Celebrities are Tweeting for Dollars

December 2, 2011

The value of celebrity partnerships and endorsements with major brands for commercials, print ads, music videos has already shown it’s marketing prowess and profitability for both parties. There is now a new channel for celebrities to prove their star power – Paying for Tweets. Paying a celebrity thousands of dollars to promote your company in 140 characters or fewer may seem crazy. But a growing number of businesses are setting aside marketing dollars to do just that. For instance, Best Buy recently tapped reality star Kim Kardashian (Kim demands $10,000 every time she Tweets about a product) to tweet about its cell phones and Microsoft hired entertainment mogul Diddy to tout its mobile tagging service, Microsoft Tag, to his legion of Twitter followers. Any company can snag an endorsement from a star using services that connect advertisers with tweeters—for a price, of course.

How much does it cost for a celebrity endorsement? Below is a sampling of stars for hire on the SponsoredTweets platform.

Fee per tweet
Number of followers

Lindsay Lohan
$2,353
2,472,484

Frankie Muniz
$208
119,789

Jose Canseco
$3,900
400,475

Soleil Moon Frye
$5,850
1,449,763

Lance Bass
$134.33
104,288

Mike Tyson
$3,250
851,168

JWoww
$2,353
1,549,310

Tyrese
$4,550
1,595,225

Khloé Kardashian
$8,235.50
2,856,036

Source: SponsoredTweets

How to take the bite out of the Macro Bug

November 14, 2011

At some stage, almost every photographer will be bitten by the macro bug. Something about seeing things close up in ultra-high definition attracts almost everyone to flirt with the world of macro photography at some point on their photographic path. But a macro lens can be expensive (usually over $500).

One of our favorite alternatives to ease you into the world of macro photography without breaking the bank is to use Macro Tubes. Macro tubes are typically under $100. Check out Macro Tubes Here

If you find that you’re loving it so much and feel that you’re being held back by your equipment, then by all means explore more expensive lens options. Remember, however, that an expensive lens is not always going to improve your skills. As you can see above, there are some very stunning things you can do with the “cheap” options in macro.

Careers for Artists in the Video Game Industry?

November 14, 2011

Are video games works of art? The debate goes on, but there’s no question that art is integral to video games. I can remember my parents saying to me, “Don’t go into art because there is no money in it!”. Well, times have indeed changed, not only is there always need for talented graphic designers in the work force but the gaming industry has opened up new lucrative avenues for artists.

To compete in the $60 billion global video game marketplace, top studios have assembled NFL-roster-size teams of increasingly specialized artists to create blockbuster titles. This growing demand for high-profile talent has led colleges and art schools to increase the course and degree options for prospective video game artists. In fact, Colleges and art schools have doubled the video game art majors in the last two years, according to The Princeton Review’s survey of schools offering video game coursework and degrees.

As gaming continues to rise in popularity, cross gender and social boundaries, and expand in what defines a gaming experience, artists of all types will be in high demand to provide all the visual elements and quality that consumers expect.

In addition to the creative element, video game artists and animators are well-paid. They make, on average, $71,354, according to Game Developer magazine’s 2010 annual industry salary survey, though not as much as game programmers, at $85,733 on average.

For current blockbuster games, budgeted at $40 million to $60 million, artists are needed to conceptualize environments and characters, create visual effects, add lighting and mesh the art with the game programming.

With rising interest for games, studios will need a constant flow of artists, says Michel Ancel, creator of the Rayman game franchise. “Video games are just at the start of their history, when you compare them to other styles of art,” he says. “Thousands of worlds have yet to be designed, and artists are essential to bring these worlds to life. The story is just beginning.”

Is there still money to be made in Music?

November 7, 2011

As technology continues to be one of the “key” driving forces behind the evolution of the music industry, there are signs that consumers may not be paying for recorded music in the future —thus, will the old monetizations models for artists and labels still work? Better yet are they working now?

When the dust finally settles between the artists, labels, and distribution companies, we feel that the importance of artist to fan relationships will more than likely emerge as being more valuable than recorded music itself.

As we can see from the chart below, traditional monetization models for recorded music sales have been steadily declining. Total revenues for CDs, vinyl, cassettes, and digital downloads worldwide dropped 25 percent from $38.6 billion in 1999 to $27.5 billion in 2008, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The same revenues in the U.S. dropped from a high of $14.6 billion in 1999 to $10.4 billion in 2008.

While digital music sales have been on the rise in recent years, they have only partially replaced physical sales, so the overall sales figures are still headed south. And it surely isn’t because people are listening to less music. It’s simply because the old adage holds true: why pay for something that you can get for free? In addition, artists, the ones with the talent, aren’t making money off digital sales. Artists get about $0.09 per song sold digitally on iTunes or Amazon. So for a million downloaded hits, an artist earns about $90K. Subtract manager, lawyer, agent and other “fees,” and what is left for the artist selling one million downloads is minimal.
Already, there is a deluge of great (and legal!) sites providing free music — including Pandora, YouTube, Spotify, Grooveshark, MOG, Rdio, and other online destinations. This is a big change from the early days of online music, when free meant illegal. Today, music start-ups have caught on to the profit potential in “giving it away.” Companies like Pandora, which generated $67M of revenue in 2011 Q2, and Spotify with over two million paying users, don’t charge for entry-level service. Instead, these music innovators found a way to monetize music indirectly through advertising and other means. Music still comes at great cost — start-ups still pay high licensing fees to labels — but as the economics shift, licensing fees are likely to decline. (Yes, labels will do a lot of kicking and screaming.)

Source: CNN, Forrester

The bottom line is, music is getting closer and closer to free and we anticipate a lot of “creative” changes to the value model based on fan-driven music marketing models. Distribution is becoming commoditized, so monetization must change. To this end, artists will have to develop innovative ways to engage with fans more directly, and actively seek out fans and benefactors willing to pay more than usual for their work. The music startups that will make money over the long term are those that will connect artists with fans, help people filter and discover new music they love, and offer unique experiences. People will never stop listening to music — they’ll just change how they find it, hear it, and pay for it.

So what are these new and innovated ways that artists can monetize their music? Contact Us.