What is the GOAL of Internet marketing?<\/p>\n
It’s cool to have a Facebook presence, tweet ad infinitum and make YouTube clips if you’ve got a burning desire to do so, if you love new media and are thrilled to be in contact with your fans\/tribe.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, if it’s an end unto itself.<\/p>\n
But many expect all these activities to pay off.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what bothered me with Ms. Heap’s efforts, not only how much time and mental energy was wasted, but whether she was generating revenue!<\/p>\n
It all seems to be a lead-up to an album release on a major label.\u00c2\u00a0 If only Ms. Heap had been on an independent and had created revenue-generating events along the way!\u00c2\u00a0 If only she had put tracks on iTunes as she completed them, when the desire was still white hot.\u00c2\u00a0 Or, like Amanda Palmer, she had auctioned off items like outdated computers or other chozzerai from her studio, or had created special elements just for this purpose.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, Britney Spears is selling virtual goods online, that seems much more advanced than generating online content for a traditional commercial event far in the future <\/p>\n
\nBritney Spears Virtual Goods Debut On Facebook<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nThere was a cost to all this work.\u00c2\u00a0 As Ms. Heap tweeted on August 6th:<\/p>\n
"About 5% of my time goes to actually making music sadly @MaggieL. The rest is promo, technical, planning, running around, schedules..blah"<\/p>\n
This seems out of whack to me.\u00c2\u00a0 Shouldn’t a musician spend most of his or her time making music?\u00c2\u00a0 And, in today’s marketplace, is it about polishing ten tracks for release at some date in the future, or, as Thom Yorke stated, is that too much of a burden, too heavy a weight, and the best path is to release material in drips and drabs as one is inspired\/creates?<\/p>\n
Don’t lose touch.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like your goal wasn’t having the most MySpace friends, the number of people following you on Twitter or friends with you on Facebook means nothing in the abstract.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t get paid for having a six digit Twitter following, Biz Stone doesn’t show up at your house like Ed McMahon with a check.\u00c2\u00a0 If you like to tweet, as John Mayer seems to (you should follow him, he’s incredibly innovative, oftentimes reading his tweets is like reading song lyrics – http:\/\/twitter.com\/JOHNcmayer<\/a>), fine.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you’re expecting a bonus…you might get a barely quantifiable one down the line, with an increased tribe, but it’s not like selling a track or merch, there’s no clear exchange here.<\/p>\n
If you want to be the king or queen of Twitter, be my guest.<\/p>\n
Otherwise, see Twitter, all the social networking elements, as tools.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s great to play, almost necessary, but you reach a point of diminishing returns if you expect all this effort to help your musical career.<\/p>\n
If you’re a musician, focus on music.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, make it available, get your fans excited about it, but no matter how much you talk about it, it’s not as powerful as actually listening to it.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t forget, Led Zeppelin got lousy reviews.\u00c2\u00a0 But the public spread the word, the public loved Led Zeppelin.\u00c2\u00a0 If you release music the public loves, the public will spread the word, you don’t even have to.<\/p>\n
Of course, this paradigm doesn’t work in a vacuum.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to have some followers, you’ve got to have an online presence.\u00c2\u00a0 Just don’t go on overkill unless you LOVE keeping your fans informed on a minute by minute basis.<\/p>\n
Most great art is made in a vacuum.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, the selling is different, but focus on the art, not the selling.<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What is the GOAL of Internet marketing? It’s cool to have a Facebook presence, tweet ad infinitum and make YouTube clips if you’ve got a burning desire to do so, if you love new media and are thrilled to be in contact with your fans\/tribe.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, if it’s an end unto itself. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-yS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2163,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162\/revisions\/2163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}