9 Comments

1. This is the time when Bands/Artists really need to think smarter not work harder. I want to address each of the 4 points in this article. They are things that have occupied a great deal of my thoughts for the past few years as they impact virtually everything I do. Read the About section in my blog wwww.musicbizrealitycheck.com and determine for yourself whether my credibility bears up to the sniff test and you you take what I say seriously.
   No. 1 – I agree with this but anybody who follows the music business has known this fact for years. You are dealing with a shrinking monolith that used to set the pace but now is on its last leg and about to be forced out of the race. Ever since they sued Napster they set their real course and have hardly deviated from it. Record companies waste enormous amounts of money that would be much better spent on funding innovative music startups. All they care about is getting as much money for the music they own from anyone one or company dumb enough to pay them for it. It’s no wonder that most music startups fail.
   No. 2 – As digital dollars mount, I still don’t see where Major labels are compensating their artists out of these new found monies. Musical artists need to end their codependent mental relationship with record companies and stop buying the snake oil they keep trying to sell, totally ignore them and make a new life for themselves in the new music business. Join me in finding better ways to create massive exposure to break within the Internet Mainstream and sell their music and merchandise. Artists need to realize that everything in the music business starts and ends with an artist’s live music connection with their fans.
   No.3 – I totally agree with this. Many artists run around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to post up profiles on 5 to 50 sites, overwhelming themselves, letting a useless process suck every ounce of energy out of them and getting little or no return for their effort. Its tough enough trying to cope with the daily grind of being in a band. Trying to be everything to everyone only puts you and your artistry in an oppressive downward spiral towards depression and frustration which is hardly the way to go. This is never a necessary course for an artist. If artists were smart they would post a new song every month everywhere they can for free. If it was me I’d post every song I had ever recorded up on the Net for free. Bands make by far the most most from live shows and what they sell at them. The more people who hear your music the more people will go and pay to see you live. (See Bob Lefsetz’ article on Corey Smith). I would post your band up on my new original music booking platform http://www.mptrax.com which is hopefully going live tomorrow. Artists should create value added packages with music, photos, artwork,videos ringtones and ringback tones and make sure these packages together and individuually are put up everywhere they can be for sale. Tunecore and Reverbnation provide easy avenues to do this. If I was a band I would focus my time and energy on Twitter and one other social network, either Facebook or MySpace, do everything I could to to build a presence and forget about the rest of the sites. You CAN’T cover them all and you are stupid if you try unless you have lots of money and a big Internet marketing staff. Definitely write at least one new song a week and do whatever it takes to get this done. Writing songs is as important to your career as finding places to play them. Focus, focus focus!!!
   No.4
   I am one of the most successful independent radio promotion guys that ever came down the pike. Every business in the world that supplies a product through a limited channel of distribution is controlled by the Majors, e.g. records, books, food, drinks, clothes, electronics and everything else our society deems really important. People need to get past this payola mentality thinking music only gets on the radio by those who can afford to manipulate the system to their advantage with money. A 100,000 or so albums are released every year representing millions of songs. With a good guess probably about 10% would love to see some kind of radio play or about 100,000 songs. How would you choose the 20 -25 new songs that a radio station is going to play at any one time. In an environment where every radio station is cutting its staff to the bone would you hire 15 new people just to review the hundreds of songs submitted weekly to your station and find those most deserving to put on the air? No you wouldn’t. Of course major labels and major independents have an advantage. They are in radio stations’ PD and MD faces every week building strong relationships, have a substantial product flow which always keeps them on every station’s radar, have acts willing to play for stations for free just to get exposure. If it was all about the money and payola, wouldn’t every major label have every record it has playing on every station in every format that they wanted. Of course not. IT”S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS. Everything I have mentioned here, an aggressive band can get with a little money and a focused effort, at least in their primary region. I know because I did it repeatedly for regional rock and R&B acts I managed long before I became an independent promotion man. If you have a really good competitive record that matches up to those artists that you respect most in the genre of music your artist is in and you are smart and aggressive you can get your record on the radio. It takes time and patience. If enough people are really interested in knowing how to achieve this goal, send me a direct message on Twitter at Musicbizguy and I will put up a post in my blog describing in detail how to get your record played on the radio.

2. but one thing that does work, and is almost necessary in these digital times is self-promotion; the band going out there into internet speace, and growing their own audience. Get a committed following, people who will work themselves to promote your stuff.

3. 1. Is true, but in tech 2.0 only the sheep care about “big labels.” The big ones are in survival mode. Why would anyone want to waste their time trying to get a ticket on the Titanic when it’s already sinking? Big labels fail b/c they don’t have smart/qualified people employed there, people who understand that times change and no matter how big you are you need to adjust of fail.
   2. Not true, there are plenty of labels out there trying to get their artists’ name out there. Money is the means to an end when you are an emerging artist. In the beginning exposure > payout. You need to crawl before you can walk.
   3. Not true, the artist can do anything and everything his/herself. No one expects an indie act to answer every message on every socnet, that would be ludicrous. Posting daily, or weekly content, is highly manageable by any individual, particularly when you consider cross-over possibilities of technology allowing to make posts or update status on multiple socnet platforms at the exact same time.
   4. True, so? Who gives a sh*t about being on the radio? There are tons of internet portals like last.fm and imeem where people can get their music heard. There is satellite radio, there are podcasts, there are YouTube channels… the radio is dead, let’s realize its almost 2009, pop a digital bottle of champagne and celebrate the age of the individual in the music business.

4. So true. I translated it to French for my blog http://www.corvaisier.fr I’m trying to fix 3 on NeoMusicStore

5. 1…TRUE and contributing to the downfall of major labels. Keep investing in the short term…it’s a great idea! Career artists with real talent are too difficult to deal with anyway.
   2…TRUE and trying to catch them all will cost more than the majors have, thus, ALSO contributing to the downfall of the major labels.
   3…FALSE…See Ian MacKaye.
   4…TRUE..AND terrestrial radio is dying which makes ongoing radio payola yet another contributing factor to the downfall of major labels.
   So please, major labels and other assorted useless middle men, by all means, take this useless list of truisms to to the grave with you. I can’t wait to find out how right you really are!
   brendan b brown
   wheatus.com
   NO PHYSICAL FUTURE!

6. Why don’t bands just go out and tour? The internet can accomplish a lot but playing out is where the smaller bands are going to make $$$ selling merch. Isn’t that why you wanted to be in a band anyway?
   
   http://www.betterthanthevan.com
   “Free places to stay for bands on tour”

7. No 1: Universal is investing over $100 million in new startups and digital infrastructure. If you think the majors are all idiots you are going to be very unpleasantly surprised when your indie Web 2.x music has to be distributed by Universal. Only some of them are idiots.

8. Maybe it’s just me…but if everyone spent half as much time on their craft/careers as they do trying to figure “it” out…maybe, just maybe..they could write the next best song or meet the next great guitarist and form an alliance that could/will bring that music and/or those musicians to the rest of us who are always looking for something new and refreshing. (BTW, has anyone heard of postering the corner telephone pole near a school or busy intersection? Real people reading about real musicians in the real world? What a concept.) Get real everyone….it never has been, nor will it ever be, easy to stick to something you believe in while the world-at-large is constantly distracted with news of woe and worry. Let the/your music play…LOUDLY!! Keep the faith boys and girls…it can and will only get better. For the new year….get and stay healthy and spread joy to those less fortunate.

9. John Ingham,
   So when IS Universal’s download service gonna overtake iTunes, Amazon, and the illegals?
   You make it sound like there’s gonna be a law that requires indies to feed the monster. Are you part of some Congressional lobbying effort?
   Are you warning us or threatening us? Who’s side are you on big guy?
   brendan b brown
   wheatus.com

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