Artists Agree — P2P Lawsuits Are Not the Answer

Beatles Xmas albums from the 60s downloads

I’m always amazed when a huge coincidence happens in my life, and this
week has been full of them strangely enough.

Roughly 8 days after I posted my Web site design tips and hints for
bands and other musical artists (yeah I know, long title, but there be method to my madness), along comes
Merlin Mann‘s Five Mistakes Band & Label Sites Make, and I will add, to
much more fanfare in the blogosphere than mine.

Reading through his post though, with the odd exception, it seems very
much like a rehash of various parts of my post, surprisingly so, with
similarly amusing asides. Now I know that a fairly prominent blogger such as Merlin
wouldn’t… umm… plagiarise… but talk about coincidence.

Running through Merlin’s short list, Flash is definitely the biggest
problem with band sites, so I’m not surprised we both put it first. Too
artsy fartsy is basically a reworking of a few of my suggestions, and
One-way communication also covers the same issues I talk about.

Where we seem to differ is in areas I’d consider way down the issue
list. MP3 metadata? I consider the fact that most sites don’t actually
have MP3s probably a bigger problem. And search? Well, that’s kind of
what Google’s site: parameter is for, and some of the information
architecture ideas I discussed would be a better starting point than
that old chestnut of blaming search.

So what are the chances that two very similar articles would suddenly
appear within 8 days of each other, when for the entire history of the
web, very few people have written anything similar in subject, format and tone of delivery? Quite high it would
seem. I guess great minds think alike, and Merlin and I also seem to have some similar ideas…

Petition to add album covers to iTunes Music Store

Designing web sites for bands (and other kinds of musical artists/ensembles) has become an art form of its own, and unfortunately most web designers providing this kind of service aren’t giving bands the kind of site they need: a site which promotes the band’s creative output. In fact many sites seem to be a monument to the web designer, rather than the band.

Musicians need to be confident that the site that’s designed for them, is going to achieve their goals, so that they can get on with what they do best, writing music. If they wanted to be experts in web design, they wouldn’t be writing music.

Having seen hundreds of band web sites over the years, including about 50 today, here’s my list of dos and don’ts for any web site designed to promote or support a band or artist.

So, you’re an artist, and you want a web site that represents you. Band web sites serve a single purpose: to promote your creative output. This may also involve promoting you, but typically, it is your music which is important.

There will be four kinds of users visting your site:

1. I want to know what else to get. They’ve heard your music, and may already have some of it, and they want to know what else you’ve got available, and what it sounds like. There are millions of bands out there, and with p2p and iTunes, people are fussy about what they buy. Give them the choice, let them decide if you’re what they want. If they have to guess by the picture of your album cover, they probably won’t bother.
2. I want to know more about you. These are people looking for background information for an article or review, or are fans wanting to know more about you. With the rise and rise of blogs and countless free onlines zines/portals, everyone is a potential writer or journalist. This also includes fans wanting to know your tour dates.
3. I’ve heard your name, tell me more. They heard your name, perhaps name dropped by another artist, on the radio, in a store, a flyer/poster for a tour, or even in an online newsgroup, and now they want to hear what your music sounds like. This doesn’t mean they will like your music, but if they are a maven, they will be able to recommend your music to people who might. If people like or respect you or what you stand for, they’re more likely to recommend you or your music, even if they don’t like your music.
4. Walk ins. Forget about people who stumble across your site because of some random word or flashy graphic on your site. If music needs to be promoted, then by its nature it is obscure, and the chances of someone accidentally finding your site and then liking your music, is going to be pretty minimal. The people important to you are the ones coming to your site via hyperlinks from another site (probably a recommendation), or someone who heard your name offline (radio, newspaper etc.)

So based on these kinds of users, and what they want out of your site, here’s my Web site design tips for bands and other musical artists check list.

Don’t

Don’t use a flash intro. Flash is an advertisement for the web site designer, not you. The reason a web designer will put a “Skip” or “Enter site” hyperlink under your flash, is because that’s what most people do. A flash intro to your site is an ad for the creative talents of the person who designed the web site, making the very first point of entry to the site more an advertisment for their business, than an advertisement for you. This is like putting a large advertisement for “Smith and Jones Constructions Co.” on your front door.

Don’t use a splash page. Don’t use any kind of introduction to your site. See the flash stuff rant above for more detail. Your users don’t want an introduction, they want to hear your music and find out more about you. An introduction just gets in their way. When a new user visits a web site, you typically have 4 seconds to make an impact before they go elsewhere. Luckily most of your visitors came here because they already heard about you, in which case you have about 10 seconds to give them what they want, or they’ll get frustrated and move on. The first page they see, should be the home page, and everything else in the site should be one click away.

Don’t use weird names for your menu items. If you have a downloads page, call it “Downloads”, “Listen” or similar, not “Audiophonica” or “Experience the pain”. While I appreciate the creative ideals behind renaming things, I’m new to your site, so I don’t know if that’s one of your album titles, one of your side projects, or the name of your web site developer. 4 seconds. Don’t make me think.

Don’t cripple downlable versions of your music. Don’t play only 20 seconds, don’t use really low encoding resolution, don’t encode in mono. People are picky, and if there’s ten bands out there that sound like you, any of these issues may affect their opinion of you. Give the user the best possible chance of experiencing your music as you designed it to be heard. If you’re worried about people just ripping off your stuff, then cut the last 30 seconds, or better still, use a middle resolution encoding, like 128Kbps or 64Kbps MP3. Although if you’re really concerned about users ripping you off, you’re probably in the wrong business.

Don’t provide streams, provide files. If they like your music, let them keep it, don’t make them come back to hear it again. I’ve heard a lot of music I like via streams and via files, but the ones that automatically downloaded into my iTunes library are the ones that I remember and every now and again make me go and buy the album. Get your music out there, that’s why you’re doing this, right?!

Don’t put an advertisement for your web site designer on your main page. In fact, don’t put it anywhere on the site if possible. A lot of artists can’t afford their first web site, so some kind of contra deal with a web site designer can be a good first step, but don’t let them use your site as an advertisement for them. The site is supposed to be a advertisement for your music. The best place to plug the web designer, is inside comment tags inside the HTML for the site. If people want to know who did your site, they will almost always do a “View source” to find out. You don’t see a design credit on each page of a magazine, or at the bottom of a box of serial. Plus good web designers usually don’t need to advertise.

Don’t hide your downloads. I’m new to your site, I don’t know that I have to go into “Discography”, then click on “Track listing” before I can see some MP3s I can download. You have 4 seconds to tell me all this before I go elsewhere. Your downloads should be available via a big “Downloads” hyperlink on your main page, or better still, put four of your signature tunes right there in the middle of your home page. That huge avant garde texturized photo of a radio on your home page serves no useful purpose except advertise the graphic artist. Hide it on another page, and replace it with your downloads.

Don’t make me think you have music. If you don’t have downloadable music, then don’t give me a menu option that looks like you do. If I see “Music” or “Downloads” and there’s no music to download, I’m going to click the close button.

Don’t have a section called “Media”. Media is an outdated term used to describe the in-crowd music industry clique who are supposedly more important or intelligent than you. These days everyone is the media. Instead use terms like “Press releases”, “History”, “News”. Don’t label the audience, label the type of content.

Don’t make me hunt for text or hyperlinks. Text is there to be read, so don’t make it grey or lime green text on a white background. Hyperlinks are there for people to click on, so don’t make them the same colour as your text. If possible use standard blue underlined hyperlinks, otherwise, something that equally stands out and looks like hyperlinks.

Don’t use marketing gimmicks. Don’t make me sign up to your email list before I can listen to your music, for example. My time is valuable, I’ve given you my attention, don’t abuse it by forcing me to do something I don’t want to do. Your music is the only thing that will keep my attention, but there’s a long list of things that will make you lose my attention.

Do

Make your songs available for download. This is the single most important function of a band’s web site, and I’m still amazed at the number of sites which don’t provide this. People who are portentially interested in your music have come to your site, wallet in hand, saying “Let me hear your music, and if I like it, I might buy it. If I don’t like it, I might still recommend it to my friend who would like it.” They’re here for your music. If your site doesn’t have any music, why are you running a web site?

Make your music downloadable as MP3. WMA (Windows Media) is only playable on Windows or if you’ve downloaded a WMA player for the Mac or Linux. RealAudio is even worse, Windows, Mac and Linux must all download the RealAudio player before they can listen to your music, and in most cases web developers use it only because they’ve bought an expensive license to use it. The only format you should be using is MP3. Windows Media Player (Windows default), QuickTime (Mac default) and most Linux systems all play MP3 out of the box. Plus, many in the Internet community don’t like proprietary formats, and may leave your site on principle if it contains WMA for example. MP3 also gives you a wide range of encoding options, and there are more MP3 encoders out there than any other format. Even WMA and iTunes will rip to MP3 if you configure them to.

Explain your genre. Especially if you’re against having downloads of your music. A single sentence name dropping genres, emotions and other artists can do wonders for people visiting your site, especially if it is the very first thing they see when your site loads.

Name drop other bands/artists. Even if just in a news or history section, name dropping other artists will help the user visualise your place in a particular scene. If you play regularly with band X, or did a tour headlining for band Y, or share members with band Z, users will have a much better idea what you possibly sound like, your attitude to music, how long you might have been around, what kind of following you have and more importantly, what your influences are. For example if I said I’d toured a lot through Europe with Pretty Girls Make Graves, that would tell you a lot about me. (And no, I didn’t really tour with them)

Hyperlink to other sites. If you mention another site or band, hyperlink to them. You might think this helps users get away from your site, but instead it helps the user get informed, shows that you’re involved in the scene, are aware of and are helping other artists, and the user will remember you. Also other artists will usually return the favour and hyperlink back to you.

Use web standards. When I visit your site, I want to see information about you, not advertisements of how good your graphic designer is. Flash doesn’t work on all browsers, IE hacks like bad mouseover images don’t work on all browsers, pop-out menus don’t work on all browsers. I visited a band site today and when I moused over their album cover in Safari, the whole site suddenly disappeared. HTML, CSS and text isn’t hard, and good designs don’t have to have bad user interfaces. Keep it simple, keep it useful.

Your record label must have downloads of your music. Record labels have one purpose, to promote your music. If they don’t have downloads of your music on their web site, get a new record label. This is especially true for small independent labels, who are competing with thousands of other labels. I visited a label today which had six artists, yet the one band I was interested in didn’t have any music available. The thing that got me is that I came to their record label site because their own site didn’t have any music either. I’ve already forgotten their name.

Make your site work safe. Most people now have Internet access at work, and will find your site during their down time, like a lunch break. Don’t play music without first asking, don’t take over their screen (especially without asking), and don’t display pornographic or potentially offensive visuals unless they’ve given you permission to. This isn’t because they’re prudes, it is because they work in an open plan office, and their boss probably won’t understand why you think a loud video of two dogs screwing is an artistic representation of your music. We get it, their boss won’t.

Recommend other artists. This isn’t just name dropping, it is actually recommending other artists. This doesn’t have to be on the main page, but if you like other artists, say so in your biography, or on a page title “We recommend” or “Other bands we like”. You recommend other people, and other people will recommend you. Build contacts and you’ll share users, listeners and fans. Help each other out. The other band will thank you, the user will thank you, and you will be remembered.

Tell me about yourself. What is your history, your biography. What bands did you used to be in, hyperlink them for me so I can be a fan of them as well. Briefly, what is your music about? Briefly, what instruments are involved? Briefly, what do you think makes you unique, why should I spend my time with you? Inform me. Don’t lie to me, or give me a marketing pitch, tell me the honest truth. Build my trust, but help me understand your message.

Summary

It is the 21st century, and while we all hate consumerism, that’s how the world currently works. The key points here are:

1. You are competing with every other artist for a fragment of time from a user.
2. When a user comes to your site, they are saying to you “Here I am. You have my attention for about 10 seconds. Tell me why I should remember you.”
3. When a user comes to your site, they are giving you their permission to deliver your message. In marketing terms, this is the holy grail. Be nice, be helpful, be obvious, get your music across to them, and don’t take advantage of their good will.
4. A happy and satisfied user, is an advertisment for you and your music. Give them what they want, and they’ll promote you for free.

Above all remember: it is all about the music. Everything else is a distraction.

Sound is a wonderous thing, and contrary to the popular choice, is the most
important of all my senses. Without sight, I could sense the world
through sound, but without hearing, I would be blinded by a cacophony of
inner voices, never again to perceive the physics of the 3 dimensional
world in which we live.

Sound is a frequency band of air pressure waves, travelling through the
air between 20Hz and 22KHz. Slow moving waves, the 20Hz and bass end of
the spectrum, can travel through and around objects, an omnidirectional
flood of sound into and out of a space. These waves cause objects to
rumble and vibrate as they pass through, hence their tendency to at
times induce bowel movements. Fast moving waves, at the 20KHz upper
treble end of the band, are more directional waves, picking up partial
reflections and refractions as they bounce off objects of varying shape,
size, density and position, recombining and layering into the sound that
we ultimately hear. These subtle perceptive changes present a moving
snapshot or fingerprint for any space and the location of the sound
source and listener.

We all hear differently, we all have different ranges of hearing,
+/-20Hz at the low end, and +/- 2KHz at the top end, and we all perceive
sound based upon our experiences and emotional state. But still, they’re
just air pressure waves.

When we record sound, we don’t record a voice, an instrument or a single
sound effect, we record an impression of the space at the location of
the microphone’s diaphragm. Microphones work by using a movable
diaphragm or plate, much like a flag blowing in the wind, to transform air pressure waves into electrical
signals. At this point, the original sound will never again be
referenced, meaning that this is the most critical phase in the
recording of sound. Like with statistics, errors in the raw data, will
be amplified in the later output. A good sound card or speaker is nothing without
good raw data.

The quality and type of microphone will determine what it records at the
diaphragm. The material in the diaphragm, the material in the springs
which hold and release the diaphragm, the built in filters which
optionally remove or amplify certain frequency bands, all of these
components affect the sound in subtle ways, moments after it arrives at the diaphragm. Some are built intentionally into the microphone and others aren’t, but they all
manipulate the original sound so that it may never be restored once it
begins that arduous journey down the electrical signal path.

But before the microphone, there is an even more critical instrument in
the recording of sound. The space.

While a microphone will colour or embellish sound as it is recorded, it
is only as good as the raw sound which it is given as input. If that
sound is a human voice, dictated into a microphone, at a desk, in front
of a computer screen, in a four walled square office, what you have
recorded will be, specifically, a human voice bouncing off a glass
reflective computer screen, bass sounds dispersing as they travel
through the four square 90 degree angled walls, while the treble sounds,
the main frequency bands in the human voice, bounce off these now
vibrating and rumbling walls, with sound adding (amplification of
certain bands) and subtracting (phase cancellation of certain bands),
and the biggest problem of all, reverb. Reverb is those small yet
slightly delayed waves which bounce off the back wall of the office and
into the microphone, slightly delayed behind the original copies of
themselves, which give a perceptive depth to a 3 dimensional space.

In short, you have recorded “a guy in an office, talking into a
microphone”, not “a voice”. This is much like a web site which distracts
a user’s attention from the actual content, and makes them consciously
aware of the glaring yet inconsequential graphic design and layout.

This is why all professional recording is done in a specially, not just
sound proofed, but sound neutralised, studio. Limit the errors entering
into the microphone, and the range and quality of the output sound will
be exponentially greater. Want it to sound like you’re in an office, for
example the audio track for a drama series? Sure, at the final step, we
add a few delayed reverberations to make it sound like it is in an
office. Why not then actually record it in an office? Because then we
couldn’t instead place it in a barn, or a bigger office, or a different
office, or no office, because it would be “a recording of an office”.

But then, most people apparently cannot tell the difference between good
and bad audio. Do you think? If “ER” was recorded in a barn, do you
think the viewers would realise that something, even if they could not
put their finger on it, was wrong? Would the recordists bother using a
studio if people couldn’t, even unconsciously, tell the difference?

Sound quality is important. How important, is up to you, and will be dictated by the project you’re working on. However, you wouldn’t
have spelling mistakes or bad usability on your website, so why is sound
any different?

Most people don’t realise it, but while you cannot see sound
waves, much of what you perceive and “see” when you enter a room, is
presented to us by our hearing, not our sight. It is our most humble sense, and the one
which allows us to most accurately perceive a real 3 dimensional space.

I’ve been thinking a bit about what the music industry will look like in the next 10 to 20 years. Although I’ve talked about the coming revolution before, and sites like Downhill Battle do a great job talking about why things will change (see the section Crucial Readings on their site) and how to drive the change, not many people seem to be talking about what will replace the current 50 year old money making machine that is the recording industry.

Last night I saw a bunch of noise rock bands play at The Kirk, an old little church which is now used as a specifically secular art and music space. The bands were Rand and Holland from Sydney, because of ghosts from Melbourne, and Faun Fables from San Francisco in the U.S. While I was primarily there to see because of ghosts, who venture up this way far too infrequently, I ended up being more amazed by Faun Fables and their show.

To call it cabaret would be doing them an injustice, but there are certainly elements of it, especially when the show started. There is no seating at The Kirk, so people tend to sit on the floor, being more docile and appreciative than your typical rock crowd, and because there’s no bar, there’s no need for the long pauses between bands. The audience tended to forget this when they were scattered around the room and outside on the street when Dawn McCarthy walked to the front of the room, facing the stage, and sang her first song unaccompanied. She then walked to the stage, small suitcase in hand, and she and Nils acted out 4 minute existentialist scene set on a train station, before proceeding into the main part of their musical set.

For their last song, a rather subdued and unaccompanied song by Dawn, also included theatrics, sitting at what looked like a gypsy fortune telling stool, showing photos of her life to the audience as she sang. The video in this post is of that song, which was shot on my camera phone, so my apologies for the really bad visuals, although the audio is as haunting as the original.

Again, all three bands were selling merchandise, CDs, t-shirts, badges, and in the case of because of ghosts a hand etched limited edition vinyl recording of a live gig in Sydney earlier in the year. The packaging is recyclable screen printed cardboard, with hand stiching, a photo of which is also included in this post.

Artists like Faun Fables, although the main vocalist Dawn McCarthy does have a cabaret, folk and circus sideshow background, are defining new ways for artists to extend their work into other domains and mediums. Not for much longer can big recording acts simply record mass consumable music, provide a simplistic live show, and expect to make millions. With the Napster generation, the audience may not be as pedantic about sound quality, but the audience for different styles and genres of music is starting to explode.

This is co-incidentally the direction marketing and productisation has been heading over the past few years, targetting a niche, or even the individual consumer, with what they specifically would like to hear. In many ways iTunes Store provides the technology for this, being able to construct or produce your own compilations and playlists, and the artists will very soon I feel follow suit.

How about a customised feed by an artist? Instead of selling albums, new songs are drip fed to the public, and sound matching technology or better use of metadata allows consumers to pick the tracks they want to hear, or even purchase, if there’s still such a thing. Perhaps we’ll say goodbye to albums, and instead embrace the serial song list.

Anyway, I don’t have to say it again, but I will, the music industry is changing, and I think it will be a change in the extreme…

Here’s some more info on Faun Fables. The video clip is in 3gp format, so you’ll need to right click or control to save it, depending on your legacy platform, and a recent version of QuickTime to play it.

There’s a revolution going on in the music industry, and the industry hasn’t noticed. With all the brouhaha about p2p, DRM, piracy and copyright, the RIAA and its members, the big record companies, have clearly taken their eyes off the ball.

I was at a gig for The Bronx last week (whose web site unfortunately doesn’t support Safari), a hardcore band from Los Angeles, and on the way out, amongst their t-shirts and CDs for sale, was a DVD of one of their live gigs.

But this wasn’t your regular live DVD, it was a recording of their first Sydney gig earlier in the year, which also happened to be their first ever sold out headline gig. The recording was made by a fan on a handheld DV, and the quality was good enough to publish. The day after that gig, the fan contacted the band and they arranged for the footage to be released as a DVD. Coincidentally, at the same gig, a local company has been recording and broadcasting shows over the Internet, and they just happened to have a mixing desk recording of the gig, which was then dubbed over the footage. No edits, just video from the handheld, and audio from the Internet broadcast. Now this isn’t a big production venue. The Annandale Hotel is a fairly small few hundred people at most venue. And The Bronx aren’t particularly well known, except that they did get album of the week at some point last year on 2JJJ.

I was at that same venue on the weekend, to see a one off (well, twice off, they did the once off thing last year) reunion of another punk band, this time a local Sydney band from the early 1980s, The Kelpies. At the gig, they were selling a copy of the one off gig they did last year, on CD, and this night they were recording a DVD of their last ever gig. It didn’t help that their bass played died last week just before the show, but the added risk of getting in another bass player from the same punk period to learn all their songs, makes it an even more unique DVD. They were collecting email addresses on the night, so they could let people know in a few weeks when the DVD would be available.

About a month ago, I went and saw DKT/MC5, a reunion of the three still alive members of the MC5, a detroit band from the early 1970s, who were the primary influence on pretty much most punk and alternative bands in some way. They played the Gaelic Club and the Coogee Bay Hotel, which is the old Selinas venue. Pretty big, but that doesn’t count. Ten minutes after the show finished, they’d pressed copies of it on to CD to buy on the way out. At Selinas, after ten minutes you’d be lucky if 20% of the 1300 person audience had gotten out. To then see a $10 CD of the gig as you went out the door, is pure marketing genius. We’ve read about this happening in the U.S., but this is apparently only the second time it has been done in Australia, the first being when The Who played in Sydney the week before.

On top of this, in the U.S. there’s a company called eMusicLive, which sells keychain USB drives of gigs on the way out. They also then sell the recordings over the internet, but you get the point. Same trick, newer technology.

And at yet another gig over the weekend, a local support band was selling their own independently recorded and produced CD at their gig for $15. I wouldn’t pay the usual $28 at a store, but for $15, while my body was still warm, sure, I’ll buy that. This has been happening for years of course, bands selling their independent CDs at gigs, and even that hasn’t begun to click with the record industry.

Artists are finding ways to change the business model, look after their own interests, and look after their fans. But then artists have always tried to do that, it is just the record companies that treat the fans with contempt, or as is common these days, just sue them.

As predicted several years ago, the space is changing, artists are finding ways to look after themselves, and make money off merchandising, without being tied to a major record label. And when USB drives and RAM devices become more prevalent, we’ll finally see the end of the CD as well, which artists are still paying royalties to Sony and Philips on, for every CD they manufacture.

There’s a revolution happening, and the industry, bless their little capitalist monopolistic hearts, have been caught well and truly napping. Good riddance I say. After a 50 year break, it is time to return art to the artists.

I was listening to 2JJJ last night, our government run national youth network (yes, I still refuse to call it Triple J, due to Barry Chapman‘s sellout), and heard yet another example of how we’re breeding a generation of youth ignoramuses who believe all the record company and branding/youth of today hype.

Anyway, I was listening ever so briefly (I promise) to Super Request with Rosie Beaton, who surprisingly knows a little bit about music pre-1991 (my era), and she was speaking with her producer on air, about tracks that various callers had asked for, particularly on the theme of treadmills.

Now the producer is the one who supposedly looks for each track and makes sure its the correct one, and I’m assuming knowledge of music to some degree would be one of the prerequisites. It was at this point she said:

And several listeners mentioned “Troo-ga-nine-knee” (laughs) or something (laughs) by Midnight Oil.

She’d certainly know Midnight Oil, all Australians do, and you may not expect her to know that Truganini is a song by Midnight Oil, but you would assume, being the lefty and informed station that it is supposed to be, that she would actually know who Truganini was.

Or do you think I’m being over judgemental because I still have a gaping wound about 2JJJ from 14 years ago?

The photo you see here is the new big red pop filter we have on the announcer microphone at our radio station. I bragged a bit about it the other night on the show, but for your own personal viewing pleasure, here it is in the flesh! So to speak…

The question I gotta ask though, is did the person who put it there know that pretty much every show for the next week is bound to do a whole bunch of knob jokes? Or did this simply slip from their mind while some enterprising young pop filter salesman had a giggle with his mates about the astronaut who bought the infamous red pop filter which had been sitting in their display cabinet for the last 5 years.

Anyway, while it makes you think to yourself for a few seconds every time you go back on air, at least it is more amusing than the standard regulation black. Could this be the beginning of the boom period for the pop filter manufacturing industry? Stay tuned folks, this could get nasty!