Chris Castiglione

I grew up in (Northern) New Jersey.  Went to college at James Madison University where I studied Media Arts and Music Industry.  From 2000-2003 I played with the band My Blue Pill and also ran a college site called Stiggy-Dot-Net.  I’ve also spent some time living in New York City and Osaka, Japan.

I created musicNeutral because I’d like to encourage action and dialog toward  improving the state of the music industry.

Marketing genius Seth Godin had a talk with some music industry folks a few weeks ago.

He has a great analogy of free music as “dating”.

Basically, let the fans listen to your music. See how this first encounter feels (just like “dating”). If it all goes well, then go on another date. Hopefully after enough listening, if it works out then you’ll fall in love. He sums it up with this point, “I have every record Ricky Lee Jones has ever made including the bootlegs that she sells. Rick Lee Jones should know who I am!” The idea is that when people fall in love they will spend lots of money to nurture that relationship, but you can’t just walk up to a random person on the street and propose marriage! You have to date first.

More insight and the full transcript is on the Seth Godin Blog.

People used to say that it didn’t matter if you were the greatest band in the world because no one would ever care unless you got played on the radio.

Today there is infinite airtime available on the internet and the game has changed. Musicians are competing for the consumer’s attention and the best chance a band has of recruiting new fans is to let everyone have the album for free. If your band is worth something to those people, then maybe they’ll tune in again (and maybe next time they’ll buy something).

Eventually - at least to a handful of people - you may be the greatest band in the world!

Nine Inch Nails’s Ghosts I-IV earned 1.6 million in it’s first week.

Trent Reznor reported that the earnings came from 781,917 downloads - including both the free and paid transactions. If Trent had went the traditional route of distributing this album through a record label the album would have cost fans closer to $15 each, while he would have earned less than $1.00 on each unit sold. Here’s a comparison:

Through A Record Company
$15.00 album X 10% in artist royalties = $1.00 per unit sold

Self distribution
$5.00 album X 100% in artist royalties = $5.00 per unit sold

In this case, the self distribution model is better for the fans and the musicians - it only leaves out the labels. It’s uncertain whether Reznor is a music industry anarchist or just a clever entrepreneur, but what is clear is that he is no longer collecting paychecks. Reznor owns a business and not a job.

The Charlatans UK released their tenth studio album You Cross My Path as a free download from the English based radio station XFM’s website.

Frontman Tim Burgess explains “We always knew this album was gonna be given away for free, even before we started writing so we wanted to make it the best album we’ve ever made. This isn’t a case of left over tracks and b-sides, we wanted to give our fans a quality record.”

The physical release date originally scheduled to be released this month has been pushed back to June 3, 2008.

Yesterday Nine Inch Nails released their latest album “Ghosts I-IV” under a Creative Commons license. The album is 100% DRM-free, available in a wide range of formats (Apple Lossless, MP3, CD, Vinyl, DVD, Book) and can be instantly downloaded from www.ghosts.nin.com for a suggested $5 donation (meanwhile, the first nine tracks are available for free download from the website).

I believe that releasing music under a CC License will be a growing trend in the next year. The benefits of accumulating a larger fan base far outweighs any miniscule album sale profits.

By forfeiting the exclusive ‘right to copy’, NIN is allowing this new album to penetrate the market faster, and on a larger scale. Under Creative Commons he still has the right to profit from selling physical copies of his work, he will still be credited for his work, and still be paid if his music is used for commercial purposes. Again, the main difference is that people on the internet can share his music without breaking the law (aka. getting RIAA-ed)

As an added benefit, being an early adopter for a Creative Commons License is worth millions in marketing for NIN: it’s currently the #1 most dugg story; and likely to be mentioned by every other blogger citing the end of the music industry.

Is music a product or a service? At the moment it is both - and I think that is where the problems lies. When a product can be transmitted as information via the web it is no longer necessary for it to embody the packaging it may have once thrived inside. In the case of music, distributing music over the web is here to stay because it is much more efficient.

This same transformation has already occurred with newspapers and hand written letters. So it would be easy to argue that music has now become an internet service similar to The NY Times Online and Gmail.

One of the side effects having content on the internet is that it can be used by others without the creator’s permission. It becomes a public good. Just like the roads we drive our cars on, it is difficult to restrict something we all have access to.

Currently, songwriters take in 8¢ per song every time music is purchased (and most often the publisher will take half). Now the RIAA and record labels are pushing to lower that rate to 6¢ per song.

Songwriters fighting for fair wages? This scenario reminds me a bit of the television writers’ strike going on right now, where those involved are fighting for a residual 0.6% per DVD sold (up from 0.3%). The Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers has refused to meet the writer’s needs and left TV viewers with fragmented television series.

The difference I see between these two groups is that TV writers need the producers. Not surprisingly, producing a television show involves a much larger budget than producing a song. It takes a great effort from the studios to orchestrate the cast, sets, and equipment – and to fund the project.

But music is different. Music production and distribution costs have dropped dramatically in the past 10 years. If anything, the labels should pass some of this savings on to the musicians and songwriters. Instead they are siphoning pennies from the writers.

The RIAA will have a difficult time justifying a need for cutting the royalty rate. As a songwriter, I see this as a last stand – and reason to cut the RIAA out of your life all together.

Music is indeed moving toward free. This idea has been further illustrated this week by Last.fm and Qtrax, who have announced that they are now making millions of major label tracks available for free.

The Good

• Last.fm is paying artists each time a track is played.
• Qtrax allows downloads so that you can play the music offline.

The Bad

• The DRM permits us from playing these tracks on some devices.
• The labels still own the copyright.

If music is going to be free (as in freedom) musicians need to keep control of their copyright. New musicians should retain distribution rights; that way the musicians (not the labels) decide how their music is used. And also, why should the labels get a cut of this deal?

This is a step in the right direction. But let’s not fall to our knees just yet, because music will be free when the musicians control it.

It’s a weird feeling, but I’m sick of hearing how Radiohead is “changing the music industry.” And it’s not because I don’t love what they’ve done, it’s because I’m left wondering: Why haven’t more musicians started giving away their music?

It seems like a no-brainer that album sales will continue to plummet. Musicians that hope to secure a career in music need to look elsewhere to earn money. The funny thing is that musicians already know this—because that’s how it has always been. Most musicians make less than $1.00 off of each album sold, and historically, less than 15% of bands actually make money from album sales (coming soon: 0%). The truth is that successful artists ALREADY net the bulk of their bankroll through sources other than album sales.

That brings us to Radiohead. They did the math and then did something about it. Instead of relying on skimpy returns from album sales—yes, skimpy, relative to the fact that Radiohead sells millions of albums—they allowed their music to be downloaded for free while accepting non-compulsory donations. As a result, they’ve been graciously rewarded by generous fan donations and media praise. Not to mention the kind of free publicity that garners heaps of potential new fans.

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails is one of the few to follow Radiohead’s lead. Three weeks after Radiohead’s album release he announced that he’d be giving away his latest collaboration with Saul Williams. Recently Reznor remarked, “in the future songs can be a way to entice fans to buy concert tickets and merchandise.” He definitely has the right idea: give away your songs to capture the attention of new fans and sell your live shows.With that said, I’ve written a letter to the world’s musicians who have yet to loosen their clasp on the measly royalty checks their record labels afford them:

Dear Musicians,

I’m asking you to look past the pocket change you receive from digital album sales and make your music available online for free.

I understand that after spending months in a recording studio, you may be a bit apprehensive to fork over your cherished songs. Especially considering that some people may actually be willing to pay for them. But in the end, I believe there are more incentives for giving your music away digitally. Lucrative ways for musicians to make money include:

• Live shows and merchandise: These two have always been the #1 source of income for musicians. Give your music away because, from a marketing standpoint, every fan you earn is one more customer to whom you can sell merchandise.
• Music Licensing: Although often eschewed by independent musicians (remember when The Shins shamed their music in a McDonalds commercial?), music licensing can subtle and doesn’t have to be tasteless. For example, the Dresden Dolls earned about $40,000 when they licensed “Coin-Operated Boy” for a jelly commercial in Austria.
• Donations: Collect 100% of your earnings when your fans give directly to you. I created the site musicNetural.com so that you can start collecting donations right away. Alternatively, you could set up a donations site yourself using PayPal, Amazon or Google.

I understand that some musicians don’t have the right to distribute your recordings for free (i.e., if you’ve already sold the copyright). No problem—you can still support our cause.

• Educate yourself about copyright laws, the RIAA, and unfair music industry practices. Before releasing your next album consider a Creative Commons license instead of a traditional copyright.
• Take immediate action by displaying the musicNeutral button to let everyone know that you support alternatives to album sales.

With that, I wish you the best of luck with your career. If you’re a new band and you need a fan in me, try making your music available for free—and I promise that by eliminating the #1 obstacle to widespread exposure to your music, you’ll rein in a lot more than just one new listener.

Sincerely,
Chris (and the rest of musicNeutral)

The Dresden Doll’s latest album debut at #42 on the Billboard charts, but they seem to make less than they would working at Taco Bell.

A NPR interview from earlier this year with the Dresden Dolls documents just how hard it is for musicians to make ends meet. Singer Amanda Palmer explains that the bulk of their income is from merchandise sales and explains, “We make almost no money off our recordings”.

Here are a few alternatives they have explored:

• Merchandise: The Dresden Dolls can take in more than $1,000 a night selling merchandise, which makes the “merch table” a major source of income when they’re on the road.
• Music Licensing: They earned about $40,000 from licensing their song “Coin-Operated Boy” for a TV ad in Austria.
• Books: They brought in extra revenue from their book Dresden Dolls Companion. The book contains lyrics, sheet music and personal notes about their songs.

Bands can’t survive without exploring alternatives to album sales.

Click here to read the NPR article