Presentation to the Music Business School in London, England. Explores the concept of "narrative engagement" in which artist development

1. Presentation to
The Music Business School
Covent Garden, London
www.musicbusinessschool.co.uk
Robert Pratten
Founder, TransmediaStoryteller.com
22nd September 2010

2. About me

3. …and in the recent past…

4. Oh, and I also play guitar
Moonlight Club, West Hampstead 1984

5. Objective
• Present a strategy for artist commercialization
• Stimulate discussion

6. The presentation
• Part 1: Where are we now?
– Success = connecting with fans and giving them a
reason to spend their money
– Lost in the noise?
– Familiar “new” business ideas
• Part 2: Connecting with fans
– Artist as a social enabler
– Participation & remix culture
• Part 3: Cross-platform experiences
– Content strategy
• Part 4: Narrative engagement

7. Part 1
Where are we now?

8. Inflammable Material ;)
• Nine Inch Nails (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njuo1puB1lg)
• Radiohead
Success was not only about having an established fan base.
Also depended on: credibility, authenticity, community, relationships

9. Mike Masnick @TechDirt
Connect with Fans + Reason to Buy = $$

10. Sell what’s scarce and what can’t be copied
Potential
availability

11. “Music like water” Gerd Leonhard
• Free from the tap
• Yet $billion business in bottled water
• All-you-can eat & streamed (licensed not
necessarily owned)
– Spotify
– Last.fm
• Gerd’s proposal: Internet Music License (a bit
like the TV License)

12. My issue with the license proposal
• Philosophical: I don’t like Government
• Economic: Distorts the market
• Bigger players will come to dominate even more
and squeeze out indies and start-ups
– 80% license will go to top 20% players (maybe 90% to
10%)
– Industry services will be priced to support the biggest
players who are only viable thanks to tax support (and
hence not at market rate) – further crippling new
players
• Let the fans decide

13. “Music like perfume”
• Selling dreams, not smelly water
• No independent measure of “quality”
– Who knows? Whose nose?
• Differentiated almost entirely by marketing
– Brand
– Endorsement
– Price
– Allure, mystique, passion (e.g. narrative)

14. Wisdom of the crowd?
• 14,000 people given access to eight online download “worlds”
• All unknown songs from unknown bands
• In seven stores people could see most popular downloads
• In the eighth store nobody could see what was being
downloaded
Results
• songs were more likely to be downloaded the more popular
they became
• popular songs were different across the worlds
• people followed the herd and choices were heavily influenced
by the first downloaders.
Source: Princeton University study quoted in the behavioral economics book Nudge

15. Business models
• Premium
– CD, vinyl, download, gigs, licensing
– Higher marketing costs
– Barrier to spreading
– Vulnerable to piracy
• “Free” to consume (3rd party pays)
– Patron doesn’t want repayment
– Crowdfunding (money upfront)
– Sponsorship (clothing, drinks, venue)
– Advertising
• Freemium
– Free to view on some platforms
– Paid on others: some more suited to payments
– Future
• Subscription
• Virtual goods
• Endorsement (co-branding – skateboards, mobile phones, laptops)

16. UK Music Secondary Revenues (2009) GBP193.5M
(21% of total income)
Other Income
Premiums Artist-related Income
up 17% on 2008
Synchronisation
Up 20% on 2008
Public Performance Licensing
"Artist-related income" concerts, merch, direct sales, sponsorship, endorsements, digital (exc. ring tones)
"PPL (public performance licencing)" domestic TV, radio, pubs, clubs etc
"Synchronisation" (films, TV, games)
"Premiums" Covermounts and Consumer Promotions
"Other Income" (back-end from films & shows, TV productions, hardware deals, advances)

17. Part 2
Connecting with Fans:
The Artist as a Social Enabler

18. Connect with fans

19. Old Skool

20. New Skool

21. Give fans the tools
• Community (uploads, reviews)
• Mobile apps
• Social games
• Downloads – graphics, sounds, merchandise
• Facilitate and encourage remixing & mashups

22. AudioDraft.com: browser-based remixing

23. JayCut.com: browser-based video editing

24. Part 3
A Multiplatform Strategy

25. Transmedia development model

26. Modified for music business: SAMBA :)

27. How an artist can earn $1,160 a month
image by David McCandless at Information is Beautiful] Data at http://bit.ly/DigitalRoyalty

28. How an artist can earn $1,160 a month
• Sell 150 CDs yourself (no label)
• Sell 1,200 albums through iTunes (label)
• Sell 1,500 tracks through CDbaby (no label)
• Sell 12,000 tracks through Amazon MP3 (label)
• Stream 850,000 tracks through Rhapsody (label)
• Stream 1.5 million tracks through last.fm (label)

29. Multi-platform strategy
Official
iTunes Televised
Good
site
festival
Revenue
Local gig
Spotify
piracy
Poor
Poor Good
Spread, Attention and Credibility

30. Including piracy in your content strategy
Owned Paid Earned
Content & places you control: Exposure you pay for: Exposure & credibility others give you:
• Music recordings • Advertising (web, radio, • Word-of-mouth
• Videos TV, mobile) • Great reviews
• Artist website • Payola • Sharing of YouTube videos
• Facebook page • Facebook Likes
• Twitter account • Remixes
• ReTweets
• Piracy
Create to build long-term Quick exposure but maybe Gained through Owned & Paid
profitable relationship with untrusted Most credible but slow to build
fans Short-term attention does not Demonstrates engagement
guarantee low-term survival

31. Label with weak artist
Paid media won’t sustain a weak artist (one-hit wonder?)

32. Independent artist with great music
But word-of-mouth takes time and energy to build

33. Label with strong artist
Paid media provides attention that multiplies spread
Earned media is “trusted“ and multiplies results of paid media

34. Part 4
Connecting with Fans
Narrative Engagement

35. Gorillaz is a Storyworld

36. Narrative = story
• Characters
• Conflict (Plot)
• Time
• Location
• Fans will invent their own stories if you give them
the tools:
– scooters, parkas, suede shoes, haircuts, tattoos,
symbols… meat dress?
– going to a gig

37. More than noise and a reason to buy
What is this artist saying? (what’s the premise?)
Does the artist grow over her career?

38. Narrative engagement
Over-arching narrative across three albums
“…explores the concepts of evolution and revolution and links between media martyrs Jesus Christ, John F. Kennedy and John Lennon by
focusing on various alchemical, political, cultural, historical, mythological and Biblical themes.”
Sarah Quelland
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/12.14.00/cover/manson-0050.html

39. Band: Hail The Villain
Album: Population: Declining
“the website allows users to navigate through the scene to unlock character back-stories, clues, downloads and to participate
in the story by becoming Villains and sharing messages with the band”

40. Narrative engagement
Developed by GRAND, Toronto

41. Narrative engagement
The Who
Quadrophenia
Sham 69
That’s Life

42. Narrative engagement

43. Narrative engagement
An alternate reality game (ARG) is an
interactive narrative that uses the real
world as a platform, often involving
multiple media and game elements, to tell
a story that may be affected by
participants' ideas or actions.
The term "marketing" sure is a frustrating one for me at the
moment. What you are now starting to experience IS "year
zero". It's not some kind of gimmick to get you to buy a
record - it IS the art form... and we're just getting started.
Hope you enjoy the ride.
Trent Reznor
Case Study: http://www.42entertainment.com/yearzero/

44. Narrative engagement
•Aliens
•Conspiracy theories
•Druids
•Real Ale & Cider
•Out-of-body Experiences
•Planetary exploration

45. Conclusions
• Use narrative engagement to build
relationships with fans
• Reward fans for their loyalty
• Empower fans to introduce others to your
artists
• Need a multi-platform business model

46. Transmedia Storyteller
Robert Pratten
twitter.com/zenfilms
www.transmediastoryteller.com

47. Boneyard
• Slides that got cut… and after-presentation
discussion.

48. Live performance mobile app?

49. Holding attention

50. Earlier content primes the pump…

51. Effect of additional “micro-content”

52. Transmedia Storyteller
Robert Pratten
twitter.com/zenfilms
www.transmediastoryteller.com