This business of music… it troubles me. 

Not for the age old tension between artistic endeavor and monetary gain (which has troubled me for decades) but for the current lack of invention in delivering music to the masses.

At a time when digital channels open up routes to an audience for almost every conceivable genre, we see ever more artists falling back on the tried and trusted promotional routines of the boom years, flogging them to within an inch of their life for increasingly diminishing returns.

If something is irreparably broken, there comes a time to break down and replace it, rather than patching up another hole and convincing oneself that it will hold out for another passage of use. In some cases, the same applies to an entire business model.

“Every act of creation is, first of all, an act of destruction.”

~ Pablo Picasso

Creators Lacking Creativity

For an industry that thrives on the creative spark and connecting with its audience, there is a distinct lack of creativity when it comes to actually marketing music to people. From tired album release cycles to sweeping dismissals of digital business models, the record industry of the 21st century clings doggedly to the practices of decades ago.

Musicians must now apply the same freedom of thought that powers their art to the marketing of their music. 

There are almost no limits now to what you can attempt, in terms of releasing your music and encouraging people to buy into your work with cold, hard cash. Financial constraints may always apply but everything else is up for grabs. Free platforms, publicity, and free access to people have opened up the doors of opportunity, with the biggest decision being which ones to select and where to spend the majority of your most valuable resource, time.

The Past

In the past, a record label held sway over almost every aspect of marketing your music. With distribution of physical product and limited media channels being the main concerns of disseminating music efficiently to fans around the world, getting signed to a label was at the core of every artist’s career plan.

No longer. Most labels are now  the very epitome of the problem at the heart of the music industry; that same unwillingness to accept that the ‘golden age’ of $15+ albums and radio play payola is dead and gone. Not to discount the labels that do seek out innovative new models, which I warmly applaud, but any look at the latest reformed act from those halcyon days, being dragged out for one last milking in the cash cow shed, will bear out the continued focus of mid/major record companies on music marketing past.

That’s the past. And partially the present, which is a frustratingly sullen plod towards the inevitability of a digital music market place, hamstrung at almost every turn by those seeking to turn back the clock. A transition phase that is agonizingly – tantalizingly? – fluctuating between business models old and new. 

The Future

What interests me most is where we can take the release, marketing, and enjoyment of music in the years to come. Let those clinging to the past wallow in declining sales of physical and increasingly ineffective marketing campaigns. As they sink, let us focus our efforts on innovating.

Innovation means improvement. It means introducing better ways of working, through creative thought and testing out ideas. Some will fail, some will be of moderate success. Here and there, though, an idea will be a runaway success and forge a new path for other musicians to follow, like the massive exposure for Daria Musk with her Google+ concerts or Amanda Palmer’s Kickstarter millions.

Yes yes, I know, talk is cheap. Everything I have written thus far is purely conceptual and lacks any practical, actionable advice. Which is why I will now be dedicating every Monday to ‘Music Marketing Matters’ , a series of posts in which I’ll focus on one idea that you can apply to marketing your music, in a way that will help you stand out from the crowd.

I can’t promise success.

I can’t promise a step by step guide to implementing every part of the thoughts that we’ll unpack.

I can promise ideas that will stimulate discussion and help us to move music marketing forward, together.

So jump on the e-mail subscription option to the top left of the page here and we’ll get the ideas rolling from next week. Let me know in the comments if you have an idea you’d like me to spend some time exploring.