Longing for the day ...

I hate to say I told you so ...

But I just found this Techdirt report, which says that uncle Rupert's paywalls are causing him a lot more trouble than they're worth.

Now, I'm hardly the only one to have predicted that paywalls would be unhelpful to newspaper publishers, but I must confess to being surprised at the extent of the backfire. A 90% decline in traffic is extreme.

Even i didn't foresee that people wouldn't treat the publication seriously any more because of the drop-off in circulation, which puts pressure on not only the advertising sales staff, but also on the journos. That's a doosy - how to destroy everything about the publication by locking your readership away from it ...

Just goes to show that the substitution effect is VERY strong in media. Even the Times doesn't attract enough brand loyalty to make it viable in the face of cheaper newspapers. I wonder how soon Murdoch will give this plan up and try to restore the damage - and how, exactly, he thinks he can do so.

Well, I'm going on the record right now as saying: "Hey Rupert. I'll help you. But you have to listen carefully and adopt new ways of doing things. Get rid of the idiots advising you right now and give me a call ... "

Part 2 Summary

Music is a non-verbal code for sharing experiences, thoughts and feelings. The music industry exists to convert the value of shared musical experience into a commercial proposition.

Traditional economics cannot explain the inconsistencies of the commercial value of music. When music is traded, much more is exchanged than money and music.

Music does not operate mainly in the economies of money or power. It operates in the economy of esteem, which can be converted into either power or money, but is not driven by either. The primary business function of an Independent musician is to gather esteem, from which they can derive income.

The most important source of esteem for a musician is esteem based on their repertoire of songs. This is established at first by playing songs that someone else made popular and then increased by writing their own esteemed music.

A musical act must look to build esteem for some unique aspect of their performances, such as their attitude, image, or innovation. This esteem expands their sources of income and influence into non-musical representations such as merchandise and endorsements.

Building esteem for the artist behind the songs and performances allows other elements to accrue value. Musicians can then use these elements to sustain a career in other media or use their media profile to promote their other activities.

The highest level of esteem a musician can aspire to does not relate to their musical output. It relates to their contribution to the industry and to the culture more broadly. This kind of esteem almost guarantees the relevance and future value of musicians.

The esteem of fans is an essential source of income, labour and materials. But fans can be fickle and require constant attention. In this business, building and maintaining a fan base is as important to Independent musicians as writing good songs and staging a great live show.

The esteem of peers is vital to a musician's career. Peer esteem can be converted into income, influence, or materials but must be protected against a reputation for ruthlessness.

Musicians looking to 'take the next step' in their careers can convert the esteem of industry decision-makers into more direct forms of support. This support is offered in the expectation that income will be generated later and quickly withdrawn if that does not happen.

New technologies have made it easier for musicians to gather esteem and maintain relationships with the people who supply it. But technology cannot help with the basics - relationships are best built when musicians meet people and give them a reason to confer some esteem.

Conclusion:

The key to building a sustainable musical career is to accumulate esteem by writing the best music, giving the best performances and being the most professional artist possible. This esteem can be converted into the income and influence that will sustain a musical career.

The ghost in the machine

For most of the 20th century the only ways for musicians to appeal to fans were at live shows or though the media, which had limited space and were tightly controlled. New communication technologies have changed all that, allowing musicians to display their creations as MP3 or online videos, and to communicate directly with fans.

The new media work both ways: by allowing fans to find and contact musicians and by allowing musicians to find and communicate with fans. When fans show up at gigs, or buy merchandise online or discuss the musicians' latest efforts in social media, they are conferring esteem onto the musicians.

The 21st century technologies make it very easy to collect and maintain esteem in the form of email addresses, online sales, and social media activities but esteem still has to be generated by the timeless process of impressing people and building relationships based on that good impression.

Some of the work can be done using automated widgets and email scheduling software but musicians have to realise that their job does not end when they leave the stage. They must adopt work practices including regular participation in social media and frequent engagement with their fans online, offline, and, where possible, via mainstream media.

Maintaining esteem is easier than building it. Maintenance only takes a memory - building it requires making an impression!

Summary:

New technologies have made it easier for musicians to gather esteem and maintain relationships with the people who supply it. But technology cannot help with the basics - relationships are best built when musicians meet people and give them a reason to confer some esteem.

Let's all pull together

Esteem for music and musicians must also come from industry workers who are not necessarily musicians. Many of these people have played music earlier in their lives and know what it takes. An increasing number of them still perform on some basis.

In its rawest and most powerful form, collegial esteem is presented as a contract in which a record label supports musicians to make and sell recordings, merchandise and a concert tour. In granting a million-dollar advance the company's decision-makers make a massive declaration of their support for the act.

The most difficult aspect of an Independent career is coping with the need to perform the many necessary tasks that have nothing to do with music: sound engineering, web development, accounting, promotion and so on. In the absence of a music company advance, Indies must build a network of people who can take the burden of these tasks from them. These people will not be willing to perform these tasks if they have no confidence that the musicians will reward them for their efforts.

Collegial esteem is built from many sources: sales figures, musical quality, professional integrity and more. Musicians must impress industry professionals with their ability to make money for both parties. As with the other sources of esteem, collegial esteem is most effective when it's based on multiple elements.

With the exception of the advance/recoupment model preferred by large companies, the esteem of colleague rarely results directly in income. More often, it results in a sharing of resources with the intention of making money in future. Sometimes it amounts to a name and phone number for someone else who might help.

The support of people in the music is quickly lost after a track record of business failure. It's hard to get support for the next record when the last one didn't sell many copies, and it's hard to get support for the tour following the one that sold very few tickets.

Summary:

Musicians looking to 'take the next step' in their careers can convert the esteem of industry decision-makers into more direct forms of support. This support is offered in the expectation that income will be generated later and quickly withdrawn if that does not happen.

The boys are back in town

The esteem of peers has always been highly prized by musicians. Musicians will often support each other in ways that may not directly produce income but which provide access to a broader fanbase and influential industry colleagues (see next page).

When musicians are starting out, other musicians will usually be their major source of support. This is important but must not be mistaken for a fan relationship. Other musicians may attend concerts for a number of reasons that do nothing to improve the bottom line. They might be at the show scouting for their own venue, recruiting band members, or learning how to improve their own performances.

However, a genuine working relationship between musicians can lead to income from gig swaps, labour from cross-promotion, materials from collaboration, or power from access to decision-makers. The strongest of these relationships will, of course, be based on multiple factors.

Peers' esteem may not even be based on a liking for each others' music but on respect for the fact that large numbers of fans like their music. In this way, peer esteem attaches to a musician's professionalism, dedication, or resources. U2's bass player, Adam Clayton, was very famously chosen from auditions because he owned a PA system ...

Peer relationships tend to begin backstage but must be built and maintained away from the stage: in meetings or on the road. Like fan relationships, they require constant, though less intense, maintenance.

They will also change as a career ebbs and flows. An act that was a suitable touring partner one year may have been outgrown the following year. The musician who introduced a helpful venue manager at the start of the year may not know the agent needed to book next summer's tour.

Great care must be taken not to convert too much of this esteem into power, labour or materials, or musicians may be branded as exploitative and/or untrustworthy. As Ozzy Osbourne advised: "be nice to everyone you meet on your way to the top because you're going to meet them all on your way back down again."

Summary:

The esteem of peers is vital to a musician's career. Peer esteem can be converted into income, influence, or materials but must be protected against a reputation for ruthlessness.

It's all for you!

The most obvious and fundamental source of esteem is a musician's fans. Fans may bestow esteem on a lyric, a melody, a groove, an act's attitude, a songwriter's social commentary, sense of humour or myriad other elements.

Fans' esteem is most easily converted into income when they buy CDs, tickets and merchandise. Kevin Kelly's notion of 1000 True Fans is an important demonstration that it's not the size of the fan base that counts but the intensity of their support. Merchandisers generally estimate that pop music fans will spend an average of about $4 each on merch at a concert, but metal fans will spend about $6.

Fans' esteem can also be converted into power. The sheer size of Radiohead's fan base gives them a stronger position when negotiating a distribution deal than my band would have. It also gives them influence when discussing the state of the industry and suggesting strategies other bands might use.

In the new technological environment, fans' esteem can easily be converted into free labour, which reduces production and marketing costs. Street teams are an obvious example of this, but fans also donate their time on an ad hoc basis when talking about upcoming concerts, reviewing albums or remixing releases.

Finally, fans' esteem can be converted into the raw materials of production if they contribute concert footage to a video, or design a logo for their favourite musicians. Fans have even been known to donate things like legal advice, accommodation, and food.

The problem with fans' esteem is that it often attaches in unpredictable ways, like to the band's least favourite song. When this happens, bands can lose esteem by omitting a crowd favourite from their setlist, or "selling out" to advance their careers in ways the fans don't approve.

Fan esteem requires constant maintenance and musicians must realise that their job does not stop when they leave the stage or studio. Successful musicians hang with their fans after the show and devote considerable time and resources to interacting with fans online.

Summary:

The esteem of fans is an essential source of income, labour and materials. But fans can be fickle and require constant attention. In this business, building and maintaining a fan base is as important to Independent musicians as writing good songs and staging a great live show.

The musician's third leg

Although a musician's esteem begins with their songs and performances, the highest level of esteem that can be harnessed needs not relate to their music at all. The preceding pages mention ways in which musicians' visual image, political stance, community activities, innovative marketing activities, can all be used to build esteem.

Similarly, it is just as important that an act be seen as professional, ethical, or environmentally aware as it is that they be seen as talented composers and performers. This is the point at which the artistic aspects of a career in music sit down in a meeting with the industrial aspects.

Being a brilliant artist is not enough. History is littered with the careers of brilliant artists who proved too unreliable, volatile or inconsistent to make a living. On the other hands, the charts are full of acts of mediocre talent who gained the support of the industry.

The key to building non-musical esteem is to ensure that all of it is consistent with the musician's image and musical stance. Of course, some counter-intuitive examples exist, such as AC/DC's Brian Johnson writing songs for Celine Dion - but these make sense when the sources of the esteem are properly understood.

The following pages examine the groups of people who grant esteem to a musician and the ways in which their esteem benefits a musical career.

Summary:

The highest level of esteem a musician can aspire to does not relate to their musical output. It relates to their contribution to the industry and to the culture more broadly. This kind of esteem almost guarantees the relevance and future value of musicians.

The definition of damn fine music

All you art-wankers and Alt/Indie activists can kiss my arse. There's no substitute for a shit-hot performance of a great tune. If this don't get your pulse racing then you're a corpse.

Timeless! Eternal! Blessed music, thy name is this ...

Cause it feels so empty without me

Regardless of their act, esteem may attach to an artist because of their overall contribution to the culture: for example, their vocal quality, songwriting legacy, or political stance. This kind of esteem allows them increased influence through the media and the ability to reach people who may not be fans of other aspects of their musical output.

Marlene Dietrich, Aretha Franklin, and Christina Aguilera are renown for their vocal performances, which few other performers can imitate. Their vocal abilities are esteemed by fans and also by other singers and vocal coaches, who appreciate their abilities even if they are not fans of that musical style or era.

Sting's songwriting ability has transcended time, band lineups and genre. His gifts for lyric and melody are equally appreciated when performed in rock/punk or in smoother jazz/funk, though probably by slightly different audiences. Bob Dylan and Jimmy Webb are similarly renown.

Madonna has gathered much esteem for her continual reinvention and challenge to cultural norms. By provoking debate about her sexualised image, religious conversion and adoption of African children, she has maintained a media presence that reminds people that she stands for more than throwaway pop music. Similarly, although U2 boast an impressive catalogue of great songs and a great live show, Bono's political activism has been responsible for promoting their recent activities.

As with other forms of esteem, however, esteem for an artist can have unpleasant aspects. Britney Spears is just one of a number of artists whose media profile has focused on their personal problems rather than their contribution to the world of music. While this can have positive effects on the artist's creativity (redemption is a powerful thing), it can also kill careers.

Summary:

Building esteem for the artist behind the songs and performances allows other elements to accrue value. Musicians can then use these elements to sustain a career in other media or use their media profile to promote their other activities.

Come on and love me!

Esteem can attach to an act because of their reputation for a great live show; the unique qualities of their sound; their image, their multi-media output, their novelty, or their catalogue of great songs. Long careers are built on a combination of these sources.

The longest and highest profile rock and roll career has been built by The Rolling Stones, who have a great catalogue of highly esteemed songs and a reputation for a great live show 40 years after they started performing.

KISS built a reputation for a novel and highly entertaining live show featuring many catchy songs that reflected fairly universal values. They extended and enhanced that with a unique image featuring clearly definable characters, each of whom attracted its own esteem and lent itself to merchandising.

Michael Jackson's lasting legacy was to turn music into a visual art form through his video marketing and choreography. He is remembered as much for his moon walk and amazingly dexterous dancing as for his high-energy live show, catchy songs and vocal innovations (see next section).

Esteem can attach to an act as a distraction, however. OK Go broke though into popular consciousness with their innovative "treadmills" video on Youtube but the song attached to it was less memorable and they have struggled to repeat or build on that success. Musicians must beware that esteem granted because of novelty is fleeting, lest they become one-hit wonders for non-musical reasons.

Summary:

A musical act must look to build esteem for some unique aspect of their performances, such as their attitude, image, or innovation. This esteem expands their sources of income and influence into non-musical representations such as merchandise and endorsements.

Play it again, Sam ...

Esteem is granted to particular songs for many different reasons: a poignant lyric, a catchy melody, a unique arrangement, an incredible performance, or simply because of the listener's experience at the time of hearing it. Some songs are highly esteemed by a few people and a few are highly esteemed by a large number.

The best example of a highly esteemed song is the most-covered song in history: Paul McCartney's Yesterday. This song expresses a universal feeling in a simple, catchy melody. It has been covered by so many acts because it can be touchingly performed with minimal accompaniment or arranged for a full orchestra, allowing each act who covers it to add their personal esteem (see next section) to the esteem granted to the song.

Songs can also be highly esteemed by niche audiences. Metallica's One is seen by many metal fans as an archetype of their favourite genre. The band members' musicianship is also seen as very praiseworthy, even by non-metal fans.

National Anthems are mandated by law as representative of a national culture (not always with the agreement of the nation's people), which affords that song a particular respect. In Australia, unofficial anthems such as Waltzing Matilda, Men At Work's Down Under, or Bruce Woodley and Dobe Newton's I am Australian are preferred by some people as better representing the values they regard as essentially Australian than the official national anthem does.

Every generation grants esteem to songs that capture a time of their lives. A first kiss, the summer of coming of age, or a time of disaster can all be revisited by listening to a song that was playing at the time. This is a highly individual thing, but can be generalised in nostalgia songs like Bryan Adams' Summer of 69 and Kid Rock's All Summer Long.

Having esteem invested in one song can backfire for a musician if they become known as a one-hit wonder. In these cases, the act was able to create one highly esteemed song but was unable to build esteem for the act or the artist (see next sections).

Summary:

The most important source of esteem for a musician is esteem based on their repertoire of songs. This is established at first by playing songs that someone else made popular and then increased by writing their own esteemed music.

There's more to life than money

Human beings do things for three reasons: to acquire power, property or prestige. That is, to have more control over their lives, to have more stuff, or to have more people think they're cool. Any of these things can be converted into another - at a cost.

Initially, music was written and performed at rituals, festivals and ceremonies because the music added extra feeling to the event. At some point people wanted to make the music an even stronger contributor to the public good, so they nominated a few people to be responsible for their music.

These people were usually given a title like "bard" and excused from other duties so that they could work on the music. Eventually, the idea of a professional entertainer who did nothing but write and perform songs, dances, and stories came to be widely accepted.

The fact that one person was a professional musician did not stop others from making music. The professionals were often leaders of pro-am musical groups in their communities, increasing the spread of their music, the prestige of their group and the social value of their performances.

Even at the height of the music industry, non-professionals still wrote songs and performed them in cafés, parties, theatrical shows and so on. They did so, and people continue to do so, because they enjoyed making music and because other people enjoy hearing their music and respect their talents.

People do NOT always make music in exchange for property or power, they usually do it in exchange for prestige - even if that prestige is simply self-esteem. This is also true for most art forms and leisure activities. Although professionals can be very well paid for excelling, the vast majority of participants are motivated by the desire for esteem.

Esteem granted to a musician can be converted into income and power by selling recordings, tickets or merchandise; and by influencing others through brand endorsements, political activism or teaching. If done correctly, these conversions add to the musician overall value and thus support them.

Summary:

Music does not operate mainly in the economies of money or power. It operates in the economy of esteem, which can be converted into either power or money, but is not driven by either. The primary business function of an Independent musician is to gather esteem, from which they can derive income.

The irrational consumer

If music is the same as bread or bacon, why do some versions of a song sell better than others? Why do pieces of plastic with U2's songs sell better than pieces of plastic imprinted with the same songs played by my mates who jam with me on Thursday nights at Pete's place? Why can one recording induce intense romance, nostalgia or empathy while another recording of the same song induces nausea?

Conventional economics is based on the idea that producers, consumers, and market agents act rationally. That is, they take into account the likely costs and benefits of any given action and choose to do what's best for them.

However, this idea hits some walls when coming to terms with the fact that sometimes people's actions DON'T make financial sense. They sell things for less than they're worth, they work for nothing, they a more expensive brand that is of no better quality than a cheaper brand.

Economists try to account for this irrational behaviour by factoring in amounts for "goodwill", "reputation" and other terms to cover this lack of financial precision. But the reality is that some costs and benefits are simply not valued in dollars - not by individuals and not in an aggregated marketplace.

The late 20th-century music industry became dominated by numbers men and this accounted for the perception that much of the music that became popular was not very good. A record label with $1million to spend on one of 5 acts of similar music genre, age, and ability will choose the one that represents the lowest risk, not the one that produces the most interesting music.

But music is very different to most commodities. The more people wear a particular piece of clothing, the less that item of clothing is worth but the more people listen to a particular piece of music, the more it is worth.

Music is not a commodity and its value cannot be directly measured in dollars because its value is personal, social and cultural. These values can only be exchanged for money when they are attached to other things.

Summary:

Traditional economics cannot explain the inconsistencies of the commercial value of music. When music is traded, much more is exchanged than money and music.

So what IS music?

A digital music file is a series of encoded 1s and 0s that can be combined into an electric wave signal that can be sent to a device that pushes air around.

On a physical level, music is waves of vibrating molecules that push on the ear drum and stimulate electrical impulses into the brain. A person's brain does not care whether the source of the vibrations is a vocal chord, an instrument, or a speaker cone but the mind can discern subtle differences very clearly.

On a personal level, music is a form of expression. People create music when they feel they have something they want to say, and they listen to music when they want to feel something different from their mundane existence. Making or listening to music entirely for personal reasons is a perfectly valid and often cathartic exercise.

On a social level, music is about sharing and enhancing an experience. By listening to someone else's musical expression, a person empathises or aspires to the creator's experience. Participating in public concerts or broadcasts enables not only sharing of the music but also of the social experience of hearing it.

On a cultural level, music is about capturing and sharing information and reflecting on societal norms. The songs that endure tell stories of heroism, relationships, evil, stupidity, celebration and heartbreak that reflect the values of the culture in which they mean the most.

On an industrial level, music is a way to attach the shared feelings, experiences, or cultural value that music inspires to other things in order to increase their sale value. Not many wax cylinders, vinyl disks or cassette tapes would be sold if music was not on them. Even before movies could talk, producers recognised the characterisations and plot devices that were enabled by background music.

As data storage and transmission media, CDs and DVDs have long been replaced by portable drives, flash memory devices and bandwidth. CD sales are declining mainly because the popularity of CDs as transmission and storage devices for music is declining.

Summary:

Music is a non-verbal code for sharing experiences, thoughts and feelings. Musicians do not make a musical product, they provide a service. The music industry exists to convert the value of shared musical experience into a commercial proposition.