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Can The Music Industry Save Itself? Part 5: Release More Records

PREVIOUSLY: Introduction,  1. Off With Their Heads, 2. Cut The Fat, 3. Build Label Brands, 4. Serve The Niches.**

Broken_record
The music industry is facing many challenges. How can the major labels and the
entrepreneurs that seek to replace them adjust to compete in this new
and evolving environment?

Part 5. RELEASE MORE RECORDS –
If you are selling fewer copies of each release, the only way to grow market share is to release more records. I don’t mean the old throw it out and see if it sticks release schedules. I’m talking about looking realistically at what an artist is likely to sell based on genre and its status in the marketplace and setting the recording and marketing budgets based on a realistic sales goals.

Labels must invest in career growth, but why not do it incrementally? Set a budget to record and launch the release. Maybe its digital only at first or a series of low priced 3 -4 song EP’s. If buzz starts, move into Phase 2 of the plan.  Sales are growing? Step into Phase 3…and so on. It’s almost impossible to force a hit anymore; so why try? Listen to the marketplace and spend accordingly. 

But who is going to execute the plan?…

In #4 -Serve The Niches, I suggested that labels build teams of 5 – 20
people who live and breath a particular genre. Give the team a label
name and charge them with releasing 10-30 new records a year plus
archival product. The exact number can vary depending on the genre,
size and success of each team.  And if teams know their genres, they’ll
know where to get a record started and if the audience is responding…
because they are the audience.

These teams must do more than just promote records. They need to build
careers and in doing so build their label brand.  The most successful
teams will become hubs for their genres and lifestyle marketplaces
serving and monetizing their relationship with fans, but never
exploiting it.

NEXT: SERVE THE FAN, READER COMMENTS

** Please note that I’ve renumbered the series giving each suggestion fro saving the industry its own number rather than each post to avoid confusion.

Bruce Houghton on 06/03/2008 in Uncategorized | Permalink | Comments (6)
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6 Comments

  1. WOW! I was just talking about this concept at my internship yesterday! I totally agree. For some reason, label execs feel that they need to get 10-14 tracks for an album to be complete and squander marketing dollars when, as you said, you can’t force a hit anymore.
    The EP is definitely the way to go. LP albums have their place, but they were originally put out as concept albums by artists such as Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Marvin Gaye.
    The availability of music online, low production costs (in terms of both studio costs and the costs to create the retail product) are incredibly low, and the fact that the internet created the “short-attention span” consumer all point to the releasing more products with fewer songs on them.
    And serving niches is the exact way to do it. Have we forgotten the successes of labels like Motown that spent large amounts of time developing their artists and thrived off of releasing singles to a targeted market?
    Just like changes in technology made LPs possible, another large technology shift has made them unprofitable. The industry should take heed and focus on developing the artists’ career and long-term profitability.
    Great article!

  2. I fail to understand. Your advice is, since demand is low we should add more supply??
    It’s hard enough finding quality albums. Wouldn’t pushing out more just make those percentages even worse?

  3. Rafi,
    Good point but I see it as a law of business.If you are selling less of each product you have have to sell more different products to net the same bottom line. And as I’ve written before with articles like “The Rise Of The Musical Middle Class” I think more artists with smaller but worth careers is the future.
    Does that make sense?

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