New Music Strategies

If you’re currently exploring the far reaches of the internet and have stumbled upon this strange little blog, and you like music, and you like marketing, and you like music marketing, then I want to point you to Andrew Dubber of New Music Strategies.

As a new student to understanding the disruptive effects of the internet and what this means for the future, I’ve been highly impressed by his ideas, most notably his e-Book, 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online. This is literally one of the most helpful and concise pieces on music marketing out there. He really strips down the general tenets of music consumption and examines their underlying principles and how they could potentially operate within the new available technology. Using historical examples of how disruptive technology has consistently changed society, he embodies the idea that “if you want to know the future, look to the past.”

Without some sort of basis or understanding of what came before, its very difficult to make any prospective analysis on whats to come.

He also writes on Music Think Tank.

Why Don't Some Bands Market Themselves Better?

If I started my own little music enterprise – in light of the power of the internet – I would do these things:

1) As I’m making a song, I would take photos and make videos or small documentaries of the process of making that particular song. Then post them.

2) Set up a damn blog. If only for the various band members to contribute their own insights on the collaborative process every once in awhile. But an active and often updated blog for a band I like is definitely going to keep me coming back. This is also an awesome way to set up a tour and keep fans intrigued. Tell stories about the things happening on tour. Relay some experiences. Invest the time and energy into bringing your solid fans even closer to your music – almost into your touring van.

3) Set up a messageboard and ACTUALLY POST ON IT. If your fans can actively participate in some sort of discourse with you – holy shit – that is a great way to get yourself out there and set yourself apart from most bands. The great thing about this is that the fans can get both the art and the thoughts, feelings, and mentalities that inspired the art. That intimidating barrier between the producer and audience becomes broken down.

All of these things (with the exception of maybe the video-making aspect) are low cost and don’t take too long to set up. I can understand why some bands might not want to do any of these things, because this actually requires talking to their fans. Some bands would prefer not to deal with that. I don’t really blame them, there are a lot of annoying assholes that many bands would be embarrassed to call fans. But I’m not interested in those fans. I’m interested in the few gold nuggets that appreciate both the art and the people behind it, that WANT some reasonable discussion with the creators (if only to banter), and WANT that connection that breaks down the traditional producer-audience barrier.

Some Things Take Time to Settle

Fortunately, in this day and age, things will probably settle a lot more quickly than the more massive technological movements in the past.

Over the course of a year with the internet, many things could happen that could easily comprise the multiple occurrences, failures and successes, of things that used to take place over decades.

The music industry has gotten completely fucked – the major labels have obviously chosen not to adapt the traditional marketing mechanisms to the realities of new media. Good. Fuck them. This is naive, but I say that if you want to be in a business solely for the money, please leave the entertainment business – you’ll probably just stick a dick in projects run by people with actual talent. The hippyness of this movement is funny, but here’s the problem – we’re not there yet.

What ’s missing, and is the void that needs to be filled in the next few years, is a method or range of solid methods to monetize people’s work. People are turning an angry eye towards ISP’s, and for good reason.

As it stands, ISP’s charge money to access to the internet. You pay every month for access to the internet, and all the content available (unless you’re China). If you’re a band and you want to market yourself better, you pay an ISP to access the internet, and to host a website. People that are interested in your band will pay their ISP to access your content. So far we have this:

You pay an ISP to host content.
Other people pay an ISP to access the content that you’ve paid to host.

Who seems to be winning out a lot here?