The New Rules of Internet Music Marketing

More than a billion people now have internet access around the planet. That’s a lot of people and a lot of opportunities at your fingertips. It can also be bewildering, as the number of new music sites and the variety of online tools continue to grow at dizzying rates. Just when you get a handle on how to promote yourself effectively with existing web-based tools, something new comes along to cloud your vision and fill up your to-do list.

Not to worry, In this series, I’ll give you a quick crash course on what’s new and what’s most important to know about marketing your music on the internet today.

Grabbing the new economy by the tail

Have you read Chris Anderson’s book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More? It’s a real eye-opener. So if you haven’t read it, do yourself a favour and get a copy, because in it he writes at length about the changing face of the entertainment industries.

Here’s a summary of the Long Tail concept with my own spin on it:

For decades, we lived in a scarcity economy. We got introduced to new music, books and films via retail outlets, radio, TV and print publications. But all of these avenues of exposure had physical limitations. There was only so much shelf-space, air time and editorial pages to fill. So, in order to appeal to the widest audience and turn a profit, only those things that were determined to be the most popular were stocked or covered.

Reality: This lead to a lopsided cultural mentality: A book, band or movie was either a big hit or a giant dud. There was little ground in between the two extremes of popularity. You were either part of the system… or an outsider.

Then came online retailers such as Amazon and Netflix, which were not constrained by the physical space limitations of traditional sellers. For example, the average Borders bookstore carries about 100,000 titles, while Amazon offers nearly 4 million books. The average Blockbuster carries about 3,000 DVDs, while Netflix offers close to 60,000. The average Wal-Mart store carries 4,500 music CDs (filled with more than 55,000 individual tracks), while the online music subscription service Rhapsody offers more than 1.5 million individual tracks.

And guess what? About 25% of the total revenues on Amazon and Netflix come from products not available in retail stores. On Rhapsody, that figure is about 40%. Yes, from titles outside the “hit list.” Anderson’s overwhelming research concludes that, when given unlimited choice (along with the ability to filter through the choices), people will stray from the hits and spend a considerable amount of money on non-mainstream products.

Good news and bad

This is great news for indie artists. Unfortunately, the old scarcity business model is so ingrained in our culture, it has lead to many unfounded beliefs, such as:

- If it isn’t a hit, it’s a miss

- The only success is mass success

- “Independent” = “They couldn’t get a deal”

- Low-selling = low quality

- If it were good, it would be popular

Luckily, a growing number of creative entrepreneurs are figuring out ways to make the most of this new “abundance economy” – where practically everything is available to the public, where the cream rises to the top based on what consumers actually want, and where you can make an impact (and a living) without ever ranking on the Billboard Hot 100 list.

So, what kind of world do you want to live in? One of scarcity, hits and misses? Or one of abundance, hits and niches? The choice is ultimately up to you.

The age of the empowered music fan

Another big change the internet has brought involves the evolution of the tech-savvy, modern music consumer. This is crucial to your future success with music, so read carefully:

Old-school music business: Back in the day, record labels would determine who the ideal audience was for a given act. Then they would hunt down those specific types of fans via targeted radio stations, magazines, concert venues, retail outlets, etc.

As I mentioned earlier, music consumers had limited ways of gaining access to new music, so they relied on commercial, programmed media sources to filter new artists to them. Sure, some adventurous fans made the extra effort to dig for new music via “alternative” sources such as fanzines, college radio stations, mixtapes, etc. But most people weren’t willing to work that hard to discover fresh sounds.

So music consumers were mostly prey – reactive to the efforts major labels made to track them down and feed them the latest music. That’s where the term “target marketing” comes from. You aim your marketing message at your prey and fire away.

New-school music landscape: Today music fans are in control. They rely less and less on programmed, spoon-fed media sources and are finding it easier than ever to discover new music on their own. Using a mobile phone, Facebook, satellite radio, internet downloads, podcasts, TiVo and more… members of the digital generation are determining what they want to hear, when they want to hear it, and how.

The hunted become the hunters

Consumers who in the past were primarily hunted down by the music industry system have now become proactive hunters, empowered to choose the music that’s best suited for them. This shift has thrown the creation, promotion and distribution of music into a tailspin.

That’s one of the biggest concepts I’ve been marveling at lately. For years I’ve been talking about “artist empowerment” and how musicians should take their careers into their own hands. But what needs to be equally stressed is the huge shift toward “music fan empowerment” and “consumer empowerment.”

Insight: For a long time now I’ve repeated this mantra that “we live in an incredible era of self-expression and self-empowerment.” And it’s true. But these opportunities don’t exist only for artists. They’re available to everyone.

And that’s why sites like Facebook, Flickr and YouTube are so popular. They give average people a chance to express themselves, connect with other people, and discover cool new things.