CWF + RTB

CWF + RTB (Connect with Fans and Reason to Buy) is one of the prevailing business models in the music industry right now, and I think is especially popular with independent and DIY musicians. It seems to have really gained traction with Trent Reznor’s blog post about how new/unknown artists can try and further their career without the aid of a major label. Read that here: http://forum.nin.com/bb/read.php?30,767183,767183.

A lot of people are really excited about this business model and I also think it is pretty cool. One of the main reasons I like it is because I think it humanizes artists/bands/musicians in the eyes of their fans. I think when an artist is almost completely shut-off from their fans they come across sort of like an unattainable goal. Like they might not be real. But if anyone can get on Twitter, Facebook, etc. and write directly to an artist – and get a response! – it makes them seem a little more human. I think another thing CWF + RTB does is reminds us that making music is someone’s job and livelihood. But there is another really important distinction CWF makes: a fan purchasing something from an artist is a voluntary transaction, not an obligatory purchase. It puts the power more in the hands of the fans and shows a certain amount of respect towards fans. Give them the opportunity to support you, don’t demand it.

The main argument against CWF + FTB seems to be that you can’t make it big. It will work for less popular or already well established groups but you won’t ever make it to the big leagues. I think that is a pretty valid argument and something to take into account when considering if this business model is right for you. In the last few weeks it was announced that Nine Inch Nails had returned to a major label for their upcoming album. Trent Reznor’s reasoning was very interesting. He claims that he simply wants to reach a wider audience and the recent downsizing of major labels has left only the best people working there. You can read an article about his thoughts here: http://www.spin.com/articles/trent-reznor-nine-inch-nails-hesitation-marks-columbia-spin-september-2013-cover-story/ Although, if you’re just interested in managing you musical career and aren’t concerned with becoming a superstar I think it is a fantastic option.

Musicians and the Internet

In this class and several of my previous classes at BEAU we have talked about resources available to musicians and the impact of said resources. In my opinion the internet is the best and worst tool available to musician.  But I don’t exactly mean ‘best’ and ‘worst’ in the traditional sense. The Future of Music coalition has done many relevant and important studies on the effect of emerging technology on musician’s careers. They can be found on the web here: http://futureofmusic.org/ and the specific article I’m using here: http://money.futureofmusic.org/are-musicians-benefiting-from-music-tech-sf-musictech-presentation/.

Now, onto the reason I think the internet is the best thing to happen to all musicians, established or aspiring. They are able to have direct contact with fans. This is important from a musician aspect and from a fan aspect. As of February 2012, 66% of musicians say this is the biggest impact the internet has had on their career. Fans are the people you are playing for and to, so having direct access to them at any time is a huge opportunity.

Now, onto the reason I think the internet might be hurting artists. As of February 2012, 36% said their day-to-day work was more about promotion. An artist’s job is to create art and it is hard to create art when you are online promoting yourself. Artists are now handling more aspects of their careers, which is in my opinion, both a negative and a positive. You want to have as much control over your career as possible but you need time to actually create. By now I think we are all too aware how easy it is to waste a huge amount of time on the internet.

Mash-ups

I think the closest I have come to working on a mash-up is two projects in Desktop Production. For one project I arranged pre-recorded song clips and then mixed the song to my liking. The second project dealt with audio and video clips and arranging them in the right order and mixing the audio levels. I really like working on the first project. It was fun to be able to hear all the pieces of the song and then mix them the way I thought sounded best. It was really interesting to then hear the other students’ arrangements and how they were all a little different. I think I liked hearing how the different instruments reacted with each other and how “boosting” one over another made a huge difference. There is definitely a lot of thought that goes into song production and I am grateful that there are people who put so much time and effort into making songs sound so good. The video project was fun too, but I think I enjoyed the audio more. 

The Rise of Social Media

Social Media has undeniably become a huge part of the internet as we know it. Here is a brief overview of the rise of social media.

• 1971: The first email is sent
• 1985: America Online(AOL) starts
• 1994: Geocities. It allowed people to make personal websites modeled after geographic locations
• 1997: AOL Instant Messenger
• 1998: Google
• 1999: In Great Britain Friends Reunited starts. It allowed people to connect with old school acquaintances and was the first social media to achieve fame
• 2002: Friendster launches in the U.S. It grew to 3 million in 3 months
• 2003: MySpace is launched
• 2004: Facebook is launched for college students, primarily Harvard
• 2005: Facebook launches a version for high school students
• 2006: Twitter launches. Facebook will later try, unsuccessfully, to buy Twitter
• 2006: Anyone over the age of 13 can now join Facebook
• 2008: Facebook passes MySpace in total monthly unique visitors
• 2010: Facebook has over 400 million users. Myspace drops to 57 million, down from a high of 75 million.
• 2012: Facebook reaches a billion users

It is interesting to me how quickly social media has risen to prominence. In only 11 years it has grown to include over a billion users and completely transformed the ways in which we can communicate.

I thought the chart below was a really interesting representation of how rapidly social media has risen. It didn’t even take Twitter a full year to have 50 million users while it took TV full 13 years. Whatever your feelings on social media you cannot deny its power and presence in our society.

Timeline info from: http://www.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SocialMedia/SocialMediaHistory.html

Chart from: http://www.ehulool.com/the-rapid-rise-of-social-media-infographic/