Moving city-to-city each year, DIY Days is a rad conference that tries to start real dialog about funding, distribution, and strategy in the arts. Up next is Philly on the first of August, where I’ll be speaking on a panel with Mark Schoneveld (yvynyl), Leah Kaufman (Phrequency), and Brian McTear (Weathervane.) We’re covering new models in music during a 45 minute blitzkrieg of the senses. Or a civil chat. Probably the latter.
Given that it’s such a broad topic, I thought I’d put some thoughts down here, share them with the other speakers, and open up a bit to questions, comments, etc. Mark and I actually kicked around some ideas over IM, so a lot of this post stems from that conversation.
There are two primary topics I think are important to cover:
- Finishing Strong (or approaching a release holistically)
- Currency (it’s not just for money anymore)
You hear it all the time: an artist talking about a release in the past tense before its release date. They finished in the studio, they feel great about it, and they can’t wait to see how it’s received. That’s just not enough. You can’t simply wait and see. You’ve got to capture listeners, plan promotion, and set the vision for how your music is released. The whole process should be treated artfully with care and creativity.
It’s not so much about the particular route you take, but rather the execution. Examples? You’ve got Jonathan Coulton building a career giving away CC licensed tracks, Josh Freese doing the ultimate in tiered promotions, the perfect boxed set by NIN, Amanda Palmer twittering a storm, Radiohead, The Breeders hand screening their covers, and Kristin Hersh doing a fan-funded album thanks to her amazing Strange Angel subscribers. (Not to mention Jill Sobule, David Byrne, Fanfarlo’s $1 album, and plenty of great content-for-email promotions.)
Probably too many examples. But what’s amazing in each is the forethought that went into the music and the actual releases. Kristin asked her engineer (the awesome Steve Rizzo) to mix down into remix-friendly stems. Coulton committed to releasing a song a week for a year. NIN documents the entire process and releases a box with photos of the recording, beautiful art shots, and maticulous art direction.
These are full strategies, developed early and delivered well at every turn. Better yet, the artistry is present from the first recording until the package is opened (or downloaded.) That level of care and craftsmanship simply cannot be faked.
All of that just scratches the surface. But strategies are nothing without goals. And those goals have to be far more specific than “we want to sell x copies of y release.” Artists need a specific idea of what they’re trying to do with a release, and a way to measure their success. This is where the idea of alternate currencies come in.
Trying to get noticed? Maybe play counts or social followers are the currency you care about. Need to connect to your core? Collect email for EP downloads in advance of a new album. My point is that the value you measure from a release can be counted in traffic, downloads, and email addresses just as legitimately as in dollars.
Releases are short-term parts of a long-term career. It may make sense to maximize sales for a given release, but it depends on the career. So artists need to look at each release and come up with the plan that’s right for it and right for their career. Set measurable in goals that make sense for the specific situation. Then execute.
And please for the love of whatever: work hard.
You have the fire in you Jesse! This is great. I absolutely agree with your points listed above.
There’s a part of me that can’t help lament the fact that, in the absence of a standard format, musicians have to be caught up in an “arms race” of promotional packaging, and being “the first to do X”. In other words, I believe there’d be a great benefit in some segment of the industry working toward an industry standard format for delivery of music and the related arts. Not to sound like I am discouraging people doing what they can to stick out and be noticed, but what I am sensing is a mounting exhaustion with the requirement for the consumer to go look and find “what’s out there”.
If only there were a place and set of experiences and activities that consumers could rely on and expect. Some of this might be the release process as you’ve mentioned, taking over for the product itself. THe first experience = the release. In this day and age, people rather quickly listen and move on to never return. A big problem, itself.
The other missing element, these days, is a rapidly shrinking phenomenon known as the “shared experience”. Even as already refined niches of consumers are broken down in greater and greater detail, there’s very little that we experience together. (I really love and appreciate Kristin Hersh’s small private concert idea. To me, this puts a premium on people being together to have an experience, made more evident by the smaller crowd and therefore heightened sense of interaction.)
So I guess what I am saying is that, while it is true that artists need to perfect the execution of the perfect release in the attempt to get noticed, I hope that what I can bring to the conversation is the necessity for someone or something to round up an audience of die-hard music lovers: the kind of people driven by the desire to actively support and advance music, to experience music and the experience of music together and to see it as a matter of cultural survival that all music not “die on the vine”.
I can’t wait to meet in person and have this conversation on Saturday!
B
Posted by Brian McTear on July 28th, 2009.
Yeah we’re very much in agreement…great points all around. I’m especially fond of your point about the arms race. The constant need for only new and different ideas can lead to fatigue. Like you said, I don’t want to discourage innovation, but I don’t think an idea should be invalidated because it worked. If an audience appreciated something and you have a similar audience, then by all means build upon previous successes.
Also love the emphasis on a shared experience and the importance of a supportive audience that can rally around an artist. Such a key.
Posted by jvd on July 28th, 2009.
Yes. Exactly. I think there’s a need for some innovation in music release format, and an equal amount in audience/community building. I guess the latter looks like something that Facebook and MySpace can lay claim to, yet joining these groups etc, I fear, is really a superficial sidebar for many people at best. Building an audience of music supporters, people who see the importance of music’s survival, people who consider themselves part owners in our series, people who consider themselves “activists” by their participation is what we’re hoping to do. I hope I have the energy to pull it off!
Posted by Brian McTear on July 28th, 2009.