First and foremost comes a good product.<\/p>\n
Requiring no admission fee, no college degree, no qualifications whatsoever, the music business is peopled by hucksters, who employ myriad scams to get you to pay attention to their wares.<\/p>\n
But it doesn’t work.<\/p>\n
Used to.\u00c2\u00a0 Back when there was limited distribution, when bribing a deejay to play your song got you a leg up.\u00c2\u00a0 But who buys music because it’s got a high iTunes chart position?\u00c2\u00a0 Sam Adams worked the system in order to get meetings with major labels.\u00c2\u00a0 But then what?\u00c2\u00a0 If they sign him, they might market and promote him, but that doesn’t mean his music will sell.\u00c2\u00a0 Because only good music sells.<\/p>\n
Sucks, I know.\u00c2\u00a0 Makes it much more difficult for you.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t get any traction outside your family and friends.\u00c2\u00a0 The system’s rigged against you.\u00c2\u00a0 Bullshit.\u00c2\u00a0 If you were actually good, you’d blow up.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got people surfing the Web 24\/7 looking for good shit, dying to tell their peeps about it.<\/p>\n
In Wednesday’s "Wall Street Journal" there’s a story about Porter Airlines.\u00c2\u00a0 I wouldn’t have bothered to read it except for the fact that in Toronto, my ear was bent constantly about the carrier.<\/p>\n
People waxed rhapsodic.\u00c2\u00a0 The terminal was downtown-adjacent!\u00c2\u00a0 The planes had leather seats!\u00c2\u00a0 The flight attendants were all decked out like the sixties!\u00c2\u00a0 There was a brand new terminal!\u00c2\u00a0 And you only had to check in minutes before!<\/p>\n
If Porter does any advertising, I’m clueless.\u00c2\u00a0 But having heard the rap so much, I started spreading the word too. When Seymour Stein told me he was having trouble flying back to New York I asked him, had he tried Porter?<\/p>\n
Porter is triumphing with a good product.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s being sold by its users.\u00c2\u00a0 Kind of like Google.<\/p>\n
I remember the turning point.\u00c2\u00a0 A phone call with a non-tech savvy friend about a decade ago.\u00c2\u00a0 She was telling me about some Web-activity and referenced "Googling" something.<\/p>\n
This was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d been ignoring the search engine, I was a fan of HotBot, but now I had to try Google out, now that the hoi polloi were employing it.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, the hoi polloi could barely surf the Web.\u00c2\u00a0 If Google gave them answers…<\/p>\n
I switched to Google overnight.<\/p>\n
But it gets better.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only did I become a user, but a fan.\u00c2\u00a0 I was thrilled when Apple installed the Google search window in the Safari toolbar.\u00c2\u00a0 Yeah!\u00c2\u00a0 It was like my favorite team scoring a touchdown.\u00c2\u00a0 This is what people don’t realize about Steve Jobs’ company.\u00c2\u00a0 We not only buy the products, we’re believers.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re interested in everything Apple does.\u00c2\u00a0 Kick the tires on new products?\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, sometimes we buy them without even experiencing them first. Ergo, iPad pre-orders.<\/p>\n
But it only works if you’ve got a killer product.<\/p>\n
It starts with a track.\u00c2\u00a0 And from that track, you can build a career.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like the iPod got people to buy iPhones and Macs.\u00c2\u00a0 Give someone a taste of an exquisite product, and they’re on board.<\/p>\n
And it’s not about speed.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, the twenty first century is littered with products that were hits overnight and disappeared almost instantly.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to let the audience discover you.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to let people believe it’s their choice.\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, Apple is one cold computer company.\u00c2\u00a0 But their stores are warm, the customer service is great. And this pays dividends.<\/p>\n
Let’s focus on service.\u00c2\u00a0 Because the initial product is not the end of the relationship.\u00c2\u00a0 Point is, you want a relationship.\u00c2\u00a0 Dell’s lame overseas customer service ended up decimating the company.\u00c2\u00a0 Apple’s made in America customer service gets people testifying.\u00c2\u00a0 See the difference?<\/p>\n
The music business has been about batting people over the head to sell them a product once.\u00c2\u00a0 You bought it.\u00c2\u00a0 It sucks?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s your problem.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, we rip you off at every turn.\u00c2\u00a0 Just try getting a good concert ticket…what’s up with that?\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, the experience buying an airline ticket is better!<\/p>\n
So focus on the music.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s nothing wrong with updating your Facebook page, tweeting away.\u00c2\u00a0 But those elements are never going to make you.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s your music that’s your calling card.\u00c2\u00a0 And if your music is good enough, it will be embraced by fans and the word will be spread.\u00c2\u00a0 No one sits at home waiting for their favorite song to come on the radio anymore…\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, if you like something you can e-mail a friend the MP3, point to a YouTube page, there are many entry points for exposure.<\/p>\n
You don’t stand out because of the penumbra.\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, even J. Lo lost her Sony gig.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s no longer how good you look, who you know, who you hang with…\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about the tunes.<\/p>\n
Don’t point out the exceptions.\u00c2\u00a0 Those acts tend to be here today and gone tomorrow.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, this is a twenty first century change.\u00c2\u00a0 When so much is available, when marketing is abhorred and tuned out, the only people we listen to are our friends.\u00c2\u00a0 We trust them.<\/p>\n
Marketing is the final step these days.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about positioning.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about imaging.\u00c2\u00a0 Like those iPod billboards.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t tell you much, they just remind you how hip the product is.<\/p>\n
So don’t bother attending marketing seminars.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t listen to the major label tell you how it used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 Just practice, practice, practice.\u00c2\u00a0 Make something insanely great.\u00c2\u00a0 And post it online.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, give it away for free. Because if it’s really good, people will ultimately clamor around you to give you their money…for concert tickets, t-shirts and signed CDs, even if they only listen to MP3s.\u00c2\u00a0 Because believers need badges of honor.\u00c2\u00a0 They want to evidence what’s close to their hearts.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the key to logos on clothing.\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, no one wants to sport a JCPenney or Wal-Mart logo just like no one wants to help you sell your lame music.\u00c2\u00a0 But Louis Vuitton?<\/p>\n
And, in case you didn’t know…\u00c2\u00a0 That LV luggage lasts FOREVER!<\/p>\n
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