The Pursuit of Success in the Music Business
by admin on Nov.10, 2009, under Music Business
For some the pursuit of success in the music business is nothing more than a quick dollar hustle. For others it’s more about fame and notoriety than art or financial independence. Some just like to express themselves through music and would love nothing more than to make enough money to do it full time. Others, while having respect for the culture of music are driven by the entrepreneurial opportunities available and see themselves creating and owning the next Universal Records. Maybe it’s a combination of all the above. No matter which description fits your situation the best, success in meeting your objectives will largely depend on how you answer the following two questions which are:
•1 How many people know your product/service exists?
•2 How many people care enough about your product/service to invest?
Keep in mind when I use the term ‘investment’ I’m not only referring to the corporate level but also the consumer level. In 2009 fans spend money on music because they want to, NOT because they have to. Matter of fact due to the recent emergence of free legal music streaming platforms (You Tube, Myspace Music, Imeem, Spotify, etc…) the consumer only has to invest their time and pay with their eyeballs, instead of their wallets. The popular phase ‘time is money’ couldn’t hold more weight in today’s Internet Age.
For example Oprah Winfrey built her empire off of millions of watchers paying not in dollars, but attention to her – which in turn allowed the TV network to charge corporations for ACCESS to her audience (to advertise their products). This ‘attention pool’ also affords her the opportunity to expand her revenue potential into film, print, radio and other media formats. With attention comes influence and that’s where true value lays…in the ability to help shape one’s perspective of what life means to them. How many people are paying attention to what you bring to the table?
Until recently music as a stand-alone product held a certain value due to the limited access one had to it. You either heard it on your local radio station or saw it on MTV/BET. Song rotations were limited on purpose so the record labels could profit off of massive attention (millions of listeners/viewers) but limited product exposure (15-20 song radio/video rotation). In order to listen to your favorite music on-demand you had to purchase the album. This scenario resulted in historic album sales, million dollar video budgets and 8 figure JV deals…until the Silicon Valley mob changed the game.
Once the Internet Age kicked in the consumer now had almost unlimited access to music/entertainment from thousands of online destinations. Because of this the scarcity value has now switched from the music to people’s attention and that (not online piracy) is the primary cause for the decline in album sales as the business model switches from ownership to ACCESS. The war all content creators are in is for market share of the collective MINDSHARE.
Finding the correct equilibrium between attention and scarcity will be a crucial part in the overall outcome of your efforts. Tipping the scales too far in either direction can have an adverse effect. For example spamming people (who never gave you their email address to begin with) or creating a false hype with manufactured beef in search of attention may only erode your brand credibility and turn people off. On the other hand keeping your product completely out of the market for too long in an attempt to retain a scarcity value may stall any momentum you’ve built and allow for the competition to fill the void.
For today’s music professional in search of sustainable success it’s important to understand that perceived value is often tied into scarcity. In other words you have to be able to offer something the next person can’t easily obtain (or create) and then capitalize off the access to that commodity. Then you need enough people exposed to your product/service so you can build a potential customer base and hopefully grow. As with anything worth the trouble your preservation and execution will determine how many crops you yield off the harvest.
