Top iPad Music Apps (a/o May 23rd):
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Artists are constantly prodded to give it away for free, but are they getting anything substantive in return? All too often, content is strewn haphazardly across the net, with hopes of reaping returns in the form of awareness or downstream transactions.
That includes social networks like MySpace Music - a mandatory spot for every band but a place to exercise strategic caution. "You've got to stop putting your music on MySpace in exchange for a friend relationship and play count," said ReverbNation CEO Mike Doernberg during a Musexpo roundtable on Monday. "You've got to start to extract value out of that, you have to understand who those people are... until you do that, you've got nothing."
ReverbNation is arguably the best collection of do-it-yourself tools available, and Doernberg advised attendees to use his bag of tricks with precision. That includes the aggressive collection of email and registration details, and the careful pursuit of loyal fanbases instead of flashy deals.
Oftentimes, the goals of a social network - whether MySpace, Bebo, Imeem, or iLike - run contrary to the goals of the artist. "What you have with MySpace and a lot of social networks is they don't want people leaving," Doernberg continued. "If you spend all this money trying to get fans, the last thing you want is to be a lead generation source."
Then again, who really cares about your obscure garage band anyway? Harsh question, though bands frequently struggle to cut through the immense noise online - and control their cultivated fanbases. "The cost of production has come down, the cost of distribution has come down, but the cost of marketing is actually increasing, because there's so much noise," said TopSpin chief Ian Rogers. "Establishing that connection, turning those people into people who are marketing for you... that is really the starting point."
The TopSpin boutique lacks the off-the-shelf tools of ReverbNation, though Rogers is currently expanding in that direction. That will create another option for DIY artists, though few envision a superstardom end goal. Instead, executives like Rogers and Doernberg pointed to a bigger number of smaller success stories in the future - paying bills instead of limousine drivers and strippers.
Not sexy enough? Outside of the panel, most feel that colossal, multi-generational artists like Led Zeppelin, The Doors, and Elton John are relics of the past. Indeed, those stars were crafted in a narrower media landscape, one that excluded vast numbers of artists with good music. Fast-forward a few decades, and direct fan connections are easier than ever to establish - though artists now contend with shorter attention spans, devalued music, endless clutter, and a still-tricky path towards quitting the day job.
Report by publisher Paul Resnikoff in Los Angeles.
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