There’s a fascinating story by Tad Friend on movie marketing in the January 19th issue of the "New Yorker".\u00c2\u00a0 It’s especially poignant in light of yesterday’s Oscar nominations.\u00c2\u00a0 Why didn’t the best pictures get noms?\u00c2\u00a0 Or, more importantly, does it matter what gets nominated, does it matter what consensus is on any piece of art today?\u00c2\u00a0 Can there truly be any consensus?<\/p>\n
Struggling musicians are frustrated that they don’t get a shot.\u00c2\u00a0 That a label doesn’t sign them, that no one will give them a chance.\u00c2\u00a0 The dirty little secret is it doesn’t matter how good you are, but whether the person putting up the money can successfully market you.<\/p>\n
Let’s say you’re fifty years old and are the new Cat Stevens.\u00c2\u00a0 Better yet, let’s say you’re twenty years old and are the new Cat Stevens.\u00c2\u00a0 How is a company supposed to market you?<\/p>\n
Top Forty radio is the predominant vehicle for major labels to expose new artists.\u00c2\u00a0 These stations don’t play the music of fifty year olds.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not interested in it.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s not their core demographic.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t care how good a record might be, it’s kind of like selling Depends to teenagers…they don’t see the need.<\/p>\n
So you’re angry about this.\u00c2\u00a0 You want your chance.\u00c2\u00a0 But where is the avenue for you to get your chance?\u00c2\u00a0 Top Forty reaches the most people, it’s been proven to sell the most records.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe you can get on NPR.\u00c2\u00a0 But that audience is nowhere near as active.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, if you’re left field enough, maybe you’ve got a chance.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, if Miley Cyrus is on NPR, she’s not going to see a sales spike. Unless it’s because parents are buying product for their kids.\u00c2\u00a0 Everything is channels and marketing today.<\/p>\n
Let’s go back to that twenty year old Cat Stevens.\u00c2\u00a0 There can be a market for mellow music on Hot AC, adult-oriented stations.\u00c2\u00a0 But Cat Stevens music is not exactly what the stations are presently looking for.\u00c2\u00a0 So, even though you write the next "Morning Has Broken", the label is going to want you to work with Diane Warren, to make something more format-friendly.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll be up in arms.\u00c2\u00a0 Complaining about your artistic integrity.\u00c2\u00a0 But, chances are the label is right.\u00c2\u00a0 You could cut a great record by yourself, but they wouldn’t know how to sell it.<\/p>\n
Usually, you don’t either, which is one reason you want a deal with the major label.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t figure out how to break, they must have an idea.\u00c2\u00a0 But they’re flummoxed too.\u00c2\u00a0 The labels are not looking for the best music, just music they can sell.<\/p>\n
As Mr. Friend puts it:<\/p>\n
\n"It is often said in Hollywood that no one sets out to make a bad movie, but the truth is that people cheerfully set out to make bad movies all the time.\u00c2\u00a0 It is more accurate to say that no one sets out to make a movie without having a particular audience in mind."<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nDisney is interested in acts it can promote on the Disney Channel.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is watched primarily by the prepubescent set.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s more important that you be cute and lovable than good.\u00c2\u00a0 They know this.\u00c2\u00a0 No one in Burbank truly believes the Jonas Brothers are the new Beatles, but there are three of them, increasing the odds kids can identify with the act, they’re cute and they can do the job.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, this same act stiffed on Sony.\u00c2\u00a0 Not because the label was incompetent so much as it had no access to children’s TV.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, it’s going to be very hard for anyone other than Disney to succeed with this paradigm.\u00c2\u00a0 Disney has got its cable channel, its radio station, its theme parks, its cruises, it can cross-promote like crazy.\u00c2\u00a0 So, if you’re a kiddie act, you’d better be aligned with the Mouse.\u00c2\u00a0 But the Mouse can only sign so many acts.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you’re not as good-looking as Demi Lovato or as personable as Miley Cyrus, too bad.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not selling art, they’re selling artifice.<\/p>\n
Conversely, no one is interested in old farts singing heavy metal music.\u00c2\u00a0 That was the flaw with the Pat Boone record.\u00c2\u00a0 Good train-wreck promotional value, but who is actually going to buy the album?\u00c2\u00a0 Who wants to see the act live?<\/p>\n
In other words, if you want to make it in this business, you first and foremost have to figure out who your audience is.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, you can play what you want, you can choose to have a day job, you can even starve, but if you want to make money, chances are your music is just not enough, you’ve got to consider your audience and how to reach it.<\/p>\n
Sure, you’re angry everybody on MTV was pretty.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s what sells on American TV, looks.\u00c2\u00a0 Doesn’t mean you can’t sell great music by ugly people, just that you’re not going to get a chance on TV. You’ve got to find the anti-MTV people.\u00c2\u00a0 Who’ll listen first.\u00c2\u00a0 And spread the word virally.\u00c2\u00a0 But know that word spread virally is not as fast as TV.\u00c2\u00a0 But what is spread by word of mouth lasts longer than what is exploited via the boob tube.<\/p>\n
How about those overpriced arena shows by the classic acts?<\/p>\n
Turns out people would rather overpay for what they know than go to see an unknown band.\u00c2\u00a0 So, the key is not to try to convince people to come see you without knowing your music, but getting them to know your music first.\u00c2\u00a0 As for the live industry, since they’ve turned concertgoing into an exclusive event, it’s very difficult to fill seats at the show of a developing artist.\u00c2\u00a0 So, they book what’s on TV, which fades away, or don’t book anything at all and complain. Whereas they’ve got to rebuild the developing live sphere.\u00c2\u00a0 By realizing it’s populated primarily by people in their late teens and early twenties who want to socialize and get high.\u00c2\u00a0 So, you’ve got to have alcohol and a fun vibe.\u00c2\u00a0 Create the vibe and it’s less important who you book.<\/p>\n
Point being, don’t stand on the premise of being great.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s just not enough in today’s marketplace. In the sixties, you cast great films with big ideas.\u00c2\u00a0 You were striving to create art.\u00c2\u00a0 Today, "Slumdog Millionaire" loses its distributor and is in danger of going straight to video and ultimately is nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.\u00c2\u00a0 Did the picture change?\u00c2\u00a0 No, a marketer decided to give it a shot.<\/p>\n
This is a hopeful story.\u00c2\u00a0 That quality will win out.\u00c2\u00a0 And sometimes it does.\u00c2\u00a0 But making films is expensive, there are few distribution slots.\u00c2\u00a0 Everyone can make a record.\u00c2\u00a0 And seemingly everyone wants his chance.<\/p>\n
Then you’ve got the holier-than-thou listeners saying that their favorite must make it.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether it be TV On The Radio, the Hold Steady or Vampire Weekend.\u00c2\u00a0 They deserve it, they’re the best.\u00c2\u00a0 But best no longer matters.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe in year-end polls, to the degree anybody pays attention, but in today’s world people are fine living in their own little universe.\u00c2\u00a0 You can avoid hip-hop.\u00c2\u00a0 You can avoid Mariah Carey. You can avoid Metallica.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s your choice.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s no longer the sixties, with the Beatles, Stones, Louis Armstrong and the Temptations coexisting on the AM dial.\u00c2\u00a0 Now you’ve got infinite choice.\u00c2\u00a0 As for someone criticizing your choice…\u00c2\u00a0 All you’ll get back in return is a laugh.<\/p>\n
So have no illusion that marketers are looking for greatness.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re looking for an audience.\u00c2\u00a0 One large in size, that’s easy to reach.\u00c2\u00a0 If they can’t find a slot for you, they won’t sign you.\u00c2\u00a0 If they think you’ve got a tiny slot, they’re not going to offer you much money and are not going to spend much.<\/p>\n
That’s today’s world.<\/p>\n
Where it leaves the future of music is a debate for another day.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether quality will rise up and dominate.\u00c2\u00a0 But don’t think we’re still living in the twentieth century.\u00c2\u00a0 There are few proven avenues where you can break acts.\u00c2\u00a0 And few where you can make money.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s easiest to break an act on radio. Then TV (there are fewer TV slots than there were before MTV went long-form.).\u00c2\u00a0 And you make the most money selling physical product.\u00c2\u00a0 So, a label wants an act they can get on radio and TV, and they don’t care that you listen on your iPod, they want to sell album-length CDs, that’s where they make their profit.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not a matter of right or wrong, it’s a matter of dollars and cents.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want things to be different, you’ve got to take a risk.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to start a record label or concert promotion company. You’ve got to champion something new and find a way to sell it.\u00c2\u00a0 Because the big boys are just protecting their turf, doing what they know how to do in order to succeed in the short term.\u00c2\u00a0 Are they going to fail in the long term?\u00c2\u00a0 DVD sales are off, theatre attendance is dropping.\u00c2\u00a0 Radio is a shadow of what it formerly was, CD sales are tanking.\u00c2\u00a0 The big powers are not squeezing you out, not preventing you from playing, they’re just picking the low-hanging fruit, before it all goes rotten, falls from the trees and disappears.<\/p>\n
\n