Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Artist Idea #3: TXT for Video

This is the third in a series of relatively short posts of potentially crazy, potentially profitable ideas for musicians to use. If you use them, you don't have to give me any credit, but please do write in and tell me how it worked for you.
Here's an idea that is best enabled with Topspin, but is worth running by any means necessary. Get a phone for the band (or, alternately, get an SMS receiving number/account online), post the number at concerts (tape it on your amps for full effect), and have fans text you their e-mail addresses. At the end of the night, or in the van the next day, compile all the e-mail addresses (and their phone numbers) you received. Put them into a list titled the city or venue you just played so you can keep track of where they are for future communications.
Finally, give them a reward! My recommendation is a private link to a video of the previous night's performance, but I know not everyone travels with video cameras (you should! get the merch guy or someone in one of the other bands to tape you). Alternately, a personalized message would be nice, an exclusive song download would be better, and encouragement to tell their friends if they had a good time is always good policy.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Artist Idea #2: Dedications

This is the second in a series of relatively short posts of potentially crazy, potentially profitable ideas for musicians to use. If you use them, you don't have to give me any credit, but please do write in and tell me how it worked for you.
I don't know what it is about chatting it up with my friend Adam, but I always wind up with new artist ideas while talking with him. The next three are all from one conversation about ideas for Mondo Pr!mo's new release, 2FN HOT, and upcoming tour with The Pink Spiders.
Start by emailing all your fans and let each of them pick a song to have dedicated to them on your next tour stop nearest to them.
If you scale like crazy, it would be tougher to keep up with the dedications (perhaps start selecting fans at random, or fans with the best reasons for why they deserve the dedication), but while you're still building, the satisfaction and excitement of a personal dedication is a huge reward for your initial core fans.
Sure you might make a dedication anyway if someone asked you outside the venue before the show, but by offering the opportunity in advance, the fans will get more excited to go to the show and more excited about bringing friends to hear that song dedicated to them.
THEN you follow up with them, having brought a video camera on tour with you, by posting that song, with dedication, on youtube and email them the link.
Then they share that to all their friends who didn't go to the show, those folks hear your songs, get hooked, and, from the details of the youtube vid, know where to go to buy your stuff.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

#1s

Katy Perry's hit single, "I Kissed A Girl," recently tied The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand" for the longest reign at #1. While we can all sit around all day and all night debating the merits (or lack thereof) of each, I would like to point out the difference in culture surrounding these hits.
Namely, the fact that I eat, sleep, and breathe music, work in the music industry, am young and relatively "hip" (okay, the fact that I just put that in quotes takes me out of the running), yet have never heard this "I Kissed A Girl" song. In fact, every time I hear it mentioned, Jill Sobule's classic 90's hit by the same name comes to mind.
I could rant about how this is a sign of the changing landscape of music made possible by the digital medium and infrastructure, but you know that already. Instead, today I'd just like you to sit back and think about what it really means to have a #1 single these days--Katy Perry has sold fewer cumulative albums in 7 weeks than The Beatles did in 1.
The lowest common denominator will always exist, and will always sell. It's human nature to be attracted to artists and songs that other people like. That market won't disappear. The difference is not that people aren't buying music--music sales are still well above what they were in the 60s (and 70s and 80s and 90s)--it's that not everyone has to buy the same albums. They have different ways of discovering music, and more music to choose from.
As an artist, you should view this change as a boon--you no longer have to conform to a "norm" to get a coveted record deal and thus sell records; you can make whatever music you want and there will, more than likely, be a market for it. In a world where #1 means much less, being down the list a bit doesn't look so bad anymore.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Artist Idea #1: Taco Truck

This is the first in a series of relatively short posts of potentially crazy, potentially profitable ideas for musicians to use. If you use them, you don't have to give me any credit, but please do write in and tell me how it worked for you.
It's a well known fact that the way to a (wo)man's heart is through (her) his stomach. It's also a well known fact that selling cheap food near concert venues is almost always a home run. Why not utilize both of those facts and cook for your fans? If you want to go all-out, buy yourself a taco truck (or similar food-serving vehicle) and use it as your tour van. Alternately, you could get one of those dorm-room pizza ovens and plug it in by your merch booth. The key is to have something easy to make and easy to sell, and the means by which to do both. If you cook it, they will come.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Quick Follow-up

Just thought it was worth mentioning that a month after I posted about Foxboro Hot Tubs (Green Day's label-less side project) playing to a crowd of maybe 500 in Dallas, my cousin told me they played to a sold out Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. Word of mouth? Yep. A little help from radio? Sure, but it's not like it was a label pushing the track on the radio.
They've proven they can migrate a fan base from a major to no label, the next question that still remains is: How does an independent artist effectively grow their fan base without the advent of traditional label backing? There are no easy answers, but three things that help a lot are 1) good music (a good product sells itself); 2) patience (the days of the debut album megahit are largely over); and 3) luck (see post on randomness).
I can try to offer suggestions of ways to help get attention, but ultimately those three principles pervade in any success. The harder you work at making a quality product and growing your fan base organically (read: great, ongoing, two-sided communication with your fans), the more likely lady luck is to smile on you.