Kurb indie music promotions

What the digital revolution means is that technology has now allowed for information – music - to be more accessible to anyone with high speed broadband than ever before. The fact that entertainment no longer needs to have a physical form (i.e. a CD or DVD) is totally changing the music industry. Labels, publishers, distributors, retailers all those who had the most to gain from music as a physical commodity are now bitterly resisting falling profits. Though we might certainly see a "fairer" music industry, even with the online distribution blooming into life musicians have to face that technology is slowing eroding the commercial value of music as a general retail commodity.

If your music is worth buying its worth stealing. In fact if no one wants to steal your music, you know no one will buy it! Which is all a matter of perception because on the internet it's called "sharing" and anybody with half a clue can do it.

The patterns of consumption are changing. Teenagers aren't going to save their pocket money and buy their favourite CD and listen to it for a month. They're going to download something new everyday and listen to it for a week.

I'm not sure it's a moral issue. The point I'm getting at is that I downloaded the latest Shapeshifter album and I decided I liked 3 of the songs, so I paid US$3 to download them and Shapeshifter gets US$2.07. $3. well that doesn't buy many Porsches. In fact it doesn't even by a happy meal, let alone a decent feed of chips for all the guys.

You have to remember when I buy the CD at the Warehouse for $30 the musician doesn't get much more. And with slumping CD sales due to digital developments the business side of the industry is shrinking dramatically, so although Musicians can now see a bigger cut of their earnings than ever before, they have to be smart to stay in it professionally.

So whats going to pay the bills for poor Bic working her day job? Smart musicians have to realise their music that they love is no longer the product, its the window dressing. Lets talk about how musicians are going to make their money in the future:

Merchandising: To be fair this is going to make a hell of a lot more sense if you're a teen Christian emo band that plays at the church hall once a month and has a massive following on myspace and in the youth groups. That's why you'll notice many of auckland's emo and punk bands have their own label. And no I don't mean a record label. Obviously if you're an experimental free noise artist it may not be immediately obvious what items may interest your audience but everyone likes clothes. Giving away water at shows? Buy a hot False Start cup. Merchandising may also be a cunning way to influence fans to pay for the CD they've already downloaded "illegally".

Gigs: Obviously. At least one thing will never change. Nothing beats a great live show. Maybe you don't have a great live show. Then you might wanna pay to book a headliner that everyone knows does and support them. If you see what I mean.

Videos: "The singers shit but I love their camera work." Again, your music maybe worth nothing but your music videos are worth more than ever. paid content is coming people. What if you wake up in 2008 and you're being paid as much as US30c for every view on youtube? And 100 people watch your video everyday? What if your video is totally next level and it blows up or gets featured and 100,000 people watch it in a week? Hullo? Which means that guy in media school who's always hanging around? He's your best friend now.

Licensing: Music may not be worth anything any more but it hasn't stopped being sexy. Music creates meaning it creates an image, and if a product has no image then it has no appeal. The trends indicate that digital licensing for film, television, advertising software and all manner of commercial uses is coming up in a big way, not only with the Merlin deal but also online licensing agencies multiplying.
See to licensing agents, labels and publishing copyrights are actually now a big drag and they love indie artists who hold all the rights themselves. Take Steriogram, arguably the country's biggest "indie" act. Brad told me their deal with Playstation was done in less than an hour. That'd be a well paid lunch break even for Bic.

So.

Making music is what you love and it's the reason you got into this. But lets face facts. Music is becoming lean and mean, to stay alive, you must evolve. The digital revolution means that already the music you create and record no longer has nearly the value as a product as it has in the past. But it still has value as a brand. It still has value as something true and meaningful that touches people and they believe in it. Which is every marketing manager like me's dream.

Because then you can sell them anything.