Online Business Model for a Band?

Backes asks: "I've seen a lot of submissions about P2P, iTMS, DRM, piracy, and the RIAA, lately. Apparently everyone has an opinion on this and most seem think that the recording industry are a bunch of greedy people that stick it to the consumer as well as their own artists. After hearing some of the stories, I'm not even sure that getting signed to a label would be the best course of action for an aspiring musician or band. So what is a better option? What would you, the Slashdot community, do to make it big on your own using the Internet?" "What kinds of features would a site need? Would you pay for downloads of MP3s from a band's site or not? At what price? Would donations work, or would everyone just freeload? How often would you need updates or new songs to keep you coming back? If downloads were free, would you then buy a full length album from the site just to get the CD? What special features should the CD include? How would you get your name out? What do you think is the best course of action for a band that wants to completely circumvent the whole music industry process and do it themselves?"

Comments

To make it big on the internet...

[Peterus7]

Get one of your fat friends to do something really stupid, videotape it, and put it up on newgrounds with a music track. Then sell t-shirts.

Model

[seaniqua]

Unfortunately, I don't see a band making more than a moderate regional success without the aid of a lebel. The industry is just too closed to outsiders. You won't get your album shelved in Sam Goody, Wal Mart, and the like without the aid of a high-powered record company. The only other option is to join a smallish, "indie" label. While you still won't make MTV (most likely), a good indie label will be able to get you some exposure in independant record stores, radio stations, and the like. Some idie labels even band together in loose organizations, and can manage to get more clout that way. With this setup, you might be able to get a regional distribution in major outlets, but you still won't make the billboard charts. Sad to say, but if you want to be a rock star, you still have to play the label's games. At least until I get my plan to revolutionize the record industry underway...

Re:take the contract

[File_Breaker]

Yeah, but then 99% of the time you lose all rights to your own music. I was in many bands and even when we got an offer that was pretty good deal we said no because we wanted to own our music and not have the record lable own it. You have to watch out.

its pretty simple really

[deathcloset]

play shows.

That's all.

The "recording artist" is becomming something of an anacronism - or will become so IMO.

We are returning to a time when musicians get payed to actually perform their music, not just record it.

Ask a signed band, and the record company always, always gets the biggest cut of the money from record sales.

the band just counts on the sales driving concert attendance...but it's not really SALES driving the attendence, it's the people hearing the music.

and that hearing can now be achieved without the expenses of distribution from a decade ago.

that's truely why the Recording Industry is going to the toilet. The fleets of trucks driving to the stores and the warehouses of duplicatation equipment are already outdated - and that was really all that we needed those guys for. They didn't MAKE artists, the found and held them - like a zoo animal.

Give your music away, if you love it set it free. They will come to see you play if you rock :)

and I hope you do :D

link to your bands website?

Re:its pretty simple really

[wtmcgee]

I disagree. I enjoy the live show as much as the next guy, but saying the studio album is simply an ad is a bit naive. I'm way too busy (and live way too far away from any decent venues) to see every band I enjoy playing live.

The album format may be dying (slowly, but yes, it's dying), but for someone who spends way too much time in a car or at work, live music (and ESPECIALLY merch - I don't want a t-shirt of my favorite band ... i just don't care about such things) is not a viable way for me to support artists.

Give It Away Now

[Doc Ruby]

Give the music away for free, with URLs embedded in the MP3 ID3 tags etc. Sell the things you can control access to, like concert admissions, copies of CDs for people who want that (many still will), t-shirts and other merchandise. Try to license your songs to people selling other things, if you think that's cool. If you sell the songs, there's a cost to sales, and you'll wind up spending lots of other money on other promotion and marketing. With the Internet offering so much free distribution, the music itself is the most effective, cheapest promotion available. And the primary idea is to get as many people listening as possible. So help the music get to the people who want it, and your audience will be more interested in paying for the rest of the package.

Don't try to do it all yourself

[iabervon]

Unless you're actually interested in running a business, you should avoid having a business model. Running a successful business, regardless of the model, will take several people working full-time on overhead, and this is likely to eat up your band.

The right path is really to find someone else (such as Magnatune) who has a business model which leaves you ownership of your music, gives you a return that you feel is fair, and involves business practices you think are ethical. There's nothing inherently bad about signing with a label, just like there's nothing inherently bad about getting a loan; it's just that the well-known labels are scams.