Futurehit.DNA [Paperback]

Jay L Frank (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0615285708 | ISBN-13: 978-0615285702

The digital revolution has been televised. It is now widely accepted that digital distribution will become the preferred method of consuming music for the majority of people worldwide. The avenues of choice and consumption make it too appealing for music fans to ignore. Millions of music fans have already jumped in head-first with iPods, internet radio, file trading, online music videos and streaming from personalized community pages and websites. While the makeup of this digital landscape has been well documented, there has never been any detailed analysis to what this all means for the music creation process. Listening habits are changing drastically. The methods in which music gatekeepers can understand what music will become hits are rapidly growing deeper than ever before. The gatekeepers themselves are also changing. Jay Frank is one of those gatekeepers. As Head of Music Programming at Yahoo! Music and now as SVP of Music Strategy at CMT, he is on the forefront of the new methods of music consumption. He has been able to synthesize the feedback of millions of music fans weekly to identify, pick and promote future hit songs well before it touches the mainstream radar. What he has seen is that the elements of song writing and production that made hits yesterday are quickly losing ground and new techniques must be implemented for the #1 songs of tomorrow. Future Hit.DNA provides a road map to this digital landscape, outlining 15 points that must change in a song if the artists, songwriters and producers of tomorrow want a chart topping hit. For the first time, Future Hit.DNA actually dissects the elements to a hit song based on the technology that delivers the music. It shows how technology has always led the way hit songs are written from campfires to car stereos. The book provides the blueprint to the subtle changes that need to be made that result in little difference to music fans, but big differences in that song's placement on the charts. The new digital world also opens up many more opportunities for artists and songwriters to earn money on their music than ever before. While examining the methods for tomorrow's hits, Future Hit.DNA also shows how these changes can result in larger royalty checks. Songs can now earn more money than ever, as long as the creator knows the tricks. For the first time, Future Hit.DNA delivers inside tricks from both the music listener and music industry perspective. When utilized, these tips will result in significant advantages in those songs' abilities to become hits. This unprecedented insight will give its readers a leg up over the competition, thereby making the book an essential read for anyone involved in the creation of music.

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Futurehit, Inc. (September 30, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615285708
• ISBN-13: 978-0615285702
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #740,844 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jay Frank is Senior Vice President of Music Strategy for CMT. Frank oversees music strategy as it relates to all of the network's on-air and digital music initiatives across all properties, including CMT, CMT.com, CMT Mobile, games, touring and other businesses. He works closely with music labels and artists to create multi-platform promotions that leverage all of the CMT brands to enhance artist reach and drive awareness for the channel.

Under Frank's leadership, music video ratings have reached an all-time high for the channel, with an incredible 43 percent growth in 2009 with stunt programming and exclusive premieres as part of an aggressive multi-platform promotional strategy. Last year, he led the network's biggest video premiere event ever featuring nine superstars as part of "Big New Music Weekend." The videos premiered exclusively across CMT, CMT.com and CMT Mobile, resulting in double-digit increases for channel ratings and unique visits on CMT.com, while streams to CMT.com grew 45 percent during the stunt weekend.

Frank came to CMT from Yahoo! Music where he was Vice President of Music Programming and Label Relations, responsible for all the company's music programming, working closely with record labels and managers to oversee artist promotions. While at Yahoo! Music, Frank was instrumental in growing its audience exponentially to a monthly audience of approximately 25 million people.

Prior to joining Yahoo! Music, Frank was senior music director at The Box Music Network, managing all daily music activity on the music video network and coordinating programming efforts that resulted in the network's first Emmy award. He has also acted as marketing and A&R for Ignition Records, managed a live music venue, programmed broadcast radio stations and created two local music video shows.

Frank holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY and sits on the Board of Directors of the Academy of Country Music and Leadership Music. He is also a Member of NARAS, the CRS Marketing Committee, Leadership Music and Leadership Music Digital Summit. His first book, "FutureHit.DNA," was published last year. A respected worldwide leader in the music and digital communities, Frank has spoken at such conferences as MIDEM, South By Southwest, Canadian Music Week, ASCAP Expo, MusExpo, Digital Music Forum, CMJ, SF Music Tech Summit and Mobile Entertainment Summit, among others.

Frank resides in Nashville with his wife and daughter.

For more information, check out these links:

www.futurehitdna.com
www.twitter.com/futurehitdna

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful look at what makes hit songs in the digital age, July 18, 2010

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Futurehit.DNA (Paperback)

If you're a musician wondering how to make your music more marketable, or you're a listener wondering how the industry markets to you, industry executive Jay Frank has some interesting insights to share. His central thesis is that changes in technology lead to changes in consumption patterns which necessitate changes in the way music with commercial intentions is created. He covers changes in music delivery (jukeboxes, radio, soundtracks, commercials, iPods, video games), creation technologies (live, recorded, multi-tracked, DIY studios), and the industry's business models. He provides specific suggestions for making your music saleable amid the changing landscapes.

Frank doesn't purport to make your music more artistic; instead, he suggests how to make your output catch and retain someone's attention - be they radio or digital stream listeners, the CD/MP3-buying public, a radio station's music director, or a television show's music coordinator. In that sense, he's a hit-song mercenary, but after reading his book you'll understand that getting heard amid the fire hose of music passing through the Internet isn't always a simple task of just making great music. His analysis of industry changes suggests the impact they've had on song construction. He explains the results of transitioning from 78s to 45s to LPs, describes how listening habits and hit selection were altered by the 45 changer, and why song intros grew longer as automated programming systems favored records that left more room for ads to be read live by DJs.

The need to make your songs catchy and sticky is underlined by the ease with which modern listeners can change channel (due to digital radio tuners) and instantly skip a song (due to the capacities of MP3 players and streaming music services). Frank points out that we now live in a "zero play" environment in which listeners are more likely to hear a song from the beginning, rather than a radio environment where a channel change is likely to drop you into the middle. The result, according to Frank, is a heavier emphasis on the first seven seconds of a song (the time during which a listener is most likely to hit the skip button) and the first 60 seconds (the time at which a play is counted towards chart position). The sheer volume of music being created and marketed directly from artists to listeners begs artists to think about how to get and hold someone's attention.

Frank points out that hitting skip in the radio world - changing to another station - is a negative vote on the station and an indication of reduced loyalty; in the Internet world, however, skipping a song gives the provider a chance to tee up a song you will like, and thus increase your loyalty. At the same time, Internet services have instant access to your skip pattern, and can fine-tune their presentation; radio must guess, do phone research, or employ portable people meters. Digital delivery is inherently a real-time ratings box. Internet services also have the advantage of stretching the repetition of their programming across individual's listening sessions that span days, weeks or months, rather than driving a line down the middle of an hourly broadcast audience.

Frank is a sophisticated, deep-thinker about the inner workings of the industry and its interplay with consumer psychology. The recommendations he offers here for improving your music's chance with modern listeners are about mechanics, rather than art: use more chord changes and dynamic range, create more releases more often, record covers songs, increase repetition of hooks, produce alternate versions, dip your toe across genres, and so on. Frank suggests that direct licensing of songs to listeners is shifting to a multiplicity of licensing models, including streams, on-demand, film, television, commercials, and video games, and that taking advantage of these new channels, if that's one of your goals, will likely require changes to your music.

Given Frank's background as a gatekeeper rather than a producer - he served as head of music programming for Yahoo! and is currently the SVP of music strategy at CMT - his advice might sounds like Monday morning quarterbacking. But his years as a programmer placed him on the front lines of what worked and what didn't, and led to this compelling analysis of how production mechanics interact with delivery channels and listener habits and trends. Whether you're a musician looking to increase your music's commercial potential, or a music fan wondering just how such commercial potential is created, this is an insightful look inside the music industry. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read book for every songwriter, producer, & artist, January 2, 2010

By 

Kami Knake (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Futurehit.DNA (Paperback)

FutureHit.DNA is the only book I know of that gives you marketing tips from a digital perspective written by a music industry insider that will enable you to make more MONEY!

For fans of Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell, this book is written in a simple, easy-to-digest manner and offers up great case studies. It will make you think differently about how songs should be structured or why certain songs stick in your head easier than others.

It's perfect for anyone passionate about music creation and music marketing. I market music online for a living and think everyone that works in the music business should read this.

The digital revolution has made music discovery harder. On any given week, 15,000 new songs can be released through legal digital channels. This book analyzes past and present trends and gives great insight into how people listen and consume music today.

For example, in the digital world all songs start at zero seconds. Most listeners will hit the skip button in the first 7 seconds if the song doesn't grab them. Did you know that songs must play for a minimum of sixty seconds to count as a play and generate royalty money?

After reading this book, you will want to make a list of all the tips you discover a for quick reference.

I really believe it will make you look at the song creation process differently and give you a leg up over the competition.

Kami

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Heavy on Theory, Light on Demonstrations, January 17, 2011

By 

Paul C. Hinman "plainhuman" (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Futurehit.DNA (Paperback)

Frank certainly has the credentials to write this type of work and speak authoritatively. Many of the 15 factors he highlights seem perfectly reasonable. However, there seems to be little statistical data backing any of his theories up. He does attempt to support each factor with anecdotal evidence, but more often than not, he glosses over any potential countervailing trends or evidence with two appeals (i) that these trends will not manifest for 3-5 years or (ii) silence.

Perhaps the book should be focused on identifying trends and themes that arose in pop music in the past, rather than attempting to plot future trends. As a predictive tool, the model holds minimal value. While there is certainly the need to balance creative expression with commercial appeal, its unclear how artists should actually proceed. Should they simply take Frank's advice and write longer songs with more chord changes, that will somehow appeal across traditional genres? If anything, this work could be more effective in combating the mindset of modern (corporate-owned) labels who have attempted to make hits more homogenous across a broad spectrum.