6 Steps To Building True Music Industry Connections

6 Steps To Building True Music Industry Connections

By Christiana Usenza from the Sonicbids Blog.

In any field, "who you know" often counts more than "what you know." This is especially true in the music industry – an ever-shrinking pool of people that exemplifies the proverbial "small world." Now, more than ever, it's important to not only build your list of contacts, but also make true connections with fellow folks in the biz.
A true connection vs. a contact
A contact is someone you know through someone else, or is a respected person in your field who could potentially benefit you in some way. But what really matters is how you turn that contact into a connection.
Just because you once got an email back from a publicist, or met someone at a networking event and exchanged business cards, does not mean that you've automatically made an industry connection. A connection is someone you've met in person, have known for some time, can relate to genuinely, and can trust. There's a sense of mutual interest, gain, or benefit to the relationship.
Creating connections boosts your career and opens up new opportunities. Connections can help you get more shows, build your fanbase, find the right producer for your album, find musicians with whom to collaborate, or even help you get writers to review your music.
"As with everything, it's self-serving, but it's also mutual," says Bridget Duggan, who books Johnny D's Uptown Restaurant and Music Club in Boston and is a member of Somerville, MA, band Paper Waves. "It helps out both sides to make connections, although it is not something that can be forced and does not happen overnight.”
6 Steps to Build and Maintain Industry Connections
1. Select properly
When meeting people, think about how they are relevant to what you do, and why the connection is important to you. Is there a band you admire and want to open for or tour with? Could you introduce yourself to the promoter of the venue you want to play? Treat everyone with respect, because you never know how powerful of a person you might be talking to.
2. Have intention
Don’t just hand out your business card to anyone passing by. Connections won’t take you seriously unless you have some genuine reason to reach out to them. Mention a personal interest in what they do, or have something meaningful to say.
3. Meet people in person
"When I started doing promotion...I emailed everyone I could possibly think of to introduce myself to them. It didn’t work," says Duggan. "It's more about being in the scene.... Meeting in person makes a big difference." When talking with potential connections, try to express why they inspire you, offer something back to them, and, in the appropriate situation, mention a mutual friend or a shared connection who also takes an interest in you. Establish a friendly relationship and connect with them genuinely.
4. Have something to offer
If you want to grab someone's attention, offer to add them to the guest list for an upcoming show, or co-bill with a band you want to connect with. There are so many ways to reciprocate.
5. Be mutually supportive
Support people doing their "thing," and in turn, they might support you. “Stick around after the show and introduce yourself," says Duggan. "Look people in the eye and ask them their names." Go see a band from out of town perform that pairs well with your sound, and offer them an opening slot at a well-drawing show in your area. In return, open for them where they draw a crowd. This way, you both gain exposure to new audiences. Start locally, then begin building relationships and connections regionally and nationally.
6. Use social media
Connect with people you meet in person via social media to show support for what they do – they might do the same for you. If you like something they post, comment on it or share it. In addition to privately thanking your connections when they help you out, you can also give them a public social media shout-out when appropriate.
The bottom line is that you never know who might be able to help you down the road. You might need something specific one day, and, because of your connections, you'll be able to reach out to the perfect person. If you are also recognized for what you have to offer and can help out someone else, it only boosts the relationship and connection.
Christiana Usenza is musician and dancer with a master's degree in ethnomusicology from Tufts University. She has ventured as far as Argentina, Brazil, and Ghana to study music and dance, and has an endless curiosity for music genres, styles, and scenes across the world. She teaches music, writes music, and works in the booking office at Johnny D's in Somerville, MA. She is a member of the band Paper Waves, and they are currently working on their first album.

Marketing Your Music Blog With Just 3 Tools

Marketing Your Music Blog With Just 3 Tools

Clambr's Richard Marriott got "50 Experts" to weigh in on "How to Promote Your Blog with Just 3 Tools." It's a big page that's now at 53 professional web marketers, SEOs and marketing bloggers. But I think their choices of blog marketing tools and their rationales for using them, which also reveals some of their approaches to blog marketing, offer useful insights for musicians, music businesspeople, music writers and music marketers who are creating content, building brands and spreading the word through blogging.
"50 Experts Reveal How to Promote Your Blog with Just 3 Tools" comes at a good time for me as I begin a process of getting organized for the New Year. I'm investigating new and old social media marketing tools for various projects and will be sharing what I learn here at Hypebot in 2014.
The blog marketing post covers a lot of ground but little of it is specific to music marketing. So here are some key tool groups and observations that I think are especially relevant for marketing music-related blogs with some notes about future coverage at Hypebot.
Email Marketing & Newsletters

Email marketing was considered a key approach with AWeber topping the tools list. That makes me want to take a second look cause AWeber seems more generally on the decline compared to MailChimp which came in a distant second to AWeber in this group. MailChimp's free tier gets multiple mentions for those on tight budgets.
I'm getting ready to reinvestiate FeedBlitz for both email and RSS management. RSS tools did not make it on the list which makes sense. RSS feeds are now a basic feature more than a core tool.
I will also be checking out self-hosted Wordpress email plugins for email marketing and newsletters though that will likely include plugins for hosted email services like MailChimp or FeedBlitz.
Social Media Networks

Twitter topped the social media network mentions with Facebook lagging behind and Google+ barely appearing. Twitter definitely makes sense, especially for content and blog marketing, given its broad reach and focus on short messages with links that can lead directly back to one's own blog.
Given that social proof is becoming a more important part of SEO, all of these networks are relevant in that realm as well, especially Google+.
We'll continue covering the big players and also following the emerging world of messaging as it grows in importance.
Social Media Management

Tools for managing one's social media presence were cited more than any particular social network, which makes a lot of sense, especially for professionals who are often managing multiple accounts.
HootSuite topped the list of social media management tools and it certainly seems to be a fave among music marketers as well. They've done a good job of keeping up with a wide range of networks as well as offering 3rd party apps with reach beyond Twitter, Facebook and Google+ into music-relevant networks like SoundCloud, YouTube and Instagram.
Buffer came in second.
I'm hoping to take a closer look at tools like HootSuite that integrate various services by either connecting with a lot of sites or by bringing all the features in-house. But, like a handful of the 50 Experts, I've focused more on doing things like tweeting by hand since I don't manage accounts for clients and am exploring low volume approaches.
Analytics

Understanding what's happening and how your actions are affecting what happens is an important part of blog marketing so it's not surprising that analytics tools made some lists. Google Analytics, which may be downplaying keywords but still offers more a rich suite of tools than a single tool, was the main one discussed.
Topsy for Twitter was mentioned in passing. Of course, many other tools such as HootSuite offer analytics related to one's social media marketing efforts.
I'm looking for other analytics tools for blogs and websites but it's hard to beat what Google offers for free. If you have any suggestions, please do share.
Link Building

Getting people to link to you is an important part of SEO as well as direct traffic. I've always taken the organic "let them link to you because you have great content" approach.
If you're interested in more overt link building as well as building relationships with other bloggers, these pros recommend such tools and networks as BuzzStream, Blog Engage and Triberr.
Miscellaneous Blog Marketing Tools

iTunes received multiple mentions by podcasters.
Wistia was singled out for self-hosted video.
Wordpress appears low on the list but both Wordpress.org (self-hosted) and related plugins get mentioned repeatedly by many of the respondents. Much of this can be attributed to the flexible nature and generally low cost of self-hosted Wordpress. It's also a reminder that blog marketing begins with a great blogging platform.
I'm slowly getting up to speed on Wordpress and will be getting more detailed in 2014.
Be sure to let us know if you're finding specific web and mobile tools of use for both blog and music marketing.
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (Twitter/Facebook) is building a writing hub at Flux Research. To suggest topics about music tech, DIY music biz or music marketing for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.



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Clyde Smith on 12/04/2013 in D.I.Y., Marketing, Music Tech, Social Media | Permalink

10 Music Production Experiments That Will Make You More Creative

10 Music Production Experiments That Will Make You More Creative
Sam Matla

Creative:
Creativity is not a talent; it’s a way of operating.
John Cleese

When you’ve been making music for several years, it’s easy to get stuck in a lull. You go through the motions, doing everything that you’ve always done the way you’ve always done it.

This is fine, but it becomes boring. You start to lose the challenging aspect of music production.

To counter this, we need to experiment. Experimentation is what breeds creativity.

In this post, I list ten experiments you can use to be more creative. They might not increase your creative ability, but they will force you to be more creative during the given moment. The key here is to break the norm.

1. Limit Yourself to 5 Instruments

One of the best ways to be creative is to impose severe limitations on ourselves. It’s natural assume that the more options we have, the more creative we’ll be, but this often leads to endless tweaking and working on the trivial instead of creating actual music.

I find that forcing myself to work with a set number of instruments is a great way to be creative. It requires different thinking; how can I beef up this sound without adding a new layer? What effects can I use to make this drum section more interesting when it’s just a kick and a hi-hat?

Limit yourself to just five instruments. Drums don’t count as one instrument, for example:

Kick
Hat
Clap
Plucked bass
Piano
Is five instruments.

To some of you, this may seem ludicrous and even impossible to do. That just means you need to try it more than anyone. If you’re struggling to make your 5-track song interesting, consider using:

Send tracks
Reverbs and delays
Distortion
Heavy and complex automation
Preset morphing through automation (one sound to another, a la Deadmau5)
Complex composition to compensate for the lack of instrumentation
2. Compose With Sine Waves

There’s nothing better than the sweet, sweet sound of a sine wave. Except for everything.

Composing with sine waves is far from enjoyable, but it forces you to think outside the square. You have to pay close attention to octaves, and where certain musical ideas should be placed on the piano roll. How low should your bassline be? How high on the register should your melody be?

The great thing about composing with sine waves is that it makes your mixing process a lot easier. Everything is already in its rightful place, so that when you replace the sine wave with the right sound, you know how to EQ it to fit with the rest of the tracks.

Another benefit to this experiment is that it forces you to disregard sound design, at least at the start. You’re focusing purely on composition.

3. Structure Your Track First

There’s something I like to call the Arrangement Workflow which means arranging before anything else.

Many people don’t understand this when I first tell them about it. How can you arrange something that isn’t there? Shouldn’t you come up with ideas first?

It’s simple. You build your structure with blank clips first:

Create 3-5 “placeholder” tracks (e.g., Drums, Bass, Chords, Melody)
Create blank MIDI clips for each (different colors)
Arrange blank MIDI clips in phrases to sketch out a basic structure
The best thing about this experiment is that it requires you to think of the project as a whole, right from the start. Often we get so stuck into our 8-bar loop, or whatever, that we forget we’re making a full song.

4. Use Sounds You Hate

It’s easy to trawl through sample packs and find sounds that fit perfectly with the rest of your tracks, and you should do that when making music. We want to use quality material.

For being creative, though, there’s nothing like a challenge. Why not use a sound you hate? It could be a preset, a drum sample, even a vocal phrase. Find it, cringe for a moment, and then figure out how to make it work with the rest of your track.

I don’t recommend doing this with every single project. Treat it as an experiment, as practice, to strengthen your problem solving muscle.

5. Produce a Track in 60 Minutes

One of the main reasons producers don’t finish tracks is because they never set a deadline. There’s no real pressure for them to finish the track. They may think they need to finish it, they may want to finish it. But at the back of their mind, they know that if they don’t finish it, life goes on as normal.

Thus, whenever they reach a challenging moment in the music creation process, they give up and move on to a new project.

Giving yourself a set time to make something forces you to act rather than think. When you have 60 minutes to make a song, in the case of this experiment, you don’t have time to muck around. You don’t have time to think about whether you should use a different pluck or not, you just fix it later on.

6. Use Presets, or Don’t

If you’re a preset user, then experiment without them. Design your own sounds.

If you’re not a preset user, then experiment with them. Don’t design your own sounds.

7. Automate 5 Parameters on Every Track

Of all the ten experiments listed, this one is the most fun yet frustrating.

The idea is to add at least five lanes of automation to every track. So, your kick drum needs to have five lanes of automation, and they need to be doing something. You could automate a high-pass and low-pass filter, the decay of the sample, some distortion, and reverb. Or you could automate delay, a glitch plugin, an EQ, and the two filters.

It sounds easier than it is. When you get to the crash cymbal that hits every 32 bars in your song, things get a little more tricky. How on earth do you add five lanes of automation to a crash cymbal?

That’s up to you to work out.

8. Work at a Different Tempo

Whether you’re a 138 trance purist or a progressive house producer who never leaves the safe confines of 128BPM, consider making a track at a different tempo.

You can still make trance at 110BPM, just like you can make progressive house at 132BPM. Switching up the tempo often sparks different ideas and sounds, and it’s also enjoyable.

9. Create a Song With One Sample Pack

If you’re anything like me you’ll have an endless number of sample packs that contain only a few samples you always use.

Why not try making a song from one sample pack? Doing so will not only cause your song to sound more cohesive, but it will lower the amount of choices you have to make when picking samples.

With this experiment, the smaller the sample pack, the better. Avoid using construction kits and pre-made basslines and melodic loops. Stick to one-shots and FX.

10. Merge Two or More Genres Together

I left this one till last as it’s the most difficult.

Merging genres together is a great way to be creative. If you’re a house producer, why not incorporate a dirty DnB reese bass? If you make trance, why not season your track with a few dubstep wobbles and screeches?

Over to You

There you have it. Ten experiments that will force you to think creatively.

Have you got any experiments of your own that you’d add to this list? If so, what are they?

If you haven’t got any of your own experiments, which of the above ten are you going to do first?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sam Matla
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I run EDMProd and produce trance and progressive music. Drop me a line on Twitter and connect with me on Google+
Tags: creativity, workflow

4 Tips For Music Marketing With Email Newsletters

4 Tips For Music Marketing With Email Newsletters

As musicians and music marketers build their lists of consenting recipients, from fans to friendly contacts, a number of approaches are taken. Some simply contact their list with special announcements. Others focus on building subscriptions to regular news often via a musician's blog. Former Daily Candy CEO offers tips for a third now less frequent approach of creating a separate email newsletter that is distributed first by email, archived on the web and then publicized or reposted on social media sites.
DailyCandy built a thriving digital publishing business centered around an email newsletter. It's now a more complex efforts but former CEO Pete Sheinbaum maintains that such email-first publishing efforts are still quite relevant.
While building an email newsletter as a business sounds like quite a challenge, though I think Sheinbaum is correct, it's much easier to use email newsletters as a form of content marketing and fan communication for musicians.
Creating custom content that goes first to subscribers and can be accessed via mobile devices is definitely a way to feed your fans. Given that both music marketers and ecommerce providers are currently reporting strong results from email, a regular email newsletter with fresh content might do well.
Pete Sheinbaum shared his "tips for anyone trying to build a successful newsletter today" that I think are quite relevant to music marketing:
4 Tips For Music Marketing With Email Newsletters

1) "Entertain and inform"

Always make your newsletter enjoyable to read even if the news is fairly dry.
2) "Be brief"

Get to the point. People be busy!
3) "Stick to one topic"

Think of it as more like a single blog post rather than a week's worth of posts.
4) "Leverage non-email channels for delivery"

Even email-first should not be email-only.
If you're struggling with your email marketing strategy or thinking about going email-first, definitely check out the full post for additional insights.
[Thumbnail image courtesy Card Karma.]

More:

Email Still Top Marketing Tool, Says New Study
5 Email Marketing Rules From Six-Figure Musician
3 Key Music Marketing Lessons Based On Eye Tracking Studies
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch/@crowdfundingm) also blogs at Flux Research and Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.

Related articles

3 Key Music Marketing Lessons Based On Eye Tracking Studies

5 Email Marketing Rules From Six-Figure Musician

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Clyde Smith on 10/15/2013 in Apps & Mobile, D.I.Y., Marketing, Music Tech | Permalink

 

A Musician’s Guide To MailChimp

A Musician's Guide To MailChimp MailChimp is one of the more popular options for musicians' email newsletters. It has a free tier and offers a wide range of tools and features for the pro music marketer. Like a number of smart web companies that offer services for broad markets, MailChimp has a guide to using MailChimp for Music. It combines general features musicians might find useful along with some specific to music that were new to me. Mailchimp for Musicians The MailChimp for Music guide focuses on basic MailChimp features of which you should be aware including some especially for musicians. Here are a few worth highlighting: Email-for-Download Campaign Using an integration with CASH Music, you can trade a free download for a new email address. Create An RSS-To-Email Campaign Whenever you post on your blog you can automatically send an email alert to subscribers. Socialize Your Campaign Not only does MailChimp have social features but they also have templates to allow you to generate emails based on ecommerce outlets including iTunes. Share Your Music MailChimp will host your audio files for free downloads. There are more features of interest to musicians though the above are particularly relevant. MailChimp's templates and design options are also quite strong. You can see examples of the wide range of possibilities. MailChimp is the Leader While people often mention MailChimp's 2000 subscriber free tier, that's an offer you can find elsewhere. I'm really most impressed by MailChimp because they have such advanced features as A/B testing and keep adding new ones like drip email campaigns. These are the kinds of features that allow you to fine-tune marketing campaigns and develop closer relationships with fans who are likely to spend more money and see more shows. So that means MailChimp is a solid long-term tool for any musician who wants to grow their business.

Between Art and Business: A Musician As A Startup

Between Art and Business: A Musician As A Startup

By Tommy Darker of Think Beyond The Band.

It all starts with a problem...

I'm Tommy and I'm a musician. I moved to London 10 months ago, knowing nobody. Early days, I didn't want to feel alone, so I started peering with other musicians, asking them about music in London. The most common - not so surprising - answer was inevitable: "I can't figure out how to make a living from my music!", despite London's vastness of opportunities. "Why?", I tended to ask?
Their response — which I didn't see coming: there were so many tools, they just didn't know what to use, many music industry blogs, but they didn't know which one to spend time on, many so-called 'professionals', but no idea who to spend their precious money on.
"Big headache", I thought. They're not the only ones in the world.


Success

What is everybody's goal in life? Success. Everyone's success is different, though. Do you want money? Fame? Legacy? Freedom? It all depends on how you define success. We'll all agree, though, that success doesn't grow on trees, it requires some work to be achieved.
The question is: how do you, as an independent musician, know what kind of work to do to pursue your success path?
It used to be easier, a company would lay down a plan for you and they would have the network to make it happen. Musicians would have to agree with everything the label proposed, because 'they knew best'. Now musicians need to bootstrap that work for themselves and, one step further, ask questions.
"Should I keep doing what labels used to do? Do these practices make sense now, in today's world? Are there more beneficial, cost effective and fun ways of getting my shit done? Is the kind of success I have in mind meaningful?"

Just like the London musicians were asking themselves, how do you silence the noise and lay down a new plan for your music that works for you personally, something that is equally fulfilling and financially rewarding?
Rewind

London, January 2013. A month after many meet-ups with various musicians, I invited everyone to join me in a group discussion with a music business expert. Andrew Dubber came to London one rainy afternoon and talked in front of 18 musicians, under the hashtag #DarkerMusicTalks. The whole thing was bootstrapped in a week: venue, attendees, speaker, website, branding, camera. We talked about Music in the Digital Age, with Andrew proclaiming: "Don't broadcast. It's all about the conversation". (Thanks, Andrew)
I was encouraged, as the musicians gave me great feedback on how to make future sessions better. I saw happy faces: for me, that is a good indication that things go well. Being a naturally optimistic person, I always find reasons to believe in new ideas. I like getting them out there as soon as possible, and then finding clues that they're worth carrying on. I translated those happy faces that night as an indication that there is a need for more interaction between musicians, knowledge and 'knowledge keepers'.
Those happy faces are the reason I created this series of free monthly discussions in London.

Essentially, Darker Music Talks had just started, and it's still the same today: an informal discussion between experts and musicians.
Knowledge

Why do I keep doing this? Because knowledge is a vital asset. It propels ideas forward and helps people be more creative. It opens up the possibilities of this world. It encompasses what musicians need at the moment and empowers them to become the future disruptors. The shape of the music industry — and creativity as we know it — will change from within, not by companies who want to maximize profits through content.
But in order for this to happen, musicians themselves need to see the bigger picture and take action.
They will solve a big problem. The problem is that I see a great disconnection in today's music industry. There are two types of parties involved in 'supplying art' to the world:
1. the companies, marketers and mediators who care about profit, scaling up and see music as 'content' and 'product'.
2. the music creators, who are emotionally attached to their creations, want to make a decent living making art and are afraid to market their art themselves.
Do you see what I see? There's nothing in the middle!
Musicians need to develop their entrepreneurial spirits and skills through knowledge. Since only they know how valuable their art is, they have to be capable of communicating that value to the world at large. If this communication does not happen, the market value will be driven down by companies seeking maximum profits from minimum investment. Music will become content, the people who make it will become an exploited commodity and innovation (the core meaning of art) will cease to exist.
As a fellow musician, this is not the scenario I'd like to see unfold. It's high time we took some action.
Why should we care about the Musicpreneur?

The music industry is meaningless, without musicians benefitting from it, both financially and creatively. We don't want musicians to create 'content' and conform. We need them to know what they do and innovate artistically. And by 'we' I mean 'society', 'other musicians', 'culture', 'the world'.
An industry is supposed to be a system created to streamline value and benefit all parties — the creators, the audience and the middlemen as well — not only the latter. Today's music industry doesn't follow that premise.

The business stakeholders will also find many underlying, long-term benefits. My auspicious prediction is this: since more and more musicians will start becoming their own business, they will also have new, unforeseen needs. Independent individuals or existing organizations will see opportunities and economic incentives to cater those needs with new services or standalone startups, that will then create more jobs and attract capital (the latter is a big pain for musicians at the moment).
Why do I suspect all this will happen? I tend to use this analogy: if you give people a bit of grass and sun, they will have a picnic. In other words, give them the medium and proper circumstances, and they'll figure out the optimal thing to do with them. Musicians have the chance to be that square of grass (and attract the sun back!) to create an as yet non-existent ecosystem that will make a lot of people (and themselves) happy.
But this culture of knowledgeable musicians is not easy to emerge in a mainstream fashion. Some ingrained habits need to be the subject of change, both for musicians and the audience. This will occur gradually, just like it happened with the startup world.
A musician as a startup (or a Musicpreneur, as I call it)? Why not. The framework is there and we've seen how it works.
Discussions

So, is this really another kind of music academy?
No, it's something more simple. It's a series of discussions. Held between musicians and experts, about music-related subjects that would not be addressed in a music academy, at no cost. We learn and discuss entrepreneurship, design, psychology, branding, new media and other topics, and their relationship with music and the industry, using proven experts that graciously share their knowledge.
Up to this point, around 50-70 people join each discussion, promoted through word-of-mouth. Volume is not the goal though; I prefer having meaningful conversations that bring value. The long-term goal is to build the biggest e-library of knowledge for musicians, as well as to spread free knowledge all around the world with similar events in many countries.
There is a strong vision behind the project: to inspire the culture shift towards musicpreneurship.

The discussions follow some brand protocols, but not in a way that dilute the experience of an informal discussion with a knowledgeable person. If you're wondering how it feels like to be part of one, musicians have used words such as 'actionable knowledge', 'inspiration', 'interactivity' and 'in an intimate and informal environment' to describe it. Or just watch one of the filmed sessions.
I praise the importance of revolving these discussions around the academic and exploratory nature of the topics, and avoid creating another series of how-to's that spoonfeed musicians with easy conclusions and memetic behaviour. For some habits to change, actual brainwork needs to be done.
Free Darker Music Talks around the world

My goal is to deliver free, self-contained discussions to musicians by real experts and spread globally, creating a series of independently organized events.
A business model has been set up for the initial stage, so the discussions can distribute value optimally, but also make a profit to become self-sustaining and not rely on third parties that will get in the way. Not having mediators is crucial.
I'm going to travel around the world early next year in order to personally assist with the talks. If you're interested in getting involved as the talks go global and help organize one in your country, join me on 22/11 for this Google Hangout where I will explain more about the plan. Fill this Google Sheet and I will get back to you soon.
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter and my website, I'm ready to listen to anything you might have to say, talking with people is my passion.
You never actually own a piece of knowledge. You merely look after it for the next generation. It's our duty to pass it on.



Agree so much that I started a blog called http://MusicCapitalist.com however what is also needed if for local gov, banks and investors to understand the market potential for USMADEMUSIC.
BTW look for @LabelBookCamp in 2014
Posted by: Nelson | 11/18/2013 at 01:04 PM

Location:Sycamore Dr,Lancaster,United States

The Problems Musicians Face and How To Solve Them, Pt. 7

The Problems Musicians Face and How To Solve Them, Pt. 7

Written by Tommy Darker, originally published in The Musicpreneur.

Travelling the world and chatting with fellow aspiring artists reveals astounding insights about the future of music. Here’s the deal: we think we all face different problems, but the reality reveals the opposite. I will share one of these insights, explaining what it means for the way we work as musicians and how to move in the future.

This is the 7th and final part. Each part is linked at the end of the post.

PART 7
The chicken and egg problem. What comes first: the Medium or the Message?

Sangeet Paul Choudary [23], expert in platform building, mentions a term that is spot on to describe the main challenge in the upcoming music ecosystem: ‘the chicken and egg problem.’ (by the way, read his blog, it might turn your head on the subject of platform thinking)

What will come first? The change of Medium (the music ecosystem) or the Message (musicians solving their problems)?

I have practical experience when it comes to platform and community building, and I can confess that the underlying principles are the same whether you build a music, tech or stitching community. We all obey the rules that dominate our nature — not merely as music lovers, but as human beings in general. This is my attempt to suggest something practical, hoping that my expertise and guesswork will not fail to make sense.

Let’s put things in perspective and attempt to give a plausible answer.

A platform or ecosystem is powerful because of the network effects: the more people that use it or inhabit it, the more valuable it becomes. In other words, somehow a brave start needs to be made.

For a platform like Facebook, the initial problem might go like this: there’s no value in the platform without users inhabiting and interacting in it, and there’s no reason for the first users to come in an empty network.

For a platform like Ebay, it would be: there’s no reason for people to put their products online if there’s no-one to buy them to and there’s no reason for the first customers to show up unless there are products to buy.

What comes first? How do you inhabit a promising platform or network, if there’s ambiguity in how to make a start? How will this music ecosystem arrive, if there’s no Musicpreneurs inhabiting it and no services to cater the Musicpreneurs’ needs?

There are numerous ways to solve this problem, but the most practical, in our case, is to find an already existing structure and exploit it.

How will we find this structure?

First of all, we already have Musicpreneurs operating around us. I’ve met many of them during my trips. They build businesses around their music and think like entrepreneurs when it comes solving problems, but switch to thinking like artists when it comes to creating questions. They are the foundation, the strong bones that embody the new ecosystem.

But they’re isolated. These aspiring Musicpreneurs are unaware that others exist. If they did, it would be easier for them to connect, collaborate and innovate. A community and an ecosystem starts gaining momentum when a few active leaders gather together and show practically the way to others. These ‘others’ are the musicians who want to and are willing to do the work, but need a kick in the butt to start. They are the smaller (but equally important) bones of the ecosystem.

In other words, the already existing Musicpreneurs need to connect with each other, then start being active with innovative Messages (or create dots, as you prefer) in order to lure and trigger the curiosity of other musicians who would love to do the same.

It might take a while until these Messages start creating momentum and media coverage, fuelling debates about new practices for musicians and business. I’m sure it will spark the audience’s curiosity — every novel activity does. I’ve been told “the more you talk about an idea, the more real you make it”. These conversations are the ligaments of the body, giving it the ability to stand up strong.

This momentum will grab attention with successful case studies to be examined and analyzed. Universities, institutes, music media and already existing communities are a perfect ‘carriage’ for these Messages to be transmitted to a broader, but targeted audience. This official examination of Musicpreneurship is the flesh and consciousness of the ecosystem, making it real for people to see.

Once some momentum is created, the participating Musicpreneurs will start identifying themselves with the common characteristics, attributes and goals that unite them. Do you know what happens when like-minded people walk towards a mutual direction? A movement is born. This means that the ecosystem stops being merely a body, it also shapes its own personality.

The bigger the movement, the more inelastic it will become, with more problems to solve, more motivation and belief to be fuelled and, of course, more resources and time to expend. These ‘bad problems’, though, will essentially create and shape the desirable ecosystem we all crave! Why? Because problems create the need for interaction with other, more-experienced ecosystems, in order to solve them.

An ecosystem is created to solve and cater to a community’s needs, and that’s what will happen in our case too. Imagine for a moment. Investors capital will come when they see money already being made by Musicpreneurs. Services will come when a significant amount of Musicpreneurs need a problem solved. The audience will start supporting artistic enterprises in a sustainable way, when the enterprises take themselves seriously and work with a small but loyal audience that will help them scale up. The government and music industry will recognize and support musicpreneurship when it becomes a movement that can be recognized by the public.

What a new music ecosystem would potentially include:

• Education system
• Service providers
• Governmental support
• Business partners
• Investors (angel- and venture-)
• Cultural accelerators
• Responsive audience

Most importantly? There will be the involvement of superstars, leading Musicpreneurs, middle class Musicpreneurs and amateur/hobbyist musicians. Not just the former and latter classes, the big gap in musical ‘success’ we see today. Education will help the promising amateurs to become middle class, luck and work will make them leading and labels/infrastructure/partners/investment will be used to scale up towards the head of the Long Tail.

Does it seem like a sci-fi scenario? It’s not. The foundations are being laid down this very moment. Musicians are thinking of solutions at this very moment. It will start to become powerful when the innovative Musicpreneurs connect with each other, something which I’m working on myself.

Last thing to mention.

Talking about Musicpreneurship as something that we expect to happen is like secretly awaiting our next boss to dominate our lives. Musicpreneurship is something that we do, not something that happens.

We are the brave new music world.

Conclusion

After this meticulous exploration of today’s musician’s problems, the current context that we operate within, feasible suggestions to cure the problems and a sneak peek at the future musical ecosystem, I think it’s time to quickly recap.

(Part 1,2) The notion that musicians face problems that are local and specialized is wrong; the majority of musicians around the world face the same problems. This creates the opportunity for a universal solution.

(Part 3) Actually, there is only one problem to be identified: the false belief that the ways we obtain knowledge and do business are still the same like in the past. Things have changed and the problem is our resistance to change.

(Part 4) Exploring Marshall McLuhan’s ‘Medium is the Message’, we currently use labels and technology companies as our main Medium to solve business problems, while music academies and blogs serve the purpose of the Medium for obtaining knowledge. These Mediums offered a lot in the past, but they create an outdated ecosystem for musicians today, failing to solve our problems efficiently.

The way musicians currently solve our problems when it comes to live performances, making an income, promoting our work and managing our time is not effective, despite the existence of promising alternatives. The main reason why? The context around these problems is itself problematic and needs a change.

(Part 5) Exploring the main Mediums that constitute success in the Musicpreneur era, Mediatization and Communities are the two environments where modern musicians can prosper and create richer stories for their tribes.

(Part 6) “Innovative Mediums need innovative Messages”, and in order to build a flourishing environment, 7 focal areas have been identified:

• The way musicians understand and treat business
• The educational system that provides musicians with knowledge
• The means for musicians to spend their time productively
• The importance of collaboration, connection and disconnection
• The notion that innovation comes through seeding Community Gardens
• The insight that building communities creates long-term sustainability
• The changes that will occur in the future musical ecosystem

(Part 7) There is a bright future ahead. Momentum will truly grow with the connection of existing Musicpreneurs...

Then, through collaboration, success stories, and inspiring others to be part of a tangible movement follows a new and better ecosystem for a new and better musical world. And you can be a part of it.

Join our community of #Musicpreneurs

We build the music ecosystem we want to live in.

Don’t forget to remember: https://twitter.com/TommyDarker/status/481742638241296384

Further investigation and resources are necessary to explore the present and future of music, so I reckoned it would be useful to provide some links below. They are either already mentioned in the essay or provide additional context to the issues discussed.

[23] Sangeet Paul Choudary

Statistics about music experiences.

Tommy Darker is the writing alter ego of an imaginative independent musician and thinker about the future of the music industry. His vision is to simplify scalable concepts and make them work for independent musicians.

He is a writer about the movement of the #Musicpreneur and founder of Darker Music Talks, a global series of discussions between experts and musicians. He and his work have been featured in Berklee, TEDx, Berlin Music Week, Midem, SAE Institute, Hypebot and Topspin Media. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

This research and essay is proudly patronized by its readers.