…or if I had to give it another title it would be, “If I Had It To Do Over Again”.

This will be the first in a multi-part series on how to navigate the waters of Music 2.0 using the limited financial resources available to a new band, indie or management company. What I’m hoping to do is to formulate an action plan for the new artist using real business techniques as well as emphasizing the limitations of the “old” music biz and it’s methods - such as the reliance on CD sales and inflated importance of chart rankings. We’ll explore why these things just aren’t relevant anymore, and why this is good for you.

For this first entry, I thought it would be appropriate to highlight some core values - my strongest recommendations - before you begin to put yourself out there and begin your venture:

#1. Your mailing list is PRICELESS!!!

Begin constucting your mailing list - emails, addresses, phone numbers, screen names - NOW! Do not wait. These are going to be the people you work for. This is your core fanbase. These are the folks that will keep your career afloat because they believe in you! Treat the list like GOLD and keep building it. Your list represents a targeted list of consumers who have already expressed their apprecIation just by signing up. They know who you are. They’re into you. These are the people you will OVERDELIVER to - beyond their expectations!

#2. Build community before commerce. The Trust Component.

In music, you’re in the business of hearts and minds. Build a relationship with your fans FIRST, and everything else with follow. Invite their input - give things to them for free - make them feel exclusive. You are building a town placing yourself as the mayor. Make sure to get the support of your constituents by any means neccessary.

#3. Songs should be forever - but not recordings.

When it finally comes down to recording your music, look at the big picture. The CD is dying (dead.). Why? Hell, there are so many reasons that I can barely conceive of them all. My opinion? The labels intent was always for you to RENT the music, not to OWN it. [I’ll be sure to explain this later.] Give your music away. Once you record it, send out the MP3s to everyone on your list for free. If you insist on printing CDs, hand them out for promotion too. Make sure you use this valuable opportunity to GROW your mailing list. Free music is not only a great incentive for an email address, but it helps build community and goodwill with a new potential fan. It’s probably the best way to bring people into your circle!

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By now it should be obvious what the common denominator is: FANS!

Treat them like family - ignore them at your peril.

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New bands - don’t get fleeced. Lately, there have been a new crop of internet “marketing” companies specializing in online music promotion. A major selling point of these services has been to outline the decline in CD sales - Down almost 20% in Q1 2007, down 4.5% overall in 2006 while digital downloads have grown 65% since 2005. Sounds impressive, yes?

Now the reality check - CD sales still count for 90% overall. So, don’t discount the impact of physical product.

The drop in album sales and rise in the purchase of individual tracks highlights the popularity of a la carte music selection, whereby music fans can choose to purchase just to two or three songs from an entire album rather than buying every track. From the perspective of the music industry, however, these track-by-track purchases create a significant revenue shortfall: where in the past those consumers would have generated revenue equivalent to an entire album’s worth of sales, now they only offer a small percentage of that revenue. The trend may signal a fundamental shift for the music industry, away from album-based marketing and sales and into a system driven by the sales of individual tracks, promoted aggressively in online communities and services.

This is what scares the hell out of me. Yes, I know the album format is dead but if the biz further transitions into a singles-based medium, individual acts will lose out.

Who wins?

Labels.

Why?

Big-ass Catalogs

Labels will make out like bandits on the Long Tail rule.

What to look for:

Indie Label Consolidation - The grand MERGING of record labels catalogs.

Big box retailers have still cornered the market on CD sales. (Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart) CDs sold in these stores sell at worse margins than anything else in their stores with the exception of milk. However, they happen to dominate quite a bit of floor space. What’s gonna happen when they need that space for something else? I’d say the removal of CDs - maybe even DVDs next - but I won’t get ahead of myself here.

This would lead to a HUGE - and I mean HUGE - drop in product sales. CDs will then have become loss leaders and practically disposable.

For me, I pray for the day this happens and the bottom falls out of the market. Seriously. Music should be free. It’s a sales enticement NOT A SALE.

http://www.aarontrubic.com/free-music-philosophy-case-study/

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Earlier today one of BurnLounge’s army of zealots spammed TDMW with a press release entitled ‘Public Enemy’s New Track Exclusively Available on BurnLounge’ yet again demonstrating its questionable conduct in the music industry by trying to associate Public Enemy as an entire act with their dodgy service.

Closer examination reveals that the track available on BurnLounge is by Professor Griff, with no involvement at all by core band members Chuck D., Flava Flav, DJ Lord or Terminator X. Not to take anything away from Professor Griff, but anyone with a passing knowledge of Public Enemy knows that his primary role is about managing the hype not writing the music.

EXTRA, EXTRA - Burnlounge is still a scam. Check out the Google ranks for “burnlounge review”

http://www.google.com/search?q=burnlounge%20review&sourceid=mozilla2&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
Result #1: MLM…Exactly!

If you look at the rest of the search results, it looks like BL has launched a full-on PR campaign meant to address the complaints from sites like this one. Farming articles out to directories and soliciting favorable reviews - what a bunch of crooks!
BL is STILL the Amway of music.

There is no indy spirit here, just exploitation. Hey BL, if you were serious about music advocacy, you’d offer the service for free. Don’t rely on subscription fees as a capital base.

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technology + paradigm shift in thinking = options

I think the age of the rock star is over. Or at least for the forseeable future.

I don’t think it’s possible anymore to dominate every possible media channel - there’s just too many ways to reach out to people. This is good - and bad.

I call it Music Industry Fragmentation. For those of us on the middle tier, this could be beneficial.

big label money + too many ways to spend it = occasional relative equality

cool idea for tv:

Make a mock late night tv infomercial for your album. Buy cheap tv time on a national cable network. I’ll bet your return on investment will be higher than you think…

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