Thoughts on Music Industry Components
This entry came about as I tried to think of something useful for the music industry. You hear of new companies entering the industry all the time: SonicBids, Reverbnation, etc. Are they really all that useful, or just a fleeting waste of venture capital?
If, for instance, you focused on a group of industry components that co-exist with each other, you might come up with the Artists, Internet radio gods, and Venue booking agents. Of course, there are other people involved in the industry, but I’m only focusing on a few that seem to never quite get what they want.
Artists
Artists don’t have much of a problem recording and distributing albums, or getting on iTunes these days. With digital, all the distribution problems burst away quickly. If they do need to move thousands of physical albums, there are companies in reach that will do just that. I was thinking of the typical trajectory for many artists: produce album. figure out promotion strategies via internet. tour. (then do it again, even though the van broke down, they lost money going across the country, and one of them is getting married and has the workings of a “real” job). So many musicians spend all of their energy getting right to he touring phase and then are disappointed when they realize that touring is really just a bunch of smelly guys in a broke ass van with no money. How do they go further?
Remember when radio actually broke bands? I’m not talking about FM radio – thanks to the Federal Communications Act of 1996 that deregulated much of the industry, the soul of radio was lost to the likes of major conglomerates like ClearChannel. But radio didn’t die – it just moved to where everything else new lived – the interweb.
Radio
What bands don’t have is a direct connection to the multitude of internet radio stations that exist across the country. Let me tell you: some of these guys have awesome taste in music. Just browse iTunes to start! Many of these stations are college radio stations, and as any graduate of indie band touring knows, colleges pay serious money for you to play on their campuses. If bands had that college or local radio connection, they’d have a huge head start when they arrived at said touring destination.
Venue Booking Agents
These guys are an interesting breed. You’d think they had no trouble finding bands, but they do. More often than not, they’re overrun with requests from bands wanting to play at their venue. Their problem is not of bands finding them; it’s twofold: the wrong bands find them, and there’s too much noise in the stream for the right bands to get in. To make their job easier, they need to filter the crap out of the stream and allow the “right” bands in. Who are the right bands for the “right” venue? There’s surely an answer, but the the answer to that question deserves a prize.
