Seth Godin’s Music Lessons, a blog about things to learn from the changing music industry, offer many good tidbits to ponder:
(1) The role of digital music is or will become solely promotion. This is because digital music is in unlimited supply, and a market of value can only be created from something of limited suppply. Another recent blog goes further to state that the role of music management will eventually be reduced to promotion only, as musicians can now cheaply and effectively create, edit and distribute music themselves - all roles formerly taken by labels, producers and managers.
(2) Musicians are now selling interactivity and souvenirs. The reason those are what musicians are selling - because both are of limited supply. Interactivity can mean live music, or other things related to the music experience. The new business model for labels will move from making 90% gross margin off CD sales, with live music as a means to push CD sales, to a blended model of concerts and souvenirs, of communities and greeting cards and special events.
(3) The winners in the music business of tomorrow are individuals and organizations that create communities, connect people, spread ideas and act as the hub of the wheel.
(4) The opportunity of digital distribution is this: “When you can distribute something digitally, for free, it will spread (if it’s good). If it spreads, you can use it as a vehicle to allow people to come back to you and register, to sign up, to give you permission to interact and to keep them in the loop.”
Seth believes the magic number for independent musicians is 10,000 fans - 10,000 people who look forward to the next record, who are willing to trek out to the next concert. “Add 7 fans a day and you’re done in 5 years. Set for life. A life making music for your fans, not finding fans for your music.”
Certainly 7 fans a day would be great for any band! While an aggressive goal, this is becoming more of a possibility, as musicians and musician managers become increasingly adept at using the internet to reach new fans.
4 Responses So Far
1
Peter
Feb 28, 2008 at 12:12 am
This is an excellent article. As a musician I’m thrilled that the emphasis goes back on what is actually magic about this whole process — the interaction between the listener and the music which occurs at live performances…
Previously, it was in the record companies interest to make a hit single or a monster album the centerpiece of a fan’s relationship with their favorite artist because that interaction could be more easily monetized and marketed.
I agree with Matt (and Seth) that digital music will now be used solely for promotion. I think that at this point we can say that that will include pretty much all music made in the studio for release. Ulitimately it seems that Seth is making the point that instead of trying for hits artists should be following their muse and maybe executing some of their wilder ideas and trying to “keep your costs low and go with your instincts.”
Again this takes us back to the reason we love making, promoting and listening to music, because it is magic, whether live or catching the perfect moment in the studio on a 32 track 96khz system.
Although it is chaotic to be at this place in the business where no one knows which way is up it’s also very liberating and ultimately good for the music, the listener, and the musicians…
Great site by the way!!
2
matt
Mar 2, 2008 at 3:34 pm
For some good points about the continuing role of the record labels, check out this article from a member of Universal Music Group International.
http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_news/20070607.html
He raises an interesting point that many musicians may not be into the self help capabilities of the web and instead are better equipped to focus on creating their music only and allowing the experts at the labels to manage all other aspects of their career. Perhaps he has a point, or perhaps he is out of touch with the capabilities of people growing up with the web. Certainly the goal of V11 is to make recommendations that are simple and straight forward for everyone, so even the less web savvy musician get do a better job of getting noticed over the web.
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Peter
Mar 3, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Interesting article. I suppose he is still correct in terms of becoming as big as a band like Snow Patrol, but he seems to be oblivious to 99.9% of the bands out there who aren’t on the radio and MTV but still make amazing music and want to find ways for people to ind out about them.
Certainly any band would benefit from what a record company has to offer in terms of promotion etc, so in that sense he is right, but the bottom line is that nowadays bands can chart their own course in a way that they couldn’t do in the previous decades and that what makes this such an interesting time…
4
Dan
Mar 7, 2008 at 11:08 am
Along the lines of how do artists make money in the changing music industry, I came across Kevin Kelly’s writing on 1,000 true fans today. A great post on how the long tail may help aggregators like Amazon, Netflix as well as 6 Billion consumers, but it is a “mixed blessing” for artists. The solution is to find the midpoint of the long tail, somewhere around 1,000 true fans. The trick with the long tail is while an artist’s likelihood of being a super star is still low, the chances of making some sort of a living have vastly increased. As we all know, it’s a lot easier to produce, record, and distribute your music right now then at any point before.
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