcoming female producer everybody’s talking about. Put your hear to the ground and you may hear this track. If not just visit this link. Beyonce sounds incredible. BEE IS BACK!! It’s truly a timeless performance and it just sounds real, there is no other word to describe it. We congratulate Beyonce, glad to hear your breath again sister. We also give two thumbs up with a head knod to giving an upcoming female producer a shot. Well done ladies.

Don’t do what’s already been done and don’t do what everybody else is doing. (Jesus and Ghandi didn’t think about it!!)

Well you read for yourself, click the links below

Timbaland’s Studio Equipment    (click here)

Scott Storch’s Studio Equipment  (click here)

You can read the interview at: http://allhiphop.com/blogs/breedingground/archive/2007/08/03/18355030.aspx

This image came from Wallpaperbase.com visit for images, backgrounds, and wallpapers for your websites, forums, and MySpace.

Where to Buy Beats

She did not ask us to do this we just took the initiative.

The newest online community is Yuwie (http://www.yuwie.com/yuwie.asp?r=61946). Yuwie is attempting to oust MySpace by paying people money!! When you refer somebody and they refer people you get credit. When you sign in to your own page or update your profile you get credit. Why are they doing this? To oust MySpace and get bought out by some major company for billions. The more time people spend on Yuwie, the more money they get from advertisers. That’s why they’re paying people right now. It’s only 10% of whatever the going advertisment rate is but it’s still money and it’s catching on fast.

The down side, this will not last. The reason they are doing this is to oust MySpace and get bought out for billions. Once they gain enough membership (like MySpace), this program will probably end. Take advantage of it while you can artist and make some money. If your not an artists, still use it and make some money or support somebody you believe in by signing up through their referral code.

ONCE AGAIN: For everyone who reads this, we found out about this opportunity through Jamille Luney. She contacted us and thought it would be helpful for artists struggling financially. So we ask you to please sign up under Jamille’s link http://www.yuwie.com/yuwie.asp?r=61946

She did not ask us to do this we just took the initiative.