Call it the Metallica Rule. When you can't get arrested, give it away. When you're a star, arrest people for stealing your music.
Radio's over. The model is done. Unless iPods start coming with commercials and every Internet radio station has to have twenty minutes of ads, terrestrial radio is done. Oh, it will survive in a fashion. As a place for news and talk. But for music it's history.
OH NO, you say. It's in all those cars!
Don't be a fucking idiot. Of course radio counts today. But if you're thinking about today, you're just as dumb as the major labels. Because really, it's what's gonna happen TOMORROW!
Look at major label release schedules. It's not like the seventies anymore. If something doesn't have hit potential, it doesn't come out. Furthermore, that which DOES come out is tweaked endlessly, making it palatable for sporting events and fashion shows, but it lacks that one essential ingredient of TRUE hit music...it doesn't touch your soul.
It's all about the bottom line. And the only way to make quick bucks is to overexpose, pay for play EVERYWHERE! (Yeah, like the Spitzer settlement is really going to stop this, the money/game will just be refashioned.) Major labels release records like movies. They're pre-sold with campaigns, and you know in most cases in a week, certainly a month, if they have legs. And most don't. Because, like I just stated, they're just not real.
So, you've got majors fighting over an ever-dwindling marketplace. And the lack of success they're having is blamed on the consumer, who has tuned out their game, isn't listening to terrestrial radio, thinks MTV is a joke, thinks even "Rolling Stone" is a joke.
The problem with the above paradigm, the major label paradigm, is breaking acts. It's just too damn expensive. The lawyers have to get paid, so they demand huge contracts. The records and videos have to be remade to perfection, in order to compete. It's like a supermodel competition. It's just that there are no slots for new acts. Oh, all the outlets say they want stars, but the only way to make an instant star is to overhype the act, which kills it.
So, in order to have success, in order to survive the ultimate disaster, you've got to play by different rules. You've got to give the music away.
We've established it's about breaking acts. We've established it's expensive to do so in the major label way, and the acts end up being laughable bland pussies. So how are YOU gonna compete?
By making the record cheaply.
That's how Dell succeeded. Drive down the price of parts, lower the cost to the consumer, reap market share and sales.
The records can't even cost $100,000.00. I'd say $50,000.00 must be the limit. A record at this cost sounds just about as good as the major label turkeys, and the audience doesn't hear the difference, they're just looking for something that RESONATES.
And it's the audience that's going to help you out, gonna break your band.
In the not too distant future, file-trading will be legal. People will pay to trade, and they won't get sued for doing so. This is going to be the major labels' savior. When they can reach more people at a lower aliquot cost per track. You've got to beat them to the punch. You've got to get your music in the system NOW!
How do you get your music in the system?
By giving away MP3s on your Website.
Every band should give away its whole album on its Website.
I KNOW, sounds RIDICULOUS!
But there are a couple of realities.
One, some people are so dumb they don't know you're giving the songs away, they buy the CD anyway.
Two, people who download the files often buy the CD. Doesn't make sense, I know. And it won't happen forever, the CD's days are numbered. But, they want better sound, they want the photos and lyrics, and they want a piece of what they believe in.
You can't believe in a file. You need something TANGIBLE! That you can HOLD ON TO! Like a T-SHIRT!
THAT'S what the CD is now, a t-shirt.
Oh, let's say you lose some sales. To people who only need the file. But now, your audience is MUCH LARGER, and ultimately you sell more CDs.
It's economic reality. The more people who hear something, the more you sell.
And you can't hear good new music on terrestrial radio. So, people go to the Web and discover things, which they then tell OTHERS about!
Doesn't matter where you hear it first, where you get wind of something. I mean you must seed the system somehow. You've got some reasonable print, Websites like pitchforkmedia.com, satellite radio, Internet radio... ALL of these outlets take a chance. Get somebody to say SOMETHING good about your record or better yet, PLAY IT! If it's good, people will research it. They'll Google the act. And then they'll download the files from the Website. And become fans. And one thing about fans, they spread the word.
Let's look at the way it is now. It's almost impossible to hear good new music. But, when you do, you go to the band's Website, where AT BEST, you can stream some songs. You MIGHT tell friends to go to the Website, but streaming is ultimately unsatisfying, you want to possess the tracks, you want to put them on your iPod, you want to e-mail them to your friends. But, you CAN'T DO THIS if the tracks aren't THERE! You hit a dead end. It's like being back in the sixties. You have to tune into XM to hear the same damn song again, and that could be MONTHS! Oh, you load your P2P software, but the files have to start somewhere, if the band is obscure, the songs usually AREN'T THERE!
But if the songs are free on the Website, then they end up in your iTunes library, then they're shared when you load your P2P software, then people peek into your hard drive after finding you've got similar tastes and they take the tracks of this band they've HEARD OF, but have never actually heard.
The major labels could employ this technique. They should actually. But it doesn't square with their philosophy. Oh, sometimes they're like anti-abortion crusaders who get pregnant, they insert tracks into P2P services. But that's like a back door abortion. Come into the light, give the tracks away RIGHT UP FRONT, on the WEBSITE!
But that would involve admitting that the iTunes Music Store is a failure. And that streaming services are a failure too.
They are. 500 million iTunes downloads in two years, worldwide? Ooh, I'm pissing my pants.
You see the majors have to believe their own b.s.
The guys in charge have never used P2P, never surfed the Web for hours, they dictate it must be the way it's always been. Middle management loves its salaries and the bottom level workers, the young 'uns who are conversant with reality? They either drink the kool-aid to maintain their jobs, or get fired or quit. I mean who can work at such a FUCKED UP PLACE??
No, get your head out of your ass. This isn't about giving away music, this is about breaking bands. People have to be exposed to the music SOMEHOW! If you don't seed the system, HOW WILL THEY?
SoundScan new bands. If radio doesn't go on them, they can sell under 1,000 records. After all that investment.
Please. Every one of you new and developing acts. Whether you're selling on CDBaby or are signed to a major. Give your music away. It'll give you a leg up on the competition. It will allow people to spread the word. It will build your act.
And one thing we know about successful acts, fans will give them ALL their money.
Subscribe to Feed
