Food for Thought…

I’m reading Chris Anderson’s “FREE” and came across a thought I’d like to share.  He quotes Clay Shirky, a writer and NYU lecturer, who believes it’s much smarter for content creators to give their good away for free:

“For a creator more interested in attention than income, free makes sense.  In a regime where most of the participants are charging, freeing your content gives you a competitive advantage.  And, as the drunks say, you can’t fall off the floor.  Anyone offering content free gains an advantage that can’t be beaten, only matched, because the competitive answer to free – “I’ll pay you to read my weblog!” – is unsupportable over the long haul.

Free content is thus what biologists call an evolutionarily stable strategy that works well when no one else is using it – it’s good to be the only person offering free content.  It’s also a strategy that continues to work if everyone is using it, because in such an environment, anyone who begins charging for their work will be at a disadvantage.  In a world of free content, even the moderate hassle of micropayments greatly damages user preference, and increases their willingness to accept free material as a substitute.”

I find myself in this conversation more and more often.  “Should we give our music away for free?” – maybe not all of it, but certainly some of it.  Would you buy a song you’ve never heard from a band you don’t know?  Is your entire career dependent on the $.99 you’ll make off that download?  You need attention.  Make it available in all formats for purchase, but give your best track away for free to anyone interested in listening.  Even if I have access to free content from artists I like, I always buy to support…fans do that.  But I’m not a fan until I hear the goods! – Thoughts?

Trent Reznor shares his thoughts on what to do as a new artist

I read this today and thought it important to share with the community.  The thoughts on what to do as a new / unknown artist from a leader in revolutionizing the artist-fan relationship:

Originally posted on Trent Reznor’s NIN Blog.

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I posted a message on Twitter yesterday stating I thought The Beastie Boys and TopSpin Media “got it right” regarding how to sell music in this day and age. Here’s a link to their store:

illcommunication.beastieboys.com

Shortly thereafter, I got some responses from people stating the usual “yeah, if you’re an established artist – what if you’re just trying to get heard?” argument. In an interview I did recently this topic came up and I’ll reiterate what I said here.

If you are an unknown / lesser-known artist trying to get noticed / established:

* Establish your goals. What are you trying to do / accomplish? If you are looking for mainstream super-success (think Lady GaGa, Coldplay, U2, Justin Timberlake) – your best bet in my opinion is to look at major labels and prepare to share all revenue streams / creative control / music ownership. To reach that kind of critical mass these days your need old-school marketing muscle and that only comes from major labels. Good luck with that one.

If you’re forging your own path, read on.

* Forget thinking you are going to make any real money from record sales. Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY. As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters.
To clarify:
Parter with a TopSpin or similar or build your own website, but what you NEED to do is this – give your music away as high-quality DRM-free MP3s. Collect people’s email info in exchange (which means having the infrastructure to do so) and start building your database of potential customers. Then, offer a variety of premium packages for sale and make them limited editions / scarce goods. Base the price and amount available on what you think you can sell. Make the packages special – make them by hand, sign them, make them unique, make them something YOU would want to have as a fan. Make a premium download available that includes high-resolution versions (for sale at a reasonable price) and include the download as something immediately available with any physical purchase. Sell T-shirts. Sell buttons, posters… whatever.

Don’t have a TopSpin as a partner? Use Amazon for your transactions and fulfillment. www.amazon.com

Use TuneCore to get your music everywhere. www.tunecore.com

Have a realistic idea of what you can expect to make from these and budget your recording appropriately.
The point is this: music IS free whether you want to believe that or not. Every piece of music you can think of is available free right now a click away. This is a fact – it sucks as the musician BUT THAT’S THE WAY IT IS (for now). So… have the public get what they want FROM YOU instead of a torrent site and garner good will in the process (plus build your database).

The Beastie Boys’ site offers everything you could possibly want in the formats you would want it in – available right from them, right now. The prices they are charging are more than you should be charging – they are established and you are not. Think this through.

The database you are amassing should not be abused, but used to inform people that are interested in what you do when you have something going on – like a few shows, or a tour, or a new record, or a webcast, etc.
Have your MySpace page, but get a site outside MySpace – it’s dying and reads as cheap / generic. Remove all Flash from your website. Remove all stupid intros and load-times. MAKE IT SIMPLE TO NAVIGATE AND EASY TO FIND AND HEAR MUSIC (but don’t autoplay). Constantly update your site with content – pictures, blogs, whatever. Give people a reason to return to your site all the time. Put up a bulletin board and start a community. Engage your fans (with caution!) Make cheap videos. Film yourself talking. Play shows. Make interesting things. Get a Twitter account. Be interesting. Be real. Submit your music to blogs that may be interested. NEVER CHASE TRENDS. Utilize the multitude of tools available to you for very little cost of any – Flickr / YouTube / Vimeo / SoundCloud / Twitter etc.

If you don’t know anything about new media or how people communicate these days, none of this will work. The role of an independent musician these days requires a mastery of first hand use of these tools. If you don’t get it – find someone who does to do this for you. If you are waiting around for the phone to ring or that A & R guy to show up at your gig – good luck, you’re going to be waiting a while.

Hope this helps, and I’ll scour responses for intelligent comments I can respond to.

TR

Should beginning bands give music away for free?

Yes.  Here’s the scenario…

Antonio’s band is just getting off the ground in the Boston, MA area.  They’re about half way finished recording their debut album and are starting to play out around the area.  There seems to be a bit of a debate on whether or not to give some of the music away for free.  One side of the argument is…hey, after all the time, energy, and money we put into recording this it makes no sense to give it away…the other side is, let’s focus long term, give tracks away, and encourage word of mouth with hopes to find more fans.

If you’re an independent band, with no label support, just getting off the ground…you absolutely need to give some of your music away for free..and not the left overs..you need to share the best songs you have!  If you don’t…how are people going to hear your music?  Naturally gravitate towards your myspace page?  Doubt it.

Here’s my advice…make everything you have available for purchase.  Get your tracks on iTunes (and everywhere else), link your sites to it, and let people know they’re available for purchase if you’d like to support the band.  You’ll be surprised how many will purchase to support.  Your current FANS will support, but the new one’s wont..they’re not yet convinced and are testing your water.  You need to convince them with your music.  Give it to them, let them live with it, enjoy it, and guess what…if your songs are good enough…they’ll react!  And if they react, they’ll buy the other songs and maybe even a t-shirt and ticket to the next show…that’s what you want.

And really?  Is $0.99/track really going to make any difference in your career right now?!  No…be real.  It’s not..If you’re working for $0.99 then you’re way too short sighted and wont make it…besides..just a reminder..you’re doing this for the love of music, remember?  And there’s nothing better than sharing your music with new people, right?!  Share your music now, think long term, and the money will come…LATER.  Don’t bottleneck yourself this early.

So what’s the best way to give your music away?  I’m a fan of getting a little something for the free track.  I’ve started working with loudbytes: loudbytes.com.  You can get 1000 band cards for next to nothing that have your artwork on the front and a download code on the back.  Hand them out at shows and to the people you know.  When they go to loudbytes to download your track, loudbytes grabs their e-mail address and sends it back to you.  That’s cool.  Now you can hit everyone up who checked out your tunes and personally invite them to your next show.  These guys can attach your music via download codes to cards, button, hangtags for t-shirts, stickers…whatever.  I’ve even started using them to cut out the cost of CDs.  I put music on hang tags now.  So rather than sell a shirt for $10…I sell it for $15 and you get the album as a digital download for “free”…now you’re thinking like a business..cutting cost of goods sold.

So yes…give it away in one form or another…your fans will appreciate it and like I said…if the music is good enough people will react.

Ben

Promote Your Music

First off, I know I’ve been MIA for a little bit.  So much going on this past month it’s been hard to find the time to sit down and knock out another post!  Lame I know, I’ll be better…promise!

So Brian hit me up asking for some advice on how to best promote his band’s upcoming EP release.  Sounds like they’re totally independent so I’ll assume the marketing budget is tight.

Brian, first you have to answer the question: who is my audience?  Once that’s answered, then: where do I find them?  Bad marketing is taking your band and just throwing it out there…you need to pin point who you believe will most likely enjoy your type of music…get it to them…then if it’s good, hope they help you spread the word.  Once you’ve identified your audience, I suggest hiring a publicists to help build your story.  Find someone who works both online and print press.  Tell them what type of publications you want to hit, what webzines make sense, and who you think will most likely react and embrace your songs.  Be realistic in this attempt.  You’re one of many many bands and it takes a very long time for people to accept your debut effort.  A lot of the times press will react with, “cool EP…maybe we’ll cover them when they release a full length.”  So be prepared.

I think it’s also worth the few hundred bucks to create promo goods like free stickers and posters.  Make sure every venue you’re performing at has posters in advance…you want people to discover you..so make sure the band name is out there in your scene.  Give stickers away at shows and to friends.  It’s simple, not going to make you a rock star, but it’s a reminder of your band.  Further, and I’ve said this before, give your music away.  I’m not saying the full EP..but at least a song.  I’m working with this company now that provides a digital experience in our physical world.  I’ve purchased stickers and buttons from them, both bundle a digital song with the product.  SO, instead of just selling a fan a button, they get the button with a digital code on the back instructing them to go to “xxxx.com”, hit redeem, enter the code, and there’s your free song!  It’s very cool.  So essentially, you’re selling digital downloads from your merch booth.  Yeah the song is “FREE”, well, actually your just combining the sale price into your button.  More on this later…

You may also want to consider a new media marketing company to help with your viral awareness, online press and blogs, and overall media strategy….but honestly, this can cost a lot of money, most of which you wont make back on an EP.  Just see to it that your online experience is fully executed…meaning you must be sure you have a profile on every major network site, each is constantly updated, provide an abundance of content like videos (live and produced), pictures, songs, artwork, merch, etc, and utilize free tools like mailing lists and mobile texting.  I don’t recommend over doing it, though.  I hate visiting pages with more widgets than fans…

Remember to build locally, expand regionaly, grow nationally.  It take a very long time…so get ready for the long haul!
Ben

What’s the best way to keep our fans informed?

It’s hard to stay on top of everything.  If you’re moving forward as a musician you should absolutely put as much time as possible into writing better songs…that’s your job.  However, you must also never neglect the marketing of yourself and those great songs you write.  I know, common sense, right?  But I’m amazed at how many artists don’t take advantage of the FREE tools available for their use.  Jason is wondering what tools I’ve found to be most useful for keeping in touch with fans.

Great question…something every new band needs to not only know, but utilize.  There’s no excuse not to.  If you want to rise above the clutter you need to actively promote yourself, find new fans, and stay in constant contact with those fans…they are you’re lifeline.

You absolutely need a mailing list.  I know, I almost feel ridiculous saying it…it’s one of the least techy tools out there..but still the most important.  Contrary to what you might think, not everyone is on myspace.  So what good is posting a tour date or news bulletin that people may not see.  Some might, but others wont.  You need direct contact.  It’s also a great indicator of how many true fans you have.  You may sit on tens of thousands of myspace friends…but you know as well as I that only a fraction really care.  I highly recommend ReverbNation’s mailing list tools.  They really are great.  Very easy to use, provide a ton of statistical information, and best of all…FREE.  Go to http://www.reverbnation.com and set yourself up with an artist profile if you haven’t already.  While you’re there, you’ll find other valuable tools like street team functions, tour widgets, banners, and “tunepacks” (links you can send to people to hear your music).  With all the options and distractions your fans have, why rely on the assumption that they’ll continually come to you for information?  You need to feed it to them.  Seriously.  You wouldn’t believe how many times I’d receive messages on my bands’ myspace pages asking “When’s the next time you’re coming to ‘insert your city here’?” when it’s right there in our tour dates…trust me, the best way to keep your fans informed and a part of what you do is still e-mail.

Also, don’t just exist on myspace.  I often wonder what would happen to the independent musician community if myspace went bye bye…think about that.  You’re trying to start and run a business and most likely your main point of contact, information, and media is 1 website that you have no control over.  You think that’s wise?  Trust me…I know it’s a pain updating ALL the various community sites…but do it.  Set up pages on the top 5 or 6 and link them all together.  It offers more exposure and less dependence on one source.  By the way…I heard myspace is no longer going to allow ANY external links from band pages!!  No links to merch, youtube, itunes, mailing lists, touring…nothing.   I don’t know if it’s true or not, but if it is…you might want to start thinking NOW about setting something else up…like your own website.

I can go on and on…but the question is staying in touch with fans.  Set up your mailing lists and send out at least 1 newsletter a week with interesting information!!

Ben