Tweens (U.S.) are a $300-billion economic force, same as Miley Cyrus' or Jonas Brothers' weekly allowance. World's first marketing sociologist with an MBA in marketing and years of experience for nation's largest companies in marketing, public relations and journalism helps market to tweens.
On Sept. 1, 2009, Miley Cyrus sent this tweet, @mileycyrusSaw a reply from Thomas Hibner and went to his myspace. This kid is gonna be a rockstar! I am super impressed with his song!
Remember, Miley is King Midas. Everything she touches turns to gold - more so than Oprah.
Personally, I don't agree with Ms. Cyrus' taste. For some of the best music in the world, check out MY MySpace friends page. Discover some FANTASTIC musicians.
Time and again I meet the Mitchel Musso-type (but not on one of the most successful TV shows in history - wait, I take it back, yes two are on that show) who have aspirations of becoming first, famous, then rich. Used to be rich and famous, but today’s artists reverse it.
Today we have a case study of why you’re not going to be rich if you pursue your music. Her name is Ashley Tisdale. She was on the most successful basic cable broadcast of all time, High School Musical. She was a star on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
Most people think stars like this, when they record an “album” (the term we will use for CD or collection of MP3s since it is what Billboard uses), they’re on gravy street.
Let’s look at the reality. Most stars make $1 to $2 (used to be a quarter in the ‘50s) for each album they release. Ashley Tisdale’s Guilty Pleasure released July 28 only sold 25,000 units its first week. Let’s be generous and say she got $4 of the $12 the label is charging (I’d ask what you're smoking to get that amount, but let’s be generous).
That would mean the first week she made $100,000 on Guilty Pleasure. Nice money for a week’s work. Reality is, she probably didn’t make $50,000, but more than either one of us made since the end of July.
See that Guilty Pleasure video? That probably took a third of that $100,000. What about hiring musicians? At least $25,000. The promotional tour she’s been on? About $30,000. Studio time to record – at least $10,000.
Looks to me like she spent $95,000 of that $100,000 before the album was released. Gee, I could live off $5,000 per week. Only problem is, the second week that 25,000 will fall below 8,000 and in a month or two less than 500 units a week.
Say you have a band and five members must split that $1,000 per week. Not a very good return on your investment (ROI), correct?
Then you look at artists like Tina Parol whom I just heard on Internet radio. Not even listed on Billboard. How about an up and coming band, The Maine? The Tempe, Ariz. based band hit #45 on Billboard’s Top Independent Albums. That means they probably didn’t see Tisdale’s $100,000, but since they are independent, they could have. Again, studio and production eats that up.
The Maine is recouping its investment by touring with bands like Good Charlotte and Just Surrender. They are on the Warped tour.
Yet Billboard says they’re not making money touring (I bet). “The Maine has, however, garnered a devoted following via MySpace, which was helped along by the pop-punk band's connection to fans.”
Once again, like Taylor Swift and Jonas Brothers, 21st Century marketing like MySpace is creating stars.
You’ve posted to YouTube. You have a MySpace page. It seems like no one is visiting your site. You’re in the dumps about it.
First, are you phrasing it right? An old headline trick I learned long before most readers parents were born – put some drama into it. So instead of saying “Nice sunny day,” rephrase as “Hot sun beats down upon earth.” Same thing, just a little more flair.
Here are five things you can do when nothing is happening:
- Post a Tweet. I like to use Friendfeed. If you’re on Facebook or other sites like Digg it will do the updating. Tried Tweet Deck but did not like.
- Go to MySpace and look up people you can add as friends. I was blown away when Beyonce’s cousin Shanica Knowles contacted me with a friend request. You know Shanica as the ever popular Amber from Hannah Montana. Maybe as Aly and AJ’s co-star in Super Sweet 16 the movie.
Here’s how I do it. I look for people I know and see who they know. Through one artist I found one of the biggest influences on my music – Howlin’ Wolf. An up-and-coming blues band, The Aces, whom I met through LinkedIn, would be wise to go to my page and introduce themselves to Bob Corritore, purveyor of one of the finest blues clubs in the nation, the Rhythm Room.
Same thing with Twitter. Type in the name of someone you want to follow. Can’t find them, then try Ashlee Simpson who will lead you to Papa Joe Simpson who will lead you to Jessica Simpson. See. Easy. You could also go to We Follow if you’re looking for The Real Shaq (why?).
-Post a bulletin on MySpace. Easy and it draws attention. Do it once every other day.
-Check and recheck. Find new places to SELL your MP3s. Fix MySpace. Make those tunes 90 seconds instead of the full song (that’s for YouTube). Are they available to buy at MySpace, Amazon and everywhere?
-Another great networking opportunity. Join LinkedIn and list all the places you’ve listed your MP3s for sale (a sales tool) and ask LinkedIn members if they know of more places to place your MP3s.
The previous post addresses how to market yourself as a musician today and in the future. There are lessons for corporate America as well. It is interesting the biggest music stars of 2008, the Jonas Brothers, failed twice, as Barbara Walters noted.
“This time they got to experience failure together,” Walters said of their being dumped by Columbia Records in 2007. “With no money coming in, they found an audience on the Internet.”
What puzzles me is what road did Taylor Swift take to become such a huge success in seemingly less than a year? Her first CD was released in 2006, but 2008 was her big year, even before the release of “Fearless.” Maybe Wikipedia has the answer, “Swift has surpassed the 179 million mark for music streams on MySpace. She is currently ranked in the Top 10 for the most MySpace visits for all genres of music, and is MySpace's current top-ranking Country artist. Swift is the most searched musical artist on MySpace in 2008.”
Funny how 2008’s two largest bands – Jonas Brothers and Taylor Swift – used MySpace. I would add YouTube as well. Matter of fact, for three years I’ve been recommending these. When will corporate America listen and end this depression (recession for the namby-pamby)?
