The Two Biggest Music Industry Challenges For New And Indie Artists

Challenge #1: Streaming

This fall, Apple will launch iTunes Music – their Pandora-like streaming service. Why are they so late to the game, when Pandora, Spotify, Rdio and other services have been growing for years? Because in 2007, Steve Jobs said,

“People don’t care about streaming – they want to own music.”

This was Jobs’ philosophy, and conveniently so because Apple has made tons of money on iTunes downloads. But even if it was true then, it isn’t true for many people now. And it will be true for less people with each passing year. To many of today’s teenagers and young adults, the very notion of “owning” (and having to store) music is foreign. It’s like storing hundreds of gallons of water in your house, instead of just turning on the faucet when you want to drink, shower or wash your hands.

It’s not hard to envision a future when everyone will stream music for free or for a set amount per month (like $10). A future when only audiophiles and each band’s hardcore fans will buy music. Many people today (including me) have downloaded so much music already into our iTunes that we can’t remember what we own. We have tens, hundreds or thousands of records that we don’t listen to – including a few records we downloaded but have only listened to once, or never.

Even the “free music download” model faces a challenge. After awhile the consumer thinks, “Do I really want to download one more thing to my hard drive?” And if they move their library to the Cloud, that’s just one step from saying, “You know what? Why do I even need to mess with Cloud storage? Let Spotify, Apple, YouTube, etc. mess with Cloud storage. I can stream anytime I want, from all my devices.”

And as has been reported in numerous places, streaming services don’t pay nearly as much as digital downloads, let alone physical CD purchases.

Challenge #2: The Law Of Supply And Demand

Technological advances and social media have brought many more bands and vocalists to the game. There are over 10,000 music releases each week. In this new “Attention Economy” we battle a “paradox of choice” – too many choices often lead to consumers making no choice because it’s overwhelming.

And if they do make a choice, they’re less likely to be satisfied with their choice (because in a land of infinite choices, how can you really be sure you made the right one?). This applies to everything from “Which record should I buy” to “Which flavor of jam should I buy”.

The field is crowded more than ever before, no matter what “soundscape” we inhabit or what lyrical style/depth/breadth we employ. This may actually be a bigger challenge than the digital streaming challenge. While anti-Spotify statements are all the rage in the blogosphere, a simple fact remains – when anyone can record music on their computer and upload it to internet stores through Tunecore, CDBaby and other companies, it creates a huge supply of new music, a land of nearly infinite choice.

The result is a music-making climate in which it’s easier than ever to release music and distribute it worldwide, but it’s no more likely (and it’s perhaps less likely) to “make it to the big time” than it was in the 1970s.

Be Mentored By Pioneer Christian Musicians In Your Home

A couple weeks ago Kristen and I became acquainted with Rebecca Friedlander, who has just completed the Pioneers: Mentoring Series 2-disc DVD that you see in the video preview above. The premise is intriguing: young, independent musicians, singer-songwriters and worship leaders ask questions of those who have gone before, like Phil Keaggy, Dennis Jernigan, Babbie Mason and Dallas Holm. The film does not disappoint — I watched all four hours (a two-disc set) over two days, and highly enjoyed it.

Topics include:

• Solo Artist issues
• Songwriting
• Worship
• Music Business
• Personal Life
• One Thing (“What’s the one thing you want every young artist to know?”)

The entire two-disc set lasts four hours, during which these veteran artists answer a lot of questions. From the “worship” section alone, the young, independent artists ask questions like:

“What do I do when people start applauding while I am leading worship?”

“What are your thoughts on the direction that CCM and modern worship music has taken?”

and many more. It’s an enlightening education from those who have spent decades writing, recording, touring and leading worship in local churches. If you’re a young artist or a parent or youth leader to young artists, you can learn more and purchase Pioneers: Mentoring Series here.

You can also buy a 90-minute version called Pioneers: Documentary that includes the Solo Artist and Songwriting categories.

Check out Rebecca Friedlander’s other products as well. She’s released several CDs, as well as a book and DVD. She has a big heart for serving the Church, as well as the Church’s artists.

Attractional Versus Missional Online Communication Strategies

In the church world, two outreach models have sometimes warred against each other.

The Attractional model says “Come and see.” It advocates for a well designed church building, top-notch Connect/Guest Services ministry, good signage, an excellently executed worship service and other well run programs and events. The point is to draw people in.

The Missional model says “Go and tell.” Instead of primarily drawing people to a specific location, the emphasis is on going into the community, living out the gospel in your everyday interactions, participating in the life of your city, using whatever gifts and interests God has given you: visual arts, sports, community planning, music. You’re a missionary, taking the gospel to your neighborhood, your favorite coffee shop, your circle of Little League parents, your local Farmer’s market.

In recent years many church leaders have said, “It’s not either/or; it’s both/and,” while others remain in one camp or another. But even a missional community may succumb to an “attractional only” online presence, and vice versa. Meanwhile, the “both/and” churches may invest more on one side or the other online, without knowing it. Lets look at how popular online tools fit within the missional/attractional models. These apply not only to churches but to businesses, bands, authors, and any other type of brand.

Attractional Online Strategy

Your website is the cornerstone of an attractional web strategy. An attractional-heavy strategy places all or most of your eggs in this basket. Your site looks attractive, it loads quickly, it provides incentives for people to visit and to linger. It contains all the info anyone would want to know about you (see my The Biggest Mistake On Your Church Website Homepage here).

Let’s look at some of the attractional elements we’ve built into My SongIn The Night. Obviously, our blog is front-and-center because we post new content at least twice a week. We’ve also embedded a free offer for Kristen’s worship EP The Whole Big Story in the right-hand column. And by clicking the Streampad “Click To Play All Posts” bar at the bottom of this site, you can freely listen to all our worship songs, including the ones recorded by Sojourn Music.

Podcasts are attractional as well. Many people love to subscribe to fun or thought-provoking podcasts. And of course don’t forget videos.

Missional Online Strategy

Social media networking is the ultimate missional strategy. Instead of pulling people to a website, you go where they are: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn and whatever social network contains an audience with whom you’d like to connect. See my E.E.R.I.E. system of social media networking here, Social Media For Churches here and my Social Media Marketing for bands here.

But not so fast! Even if you want to be missional, you can fall into an attractional mindset on social media. Lots of brands spend much time and money customizing their Facebook page to the fullest extent Facebook allows. They treat their Facebook page like a website. And that’s fine if you’ve got the resources for it.

But Facebook users are far more likely to engage you when they see your updates and photos on their Timelines, not on your brand page. Many of those who like your page only go there one time (when they initially click “Like”). Remember, you have to create compelling content and engage with people. The same goes with Twitter — most of your Twitter followers will not visit your Twitter.com home page — they’ll only see your tweets. The coolest looking Twitter profile in the world won’t do you any good if you’re not engaging and reciprocating with your followers.

 

The E.E.R.I.E. System Of Social Media Networking And Marketing

Some people are so compelling on social media networks that we can’t help but follow them, whether they are celebrities like Shaquille O’Neal and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, or normal, everyday people — perhaps folks we attend church with, or people we knew in high school (and who didn’t seem nearly so interesting then). What makes their Timelines, Walls and platforms so interesting? It’s almost eerie how we’re drawn to them.

Maybe those normal, everyday people just have an instinctual feel for the kind of status updates others like to see, but stars like Shaq and The Rock benefit from social media strategists. In fact those two have learned from Amy Jo Martin and her Digital Royalty company. Digital Royalty advises clients to vary the kind of updates they provide, based on six categories: entertainment, education, inspiration, information, reciprocation and exclusives.

As Sojourn Church Director of Communications, when I advise pastors, worship leaders and others on social media strategy, I eliminate “information” from the list, since tweets and updates in this category typically fit within “education,” or one of the remaining four categories. Eliminating “information” allows me to group the others into an acronym of categories that demystifies the social media update process — the E.E.R.I.E. social media networking and marketing system.

When you balance your updates from different E.E.R.I.E. categories, you ensure your followers won’t find nothing but a stream of food/cat/baby photos in your feed, or nothing but inspirational platitudes, or links to educational articles. In short, E.E.R.I.E. will help Jack to not be such a dull boy. Without further adieu, here is E.E.R.I.E:

E is for Entertainment

Here is where you’d tweet pictures of your crazy cat, your cute kids and your scrumptious lunch at that new gastropub downtown. The much-maligned “photo of someone’s lunch” isn’t a problem if you aren’t doing it all the time. So just don’t make “Entertainment” your only bucket, and don’t make photos of your lunch become your only form of entertainment.

Entertainment is also the place in the E.E.R.I.E. system for retweeting hilarious quips from spoof-celebrities, for tweeting your own jokes and witticisms, comments about films, other fun observations and goofy pics with Over captions.

E is for Education

Here is where you tweet links to articles and books — whether your own or those you recommend — that will educate your audience about your core topics. For me, that includes writing (especially songwriting), church communications, worship leading and social media.

Of course you don’t always have to tweet links; whenever you can educate and inform your audience in 140 characters, go for it.

R is for Reciprocation

Reciprocation is “Mutual interaction,” back-and-forth conversation, an exchange (particularly an exchange of information) and any form of “paying back.” Examples of reciprocation include responses like “Thanks for following me/tweeting my link/reviewing my album/commenting on my blog,” etc. This also includes a running exchange of tweets between specific people, Retweets, and “shoutouts” like “You should follow _____; her updates are interesting.”

I is for Inspiration

This is where quotes come in handy: Bible verses, song lyrics, proverbs and famous sayings. You can also inspire with original content that builds people up, helps them remember where their strength comes from, or points to an example of someone who has overcome adversity. And of course you can inspire people with links to inspirational blog posts, songs or video clips.

E is for Exclusives

It’s natural to think of Exclusives as exclusive product offers, like a contest for free books, a 20% sale on CDs or a special package on a variety of products, perhaps only available to those who tweet a certain hashtag or “Like” your Facebook page.

But Exclusive are more than that. An exclusive status update can be any “behind the scenes” insight, photo or video. For instance on Saturdays, Kristen often practices songs she will be leading in worship the next day. Sometimes I record a twenty-second snippet from one of the songs she’s practicing, then upload it to one or more of my social media accounts with a note that says something like, “Here is Kristen, practicing a song we’ll be singing tomorrow at Sojourn Church.”

A Final Thought

You’ll quickly discover that some updates fit in more than one category: an Exclusive can also be Entertainment, and an Inspirational quote can also be Educational, for instance. This is good. Don’t think that you have to craft updates that fall strictly within these lines. Rather, be intentional about hitting all of these categories on a regular basis, instead of dipping into the same one time and again.

 

 

 

Leader Or Saboteur? Insecurity, Selfishness & Russian Dolls

Visitors to my office at Sojourn Church often notice my Russian Dolls — a series of five wooden dolls in the image of Russian leaders that fit inside each other, beginning with Lenin and ending with Boris Yeltsin. Friends gave these to my parents as a souvenir from Russia, and my parents let me take them. When office guests ask me about them, I recite a story I read about the legendary advertising Creative Director David Ogilvy (one of the real-life inspirations for the Don Draper character on Mad Men).

Whenever Ogilvy opened a new office for Ogilvy & Mather or hired a new ad man, he’d give the new hire a set of Russian dolls and ask him to remove the top half of each doll in turn, revealing the smaller doll until all dolls had been opened and the employee arrived at the last, tiny doll.

Then Ogilvy, in his characteristically insightful but insensitive and politically incorrect way, would say “If each of us hires people smaller than ourselves, we shall become a company of midgets. But if each of us hires people bigger than ourselves, we shall become a company of giants.”

Insecure leaders hire people “smaller” than they are — those who seem to have so much less skill, drive, education, knowledge or fitness than the leader that they will never catch up. Think of:

• The band leader who won’t give a chance to a musician or vocalist of equal or greater talent
• The pastor who is concerned that a seminary graduate might become a better preacher if hired and mentored
• The writer who won’t mentor anyone who could possibly achieve greater success.

This goes deeper than insecurity. It is selfish, and it is an act of organizational sabotage. If you’re in a position to teach, mentor, lead or guide others, don’t be a saboteur. Be the proverbial teacher whose student stands upon his shoulders.

How To Pastor Or Befriend Those With The Artistic Temperament

At my church Sojourn, we use a tool called an Enneagram to help staff members and pastors understand ourselves and our peers. Church planters within Sojourn Network also undergo Enneagram assessment through CrossPoint Ministry. An Enneagram is a tool (like Meyers-Briggs or StrengthsFinder) which gives insight into an individuals personality.

The Enneagram discovers both the strengths and weaknesses of your personality, and identifies nine basic personality types. When staff members first took the assessment test in 2010, we quickly discovered that staffers in the arts (predominantly Sojourn Music and Visual Arts) generally scored highest in  “The Originalists,” or “Romantics” area … the artistic personality.

This came as no surprise to any of us, just as it came as no surprise to find our Executive Pastor fit the “Effective/Achiever” temperament.

So what did we learn about each other, and what can you learn about how to befriend, pastor, mentor or live as a spouse with a Romantic/Originalist/Artist?

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: General Characteristics:

We’re creative and sensitive, with a strong sense of beauty and an intuitive grasp of moods and feelings.

We’re expressive, not just in our chosen field of art but often in our choice of clothing, hairstyle, home decor and other corners of life. Most of us are intensely aware of our weaknesses, even if we don’t admit them. We want to do things our way, and we deeply desire to be treated as one of a kind, special. We may try to hold our “suffering” as a badge of honor, because if we can’t feel special for our accomplishments, then we can feel special in our suffering, in feeling misunderstood, in melancholia.

We have intense longings. We can overreact to present conditions, even as we have trouble “living in the moment” rather than an idealized past or a preferred future. We may be melancholy or high strung, but we’re dramatic either way. At our worst, we hold long grudges, and nurse old wounds, because our “deadly sin” is envy. We don’t like it when another artist is doing better than we are, which is unfortunate because there is always someone else doing better. Even artists who become “legends” feel inadequate or mistreated in the presence of a new “chart topping sensation.”

The underlying harmful emotion for this artistic temperament is a feeling of shame. It goes beyond “My work isn’t good enough” to “I’m not good enough.” This is exacerbated by the pervasive attitude among even Christian artists that “I am my art.” When we wrap our whole sense of being in something we create (our art) rather than something God created (us), then we set ourselves up for failure and grief.

The Cure For A Sense Of Shame: The Doctrine of Adoption

In Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem defines adoption as “an act of God whereby he makes us members of his family” (p. 736). We who believe in Christ are now children of God, joint-heirs with Christ of God’s Kingdom. This goes much deeper than what we do; this is who we are. When another artist feels shame (“I am worthless”) we must say “No, you’re a child of God.” Whatever the merits of an artist’s work, this work is just what they do, not who they are.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. – Romans 8:14-17

This is a foundational truth that the artist must understand. Once this understanding is in place, we can look at other concepts and strategies that artists can use to help themselves, as well as strategies that pastors, spouses and all fellow believers can use to help artists overcome sinful tendencies and their underlying struggles with envy and feelings of inferiority:

The Artistic Temperament Needs:

A Treasure Chest Of Online Music Marketing Advice For Indie Artists

Berklee Music‘s Director of Marketing Mike King teaches about online music marketing and social media. In the video below, he answers questions from indie bands and singer-songwriters on topic like:

• Engagement
• Giving away music and other freebies
• “The curse of the independent artist is anonymity, not piracy”
• and whether or not indie artists should use companies such as Spotify, CD Baby, Tunecore, SoundCloud, Topsin, iTunes and other players in the digital music & promotion world

Other aspects of the music business he talks about: why bands should have their own website, the importance of live touring, and subjects like distribution, retail and radio airplay.

Self-Promotion Versus Christian Humility

One of our readers recently suggested we write an article about the tension between the self-promotion of independent artists and Christian humility. For instance is it okay for a Christian singer-songwriter to promote his music through social media? If so, what about biblical commands like Proverbs 27:2 –

Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;
a stranger, and not your own lips.

First, promotion and praise are not the same. If I send out a message on Twitter/ Facebook/ LinkedIn/ Google+ that says:

“Download The Whole Big Story by my wife Kristen Gilles for free. It features 4 worship songs we wrote together”

That’s entirely different than:

“Our EP The Whole Big Story is the greatest thing since spray-on sunscreen. Get it now because it’s the best worship record of the year.”

Further, it is possible to write longer messages (blog articles for instance) that highlight the benefits you believe people will get from listening to your music — whether deep theology, good dance beats or something else. The key here is what branding strategists call

Coherence: When your message aligns truthfully with your product.

This is not the same as the saying “It ain’t bragging if it’s true.” Saying “I’m the best” is always bragging, even if 100 authorities also say you are the best.

Promotion is simply the act of letting people know you’ve created something that you believe will benefit them. If someone has subscribed to your social media account, then they expect you will promote your music. If this isn’t what they counted on, or they grow tired of it, they are free to unsubscribe.

But How Much Promotion?

This is tough, because it is subjective. In my Social Media Marketing For Independent Music Bands & Artists I wrote that you shouldn’t go overboard with social media promotion. For me, that means that if you look at my Twitter feed in a given week, the number of tweets that promote our music, blog posts and even tweets relating to things at my church Sojourn (where I am employed) will be far less than tweets relating to other blog links that I think would be of interest to my followers, as well as retweets and personal reflections that have nothing to do with promoting our “goods and services.”

Some social media experts have suggested an 8-1 ratio, meaning that for every tweet about your music, you’d send eight tweets about other things. I don’t think there is a magic number or ratio, but I agree with the principle that your promotional tweets should not outnumber non-promotional tweets, especially if you tweet multiple times per day.

Band Accounts Are Different Than Individual Accounts

Earlier this summer I took over the

If Confused About Future Of Music, Go For Broke*: My Will Gray Interview

Is it possible for an independent singer-songwriter or band to “break” — to become successful in today’s music industry, amidst file sharing, illegal downloads, and free streaming options like Spotify and YouTube? That’s the question posed by the new, award winning Broke*, which also provides answers from many artists (undiscovered, famous and in-between) as well as marketers, industry professionals and fans of music.

Broke* follows artist Will Gray, who directed the film, as he journeys through the recording process of his first record. If you love music, you should see it. If you have any aspirations of breaking as a musician yourself, you should see it. I’ll tell you how to do that locally in a minute, but first join me in this My Song In The Night interview with Will Gray himself. Then, run to the Broke* website for more previews and deleted scenes, a cast list, and much more.

Bobby Gilles: Your own road as an independent artist has taken you to a contract with Warner/Chappell Publishing, a debut produced by T Bone Burnett and songs licensed by the likes of MTV, Ford and Sony Playstation. Would you say that Broke* is your statement of “Here’s what I learned along the way”?

Will Gray: Not exactly… 🙂 Broke* is more a “let’s do this together” statement. My story is individual, but not overly unique. Most working musicians have all shared in similar narratives, with different characters. It was my hope in making the film to spark a dialogue. I needed to know if

Screen A New Documentary About How To Break Into The Music Industry

Have you heard about Broke, the award nominated documentary about the modern music industry? It’s a provocative film about the situation and practices of today’s music business, and how independent artists can turn negatives into positives and “break” into music.

If you’ll be in the Louisville area on July 3, we invite you to attend a film screening and Q&A at our the Midtown Campus of our church, Sojourn, at 930 Mary Street, 40204. Artist Will Grey will present Broke, then perform for us and hold a Q&A session with the audience.

The event will run from 7pm to 9:30. $10 registration required. Register here.

Watch the preview for Broke here:

Broke* Trailer (in production) – http://www.brokedoc.com from Mindfree Entertainment on Vimeo.