What’s most fascinating about the late night wars is how few people are actually watching.\u00c2\u00a0 Once upon a time, there were three networks, an appearance on Johnny Carson could break your career wide open.\u00c2\u00a0 Today, five percent of America watches NBC during prime time.\u00c2\u00a0 Back in the ’52-53 season, it was thirty percent.\u00c2\u00a0 Something’s changed.\u00c2\u00a0 But the reporting hasn’t.<\/p>\n
Yes, I got these statistics from the "New York Times".\u00c2\u00a0 But mostly the article on NBC\/Conan\/Leno was a rehash.\u00c2\u00a0 It was as if you’d never paid attention to the story previously, as if you’d never read TMZ, had no Web connection.\u00c2\u00a0 Trying to get the story right ended up making it so bland that only the most dedicated would ever read the article.\u00c2\u00a0 But in the past, we read, because that’s all we had.\u00c2\u00a0 The Sunday "Times" plunked down on our doorstep, there was no Web.<\/p>\n
But what made me fire up my computer was Stephen Elliott’s essay "The D.I.Y. Book Tour" on the inside back page of the "Book Review".<\/p>\n
Ever wander into a bookstore during a reading?\u00c2\u00a0 The room can be packed with bodies, but oftentimes there’s no one there but the author and the proprietor.\u00c2\u00a0 But this is how you sell books.\u00c2\u00a0 By going to where the people buy them.<\/p>\n
"The Adderall Diaries" is Mr. Elliott’s seventh book.\u00c2\u00a0 It got good reviews.\u00c2\u00a0 But the concept of going out on the usual suspect book tour depressed him, he "didn’t want to travel thousands of miles to read to 10 people, sell four books, then spend the night in a cheap hotel room before flying home. And my publisher didn’t have the money for that many hotel rooms anyway."<\/p>\n
Sound like the music business?\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t even get a deal with a major label, and if you do, they take a plethora of rights and are reluctant to spend cash.\u00c2\u00a0 And if they do open their wallet, it’s to put you on TV, to meet radio programmers, who are inundated with talent and rarely care about you.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re worried about their own jobs, not yours.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s an unending supply of wannabe acts.\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t make it, so be it.<\/p>\n
Mr. Elliott decided to try something different:<\/p>\n
\n\n"Before my book came out, I had set up a lending library allowing anyone to receive a free review copy on the condition they forward it within a week to the next reader, at their own expense. (Now that a majority of reviews are appearing on blogs and in Facebook notes, everyone is a reviewer.) I asked if people wanted to hold an event in their homes. They had to promise 20 attendees. I would sleep on their couch. My publisher would pay for some of the airfare, and I would fund the rest by selling the books myself."<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nFew people want a free book.\u00c2\u00a0 What I’m saying is, only those people who truly wanted the free book would ask for it.\u00c2\u00a0 Try this experiment…\u00c2\u00a0 Stand on a street corner and try to give away your unknown CD.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a difficult proposition, almost no one will take it.\u00c2\u00a0 And those that do are probably afraid to deny you and will never listen to it anyway.<\/p>\n
The readings that resulted were far different from in-store experiences.\u00c2\u00a0 Some attendees were completely out of the loop when it came to famous authors.\u00c2\u00a0 But the attendees couldn’t get enough.<\/p>\n
\n"The readings mostly went very long, over an hour with questions, and people didn’t leave. We were often up discussing until 1 in the morning."<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nThe audience was rapt with attention, involved.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\n\n"All together, I sold about 1,100 books (not counting copies of my older books, which I was also selling) at 73 events. Seven hundred of those were books I purchased wholesale, a few hundred more were sold by local booksellers invited to the readings."<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nThat’s a lot of books.\u00c2\u00a0 And you can bet those who read Mr. Elliott’s book will continue to follow his career.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, he came to their friend’s house, they met him!\u00c2\u00a0 It would be like seeing a new band in your buddy’s living room.<\/p>\n
But new bands would rather get radio airplay, or appear on TV.\u00c2\u00a0 Both of which are difficult to achieve, are highly impersonal and rarely pay lasting dividends.\u00c2\u00a0 But those are the established ways of breaking.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s even worse, just like network TV, fewer people are paying attention.<\/p>\n
You might feel good getting your album reviewed in the paper, even the "New York Times".\u00c2\u00a0 But does your audience really learn about music from a traditional media outlet, where you can’t even hear it?<\/p>\n
Lost in the outcry about the death of traditional media is the fact that the audience has scattered, fewer people are paying attention, it’s harder than ever to truly reach your potential audience, get them to check you out and close them.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s actually converting people that counts.\u00c2\u00a0 Radio statistics mean nothing in the abstract, nor do media clippings.\u00c2\u00a0 It comes down to whether you have fans.\u00c2\u00a0 But how do you get those fans to begin with?<\/p>\n
Large music institutions are no different from NBC or the "New York Times".\u00c2\u00a0 They keep tightening their belts and complaining that things are not the way they used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re never going back to the way they used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re never going to be limited to three networks again.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to succeed in the future you’ve got to throw the old rule book out, you’ve got to go directly to the people.<\/p>\n
But this isn’t sexy.\u00c2\u00a0 You want to tell your mother your record was spun on KDRECK in Albuquerque, you don’t want to tell her you played for thirty people in a living room.\u00c2\u00a0 But the latter will probably pay more dividends.<\/p>\n
But it’s not as simple as finding a small place to play.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to tailor your act to your audience.\u00c2\u00a0 Beat-driven extravaganzas don’t work in living rooms.\u00c2\u00a0 Nor does heavy metal cacophony.\u00c2\u00a0 Acoustic music, with stories, featuring songs that work without production connect one on one.<\/p>\n
Sure, people love to dance.\u00c2\u00a0 They even love to head bang.\u00c2\u00a0 But the audience for dance music loves the record more than the act, which sucks if you’re the act.\u00c2\u00a0 As for metal music…\u00c2\u00a0 You just need a bigger place to play.\u00c2\u00a0 Or one that befits your music.\u00c2\u00a0 A large garage, with a keg of beer.<\/p>\n
But whatever you do, your music must be inviting to the audience.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t tell people that you’ve got it right, that they’re wrong and they need to acknowledge your greatness.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to be so good, so in the pocket that people will call their friends to stop by, as opposed to making excuses and leaving themselves.<\/p>\n
You’ve got to think for yourself.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to know most people over thirty five telling you how to make it have no idea what’s really going on.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to know that you’ve got to start extremely small, and that growth to ubiquity might never occur.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you’re good, if people like you, your audience will expand, you’ll make more money, you’ll be satisfied, you will have built it yourself, reliant on no fat cat, fearful of no one pulling the plug.<\/p>\n
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