Comments on: Jango Airplay: Pay-for-play isn't effective

Pay-for-play has been around ever since the first kid in a garage wanted a quick and easy way to become a rock star. It never works.

[DavidJNels]

"Here's the deal, musicians: if you want to make a living playing music, somebody should be paying you for your music. Not the other way around. If nobody's buying, consider it a hobby, not a career. "

Well said, and couldn't agree with you more, Matt.

A musician who spends more money (or time, for that matter, in the age of the internet you don't need to pay out the nose for someone else to do specialized tasks) on the things you mention (promotion, marketing, etc..) will earn more in the end and get greater exposure.

If you're paying a ton to get massive amounts of plays on Jango, you are still dead in the water when an interested listener cannot find more information on, or the website for your band. I'm not saying that a tiny bit of this isn't OK to kickstart a band, but it is absolutely essential that you already have the marketing and promotional end in place.

Cheers,
David from Muziic

[NeonMonk]

Well said!

I guess Last.FM will be happy, although they've always had a much much much better service.

I hope Jango fails brutally.

[Dan_Kaufman]

Hi Matt,

Dan Kaufman, CEO of Jango here? you raise some good points I would like to address. ?Jango Airplay? is about letting emerging artists reach potential fans and helping listeners discover music they?re likely to like ? so the question of relevance and quality is a huge part of the service. It obviously has to be a good experience for everyone.

So, to clarify - it's not the case that anyone can upload anything and it will play as many times as they've paid for no matter what. There are several mechanisms in place to ensure quality and that the popular songs play more often, and that the really unpopular songs stop playing entirely. Here's how it works:

- Quality review

First of all, we review all songs to ensure that they meet (our own admittedly totally subjective) quality standards, and that the ?similar artists? chosen make sense - ie no song will be played next to both Keith Urban and Soulja Boy.

- Listener control

If a user doesn't like an "Airplay" song, all he needs to do is skip. Or if he gives it a negative rating, he?ll never hear it again. This applies both for "Airplay" songs and songs in general rotation.

- Community control

If an "Airplay" song receives more negative ratings than positive ratings, it will be ?retired? (and the money refunded to the emerging artist). Essentially, everybody that passes our internal quality review gets a shot at putting their song out there, but if it bombs in the community, it will stop playing. So far though, this hasn't happened. Unlike many in the peanut gallery seem to think, just because you?re not established doesn?t mean you?re not good - and artists serious enough about their career to spend money on promotion are generally much better than you?d think. So far our users have been giving positive ratings, writing comments and ?becoming fans? far more than rating down songs.


- Frequency capping

Lastly, "Airplay" songs play very infrequently compared to established artists. Users will hear an ?airplay song? no more than once per day initially. Eventually they may hear more than one per day but no more than once per 20 songs (unless they ask for more).

I hope this clarifies. We?re convinced that Jango Airplay is good for emerging artists AND users. With our quality review, listener and community control, and infrequency of airplay songs (compared to established artists), we believe that adding Airplay songs to the mix actually improves the user experience on Jango. If our users tell us otherwise, we?ll make adjustments (e.g. ? let users opt out of hearing Airplay songs). At the end of the day, the whole purpose is to help independents get discovered and help users discover independents - and it's paramount that it's a good experience for everyone. If we do that right, we think this is a MUCH better experience for everyone involved than the alternative - which is a 30 second audio ad for Lending Tree every other song.

[The_Eyeball]

Thank you so much Dan you said everything that I was about to say to this artical. I will be a new member of Jango in a week or so now I am as we speak getting my website stuff and songs prepped for uploading to jango I was taking a break when I saw this artical. I think Jango is a genius idea and you have paved the way for Indie producers sonwriters artists like myself. I will gladly be giving you money to apply my music because I have studied and been a recording artist since I was 16 years old and I know bigtime artists have huge bands of people giving radio stations and other media outlets not only payola but favors and tickets and gifts and all sorts of things. I have a friend who worked at a local large urban radio station that over half a million listeners listen too and he said the same thing. The reason some artist and songs get played to death is because labels and companies in the name of "PROMOTION(thats the code for secret payola by the way)" give radio stations personal appearences and photos and gear and accessories all kinds of stuff just to put the artist in heavy rotation. One time and this is the truth I remember PRINCE when he was just the artist formerly known as Prince came in person to that radio station to promote his Emancipation Album and Sony had catered food and drrinks with all kinds gifts and that station wore his album I mean wore it out! So you keep doing what you do Dan because you are a godsend for us little artists! God Bless you!

Hi Matt,
Virtually all the examples you draw on relating to payola-like dealings are either secretive, untrackable , involve no quality control, and provide little artist benefit (sometimes...though Payola achieves quite a lot for established artists). Jango's program is upfront, provides detailed play/ranking stats, and creates an opportunity for popular new artists to gain plays without payment. That sounds fantastic.

Perhaps I'm overly gullible, but I actually have some faith in Dan's statement above: "At the end of the day, the whole purpose is to help independents get discovered and help users discover independents."

I'm looking forward to seeing the program evolve and grow...and may even try it myself.

Mike
http://www.GarageSpin.com

[CreativeBrown]

Hi Matt,

Remember, you have to promote your music and jango is a simple way to get heard. They are upfront just like Mike said, "I like people who are upfront." Yeah, I could spend $4,000-$5,000 on radio promotion but I'm like many others who have a family so I have to be responsible with money especially in 2009, there is no room for error. I have been blessed by writting a great song and people actually like it and my goal is to get as many listeners as possible to share my music. "I AM A USER OF JANGO" I am getting noticed when I wasn't getting noticed before. I was just one out of Millions of artist and songwritiers trying to wrestle with the big boys. I almost quit out of fustration because I wanted to find a avenue right for me. I am seeing positive results now, that is all I want is to be heard.

Finally, I still have money in our family budget to take my kids and wife out. I'm not one of these guys that are wondering what happened to the budget...simply priceless. I myself and friends have become listeners to Jango and have enjoyed the new artist that have been played and if I like you I buy and support you music because I have the money and I love keeping my ipod fresh with new independent talent that are raw...simply priceless.

Thanks sincerely

Farmer Brown

[The_Eyeball]

Im glad you posted this staement Farrmer Brown because I was layed off my job an placed on unemployment with the hope my job may call me back in six weeks or so and my family told me I needed to get serious and get my music on line and sell it because I have a small fan base that buys my stuff but now i'm going to put it on the internet and sell that way. I knew a few people who are even now making a living selling music on the internet and they are three and four albums deep with over one hundred songs and every month they get a decent check to pay bills and all the other money they bank or use for promotion. They get up in the moring and check there site or upload new music and thats there day. Thats how I want to live. Being an artist you know how there's like this club or this fraternity of artist and I am one of the last to have my presence on the internet. My friends have been telling me from a few years ago to do this before it gets big and leave me behind and I'm just now doing it. SO I am excited when I hear storys like yours. I know it will take some time to reach my friends level with lavishing sites and video's and long iterneraries of links to buying hats and shirts and buttons and posters but I will get there! Keep it up God bless you!

[AustinWashington]

The only reason The Beatles first single, Love Me Do, charted, was because their manager's family owned record shops (or maybe one big one, I forget), and bought a boxes of their records....

[JoeCarpenter]

AustinWashington writes;

"The only reason The Beatles first single, Love Me Do, charted, was because their manager's family owned record shops (or maybe one big one, I forget), and bought a boxes of their records...."


Yeah, talent had absolutely nothing to do with The Beatles success, right?

[richbiscuit]

Anyone who takes their music seriously enough to want to sell it must treat the music industry as what it fundamentally is ... a business. All this talk about 'people should be paying you to listen to your music', etc is completely unbalanced. The reality is if you are a new band (new business) and no one knows about you, then you need some sort of marketing and promotional activity to generate interest in your music (your products). Even artists signed to major labels have to pay to play! It's just done a slightly different way where the PR teams of majors fork out hundreds of thousands of dollars promoting a new band, and that expense is recouped from future music sales thereby putting the band in a tremendous position of debt right from the outset. And what happens if that band doesn't sell? They get dropped and potentially held by contract from releasing anything ever again without all proceeds going to the major label to pay off the debt they owe! A nasty position to be in and one that no doubt countless 'one hit wonders' find themselves in today.

If a band is unsigned, or releasing stuff on their own label then they need a marketing budget and an effective means to reach new listeners. Most of us don't have the finances that the major labels have at their disposal, so we cannot compete with huge billboards, primetime mainstream advertisements or premier radio airplay. With services like Jango however we can have our music played alongside huge established artists, and who knows, maybe someone out there will like it enough to want to know a bit more about the band and maybe become a fan.

Regardless of the size of your operation, or the style of music you perform, you need a budget. You need to pay someone something to get heard, whether that's getting 1000 CD's pressed, hiring a club and putting on a gig at an expense of several thousand dollars, or paying a few hundred dollars for pay-per-play on a global, popular music channel. All this talk about somehow getting your music to the ears of new listeners at zero expense, or even at a profit, is total BS and anyone who is in a real band, who has been through the time and expense of putting on a gig, hiring a sound engineer, printing and distributing flyers, spending half the day sound checking and half the night packing stuff away knows that unless you have a significant fan base, you are going to lose money.

Services like Jango are a breath of fresh air and I only wish this kind of thing was available to me 10 years ago when I was actually in a position to be out gigging every night as well. Now I'm older with family commitments I know my dream of being a 'famous' musician are probably never going to be realised, however if I can generate a fan base and get a few iTunes sales under my belt through Jango then I'm a happy man!

[gabehizer]

I'm an indie musician singer/songwriter with a new CD (1st one) coming out soon. Seems to me the modest fees Jango charges are worth the exposure. Even if all I get are comments that I "sound like so and so" that's worth it to me in helping me target my marketing! As some of the other comments state, you really have to pay someone something to get known; that's what marketing is all about. Here in Nashville it's not uncommon for a songwriter to pay a plugger $500/month to get their songs in front of key people. So, as you can see, everyone pays to get exposure!

[twan52]

I havent had a chance to read all the comments but i totally disagree with the author... i'm in a band and use jango to promote. i don't on the other hand enter pay to play comps and other such scams. there is a distinct difference - pay to play you waste your time promoting yourself endlessly for another company like emergenza for example sell 100 tickets and we'll put you through even if you suck. jango - pay them money and they promote their site, quality control the music, have an infrastructure for listeners to choose if they like your tunes or not and the best part - the musician doesn't have to do a thing. the end line is if you're a quality act and can stand up to being judged on the quality of your music then jango is excellent. if you are a rubbish student band with no experience no musical ability and you like playing to your family and friends then pay to play IS FOR YOU! yay for jango boo for pay to play!...