Are you a musician? Are you a songwriter? Did you wake up one day not long ago and say “WTF? Who stole the music business?”
With CD sales about half what they were 15 years ago, and the “new media” radio stations like Pandora, Spotify, Grooveshark, et al, reportedly paying out pittances for even millions of airplays, you’re not alone.
And you’re right. Someone did steal the music business. But it may not be who you think and there just might be a remedy available to you.
Game Changer
Once the mp3 was invented, and the historical physical music product (rolls, records, 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs) was transformed into a VIRTUAL product that could easily be captured (stolen) and shared with “peers,” the game was over for making money from music distribution. It has been downhill ever since.
Ubiquitously, music is now free. What’s a music creator to do to make money?
Of course! PERFORM! But that’s not a replacement for the money that was once made from music distribution. That’s the same money that was always there…trading your time onstage for a paycheck (hopefully).
You Have to Adapt
In the meantime…creative people of all stripes, including some of the smartest musicians, have been learning to make a living, indeed at times A FORTUNE, online.
HOW? WRITING. WORDS.
HELLO!? Isn’t most popular music generally composed of MUSIC and WORDS?
WORDS are the currency of the digital world. They are even the currency of the MUSIC industry in the new online world!
Who in the “music business” has done very very well since the migration of all things, including music, to the web? LYRIC SITES! Check them out! They are some of the highest traffic sites on the web!
Even if YOU aren’t getting paid for the use of your lyrics (your WORDS), they are! (BTW this is an area that absolutely must be addressed by the PROS—ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. Original lyrics are simply being hijacked by some lyric sites and many copyright holders are being robbed.)
Diversify Your Writing
USE YOUR WORDS TO SELL YOUR MUSIC. To sell yourself, to BRAND YOURSELF!
How? Create a blog and FOLLOW THE LEADERS. Do what they do.
No, it’s not music, but it’s WORDS, and the best writing IS musical. Learn to write compelling copy. Learn to attract and capture visitors and FANS. Develop an email protocol and writing style that speaks directly to them. Engage them with your words.
Sure, you can give away your music as an enticement, an incentive to act, but be extra creative. What can you write that’s just for them? What can you create that’s just for them? What problem can you solve, just for them?
“Build it and they will come.” Ha Ha. Maybe in the “field of dreams” this works but not in today’s world of instant everything and scant seconds attention spans.
BUILD THEM (your audience) and IT (opportunity) will come.
The Way is Led
It wasn’t just the techies, the iTunes builders, the “music discovery site” propagators, that took the money and ran.
It was also the WORDSMITHS, the audience builders, the email experts, the MARKETERS who stole the music business.
Join them. Become one of them. Good writers, good communicators, are able to sell whatever they want.
You need to know more than music to make it in today’s music business. You have to harness the power of WORDS.
DA Jack Hayford http://www.dahayford.com
Jack is the co-producer of the successful (Since 1996!) Durango Songwriters Expo and editor at Events-in-Music.com. He lives in Nashville.