The music business of the past was driven by a relatively small number of people who controlled the distribution channels, the marketing channels (radio) and the financing available to artists and writers. If you knew one of these mavens or could network your way to them, then you had a shot at success. It was the dream of every artist to “get signed” by a major label and plug into the “star maker machinery”.
The Internet changed all of that in a matter of 10 years or less. This disruptive force broke down the concentration of power from the hands of a few, to the hands of many. These days music distribution is a commodity that one can have access to quite simply via CDBaby, Tunecore or a variety of other options. Terrestrial radio, the marketing channel that broke all major artists of the last 60 years is no longer effective, and has been replaced by literally thousands of touch points available online including tastemakers like Pitchfork, sites like MySpace and Yahoo, social networking outlets like Twitter and Facebook, the search monster Google and countless websites, blogs and online media.
Today it is more important What You Know, than Who You Know. This is a Major shift in strategy from the past and is the name of the game for achieving success in the future.
Here are two examples of the kinds of things you need to know. One from the point of view of a structured approach to developing the skills and knowledge to help you succeed, and the other a real-world example of innovation at work in the hands of a savvy artist.
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From Celia Hirschman with On the Beat for station KCRW:
Today’s music business is not just about hustle, music knowledge and who you know. Today, it’s also about digital prowess, online inventiveness and a fast Internet connection.
I worked my way up through the industry, learning as I went. I took numerous jobs in the business, each one teaching me more than I had known before.
My school of hard knocks earned me a lot of opportunity. But the lessons of today’s music business are not taught in the nightclubs, the record stores or the board rooms. Today’s music business actually requires hitting the books, academically. Many active music buyers are online. Reaching them requires sophisticated online marketing knowledge.
No better way to learn than from the professionals. The prestigious Berklee College of Music has built an online extension program. Their BerkleeMusic.com offers a number of interesting classes online to fill in experiential gaps.
A useful course is titled “Online Music Marketing with Topspin.” Topspin is the leading digital-music marketing and sales company. In this course, Berklee’s Michael King and Topspin’s CEO Ian Rogers have deconstructed the marketing matrix, providing a hands-on education in digital record marketing. Students learn how to build digital touch-points, optimize site visits, develop fan integration and build brands. It is a first class education in online music marketing.
It doesn’t hurt that the whole course studies the TopSpin platform, similar to how a course might focus on PhotoShop or Excel. Topspin has developed a robust program to maximize online visibility and sell through. Musicians and music companies around the world can participate and socialize in a private trusted community.
Listen to the KCRW radio show here.
Cudos to @atomzooey for developing a great course.
Read more on Direct to Fan Marketing at Mike King’s Blog.
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The Duo of Jack Conte and Natalie Dawn are the band Pomplamoose and they are generating huge YouTube interest and views with their VideoSong format. They got tens of millions of views in a very short time with this number increasing while you read this. The VideoSong format these two produce is very inviting and addictive, providing a glimpse into the process of recording and creating music. The have combined a unique video format, with creative versions of popular cover songs and online distribution to reach tens of millions of people without any label support or significant marketing budget. They have found a way to make music their full time career without performing live, by leveraging social media.
Listen to an audio interview with Jack Conte from CDBaby
Online music marketing works. I’ve used it myself, and condensed 10 years of knowledge into my new book 101 Ways To Market Your Music On The Web to bring the tools and techniques to other artists across the world It’s available from http://www.mymusicsuccess.com
Simon Adams
Co-Founder
MyMusicSuccess.Com
I completely disagree. This is the same kind of mindless hypesterism and myth-building that plagued the old music industry regime!
The education part is correct, and I’ve just completed a PhD investigating the online business environment for Independent musicians. But I concluded that relationships with people are more important than ever! The difference is that the people who are important are more varied and diverse than before.
Knowing about the tips, tricks and technologies will help a musician to make a splash with their music – but only real relationships with real people will build a career.
SMFMusic is a one-stop shop for all your digital marketing needs. Coordination will never be a problem as we offer a comprehensive service, and all your digital marketing needs will be handled in-house. SMFMusic specialises in getting music labels, artists and brands noticed on the internet, and will help you execute a digital campaign that will increase product awareness, drive a fresh stream of commercial revenue and make optimal use of your existing assets.
Come and see how we can help you!
Let’s see, putting out free music via mp3 gets you exposure if you do it right, and no way to control the distribution of your music because of the lack of control of piracy, which leaves you selling T-shirts (till they get pirated) schwag, and merch, which is only a small part of income, so, now with around 98,000+ releases a year to compete for listeners and less than 2% making only $5k, the rest making less (not breaking even), and .02% making money (also being label acts), Your point is WHAT?
Giving away the store is classic bad advice no matter how much you pay to hear it or who you pay.
Heh Brian
Not exactly sure what you are talking about. Maybe you should actually listen to the two audio segments of this post before commenting. You might actually learn something. Nothing here about giving away the store.
To succeed you need to enrol in the Berklee Music online course huh? At times this blog is informative, at other times it’s an infomercial.
Of course not, but it helps… I am all about helping people succeed in music. If you like what we have to offer, then great. If not, there are other ways to get the information and put it together for yourself to be sure. Whatever works for you. Thanks for the comments and sorry it feels like an infomercial for you. We invest millions of dollars into course development and our platform to help people succeed in music and want people to engage with us. It costs money and we are actively marketing our services and online school.
As a well-seasoned musician I have several concerns about this approach to music. Firstly, the audio quality of online content. MP3 is awful – narrow bandwidth, too compressed. Compared to CDs and even to my vinyl records there is a woeful lack of dynamics in the MP3 format. With the rise of internet marketing video content has suborned audio quality. I was on a recording session today in an excellent studio that is housed in a top production college in London. Despite the fact that they teach largely digital recording, they were using 2-inch tape in the studio, with valve pre-amps. The sound quality was excellent. It seems to me that the Recording Industry Behemoths have been replaced by Software Behemoths. OK, software is expensive to develop, but the cost of the consumer product is far too high, considering the global sales volume. I have not done a Berklee course, (I prefer to learn how to use software under my own steam, with appropriate research on the internet) but I sincerely hope that you are not just another front for the marketing of expensive software packages. I enjoyed the Pamplamoose ‘VideoSongs’ but found the audio production poor compared to the video content. And I think it’s sad that this talented duo hardly ever play live.
do i need to signup or something to comment..? i hope i didnt just spend 10 minutes reading and commenting for it not to have worked.. clarification would be nice.