From left to right, our very own CEO Brad Navin, SVP of Marketing Pete McCarthy, VP of Product Marketing Jaclyn Ranere and Musart's Federico Baptista
Earlier in September, The Orchard spent several days in the ever-thriving music city of Los Angeles, CA where we have a formidable roster of independent record label clients. Representing the true eclectic nature of our client base, the labels run the gamut from Dance to Hip-Hop, Pop to Metal to Latin, and literally every micro genre in between.
Celebrating the launch of our Marketplace - the new platform we built for our labels to simplify the process of utilizing third party marketing, D2C, and communication applications – we gathered our labels together for a couple of events and then spent additional time visiting their offices and talking about their music, how their businesses are evolving and how we can help them embrace the new services and technologies out there.
This is an exciting time to be putting out music and adapting to the new music industry. New services like YouTube, Spotify, Rdio, and Turntable.fm have arrived and are impacting how new fans acquire music and how labels make money from music. Social marketing has become a super viable, powerful and measureable way to communicate with fans, and labels have more tools than ever to take advantage of the new digital economy and promote their artists’ music. Labels have adapted to the decline of physical by embracing the playlist business (aided by our Orchard Workstation “Create a Compilation Tool”) and are able to put out more music as a result. They’re using our Analytics tools to measure how their sales are evolving; they’re using Release Builder and Artist Builder to manage their releases and artist-oriented social marketing syndication; and now with The Marketplace, they’ve got a world of Apps at their fingertips.
Indeed, technology is helping the fiercely independent people running record labels stay independent, keep their overhead low and connect with more potential consumers than ever before. It is an inspiration to watch, and a thrill to be a part of that change.
Long live independent music.
Over the last few years, YouTube has gone from being a place for watching free user-generated videos of cats playing piano to a place to watch serious music videos to one of the biggest revenue-generating outlets for the music industry.
The Orchard has been working feverishly over the last 2 years to build a new YouTube revenue stream for our clients. Due to the nature of this model (arguably the most complex new revenue stream the music industry has ever seen), we want to keep talking about it so everyone understands.
WHAT MAKES YOUTUBE’S MONETIZATION SO COMPLEX
YouTube’s system crawls its video library of billions of videos and identifies audio tracks controlled by The Orchard. Once a track (often represented on YouTube with the cover art or photo of the band on top of the music) has been claimed as distributed by The Orchard, “buy links” are added to drive viewers to iTunes, Amazon and eMusic. However, there is an additional process required to unlock advertisements around the videos in the United States, which in turn unlocks streaming revenue (where the real money is). YouTube must link the track(s) delivered by Orchard to a publisher YouTube has done a deal with, who represents 100% of the rights to the composition (this is not the case in Europe – this complexity only exists in the US). Since YouTube is a video service, this is a unique rights mapping process other audio streaming services like Spotify don’t have to go through, and YouTube’s system is limited in that it can’t handle multiple publishers with a percentage of ownership.
ONCE WE DELIVER YOUR MUSIC TO YOUTUBE, THERE ARE STILL REASONS WE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO MONETIZE IT:
REASON ONE: YouTube has been unable to link the track we delivered to a publisher they have done a deal with in the US, which means videos containing your music are not getting advertisements.
REMEDY: If you control your own publishing on any of the tracks in your catalogue, please sign this amendment to your Orchard Agreement and return via fax to +1-866-625-7384, Attn: YouTube UGC.
RELATED FAQ: Is there anything I can do if I know the publisher of a track does not have a deal with YouTube?
A: No, unfortunately not.
RELATED FAQ: Is there anything I can do if I know there are multiple publishers for any of my tracks in the US?
A: Unfortunately not. YouTube does not currently support a split-publishing situation for a track. Remember, this complexity only affects the streams occurring in the US, and you can still get paid for streams from outside the US)
REASON TWO: Another company is representing the rights to your track, putting the rights in conflict, which means videos containing that track do not get advertisements until the conflict is resolved.
REMEDY: Ensure you have not licensed tracks to any other label in any of the territories you’ve granted The Orchard distribution rights.
REASON THREE: The track is public domain or a cover song, track types that YouTube’s system has trouble differentiating between providers and therefore often does not monetize.
REMEDY: None. Unfortunately, Public Domain tracks almost always have identical versions released by other labels, and YouTube cannot allow 2 identical tracks to co-exist and be monetized. Nothing you can do to unlock streaming revenue for tracks in this category at this time.
REASON FOUR: The track was already delivered on another album of yours (e.g. it’s on a compilation album). Every track can only be in YouTube’s system once.
REMEDY: None. This is YouTube’s policy, and unless the track meets any of the above non-monetizable circumstances, you will get streaming revenue for the track in question, but only for the first delivered version.
REASON FIVE: The track is under 30 seconds. These cannot be monetized.
REMEDY: None.
REASON SIX: There are simply no videos on YouTube containing the track.
REMEDY: Either you, the band, or a fan can upload a viral video (even just the album cover and the song) to YouTube, and then we can unlock revenue.
If you have any questions, please contact your Orchard representative.
Thank you,
The Orchard’s Client Services Team
Nothing gets the blood pumping of record geeks like us more than chart success, and last week The Orchard boasted 3 releases on the Billboard Heatseekers Top 10 – at the #1, #2, and #7 positions. Here’s a quick hit list of the charting records, and what we did to impact the campaign. It should be noted, which is no coincidence, that all 3 of these records had physical distribution through The Orchard. When we control the entire campaign, we blow records up.
Number One: The Raveonettes – “Raven in the Grave” (Vice)
Client Manager: Andy Hsueh | Interactive Marketing Lead: Robbie Mackey
Sixth release from the Raves, who have been in the Orchard family almost as long as there has been an Orchard family. Signed to multiple Orchard distributed labels in various territories, the charting version came out on Vice. Previous album In And Out Of Control [2009] scanned 25K copies and received praise from Alternative Press, Q, The Guardian, and many others. Their music has been featured in TV shows Gossip Girl, CSI:NY, NUMB3RS.
Campaign Summary:
For this record, we approached the marketing from a global perspective. Released through Vice in North America, the band self-released the album through The Orchard for the majority of the rest of world. We were able to secure support from major global press outlets like Pitchfork and NME to push out new tracks, videos and news. Supported by a national headlining tour and a successful radio campaign, we were able to have a strong impact at indie retail and digital retail. On the digital side, The Raveonettes were one of the most visible titles on virtually every storefront – iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster, Zune, Walmart, and Rdio.
Number Two: Kina Grannis – “Stairwells” (One Haven Music)
Client Manager: Andy Hsueh | Interactive Marketing Lead: Jessica Savage
Remixed and re-mastered debut album from California singer-songwriter whose YouTube channel has logged 50 million views and 230K subscribers. Originally issued in 2010 [#2 Billboard "Heatseekers," #5 iTunes Top Pop Albums]. In 2007, Grannis appeared in an ad that aired during the Super Bowl. EPK. Video: Valentine
Campaign Summary:
Tapping into her highly devoted and active fanbase, we were able to orchestrate our most successful D2C campaign to date. Along with Kina’s help, we offered her fans meaningful and compelling packages that included exclusive merch and downloads. Harnessing the power of her large social networking channels, we were able to reach fans on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and artist website. With a radio campaign underway, a national tour, and a new video in the works – this record is just getting started.
Number Seven: Ill Bill & Vinnie Paz – “Heavy Metal Kings”
Client Manager: Andy Hsueh
Collaboration between Philadelphia MC Vinnie Paz [Jedi Mind Tricks, Army Of Pharoahs] and Brooklyn MC Ill Bill [Non Phixion, La Coka Nostra]. Features appearances from Reef The Lost Cause, Sabac Red, Slaine, and production from DJ Muggs [Cypress Hill], Ill Bill, DJ Premier protege Gem Grates, and others.
Campaign Summary:
With a long history of loyal fans, ILL BIll & Vinnie Paz built awareness around the new record through good ol’ fashioned touring, street teams, indie retail promo, and press. Along with a large network of Jedi Mind Tricks affiliated social networks, we were able to feed the fanbase with another quality release.
More fire,
nick gordon / VP, client services
Want to allow interns to build releases but not see sensitive accounting info? Want your accounting guy to just focus on the numbers?
We’ve added a new feature in the Orchard Client Workstation for you to manage your Workstation users. Your individual employees can now have their own personalized login and permissions. Here’s the deep link to get started adding new users in the Workstation.
Part of the TV generation? Do you learn things through multimedia? We made a How-to video on User Roles: click here to watch.
Features:
Go set up your users now to ensure the highest level of security; we don’t want anyone sabotaging your account!
Warning! This blog post contains Orchard Client Workstation future product launch spoilers, though is safe for all audiences.
If you’re a Release Builder power user, you’ve probably noticed that upload speeds can vary greatly. In the next several months, we’re going to be rolling out a slew of new features that will maximize upload speeds, and make uploading multiple releases easier. In the meantime, here’s a tip.
The absolute best time to upload music is from 9-11pm Eastern time, when most labels in America and Europe are out on the town, or for the weak, sleeping. Pick a day during the week, stay late at the office, crack open a cold beer of your regional preference, and do your uploading then!
Watch the Daily Rind Blog for future Workstation insider tips.
Love,
“Quick” Nick Gordon
