The Myth of Free Music... Case Study Mia Rose

[rack gear]

Case Study... Mia Rose... I saw her video featured on youtube, googled her, got her wiki...

Mia Rose - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

let's see... this song has been viewed almost 1.5m times on YouTube
"What would Christmas be like?"



you can buy it on itunes here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/what-would-christmas-be-like/id346388989

she has 13m channel views on youtube, and 97m video views... these are massive, major label type numbers... but...

...according to soundscan - she's sold under 3,500 individual song downloads about 300 album downloads and under 200 single sales (two song single)... wow...

so where is that indie success story aided by a free give-a-way model and the benefit of rampant piracy?

this article was from three years ago - global audience on YouTube and no break out sales in the USA... hmmm
The future looks rosy for Mia | The Sun |Showbiz|Bizarre

[Key]

She's hot but can she write an album?

[ThirtySecond]

Oh that IS the song, I was waiting to get through the commercial dfegad

curious that she decided not to add the direct itunes link? She's trying to present for labels?

Pretty sad if that soundscan is correct, and interesting thanks

[ThirtySecond]

Or someone can just rip the song straight from youtube with fetchmp3

[Paul Russell]

Looks suspiciously like a big label or 'big management' attempt at viral.
But she is cute.

[NoVi]

I think there are a lot of variables to be researched before drawing any conclusions, like:
- Youtube views can be manipulated
- I don't know if Soundscan is faithful in tracking in sales figures for independent artists: if the artist is selling huge amounts of cd's during concerts or through their own web shop, are these data being tracked by Soundscan?

[XHipHop]

i knew her ex-manager for 3 years.

she was signed by ryan leslie years ago and then to a major. this isn't a free music case study.

this is a major label failure study.

[XHipHop]

Originally Posted by NoVi

I think there are a lot of variables to be researched before drawing any conclusions, like:
- Youtube views can be manipulated
- I don't know if Soundscan is faithful in tracking in sales figures for independent artists: if the artist is selling huge amounts of cd's during concerts or through their own web shop, are these data being tracked by Soundscan?

Here manager worked for youtube, actually, and did game the charts. He doesn't work for them anymore.

[WeekendWanker]

Getting viral exposure is only half the battle. You have to have something to sell and give people a reason to buy it. It appears all she has is the song you can get for free and a couple of other songs, one of which is a cover of a current hit by another artist. There is nothing to lead people to information about live performances, merchandise, CDs, a clothing line or pinky rings. She has nothing of value to sell people who find out about her through the Youtube video so her viral "success" amounts to bupkis

This is like an artist in 1990 getting to perform on a string of nationally televised programs but not having a CD in the stores. The performances drive customers to the store to buy the product but they're sent away empty handed. This woman has acquired a ton of customers, and while this is a great accomplishment, it's a shame that she has no idea what to do with them once she's acquired them.

[Kenny Gioia]

Originally Posted by XHipHop

i knew her ex-manager for 3 years.

she was signed by ryan leslie years ago and then to a major. this isn't a free music case study.

this is a major label failure study.

I don't know this case but unfortunately these things do happen that way.

Making it appear Grass Roots.

I always found it stupid really. Why would the Majors want to or feel the need to do it the way the unsigned Artist do it. Almost like the Majors don't add anything you can't do yourself.

Or maybe that's a good thing. I know an unsigned Artist that had some "deep pockets" and bought themselves onto a really good tour with a Major Label headliner. In the process, kicking off another band that was on that same Major Label. I found that funny. Label loyalty meant less than cash.

[Kenny Gioia]

Originally Posted by Weekend******

Getting viral exposure is only half the battle. You have to have something to sell and give people a reason to buy it. It appears all she has is the song you can get for free and a couple of other songs, one of which is a cover of a current hit by another artist. There is nothing to lead people to information about live performances, merchandise, CDs, a clothing line or pinky rings. She has nothing of value to sell people who find out about her through the Youtube video so her viral "success" amounts to bupkis

Very true. It's important to have your infrastructure in place before putting yourself out there. Most people are not going to keep opening that same door. Even if it is free.

[rack gear]

all this being said... the song has 1.5 million views at christmas time, her channel has 13 million views, her videos have been viewed 97 million times...

even if those numbers are gamed... by millions? tens of millions?

she has direct links to itunes on her video pages, and the direct translation over two years of PR and Promo including mentions in Rolling Stone and others yields less than 5,000 units in combined sales of all formats in the largest music market in the world?

Youch... So much for the internet as the great leveler... well it has leveled everything, literally, to the ground.

all sales as far as I can tell are digital sales, all from itunes links, and that means soundscan is completely accurate in that case - ie as accurate as it would be for any other artist major or indie...

she may have been signed to major but as yet it doesn't appear anything has been released via a major...

She was featured in Rolling Stone,[8] The Sun,[9] The Age,[10] and on a BBC Radio 5 Live interview.[11]


In January 2007, Ryan Leslie signed Rose to NextSelection/Universal.[12]A month later she was signed by Tommy Mottola to the Mottola Company for management. While in the US she worked with producers and writers such as Kara DioGuardi. She recorded two singles, "Hold Me Now" and "Hot Boy" for Next Selection but neither track received an official release. With the music industry struggled to cope with the digital revolution, Rose left NextSelection and Mottola and returned to Europe. She is currently represented by management agency Citizensound and is also contracted to the celebrity division of the Models 1 agency.[13][14]

the point is every tech person wants new, unsigned and indie artist to think that tech is the savior - that they no longer need labels, the can do it themselves (and so can everyone else - just like you don't need to go to school to form a band) and break out...

... in truth it's looking like it's harder and harder for unsigned and indie artists to break out due to the signal to noise ratio of everyone and their brother jumping on the information supa-highway... LOL...

at the same time, labels are investing less in developing artists due to reduced revenue as the result of Piracy... go downward spiral...

I really am looking for the case studios where the artist makes it indie, not Arctic Monkeys and Colbie Caillat both major label fronts... so who's making it...

this from Ted Cohen:
MIDEM(Net) Blog: Ted Cohen: Breaking Through The Noise

The Internet was supposed to be the ultimate leveler, great music would be able to find its audience, the 'big label' gatekeepers would no longer control access to the masses.

It hasn't exactly played out that way. According to my friend, Tommy Silverman/Tommy Boy Records and the co-founder of the New Music Seminar recently told me that he did the math and only 228 artists broke 10,000 units for the first time last year out of 105,000 albums. That’s 2.17% but only 15 of those did it without the help of a real label. That's not very encouraging to the other ninety-eight percent.

While tens of thousand of artists are self-releasing their music, their ability to get noticed in a meaningful way is stifled by the sheer volume of music that is arriving daily at iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, MySpace Music, Yahoo, Rhapsody, Pandora, iHeart and others. Ten years ago, there were roughly twenty-five thousand album releases a year. In 2009, it is estimated that there will be over one hundred thousand albums put into digital distribution. That's roughly a million new tracks a year, four million minutes of music, or almost three thousand days-worth of song. But, maybe, if I listen really, really fast, I could....nope!

Food for thought... food for thought... I'm going to see if I can get someone to start doing stats for me of YouTube Views to Song Sales and see what that looks like...

Sooner or later people are going to learn that if they want to have a career giving everything away may not be your best business model...

[Lemonsqueezer]

Originally Posted by Weekend******

This is like an artist in 1990 getting to perform on a string of nationally televised programs but not having a CD in the stores. The performances drive customers to the store to buy the product but they're sent away empty handed. This woman has acquired a ton of customers, and while this is a great accomplishment, it's a shame that she has no idea what to do with them once she's acquired them.

Very true. Hopefully others can learn from this example.

[rack gear]

but hasn't the big argument been we've moved to a song based orientation... the only thing up is song sales, physical albums are down and digital albums are slow to grow... she should have sold at least a couple hundred thousand song downloads...

Originally Posted by Weekend******

Getting viral exposure is only half the battle. You have to have something to sell and give people a reason to buy it. It appears all she has is the song you can get for free and a couple of other songs, one of which is a cover of a current hit by another artist. There is nothing to lead people to information about live performances, merchandise, CDs, a clothing line or pinky rings. She has nothing of value to sell people who find out about her through the Youtube video so her viral "success" amounts to bupkis

This is like an artist in 1990 getting to perform on a string of nationally televised programs but not having a CD in the stores. The performances drive customers to the store to buy the product but they're sent away empty handed. This woman has acquired a ton of customers, and while this is a great accomplishment, it's a shame that she has no idea what to do with them once she's acquired them.

[Lemonsqueezer]

Originally Posted by redvelvetstudios

all this being said... the song has 1.5 million views at christmas time, her channel has 13 million views, her videos have been viewed 97 million times...

even if those numbers are gamed... by millions? tens of millions?

she has direct links to itunes on her video pages, and the direct translation over two years of PR and Promo including mentions in Rolling Stone and others yields less than 5,000 units in combined sales of all formats in the largest music market in the world?

Youch... So much for the internet as the great leveler... well it has leveled everything, literally, to the ground.

all sales as far as I can tell are digital sales, all from itunes links, and that means soundscan is completely accurate in that case - ie as accurate as it would be for any other artist major or indie...

I don't know why she bothered. Her customers all ready have her best product there on You tube.

[Lemonsqueezer]

Originally Posted by redvelvetstudios

but hasn't the big argument been we've moved to a song based orientation... the only thing up is song sales, physical albums are down and digital albums are slow to grow... she should have sold at least a couple hundred thousand song downloads...

why? Maybe her customers are happy to listen via Youtube.

[work2do]

Originally Posted by XHipHop

i knew her ex-manager for 3 years.

she was signed by ryan leslie years ago and then to a major. this isn't a free music case study.

this is a major label failure study.

ryan is sort of a genius at viral internet marketing so I dont doubt her youtube hits are real. Just that nobody in the public cares. No matter how many search results are optimized to bring you to a person's youtube video, if they dont like it- they wont buy.

[matt thomas]

I couldn't last the whole song

There is a phenomenon on youtube where any video, about anything, that has a hot girl, or some cleavage on the front gets views way in excess of what it would have had otherwise. I'm not saying that is all that is at play here, but it is certainly part of it.

as an example I just went to youtube, sure enough there was a vid on the main page with some cleavage on it, and it and had 2.5 million views. It was some guy acting out a blind date. As if 2.5 million people wanted to watch that.. and the cleavage on the title shot wasn't even included in the vid

matt

[rack gear]

Originally Posted by Lemonsqueezer

I don't know why she bothered. Her customers all ready have her best product there on You tube.

agreed.

[rack gear]

Originally Posted by Lemonsqueezer

why? Maybe her customers are happy to listen via Youtube.

agreed again.

so much for the argument that free as promotion for a REVENUE model for recorded music works... not so much in the digital age...

[rack gear]

Originally Posted by matt thomas

I couldn't last the whole song
matt

I have a soft spot for this type of stuff - it's catchy and cute. It was waaay better than I thought it would be and I'd say the execution was right on... it's the disconnect (or is it) that's mind boggling... again, so much for Free...

[matt thomas]

Originally Posted by redvelvetstudios

I have a soft spot for this type of stuff - it's catchy and cute. It was waaay better than I thought it would be and I'd say the execution was right on... it's the disconnect (or is it) that's mind boggling... again, so much for Free...

I didn't mind the music, it was mostly the lyrics..

matt

[Lemonsqueezer]

Originally Posted by redvelvetstudios

agreed again.

so much for the argument that free as promotion for a REVENUE model for recorded music works... not so much in the digital age...

This is a bad example. NIN nails made money out of giving away an album for free. And that was available in high res as well (24/96 for free)

[WeekendWanker]

Originally Posted by redvelvetstudios

but hasn't the big argument been we've moved to a song based orientation... the only thing up is song sales, physical albums are down and digital albums are slow to grow... she should have sold at least a couple hundred thousand song downloads...

If her goal was to sell downloads of a song anyone could log onto Youtube and hear for free anytime they want, she was misguided. Having said that, CD sales still dwarf paid downloads in terms of dollars, so a "pure" download model even if she did have additional compelling content would be limited.

[rack gear]

Originally Posted by Lemonsqueezer

This is a bad example. NIN nails made money out of giving away an album for free. And that was available in high res as well (24/96 for free)

I hear you - NIN is a bad example - NIN had years to cultivate a large and loyal following financed by a major corporation... and the jury is still split on that experiment as a business model...

[rack gear]

Originally Posted by Weekend******

If her goal was to sell downloads of a song anyone could log onto Youtube and hear for free anytime they want, she was misguided. Having said that, CD sales still dwarf paid downloads in terms of dollars, so a "pure" download model even if she did have additional compelling content would be limited.

physical CDs are a non-starter

[Lemonsqueezer]

Originally Posted by redvelvetstudios

I hear you - it is a bad example - NIN had years to cultivate a large and loyal following financed by a major corporation... and the jury is still split on that experiment as a business model...

Well basically you have posted an example of how not to do it. Again its silly to suggest this is the result of piracy.

[RARStudios]

This is quite possibly the dumbest thing I have ever heard of people starting to do and I think it's even dumber that bands that are trying to go from local to famous are attempting this with their mediocre music.

There is a band in St. Louis who has been trying to get on a big tour for years...literally 5-8 years of being a band thousands upon thousands of dollars invested into this band that has barely touched the tip of the iceberg.

Alright, so, the singer/main guy of this band tells me a few weeks ago he will be giving their album away for free. Now, who the hell, would talk such a thing into someone who is trying to make a living off something, to give their product away for free?

Yeah, NIN may have done it, and a few other bands. But they are ESTABLISHED!!! They have a fan-base that will support them no matter what they do!

This is the dumbest business plan I have ever heard of and all I see it doing is driving the local bands around here broke because they just spent 4 grand on a ****ing studio album and are giving it away for free??? Dumb.


Someone who is powerful needs to let everyone know that this is a sham for UN-ESTABLISHED bands.

-Ev

[rack gear]

Originally Posted by Lemonsqueezer

Well basically you have posted an example of how not to do it. Again its silly to suggest this is the result of piracy.

I didn't say it was the result of piracy.

It's the result of the misguided view that if something is widely available for free it's a good idea - it's not. So perhaps in that way it is a result of piracy...

Pro-Pirates say, but because I can get music for Free it's a good thing because of the exposure to the artist... we'll here's an artist who says - it's gonna be free anyway, so I'll just go for the exposure... what difference does it make...

well, free just isn't a business for selling recorded music - pretty much common sense.

[Lemonsqueezer]

Originally Posted by etcd32

This is quite possibly the dumbest thing I have ever heard of people starting to do and I think it's even dumber that bands that are trying to go from local to famous are attempting this with their mediocre music.

There is a band in St. Louis who has been trying to get on a big tour for years...literally 5-8 years of being a band thousands upon thousands of dollars invested into this band that has barely touched the tip of the iceberg.

Alright, so, the singer/main guy of this band tells me a few weeks ago he will be giving their album away for free. Now, who the hell, would talk such a thing into someone who is trying to make a living off something, to give their product away for free?

Yeah, NIN may have done it, and a few other bands. But they are ESTABLISHED!!! They have a fan-base that will support them no matter what they do!

This is the dumbest business plan I have ever heard of and all I see it doing is driving the local bands around here broke because they just spent 4 grand on a ****ing studio album and are giving it away for free??? Dumb.


Someone who is powerful needs to let everyone know that this is a sham for UN-ESTABLISHED bands.

-Ev

Of course it is a shite idea for new artists. But fcuk me if they want to be that stupid then let them.