Review of the year 2012

Welcome to my review of the year post. Probably shorter than some you've had in recent years, mainly because my spending has once again been limited for financial reasons and I haven't spent as much time chasing around after music as a result. I do however have an update on the albums I've been waiting for (some of which have already been mentioned in more blog posts than I care to think about) and I've also pulled together some conclusions I've reached on fanfunding as a result of my experiences, which I think you'll find will make for very interesting reading. But before we get to that, it's time to look at this year's charts which produced an unexpected result I wouldn't have predicted if you'd asked me as I was writing my review of the year last year.

Album of the Year

1. Matthew Ebel - The Lives of Dexter Peterson
2. Poets of the Fall - Temple of Thought
3. Howling Dollhouse - Howling Dollhouse
4. Nightwish - Imaginaerum
5. Fox Amoore - Legends of Valanor

Wow. If I had placed a bet at the beginning of the year as to what I thought would land up as my favourite album of the year based on the albums I already knew would be released, I would have been completely and utterly wrong. I was fully expecting Poets of the Fall to take the honours, based on past experience but as you can see it appears it wasn't meant to be. At the end of the day a very tight title was decided on the basis of instant likes vs. growers. Unlike previous albums, nothing particularly grabbed me on first listen from the POTF album and although I did find many of the tracks have grown on me, I didn't feel it was enough to beat Matthew's album which hit me with 2 straight away and landed up with a similar percentage of likes after the "growers" came through.

Another album I was expecting when I wrote my review of the year post last year was from "Into the Night" who actually changed their name to "Howling Dollhouse" before its release and released the album with the same title. It's a pretty solid album although I didn't find anything really outstanding within it. The two most notably different tracks on the album are "Part 2" (basically just vocals and piano) and "World on Fire" which, whilst not really my thing, does a pretty good job of blending rap and rock.

Although the album I've selected from Nightwish was originally released in late 2011, I waited for the tour edition which also has orchestral versions of the tracks. Having splashed out on an album with the tracks as instrumentals from them in the past (as well as containing the versions with full vocals) I actually found these made good background music when I didn't want to be distracted from work, and the orchestral versions of the tracks on this particular album seem even better than those albums I've had previously for this.

Fox Amoore seems to get better and better and this particular soundtrack effort made for a very worthy 5th place, shaking off competition from other artists such as Sonata Arctica that I've been buying for years.

One artist did lose out on selling music to me this year. I had been looking forward to buying the album "The Unforgiving" from Within Temptation which I'd also been forced to put off buying the previous year, but with both the album itself and the mp3 downloads available being riddled with DRM, I made the decision not to purchase.

As for albums I'm contemplating for the coming year, the main one currently on my radar is a new one from We Love The Underground as most of the artists I listen to frequently only released an album in the past 12 months. I have no release date or title for this one as yet and unlike the debut album, I'm actually finding myself contemplating whether or not to buy as (unlike last time) not a single track released so far has managed to take my interest past the take-it-or-leave-it category. The other album I'm aware of and currently contemplating is "Dark Dog Days" by Dr Scardo which is currently at mixing stage and due to be released in April. It will be interesting to see if Simon Scardanelli manages to get any of the other projects outside of this band effort finished as his last newsletter has stated he's interested in finishing the solo album he started writing in 2010 and may also be releasing an instrumental guitar album and an EP of waltzes and foxtrots as well. So it sounds like I'll have plenty to look out for here to see what catches enough of my interest in the coming year.

Song of the Year

It  should be noted that (as usual) as far as I'm aware, every single artist in this particular chart is an independent. You'll find most of the tracks here available to stream on Soundcloud and I've carefully collected the ones available there into a playlist which you'll find here.

1. Poets of the Fall - Signs Of Life
2. Matthew Ebel - Who I Am
3. Katy Vachon - I Got Style
4. Francis Rodino - Higher Ground
5. Iced Blade - Chiru Hana
6. Skitzo Calypso - Ready or Not
7. Howling Dollhouse - This Is Who You Are
8. Iconcrash - We Are The Night
9. Karena Kelly - Midnight Walk
10. Saintsaviour - Woman Scorned
11. Remi Miles - Perfection (YOLO)
12. Fox Amoore - Lord and Lady
13. Dr Scardo - Leave Us Alone
14. Matchbox Twenty - She's So Mean
15. Miranda Shvangiradze - How The Idea Of Rainy Thoughts Was Made
16. Fabrizio Paterlini - If Melancholy Were Music
17. Brianna Gaither - Let It Go
18. The Traps - Moving Pictures
19. Stickboy - Pirouette
20. Admiral Fallow - Squealing Pigs

As usual I'm limiting my favourite song chart to one song per artist with tracks I've heard for the first time in the past year (even though the track itself could be older), although at the end of the day I could probably have found more than one for a couple of the artists in question. Particularly difficult was the choice for Poets of the Fall, where the missing title track from their first album was released as a bonus track on the German edition and managed to snatch the honours away from the haunting "Skin" (a track about a love where one half of the relationship can't let go) and the Spaghetti Western styled "The Ballad of Jeremiah Peacekeeper" by a very narrow margin. In the end, "Signs of Life" even edged out my favourite from Matthew Ebel to gain the top spot in the chart, although "Who I Am" did win the honour of becoming the ringtone on my new mobile phone. I can't see me changing that one for a while, as I find its opening ideal for alerting without annoying an entire room.

Although I'm not spending money on Sellaband, I am still listening to the odd artist who signs up on there now and again and a couple of these artists made my charts as a result. Whilst she never made her budget and the profile has since been deleted as a result, Katy Vachon managed to grab enough of my interest that I may well go check out what she's up to in the near future with the rather sassy song and video for "I Got Style". Iced Blade from Japan were another easy choice due to both my love of the Scandinavian music scene and a couple of rather ancient cassettes of manga music owned by my husband, as this artist sounds like they'd fit right at home in either.

Soundcloud has overtaken Last FM this year in terms of its ability to provide me with new artists to listen to. The ease of being able to listen to all the tracks an artist has posted, not just the one that originally caught your interest is something I'm a big fan of, and with Songza (who were offering a similar service last time I could access them) still cut off for the UK, it's looking likely that this will become my main source of listening over the next year if it remains in its current form. Miranda Shvangiradze and Saintsaviour both made the list as a result of being played by the soundcloud radio app.

Of the 20 artists in the list, 9 of them are artists I've heard for the first time in the last 12 months, and of these it's looking like The Traps are probably going to be the artist I'm most likely to follow up on over the next 12 months. Not just because they appear to be fairly local, but also because both of the tracks I've heard to date have managed to catch a decent amount of my attention whereas other artists have fared less well when it has come to listening to tracks other than the original attention grabber.

Near misses for the top 20 go to the Wily Bo Walker  track "Jawbreaker", cis minor with "The  Story of Rose and Klaus" and The Hundred in the Hands track "Commotion" - all artists brought to my attention by the Soundcloud radio app and also included on the playlist I linked earlier.

Video Playlist of the Year

And a new section this time around to showcase the best songs/videos that I've come across for the first time this year. As with the songs section, the tracks in question may be older than a year but this is the first time I've come across the video in question. The most notable thing here is the fact that as far as I'm aware, I'm only showcasing artists here that are independent and it therefore shows the variety and quality that independents are capable of putting out these days. Particular standouts come in the form of the "trailer" video for Fox Amoore's "Legends of Valanor" album and "Weird Green" which Left Step Band animated themselves.




Last minute news
As usual there have been a few things that caught my attention but didn't manage to make it into a blog post during the year. Firstly there's the news that Francis Rodino is leaving London with his band and moving to Nashville. In the newsletter describing his move it sounds like he's disappointed with the UK music scene in general, but whilst I wish him the best, I'm not convinced he's going to find the grass any greener on the other side of the Atlantic.

Howard Jones released a set of 4 tracks on Soundcloud for free download over Christmas, including his take on the well known Elton John track "Your Song". You'll find them available for streaming or download here.

The other big piece of news is probably the changes to Last FM happening on 15th January. Whilst they don't affect me as I only use the web app anyway, I do find them a rather disappointing move in the wrong direction which feels like one of the last nails being driven into the coffin of that particular site. Firstly, they're cutting off streaming access entirely for most countries in the world, citing music licensing arrangements as the reason. For the remaining few countries, only the US, UK and Germany (traditionally the big 3 for music sales/listening) remain mostly unchanged with others such as Ireland and Brazil having their free streaming removed and listening only available if you pay money and subscribe. It honestly wouldn't surprise me to hear the site is being closed and/or they are being bought/merging with Spotify or another service over the next couple of years. Restricting or removing services seems like a sure-fire site killer to me and even more so when consumers have a range of methods (including sites like youtube and soundcloud) where it's also possible to stream music for free.

Moment of the year
Considering I started this blog as a way of relaying my own experiences (initially with Sellaband artists and later with music in general) as a fan rather than having any kind of expertise or knowledge on the subject, so I was quite chuffed when one of the bloggers who regularly writes posts on social media and music for well known sites such as Hypebot decided my 1000 true friends post of a couple of years ago was both worth tweeting to his followers and linking to from his own blog. So this is my tip of the hat back in his direction. You can follow Chris Rockett as @MusicMarketingX on twitter or visit his blog on promoting your music here.

Disappointment of the year
No prizes for guessing that the title of biggest disappointment of the year is taken by three artists - Lori Greco, Cubworld and Vertical Horizon. I'm still waiting for albums from all three of these artists. In the case of the first two, they both completed their funding on Sellaband more than three years ago yet no album has been seen. In the case of Vertical Horizon, I used Pledge back in April when their project was funded but was showing "Release date TBC". Since then the updates to the project have dried up and, as with Sellaband and overdue projects there, it looks like the complaints are starting as this status doesn't appear to have changed 9 months down the line. It looks like I'll be contacting Pledge about this one in the New Year, as I'm obviously far from impressed with my foray into what life is like on the other side of the crowdfunding fence. And it probably goes without saying that Vertical Horizon have shot themselves in the foot when it comes to seeing any money from me for a similar project in future. With more than 6 years of experience on the "money-spending" side of the crowdfunding fence, I've been forced to draw some conclusions which will sound rather harsh (and indeed some artists in particular may even find upsetting) but which I think represent the true situation with crowdfunding as it stands today. You'll find them in the next section.

Crowdfunding: The conclusions so far

Whilst collecting money from fans is still a relatively new industry, there are a number of conclusions I've already come to about the current state of fan funding in music based on my experiences of spending several thousand pounds on more than 40 different projects covering over 30 artists in the past 6 years.

1. 1000 true fans? Try 100.
Let's face it. If you are an independent musician who has never had a record deal or even a song in your own country's top 100 charts, how many people will actually have heard you? With the demise of the community on Sellaband, I'm not currently aware of any funding site which has people who are actively looking to form a fan connection with you and your music. So if you want to crowdfund then you need to look to the size of your own crowd. Established names with that previous label (or even current label deal) are the only ones I've seen hitting the thousands (or often even the several hundreds) mark. The average artist I've seen on Sellaband since the site changed has been needing at least 100 people to fund them in order to make their target (even the minimum of 3000 euros). Unless you can make a list of 100 people that you know for sure will spend money on you (even if it's just buy a download of the album), you do not have a crowd and you cannot/should not be even thinking of crowdfunding. Facebook likes don't count. Number of Twitter or Facebook friends or number of people on your mailing list don't count either - not all of these will support you. If you want a good chance at a successful crowdfunding campaign the first step you need is to both acknowledge and make that actual list of 100 names.

Yes, more guaranteed names is obviously better. Yes, more names = more money, but how much? It will vary from fanbase to fanbase, but as a ballpark figure, I'd rate 100 names as worth 3000-5000 if your base incentive level is 10 of whatever currency you're raising in (e.g. $10 minimum incentive would get you $3000-5000 when 100 people have agreed to give you money). If your expectations are bigger than that, you better know (or hope) you've got some rich backers and/or you'd better be prepared to be disappointed if you can't make a long enough list of names to scale up that initial 100 name list.

If you can't make that list of 100 names, you should definitely be considering your music as still being a hobby. You don't yet have a fanbase so stop calling it a career until you can pass at least this basic check.

2. Your budget needs to represent the 1% of the 10%
Chances are that only around 10% of those that follow you on Twitter or Facebook (not including existing friends and family) are taking any active interest in you. And of that 10% only 1% are likely to look at supporting you in advance unless you have a good and immediately obvious track record of communication and delivery on a similar project in the past. If going on pure fans alone rather than the friends and family connections, that means you're going to need somewhere in the order of 100,000 followers to find your 100 names. Hence why friends and family are so important to reduce the followers you need and help you create that initial track record.

3. You need a track record that is easy to find
Both established and unestablished names are screwing up badly on this one. Both Public Enemy and Jonathan Davis fans were up in arms on Sellaband and my experiences with a number of unknowns over there have been no better. Over 50% of artists I have supported via crowdfunding have not delivered on time. Even worse, over 40% of artists I have supported have been more than a year late compared to their original statement of timescale. More than 10% of artists I have supported have been over two years late. And as previously mentioned I even have a few artists who have already broken the three year barrier.

With seemingly little or no protection offered by crowdfunding websites and these horrifying statistics in mind, it has led me to the conclusion that even I am no longer willing to take a chance on a crowdfunding artist unless I can easily find how they've performed in the past -  in terms of being able to raise money, how their delivery time has compared to their original statement and what their communication has been like.

If you cannot convince a music lover like me who is open to both new technology and experiences that you are worth supporting, then how in the hell do you expect to ever be able to convince the average person in the street?

Be honest. Would you support a product or service that failed this badly on communication and delivery? So would you support an artist given these statistics?

Musicians, Labels, Managers
Get
Your
Act
Together

Can I be any more clear?

4. There are too many musicians
I still don't understand how the music industry operates because to me it attempts to break every rule of the laws of supply and demand. There are only so many hours in the day. There are only so many of those hours in which people are able to listen to music. It should not be possible for so many to be out there making music and claiming they are musicians rather than just doing it as a hobby.

The biggest shift that the music industry needs to undergo in the current era is to ditch the deadweight. And unfortunately a lot of the power in that resides in the hands of fans. There are too many musicians out there and all the internet is doing is spreading the existing money pot much more thinly compared to the old days when the average person was aware of a much lower number of artists due to only knowing about what was placed in front of them. The danger is that although more musicians are getting money, it's more a case everyone will land up getting pocket money rather than anyone getting career money. Is it really any wonder that free music is seen as the norm given the laws of supply and demand in this case?

We are also too forgiving of the artists we love. Just like best friends we let them off. Again. And again. And again. Eventually we might get fed up of being given the runaround, but in general emotion drags us back even when we feel let down. Just like in business, we need to put money into the hands of the reliable and force the unreliable out of music. The big question is whether us emotional humans can break the cycle and realise that somewhere out there is a much more reliable artist who is just as good and making exactly the same music as the unreliable one we may feel connected to at the moment.

Fans showing the big money spenders (investors, labels etc.) who the reliable are is something I see as the way forward to put money back into the music equation. Without a reduction in the number of artists, music will remain undervalued (or free). And we'll lose a lot of the artists we shouldn't unless we learn to step away from our emotions and put some logic back in.

My experiences show that artists need to become a lot more reliable than they are at present if funding direct is to become a truly viable mainstream alternative to a label deal for any artist, but I'm not convinced we'll see the shift the music industry needs until/unless fans noticeably start acting less on emotion and hence force the issue.

And finally...
As January is usually both a short and quiet month for me on the finding music front, it's unlikely you'll see a standard post before February. But to keep you going in the meantime I'll be writing a special post for all you musicians out there in a couple of weeks which contains some questions that you ask fans (and sometimes even potential fans) which I happen to think are wrong. And I'll be letting you in on what I think you should be asking instead to get the information I think you were really looking for.