Marketing and Music Industry Chaos
The music industry is in something of a Jekyll and Hyde situation right now. CD sales have been in decline for several years, and the ball is rolling downhill faster and faster. This means that major record labels are slowly imploding. That’s the down side.
The up side is that music is more ubiquitous than ever; bands and artists have MUCH more power and options than ever; and there are tons more marketing channels and ways for an artist to build their business besides selling records.
Not long ago it was cd sales (“units moved”) that was the only measure of an act’s success, and touring was primarily a means of promoting and selling cd’s. But the decades-old paradigm is shifting. Full-length cd’s are being eclipsed by single downloads, and music is often given away for free as a promotional tool that then hooks the fan into buying merch, concert tickets, not to mention the ever-increasing pool of artists’ ancillary businesses such as clothing and fragrances. CD sales tracking is now only one element of the overall success measure, as things like live shows, ringtones, blog and chat room buzz, and social networking show the bigger picture of who’s hot and who’s not. Very often cd sales don’t translate into ticket sales, and artists who don’t sell many cd’s consistently play sold-out shows. Artists who use to be tied to major labels out of necessity are now taking control back and doing all kinds of never-seen-before experiments and deals. It’s pretty exciting, unless you’re employed at a major.
So major labels are hurting badly, other things are still evolving and have yet to settle into a predictable methodology, and many other music business aspects are positively thriving. It just so happens that those thriving parts, and even the still-evolving parts, are the ones that a business of any type and any size can utilize in a marketing partnership. Don’t let any reports of doom and gloom give you the wrong impression. These are the days.
Posted Thursday December 20, 2007
in marketing with music,
music business,
small business
Comment
Commenting is closed for this article.