Got an iPhone? This might be the reason buy one.

New to the iPhone is Fourtrack, a multitrack recorder of the iPhone. At $10 its a pretty good deal. It creates multiple mono 44.1k audio files and has a slick wireless app to sync each of the audio tracks to the desktop, where they can be used in standard DAW applications. This is a slick easy way for songwriters and musicians to easily capture ideas.

Reminiscent of the old portastudio cassette recorders, the Fourtrack is considerably easier to use, and fits in your pocket.

Check it out. Well worth the investment!

Do You Write or Perform Songs?

If you’re a songwriter, or if your an artist who is looking for great songs to sing, check out Songnation.com

SongNation™ is dedicated to the promotion of Songs and Songwriters.

In their words:

“Music Publishers, Songwriters, Independent Song Pluggers and Authorized Representatives can all take advantage of our system to upload songs. In addition, Pro and VIP accounts have the ability to "Password Protect" songs so that only the people they choose can view their material. Record Companies, Recording Artists, Music Managers, Advertising Agencies, TV and Film Professionals and Others can search our system to find the perfect song for your project.”

Its a fairly new site, but it is beginning to grow. So if you’re a songwriter, you can get in on the new phenomenon. If you’re an artist looking for the right song to showcase your talent, check it out, and keep an eye on it as it grows and attracts new writers.

TuneCarver Music

So. What's A Songwriter To Do?

I started writing songs when I was 13. Learned to play piano for real in the 10th and 11th grade. Played in bands through high school, college and single life. Kept writing and recording. Got married and lost the band gig. Kept writing. Raised kids, kept writing, even for them for awhile. Started writing professionally. Studied the model. Write. Cowrite. Get a publishing deal. Get cuts. Get airplay. Make boat-loads of money. Retire.

Side stories: Napster, mp3 format, broadband, Clear Channel, Record companies alienate (and criminalize) consumers, Major record company model collapses. Goodbye publisher-paid demo. Hello songwriter-paid demo. Hits don’t pay writers $500K anymore... or at least few and far between.

Bands aren’t discovered anymore. They have to build an audience, and then they can bargain for a deal. Trouble is, the deal they’re bargaining for isn’t such a deal anymore. CD sales are going away and the only way to monetize track sales is online.. which the record companies still haven’t figured out.

So where’s the future? Who the heck knows. If the rate of change continues, the industry will look completely different in 2 years, and then again in a year and a half. NSAI is battling in Washington for songwriter rights, and the record companies are battling for theirs at the expense of the artist and the songwriter.

The model has changed and will continue to change. Music sales may never come back to the levels they were, and because of that the major labels may lose their hold on monopoly and distribution (if they haven’t already).

On the bright side, the promotional playing field is leveling. Satellite radio is broadening the venues to hear cool stuff. Indie musicians seem to be making a living, better than before this all came down. Big stars, not so much. Sure, there’s Coldplay, but they could probably do what they did on the latest release without a label, next time.

So what’s a songwriter to do?

Let’s see... Figure out what’s next? Lobby Washington or champion those that do? Worry? Find cheaper demo studios and/or get more efficient at producing them? Network. (trying to replace all the people we knew who’ve left the industry)

I don’t think so. Sure we may need to spend some times in those areas. For some of us, more than others. For some none at all.

Some of these things might be good. Some of these things might give you an edge. Get you in the door. Break through the noise. Grease the palms.

But all of these things add up to squat, if you aint got at least one thing....

Great songs.

Write on.

39 Cent Downloads!

Apple announced this week that they are the number one retailer of music, second only to Walmart. They could do better..

Something has been bugging me since the iTunes Music store was introduced. Something that just didn’t make sense to me.

Since I bought my first single... Elton John’s YOUR SONG in the early 70s, I’ve been paying a buck for a single. Although, back then it was a buck for two songs.. as I recall.. (although I can’t recall the flip-side of YOUR SONG)

I remember paying under 10 bucks for the LPs. Then the CD comes along... less to manufacture, but they sell it for 150-200% more.. (not to mention you have to re-buy your collection if you want to hear it on CD..) Then comes along Napster and the record companies freak and sue them into oblivion. Then came the ipod, iTunes, and the iTunes music store. The iPod could read and play mp3s which I could create in iTunes from my CDs.

Being a writer, I’ve never been one to advocate pirating music, But the iTunes music store... it never made sense to me. 99 cents. What I always paid... but now without the mess of physical disc... well.. actually without anything that comes along with that physical disk. No glossy sleeve. No K-Mart.. no delivery truck.. no manufacturing.. no lathe-cut master press blank to wear out... (or in the case of cd.. mold cavities or burn cycles)... but still 99 cents. (For about the same price as an album download, I can buy the physical CD, rip it, and have it on my iTunes and iPod and still have the CD as a badge of honor in my collection!)

It doesn’t make sense to me... and I’m not that smart. I think that maybe it doesn’t make sense to a lot of people.

Now, I know that costs have gone up, but frankly, manufacturing costs went down significantly with the CD and so did quality of sound.

And before anyone thinks I’m blaming Apple (or the other online distributors), I’m not. Apple had to fight hard to get the labels on board. Labels were so worried that their physical sales would drop as a result that they forced the price higher. 99 cents was a sweet deal for the labels and one Apple had to do to get enough labels onboard. But based on that price, the volume of sales were forever going to be dwarfed. Now with the CD on the verge of extinction, the original price structure is no longer tenable.

It was short-sighted. Because of the original premise, however, everything rotates around that 99 cent price... including the digital retailers cut.. Its not a percentage in most cases.. its a fixed amount per track.

For instance, I don’t, as an artist, even have the choice to sell my music (in any significant circles) for less. Sure, I can list my music for less on some sites. ( although iTunes requires the 99 cent price)

But why or how could I? With a fixed distribution fee, (not a percentage) If I were to sell my tracks for 40 cents, those sites keep 35 cents and give me a nickel. Like I said, I’m not that smart, but even I can see the disadvantages of such a deal.

So... what do I propose? Downloads should cost 39 Cents.

If iTunes were to drop their price to $0.39, their sales would triple. I know I’d buy 3 times as much... I always have this much in my pocket.. That would raise their revenue by almost 20%. If their cut was a percentage, the track sales would triple overnight, and increase revenues by 20% as well. Bandwidth isn’t a problem.. A single song is a sliver of the size of a movie or TV show and they make money at $1.99 per show.

If everyone was paid on a percentage of revenue, everyone’s income would also increase by 20%. (of course, this is based on the assumption that “everyone” has music people want.)

While 20% might not seem like a lot.. the real benefit would be the 200% more legal ownership of their music. 3 times the people buying digital music. 3 times the people on the righteous train.. It’d probably be more. Think about it. My iPod can hold 10,000 songs. How much would that cost to fill, legally?

On April 1st, a blogger announced that Apple bought Universal Music and that Apple was lowering their prices for all Universal content. It didn’t take long to realize that it was an April Fool’s posting, but whoa, was it exciting for the first few minutes.

It was revolution. For the people, for the artists, for the writers.. but alas, still a pipe dream.

The labels want to get paid for work they no longer do.. distribution. I say we pay them for promotion, production, their investement into artists. Distribution income should go to those who distribute it... the online retailer and the servers, and it should reflect the investment made.. which is far less than the conventional cost of distribution. The rest should go to the ones who write, play and sing the songs.

The labels are acting like white horses in all of this, but the truth is that all of the moneys gotten through their legal actions against pirating, (college students, software authors, etc.) none of the money has gone to artists or writers. They did it for themselves, not us.

And now they are trying to give the artists a smaller cut of the online pie, while increasing their share, when their contribution to the product itself, is actually less than it ever has been.

39 cents. It makes... well... sense.

Tell me what you think.

MySpace Downloads. iTunes Killer?

Myspace announced last week that it will be offering DRM-free downloads for sale from MySpace. They will feature the big 3 label’s materials and promising to represent the indie and independent artists, as well. Until recently MySpace was victim of a lawsuit filed by Universal Music. (Part of Universal’s “sue people in to fans” campaign. Closely related to their “Stop the Tide” initiative.) Apparently the two settled quietly and their business buds, now.

Sounds like a winner, except for one problem. MySpace is a dog. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a page, and most of the writers I work with and love have a myspace page, but MySpace’s capacity has always been just barely behind their growth, (always clogged and slow) and its always drudgery editing and viewing pages. Couple that with all the glitter postings, and youtube loads that people put on their pages, and often it is unbearable. My myspace surfing consists of clicking with my finger on the backspace key, just in case I click on a page that won’t load until next Tuesday.

If the public likes the new DRM idea, I predict it will be even slower.

Now, everyone I know who carries around their tunes uses an iPod. I see other players from time to time, but if its someone I know, my experience is they never use them long term... I don’t know if they’re too complicated, or just boring... but the defacto winner of the mp3 player contest is Apple Ipod.

On a tangental ADHD note, does anyone know what’s a Zune is? Ever played with one, or known someone who has one? I’ve seen them in glass cases at the store, but I’ve never run into someone who owns one... just wondering.

iTunes software is the main reason that iPods are successful. It just works and its easy. You don’t have to know where your files are.. they show up in the menu. If you rip a CD or buy a song off of the iTunes store.. it shows up.. simple. Next time you plug in your iPod, the song’s there and waiting.

So, say you buy a song on mySpace. Do you know what to do with the songs you get from myspace? You download them.. then... where do you put them? How do you get them into iTunes?.. how many steps does it take? Let me know, will you?

I'm sure its not that hard, really, but that's not the point. Consumer products need to be easy to use and consistent in their operation. I think Apple did that with iTunes. Its one of the foundations that many do not recognize. This is why Apple captured the market. If iPod users had to relearn their software every time they sync'd, iPods would be just another part of mp3 player history. So... If the new MySpace system integrates with iTunes, then they may have something.. That will probably not happen.

Too little, too late? My expectations of mySpace underwhelming. It is based on what its delivered in the past.. Its an also-ran to Facebook, and although it has its core membership and networking to draw on, I don’t have any confidence that they can raise the bar high-enough to make a difference.

So.. Question of the day: Is mySpace going to kill iTunes?

Not likely.