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MUSIC BIZ INSIGHT #31 Power Reading for Busy Music Professionals Hope you're hungry! MUSIC BIZ INSIGHT is published for musicians, songwriters, managers, label reps, booking agents, entertainment attorneys, studio owners, music publishers, and all others involved in the music business. Its purpose is to help boost your business, find new markets, make the right connections, develop professionally, work smarter and improve your bottom line. "As a general rule, the most successful people in life are those who have the best information." Benjamin Disraeli Written and published bimonthly by Peter Spellman, Director of MUSIC BUSINESS SOLUTIONS: Turning Music Business Data into Useful Knowledge. Career-building books, articles, training, consulting and more. P.O. Box 230266, Astor Station, Boston, MA 02123-0266, USA Phone: 888-655-8335 Email: success@mbsolutions.com Web site: http://www.mbsolutions.com © 1997 - 2003, Peter Spellman, MBS Business Media, www.mbsolutions.com Please feel free to redistribute with above credit and copyright notice.
FILE SWAPPERS MIGHT MAKE GOOD CUSTOMERS In a new report from Jupiter Media Metrix, analyst Aram Sinnreich argues that online music sharing is not necessarily bad for the recording industry and, in some cases, can benefit record producers. Based on a survey of online music listeners, the report explains that although some file-swappers are less likely to buy music, a larger number of swappers increased their music spending. Sinnreich agreed that for some users, new technologies led to less music spending, but he argued that on the whole, new technologies cannot be seen as all bad for the music industry. MIND YOUR COOKIES I hope you've heard of these by now. "Cookies" (how nice sounding, hmm? - almost Orwellian) are small files stored on a user's computer that a visited Web site's server (but no other server) can write to and reference. Though designed to allow quick identification of users for personalized services, cookies increasingly are being used by some Web sites for authentication purposes. According to Eric Glover, a New Jersey-based computer programmer, if someone is able to steal two Hotmail cookies from your computer, that person can gain access to your Hotmail account, even if you change your password. At Hotmail, the information contained in cookie files can be used to access an account even after the password has changed. Making matters worse, security experts agree that gaining access to a user's cookie files is typically a "trivial" task. Microsoft said it has several measures in place to guard against "cookie-based replay attacks." Security experts, however, said that for users who want the convenience that cookies can provide, it will be very difficult to protect against attacks. Wired News, 26 April 2002 FAN CLUBS FOR 40-SOMETHINGS The whole notion of a "fan club" is changing and becoming a significant profit center for pop-music acts, reports Lisa Gubernick in The Wall Street Journal. Key words: Baby Boomers. Those "over 40 now make up about a third of the music-buying public, while folks age 15 to 24 account for only 25 percent of sales, according to the Recording Industry Association of America." The Boomers still want to see their favorite stars in concert, but don't want to wait in line -- or even go online -- to battle for experience. They instead are forking over annual fees ($15-$30) for the privilege of getting first dibs on the best tickets -- not to mention chances at backstage passes and a full array of licensed merchandise. The concept, surprisingly, was pioneered by none other than The Grateful Dead in the mid-1980s, whose fan-club catalog was mailed to some 200,000 Deadheads in its heyday. Those in the database got first crack at the best tickets, too. Actually, an entire industry is growing around these clubs. A firm called ArtistDirect http://www.artistdirect.com "handles ticket sales and provides news updates for more than 100 bands, including...the Rolling Stones." San Francisco-based Fan Asylum http://www.fanasylum.com "now plays high-end travel agent" for Whitney Houston and Matchbox Twenty fans. Whether the future of such enterprises looks bright is another matter. More than one-third of Aerosmith's fan club is in the 45-60 year-old range, for example. "If you look forward five years, you can't be terribly optimistic," observes Cliff Bernstien, who manages Metallica's fan club http://metallica.com. GORILLAZ MARKETING The problem with cell phones as a marketing medium is that few "understand how to use it right," says Brett King, a Modem Media exec in a Wall Street Journal article by Gabriel Kahn. It's a problem that EMI Group PLC in Singapore is addressing with gusto -- actually with Gorillaz http://www.gorillaz.com, "a rock group consisting of four cartoon characters." The goal, reportedly, is not so much to promote sales of Gorillaz records as it is to compile a cell phone number database of the young, the hip and the wired for future EMI promotions. EMI's campaign invites in the group's fans to engage in a Short Messaging Service (SMS) dialogue with a favorite band member. Local disc jockeys announce "a special phone number every time they play a Gorillaz song. Fans who send a message to the number get one back from the band, asking which member they would like to talk to." Since the band members are cartoon characters, EMI is able to imbue each with a distinct personality, and the messages tend to convey a certain irreverence. A sample message from Noodle, the band's female guitarist: "Greedy record company wants me to tell U 2 buy Gorillaz album. Record people suck. Buy or don't buy, up to you." The edgy messages help keep things "credible," according to the campaign's designers. "For a very cool band like Gorillaz, the last thing you want to do is go mainstream," says Valerie Lim, EMI Singapore's managing director. Adds Graham Kelly of agency OgilvyInteractive: "We've got to be careful not to overhype it." Accordingly, the SMS exchanges are limited to no more than 2 or 3 per day, and end after a total of 10 days, at which time the fan receives this farewell message: "Can't end U any more messages. need money 4 trip to Japan." The number of participants has grown 28 percent in the first 6 weeks of the campaign, "to more than 2,000 total." ))) EXPRESSIONS TO AVOID DURING A RECORDING SESSION (From Steely Dan's Web Site)
Did you know?... ...that Elton John's first job in the music business was as a teaboy for a music publishing company? Source: "The Ultimate Book of Pop Trivia" (Robson Books) ))) FEATURE: THE DO-IT-YOURSELF TRADEMARK SEARCH Toys 'R' Us is a famous mark because it is well-known as a retail source for toys. A rap group using adult lyrics names itself Boys 'R' Us. The retail store sues the band claiming that the use of the band name tarnishes the toy store's reputation. The store wins the case. Such a story illustrates the complexities of trademark law and if you're doing business under a name other than your own, you'd best pay attention to the following information, lest you find yourself nameless by judicial decree. WHAT ARE TRADEMARKS? By definition, a trademark is any word, name, symbol, device, or combination of these used to identify the products or services of a business. "Trademarks" are used primarily for businesses that sell products, while "servicemarks" are used primarily for businesses that sell services. For convenience sake, I will use the term trademark to represent both terms. A trademark differs from a "copyright" and a "patent" in that it protects the SYMBOL that distinguishes products, materials, or services, and not those commodities themselves. Trademark laws are designed to protect the marketplace (i.e. consumers) from confusion, and to prevent one company from trading on the good name and reputation of another. The name you work under as an artist or business is probably your most important asset. That's why it is important to legally protect that name and to "own" the trademark. The good news is that rights to a name come through use of that name in the U.S. commercial marketplace, not through any formal registration process, though formal registration can have a benefits in the event of infringement. However, in order to secure rights in a business name, there are two catches: 1. You need to do a search to make sure no one else is using the same name in either your state or, (if you plan on getting bigger than your own territory), across the whole nation. and 2. You need to be able to demonstrate you have used the name "in interstate commerce", that is, across state borders. DO YOUR OWN TRADEMARK SEARCH If you're a band or music business you can do your own trademark search for free on the Internet by visiting the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Website at http://www.uspto.gov. Or you can visit one of the Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries, available in every state. These libraries offer a combination of hardcover directories of federally registered marks and an online database of both registered marks and marks for which a registration application is pending. Most of these libraries also have step-by-step instructions for searching registered and pending marks. In addition to searching for registered or pending marks, you can employ less formal methods of searching. For example, you may also use product guides and other materials available in these libraries to search for possibly conflicting marks that haven't been registered. This can be important because an existing mark, even if it's unregistered, would preclude you from:
To find the Patent and Trademark Depository Library nearest you, see PTO's list at http://www.uspto.gov/go/ptdl/. The Web is a ready-made source of business names. Any of the top search engines (like www.google.com) will let you type in the name and search for it on all the indexed web pages of that engine. Because no search engine is 100% complete, an especially thorough search will include several additional search engines. A good place to find domain names being used by Web-based businesses is the dotcom directory at http://www.dotcomdirectory.com/nsi/basic.html. Simply describe the type of product or service you're looking for. The site then returns a list of websites that provide it. Another helpful place to search for unregistered trademarks is The Thomas Register of Goods and Services, at http://www.thomasregister.com. You have to sign up as a member (free) before they will let you search. You should search some of the online artist and band directories, like the Ultimate Band List (www.ubl.com) and the All- Music Guide (www.allmusic.com). You might want to also check online record store databases like Tower's (www.towerrecords.com). In addition, it is wise to scan some of the top offline music industry directories, like the Recording Industry Sourcebook and the many annual Billboard directories. Look for the same or similar names under various categories. FORMAL TRADEMARK REGISTRATION Again, rights to a business name come through USE, not a formal registration with the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) in D.C. But registering with the PTO can have several benefits:
The trademark registration process is fully explained at the PTO web site (www.uspto.gov). You can either register electronically or print out a form and mail in your registration. The current cost for trademark or servicemark registration in the U.S. is $325. To register a trademark with the PTO, the mark's owner first must put it into use "in commerce that Congress may regulate." This means the mark must be used on a product or service that crosses state, national or territorial lines or that affects commerce crossing such lines -- for example, a record label or a touring band. Once the PTO receives a trademark registration application, the office must answer the following questions:
If the answer to each question is "no," the trademark is eligible for registration and the PTO will continue to process the application. You can expect to receive a "Filing Receipt" within eight weeks. After that you will receive a notice that your band or business name will be published in a government publication known as the Trademark Gazette. If there is no opposition to your mark, your registration will be issued. The whole process may take anywhere between 12 and 18 months. LEARNING TO THINK: THE MINDSET OF INDEPENDENCE Everyone can be exposed to new ideas and concepts. We encounter fresh viewpoints, opportunities, and philosophies every day. But how many actually see what they are being shown? How many actually consider what is before them before their existing mindset pushes anything "new" or "controversial" out from their mind? Precious few. Although the human mind is wonderfully curious and inventive, it is also all too easily trained to reject new information that conflicts with a prior knowledge base. At some point in time, everyone has felt a spark of enlightenment when a novel idea momentarily penetrates the imposing barricades of prejudice and groupthink. However, the spark usually dies mere moments after its birth, since it is hard work to think and most people would rather not bother. To quote Bertrand Russell: "Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so." This is not the case with those rare individuals who somehow kept that spark alive and fanned it just a little bit brighter. Perhaps it was the way they were feeling one day. Maybe they were stuck somewhere with a book they otherwise wouldn't take the time to read. Possibly they were influenced by a charismatic and persuasive speaker who seized their imagination. For whatever reason, they began considering things that most other people wouldn't. Despite all the ignorance and learned "knowledge" around them, they brought forth new ideas and new interpretations of old ideas. They looked at the world about them in fresh ways. They rejected the obvious and known and looked for the subtle and unknown. And within, they discovered how to look into their own minds and studied the content inside as if it were a new and rare animal. With these actions, that little spark grew larger and hotter and fiercer, burning away mental walls that had lasted a lifetime and freeing the mind for greater and deeper thought. And in the minds of the greatest thinkers, that spark ignited into a bonfire that laid waste to the all-encompassing cultural hypnosis that still paralyzes so many in society. Objectiveness is always the result of this new mindset; "fully integrated intellectual honesty" would be a more sophisticated way of saying it. But the essential facts are that someone who has truly learned to think has succeeded -- to one degree or another -- in removing mental obstacles to clear, creative, and unbiased thinking. "Normal" people who rely on others find those mental walls as imposing as impregnable armoured fortifications. But the same barriers are weak and small in the mind of a thinker. It is in the mind of a thinker is the hard work performed to "de-energize" the walls until they lose their mentally coercive powers. That the boundaries exist in the first place is no accident. They are there for a reason. Governments and religions could not survive in their present form without the authoritative "mysticism" they have used to poison free-thinking and creative individuals. The mass hypnosis of conventional society is by design because it is of enormous benefit to those who would rule over others. The richness and intensity of the world in which we find ourselves offers plenty of scope for self-invention. More and more, we get to decide how our lives will play out. In the past, people tended to follow whatever path seemed appropriate, given their family, education, connections, social class, and gender. And so the difficult work of self-discovery and self-examination Ð of "composing a life", to use anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson's useful phrase Ð was left to the great leader, the exceptional individual. No more. Today we all have the chance to compose our own lives. It's a liberating prospect, but also daunting, because it requires a high degree of self-knowledge. If we don't start at our core -- if we instead accept reflexive, inherited, or half-thought-out definitions of who we are and what we have to contribute -- we run the risk of being overwhelmed by the possibilities that we face. We will then either make inappropriate choices that hinder us from fully using our individual talents and so hold us back from achieving fulfillment, or we will become what journalist David Brooks aptly calls "bobos in paradise," people who achieve the appearance of success, yet end up pursuing dreams they never bothered to think through. A free thinker has learned to see this and it is always a solitary effort. There is no official support for a course or program that teaches people to be independent of their political and theological masters. So how does such learning occur? It comes from the ability to ask questions, not the ability to memorize answers (as is the case in our government-sponsored education systems). Always, relentlessly, QUESTION AUTHORITY and push on to the new. We're told that humans use 10 per cent of their brains. There are two responses to this: "Is that all?" or, "Onto the other 90 per cent!" TO SUBSCRIBE to MUSIC BIZ INSIGHT: send email with the message in the body, "subscribe" to success@mbsolutions.com It's not an autoresponder so feel free to include any other comments, ideas, suggestions, etc. you may have. About the PublisherPETER SPELLMAN is Director of MUSIC BUSINESS SOLUTIONS, a business and marketing consultancy to the music industry, and Director of Career Development at Berklee College of Music, Boston. He is the author of several books for music entrepreneurs and teaches music industry courses at Northeastern University (Boston) and the University of Massachusetts (Lowell). A musician since he was ten, Peter continues to spin riddims in the improvisational collective, Friend Planet and sing Cat Stevens' songs to his kids every night before bed. BLOOM WHERE YOU'RE PLANTED! Quote of the Month-- "Something we were withholding made us weak, until we found out that it was ourselves." Written and published bimonthly by Peter Spellman, Director of MUSIC BUSINESS SOLUTIONS: Turning Music Business Data into Useful Knowledge. Career-building books, articles, training, consulting and more. P.O. Box 230266, Astor Station, Boston, MA 02123-0266, USA Phone: 888-655-8335 Email: success@mbsolutions.com Web site: http://www.mbsolutions.com © 1997 - 2003, Peter Spellman, MBS Business Media, www.mbsolutions.com Please feel free to redistribute with above credit and copyright notice.
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