-MusicDish Industry Survey Series (#2, March/April 1999)-
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Introduction
Survey Summary
Detailed Analysis
Musician's Perspective
Survey Results
Further Reading
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Survey Summary by Russell Kibbee
The majority of respondents were musicians and therefore the results will be skewed towards the creator's perspective [G1]. The vast majority of promotion done by bands offline is via word of mouth, mailing lists, and local regional gigs [
G2]. The "grassroots" style of marketing focuses on the local level and builds up. Online promotion lends itself well to collecting an already built but dispersed fan base along with getting new music into new ears. This is a recurring theme of utilizing online exposure for one part of a promotion strategy while simultaneously getting word out on the street. The methods vary from hip hop street crews going out passing out flyers and getting the word literally on the street to promo tapes being given to a local record store.
The most effective offline promotion method by far and away is word of mouth with 31 percent indicating this is what works [G3]. The cavalcade of music based web communities and Usenet groups has taken the word of mouth idea to a global level. Chat rooms and bulletin boards can pool fans from around the world and consolidate them into a force to be reckoned with. This can be done without the traditional outlet of college radio which ranked near the bottom of the effectiveness scale at a scant 8 percent with corporate radio even lower at 5 percent. This indicates that college radio's power might be overrated at this level, however radio can take acts to the next level after a grassroots core of support has been established.
Promotion efforts remain both local and regional [G4], with the majority of respondents spending less than 500 dollars a year [G5]. The biggest difficulty facing independents today is financial constraints with 66 percent listing it as problem number one [G6]. This fact will always hang over the heads of independent labels and artists at this level. The obvious solution is to position one's self in a financially secure status and wait for support and popularity to come while maintaining artistic integrity. Radio support is next on the difficulty list, however given the poor results that both college and corporate radio stations have on promotional efforts (from the section above) the second biggest difficulty will not hurt as much as the artist believes. College radio has made bands famous, but this was done after they gained a local following.
The label section of the survey reflects the prevalence of micro-labels which have 1 to 3 artists under roster [G8]. In these companies the majority do not have their own studios (but are more than likely to have their own post-production facilities, especially with the advent of PC based programs) [G9]. This software puts remarkable power into the artist or producers hands. Most labels have the standard promotion, management, and publicity departments, but a new department has joined these as an essential area...the Internet department is number one in showing up on a labels' office directory [G10]. This shows the tools are being used to allow smaller labels to compete with the majors. This is seen everywhere in business with nimble firms outmaneurving the larger more static firms. Music (and entertainment in general) is more sensitive to trends than most, and therefore the smaller labels can run circles around the majors in some cases.
The largest expense question of the independents reflects the bulk of their money being spent on production, promotion, and marketing [G11]. The Internet was the second smallest portion just above legal (with zero). This shows that the added benefits made available to the independents come at a very cheap price. If money can be poured into creating a good product then the Internet can be used to supplement traditional promotion and distribution channels for a relatively small price.
70 percent of the musicians do not use a manager/agent [G12]. This implies a large number of Do It Yourself types out there who must do their own booking. An online service which could act as a booking clearinghouse for both venue and musicians could keep the parties off the phone. 80 percent are not signed to a label of any kind which means people must think of taking control of traditional label responsibilities such as Ani DiFranco who started her own label and became a success story in self-promotion and self-distribution [G13]. She makes it very obvious how she did this when one calls to order a CD from her directlyÉ (1-800 ON HEROW{N}).
CD is still king of the format world with 56 respondents releasing works on this medium [G14]. Tape is far behind this with 37 showing that medium is being pushed out of the physical format even at the independent level. Mp3 is next on the format of choice with 31 choosing the digital domain, although this a complement to the previous two formats. The growth of the mp3 at this level shows how new music can get into the ears of curious listeners to create and foster a fan base. From this fan base follows sales of music in any medium.
The vast majority of musicians (71 percent) self produce their work showing the power of desktop post production software [G15]. I have sampled these easy to use programs and I am amazed at how much creative power can be unleashed with a few clicks of the mouse. This has put music producing into the hands of the musicians themselves which seems the natural progress of the creative process. This will benefit both artist and listener alike.
All these results point to a growing trend in independent music for musicians to take greater control of their music and its subsequent distribution. The fact that legal costs and representation is almost non-existent shows that musicians simply do not have the money (or the immediate need) at this level to pay legal costs. This situation puts the independent artist at a critical disadvantage in issues such as ownership of music and royalty issues. Technology could remedy this situation with recently introduced watermarking software and various distribution and payment services being offered online. The results show that contrary to popular belief that a single online solution for promotion and distribution of music is no substitute for localized efforts to gain popularity. The wired world is another tool which has been given to musicians and labels alike. They are using this tool wisely.
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