Streaming is to the Decline in Album Sales as…

Digital streaming has been on the rise in recent years and in 2015 the popularity of streaming has doubled in popularity. According to Nielsen Music, nearly 135.2 billion streams have been generated this year against the 70.3 billion that were measured at this time last year.

Various types of streaming were measured, audio and video. Audio-only listening saw an increase of 74.2 percent due to ease of access to streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal. Video streaming also saw a significant increase, topping that of audio only, of 109.2 percent in a year.

This year’s top selling albums included Taylor Swift’s 1989 and Drake’s If You’re Reading This… with over 2 million units being moved including albums and album equivalent units. Swift’s 1989 was also the top selling album of 2014 while Drake’s album has taken the lead on digital album sales with over 850,000 units. Album equivalent units are classified as TEA or SEA. TEA is track equivalent albums where 10 track downloads equal one album and SEA , streaming equivalent albums, is where 1,5000 streams equal an album. TEA and SEA album equivalents saw an increase of 14.2 percent totaling in nearly 76 percent of album consumptions. Among the two classifications of album equivalents, SEA is the most popular consisting of 90.1 million units in this year.

While digital consumption of albums has seen a significant rise, physical album sales are on the steady decline. CD sales were on the decline by 10 percent while vinyl sales saw upward growth of 38.4 percent. While the increase in vinyl sales would be hopeful, vinyl sales only accounted for 5.6 million units within the year.

After improved technology, allowing Nielsen Music, to better track digital consumption it is clear that streaming is on the rise and album sales will continue to decline. This will cause the industry’s approach to intellectual property with digital tracks to be revisited.

Angel Funding

As an entrepreneur, there are many possible-funding options when starting a new business. With emerging technology and the Internet, entrepreneurs are able to find funding through traditional methods such as bank loans or alternative methods such as angel funding.  Angel investors are individuals that provide capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. According to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC),  an angel must have a net worth of at least $1 million and make $200,000 a year or $300,000 jointly as a couple.

 Some of the most notable angels are those featured on the ABC television show “Shark Tank”. Sharks Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec have invested in hundreds of businesses throughout the duration of the show.

There are also groups in major cities that meet to serve as angels for deserving business owners such as New Orleans Start Up Weekend. Entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to other business owners and angels and following the presentations; the angels decided who should receive a specified amount of money to start their business. Startup weekends, sponsored by Google, are available to entrepreneurs in over 726 countries.

Outside of the Google Startup Weekends and angel funding initiatives, there are directories of Angel Funding opportunities. The directories include the Angel Capital Association, http://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/directory/, and angel.co for both angels and entrepreneurs to find funding and investing opportunities.

There are also crowd funding opportunities for entrepreneurs to seek funding. The crowd funding sites include Kickstarter.com, Indiegogo.com and CrowdFunder.com, these sights allow for everyday people to give to entrepreneurs to fund their businesses. Instead of exchanging shares within the company, entrepreneurs give contributors returns as simple as a thank you card, acknowledgement on the company website or one of the products offered by the company.

As a business owner, I see where it would be beneficial to seek funding from a mix of opportunities such as traditional funding, angel funding and crowd funding. The more capital that can be raised via crowd funding, the more cash reserves can be banked by the company.

http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank

http://neworleans.startupweekend.org/

http://startupweekend.org/events/

Designing Successful Marketing Campaigns

Digital marketing greatly relies on aesthetics to catch a potential buyer’s attention. Marketers carefully choose all elements of a digital marketing campaign from the colors that are used, fonts and media that are used in hopes to generate buyers. Food marketers often use colors that encourage hunger an automotive markets often play on speed or the cool factor a car gives the driver all while maintaining brand integrity. While the advertising for products within a brand may vary all branding will remain the same using the predetermined media kit.

While aesthetics works for established consumer brands such as Apple, Porsche and Target, other businesses can not rely on graphics to convert leads into sales. Marketers have to determine if their customers are those who would immediately take action or if their customers are long term customers that once they take action they are brand loyal. Once companies are able to determine which type of customer the majority of their audience will be they are later able to better determine how the company website and any digital marketing should be designed. Some companies may choose to choose a simpler design with minimal graphics and the request for minimal customer interaction.

Beyond the importance of design aesthetics such as color and font, it is also important for function to be a company’s priority in designing a web campaign as well as any related websites. If customers are unable to navigate your website after being routed to purchase your advertised goods, your marketing is now ruled ineffective. Digital ads must be appropriately designed as well as functional.

Resources:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/04/good-design-and-serial-numbers.html

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/05/pretty-websites.html

Who Is Behind Your Angel Funds?

            Andrea Cockerton, business plan and pitch expert has assisted over 350 entrepreneurs realize the dreams for their business in her career. Andrea has hosted workshops and networking events for business and entrepreneurs in the U.K interested in venture funding and the critical ideas surrounding business. She has assisted companies such as Microsoft further develop their business plans. Cockerton has also successfully launched her own businesses www.brickhandbag.com, a self-defense training system taught by women and Dowsing for Sound, a genre specific music service.

            Lori Greiner, shark from ABC’s hit show Shark Tank and Queen of QVC, has made a name for herself as a prolific business woman and inventor of retail products. Lori has created over 450 retail products and holds U.S. and international patents for over 120 products. As a shark on ABC’s Shark Tank, she helps entrepreneurs realize their dreams by investing in the business pitches that she believes in. Lori features her products as well as the products of the businesses she has invested in as a shark on her personal website.

            Cockerton and Greiner have offered much advice to entrepreneurs though seminars, magazine features, interviews and several books. The tips the business gurus have shared are meant to help entrepreneurs realize their goals and be successful in business. Cockerton suggests that a business plan with a well developed executive summary and thoroughly researched financial plan is key in persuading an investor to fund a business.

Greiner gives the following tips to entrepreneurs: work from home as long as possible; don’t hire additional staff until it’s a necessity; keep low inventory numbers and avoid borrowing money from family members. Working from home will save new business owners the expense of paying for additional overhead in the form of an office space and any additional expenses that may come with that such as utilities. Keeping a lower staff will help the business owner to put more money back into the business as opposed to paying wages to workers when earnings may be lower.  Keeping low inventory on hand will reduce storage cots as well as keep the business from paying for units that are unsold. Finally, not borrowing money from protects your personal relationships in the event that you are unable to pay your loan back.

Changes

Common persons and music industry professionals are always talking about how much the music industry has changed within the last two decades. People often mention a decline of record sales, the impact the internet has had on the industry and the amount of iconic record companies that have closed their doors over the years. This conversation also contemplates best practices for artists and songwriters in terms of securing income for their craft.

The recent changes that have occurred within the entertainment and music industry have occurred among music industry executives. There have been many changes at the major record labels, publishing companies and performing right’s organizations. Recently there has been many promotions, promoting current executives to higher ranks within the industry.

Courtney Lowery is among one of those that earned a promotion. Lowery was promoted to the VP of Publicity at Epic Records allowing him to specialize in the design and implementation of global media campaigns including digital, print, social media and new technologies. Further changes in the industry include industry veteran founding MRKT Music, a music label and label services provider. The company will partner with Nile Rodgers’ Sumthing Distribution for all physical releases. More information relating to personnel changes can be found at www.billboard.com, visit this link.

One of the ground shaking changes includes the resignation of two Universal Music Group (UMG) executives in one week. One of those executives is Rob Wells, president of global digital business, that is leaving to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors.  Following the announcement, UMG decided to reassess their digital media and marketing plan. Changes are expected to occur transitioning the company from a one size fits all imprints to allowing each imprint to be individually branded. To read more about the upcoming changes at UMG, click click.