Infinite ‘free’ way? Photo: arunsundar/Flickr
On the road of sound, there are players, and there are consumessengers. Due to the increase in communication mediums, consumers—the fans—are spreading the message now more than ever. Hence, the consumessenger has emerged. These modern fans are still fueled by the music, but what we’ve seen is a shift to an era where musicians are the engine, and their fans are the only fuel that matters. Gassing up your car isn’t free, but in this hybrid music economy the fuel can be.
1. High-Octane Friend-Filtered Content
Turbo-charged filtering for a friend-driven recommendation engine.
Photo: jmealins/Flickr
2. Different Strokes For Different Folks
For some, music is a career, for others it’s recreation, and many players feel stuck in the middle of the spectrum like a pedestrian on a highway median. The overall music scene is expanding and becoming more diverse genre-wise. There’s enough lanes for a steady flow, and that stuck feeling is mostly mental. Music selection is heading towards infinity. Listeners want what listeners want—each has their own taste—but they have to be exposed to it first (unless they decide to create it instead). Is there maximum amount of creativity in the world? Hell no! The roadblocks of physical world don’t always exist on the web. They are a mirage. But everyone sees from a different perspective. When you stop squinting and open your eyes wide, do you see the open road, of a traffic jam?
Is music in a traffic jam?
Photo: monster/Flickr
3. Fans Behind The Wheel
It all starts with a few people who believe in something to the point that they are motivated to share it with their friends. These fans create ignition sparks by influencing their friends. Who’s controlling the music-industry steering wheel now? It’s the fans who dominate social media and communication.
Fans find creative ways to promote their favorite artists—the power is in their hands (and fingertips). Bam!
Photo: aliciahanson/Flickr
4. Where’s The Free Petrol?
You’ll hear it argued that the supply of music is increasingly abundant, the demand for music can’t seem to keep up, and thus the price of music is speeding towards free. Keeping that in mind, what I’ll tell you is that the value of music is now in the ear of the consumessenger, and that free is a necessary—but often misunderstood—tactic. A top source on modern freeconomics theory is Wired‘s editor Chris Anderson, author of the book Free: The Future of a Radical Price (Amazon
). Last month CDBaby podcaster Kevin Breuner interviewed Anderson about how free relates to the music industry. They talk about freebies, artificial scarcity, the barrier of obscurity, and convenience vs. price. I highly recommend listening to the entire podcast. Read some key related quotes and excerpts from the interview below. One thing that Kevin and Chris really agree on is that there’s no single business model that works for all musicians—each has to find what works for them, their goals, and their fans.
Chris Anderson in 2008: From the consumer’s perspective, though, there is a huge difference between cheap and free. Give a product away and it can go viral. Charge a single cent for it and you’re in an entirely different business, one of clawing and scratching for every customer. The psychology of “free” is powerful indeed, as any marketer will tell you. (Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business)
7:30 Kevin Breuner: I find myself kind of caught in the middle of that being an artist myself who is making music and putting it out there for sale. but at the same time, someone passes me a band that I’ve never heard of, and technically it might be illegal to download the tracks. But at the same time I’m thinking I wasn’t going to buy it anyway, it didn’t cost them anything to get me this copy, and I might actually show up to a show because of it. (CDBaby Podcast #086)
8:00 Chris Anderson: Every band that puts there music on MySpace, which is to say every band, is on some level volunteering to give their music away for free in one form to drive demand for the others. (CDBaby Podcast #086)
9:10 Chris Anderson: Free music has been part of music for as long as there’s been radio. Radio is free music. No one—I don’t know of anyone—who objects to their music being played on radio, even though they may often get no money from that, because they understand the marketing value. (CDBaby Podcast #086)
Kevin Breuner in 2009: The future of music lies completely within the artist’s hands, period. If they want to focus on selling recorded music and their fan base will continue to buy it, selling music will be a big revenue stream for them. If they are fantastic live and want to give away a track to entice people to come to a show, then live shows may be their big revenue stream, but it’s all up to the artist and what their fan base will allow. The future of the music business is NOT in the hands of companies who dream up business models that artist should follow. The future is NOT free music because some guy with a degree and years working in the industry says so. The business plays by the artist’s rules now, and that scares the pants off the gatekeepers that used to make a living deciding what the artists could do. (Music will be free + Touring is where the money is = BS!)
Digital freebies are essentially a free source of advertising, but only if there’s a method behind it. For example, there’s giving away an mp3 in exchange for an email address. Why’s email important? Ian Rogers, the CEO of Topspin Media (an avant-garde service for midstream–mainstream musicians), reported that close to one-third of their artists’ revenue is driven through email alone and stressed the importance of “being where the fans are.” But here’s a question—does a single fan today account for more, or less, net revenue in the long run? What free tactics do you have packed in your trunk?
Consumessengers—fans to the nth degree. Thanks to VW for helping me drive my points. No V-dubs were harmed in the making of this post. Feel ‘free’ to rock it!
Image: virtualmusictv/Flickr
