SomeVapourTrails

Sight - these guys make so beautiful music. Already wrote two blogs for them:

Why I love their free Myspace downloads and managed to confuse the artist

Get your damn ID3 tags right!!!!

SVT,

As usual you make some great points.. Perhaps, your direct and provocative approach will get the artists' attention and energize them. Of course, this will happen only if they are ready, willing, and able. I fear, as I think you do, that most do not possess all three of these attributes, at least in the economic sphere or what I have now come to call the arena of "social capital".

I still believe that many, if not most, artists still need intermediaries to help them connect with their larger circle of potential fans. Let me see if I can frame the exercise so we might better identify the problems and the potential.

At the first level, let's call it Tier 1, the artist resonates with family and close friends, but this is not enough. To reach any revenue generating, secondary level of connectivity via the web, artists definitely need more than their closest intimates. Most artists-in-the-making will forever remain stuck at the sing-along level of Tier 1.

Basic discipline and education come first and second at Tier 2. Folks like you can, and do, definitely help here - at least with the education part. [In fact, this is why we established the Nightschool.] As for the discipline, well, that is up to the artist. Artists have the discipline with respect to developing their artistic sensibility and their craft. That's what makes them who they are. However, most do not apply the same level of energy and concentration to promote their art [good or bad]. As you say, any one can make a few bucks if they apply themselves. But it will likely not be very meaningful at Tier 2. I believe that developing this pool of potential at Tier 2 is key to the future of music. That is why I have been trying [only with modest success so far] to get artists to get together at the Nightschool to help themselves with their collective in-bred powers that make artists special people on this planet and gifts to humanity. We truly need to help artists to rise above their rudimentary spamming, but in the meantime, while tiresome, we will have to accept the kid-stuff because there is likely to be some hidden talent in the noise.

As for generating really meaningful revenue at Tier 3 level, unless you are unusually adept at marketing yourself, artists probably need trusted agents. People more knowledgeable about finance, the internet, marketing, and so on. The marketplace then will work its wonders and will dictate what is "commercial". This is not to say that all that is commercial or marketable is "good" but that is another subject - which gets us to Tier 4.

As for the nirvana of Tier 4, it will depend on the mystical element of "excellence" that we have not talked about much here, but we should.

As musiclovers SomeVapourTrails and I are always looking for this "exellence" and once we are in love with an artist we do our very best to "spread the word" - but there are so many moments where my heart bleeds. Cause artists + labels fuck up so many great (and often free) opportunities.

I have really grown to hate Four Music - for the way they treated Wayne Jackson and Lula. For them fucking up the release date for Wayne Jackson's single "Glorious" (Keeping fingers crossed that finally this Friday the single will be released in Germany) - and then I checked Clipfish as his music video for Glorious is announced to premier there on Thursday - and know what: Whoever set up the account managed to fuck up the spelling for the label "spy satellite" and signed up as spysattelite - little things like that do harm the reputation of an artists and happen all the time.

Like always you contribute very interesting thoughts. Let me emphasize 2 points.

1. The Internet may allows to think globally. Nevertheless there are cultural gaps. From what I observed Americans tend to be less frank when it comes to criticize someone. They may point out the good things and will make kind suggestion for how to improve. In most parts of Europe we are more direct and simply voice the opinion with a clear statement. I think both approaches have advantages. Artists need feedback, that's why the create a piece of art. Art is divided into 2 parts: The joy of creation and the affirmation by recipients. Leonardo da Vinci would have destroyed his Mona Lisa if no one really cared about it, Bob Dylan would have stopped composing songs like Hurricane, if no one listened to it and started to fight for a change in society. I think we all need to give feedback to artists and this should be voiced honestly. Even criticism shows that you actually care.

2. I think the key for promotion is communication. If communication isn't the asset of an artist, he need to find someone helping him spreading the word. That's the true revolution of the Internet age: If you know how to communicate in virtual communities, you are able to substitute traditional ways of distribution. You don't even need an agent, if you stay in contact with your hardcore fans. They will do the job for you. I am pretty convinced that intermediaries are the key for freeing music from the influence of labels and agents. At the moment the music industry tells artists what to do - they are manipulating artists. They major labels have a big budget for creating a hype - they are manipulating consumers. As long as musicians, composers and listeners don't understand this strategies, there is only little chance that the term art has an actual connexion to the term artist.

Awesome thoughts all around. I think the most important element is "who am I playing for?" Most artists are selling an image and NOT their souls which is a good thing depending on how you look at it. If an artist comes to the table doing HIS or HER music with NO intentions of changing to "adapt" to sell MORE. They are the artists who will have little if any regrets when it's all said and done. It is awfully hard to ignore music that is different and has substance. Music like that is rare because society says first and foremost, "is this marketable?" Whatever happend to "this song needs to be heard?" There was a time when "lyrics" were almost as important as the music because of the times. Lord knows we are in extreme times.....where is the balance? There is no balance because it isn't about the music anymore....it is about profit and profit distorts the creative process in "REAL" musicians and artists.

Actually big record companies ARE intermediaries. Basically they do NOT tell consumers what to do, they rather try to create the primitive hype these consumers want. They even pay artists for that. That's why everyone despite of criticizing the big labels wants a record deal. Big record companies are simply big indie labels. Which does not mean I like them - I don't like or hate them more than any other company. But I think record company bashing is declamatory kitsch, of which admittedly I've been guilty myself.
Back to topic: The key to promotion is TV. This is basically reserved for big record companies (why that is so I don't know). One rank below TV promotion is radio. This is basically reserved for big record companies and big indie labels (why that is I don't know). One rank below radio promotion are editorials of big websites. These are basically reserved for big and half big indie labels (why that is I don't know). One rank below editorials of big websites - are we - we and our musician - listener communication. It will take a lot of hard work and indie-idol-dumping to get this thing going!

But you must not forget: Even TV + Radio + Print journalists do their research on the Web too. Most of them don't have much time - therefore it's important that all informations about an artist can be found easily with a few mouse clicks. That's why artists need cooperate identity on the web and using different name variations for different social web sites will harm these artists.

Surely. Only that TV, radio and print journalists are not interested in unknown artists on the internet.

Well, I have to disagree tibii. There are plenty of music magazines dedicated to discover new artists (for example the German Spex magazine). And you missed the point. We were talking about the chances for artists to gain attention on the web. Of course this is something to start with to attract a fanbase willing to spend money for CDs and also attending concerts. It's about that listeners decide about the "excellence" TheCapitalClinic mentioned. At the moment record label decide which artists get a chance. And this record companies don't give a damn about quality, they want the product to be profitable. In former times many pieces of art were made with the help of patrons who had no financial interest in selling the painting, book or music. It's about time that we step up. Everyone should become a Maecenas. We don't need record labels preselecting artists on the factor if this style of music may sell a lot of copies or not. We don't need record labels talking about copyright violations when these labels rip off artists.

What's a Maecenas?