Everything You Know Is Wrong

The music manufacturing and distribution business has been falling apart for a decade — longer, if you count from the CD revolution, when content went from being 100% analog to 100% digital. Of course, that took several years to work itself through the music economy, as recording studios gradually capitulated to digital recording. And the industry even got spanked in 2002 for never passing on the actual savings in production and distribution to the consumer (I got my settlement check for $.71, did you?)

One recording engineer famously dedicated to reel to reel tapes for capturing artists had a public panic attack earlier this decade about there being no remaining manufacturers of analog magnetic tape for recording and eventually amassed the world’s largest holdings of the precious iron oxide coated polymer ribbon. There still remain very passionate and dedicated enthusiasts for vinyl (long playing records, remember?) as a distribution medium, but most of the professional music world recognized some years back that the prevalence of digital exchanges as a music-sharing and distribution model was virtually unstoppable.

It is a proletariat-driven change. Even the Harry Fox Agency can only stem a minute part of the tide. At the Americana Music Festival and Conference this week, I sat next to a couple of artists discussing their commercial options and heard one say “It’s great now, you don’t have to make CDs or anything, just post your iTunes and Paypal sends you the money.” Watch out, record stores.

However, there has also been a lot of conversation about consumers’ ears wanting “new and fresh” music, and I can agree with this. New, interesting and well-performed popular music is fascinating to me and tens of millions of others. While our hearts may respond to an old familiar tune with a quickened beat of recognition, our mind is more often engaged by the new, as we try to fit it into our own system of pattern recognition and emotional imprinting.

Naturally, with PCs and the internet penetrating almost 60% of American homes (even though we lag behind most of the world at delivering speedy connections), it is fundamentally easier now to listen to new music through this on-demand airwave than to turn on our stereo tuners or FM Walkmen. The only environment currently cut off from this distribution method is personal and mass transportation. Hence the still-valuable listeners at drive time, a recognition that even the satellite radio braodcasters cannot escape.

What this upside-down reality that mashes consumers’ desire for the new with the resticted access that dying radio and hard good product sales product creates is opportunity for online referral and large scale “introductory” events. I think this is one reason the concert business finds itself relying on proven touring acts for generating big audiences, and then building a number of geographically focused multi-day, multi-stage events for sampling purposes. The promoter plays the role of Program Director from radio, and the record/recording companies and distributors furnish their latest, shiny product for the week-long infomercials. Two ideas I saw this week address these opportunities.

Bands have had a lot of success within the social networks of Myspace and Facebook. The transforming concept here is “friends and fans”, where a profile on either of these two systems becomes a popular link among other profiles, and eventually that popularity and its attendant message distribution effects drives an audience to shows or track sales. American Songwriter magazine has built a system just for songwriters (and the bands/artists that perform the songs) that offers many of the same features and attributes, but in a space that is cleansed of the photos of drunken frat parties or the hellos of visiting friends and family. I think there is wide room for these industry or activity specific social networks, where a community of interest can be developed and artists find awareness, support and encouragement.

The other is something called “Gig Card.” This is a stiff cardboard lozenge, big enough to set a beer on, with a promotional image on one side, and a message including a code for downloads on the other side, sold for various amounts. Instead of selling CDs at shows, the Gig Card does the work in miniature, the transactions are at “impulse” levels ($4.99 – $7.99) and the product is delivered online.

Good ideas for an upside down world, I think.