Kevin Cole is the Senior Director of Programming at KEXP 90.3 FM in Seattle, and KEXP.ORG worldwide.  He is also the host of “The Afternoon Show” on KEXP, and the host for “Wake Up” on Radio New York, 91.5 FM in New York.  Kevin's musical experience extends back to being the in-house DJ at Minneapolis's legendary First Avenue/7th Street Entry nightclub, working as the Music Director at one of the nation's first commercial alternative stations (KJ104), launching Revolution Radio (Rev 105), and serving as the Senior Music Editor at Amazon.com.

 

KEXP is an unusual radio station.  Our DJs have the freedom to play anything they want along with the privilege and responsibility to curate their own shows.  While we have a rotation for our variety freeform mix, our DJs aren’t forced to play anything they don’t want from rotation.  

 

KEXP is also rare in that we'll play demos and unsigned bands.  Vampire Weekend gave our morning show DJ John Richards a burned CDR demo of their songs.  We liked it so much, we added it into rotation, and it became our number one record.  Before we knew it, Vampire Weekend were getting signed to a major label, landing the cover of Spin Magazine, and playing Saturday Night Live.

 

About 75% of KEXP’s programming is freeform/variety shows.  The other 25% genre specific specialty shows—14 of them, covering modern global, roots, reggae, electronic, hard-core country twang, hip-hop, jazz, punk rock, avant garde noise — pretty much everything but classical/opera.

KEXP has over 40 DJs, a blog editor, blog writers and contributors, as well as volunteers and staff, from the person at the front door to our underwriters, admin folks, and bean counters, all dedicated to finding and sharing music they love, not to mention a community of thousands of listeners, bound by their enthusiasm for music, who play a role in getting music played on the air as well. Finding and sharing great music is our daily quest.  KEXP’s mission is to enrich the lives of our listeners by championing music and discovery.  I believe, that if your music is great, we’ll find it, and it’ll get played. Help us find it!

 

The Basics: get us your music!

 

There are lots of ways to get your music out there.  I’d recommend using them all. You never know how someone is going to connect with your music!

 

CDs: At present, we still prefer CDs.  Send with full artwork, if you have it. Include a  "one sheet" designed to outline what you're sending and why it should be listened to.  That’s a one sheet, not a two or three sheet!  Avoid cramming it with too much info, but include the following essential information:

• A list of any songs the FCC wouldn't like, such as those with obscene language.
• Recommended tracks (3-5 of your strongest)
• A description of what your music sounds like, or the genre of music
• Information on when and how the music will be available to consumers.

If you send a CDR, make sure you put your band name/contact info on the CD.  Every couple of months we have to throw out hundreds of unmarked CDs that have long since been separated from their packaging.  Seriously.  I’m very happy Vampire Weekend put their name on their CDR.

 

MP3s: e-mail MP3s or links to your MP3s, with the basic “one sheet” information. I listen to lots of MP3s as a quick, effective way to review music.  One thing to consider, though, is that most MP3s tend to be smaller files with inferior sound quality, and you want your music to sound as good as possible, right?

 

Post your music on your website, blogs, and social networking sites (MySpace, facebook, etc.).  Also, get your music to key blogs.  In fact, get it to anyone you think would like it.  We started playing what became our biggest album of 2004, the Arcade Fire’s “Funeral,” after listeners started requesting it and e-mailed us songs before we even got promotional copies from the band! I tend to play a couple of songs on my show each day from MP3s I downloaded the night before in a music safari.

 

Things Not To Send: 

Don’t bother sending promotional knickknacks or other items intended to get attention.  If your band name is The Hot Dogs, don’t send a promotional package with a hot dog in it.  This actually happened to John.  He was on vacation.  The smell sure got his attention when he got back.  A yo-yo won’t make your music sound any better.  Trust me.  Save your money and invest in your music.

 

Who To Send Your Music To:

 

• Get copies to our music director, Don Yates. Don listens to music all day for KEXP airplay consideration.  Not only does Don have one of the best jobs in the world — he also has some of the best ears as well.  The CDs Don can’t get to he distributes to a staff of volunteers for review.

 

• Get copies to our key weekday variety mix DJs (or all our DJs if possible): John Richards, Cheryl Waters, and yours truly (Kevin Cole).

 

• Get copies to our specialty show hosts that make sense for the type of music you’re creating.  We have 14 different specialty shows featuring almost every  type of independent music from jug bands to punk rock created by jugheads.  Check out the program guide here. 

 

Send music to Jim Beckman, who edits the KEXP blog and helps coordinate the content for our podcasts (jim@kexp.org).

 

What Next?:

 

Once you’ve sent in your music, following up is a good thing.  And, patience is a virtue, for all concerned.

 

Follow Up:

Most music directors have call hours a couple of hours each week devoted to stepping away from listening to music and actually talking to people. Feel free to call Don during his call times, Wednesdays from 10am-Noon, though it's easier to just email: don@kexp.org. Follow up via e-mail as well, and don’t take it personally if you don’t get a response.  I currently get several hundred e-mails a day.  I look at them all, but can’t respond to all of them.

 

Patience: 

Kurt Cobain once brought a demo of his band Nirvana down to the station — He dropped it off to the late night DJ and called a couple hours later wondering why he hadn’t heard it yet.  So, even Kurt had to wait and give the DJ time to check out the CD.  A couple of weeks is usually a good time frame.

 

In Closing:

The basic formula for getting airplay starts with creating great music—after that it’s getting someone at the station to hear it and champion it.  And that can happen in many different ways, from formally submitting music via our Music Director, to getting CDS to all the right DJs, posting your music online, working with promotion companies, and having listeners e-mail in MP3s.  Every avenue you take increases the chance of getting airplay.  Be persistent, have patience, stay positive, trust it’s going to happen, and keep making great music!!!

 

For more information about getting airplay, check out a piece on our site John wrote that includes some useful information on promotional companies. 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently participated in a panel discussion on online music marketing with Jed Carlson of ReverbNation, Lindsey Kronmiller of Merge Records, Mike Robinson of the Annuals / Terpsikhore Records and moderated by Heather McDonald of About.com’s Music Careers. The panel was hosted by Secondhand Freespace at The Local 506 in Chapel Hill, NC. Below is a recap of some of the topics we covered and my take on the top priorities for successful music marketing.

1. Write Great Songs

If you are trying to attract the attention of music fans it all starts with great songs. It’s understood that this is much easier said than done but it is a critical starting point. Great songs with mediocre / poor marketing will ultimately trump mediocre / poor songs with great marketing when it comes to attracting and keeping the attention of music fans over the long-term. Artists should make sure they have a reasonable balance between the amount of time and effort they spend on social networks, designing merch, creating videos, email campaigns, etc. and the time and effort they spend perfecting their craft.

2. Get a Website

If you are serious about a career as a musician you should own a url that includes your name (or bands name) and have your own website. If you don’t already have a website check out Bandcamp and Bandzoogle, they both provide full featured and inexpensive website solutions specifically for musicians. The central point for all marketing activities should be the artist’s website. Marketing efforts that drive fans to MySpace, YouTube or iTunes help foster relationships between fans and MySpace, YouTube and iTunes, instead of directly with the artist.

3. Direct Marketing

I firmly believe an artist’s success in achieving a sustainable career in music is tied directly to their ability to build and nurture an ongoing, direct relationship with their fans. Both FanBridge and ReverbNation offer an impressive set of direct marketing tools that can help artists communicate directly with fans and drive traffic to their website and live shows. Both companies help gather and provide important information that can be used to better understand their preferences and demographics.  To learn more about effective email marketing to fans check out this blog on Email 101 for Artists.

4. Direct Commerce

Buying directly from an artist helps strengthen the direct to fan relationship. Direct commerce also provides better margins for an artist than selling through a third party like iTunes or Amazon. Selling direct also provides the artist with more flexibility and creativity when it comes to bundling sales of music with t-shirts, tickets or unreleased tracks. Make sure fans can easily purchase music, merchandise, tickets and anything else you sell directly from you / your website. Both Audiolife and Nimbit offer direct commerce solutions for musicians that can be easily added to any website, MySpace or Facebook page.

5. Metadata

Metadata is all the collective information associated with a particular track, release or band, summarized and available in a digital format. Metadata typically includes track titles, track lengths, ISRC codes, album art, genre, band bio’s and publishing information. Accurate metadata is of significant importance since it is the information fans need to identify a particular artist or song in the very crowded digital music world. Digital retailers, MP3 players, computer based media players, online & satellite radio and mobile phones all use metadata to provide their users with information about the songs and artists that are playing. Not having the titles of your MP3 tracks or CD show up when it’s being loaded into a media player will appear amateurish at best and at worst prevent your songs from ever being played by that fan again simply due to the hassle factor of trying to locate an another unlabeled track in a large digital music collection. Be sure to register the metadata information with the three primary companies that manage metadata databases for the industry: All Music Guide, Gracenote and Muze.  All three companies have different procedures for accepting metadata from directly from artists. Check out each of their websites for details.

6. Digital Distribution

Even though artists should encourage fans to buy music directly from their website it’s still very important for artists to have their music available for sale at the leading online music retailers (Amazon, eMusic, iTunes & Rhapsody at a minimum). The leading online music retailers have large user bases and fairly good recommendation tools for music fans to discover artists similar to the ones they already enjoy.  Retailers typically work exclusively through distributors and don’t accept music directly from artists. There are many very good, inexpensive options now available to artists for digital distribution including CD Baby, ReverbNation and TuneCore.

7. Live Shows

Playing live shows is one of the most important aspects of an artist’s career since it provides a great opportunity to directly connect with fans, sell music and merchandise, add fan names to the email list and (hopefully) earn money from ticket sales and / or the venue’s door receipts. Electronic press kits have emerged as a very effective and low cost way for artists to submit their music, bios, photos and videos to promoters or music buyers at the venues they would like to play. There are several companies now providing electronic press kits for artists including OurStage, ReverbNation and Sonicbids.

8. Internet Radio

Internet radio is continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. According to a recent Arbitron study, the weekly online radio audience in the US has grown by one-third in the past year alone. Internet radio now provides independent artists with unprecedented access to a large and growing audience and promotional opportunities that had only been available to label backed artists. Many of the leading Internet radio stations such as AOL, Imeem, Last.fm, Pandora and Yahoo accept submissions* directly from artists so there is no need to incur the cost of hiring a radio promotions person or firm to work a new release to Internet radio stations.

Another benefit of Internet radio is that artists actually earn royalties. Soundexchange collects royalties from internet, cable and satellite radio stations then pays those royalties directly to the performing artist (and copyright holder) for streamed tracks. Make sure you are registered with Soundexchange!

9. Awareness

It’s important to have a presence in the primary places where music fans discover new music. The big social networks, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, are good places to start. It can seem like there are endless options available to artists for promoting music online. What’s the best way to prioritize them? Before signing up for the latest / greatest site for promoting music to fans be sure to check out their site traffic through Compete or Alexa. The data isn’t perfect but it will give you a general idea of whether or not they have enough fan traffic to justify the time required to regularly maintain another presence on their site.

Once you have an online presence established it’s very important to keep the content, especially tour dates, regularly updated. Managing and updating each of these sites is a painful, time consuming hassle. ArtistData is a free service that solves this challenge by automatically updating “artist websites, social network profiles, concert databases, Twitter, official news feeds, iCal, local press, fan newsletters, and even tour books” when artists upload tour dates to the ArtistData site.

10. Hire a Fifth Beatle

Finally, don’t try to do all this online music marketing by yourself. Give serious consideration to Pandora radio Founder Tim Westergren’s Fifth Beatle for The Digtal Age suggestion and you just might have time left over to write some great songs!

*Internet Radio Submissions Info

AOL Radio:

Mail Submissions To
AOL Radio
Pete Schiecke
770 Broadway
4th Floor
New York, NY 10003

Immem:

Artists can build their own profile page and directly upload music

Last.FM:

Artists can build their own profile page and directly upload music

Pandora:

Mail Submissions To
Music Genome Project Submissions
360 22nd St. Suite 440
Oakland, CA, 94612

Yahoo / LAUNCHcast:

Mail Submissions To
CBS Radio
Seth Neiman
1515 Broadway, 46th Floor
New York, NY 10036

This post is part of a group blogging event on this topic organized with our friends at MusicianWages.com and About.com Music Careers.

Hello,

I have a teenage son who tells me his pirating music is no big deal. Since he is a musician himself, I point out to him that someday that’s going to be his money people are stealing. But he remains unphased.

He tells me the record sales make money for the record label, not the artist. He says that the artists make all their money from touring and live concerts. He thinks the pirated music promotes the concerts and therefore helps the artist make more money. I still don’t allow pirating in my house.

But tell me what you think - as artists out there having your work “shared,” are you just glad to have it being enjoyed, or does it bother you? Admittedly, he is stealing music that is recorded by major record labels, so maybe its different than the independent musician working for his living. But I’d still like to hear what you think.

Thanks,
Valerie

 

Valerie,

Your son is correct when he points out that artists typically don’t get paid royalties from record sales and P2P file sharing can help artists generate awareness that can lead to concert sales. However, I believe your son’s argument that it’s “no big deal” to pirate music is largely misguided.

Below are few things to consider:

Record Labels are Not Inherently Evil

It’s true the traditional record label model for compensating recording artists is largely unfair and that the vast majority of artists never see any royalties from record sales. This needs to change and I believe recording artist compensation (among many other things) will have to change in the near future if records labels are going to survive. Many recording artists simply don’t have access to the financial resources or marketing expertise that is often times required to get their music heard by a critical mass of fans.  

Record labels can provide a valuable service to artists by investing capital and time into developing an artist’s fan base. Most record labels, majors and indies, have good people on their staff who are true, die hard music fans and work tirelessly to promote and support the artists on their rosters.

I would wager that if most music fans truthfully revisited their all time favorite albums and CD’s they would find that many of them were put out by the very record labels that are now so popular to despise.   

P2P File Sharing Networks are Not Evil Either

The field of artists vying for attention of music fans is more crowded than ever. The biggest challenge for most artists these days is just getting their music heard by fans. P2P file sharing networks have proven to be a great music discovery tool for fans and a great viral marketing tool for many artists. I encourage all artists (and labels) to find innovative ways to include P2P file sharing in their overall marketing strategy and make at least some of their some of their songs available to fans via P2P networks.

P2P file sharing is a concept and technology that is not going away. The debate about whether the technology should be allowed to exist is pointless at this stage. A real effort should be made by the multitude of rights holders in the music industry to figure out a commerce based P2P business model. It’s equally shocking and sad that 10 years after the rise of Napster none exists.

If your son uses P2P networks to discover new music then supports the bands he really likes by purchasing their music, merchandise and concert tickets I think that is a reality many artists are growing to accept and some even embrace. If he simply uses P2P downloads in lieu of ever actually buying music I personally think that’s very hard to justify.

Touring is Not Enough

It’s largely a myth that artists can simply earn a living by touring. With the exception of a small number of well established artists (who most likely have or had significant record label support) it can be quite difficult for even very talented artists to get booked at all, let alone tour. The artists who do tour can find it very difficult to turn a profit.  Anyone who claims indie bands make money on tour has never been in an indie band on tour. Record labels often times end up paying artists on their label roster “tour support” money to help cover some of the costs of touring just so the artist can stay on the road.

There are simply too many artists interested in playing for a limited number of venues and a limited number of fans even willing to pay to see live music.

Additionally, songwriters who are not performing artists are not able to earn money through touring.

Here’s the Real Problem

Record labels need to generate a profit from sales of recorded music in order to have cash to invest in new artists and to support their existing artist roster. If music fans no longer buy music (they just pirate it) record labels can’t generate the cash that’s needed to invest in artists or even survive.

I am a big proponent of the “direct to fan” movement where artists by-pass the traditional record label route and build a relationship directly with their fans. There are now a large number of innovative, technology related options available to artists for directly reaching fans through online distribution, marketing, commerce and viral promotions. Unfortunately, almost none of the companies that have developed these wonderful tools have sustainable business models (turns a net profit) and rely heavily on outside investors or support from a parent company to temporarily survive.

In other words, virtually no one in the music industry has figured out how to build a sustainable business model when fans don’t directly pay for music. The public and private investors who provide the capital for the industry will eventually flee for greener pastures. It doesn’t take a PHD in economics to understand how this trend, left unchecked, will ultimately play out for the industry, artists and fans.

Like all industries, the basic economic model for the music industry is fairly simple. The music industry needs revenue to survive and prosper.

If your son is truly a music lover I encourage him to seriously contemplate what the future of the music industry just might look like when music fans are no longer willing to pay for music.  I would then encourage him to go buy some music by his favorite artists.

 

Jed Carlson is Co-Founder and COO of ReverbNation.com, the leading marketing services provider for Artists, Labels, Managers, and Venues with over 335,000 registered Artists since inception in 2006.  To date, ReverbNation has sent out emails to over 65,000,000 unique fans on behalf of their Artists, Labels, Managers and Venues, sending emails at a current rate of over 10,000,000 per month.

Email is an essential part of the fan relationship equation for artists, labels, and managers.  While it is difficult to say the exact value of collecting any individual email address for musicians, marketers from other industries peg the generic value of getting an email at about $1 each.   But it’s all about what you do with it once you are given the great responsibility of owning it.  We have seen Artists generate as much as $10 per email address on their list, when used properly.

Email has some interesting attributes going for it, like:

1. Ease of collection. All you need is a clipboard at your show and a 'fan collector' (email signup form) on  your websites.
2. Anonymity. Fans are comfortable giving an email address b/c they can remain essentially 'anonymous'.
3. A-synchronous communication.  It isn't done in real-time like text messages.  Most fans find this way more acceptable.
4. Scheduled output. With most email programs you can set the time of when you want the message to 'go out'.  This is important if you have limited time from the road to message the fans about something that is timely for them - like a show you will be playing in their area that weekend.
5. Powerful links. Artists can embed links to exclusive content, music players, music purchases, ticket sites, social nets, etc.
6. Trackability. Most email services provide tracking on how many people opened the emails, how many people clicked, etc.  This data can be a powerful learning tool for the Artist to figure out what 'works' and what doesn't.
7. Repetition. Most people don't unsubscribe from the list once they are on it.  As a result, you have a long time to prove your value to them.

But the key to using email resides squarely in how it is used, not in the attributes inherent to it.  We encourage Artists to think about their mailing list as if it were full of email addresses from their relatives.  Simply put, Artists should treat their fans the same way they would treat their sister or grandma.  Doing so will lead to the highest open rates, highest response rates, long-term retention of fans, and growth of their brand.

Specifically, here are some 'best practice' tenants to consider when it comes to email marketing to a fan base:

Always...

1. Always respect a person's desire to unsubscribe to your list. IMMEDIATELY UNSUBSCRIBE THEM IF YOUR EMAIL SERVICE DOESN'T DO IT FOR YOU.
2. Always give before you get.  Give the fans something special before you ask them to do something like vote for you in a contest.
3. Always talk to them without swearing.  It may be part of your 'persona' as a band, but some people don't like that language.  The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Yahoo mail, hotmail, AOL, etc don't like it either, and your message will go directly to the junk box.  You wouldn't talk to your grandma that way, would you?
4. Always avoid 'scam' words in the subject line.  Words like 'Free' and 'Help' will land your message in the junk box 100% of the time. 
5. Always message them no more than 4 times per month.  Ideally it would be less than 3 times.  Fans want to be kept up to date, but they don't want to feel like they are your only fan.  Messaging them all the time gives the impression that you don't have anything more important to do.
6. Always target them with messages that are RELEVANT to them.  If you have a show in Seattle, don't message your fans in Miami.  Keep your powder dry for a message to them later about something else.
7. Always give them the basics about the information you are conveying.  Reporters call this the 'who, what, why, when, how' model.  If you have a show coming up, do your fans (and yourself) the service of providing dates, times, locations, ticket links, and lineup of the show.  Over 75% of Artists miss this essential piece when they email.  If you want someone to respond and come to your show, for goodness sake, go so far as to give them driving directions if you can.  Each ticket sold is money in your pocket.
8. Always link them to some place to find out more info about the band.  This could be ReverbNation or MySpace or a homepage or blog.  But ALWAYS give them a way to find out more.

Never...

1. Never add emails from people that haven't given explicit permission to you to be placed on your list.  It’s natural to add the editor from Pitchfork or New York Times to your list in hopes of getting them to notice your email.  RESIST THIS URGE!  This will ultimately count against you in terms of deliverability and credibility with your fans and those sources.  Email is about permission, not spamming.  Most email service providers (including ReverbNation) will turn your service off if you are adding people that haven't opt-ed into your list.  BEWARE.  Instead, write those editors from your personal email, asking them to join your mailing list if they so choose.  If you get them to agree, you are in good shape.
2. Never buy email lists or share lists with other bands or labels.  This is tantamount to spamming people that haven't opt-ed into your list and it will be met with resistance from the fans as well as your service provider.
3. Never ask Fans to take an action to help you out if you haven't first given them something of value.  Reserve some songs for use as 'chips' to play with your email list.  Give them a link to some exclusive content from time to time, BEFORE you ask them to go to that radio station website and vote for you to get on the air.  Don't underestimate the power of reciprocity with fans.  Reciprocity means giving before you get.   Give away.  They will remember.
4. Never respond to the responses to your emails later than 3 days after they are sent.  Fans are time sensitive machines.  Keep good track of when responses come in and handle them immediately.   You will be rewarded with loyal fans.
5. Never take aggressive action against a fan that has had any problem with your message.  Simply unsubscribe them.  It doesn't pay to fight with your customers, Period.

Advanced Strategies

Most Artists have a MySpace page, a Facebook page, and a homepage/blog.  That's good.  But the key to approaching the internet as a whole is finding a way to 'own' the fans from all of these different networks, rather than 'renting' them under the terms and conditions of each particular site.   Your email list is the best possible 'home' for all of these fans.  It gives the Artist the most flexibility to communicate, make offers, and conduct their business, regardless of which network the fans come from.  As a result, we promote a philosophy of looking at each of these 'networks' as a lead generation source, as opposed to the home base for conducting their marketing.  Why turn your marketing and promotion over to the whims of MySpace?  Labels, venues, and sponsors will take much more stock in a band that has a robust email list that they 'own' over Artists that just have a ton of 'Friends' on social nets.

In order to break from the concept of 'renting' fans, Artists need to do a few simple things:

1. Add 'fan collectors' (join our mailing list) functions to all of their sites that lead back to their main list.
2. Provide an incentive for joining the mailing list, such as access to exclusive content like a song they can't get anywhere else.  ReverbNation provides exactly this feature when an Artist uploads a song.  They can designate it as a 'fan exclusive' and we create a 'download' widget that they can add to their MySpace page. This widget will require them to join the mailing list for the Artist in exchange for receiving the content.  Artists post this to their MySpace page, blog, etc. by simply providing their login to each site and we post it there for them.  Artists who use this tool grow their mailing list 600% faster than those who do not use this method.
3. Email your fans regularly with relevant info, and not too often.  Fans who receive 'high quality' emails from Artists tend to stay on the list over 95% of the time. 

If Artists follow this method, in addition to the best practices outlined above, they will see their emails lists grow substantially, and they will have real control over their future.

Kristin Thomson is Education Director of the nonprofit Future of Music
Coalition and co-owner of Simple Machines, an independent record label, which released over seventy records and CDs from 1991-1998. She also played guitar in the band Tsunami, which released four albums from 1991-1997 and toured extensively. She currently lives near Philadelphia with her husband Bryan Dilworth, a concert promoter, and their son, where she also plays guitar in the lady-powered band, Ken.

 

You don’t have to be a super-genius to notice that the music economy isn’t exactly stable at the moment. (Then again, neither is the rest of the economy). One thing is certain — sales of compact discs continue to plummet, and it’s tough to predict which of the new music services will thrive — or even survive — in this period of transition.

Check out this article in Digital Music News for a thoughtful look at the state of digital music in 2009, and a few salient predictions of where things might end up a little further down the road.

Launching a music site or service that’s simultaneously affordable, appealing to music fans and fair to rightsholders is clearly difficult, especially in today’s economy. It’s a tough time for many of these new sites and services, but articles like the one above always get us thinking about those who create the music itself. From the beginning, FMC has stood for the right of musicians to be paid for their work, so we want make sure that artists aren’t overlooked in the ongoing experimentation with new music business models.

This is why today we’re releasing “Principles for Musician Compensation in New Business Models” (or “Artist Principles”) — a set of guidelines for ensuring creator compensation in an evolving music landscape. Crafted by Ann Chaitovitz with input from over a dozen industry experts, the Principles represent an important first step in ongoing discussions about musicians’ revenue streams.

We’re called the Future of Music Coalition, so we like to look ahead. In fact, the Principles are primarily meant to apply to music services that have yet to be brought to market. But, FMC also knows it’s important to learn from the past. The majority of the Principles are based on what we’ve observed from the launch of existing services. For example, you might recall our earlier post about the launch of MySpace Music, which saw the major labels enter a joint venture with the social network that reportedly included a cut of the advertising and equity stakes in the enterprise. Yet it remains unclear if or how the labels plan to share that equity or ad dollars with their artists.

And that’s just one example. With music moving beyond the physical (and even download) model, it becomes increasingly important to make sure that musicians are fairly compensated. Regardless of the system, artists deserve to be paid for their work — especially considering it’s their music that’s attracting listeners (and hopefully, dollars) to that service.

But without reasonable guidelines, creators could be excluded from any revenues generated by these new models. Hence, the Artist Principles. We’ve even drafted a point-by-point explanation of each principle, offering examples and what we think are possible ways forward, which you can read here. Just trying to be helpful.

Clearly, there’s no silver bullet solution to the challenges currently faced by artists, musicians and entrepreneurs. Yet, as always, we think the best thing to get a conversation going. And the Artist Principles surely will.