Product Review Of Music Business Academy
Product Review
Product review for Damian Keyes’ Music Business Academy. I am a large Keyes fan. A friend introduced me to his cheeky YouTube videos about 18 months ago. I’ve drank the Kool-aid since. Fast forward those 18 months and a lot of research, reading, watching and learning has taken place. And guess what? I still like him. He’s forthright, a good actor (even when he knows he’s spewing B.S.), and manages to infuse humor. That said, I was rather surprised how cookie cutter his Music Business Academy course is. Or, do I have silly expectations?
Please don’t get me wrong in this product review. Keyes’ is preaching things I can agree with a good 97% of the time. The problem is is he falls in a trap I find all too many tutorials (of any kind) on Youtube do. He explains the 101 in an excellent fashion. This makes perfect sense. The guy is a marketer after all. He knows how to set the stage well. There is professionalism and comfort towards the camera which he exudes. This instills confidence for his followers and helps ease learning. All awesome things!
Common Traps Oh No!
The common trap he falls into is he goes on to explain the 101 for tooooo loooong. I inevitably lose focus as he drones on with things I learned from him for another 97 minutes. Now that there was too much time spent on pitching the tactic as a worthwhile one, there’s a rush job of an explanation. Pragmatic elements to his approaches and their explanations come and go all too fast. Again, not his fault. It’s become a standard format among youtube videos (in my opinion, I can’t validate this).
I don’t exactly blame him for wanting to be comprehensive either. This is a problem with YouTube tutorials in general, as life-saving as they are! The problems I mention are not unique to Keyes in particular.
There’s nothing malicious at play here, but it makes for a lousy learning experience. If one is teaching a mid-high level music marketing course, it’s not necessary to define what an ‘ad campaign,’ is. We can probably skip the definition of sales and marketing funnels. There needs to be an understanding that musicians should already know these things.
Or, Am I Being Too Critical In This Product Review?
That’s the predicament I’m sure Damien finds himself in often while explaining the music industry. Satisfying both sides of this argument. Should this knowledge be a pre-requisite to signing up? Or did we all already drop the ball?
He does do a good job of towing the line between painful beginner info and equally painful advanced info. Need to be sure to give credit where it’s due.
I thank Damian for his music business course, and may still (happily) be proven wrong about his teaching style. I would adore this because, well, I actually rather like the guy!
My Product Review On Damien Keyes’ Music Business Academy?
After Being Subscribed 6 hours And Having Watched 1.5 Modules So Far? Well…
On Get More Listens Dot Com, I try to drive home the fact no one person has the ultimate advice to provide. Each artist has a unique road to travel with their own special sort of music. It’s always best to take in as much information from credible sources as possible! Don’t limit your knowledge because some guy on the web said, “This one tiny stupid, innocuous thing.” This should not dismiss all credibility.
Cutting to the chase and point – Try it! They give a week free trial and if there’s one thing I’m a sucker for, it’s free trials. All you will want to ensure is that you mark your calendar to de-activate it at that 7 day mark! That’s because this course has a hefty price tag.
There’s two billing options present for this product. A monthly subscription where the cost is $19.99/month, or you may pay for the year upfront for $200 in total. A bit steep! But, that’s why there’s a trial right? I can’t imagine it’s hard to upgrade service level either.
Damian wants you to be a customer for as long as possible. And he wants your money, so an upgrade is likely doable, though I’ve not investigated this at all. It might be worth mentioning that part of Keyes’ pitch relies on the fact he will be raising prices soon. I’m sure he will be! Not sure how much further up you can go in a sensical manner. But, hey, so long as he doesn’t tell me what to do with my business, I won’t tell him what to do with his!
As always, please feel welcome to contact Chuck with questions about music business, music marketing or anything at all!
Spotify Falls Short .. Shocking.
Spotify Falls Short
Spotify Falls Short – Spotify CEO and Owner Daniel Ek made an announcement Monday. An announcement he thought should warrant a pat on the back. While Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen announced they were co-headlining a podcast and stealing attention from Ek, the streaming service billionaire lauded a new functionality for Podcasters. This along with a few other pointless ‘enhancements’.
As we’ve come to anticipate from Ek in particular over other big services, he allowed Spotify to fall short. Nothing he announces is ever as dazzling as pitched to us. It’s all the same dry, redundant and garbage laden speech we’ve come to expect from the former uTorrent CEO. He was a millionaire by age fourteen and as time goes on, the Spotify founder only reminds me more and more of Lex Luther. He began out of touch, remains out of touch, and sadly doesn’t give a F***.
Spotify Falls Short Of Presenting Their Announcement Honestly
Honestly may not be the correct word. There was a conscious effort by Spotify and Daniel Ek to distract. There was an understanding that he was going to tout new services in attempt to shield the public from the facts. The facts being he is lining his pockets further while we struggle to eat.
Spotify is hot to trot regarding kissing up to Podcasters, thanks to its recent Megaphone acquisition. That part is not terribly surprising.
In addition, there’d been news of this but it’s so rude of the Company to pull it requires mentioning. They actually had the nerve to tout their new Streaming Ad Insertion technology, along with a Hi-Fi subscription tier.
You don’t need me to tell you this but neither sounds like they are helping artists, or priced even within a reasonable enough range where we’d want to accept this upsell
Spotify Falls Short Of Human Decency
I know, another shocker of a statement for this man who looks like a baby’s head, but throughout his whole appearance. Spotify is using the same BS they used YEARS ago to hook us musicians. Now their aim lies on Podcasters, as they leave us to further fend for ourselves.
All of this is said alongside another statement from the Spotify founder. He actually had the nerve to say this yesterday, with all this other news happening –
Taken from an interview in The Verge from yesterday –
Ashley Carman, senior reporter, posed this to Ek, “Today your team announced that 7,500 creators are making at least $100,000 per year on your platform. How does Spotify plan to grow that number?
Daniel Ek, CEO, Spotify: Long term, it’s really about — as I kind of outlined in the remarks, as well, during the event — we think the space is so much larger than most people realize, both in the amount of consumers that care, the minutes that will be spent in audio, and the amount of creators that ultimately will create content. So it’s in the billions of consumers, and we believe more than 50 million creators will create.”
Spotify Falls Short Of Reality
Excuse me? First, that’s not addressing the question in the slightest. In addition, that is such an obtuse answer I’m white hot with frustration towards it. Like a total jerk, he unncessarily says to Ms. Carman, “… as I outlined in the remarks, as well, during the event -” – Only people who think their words are more important than they are speak this way.
Where it really goes off the rails, is when Ek essentially equates the entire listening world to users of Spotify. Also, even if his point made sense or had any relevancy, there’s no mention of paying creators. He just says they exist. I think reading between the lines is saying his statement was NOT as Monty Burns evil as we know it to be is not even needed. It sits pretty above the line in public view.
Spotify Will Always Fall Short.
Spotify will always fall short in regards to helping artists of any kind. They’re too busy scheming behind the scenes on how they will market and posture this stuff to give any attention to just paying it’s content creators anything short of reasonable. And I’m so very tired of hearing it. As well as pretending this Company is going to have some magical turn of conscience out of the blue.
It’s Not Going To Happen
There will be no action from any digital music streaming platforms proactively to remedy this scenario. Instead, in times like these, we must band together. If Daniel Ek cannot be bothered to speak to us directly, we must start the conversation. On March 15, 2021, the Union of Musicians will be staging an international ‘Justice At Spotify’ march. This is a protest to demand a measly one cent per stream for creators. I think that’s more than fair and easily within Spotify’s budget. I’ll see you in New York if you can make it! Otherwise, check out that link! They’re doing this at Spotify headquarters Globally. If you have any trouble finding or receiving information, please drop by the Contact Us page to drop me a line! Happy to help!
Contact Chuck at [email protected] if you have any questions about how to earn listens, or marketing your music!