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Developing a Better Strategyby George Ziemann -- December 27, 2008 I haven't written anything since, like, yesterday, so I want to talk about the 10 million "unsold" songs again from a slightly different perspective, namely that independents have a much greater advantage than I previously realized. First, let's review the infro from Tech Radar:
Some people may see this as a very bad sign. I previously mentioned that this means that 70 percent of all the signed acts didn't sell a copy, as the RIAA claims 85 percent of the market. That also relies on not one independent having sold a copy, so the actual percentage is probably higher. I thought about that again. Those that didn't sell a single copy weren't actually part of the market, so there's no real way to tell how that breaks out. Percentages are very handy that way. The part that I got right is that if you sell even one CD, you're in the top 15 percent. How many do you have to sell to hit the top 14 percent? Or 10 percent? While this is all very interesting, forget it. The important question is really how you can sell some songs or CDs. "But Mr. Wizard Guy, 85 percent didn't sell a single album. What chance do I have?" CD sales may suck, but concert grosses set a record this year. Obviously, people are still willing to drop a buck or five for entertainment. The iPhone has an app that farts. It's bringing in $10,000 a day right now. At five years old, the iTunes Music Store is the oldest and biggest of the online music retailers, the first thing that the RIAA didn't sue out of existence. There are also eMusic (older than iTMS?), Amazon, and others available now. The point is that it's still a really new idea that hasn't matched the life cycle of the 8-track yet. The major labels have spent most of that time trying to sabotage the whole idea. Simultaneously switching to a download delivery system while preaching that downloading is theft seems rather self-defeating. Suing people seemed downright stupid. Nobody is buying their music? What a fucking surprise. The average independent's problem is most likely that no one knows who the hell you are. No one is "stealing" your music. You can't get them to look for it, much less steal it. The only solution to this is to generate publicity. This is always tricky, as "generate publicity" often turns into "get arrested." In the long run, this is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's gonna mean you might miss a gig. So if you are going to get arrested, after the last set on Saturday is probably the most convenient time to get tossed in the slammer. In England, it appears that being arrested or forced into rehab on a regular basis is almost a requirement. Another prime opportunity still in the toddler stage is YouTube and user-generated videos. Warner Music doesn't want anyone to see any videos with their artists or their music. Well, that'll help sales. But thanks for getting all your shit out of the way. We thought we would have to load the truck. What YouTube, and iTunes, Amazon and everything else going on right now offers is merely opportunity. For the most part, it's opportunity that the majors have turned their noses up at. It doesn't take a half million dollars to create an album. It doesn't take Martin Scorsese and a huge budget to make a successful pop music video, either. It doesn't matter as much how much it costs to make. All that matters is that people like it enough to buy a copy. It could amuse them or resonate with them. It could appeal to their sense of harmony or oppose it with anarchy. And there is absolutely no way in hell to predict what people will react to. As an artist, I don't trust my own judgement on what constitutes a good song. We (Hurricane) always try to find some objective listeners who will tell us what they don't like. Other than that, we can only go by what is streamed and downloaded. There was a recent period where our cover of "Some Kind of Wonderful" was downloaded more than 2000 times in a week. Carl said, "I don't get it. We didn't play it right, sang the wrong words, didn't even do a very good job, and it gets downloaded 2000 times? WHY?" It doesn't matter why. The best way to improve your odds is simply to increase your number of entries. We've been pretty successful with recording this year and are geared up for some more. We expect to release at least three albums in the next 12 months. I expect that if we ever do have a profitable song or album, it'll be because of some out-take or joke song that we threw together in two minutes, or a complete accident of some sort. But it would seem that sooner or later, someone would at least stumble upon the collection and go, "Damn, these guys have a lot of tunes. Who the hell are they, anyway?" Also, when someone does find you, and you've only got three tunes for them to listen to, well, hope you picked the right three. At 75-100 songs (I haven't counted lately), we've got enough to keep you occupied for a while, maybe even get you to invite your friends. One of the greatest advantages is if you're working every night and have a varying audience. People seem to be the most receptive to buying a new artist's music (or an older artist's newest release) right after they've seen them. But in that case, you'll probably do better with CDs and t-shirts. You've got to have that magic song that people latch onto for whatever reason it is people latch on to things. Everyone has their own set of songs, their own reasons for liking them or not. Then there are songs which you might not even particularly like that get stuck in your head. As msucians, we'd all like to think that people will buy our music and attend our shows because of our awe-inspiring talent. That doesn't explain Crazy Frog, Tiny Tim, the Sex Pistols or several current entire genres. If you think quality recording is the magic ingredient, go listen to "Louie, Louie" again. It is one of the best rock songs ever and one of the worst. The other good thing to remember when you hear that (insert rock star here) has sold a million albums in the U.S., there were still 299 million people that didn't buy it. There's a lot of audience out there who just isn't hearing anything that speaks to them. I think this "branding" concept that is being knocked about is questionable, too. Nothing says rock and roll authenticity like a fashion line and perfume, eh? It's all a big crap shoot. Your success or failure is not dependent on that of the next guy, or the next band. All it takes is that one magic event that puts a song in the perfect place, hits the right audience and allows it to become a hit -- even if it defies (or simply ignores) the current pop sensibilities. Sooner or later, the cream will rise to the top, but you've got to milk the cow first. Use both hands. |
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