Funky Fingerstyle Guitar
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 60,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Greets friends. I spent the morning studying more blogs and articles about the Youtube copyright issues, videos and accounts and cane up with interesting info.
Prince and Van Morrison Zero Tolerance for YouTube Videos
Prince and Van Morrison have a zero tolerance policy and hired a company called “Web Sheriff” https://www.websheriff.com/websheriff/ to police unauthorized videos on Youtube and get videos and maybe even accounts deleted.
On the Wikepedia page, Web Sheriff claims that CD sales were better than ever since the pulling down of these videos.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Sheriff#cite_note-WS_guardian-12
Web Sheriff, this is bullshit. Sales were better? Better as compared to what?
D’oh #1: If you are comparing an artists sales to that of his last CD, you have to factor in that the presence of the videos you deleted could have in fact contributed to the new sales. Logic strikes again.
D’oh #2: I searched on Youtube for “Prince Purple Rain” a few years later the alleged “web sheriff sweep” and found 5012 related videos to “Prince Purple Rain”. Wow you guys did a great job of really cleaning up the unauthorized videos. 🙂
D’oh #3: Compared to artists who don’t have stuff removed? Do many artists who have stuff up on YT for free sell better or worse than those whom you have helped with your service? The point is, we DON’T KNOW if Van Morrison is selling more than people who are freely all over YouTube.
Van Morrison and Prince pay you guys, so of course you’ll say they are getting their money’s worth. They are your clients!
Fighting Mother Nature and Losing
Two “mother nature” issues come to mind. Man usually loses battles with nature.
It looks like eliminating one copyright violator is akin to stepping on one stray roach when 10,000 are lurking behind the stove of each apartment in an infested building. And, weeds which are fragile and weak will bust their way up and grow through concrete. Nature wins over man.
With 200,000 videos uploaded daily, and about 300 MILLION youtube accounts, do you really think that even eliminating 1, 1000 or even 10,000 accounts will put a dent in the copyright issue? The sheer numbers show the impossibility of your endeavors.
Copyrighted material getting uploaded to YT is like weeds growing. There is no stopping it. There’s no stopping newcomers and those who don’t know the rules.
If I get suspended today, I could open up 100 accounts on YT tomorrow and put videos up again. It’s like the 1977 New York blackout. People can walk into stores and take stuff (looting) because no one can stop them.
And, if Youtube is losing $470 million a year (according to Credit-Suisse) the whole thing is this weird, entertaining losing game.
https://www.slate.com/id/2216162/?GT1=38001
As the artilce says at the end, “YouTube and its fellow user-contributed sites really did change the world. Too bad nobody could find a way to pay for it.”
=-=-=-
According to Wiki Answers, here are some interesting (but unfounded) stats:
Total number of YouTube videos — over 120,000,000
Number of videos uploaded per day — about 200,000
Time required to see all the videos — over 600 years
Number of videos watched daily — over 200,000,000
Amount of content uploaded every minute — 13 hours
Number of accounts on YouTube — over 300,000,000
Percentage of videos violating copyright — over 12%
The top categories of uploaded videos — music 20%,
entertainment 15%, people/blogs 14%, comedy 13%
sports 7%, educational 6%, automotive 5%, film 5%
The source of videos — amateur 80%, professional
(meaning “partners”) 15%, commercial/corporate 5%
Top countries uploading videos — United States 35%,
United Kingdom 7%, Philippines 4%, all of the these
countries have around 3%: Australia, Brazil, Canada,
France, Germany, Mexico, Spain, Turkey
The music industry always seems to drag its feet. Often, they want new technology to work the old way. They want to jam that square peg in the round hole, no matter what. A new way – suggested below – would make them a ton of money. Are they smart enough and forward thinking enough to try it?
In the past, the music publishers have made a “ka-ching” off each play of a song on the radio or tv, they’ve sold CD’s and licensed songs to others to record. Because of this narrow way to make money, they see the Youtube cover artists as threats in the following way:
1) “The unlicensed song is getting millions of hits, and we’re not making out money for each play. This means the creator is our enemy, taking away from OUR publishing. Oh no, plays of our song are not making money.”
Based on the false premise
2) “If we eliminate the people doing cover material, viewers will want to watch the ORIGINAL artist, so lets eliminate the people who do cover material, to create the only endpoint possible – our original artist performing the song.”
Another premise, pretty weak
3) “If people see ONLY the original artist performing their tune, then they’ll want to buy the original artist on CD, mp3, etc.”
The solution that occurs after these false premises:
4) “Let’s cut off people who do covers, as it dilutes our sales.”
They have it so backwards and essentially are not coming up with a creative solution. Guess what guys, the internet shook up your world. Deal with it, and adapt.
THE BRAINSTORM. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!
Instead of seeing musicians doing cover material as “the competition, the enemy, and the blame for no sales” – embrace them as the NEW customers. If you can’t sell CDs, why not sell licensing to cover artists? It’s your new product, and you have a new customer base who have identified themselves.
Imagine – for $9.99 a year, anyone can license a song to do as a cover on YT. Then it’s legal, won’t get deleted, and will create a NEW income for the industry. Instead of alienating the new group of YT musicians, why not get them on board as customers?
“Do’h! Why didn’t we think of that?”
Youtube, c’mon you guys are Google. Use the already existing Harry Fox, Warner, UMG and other publisher databases to make a nifty control panel insnde YT. You could even have a cool url like https://coverband.youtube.com, and you could charge via Paypal or credit cards. Keeping a database of which user has performed what song is easy. Then divvy the money up with the publishers once it gets onto your side and leaves our hands.
Let’s say I pay $9.99 yearly for a song like Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean. Well, someone like Sungha Jung sees me do that and also pays $9.99 a year for the tune when he does a version. He gets 5 million hits. I think you’ll get a few more $9.99’s a year after other people get excited and motivated. Now Sungha and I also do it on our CD’s because we have a fan base, hungry for the tune.
Suddenly you are not selling CDS, you are selling licenses for YT performance but who cares. It’s better than CDs, you need not manufacture anything – and YT viewers are your FREE advertising agancy. You could be making some serious dough, YT and publishers. But you gotta think outside the box!!!
Oh, and by the way all the “Billie Jean” official viewers can now see ads that you could overlay on the video.
Oh, and by the way you can target ads. If you see I have done 5 MIchael Jackson tunes, you can make smart suggestions to me.
Oh, and by the way you can see which songs are most popular amongst musicians…and so on, and so on.
And what if someone puts up a version without paying? No sweat, first send a notification to get the person on board and pay, then if they don’t – remove the video. Give them 21 days to decde. A potential customer has identified themselves. Don’t alienate them, embrace them!!!
This is not hard to implement, but takes creativity and a willingness to do a new thing. YT, publishers – you have identified a new customer base. People who do cover songs! So sell ’em something!!! Don’t cut em off and whine that CD sales are slumping!
I have about 40 cover tunes and the list is growing. I’d pay $400 a year in a hearbeat to have those tunes on YT, legally, and I bet others would too. If I had 100 tunes, I’d pay $1000 no sweat. Over 10 years, that would be $10K in income for you, earned off one guy – me. That’s way more than I’d spend on CD’s. It’s waiting there for you. And I would not be the only one!
Anyhow, just a thought. All the whining and moaning won’t make it “the way it was” so it’s time for you guys to get creative.
Until next time, keep Swingin’
Adam
Hey Gang!
I am back in good ol’ NYC and feeling so satisfied and thankful for the incredible European solo guitar tour Feb 27 – Apr 27, 2010. Special thanks to all the friends and fans who came together to make every gig a screaming success!!!
Looking back, here are the “News Headlines” of this unforgattable tour.
The Backpack Incident
Touring alone ain’t easy – so I am on the lookout for a traveling partner / soundman assistant type person. Let me know if you or someone you know may be interested. Traveling alone it is easy to make a mistake – just like this…
On March 5 I had a gig in Eschweiller, Germany. As I was about to step out of the train, the door was broken and would not open. I had to get out and get to the gig…and other riders said “you need to use the other door”.
No problem. I grabbed 2 guitars and my suitcase and ran off the train. Uh oh….where’s my backpack with my laptop, passport, paper train tix AND plane tix, guitar pedals, 2 ipods, 2 cell phones…it’s still on the train heading to Aachen! D’oh!
Just imagine. Your life is on this train as it’s pulling out (different town, but same feeling):
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfttAxrE1T8]
Hallelujah! A young student found it and called me within 15 minutes. Had it been a major city like Brussels I probably could kiss the backpack goodbye. Problem solved…needless to say this young fella got free CDs, DVDs and lifetime admission to any of my concerts…
Roll Over Amadeus! Concert at the Vienna Mozart Haus
As I wrote in a previous blog post, it was a thrill to play in the house in Vienna where Mozart lived. It is there that he and Haydn met. At first I felt apologetic to ol’ Amadeus as I busted out the human beatbox on Herbie Hanckock’s CHAMELEON, and then realized – he would have liked it.
I felt his smile in the room. Thanks Wolfgang!
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpPPXiG5xbw]
Oxford Jazz Festival and Big Bang Max
Well, a lot of guys say they’ll give you the shirts off their backs. Actually Max – owner of Big Bang in Oxford London tore his shirt in half for me in the middle of a concert so I could wipe sweat from the bald head o’ mine.
That’s a dedicated fan!!!! Yeah Max!!!
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es68nTTvHag]
https://www.twitter.com/BigBangMax
I got to hang there for 2 sold out concerts and 2 late night jazz Jams. Can’t wait to go back for the frighteningly tasty bangers & mash next time!
https://www.thebigbangrestaurants.co.uk/
THE VOLCANO
Yes, I was 3 hours outside London and had a plane ticket all set for London to Berlin on April 16 and then this cute little volcano happened, creating a historic air travel deadlock worse than Sept 11. Luckily I moved quickly to buy a train ticket and made it outta there!
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ct3nNiNmhc]
Travel started at 3:30 am after the last UK gig and didn’t stop until 8pm. 17 hours of trains more crowded than NYC subways at rush hour – and straight to soundcheck and the gig in Magdeburg, Germany. The audience and vibes were so great that the gig was one of the best on the tour. Yes, I slept late the next day.
SUPERNATURAL Festival – Belgrade, Serbia
Wow. This gig was a milestone…this festival is called the “Woodstock of Serbia” – no less than 3000 people in the crowd, a killer sound system and a non stop party. PA speakers were 3 stories high….beatbox and percussion were awesome through this rig.
https://www.supernaturalfest.com/eng_index.php
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwomWHv0Iik]
That’s the tour in an itty bitty nutshell. Thank you for viewing, listening, reading.
Keep swingin’
Adam
Greetings Friends!
It’s been a busy month over here at Adam Rafferty’s humble home / office / studio. This past month we all witnessed the launch of the Stevie Wonder DVD so it’s been BUSY. Things are calming down now that the initial rush is over. Talk about exciting! I am catching my breath.
A bunch of my musician buddies are asking me how I got my stuff out there on youtube and am having this guerilla success in terms of making a whole lotta friends, fans and making noise in general about gigs, tours, DVDs and the like. In fact, my buddy Peter Mazza and I had lunch the other day to discuss this.
I’d love to do a book or course on this stuff. While it reeks of “success guru” crapola, it works. And I vow to never spew info unless I can back it up 100%.
There is a combo of “heaven and earth” in success, I am finding. What I mean is that there has to be a spiritual element. You can’t fool the universe. You can’t bulls–t people, or yourself. Whatever it is you do or offer should hook into your integrity and be intelligent.
Ok, there are guys who sell toilet paper and fill a need, but I am talking about being a musician or an artist. Just look at any musician who has to play music where the soul disconnects – usually that type of musician is miserable. So, I play music that really feels good to me. That’s step 1.
Before I get to step 2 (and I am improvising this step by step method…) let’s go quantum. I listened to a Greg Braden (author, philosopher, and very cool dude) interview, and he mentioned an experiment in which photons in a vaccum “lined” up in the presence of human DNA. Yep, light particles assumed form in the presence of human DNA. This suggests on a quantum level that we create our reality.
This truly fascinates me. And hey, a Stevie Wonder DVD was first a vision, and now it’s real. That’s just lotsa little photons lining up….
So – step 2 would be to retrain the mind to look for, find and create success. Rather than tell my buddy about the step by step actions, I gave him my favorite book titles to learn about the mind.
When you learn that we have 4 billion bits of info available to us at any second, but “see” only 4000 – you learn that we see what we train ourselves to see. Insane. The mind and the universe are more mysterious than we’ll ever know.
In my case, I have truly had to re-program my mind to see and live success. The choices I make – whether it’s song choices, design work, who I hire for my team, what I spend time on – all these choices are now aligned with a deep, subconcious “problem solving” mechanism of achieving success. Each action is merely a metal shaving being pulled by a bigger magnet, which is the subconcious.
Bottom line – I love people. I want to make ’em happy and bring ’em music. The success I speak of is multi dimensional, and has “money” as a sliver of the pie. Jeez, what do I do with money anyway? Put out another CD! Of course it helps survival also. The real joy I get is to brighten people’s lives, for real, yo!
Well, this is just coming attractions of some type of course I hope to teach on day. I find it to be utterly upside down that there are so many gifted talented people out there who can’t “get out there” and figure their business stuff out. Maybe I can turn some people on to the good stuff now that I am finally discovering what works.
Until next time!
– AR