Longing for the day ...

My version of a Free Song Strategy

I've not been an avid reader of Bruce Warila - but I like what I do read. Now Bruce has enunciated (almost) exactly my thinking on the best way to "give away" your music. This is a brilliant and very important post. Read it carefully - and read his earlier ones that lead to this one.

It has always frustrated the crap out of me to hear promotions people - who usually have nothing at stake - advising musos to "just give it all away" in a desperate bid to gain attention. To my thinking, this ignores the nature of purchase behaviour and the fan relationship. It also assumes that revenue can be picked up by performing live and ignores the harsh reality that it costs a lot of money to tour but giving recordings away reduces the revenue available to bands/acts that might be used to fund a tour. It also effectively kills the prospects for an act that cannot tour (like movie soundtracks, musos with day jobs, and so on).

Bruce's vision is essentially the correct one for the future, and he clearly understand the fan/purchase relationship - this is one of the major lessons of the Radiohead and Niggy Tardust experiments. But he also understands that you lose nothing by denying freeloaders unfettered access. I used to express this in conversation by telling people I'd rather that people had the ability to copy and share my music than that they were prevented from doing so - but I was not going to do the copying *for* them ...

Jonathon Coulton follows this approach.

I have had the idea of multiple versions and encouraging fan remixes since before 2004, the time this blog began - though I lack the time and resources to effectively implement the strategy. I'm also not so keen on the idea of hacking endings off or appending messages. But the most important thing here is the recognition that people who want your music for free are going to go get it anyway, and that these people are NOT your fans.

However, there are a proportion of people who will not pay for your music if they are given it, but will happily pay for it if given the right incentives ...

10 Best Practices of Online Music Promotion

Just found this list by Nancy Baym of 10 best practices for online promotion. Nancy is a professor at Kansas U and has been studying fans culture and fan behaviour for a while now. She has some great ideas and her stuff is well worth following.

The only thing I'd add (notwithstanding that there are more than 10 possibilities) is that it's important to co-ordinate on-line and off-line strategies. When I was working as National Forum's Communication Design Consultant I found that one of the hardest things to get clients to understand was that this brave new world of online communication was not its own closed shop - it's vital to integrate the online strategies and measures into the broader communication strategies.

Too often, clients (and bands!) would make the online stuff the province of their technical staff, without much thought for the content and communication priorities. They knew they needed and online presence, but didn't understand its real value.

Bands risk falling into the same trap: don't just leave your online stuff up to the member with the most tech-savvy. Get together and form a clear strategy for every photo shoot, interview, gig and release that includes a consideration of what this means in both the on-line and off-line environments.

There are several ways to do this: make sure the band's URL is prominently promoted at every function; after a gig, work the room and get as many fan e-mail addresses as you can; promote gigs to online radio and other broadcast people, and so on.

Don't assume that the two worlds will overlap and/or merge - have a strategy to make it happen in both worlds.

The power of radio

Anyone who doubts the importance of radio airplay in establishing your value as a musical performer needs to take a long, hard look at the APRA awards. The nominees for Song of the Year are all big radio hits, as are most of the nominees in other categories. Accordingly, the acts and songs that get the publicity are ... the ones who don't need it. Indies and underground acts get no encouragement at all.

Now, you can't tell me that these are all of the best songs written in that year but the reality is that the voting is conducted by members from a list of titles and artists - you can't sample the songs even if you want to. So the people voting simply have no idea what they're voting for (or rather, what they're NOT voting for) because the only eligible songs they know anything about are the ones they've heard on the radio. That only acts to entrench the status quo and give the impression that the acts we all hear about are the only acts who matter.

Nothing could be further from the truth but it underscores the importance of hawking recordings to radio stations and other broadcast media. Online alone is not gonna do it for you.

At least APRA recognises problems in its own domain and tries to deal with them:

Back this campaign all the way. Pity members weren't more widely informed about it BEFORE the Song Summit ...

Meeting the millenials

Interesting report released by Music Tank last week called "Meet the Millennials". It's written, at least in part, by Nettwerk's Terry McBride, so it's certainly worth reading.

Now, I'm always highly skeptical of anything that makes broad claims about the behaviours of generations, so this report needs to be taken with a grain of salt. That said, it's a useful way to think about the behaviour of a key demographic in the modern music market. The report acknowledges this when it says:

Terry acknowledges at the outset that there is no ‘silver bullet’ solution to the problems challenging the business, and there is plenty of scope for further discussion of the many ideas puts forward.

For instance, the report defines Millennials as "Born ‘81/’82 to present day", which on its own constitutes a vast range of ages, experience and behaviour. The youngest of these will be in nappies while the oldest will have jobs, children and mortgages. The variations within the Millennials alone would have to cast doubt on the validity of their categorisation ...

But, baby steps forward ...

The best advice you don't have to buy

Derek Sivers has just released his manifesto for being heard. Derek has long agreed with the view, which I believe was first expressed by Cory Doctorrow, that the enemy of the unsigned artists is not piracy, but obscurity. This is Derek's contribution to helping Indies overcome the barrier of obscurity.

Now, Derek's take on these things, like Derek, takes some understanding. This seems like a document full of simple, practical advice - but it's more than that. Many of Derek's recommendations seem impractical, or difficult to implement, but they are the profoundest kind of advice. You need, as Derek suggests, to really take your time getting your head around what he's saying because it's not immediately obvious. If it was, everybody would be doing it, Derek wouldn't need to write this and obscurity would not be a problem ... or would it ...?

Brilliant stuff, but not a quick-fix full of unrealistic promises. Get it, read it, implement it.

Bugger!

Not good enough, Maroons!

What is it about that stadium? Whenever the Maroons play down there they just seem to be drained of all energy and enthusiasm. Last the night the Blues were fired up, enthusiastic, passionate ... and Qld just didn't go with them. Then they tried to play catchup and made too many silly mistakes.

From a technical standpoint, their line speed in defence was pedestrian, their kicking game was woeful, they lacked variety around the ruck and they failed to adjust to the referee's standards or the Blues' defensive tactics. When it became apparent that the ref was not going to ping defenders at marker for going early, Qld needed to get a short-passing game going from half (like the Blues did brilliantly). When it became apparent that the Blues defenders were going to rush up on the outside to cut off ball movement to the brilliant Qld outside backs, they needed to change the point of attack, stand deeper or try something to make the defence think twice - like a grubber or chip behind the defenders.

But none of that matters squat if the players are off the emotional pace - the Blues just steam-rolled them. Accordingly, most of the luck went their way ...

Well done, boys. Seeya in three weeks.

It's Origin Time!!

Love this time of year! Both side look really good but I think The Mighty Maroons have a slight advantage in the halves ...

QUEENSLANDER!!!

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... for the victims of the earthquake in China.

Myspace has very little to do with it ...

The other day I read this interview with Ingrid Michaelson, which is billed as revealing how MySpace can help musos "make it" on the same scale as Ingrid has. Since I found the article via Myspace For Musicians, I think it's a pretty safe bet to portray the interview as a MySpace booster.

First, some context: who is Ingrid Michaelson? She's a New Yorker indie folk singer with an interesting line in sparse, breathy songs. Apparently, she's had her music played in episodes of Grey's Anatomy and One Tree Hill. Since I can't recall ever sitting through a single episode of either, I can't recall any of her songs (I listened to the Grey's one on MySpace but didn't recognise it), but obviously lots of people do and can.

She's had nearly 10 million views on her MySpace page and each song has over a million plays - that's impressive. She tours the US with her band and plays with an impressive list of performers. It's safe to say she has a musical life that most of us would aspire to ...

But there's a disconnect in the article about MySpace's role that many people would overlook - and that annoys me. Here's her description of what happened:

I came across the artist profile of a [now] friend of mine named William Fitzsimmons. He's had a pretty good MySpace following. From the beginning, he's held steady. He put me in his “Top 8” [friends], and he wrote a whole thing about me, like “Check this girl out — she's great.” And a music supervisor found me through him. That's how I got Grey's Anatomy and One Tree Hill. Now it's snowballing. So I find that aligning yourself with great artists helps, because that [music supervisor] would never have found me if I wasn't on William's page.

Spot it? It's the last sentence. William Fitzsimmons has more than 39,000 friends and 20 of them are on his top friends list - but there's only one Ingrid Michaelson. In other words, if this MySpace thing is so important, why didn't it work for the other people in the same situation? That's simple cause-and-effect analysis ...

I'd bet there are two much more important things going on here. The first is that William Fitzsimmons talked her up. That's just good old-fashioned networking and (presumably mutual) support - I'd have no idea about William if she hadn't mentioned him in the interview. In other words, it's the relationship that was really valuable to her, not the software that enabled it.

Second, the reason William Fitzsimmons talked her up is because her music was interesting and good. Different enough to be memorable but still fitting the criteria for mass appeal - not so different as to be alienating. Finding that balance is a very hard thing to do and getting that good at it takes dedication and application. Ingrid would probably have come to a lot of attention no matter what she'd done - persistent work on growing her career would have taken her a lot of places without MySpace ...

Finally, it helps to have a song that uses words appropriate to the TV show, and it helps to already have a reputation for being easy to work with, approachable, etc. Also, there's a momentum effect to this sort of thing, which she calls "snowballing". Once you've got the reputation and contacts, it's easier to take advantage of the opportunities that come your way. Getting there much harder that being there ...

Of course, that's not to say that having a MySpace presence isn't important for indies - it's essential. But don't make the mistake of thinking that MySpace will do the work for you, or that having a MySpace presence is all it takes. And don't fall into the trap of spending so much time on your MySpace promotions that you neglect the effort to create memorable-but-not-alienating music. Oh, and Ingrid's advice about pimping your MySpace page is good - as is her practice of not automatically playing her damn songs when the page loads. I hate that!

What shits me is that MySpace gets all the attention and credit for Ingrid's success when in reality it's her hard work and savvy relationship-building that really did the work. Why does this happen? Well, MySpace is owned by a global media empire, each part of which works to boost each other part. When you have that kind of support, lots of other people will act to be on-side rather than ask too many tough questions.

MySpace makes its own reality ...

20 Biggest Record Company Screw-Ups of All Time

I love a good list and I love a good story of stupidity, so this list of acts of stupidity in Blender is right up my alley. Hard to disagree with number 1, though I think some of the others are in a highly debatable order (isn't that the point of lists??).

Another pity is that there's not much serious consideration given to the lessons of each of these ... perhaps I'll go through them at some stage and throw up something a bit more important for indies than the "unintended consequences" listed on each of these ...

Maybe tomorrow ...

Well, that blew out some cobwebs ...

Played at the Kenmore Tavern last night for Fretfest. A little 6-song solo acoustic set:

1. Be Free
2. Vital Signs
3. When It's Over
4. Mighty Fine Day
5. Heart's With You
6. Simplicity

I was reminded the hard way that you play how you practice - and I had not been practicing enough or in the right way. If you're gonna perform sitting on a stool, practice sitting on a stool, not sitting on the couch. Strange as it may seem, it makes a difference. I was not as confident on the material as I should have been and it showed (I think - no-one commented, as usual) ... plenty of work to do.

But it was great to see so many people there. Thanks to everyone who turned up. Had a few great (if short) conversations and it's nice to be well received under the circumstances. Looking forward to doing it again in a few weeks.

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For the victims of Cyclone Nargis.

This space deliberately left blank ...

For the victims of Cyclone Nargis.

The predictable response

Well, it was always going to happen and here it is (thanks, Rachel!). A response from some New Media-savvy people pointing out how stupid the in-tune campaign is. It's a slightly over-done reaction (I basically just yawned) but, well, this space if full of people like Jared and Adam trying top make a name for themselves and Good On Them!!!

I've signed the tune-out petition (though it's not exactly clear what I've signed up for) and I urge people who are serious about music and the state of the entertainment industries in general to do the same.

Can't wait to see the doco ...