Jango offers free Pandora-style internet radio. Type in an artist’s name and it generates a playlist of related songs. Jango Airplay lets artists buy their way into the recommendation engine, promising guaranteed airplay alongside your pick of big names.

I’ve been running Jango campaigns pretty much continuously since the service launched in March of 2009. My songs have been played 270,000 times, 23% of which were unpaid “organic” plays. It cost me $1841.50 out of my own pocket, plus at least that much in affiliate earnings from my previous articles on the topic.

What’s my return on that investment? There’s no way to know.

Jango reports 25,000 likes and 9800 fans, but those terms have little meaning. A like on Jango is a simple thumbs-up that has nothing to do with Facebook, and most of those “fans” are unreachable. An average of one email address per day has been shared with me since that feature launched in early 2010, but those 700 email addresses alone don’t justify the expense.

The reason I stick with it is because I’ve seen so many Jango listeners become genuine fans. They friend me on Facebook, reply to my email updates, comment on my YouTube videos, and yes, buy my music. With the possible exception of Facebook Ads, I’m convinced Jango is the best passive promotion out there.

Others are skeptical. This site’s top Google search term is “jango airplay scam.” Some suggest that while the service does what it claims to do, any form of pay-for-play is payola (I address that argument here). Conspiracy theorists claim that the entire service is a fraud, and that the comments and realtime listener feed are faked (despite the fact that many comments clearly apply to a particular song, and that you can message listeners directly from the feed).

Jango could go a long way towards dispelling these concerns by finally fixing the weakest aspect of the service: artist-to-fan communication.

When I send out a mass email to 9800 fans, I typically get only one or two responses. With a response rate of 0.0002%, it’s natural to wonder if anyone is really out there.

The problem is that the listener’s inbox is tucked away in a drop-down menu. The vast majority of Jango users almost certainly don’t realize they have an inbox.

I suggest Jango eliminate all social networking features and share new fans’ email addresses by default, unless a box is unchecked. Then add a full-featured fan management system like ReverbNation’s FanReach, with an export function and full analytics including open and clickthrough rates.

While I’m making suggestions, I’d love to see a percentage of likes for each song, which would make it easy to tell the hits from the misses, and simplify running a focus group.

To their credit, Jango has added plenty of new features since I first wrote about it. Highlights include:

1. Custom promo module. You can now choose exactly what listeners see when your song plays. I’m using the “Facebook Likes” module, which connects directly to my Facebook page. It also includes a custom text link, plus icon links to web profiles and stores (you can see it at the top of this post).

2. Band Central. A new mini-site showcasing Airplay artists, sorted by genre, geography, or “popularity.” You’d think popularity would mean the number of fans, but it’s actually based on PopScore: a much-maligned metric of quality algorithmically derived from fan response.

3. The Jango Airplay Blog and how-to support links. The staff is much more accessible and social, and the site’s inner workings more transparent, than when the service first launched. The blog and how-to’s are full of tips and strategies, plus contests and weekly top 10′s. For example, one post walks you through creating a spoken audio intro for your songs. Great idea!

4. Royalties. This isn’t exactly a feature, but after much speculation I can now confirm that Jango does pay royalties. I received a whopping $13.23 from Jango via SoundExchange last quarter. Based on that low figure, my guess is that they only pay royalties on free “organic” plays, not paid plays through the Airplay program. Hey, it’s more than I got from Last.fm!

Though there’s still plenty of room for improvement, Jango is better than ever. I’ll continue to report back with my results, recycling all money earned through my affiliate link into plays.

From Ariel Hyatt’s SoundAdvice Blog:

Google, in my humble opinion, is the most amazing invention since anything else I can really think of. And Google is not just a big search engine, although it would still be awesome if that’s all it did.

Google has been offering a suite of incredibly powerful tools for years; way before ‘in the clouds’ become the next big thing for companies like Apple and Microsoft. And to make it even better, Google has recently created a platform for musicians that offers even further tools that will help independent musicians all over the world to thrive in the digital world.

Google is, quite simply, a portal that truly puts all of the worlds electronic information at your fingertips – there’s a good reason why the word “Google” has become synonymous with searching online.

Here are 9 Hot Tips designed to help you through all of Google’s awesomeness and use it to your benefit.

Click here to read the entire post.

Artists have countless options for selling their music and merchandise online these days. Shouldn’t you be directing your fans who want to buy your music or merch to the place where you make the most money on a per sale basis? A quick “contribution margin” analysis can help you identify your most profitable sales channels. Once you’ve identified your most profitable sales channel always be sure to direct your fans to that most profitable channel when sending out emails, posting buy links on social networks or reminding fans where to go to buy your music during a live show.

Below is an excerpt from a contribution margin analysis project I did on the different channels where indie musicians can sell their music online as part of a cost accounting course during my time in the Executive MBA Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The goal of an analysis like this is to assume all the fixed costs (recording, mastering, etc.) are sunk costs and examine the individual variable costs and revenue from the different lines of business. In this case the different lines of business include both direct and indirect (through a distributor) eCommerce sales of individual track downloads, full album downloads and physical CD sales. The data used in this analysis comes from an indie band who self released a new album in 2010 and uses a mid-tier distributor for both physical and digital distribution.

For those of you who just want to know the bottom line of this post here it is: musicians can make more money selling their music directly to fans online versus selling their music through online retailers like iTunes or Amazon. Utilizing direct eCommerce solutions like the ones offered by Bandcamp, CD Baby, Nimbit and TopSpin indie musicians can sell music directly to their fans and keep more of their hard earned cash at the end of the day.

I’m not suggesting artists shouldn’t use distributors to sell their music through retailers, they should. Artists should have their music available anywhere fans want to buy or access it. But let’s face it; turning a profit by selling music is tough and collecting every possible penny helps!. Since selling direct typically provides better margins artists should seriously consider directing fans to their own webstore instead of iTunes the next time they play a live show or send out a newsletter.

If you are interested in taking a peak into the details of how a contribution margin analysis works please, read on!

Analysis Overview:

Musicians now have more ways to sell their music online then every before. There are numerous online music retailers (including giants iTunes and Amazon) musicians can readily access through distributors for a relatively low cost. Musicians also have the multiple options available for easily and inexpensively setting up an eCommerce store on their  website, allowing them to sell directly to their fans. The three primary types of eCommerce based sales available to musicians today:  individual track downloads, full album downloads and physical CD sales.

The goal of this analysis is to determine if direct eCommerce sales or eCommerce sales through online retailers provides better contribution margins to musicians.

Analysis:

The variable costs for direct eCommerce sales include service provider fees of $.30 per transaction for individual track downloads, $3.00 per transaction for full album downloads and 4% of sales for CD sales. Direct CD eCommerce sales have additional variable costs of manufacturing the CD’s ($1.00 each), shipping costs ($3.00) and labor costs associated with manually fulfilling the order (5 minutes @ $20 /hr rate = $1.66 per order). The variable costs for online retail download sales include retail fees (30%) and distribution fees (11%). The variable costs for online retail CD sales include retail fees ($4.84 / unit), distribution fees ($3.15) and deduction fees from the distributor (8% of retail sales).

Conclusion:

The contribution margin of direct eCommerce sales in all three product lines (individual track download, full album download and CD sales) is superior to the contribution margins of retail eCommerce sales by at least 10%. This data suggests bands should always direct fans to their own direct eCommerce store rather than to online retailers such as iTunes or Amazon when marketing their music to fans.

Editor’s Note: John Doe’s new album KEEPER is now available. Click here to check it out.

A Question about Management

Hi John,

I have a question about whether I’m better off having a manager or not early in my music career. I have a manager now and my friends tell me I’m lucky to have one since I’m not really making much money at this stage. He is a fan of my music and volunteered to be my manager.

The thing is, I don’t feel comfortable with him representing me or my music to other people. People keep telling me I’ll seem more professional if I have a manager than if I just manage myself and that I need to keep him to appear more “professional”.

What would John Doe Do? Am I better off with a manager than without one I don’t feel 100% about? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks,

Anonymous

What Would John Doe Do?

hey Anonymous,

Thinking that a manger is a status symbol is kind of wrong-headed. They are a business partner or more if you choose.

If this person has similar taste in music & art (you say he does), world view, doesn’t spit when he talks, has decent table manners, is more or at least as organized as you are, has a watch, pen & cell phone, doesn’t offend people (unless that’s something you value) and most importantly, truly believes that you are talented & worth his effort; then by all means let him represent you. You should ask yourself, what can you gain or lose by having him as your manager. That will also help you clarify you own goals. Maybe you should ask yourself exactly why you’re not comfortable having him represent you or your music.

Personally, I look for a manger who has a similar take on the world as I do but is more organized, knows different people than I do & has better grasp of the business of music. It’s also important to enjoy their company since you’ll be talking & hanging out quite a bit. Very simply, he or she is you to the rest of the world until the rest of the world gets to know you or thinks they do.

I hope this helps and as always, thanks for writing.

yrs,

JD

If you have questions for John Doe about music, the music business or life feel free to email them to wwjdd@knowthemusicbiz.com.

For more information on John Doe check out theejohndoe.com or YepRoc.com .

From Ariel Hyatt via the Cyber PR blog:

As you look to the future you may be getting in the mode to set goals for your career.

I am always surprised when musicians I work for at Cyber PR®, are frantically trying to reach more and more potential fans without really focusing on the fans that they already have. These fans don’t need to be found, because they are already your fans.

Studies have proven that it is much harder to make a new client and get them to purchase something than it is to get a client that already knows you and trusts you to purchase from you over and over.

I always suggest that, in measuring fans, the best place to look is at your social networks and at your mailing list.

Your newsletter list is the only place where you can directly engage with your fans on your own terms and ask for money.

Here are 12 fail-safe ways to increase / engage with your fanbase by pulling from fans that you already know and have who trust and like you for 2012.

Click here to read the entire post.

Below are the most read posts on KnowTheMusicBiz.cm during 2011:

1. An Argument Against Fan Funding by Brian Hazard
2. Music Marketing with QR Codes
3. What indie Musicians Should Know About Physical Distribution
4. An Overview of Music Publishing
5. Record Label Contracts: The Basics
6. CD Manufacturing Best Practices for Indie Musicians
7. 10 Ways to Trade a Song for an Email Address
8. A Few Reasons Indie Musicians Should Hope Spotify Succeeds
9. A Fan Found You on Facebook, Now What?
10. 10 Email Marketing Tips for Musicians

I always like talking with indie bands and band managers about their top marketing priorities and successes in hopes of learning about some innovative new approaches to music marketing. I was talking with a band manager not too long ago about his marketing priorities for the biggest band he represents and was shocked at his answer.

This manager told me the key to his band’s success was radio play. What? Really?? I was speechless. Did he seriously believe terrestrial radio would even consider adding this off-genre indie band’s music into their rotation and somehow ultimately help the band’s career? Maybe if the band was country or pop this approach might make some kind of sense…

As we spoke further I learned more about this manager’s professional background. And guess what? It turns out his entire career was in radio promotions for a major record label.

Now, I don’t want anyone to think that because someone had a career in radio promotions that there is no way they could be qualified to be a successful indie band manager. That’s not my point at all. However, if a band manager lays out a marketing strategy for an off-genre indie band in the 21^st century and makes no mention of the web or social media I will always walk away from that discussion feeling this manager is simply not serving the best interests of the bands they represent.

This discussion got me thinking about what skills really are important for an indie band manager in the 21^st century.

When Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth

The primary responsibility of a band manager prior to the 2000’s was to secure a record and / or publishing deal for the bands they represent. Once a record label deal was signed a business manager would be hired to handle the money and budgeting, an attorney would be hired to handle any contracts, the record label would handle press and radio promotions and the distributor would typically take care of retail marketing and promotions. A record label deal also meant there would typically be a tour support budget and tour marketing from the record label so getting a booking agent to pick up the band became much easier.

The manger would typically be the person to act as a liaison between all these groups and the band. But because all the aspects of the band’s touring, budgeting, contracts and marketing were handled by specialists in each area the band manager didn’t necessarily know all the details of their band’s business. These specialists (radio promoters for example) didn’t necessarily know the other parts of the business: touring, marketing, budgeting, contracts, etc.

Indie Band Manager Skills Today

There are some very specific skills I think are important for an indie band manager in the 21^st century. Having previously worked in the music industry doesn’t necessarily mean all that much today.

It’s important to separate a particular set of skills a manager might possess from personal characteristics like trustworthiness, ethical, passionate, likable, etc.  Below is my take on the key skills for managing an indie band in the 21^st century:

Direct Marketing – Understanding how to directly market to and build relationships with fans is a critical skill given the amount of competition artists face. Basic branding and image knowledge is certainly a plus but the ability to help artists build long term and direct relationships with their fans is critical to helping an indie band build a sustainable career.

Touring / Live Shows – Getting an indie band picked up by a reputable booking agent is next to impossible unless the band has a solid track record of regularly making money for themselves and the venues they play. Building an indie band’s track record of regularly playing live shows (and making money at it) is the responsibility of the band’s manager until a booking agent is in place. The manager must know how to get shows booked and properly promoted.

Social Media – Social media has emerged as a great tool for building fan relationships and promoting live shows. Managers need to understand how to use (and how not to use) the leading social media tools including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Technology – Technology is such a critical part of an indie band’s success their manager had better be adept at personally managing and operating a wide array of music related technology such as a WordPress website, Reverbnation dashboard or YouTube channel.

Business Development – Business development skills are critically important for securing sponsorships, booking festivals and getting the band’s music featured in an upcoming indie film. The manager should be outstanding at building business relationships plus have solid sales and contract negotiating skills.

Accounting / Royalties – Manager’s need to have basic accounting and budgeting skills and be able to maintain the band’s Quickbooks accounts. They should also be able understand the many ways bands can get paid royalties for their music. For example, a manager should always make sure the bands they represent are signed up with SoundExchange (so they can collect royalties from Internet radio plays).

The role of an indie band manager has changed significantly over the last decade. Don’t assume that because a potential manager has worked in the music industry that they will have the skills needed to help your band establish a sustainable career in the 21^st century. Make sure they have the actual skills needed to help you succeed in the new music industry.