Customer Reviews

Futurehit.DNA

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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]

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

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.

This is my new go -to book for inspiration. I keep it handy while songwriting because the main points that Jay presents are so resonant with modern music creation ...that I have already seen a better response to my songs. Jay has a lot of information and statistics in the book that deepen the understanding of these new truths about the music business, he has brilliant way of voicing what it takes to make it in the new market. I attended a lecture that he gave and it made me want to read the book again..I highly recommend this for anyone wanting to write songs for modern culture. Thanks Jay for the fresh perspective...!

As a veteran of the business of music, I can safely say that Jay's book, 'FutureHit.DNA', is well thought-out, researched, and presented.
If you're a fan of non-fluff books on the music business, e.g. Moses Avalon, then this is a great read.
This is not one of those Do-It-Yourself to Fame & Fortune books with cute tips on 'blogging' and 'twittering'.
The book does however offer educated and studied advice that is certainly applicable to artist, writers, publishers, labels, managers, etc . . .
Jay makes some compelling arguments for truly knowing and understanding the new 'art and craft' of having a career in any genre of contemporary music.

Very Well Done~
Michael Huey
HueyTunes

Really great book. Provides a lot of insight. If you write music, perform music, or work within he music industry this is a must read!

I learned about this book by watching one of the Taxi.com video productions. The books contains something like 15 suggestions as to how to adapt music productions to interface with modern standards and business models. Paradoxically, I found the book to be a roadmap for getting submitted music to be rejected by Taxi.

FutureHit.DNA is a unique perspective on what may be the best way to make a song a hit. The information is not just from your typical viewpoint, it's from an ultimate insider with a unique resume' from which to draw upon. If you want your songs to have their best chance, then I seriously suggest Jay Frank's book on what the Future is for hit songs.

After being in the music business for 10 years, you think you know almost everything. Jay Frank tells you something that you didn't expect. Not only is the author well versed in the history of what makes popular music popular (radio, song construction, etc.), he also explains in great detail what artists and bands will need to do in the future to gain popularity on radio and with consumers in an instantaneous way. A very interesting and thought-provoking read, this book will provide key insights and tips on what artists must do if they want to be successful in the future. A must read for any musician, manager, label, or even a parent of a young artist.

I downloaded a sample of this book, and seriously debated whether someone who would write "irregardless", backed by a publisher whose proofreader let this one slip, could possibly have anything to offer to anyone other than reinforcing their own bad grammar.

Well I'm glad I got over that - this book is loaded with insight about how to write for the digital medium. Adds a little science to your art, and in ways that could potentially be lucrative for you. It's definitely worth the read.

Still. "Irregardless"??? Really??

:-)