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Promoting Musical Artists in the Post-RIAA Music World?
Mattcelt asks: "While we're all discussing the eventual demise of the RIAA and the triumph of the MP3, what should a small independent music publishing company do to sell a new artist to the public? My publishing company recently ran a $4,000 advertising campaign on a local radio station (107.9 the Link in Charlotte, NC). Despite reaching an average audience of more than 10,000 during peak times, we netted *0* sales. That's right, absolutely nothing. I've made the entire album available in MP3 format on the Ephelian Records website to facilitate adoption, and I know some people have downloaded the songs, but I can't figure out why no one has pre-ordered the CD. How does an indie artist make a living when gig prices for unknown artists will barely cover the gas money and CDs won't sell? Are we really wrong about the availability of MP3s affecting music sales?"
Sorry to be so harsh, but as someone who has sent good money to indie artists just because I liked the MP3s I downloaded for free, if the talent is there, the dollars will follow (well, some at least).
You could've hired me.
You put up MP3s of your CD on the web, of an indie band, and then expect people to buy your CD?
Not to sound like a troll, but I fail to see your logic. The point of having a few mp3s is to give them a sample of what the rest sounds like. (Or in the RIAA's case, the few good songs on a CD). Also, my experience with indie bands is, well, that they suck. My cousin was part of one, and it wasn't what I would consider remotely stellar.
I buy CDs for music that I downloaded the MP3s of and found good, but that music has all been Good music.
"Post-RIAA world"? Quickly, quarentine Cliff - he has Jon Katz disease!
(Actually, this being Memorial Day, I must admit I actually miss JK sometimes..)
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I would ask this: Is your album available in stores, or only via on-line ordering? If it is only available on-line, how easy to remember is the URL?
Consider where people listen to the radio - I would say mostly in their cars. Now, here I am, driving along, and on comes your ad. First of all, my ad filter wetware comes online - I hit the button to skip to a new station, or I blank out what is going on.
OK, so let's say your ad plays a snippet of the music in question, and I listen to it and say "Huh, that's kinda cool. Who is this?" Then your ad says "That was a sample of Scab - Now the Puss Flows Freely, available for download and purchase at www.fbq39x34.com/~tqxir/49912/pxj36.asp". Now, even if you said that slowly enough I could copy it, I'm not going to whip out a pen and paper and copy that while weaving through downtown traffic.
That's part of why the RIAA is still pertainent in this world. If all I can remember is the group name (and maybe not even that all that well) and if the group is in Worst Buy, I can find it. But if I have to find them online, and if all I have is some common words that don't lend themselves to Googling....
Last but not least: how does your website handle orders? Do you hid things behind layers of Flash and Javascript? Do you work only with Exploiter? Do you not accept credit cards?
Ask yourself this: if I wanted to buy that album, how many impediments are in my way?
www.eFax.com are spammers
Big record companies spend millions on advertising and promotion, all done by experienced professionals. And they still sometimes lay an egg. Spending a few thousand dollars is no guarantee of anything.
If you want to make a place for your music, there's no substitute for the simple hard work of developing your art, finding your audience, and gradually making a place for yourself. This doesn't always work out, and it takes time and effort in any case. But there's no magic shortcuts.
At the same time, you've got overworked, long intros (leave that for the live album 20 years down the road), several insturmentals (which almost never do well - how many of James Taylors insturmentals can you recall?), and a singer that sounds like he's been training in high school chorus for the solo for the spring musical. Yes, I can say that, as I've had albums that flopped, and I sound nasal and grating.
Plus, having listened to the first half of all the songs, none of them really caught my attention and stood out. Sorry - it's *hard* to push albums. Live gigs? Sure - even I can fill a local venue. Selling albums across the country? You're competing with thousands of other bands, mostly comprised of veteran performers who are band-mate swapping every year or so, hoping to mesh with somebody for that next great hit. Plus loads of semi-successful or career artists like Throwing Muses and Men Without Hats, both of whom just released new albums and are trying to push their own stuff in the exact same way you are - with pre-built in name recognition.
To sum it up - making music is easy. Making good music is hard. Selling your music is the hardest thing of all and involves some amount of luck. There are bands that gave up, only to have their album suddenly take off two years after they gave all the copies away at live performances.
Incidently, I *assume* you're performing, pushing your stuff with at least two gigs a week. If you're not, you're not doing the work. Regardless if you make it this time around, constant gigging vastly improves your ability to perform, and if that's what you want to do in life, you have to work at it.
Incidently, while I ripped apart the *album*, you've got some decent songs. I'd sit and have dinner with you performing somewhere. And that's where 98% of all artists will spend almost all their careers. That's the music biz.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
People can and do travel this way. Good musicians don't starve. If you can't make a living by busking you're not good enough to be a professional musician. Be honest with yourself, could you survive like I've described above. I know several people who have done it, not all of them play music as a profession, but all of them could if they chose to. If you can't survive like that then don't give up the day job.
Firstly, take any advice from me with a grain of salt, I'm not a successful indie artist... I'm just an indie artist. Firstly, you've done something good. You're on slashdot. You have managed to get free marketing in a venue where people "get" the idea of sampling a product before purchasing it, and many see the value in paying for a product they already have for free. This is a good thing.
However, for a pre-order scenario to work you really need to add value to pre-ordering it. You can do this by giving it away before selling, but the only ones who will bite are the ones who only want to listen to your music on a manufactured CD delivered at some point in the future, or wish to contribute based solely on the music they already have for free. So far, from your account of the situation, this number is zero. Now, if you relase a few of the tracks and make it so the rest aren't made available until a certain number of pre-sales are placed, then you're getting somewhere. Put some documentation on the web as far as how close you are to your goals. If you make it less expensive to purchase the CD on a pre-order, that helps too. I have 2 CD singles with mixes completed, the current plan is to release one outright and not release the second until sales of the first and pre-sales from the second will cover my costs.
Another plan for my music is to see if there's any chance in hell I can get it covered on slashdot. Perhaps your $4000 wasn't wasted, it just got funneled into sales in a way contrary to your expectations.
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I mean no offense by any of this... hopefully you'll take it constructively.
First, I listened to the ad on the website... I'd assume it was produced by the station itself and frankly, it's horrible. It generates no excitement and it isn't catchy enough to stick out of the crowd of other ads. In short, few people even heard the ad. I did radio work for many years and I think you were screwed by the station production people. That ad could have been formatted in a dozen other ways and had more impact.
Second, you're advertising on the wrong station. "The Link" looks like a hot AC station and your music just doesn't fit into that demographic. Have you tried a college station? Send them a gratis CD and see if they play it.
Find a station that plays something similar... I'd call it easy listening or maybe even jazz if I had to put it in a genre, but maybe you know better where you want to head with it. Once you've found your station, toss out some teaser ads and see what gets caught in the net.
Good luck!
All opinions presented here aren't mine.
"... I can't figure out why no one has pre-ordered the CD"
You're asking people to pre-order a CD? You're asking regular, average, CD-buying people to preorder a CD?
Average Joe does not preorder anything from an unknown entity, much less for music that they've heard maybe 5 or 10 times in their life. Pre-orders work for groups that have dedicated following, who are willing to say, "Here's my money now - you can pay me with product later." You are trying to go backwards and develop a following by having non-followers preorder a CD.
I wouldn't do it, myself, unless I felt passionate about the music, and I doubt your music causes much feeling in me at all, nevermind passion. Even if I really liked the music I would say, "Well, I'll visit infrequently over the next few months - if they have anything they can ship tomorrow then I might buy it." But since the MP3s are freely available, I might not even check back.
Going back to your original question:
what should a small independent music publishing company do to sell a new artist to the public?
I suspect, but don't know, that a publishing company will have to take a hit on a few albums before the artist takes off. Like a web site it takes years, not months, to gather enough followers to make ends meet, without breaking a profit. Some artists biff, some make it big, but you have to hold onto them, develop them, produce two or more EXCELLENT polished albums, get some regular airplay on several stations, and put some blood, sweat, and tears into your work.
How about this:
Quick, easy/cheap, profitable.
Pick two. The RIAA does quick and profitable by pouring money into it. You will never be able to compete on their field, so don't try.
-Adam