What Will It Take For Streaming Services To Work For Everyone?

What Will It Take For Streaming Services To Work For Everyone? In order for the streaming industry to work where everyone will be happy business models need to change. For fast growing industry that is tripling in revenues almost yearly not everyone is happy, and for a good reason too. Artists are not happy by a long shot. Yes publishers and labels are not happy either but the ones that are really important are in fact the artists. Without their work of art there is no industry, there will be nothing to support or promote and the industry will die. Rates such as $0.00521 per stream , which Spotify offers is terrible. Further studies show that is just one tier rate. Other companies are just as bad such as YouTube. So what will it take to resolve this ? The answer is very simple. Change ! There needs to be more transparency, and new business model and increases in the payouts to the labels, publishers and artists. It is ridiculous that the highest consumption is coming from the free tier where that is about 58% in Spotify’s case and only pay out 16% of that portion revenue. I am all for everyone making money but these streaming services are making money off the backs of hardworking individuals and while they are growing their margins, the artists margins are getting smaller ultimately hurting individuals. Suggestions to change the model is Minimum Payment Per Play, Windowing, Transactional Streaming, Tiered Pricing based on Access and Consumer Value Proposition, and what the Trichordist called Moving beyond the Stockholm Syndrome which means the idea of “if we don’t have it consumers will illegally obtain music content. It is going to take another streaming service who is willing to take that chance and disrupt the industry. This will pressure other services to help innovate the market. Reference: https://thetrichordist.com/2014/11/12/the-streaming-price-bible-spotify-youtube-and-what-1-million-plays-means-to-you/ https://thetrichordist.com/2014/11/19/usa-spotify-streaming-rates-reveal-58-of-streams-on-free-tier-is-only-16-revenue/

"The Experts Views on the Value of Business Plans"

The first expert I am choosing is Tim Berry. He is an American entrepreneur and published author. His background starts off in Mexico City in 1971 where he worked for United Press International and then McGraw-Hill and then Businessweek for five years. After a few years he ended up going to Stanford business school and worked for Creative Strategies International where he began creating his own business planning software. After graduation he started his own consulting company working with companies such as Apple Computer, Lotus Development Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, and many others. His company’s main focus was dealing in Latin America. His company started out selling out business plan templates along with his consulting. In 1994 he teamed up with programmers to create and release the first business plan pro software. Now learning from Tim Berry, he created a system that makes the absolute sense. Everything you would need that investors are looking for. He call’s this system the Lean Business Plan which makes sense. Time have change and you have to change with it. The main objective is really about optimizing your life. There are four major components, setting strategy, tactics, concrete specifics, and plan for cash flow. Setting the strategy is defining a specific focus and how it relates to your business identity. The tactics come down working on the core of the business plan which revolves around the financial plan, marketing and product plans. The concrete specifics is basically the scheduling on when different milestones of development are started and completed. Finally planning for cash flow you are dealing with sales forecast , spending budget , and cash flow. All of these in a business plan will show the investors how detail and prepared you are which they are looking for especially if they are giving out there money. Nothing is guaranteed but they need to have some sense of comfort ability. Finally when all is said and done you will want to review and revise as many time that is needed to improve your chances for financing and to keep a clear and sound mind of what you are doing. The second expert I chose was Pamela Slim. She has a unique approach on starting and dealing with business plans. She is an award winning author, speaker and business strategist. She has been an entrepreneur for the past eleven years. Her clients have been from huge corporations to brand new startups. Her client list has been Hewlett-Packard, Charles Schwab, and Cisco Systems to name a few. She currently runs her own blog and is the CEO of her company Ganas Consulting LLC. As researching Pamela’s blog “Escape From Cubicle Nation” I came across her post about business plans. The title of the post is called “Before You Create Your Business Plan, Create Your Life Plan”. After reading this it makes complete sense. Little do some people know that investors also look at the background of the people who are requesting their funds for their business. In summary of the blog its spells out the fact of knowing your surroundings and where you at in your particular stage in life can indeed effect your business. Planning out your life and being aware of certain situations can save you lots of trouble when dealing with the intricate parts of your business plan. Having clarity plays a big role in creating a business plan. Reference: http://timberry.com https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/use-lean-business-planning-get-what-you-want-from-your-tim-berry?trk=mp-reader-card https://www.linkedin.com/in/timberry/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berry_(entrepreneur) https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamelaslim authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=JDp3&locale=en_US&srchid=1142742631460376607016&srchindex=1&srchtotal=1&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A1142742631460376607016%2CVSRPtargetId%3A709412%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary%2CVSRPnm%3Atrue%2CauthType%3ANAME_SEARCH http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/2006/05/19/before-you-create-your-business-plan-create-your-life-plan/ http://pamelaslim.com/about/

What Else Is There To Say About Streaming ?

Streaming, Streaming , Streaming. What else could be said about this topic ? There is a lot that can talked about. Lets take a dive into a Fast Company article “5 Ways Streaming Music Will Change In 2016”. So here what was listed one Pandora will morph into something completely different , two your favorite songs will sound better, three a streaming service will go under (or get acquired), fourth revenue from music subscriptions will explode, and five music will begin to shift away from “free”. My thoughts on this is that I agree with this article on their list. Pandora has been constantly and consistently growing as a company and brand. They have acquired other companies such as Rdio, Next Sound, and TicketFly as part of their arsenal catered to helping artists. The fact that favorite songs will sound better is very enticing to hear. With technology at a constant growth and the demand to hear better quality music , it will force the music industry to technically focus on the mix on a grander scale than just hearing music in clubs or our mini headphones. Now to skip into my main interest in the streaming business music subscriptions are on the rise and the notion of listening to music free diminishing is great because that means the artists and creators can be properly compensated for their work. There is an ongoing battle right now between the streaming services and labels and music publishers . I feel once these issues get resolved and I feel like they will be , the music industry can be back at its glorified state. Now another article I would like to look at is an article by CNET called Spotify, Apple Music, Rdio and Rhapsody: Which Music Streaming App Is Right For You ?. The basis of this article just showed comparative analysis between the five mentioned streaming companies in the title. The thing about these analysis are that they are subject to taste. I personally feel each streaming service are unique in their own way but pretty much all are doing the same thing eventually. I personally am an Apple fan, so that is the service I use. I love the fact that it is clean and easy to use. That is what I would recommend to others to use.

Screenshot by Sarah Mitroff/CNET Reference: http://www.fastcompany.com/3054776/5-ways-streaming-music-will-change-in-2016 http://www.cnet.com/how-to/best-music-streaming-service/

Lets Talk Distribution : Streaming !

Streaming has been a hot topic over the past few years. It has become part of the distribution model that we have in the music industry. You can not simply speak artists statistic numbers on their music without mentioning the streaming portion. It seems Spotify is the norm and scale used to measure artists even though there is more than one streaming service. Spotify is one of the biggest on demand streaming before Apple Music got into the picture. The talk against Spotify is about the unfairness on their payment to the labels and their artists. Even though this issue is at hand, one can not deny the fact how important the streaming services have become in todays industry. The features that these innovative companies are coming out to support the artists are great. You have the ability to be heard from millions domestically and internationally. Playlists are setup for discovery programs where a consumer can go to and discover new music and possibly become a new fan of a new artist. Streaming is not just only for music but also for visual presentations whether there are movies, music videos, documentaries etc. One of the major popular streaming services for movies, original content, and tv shows are Netflix. This is similar to Spotify directors and other content creators are able to distribute their product through Netflix , YouTube, and Vimeo among other video streaming providers. Distribution is becoming more and more easier to handle for everyone as technology is shaping the entertainment industry as a whole. It is time to embrace streaming for what it is but we need to be able to make it fair for everyone that is involved. It can not just be one sided. Technology has to understand that these content creators work need to be properly compensated and they need to understand without them there is no existence in there business and the creators need to know that without theses new innovations without them there is no exposure for their work or money. Embrace the race and work together.

Music Streaming Legal Battles

The world of music streaming as we know is a very messy business in the music industry. There is countless battles between the record labels, music publishers, and artists against these big tech music streaming companies. There have been online protest and petitions, legal battles sifting left and right. Companies being sues out of business and currently facing lawsuits for alleged copyright infringements all in the name of the artists and their representatives of their work being paid fairly. Three recent legal battles I would like to bring to the light is one Spotify being faced with two lawsuits one for $150 million dollars and another for $200 million dollars. The complaint is that they are infringing on the copyrights. They are basically unfairly using music and not fairly paying out the creators. In my opinion I deeply believe that Spotify owe these artists more money than they are giving. It is not fair or ethically right. For a highly evaluated company that is valued in the billions they should in fact pay the artists more. The other legal battle is Cash Money suing Tidal streaming service for $50 million dollars because Tidal licensed their artist Lil Wayne music and they felt that they should have went to them. I personally believe this case will be thrown out because Lil Wayne entered a exclusive deal with Tidal to stream his new album exclusively that he made for Tidal, so that should not be a problem. another case is Aurous, they were sued out of business and I think that is fair because they did not want to pay the artists at all, so I agree with thath. References: https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-and-aurous-settle-piracy-lawsuit-for-3-million-151209/ http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/cash-money-records-sues-jay-z-streaming-companies-article-1.2294773 http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/9/10743032/spotify-lawsuit-copyright-infringement-music-royalities

Negotiating Techniques

Viewing a few videos I have focused on an overview of different strategic negotiating techniques. The Voluntary Life Podcast had a series on entrepreneurship. The “Entrepreneurship Part 7: Negotiation” episode focused on the different segments in the negotiation process. One focus that was explored was the B.A.T.N.A. The meaning of this concept is focusing on your “ Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement”. The B.A.T.N.A comes into play when basically you and the person you are negotiating basically can not come to an agreement to fit both parties needs, so in essence you should have a back up plan and this is what you will call the “B.A.T.N.A.”. This will help me in my entertainment business especially when I need to go to investors. By learning this technique I have already formed a few B.A.T.N.A’s in the event that the investors and I can not come to an agreement. Another video I viewed was from Stan Christensen “ The Art Of Negotiation”. This whole speech covered numerous topics of negotiation. One that I am picking out from this talk is objective criteria where he is giving this lecture to a class. Objective criteria focus information that is relevant to the negotiations but are independent from the parties that are negotiating . This video spoke on Stan experiences with other nations and negotiation tactics. Even though this did not focus on the entertainment industry I still learned how I can further my research to support my views that I have in my business plan. It makes absolute sense to have an objective criteria set in place because it will show how verse you are in your industry and the time you put in to achieve the overall picture supporting your vision. The third video I watched was from the Stanford Graduate School of Business called “ Conducting Effective Negotiations”. One topic that was covered in this class lecture was “Positional Bargaining”. The professor was speaking on textbook material but brought it to a real life point of view. Positional Bargaining basically is focusing on the sole purpose of your point of view in the negotiating. I learn that as long as I stay on point in any negotiation that I will be fine in getting my point across. If I keep my focus on one point in what I am trying to negotiate instead of being all over the place I can be sure that I can have the other party stay focus on my point of view and most likely be on my side. Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWSGF7GR0FM “Entrepreneurship Part 7: Negotiation” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKFElV8tS48 “ The Art Of Negotiation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCmvMDrCWjs “ Conducting Effective Negotiations”.

A Better Streaming Deal For US Artists ?

As of September 23 it seems that the major record companies and SAG-AFTRA have came to an agreement that will help artists out. The members of SAG-AFTRA who are about 160,000 members strong will now receive more benefits and possibly receive more cash from the labels streaming royalties. As I was reading this I became excited that this happened. I am a very strong supporter of Artist Rights especially when it comes down to paying artists their fair share for their art. SAG-AFTRA voted to ratify the Sound Recordings Code for online streaming and non-permanent digital downloads. Outside the US where artists may perform the money generated is covered. They separated certain allowances for label contributions to artists Health and Retirement savings. The labels involved Sony Music Entertainment , Warner Music Group, Capitol Records LLC and Hollywood Records Inc. and for SAG-AFTRA representing them were Dan Navarro, Jon Joyce, Janice Pendarvis, and Pat Alger. As reported by Music Business World Wide some benefits in the new contract included an overall increase to minimums of 2% each year of the contract, improvements to Health and Retirement contributions such as increases in cap of label payments for roster artist health insurance eligibility. The reason this move is such an important factor is because it will strike other sectors of the music industry to move and work together in fairness and transparency across the board for the artists. Streaming has taken control over the music industry. It is a new revenue stream that seems completely one sided. The labels and the technology companies are making money while the artists and other content creators are getting basically scraps. The music streaming business model needs a serious complete change. It is steps like the one that was taken a few days ago that will help bring a voice and change to the industry, so all may thrive.

( via musicbusinessworldwide.com ) Reference: http://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/major-labels-agree-to-better-streaming-deal-for-artist-group/