In the Ever-Evolving Music Industry, Here Are the New Rules for Breaking Through
The music industry in general has been slow in playing catch up to the tools of new media. While record labels and publishers are still fighting to maintain ownership of their properties, there's a whole new world of new media elite who are working to find tools to empower musicians and to build a bridge between the new media and the old media.
Whether it's putting music online for free, working to build an online community, or simply starting a dialogue, the folks seeking out answers are quickly replacing the stagnant ways of old media.
I decided to check out the New Music Seminar in New York City this week to find out just how musicians are becoming empowered.
The mastermind behind the conference, Tom Silverman, founder of Tommy Boy Entertainment, started the New Music Seminar in 1980, to discuss the future of the business then.
He founded the conference to reach out to a industry that was historically resistant to change. It served as a forum for young entrepreneurs to launch their businesses and make connections, and it became a model for new conferences like South by Southwest.
Since 2000, music revenues have been steadily decreasing. By next year, for the first time ever, digital revenues are expected to exceed physical sales. By 2013, the breakdown will be 80% digital and 20% physical.
"Change will not come if we wait for a record company," said Silverman. "We are the ones we've been waiting for." The conference aims to teach artists how to make more money and less mistakes. Whether you want to be an artist, promoter, manager, or entrepreneur, here are the new rules to make it in the business:
The future is DIY. Learn how to use affordable tools, but remember it's not all about the tools. It's about your craft. Software won't solve all of your problems.
The best marketing is informed by art, not art that you try and inform. You can't create a viral video; that all depends on the audience. But you can create awareness.
If you're an artist, don't borrow money. You can only maintain creative control by maintaining financial control. The opposite applies if you're on the entrepreneurial side. Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora, maxed out a dozen credit cards and owed money to everyone he knew before getting his project off the ground. The best advice he ever received was from his wife: "Don't be self-conscious about being an entrepreneur."
There are a ton of places online to sell your music: Amazon, MySpace, iTunes, and TuneCore for starters. But don't underestimate the power of giving away your music for free. Lil Wayne gave his music away for over a year before releasing his album. He worked first to build a connection with his fanbase before asking for any money.
Fans are the new record label. The business now all depends on the relationship between an artist and their fans, most importantly the uber fans, the ones who buy all the merchandise, go to all the shows, and spread the word about their favorite bands.
The key to staying in touch with your fans is through e-mail, the most important data you'll ever collect. Have a sign-up sheet at every show. Have your audience text their e-mails to a road manager's cell at the end of every show and promise to personally stay in touch. Then you'll have both e-mails and area codes. Build an online community by blasting out webcasts, photoshoots, interviews, and even live streaming concerts.
Engage with fans in a meaningful way, nothing forced or fake. We the Kings launched a weekly webisode series, The Kings Carriage, that has collected over 300 million views. They sold 100,000 albums even before the music was on iTunes.
It's dangerous for an artist to spend time on things that aren't artistic. Build a management team to take care of the tools, marketing, and technology. If you're just starting out, enlist a college music lover to build your brand.
Sign any deal as long as it's short-term if it's going to get you noticed. Otherwise you're not going to be on the radar.
Start local, start tribal. The best band success stories come out of a music scene. The Internet has allowed for tribes to become bigger and bigger. Connect with similar bands doing similar music and go on tour with them. Build your own scene and work to break through together.
Follow Ariston Anderson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AristonAnderson
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Artists are much better off sans record companies. They can enjoy creative freedom, find their own investors, and cut their own deals, among other opportunities. In recent years artists such as Miles Davis and Bob Dylan would never garner a record contract. The whole idea of record labels is now obsolete. The hard part is convincing musicians that they need to take a college course in business management to survive.
It's incredibly easy to publicize your music in DIY fashion, there's so many resources available to young artists that they really don't need to sell themselves off to a label. However, the 'grunt work' of band promotion does tend to detract from the creative aspects of music. I'm a big fan of places like http://www.supernova.com that have all kinds of online tools to easily promote, share, rate and explore music - but also give bands real live gig opportunities.
No better way to get on the radar than sudden viral attention leading up to a real life gig! Sites like Supernova also have a dedicated, passionate music community of people willing to pimp your band's wares for free... nothing better than a music lover to advocate your band!
Screw the big labels. I hope they perish of irrelevance, and soon.
This is an excellent article. The history of popular music in this country shows an ongoing struggle for control between the artists and the record labels. All that is changing now and the whole paradigm has shifted and right now is an oppurtune time for artists to be proactive and take back control from the monolithic record companies. My band is having success using disark.
http://discark.com/en/products/view/611/Catfish%20Howl%20Blues%20Band/Midnight%20Mojo
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