We somewhat recently came down with a strain of ADD but have now recovered with a little less coffee and potentially more ingrained work ethic. So we're back, after a somewhat lengthy absence (and, ahem, we hope you've noticed and maybe even missed us. Maybe just a little).

Because sometimes we're embarrassingly unhip--meaning, we only listen to artist submissions we get in and nothing else in the outside world for weeks at a time--we like this site because it tells us "what the kids" are listening to these days.

We Are Hunted offers a useful aggregation of social networks--P2P's and torrents included--and the results are eclectic, diverse, and of the moment in a lovely, musical sort of way. Nice.

Earlier this month Journey's summer-time classic "Don't Stop Believin'" became the first catalog track in history to sell over 2 million digital copies.

Back in the day, as it were, Journey was among the ranks of bands known as corporate rock (aka Arena Rock), alongside the likes of Foreigner, Boston and Styx. And go figure, say what you like, but those bands were, in actuality, pretty good. What differentiates Journey from, say, Boston--who, I dare say, were perhaps better than Journey--is its luck/savvy-ness at licensing the right song in the right place, at the right time.

Surely, older (oldish?) HBO Sopranos viewers watching that final episode were reminded of youthful times in the backseat of a car and immediately rushed to the closest computer to relive the moment courtesy of iTunes. Indeed, iTunes sales apparently spiked 482% during the airdate week. But similarly, the same track made it to iTunes Top 10 Singles a couple of years earlier, coinciding with the song's use in Fox's "Family Guy" and MTV's "Laguna Beach", boasting a younger demographic.

So maybe it's the pure white sugar sweetness of the song. Perhaps its eighties production doesn't completely overwhelm it in the same way it's victimized others of its ilk. Would Supertramp's "Give A Little Bit" or Boston's "More Than A Feeling" give "Don't Stop Believin'" a run for its number one place on iTunes? It may well depend solely on a good scene in a great series.

The art of music marketing begins and ends with the advertising of an advertisement; one part mass exposure and all remaining parts dependent on the effect of the song on the ears of the listener. An artist's song not only advertises itself, but additional songs for the artist, and the artist itself.

American Idol's marketing art is a masterpiece, wielding mass exposure, a repertoire of proven hits, and constant connection with its artists resulting in an inherent emotional investment for the fan. This is middle America marketing at its finest. And then there's the long tail.

According to a recent Pew Report, 83 percent of Americans discover music through terrestrial radio, movies, or television, and 51 percent suggested that the internet had no effect on purchases whatsoever. The report explains

The story for music is a bit different because it is an experience good--the kind of product whose quality is discernable [sic] only after it has been consumed. ...In fact, [consumers] are more likely to rely on mainstream media or recommendations from family and friends for inspiration for music purchases.

Reading this, creeping suspicion sets in for me. These are probably not the purchasers that dig deep, buy the first Arcade Fire or White Stripes CD, and help launch indie bands into popularity. I suspect that the majority of music purchasers don't have the hundreds, if not thousands of CDs, MP3's and old cassette tapes that I, my friends and colleagues house. I further suspect they have one Whitney Houston CD, one John Mayer release and a Radiohead album. And besides, Clotaire Rapaille, the famous Chairman of Archetype Discoveries and psychological marketing researcher of the reptilian mind suggests that you can't believe what people say.

It's not that people intentionally lie during surveys and focus groups; it's that they try too hard to please. When asked about their interests and preferences, they tend to give answers they believe the questioner wants to hear.

I'm wondering if there may not be some P2P exploration going on behind the scenes in addition to the Gray's Anatomy playlist and family recommendations (and when was the last time you rushed to iTunes based on a music suggestion from your mom?)

So while I'm wantonly waiting in vain for Dr. Rapaille to release a study on the psychology of music purchasing, Bob Lefsetz is busy writing about choices and the strategy of niche marketing. Lefsetz offers up Malcolm Gladwell's speech about Prego vs. Ragu's multiple offerings of spaghetti sauce and Bob's conclusion that

Maybe, if the public was exposed to something different, they'd like it! In enough quantity to make money! For everybody who likes Mariah Carey, there are tons who are turned off and hate her. This is the lesson of the twenty first century. Not that if everybody paid for music Mariah would sell more, but that many people don't want her music at any price, they want something different! He who will rule in the future is he who services all these niches, who gives people something different.

Here's where it gets sticky. Consumers (and that means you and me), like choices but not too many. I'm not going to wind my way through MyFaceFriend and listen to every musical offering. Most of America does prefer the passive music discovery of a pre-selected commercial radio playlist and the six or so selections broadcast on a one hour TV show. And long tail music lovers like to dig within their favorite genres--hence the sweetness of Last FM and Pandora, not unlike the alternatives of Rough Trade Records or Wax Trax back in the day.

Which brings us back to the art of marketing and exposure. I would wager that the music collectors--those who pay rapt and undying attention to what's new, what's hot and what they can discover first, use the internet--not radio and TV--for discovery. Those fans have the reptilian nature of connecting with an artist on their own, but the marketing need still be in place for the one song advertisement to make its mark and that will continue to solidify in the online world.

I recently did some online marketing last year for one of my licensing clients and, in the process, was surprised how few large go-to music sites existed. There are a few, but apparently it is a long tail indeed.

Of the sites I found the most useful--and successful--from a marketing point of view were, I realized, helpful in other ways as well: for music supervision purposes, research and also for the sheer pleasure of discovering new music. And further, while I suspect the general music supervision population at large visit the sites as much as I, I wonder if the sites themselves understand the full usefulness to the music industry and for others looking to filter the best music.

I use All Music Guide (AMG) on a regular basis, most recently in search of a recognizable but affordable eighties-era song that could be cleared quickly at an affordable license fee for a feature length film. (I'll save the Kafka-esque adventure of clearing such a major label/major publisher owned piece of music for another post.)

One of the most wonderful aspects of AMG's bountiful and more or less accurate information is its list of similar artists, bands that influenced any given act and in turn, what artists the band has influenced. I was able to find a multitude of tracks I might use, confirm a track's popularity via AMG's charting information and make note of its writers so I could continue on to the monolithic and clunky BMI and ASCAP sites to find publishing contact information.

AMG, however, hosts the suckiest music player in the entire world, buffering endlessly or offering a few musical coughs after repeatedly clicking on the play icon until the angle, or force, or positive thinking is just right. Further, it's a shame the site won't link songwriter credits to BMI, ASCAP, etc. In fact, IMDB, the penultimate site for film and TV information, has an extended pay for service that offers additional detailed information, although I've found it to be often incomplete and not particularly useful for my needs. Lastly, in my Perfect Music Resource World, I fantasize iTunes and AMG partnering to create the ultimate and seamless resource for music supervisors, music marketers, and music fans. Sigh.

I had high hopes for Podshow, a podcast aggregator and also one of only two sites offering large catalogue of podsafe music and videos. Podshow has apparently, overnight, transmorgified into a site with the meaningless name of Mevio. Mevio's homepage is now a confusing, dark, and noisy video arcade organized under the vague headings of "Cool Episodes", "Hot Shows" and "Hot Tracks", which I think loosely translated means Stuff, Some Other Stuff and More Stuff. Mevio's music page is no better; in fact, it's pretty much identical.

But the site does have a Top Ten Podsafe Track Chart and the (still in beta at least three years since launch) Podsafe Music Network page, which allows artists to upload music to offer music podcasters for free. I think this is an important resource to further the cause of podcast played music and potentially a new way to re-start the concept of charting and airplay rotation radio once provided. It's a shame the concept isn't given the priority, or the push, considering Mevio's apparent desire to focus its attention on the Lots o' Video Stuff business model.

The site that gets it pretty much right: Last.fm. It provides one of the best music filters I've seen, and the music player works, although the page reload when changing tracks is annoying. The listener count in particular is interesting and like AMG, Last.fm provides a similar artists list, a boon for both fans and music supervisors. It also links to iTunes, which is nice--I often switch between these two sites, searching on Last.fm and switching to iTunes for more complete catalogue accessibility. The site is clean too and well organized, something a lot of sites just can't figure out.

Ultimately, these sites have the potential to hold more sway along the way and perhaps even take over where the printed pages of Rolling Stone and the power of commercial radio has faded. A long way to go perhaps but the concepts are there and seeded.

The Elevator Drops are such a great band, they literally destroyed my desire to manage artists. Previous to my introduction to The 'drops, I worked with Bracket, a pop punk band out of Forestville, California, who refused to leave their van until set time and

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I've had a fleeting fascination with a product I happened onto recently. Currently in beta, and apparently trying to jump on the music licensing bandwagon LicenseQuote.com offers a calculator, enabling artists to estimate film and TV license fees for their songs.

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The single most favorite topic that those living in the music industry love to talk about amongst themselves is the demise of major labels and the crumbling music industry structure. There's not a day that goes by that this subject doesn't come up for me.

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