October 28, 2009 How To Survive the New Music Industry
Every time you crack open a new book, read an indutstry blog or attend a music business seminar, you hope that something will be said to make your life as a musician better. Unfortunately, nothing ever seems to work and artists are left looking for answers.
Wait. What’s the question?
As I sat through the sessions at last week’s CMJ Music Maraton Film & Film Festival, I couldn’t help but to ask myself,
“How can any one of these panelists provide a definitive answer, if the question itself is constantly changing?”
Technologies are advancing, music institutions are crumbling and artists are once again being left out in the cold.
Don’t get me wrong, most of the panelists were very knowledgeable, highly respected and quite well spoken. They played the game at a time when the music industry actually worked. Now that there is a correction happening in the market, atleast two schools of thought remain.
Old School vs New School. Traditional Media vs New Media.
Each side had its merits, yet none of the professionals gave their attendees a clear enough picture of how to manage themselves without the use of a major label. I’d bet that a large percentage of these desperate, yet aspiring artists left with more questions at the end of the week than they had when they arrived.
The older industry experts insisted that nothing much had changed. They encouraged artists to network with other bands to find gigs, sell CD’s out of thier trunks or, “do what ever it takes to generate a buzz”. You can’t get more vague than that.
The progressives represented new media applications, widgets and digital services that promised to help artists develop direct to fan relationships. They somehow forgot to mention that you would be required to pay for their service or use their branded widgets in order to create, market, promote, and distribute YOUR music to the world.
In this day and age, we are all brands.
The more time you spend updating your social networks, the less time you spend practicing, creating great music and playing mind blowing shows. Connecting with fans does not ONLY mean keeping your profiles visable and easy to read. It also means taping into the raw emotions that face society as a whole. In the good old days, when there weren’t any computers programs, some of the greatest artists succeeded by telling their story in a unique way.
After hearing both sides, I still felt unsatisfied.
As the ceremony came to a close, I folded over my notebook, powered down my laptop and put the lens on my digital camera. I opened my eyes and ears to listen to one last story of a Sudaness soilder turned rapper. He told the audience how he’d survived war, desease, famine, mass murders and canabalisim to stand on stage at NYU in front of us that day. He’s since released a documentary, three albums, and a book about his life. Emmanual Jal learned the hard way what we as musicians take for granted. He learned how to survive and adapt in the toughest conditions.
I’ve spent the majority of my life studying the process of success in the music business. Early in my career I took bits a pieces of what worked to create my own survival strategy. Now that I’m exploring new ways to make a living in music, I am simply adapting. Through Emmanuel’s story, I’ve realized that survival divided by adaptation equals success.
If you set out to gain fame and fourtune without learning basic survival skills, failure is sure to follow. All of the CD’s, downloads, T-Shirts, widgets and direct to fan relationships will not work unless you adapt them to your situation.
SURVIVAL / ADAPTATION = SUCCESS
Kevin English is a marketer and student of the arts, who blogs about the skills and strategies necessary to get the most of your musical career at http://eleetmusic.com or on Twitter @eleetmusic.
Reader Comments (6)
"The older industry experts insisted that nothing much had changed. They encouraged artists to network with other bands to find gigs, sell CD’s out of thier trunks or, do what ever it takes to generate a buzz. You can’t get more vague than that."
Unfortunately I found this post to be equally vague, especially for a "How-to" entitled post. However, I absolutely agree with and love your little equation you set up towards the end. In order to survive any situation you must be able to effectively utilize and adapt to your surroundings. A very inspiring post!
_chris
Hi Chris. I'm glad you at least liked the equation. What did you expect to see when you read the title?
On a side note, thanks for adding eleetmusic to your blog roll. I'll be sure to add Tight Mix to mine.
Hehe well I didn't expect it to be THE solution to success in the music industry, thats just silly....but the title definitely will give off that vibe to ppl who don't know any better. Either way, it hooked me in to reading! lol.
Anyway, keep writing great posts! Thanks for adding me to your blogroll :)
_chris
I kinda dig the fact you didn't address the title, since that's exactly the symptom you're shining a light on here. Most of the articles with grandiose titles like that fail to deliver. Not that I'm aiming the finger everywhere else, I've been erasing and revising old content on Audible Hype for 2 weeks now and I'm not even halfway done. There's still so much to address, and getting big-picture clarity involves a lot of time, thought, research, and hanging out on rooftops smoking a joint.
I'm intrigued by the challenge your title poses, though. I wonder what I'd have to say if I was called upon to write that article.
"TAP INTO THE RAW EMOTIONS THAT FACE SOCIETY AS A WHOLE."
Perfectly stated, and not nearly enough of THAT in music these days!
If an artist did that - TRULY did that - consistently, and spent the majority of time PERFORMING THAT- the crowds would surely gather, and swell...and swell...
As posed in the lead question of the post, nobody can provide a definitive answer for surviving the new music industry, and agreed, Kevin, the best we can do is assemble bits and pieces from numerous sources (not necessarily all industry pros, or even from the music industry), then adapt them - and ourselves. Wasn't it Darwin that said "it's not the strongest or most intelligent that survive, but the ones who adapt the most"?
Justin, that said, there are few whose thoughts I would personally be as interested in hearing as yours, so please consider this as having been called upon (ha - be careful how you muse). And what better time than right after delving into and tightening up your material?
@Justin Kudos for revising your old blog content. It's still new to most of the world. I've found some really candid, thought provoking stuff on Audible Hype. I need to do the same. As for the "rooftop sessions", any day...any time sir.
@Dg I'm not exactly sure how Darwin put it, but that sounds good to me. Thanks for reading and making this post interactive.