Category: Music

Music is changing, here’s why…

As a musician, songwriter and co-founder of Gigable, I hear a lot of people saying there is no “good music these days.”

What really strikes me is that I think it’s the opposite!  There’s more great music being produced every day than any other time in history. It’s just that the traditional ways to discover are broken – or perhaps obsolete.

My wife asked me the other day, “who’s the next Rolling Stones?”
Well, when Brit-Pop-Blues-Rock comes back for a solid 10-20 years, there will be another Rolling Stones.

The bands from the 60s and 70s that made it big are a household brand, just like Coke. Two generations of music fans were spoon-fed very few options – and it stuck with them. 

There’s over 100 million songs that have been recorded. How will you pick the ones you listen to for the next 20-30 years?

Tag #newmusicbiz on Twitter and let me know your thoughts!
@mechlin

The Music Modernization Act has been signed into law!

MMA has been signed with a unanimous vote from House and Senate.

The bottom line for the MMA is a single source of truth with a single database (blockchain anyone?) for all mechanical licenses. This is a major change in copyright treatment and a giant step in the right direction for songwriters and collaborators. Digital streaming services can now use a single master license for all music.

Producers and Engineers are also able to get compensated directly by SoundExchange now as the AMP Act was part of the new law.

Read more on SoundExchange…

“Americana Nights”

Starting in March 2018, Gigable will be producing a series of shows at River Street Tavern in East Dundee, IL.

Americana Nights is a series of live shows featuring the best and brightest up and coming talent in these genres – Roots/Americana/Alt-Country/Folk. The shows will be on Sundays or Wednesdays with an occasional Friday or Saturday depending on the artist.

River Street Tavern is fantastic American-style restaurant/bar. The performance room can seat 80 comfortably with a max capacity of 100. They have a roomy elevated stage that will host dozens of artists over the coming months.

Reserved seats for the shows will start at $7.

For tickets and playlists, download the free Gigable app: http://bit.ly/2tWMVjf

$25 VIP Passes Available ($50 Value)

Behind the scenes: Gigable Showcase at Woodstock Opera House

We had an amazing night hosting our first show in the Americana series. All three bands knocked it out of the park and the crowd showed lots of love.

The production staff at Woodstock Opera House are top notch and we look forward to working with them on many more shows.

Here’s some behind the scenes footage of sound check and the view from backstage:

Gigable Update November 2015

House Concert Series (1)As I sit down to write this and look through the last set of updates that I wrote.. wow!  So much has happened.

  • Secured initial round of seed funding
  • Signed on several artists to manage regional tours
  • Brought on a new partner and advisory team
  • 50% though development of a new mobile app that I’m insanely excited about
  • Considering the hiring plan for Marketing & Tour Ops

In addition to all this, we are planning a house concert series starting in January 2016.  So far, every house concert we have been involved in has been an amazing experience.  There’s a different vibe when you get a singer-songwriter in the cozy room telling stories about their songs.  There’s a deeper connection with the listener and it has a lasting effect that is different from a regular concert.

The team is very excited to help people “produce” their own house concerts and make it easy.

We are also excited to be working with Fontaine, Kevin Presbrey, Alex Dezen, Hurley Mower, Tyler Barham and potentially Randy Montana!  We’ll be planning shows in the Midwest for these artists and featuring their music on the app.  Also, we’re planning on doing some interviews and studio sessions for our upcoming podcast series.

Who’s gonna do all this work!? Stay tuned.

My #7daystartup Day Seven (Launch Day!!)

It’s 3:07pm CST and I’m sitting at Starbucks (or should we call it “StartBucks”) in West Dundee, IL.  The staff knows me – now.  I’ve been coming here every afternoon for the past week plowing through the work required to get to launch.

I’m pleased to announce that EchlinMedia Stock Music is online.

I’ll be the first to admit that the hill got steeper the closer I got to launch-ready.  I think I need to caveat what I mean by launch.  Since I was following Dan Norris’ 7-Day Launch blueprint, what has been launched is a MVP stock music service.  The best part of this process has been the awesome people I’ve talked to via Dan’s FB group who have helped shape the MVP.  This is the essence of what he discusses in his book.

“You don’t earn till you learn” – not sure if Dan said that, but I might use it as my own. The feedback has been valuable and interesting.  It’s been interesting because the first lesson is that not all customers want the same thing.  The opinions and ideas that have been discussed have been unique and “one-size-fits-all” does not apply to a stock music service.  Also true for just about every business.  This speaks to the exercise of finding the ideal customer profile or avatar.

I talked to 5 potential customers from different walks and they all want something different.  A couple love the idea of a subscription, while others just want a la cart songs at a competitive price.

I think I’ve come up with a model that is easy to understand and provides a fair solution.  It’s basically a freemium model.

  • One free track per month delivered to email
  • Monthly subscription that provides download codes
  • A la carte store ($14-$99 per track based on license usage)

The licensing model is one concept I’m pretty excited about since it could be a good differentiator – in addition to the awesome music 🙂

Here are the three license options:

  1. Audio (Podcasts, Radio, Commercials(non-video), Website)
  2. Animated Video (Video Games, Apps, Animated Videos)
  3. Moving Pictures (Theatrical, TV, Cable, YouTube, Video)

Pricing is relative to license option, audio being the least expensive.  It just made sense to offer licenses based on usage type.

I’ve got some other ideas that I will be testing over the next few weeks, such as a creator community. There still is a lot of work to do on the UX and navigation so that signup and store browsing is simple and intuitive.

This is all very exciting, especially since I got my first paid subscriber just this afternoon!

A huge thanks to Dan and his community for a swift kick in the pants to get this going.

My #7daystartup Day 6.5

Okay – juuuust about ready to launch!

I had a great conversation with internet marketer/podcaster Nicola Cairncross and she buys stock music for her podcasts.  We talked about pricing/licensing and it’s clear I need to keep it simple.

So, I’ve come up with two options:

  1. A la carte store – Buy one track at a time and chose the appropriate license.
  2. Monthly Subscription – Discounted tracks with universal licensing.

I think this will allow customers to get the best of both worlds.  If they just need to buy a track here and there, great!  However, if they are an agency or music super, you can get several tracks per month at a steep discount.

The new landing page is completed.  By tomorrow, 1/14/15, I will have the store component ready to go.  The subscriptions will be handled via PayPal.

Then, it’s a matter of fine-tuning a few dozen tracks to populate the store and we’re off! It’s really a ton of work, but I’m very excited to launch this and get more customer feedback.

Thanks to all who have commented and provided moral support!