There’s got to be a better way to sell music.<\/p>\n
Think about it, we’re now all connected, worldwide, if the right act were pushed, it could become gargantuan overnight.<\/p>\n
And that brings us to our first problem…we’re pushing the wrong acts.<\/p>\n
I just read a fascinating article about Groupon in the "Wall Street Journal".\u00c2\u00a0 And it occurred to me that these tech wonders, these Websites that everybody uses, are no different from great records.<\/p>\n
Great records are phenomena.\u00c2\u00a0 Completely different from anything else, people just can’t get enough of them.<\/p>\n
Like "96 Tears".\u00c2\u00a0 Or "Walk Away Renee".\u00c2\u00a0 Nothing sounded similar before and nothing has sounded the same since.\u00c2\u00a0 Why were they so successful?<\/p>\n
Because they were different and good.<\/p>\n
And isn’t it fascinating that right now all the records sound the same.\u00c2\u00a0 Come on, tune in Top Forty radio, if I hear one more synthetic drum I’m going to kill Roger Linn.\u00c2\u00a0 Or ransack the Roland Corporation.<\/p>\n
We’ve become so lowest common denominator that we’ve missed the point.\u00c2\u00a0 And too many old school people believe the way to break an act is written in stone.\u00c2\u00a0 Work with usual suspect producers, get it on the radio and TV and then hype it to high heaven in any other media that will have you.\u00c2\u00a0 If this were working so well, the music business wouldn’t be in trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t focus on piracy, that’s missing the point.\u00c2\u00a0 Piracy killed the old model.\u00c2\u00a0 But piracy also demonstrates demand.\u00c2\u00a0 More people want more music than ever before.\u00c2\u00a0 More people own more music than ever before.\u00c2\u00a0 More people are listening to more music than ever before.\u00c2\u00a0 And to focus on success as sales of recorded music or concert tickets is completely missing the point.\u00c2\u00a0 Once you get all those eyeballs there are a million ways to monetize.\u00c2\u00a0 But how do you get everybody to pay attention?<\/p>\n
1. These successful sites are never created by newbies.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0 Mark Zuckerberg was a coding savant.\u00c2\u00a0 Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker were dedicated to their computers.\u00c2\u00a0 Why in the music business do we push inexperienced talent?<\/p>\n You’ve got to pay your dues if you want to sing the blues.<\/p>\n It’s Gladwell time.\u00c2\u00a0 We need acts that have put in 10,000 hours.\u00c2\u00a0 They can’t be ten.\u00c2\u00a0 The Beatles played a thousand gigs before most people knew who they were.\u00c2\u00a0 And sure, George Martin helped, but George Martin did not hit with every one of his production clients.<\/p>\n We’ve got to look for the experienced.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got to focus our efforts on only one or two acts, the creme de la creme, stuff so good that it’s undeniable.<\/p>\n 2. Getting people to hear it.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0 This is where new techniques like Groupon come into play.\u00c2\u00a0 This is why the music industry is in such trouble, it’s run by oldsters who don’t understand tech and wish the Internet would go away.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, these oldsters have not allowed the youngsters in.\u00c2\u00a0 They literally don’t let them work at the company and those that are employed are not empowered and those that look for rights are not licensed.\u00c2\u00a0 Never forget that music led.\u00c2\u00a0 Napster was about music.\u00c2\u00a0 Napster was the best thing that ever happened to music.\u00c2\u00a0 It allowed all that unreleased stuff to come out of the vault, it paved the way for MP3 ubiquity and now streaming.\u00c2\u00a0 To fight Napster with lawsuits and CDs is like fighting Facebook with the Girl Scouts.\u00c2\u00a0 Never overlook the network effect.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what’s gonna blow up new music.\u00c2\u00a0 Assuming number one above is put first, that the act is truly great.<\/p>\n 3. How do we incentivize people to hear it.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe that’s the wrong way to look at it.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe we make music freely available, like FarmVille, and upsell thereafter.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe we need a music game that gets everybody to pay attention.\u00c2\u00a0 That allows them to win free concert tickets and visits from band members.\u00c2\u00a0 Only one site triumphs online.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s one Amazon, one iTunes, one Facebook and one Twitter.\u00c2\u00a0 There will be one online music hub.\u00c2\u00a0 Foster competition to create it.\u00c2\u00a0 Once we get everybody playing in this sphere, we can then expose people to new acts.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ll already\u00c2\u00a0 be there, they’ll already be paying attention.<\/p>\n 4. Monetization.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t think about records and concerts, think about access, think about elation, think about rewards.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe you let everybody come to hear the album of the new act streamed at Staples Center for free, but they pay for pizza and beer. Think party.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, you might be able to hear the album right thereafter online, but you won’t have the experience of hanging with your friends!\u00c2\u00a0 And never diminish virtual goods.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a gold mine waiting to be tapped.<\/p>\n We’ve got to get the minds creating Groupon and Facebook to work in music.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s our only way out.\u00c2\u00a0 We need a complete rethink.\u00c2\u00a0 It would be great if we could have easy, cheap licensing, but that seems impossible.<\/p>\n So what’s going to happen is one of these tech savants is gonna find a band.\u00c2\u00a0 And is gonna use all this newfangled media to break said band.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, it’s happening already, but the bands just aren’t good enough, they’re not the Beatles, one listen is not enough.<\/p>\n But once we’ve got acts this good…<\/p>\n The whole thing will feed upon itself.\u00c2\u00a0 A scene will develop.\u00c2\u00a0 Money will be made by the boatload.<\/p>\n It’s all about creativity.\u00c2\u00a0 Music and tech.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about great ideas, ones that have never been seen before.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to let these techies get ahold of great music and run with it.<\/p>\n Which is why you should only sign with a major label if you’re making the kind of crap that people are already listening to in ever fewer numbers on the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’ve got something different, keep your rights, tie up with someone as creative as you are.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about Alex Luke going to work at EMI, it’s about creative techies you’ve never heard of doing it in a brand new way.<\/p>\n We didn’t know we wanted Groupon.\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t know we want music served in a whole new way.\u00c2\u00a0 But we do.<\/p>\n As for the acts…\u00c2\u00a0 Is it too much to ask for performers who can sing well, play their instruments and write catchy songs that you can sing?\u00c2\u00a0 That was the essence of the Beatles.\u00c2\u00a0 Replicate this and you’re on your way.<\/p>\n\n