want to hear my next big idea?!

okay I want to revolutionize the music industry.

i'm reading the book, everything you need to know about the music industry. and it's amazing how little artists get paid. and how much of a struggle it is for them. so they sign onto a record label. they give them an advance and pay for the recording costs. then the record comes out and the artists gets royalties. then the artists first has to pay back the recording company with those royalties for the advance and recording costs. after they are "recouped" then they get to actually pocket some money. but wait out of their own royalties they often have to pay the producer(s) and management. so it seems like everyone else is making money before the artist is. and I don't think that is far at all. I know that is how they do it now but I don't think it has to be that way forever.

just look already, physical sales of CDs are dying. and even digital sales aren't that great - people just illegally download songs, get them off of youtube - or even bigger are online streaming sites, especially Spotify. I can listen to basically any song I want on Spotify for free. and then when I want to listen to music on my phone I use free "radio" apps that play music based on my mood or whatever. I don't buy music. the only reason why I buy music on iTunes or physical copies is because I really want to support the musician. but I'm better off illegally downloading the song and giving the artists my $0.99. They would get more money that way.

which is messed up, I think. I understand that everyone who helps the artist make the music and get the word out should get paid, but not at the expense of the artist. it's like you can only make money if you are super successful or find a really profitable niche market. but that is if you sign onto a huge record label and they make a record and it gets spread around either by radio or more likely social media.

okay so what do I want to do? I want to change this. I have a few ideas. one of those being to give away the music. literally give it away online for free to everyone and anyone. I mean, everyone gets it free anyways. but what we sell and how we make money is "the experience." like VIP sort of stuff. go on tour and having a VIP option. but even more than that. why not have a whole two day experience? come and hang out with the artist for a day. see where they record the music, record a song yourself, a huge dinner party, then an exclusive show afterwards. the next day go to Disneyland, or have a music lesson, or something else. it's not enough to just sell the music anymore, you have to sell the person. sell exclusivity. sell a membership where you get a new exclusive package with a video and merch every month. oooh, I like that idea. every month or two you get a package with a personal video of the artist just talking to you and also with a performance. in addition to that you get a t-shirt one month or a bracelet, or maybe even a sweatshirt sometimes. and then have a discount code or another exclusive offer for them to spend more money. do you realize how much someone would pay for this? especially those crazy fangirls who have a ton a money.

and when it came to figuring out costs and who gets the profits. that would be more complex. but maybe the most basic idea is that the artist and I split it 50-50. I would cover all the expensives up front, then when the profits start coming in, the artists will get 50% but would pay me back 50% of the expenses before taking his or her share. of course it would vary and be different for every situation, but that is sort of what i'm looking at instead of 15% royalty or whatever.

so how am I going to do this? i'm going to intern at a huge music company to see how they do it. and i'm going to see how I can work in that system and how I can completely disrupt it and change it. and i'm going to try to tour with a band and see how the whole touring life works. and i'm going to just learn all I can now so I can mess up the whole music industry.

sounds good.

oh by the way I have a revelation the other day about the quote "You can have everything you want in life if you will just help enough other people get what they want." It has nothing to do with being a good selfless person. well I guess it could. but the point is that if you want to sell anything and make money, then give people what they want. they will pay for what they want. so if you give them what they want then they will pay you for it and you will be able to get everything you want. and it's funny because people take it out of context and make it sound all profound. but really it's a marketing concept. and even after finding that out, I still love the idea and it will lead me in my future and such. okay yeah I have things to do now.

but just wait i'm going to do big things. hopefully. how many times in this have I had big ideas that I said I was going to do but never did? well I did say I was going to meet Taylor Mathews and did. said I was going to go to college, and here I am. and travel to China and I did that twice. and this blog is pretty cool when you think about it. I have my entire first relationship documented. I have my search for college and my first years at college. I have my high school career. I have the divorce and still going through that. I have my search for horses. I have friend drama. I have everything here. and that's amazing really.