Rich’s Music Notes

The top selling album last week was Taylor Swift’s Fearless.  To reach that, you would think it requires selling tons of CDs.  Not so, according to Soundscan.

Swift’s album only sold 62,000 copies.  The number two spot was 58,000 by Charlie Wilson’s Uncle Charlie.  And third was The Fray at 53,000.

The top selling Swift album was the fourth lowest sales number since Soundscan started in 1991.  But Swift has been number 1 for 10 weeks.

There are two ways to look at this.

If you are an optimist, it’s a lot easier to become number 1.  You don’t have to sell nearly as many albums.

If you are a pessimist, selling albums has gotten tough even for the best of them.  Year-to-date sales are down 12%.

Or maybe none of this really matters.  Are you really competing against Taylor Swift?  In other words, do you sound like Taylor Swift?  Are you singing the same songs?  Are you even in the same genre?

Too often we think of ourselves as in a race with other artists by comparing ourselves with how they are doing.  Who will be the winner?

A race has a specific number of entrants participating on the same course.  There can be only one winner, the one who crosses the finish line first.  But are you in the same race?

Comparing ourselves to others always puts us in a bad position.  There are always someone who is better.  We should be comparing ourselves to our ourself.

It reminds me of a summer I started playing tennis against a friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in a long time.  I’m not much of a tennis player and didn’t realize he was the university’s captain of the tennis team.

You can guess how the matches went.  It was a slaughter.  His serves were so fast I couldn’t even return them.  He suggested I stand farther back.  It gave me more time to return the ball.

My friend kept asking if I wanted to continue.  I did even though I was losing every game.  How would I get better except by competing with someone who was better?

Soon I was returning more serves.  Then I would score a point occasionally.  After a while, my friend had to work at winning.

By the end of the summer, most of the games were spend going from his advantage to my advantage.  He made fewer mistakes so eventually he came out on top.  But I had a few victories as well.

What kept me going when he was so obviously superior to me?  He was asking if I wanted to continue because most people are looking at whether they won.  I was looking at my performance to see if I was getting any better.  And I was.

Artists should be doing the same.  So what if Taylor Swift was number 1 by selling 62,000 albums and you only sold 100.  Remember the time you only sold 10?  And then 50?  That shows you are getting better.

The business is not about becoming better than someone else.  It’s about becoming better than you.  If you do that, you will become successful.  You’ll do what you love and make a living at it.  What more could you ask for?

You can have a number 1 album.  Just sell more of your latest album than you did for the last one.  And keep on doing that for every album you make.

– Rich Pulham

The iTunes Pass is greared towards the superfan.  It is a premium access plan where fans receive exclusive content.  The selected artist will have immediate delivery of new songs, remixes, video, and other content.  The first selected artist will be Depeche Mode at a cost of $18.99.

Independent artists should take note of this.  It is a way to gain additional income on their websites.

Instead of just releasing an album, announce the coming of the album but maybe 12 weeks before the album’s release, offer the superfan pass.  Members will get songs in advance of the album, maybe even  extended versions and extra songs not found on the album.  Offer videos, photos, discounts on concert tickets, special merchandise, etc.

You can turn more fans into superfans who will create a buzz about your upcoming album and concerts.  You should sell more albums and your fans will become more devoted.

– Rich Pulham

On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Averages dropped more than 250 points to $7,114.78.  This is the lowest point since 1997. And the record companies fell with it. Warner Music Group, for example, dropped 9.27% to a value of $1.86. If this trend continues, Warner’s value will be so low as to risk being delisted.

Some analysts think this huge drop is an indication that the bottom may be a lot farther down.

– Rich Pulham