Albums are for fans, singles are for newbies.<\/p>\n
Don’t make an album expecting to reach a new audience.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to reach a new audience, focus on the single.<\/p>\n
I’m baffled by those who make a full length project the basis of their marketing campaign.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, I’m baffled they’ve got a campaign at all.\u00c2\u00a0 You mean you want me to stop and listen to this much bad music?\u00c2\u00a0 Okay, okay, don’t get offended, but it seems that so much is shite, wading through the crap is a full time job, and I’m only gonna listen if a buddy tells me to and then only one track.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re incredible, I’ll want more, but only in bits and pieces.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not like I go to Ben & Jerry’s, order a cup of Phish Food and decide I like it so much that I go back to the counter and order TEN!\u00c2\u00a0 I might buy a pint at a later date, but that’s it.<\/p>\n
Actually, I love Phish Food, and I buy pints on a regular basis.\u00c2\u00a0 Imagine if they only made the ice cream once every two years. And I had to keep up with the marketing to know it was out.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d have to be one hell of a fan to care.<\/p>\n
In other words, if you’re putting out an album every couple of years you’re reinventing the wheel, you’re marketing from ground zero over and over again.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve even lost touch with your fans.\u00c2\u00a0 You need a steady stream of product to keep people interested.\u00c2\u00a0 But the main point is do not release ten tracks at a time for ten bucks, that’s positively archaic thinking based on the CD and major label profitability schemes.<\/p>\n
Think of it this way.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Do you constantly worry about the size of your hard drive?\u00c2\u00a0 Do you think about coming up with a bevy of files that fit it perfectly?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what making an album is like.\u00c2\u00a0 In a world of unlimited storage, you’re still trying to fill a floppy disk. It’s a ridiculous pastime.<\/p>\n
Concentrate on making music.\u00c2\u00a0 Focus on making the best music you can.\u00c2\u00a0 And release it when it’s ready, don’t hold it back as a result of some sales scheme.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Once again, that’s major label thinking for dead bands.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s how they sell the Stones or the Beatles or…\u00c2\u00a0 All that hype about the "Exile On Main Street" anniversary set…\u00c2\u00a0 Have you heard anybody talk about it recently? It’s set in amber.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas the music of a working band must be in the ears of listeners on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
The flaw in this thinking is especially prevalent in the work of classic acts.\u00c2\u00a0 They finally put out an album and no one cares. They think it’s still the seventies.\u00c2\u00a0 That radio is waiting and everybody is listening and visiting the record shop every Saturday thumbing through the new releases.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re baffled when their album stiffs.<\/p>\n
Usually, the music is not great.\u00c2\u00a0 But there might be one gem included.\u00c2\u00a0 Why not put out only that?\u00c2\u00a0 Something that good has a chance of being spread via word of mouth.\u00c2\u00a0 You might get some traction.\u00c2\u00a0 Otherwise, it’s the best player on a losing team.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like being a bad baseball club with one superstar, playing in Iowa, with little or no media coverage.\u00c2\u00a0 Your album is a team.\u00c2\u00a0 No one wants to play with a loser.\u00c2\u00a0 But unlike in sports, you don’t need nine or eleven members on the team to play the game, in music you only need one!<\/p>\n
We’re getting there.\u00c2\u00a0 At some point artists will catch up with the audience.\u00c2\u00a0 But for a decade now, not only have labels been behind, so have the music makers.<\/p>\n
Look at the statistics for new acts.\u00c2\u00a0 They sell singles more than albums.\u00c2\u00a0 Katy Perry’s album sales are anemic, she stands on the strength of her single hits.<\/p>\n
Oh, that’s right, you’re an "artist".\u00c2\u00a0 Show me where in the manual it says an artist makes music in sixty minute chunks.\u00c2\u00a0 Or that people listen to it that way.<\/p>\n
I’ve got no problem with you combining ten tracks and selling them as a CD at your concert.\u00c2\u00a0 Or as a double vinyl package. That’s about selling a souvenir, not music.<\/p>\n
But please, stop making albums.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a waste of money.\u00c2\u00a0 You lose momentum between projects.\u00c2\u00a0 No one listens to most of the music.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re in the music business, not the album business.<\/p>\n
And the music business is about three or five or even ten minutes of glory.\u00c2\u00a0 An experience that cannot be denied.\u00c2\u00a0 Concentrate on constructing that.\u00c2\u00a0 Then you’ll grow fans.<\/p>\n
Or just make albums for the few people paying attention.\u00c2\u00a0 But don’t expect to be much bigger than you are now.<\/p>\n
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Albums are for fans, singles are for newbies. Don’t make an album expecting to reach a new audience.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to reach a new audience, focus on the single. I’m baffled by those who make a full length project the basis of their marketing campaign.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, I’m baffled they’ve got a campaign at all.\u00c2\u00a0 […]<\/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-4085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-13T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085","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=4085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4086,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085\/revisions\/4086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}