How To Survive In Today's Dying Music Industry

The Death of the Music Business Industry' in 2008 Says New Report

New report details emerging music promotion trends to be successful in today's new music business model.

The music business as we know it is dying a fast death and gone are those days of pressing up and selling CDs. That's bad news for those still playing the same old music game but definitely not bad news for those artists and labels willing to ride the new wave. But all is not lost with the music industry. Emerging trends in online marketing and social media optimization has created new opportunities to market to a larger audience. Those who survive will see the need to step outside of the traditional label relationship and be more cost effective while still being able to make money and have longevity in the business. Those who fail will continue to do what they've been doing. Nevertheless, there are some hot new trends to jump start any music promotion campaign in 2008.

8 MUSIC PROMOTION TRENDS FOR 2008

Viral Videos: We saw what it did for Soulja Boy. Imagine what a little creativity could do in your online promotions.

Digital Sales: It's killed CD sales but created new sales opportunities (i.e. ringtones, mobile marketing, etc). Combine your digital sales with your Myspace, Facebook, & social media marketing strategy.

Free Music: It's not completely free but funded by advertisers and sponsors. Heard of RCRD LBL or Spiral Frog? Find out how Puma & other advertisers are helping their artists promote their songs.

Online PR: Print media is always a great source of publicity but notice how magazines are shrinking in size and becoming less content & way too much ads. Besides, online PR gets your message out quicker and to a larger audience.

Blog, Blog, & Blog: Besides being a great tool to stay in touch with your audience, blogging also helps to optimize your search engine rank.

Guerilla Marketing: Nothing beats in your face marketing that you can't seem to avoid.

Control at the Hands of Your Audience: It worked for Radiohead when they let their fans name the price of their CD. It could work for you.

New media technologies: Myspace, Facebook, Ning, Bebo, Joost TV, Goodstorm Mixtapes. Need I say more.

Source [Newswire Today]

Chemistry.com: eHarmony is so 1952 and Gays should not be Rejects

Little Love Among Matchmakers

THE world of Internet dating can be a cold, unforgiving place, particularly when it comes to the fight for customers.

The online dating service Chemistry.com plans to unleash a new campaign that seeks to depict its older and larger competitor, eHarmony.com, as out of touch with mainstream American values. The ads, which will appear in weekly newspapers and magazines starting Monday, attack eHarmony for refusing to match people of the same gender and for the evangelical Christian beliefs of its founder, Dr. Neil Clark Warren.

It is not the first time that Chemistry.com has hit on this theme. In April, the service ran a set of ads called “Rejected by eHarmony” featuring people who were turned away from eHarmony for being gay, not happy enough or simply unmatchable by its system. Chemistry.com spent $20 million on that campaign, and the company plans to increase the budget for this new effort.

Although Chemistry.com has 3.7 million registered users, in contrast to eHarmony’s 17 million, the “Rejected by eHarmony” campaign may be working. Since it was introduced, Chemistry.com has experienced an 80 percent growth rate, said Mandy Ginsburg, general manager of Chemistry.com. She said that enrollments by gays and lesbians have risen 200 percent since the “Rejected” campaign started, and that 10 percent of Chemistry.com’s members are seeking a same-sex match.

Chemistry.com, an offshoot of Match.com, both of which are owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, follows eHarmony’s practice of putting users through an in-depth personality test to generate potential matches. Other online dating sites, like Match.com and Yahoo Personals, allow users to post pictures and profiles of themselves to make connections.

eHarmony, which is based in Pasadena, Calif., and was founded in 2000 by Dr. Warren, a clinical psychologist, has long been criticized for its practice of turning away applicants who are gay or lesbian, married or serially divorced. Dr. Warren, a former seminary student who has had several books published by Focus on the Family, an evangelical Christian group, has publicly voiced his belief that premarital sex can increase the likelihood of one’s marrying the wrong person.

Jodi Petrie, an eHarmony spokeswoman, said that eHarmony took no position on premarital sex and had no affiliation with any religion. As for its reason for not offering services to gays or lesbians, she said: “EHarmony’s matching system is based on psychological data collected from heterosexual married couples, and we have not offered a service for those seeking same-sex matches. Nothing precludes us from offering a same-sex service in the future, but it’s not a service we offer now.”

Chemistry.com does not judge or enforce any moral code on its members.

Full story at NYTimes