April 13, 2010 You Can’t Spell Music Business without “Business”
You Can’t Spell Music Business without “Business” Obvious, right? Not so much. Here’s an anecdote from today and some thoughts on the issue.
At Music Xray we send out a mass email every Tuesday to tens of thousands of artists who have signed up on our site to receive them for free. This is a link to the one we sent today: http://eepurl.com/rX8D
Today, we got back an email from a disgruntled artist that said, “YOU PEOPLE ARE THE WORST KIND OF LOW LIFE LEECHES THE SLEAZY MUSIC BIZ. HAS TO OFFER… I’M NO LONGER STUPID WHEN IT COMES TO THE KIND OF SCAMS YOU’RE PEDDLING”.
I’ve said before that I do not blame any artist for feeling jaded. The music industry has a long history of mistreating artists and you don’t have to look very far to find artist-facing internet sites that are well-meaning but that can’t live up to their promises. Many times that’s due to the fact that they can’t muster the traffic it takes to help an artist promote their music. Other times, they don’t have the ability to attract industry professionals to their sites to do deals with the artists. Either way, there are simply a lot of dead end sites for artists out there. Artists end up uploading their music over and over again to tons of sites and have little to show for it. Frankly, with over 13 million artist profiles on MySpace alone it’s no wonder it’s harder than ever to stand out.
Yet, we keep hearing all about the new tools that make it easier than ever to do it yourself. Get a MySpace page, a ReverbNation presence, a website, a digital distribution deal and you’re set. Except it’s not working. I’m not saying artists shouldn’t have that stuff. They should. They have to just to be in the game. But it’s nowhere near enough. Most of the time, it’s still going to take a mass-exposure event (or series of events) to break a new act. To break out. To break through.
Nevertheless, the harsh reality is that if you’re and artist and you’re planning on making any money with your music you have to either be good at the business or you have to go into partnership with people who are. Most people aren’t good at both sides of that equation so teaming up is the only option. But revenue generating deals are like pretty girls at the dance. They have no shortage of suitors. It’s easy to resent that (I know I did) but resenting it doesn’t change it.
The fact is, deals between artists and industry people happen every day but if you’ll permit me to continue with the analogy, the pretty girl is definitely not going to dance with the boys who don’t ask. Getting discovered as an artist is very much the same these days. Just because an artist has a lot of fans and plays on MySpace isn’t likely to get the artist a deal. The artist must submit music to and interact with industry professionals. They must build relationships. They must get feedback and advice on how to get deals. Industry professionals aren’t out looking for artists these days because they don’t have to. The artists come to them. Artists have to hustle. That’s just the way it is and artists can decry it but it’s not going to change until there are more opportunities than artists – and if an artist waits for that to happen the opportunities will continue to pass them by.
So, when we get an email like the one I quoted above my reaction is not to get angry or to feel attacked. It makes me motivated to help artists get over feeling jaded and help them find the real opportunities to generate revenue with their music.
What do you think?
Mike McCready
CEO
Music Xray
http://musicxray.com
Browse opportunities for songs and artists:
http://www.musicxray.com/artist/categories
Reader Comments (9)
Monetizing the artist discovery process is not something to be proud of I'm afraid. It is true there is a huge discrepancy between the number of would-be artists and the number of opportunities. But solving the issue using market techniques is only one possible way (maybe it is the american way ? business as usual, greed is good and so on), leading to wealthy people having an advantage over the others. I don't know that artistic genius is linked to the amount of money one can afford ?
If you were into painting discovery, Van Gogh could not afford to be discovered by your services. So please don't delude yourself that you're helping culture or art when you're just basically feeding on the beast, and probably not the best possible way. Wanna improve yourself ? here is an example:
You write here "Industry professionals aren’t out looking for artists these days because they don’t have to. "
You write in your mass email "The label's A&R ears are anxious to hear what you've got."
Now that is marketing bullsh*t, not even consistent... and everybody knows it
Hi François,
Thanks for adding to the conversation.
Music Xray (nor I personally) does not purport to hold the answer to the question of how to monetize every artist's efforts. We're very up front about the problems we can help solve and those we can't.
Music Xray is a platform that enables commerce between artists and industry professionals but does not mandate it. Anyone who wants to take submissions, evaluate music or offer advice to artists for free can do so. There are a few that do here: http://www.musicxray.com/artist/categories/15
We simply enable people to set a price on it if they want to and if they can command one.
It's a transparent platform. If someone peddles false hopes, bad advice, doesn't deliver on promised results etc, the purchaser can leave a comment and a rating right on the seller's page for all to see. Music Xray tries to verify the identity and legitimacy of each "seller" but is not in the business of endorsing them much like eBay does not endorse each seller but rather lets each seller stand on their own reputations. If anyone is ripping anyone else off on Music Xray they're quickly chased off the site. We've had one case of that.
Now clearly, it's important for Music Xray to run a tight ship, have good customer service and to have an awesome platform that makes receiving, managing and filtering song submissions so much better than anything else that we can attract professionals from major labels to influential bloggers.
I do not think that a label stating that they are "anxious to hear what an artist has" is inconsistent with labels not having to go out finding artists when artists will make efforts to reach the labels... and I certainly can't speak for any individual label and their artist discovery process. I was just stating what I've been observing as a general tendency.
I am proud that we seem to be solving a problem of access for artists and a problem of submission management for professionals. I'm proud that we're adding value.
Mike, I believe Francois was making light of the fact that music x-ray is monetizing the artist discovery process - not that you are helping artists monetize their efforts. I understand his criticism and sentiment, though I don't share it quite as deeply.
I think artists have every right to be sceptical of organizations that purport to have connections to the music industry, and peddle "access", among other services. There's nothing inherently skeezy about it, and from your perspective, no doubt, its a win-win situation. You give the artist useful feedback and opportunities for promotion, they give you money.
I have no clue how good Music-X-ray's "opportunities" are, but I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that artists get more or less what they pay for. Even so, platforms like this may seem a bit like pay-to-play to artists. Yes, this is a business, and you need to spend money to make money. But given the middleman nature of these kind of websites, I'm not surprised that many artists may feel patronized, or feel as though they are simply being coralled into an "amateur zone" in which they are technically participating in the music industry without creating a career that they have control over.
Again, this is not to insult your site or anything, just to say that I understand and share the apprehensions of these disinclined artists.
For me, the main reasons remains that there are just too few examples of real success coming from this kind of track. I actually don't know of any bands that have gotten a record deal through the use of a networking site. Everyone who I have seen become successful has done so the old fashioned way, by making personal connections directly (i.e. in person, through existing friends\contacts, within existing touring\record production circles).
Maybe I'm just missing some key examples, but I doubt it. I think artists should take almost every opportunity they can, and I'm sure there are plenty of good ones on the internet. But everyone with a product or service to sell overpromises just a wee bit, and music networking sites are no different.
Hi Justin. I hear you. We don't track any of the deals that occur on Music Xray but we do post some of the ones we hear about. We're hearing about one every day or two right now: http://www.musicxray.com/success-stories
Traditionally, the music business has sourced music, developed artists and then they took part in the revenue that was generated. The artist didn't really have to invest in their own careers beyond the making of music (which is quite a large investment to begin with).
However, the big companies are no longer doing much (if any) artist development. They do deals with artists that require less effort and less investment to get to the revenue. That means that having great music is no longer enough. Given that artists compete for deals, the artists that ALSO have business savvy, marketability, are easy to work with etc. have an advantage.
I understand that because the business used to be different many artists feel that anyone who wants the artist to pay for anything that isn't strictly related to the creation of music is unreasonable. But artists typically spend years of their lives and thousands of dollars generating buzz, touring all in an effort to eventually get the attention of someone who can give them a big break. With Music Xray we're reducing the time and money an artist has to spend to get the same result. Many of the industry professionals that are available on Music Xray aren't available anywhere else at any price, let alone for a few dollars and at the click of a mouse.
Artists of course do not have to partake of these platforms but those that don't put themselves at a disadvantage. They have to achieve the same results as every other artist but they have to take a much harder course.
It may be a question of mixed signals. Here we are, told to steer clear of the Big Business, the starmakers, the purveyors of the "Rock'n'Roll" dream (on this site as well) and make our own future. I can see why some people can take exception to the idea that they should pay for the opportunity to court the people they are told are the Enemy.
Perhaps you could explain for my benefit - and the rest of the readers' - what exactly they are paying for. I'm particularly interested in what compensation (if any) those industry professionals who ultimately receive and review submissions get - although I understand that you may be under obligation to keep such arrangements secret.
The reason I ask is a nagging suspicion - I am the Cynical Musician, after all - which many of your potential customers may share, that a number of said professionals are using the opportunity to "make a quick buck talking **** about my band" (please excuse the poor humour), having no intention to further anyone's career.
I feel you could do no bigger service to yourself and your company than by laying such suspicions to rest.
Hi Krzysztof. Thanks for your comment.
Well, let me state firstly that every artist should do what works for them. If you're advancing your career on your own to the degree you'd like then you should not change your approach.
The problem is that for most artists the "go it alone" approach just isn't working for them.
The industry professionals on Music Xray do not get more than what they are asking for in submission fees on the site and many of them get nothing at all. There are no secrets. No hidden deals. There is nothing that isn't seen. Industry professionals like to use Music Xray because these are people who listen to music all day professionally and Music Xray makes it a lot easier to do than sorting through a pile of CDs or managing an email in box full of MP3 files. We also enable them to charge a small submission fee that keeps most artists from submitting more than their best work but is usually not so much as to be in-affordable.
It's pretty straight forward. An artist first and foremost must have great music. If they don't, nothing else matters much. If an artist isn't sure they have great music because they can't get any professional, honest, no non-sense feedback, they can start getting some for free or cheap here: http://www.musicxray.com/artist/categories/18
But once the artist is comfortable they've got the goods musically, they should then submit their music to real opportunities. Without spending too much time or money something will happen. They'll either get a succession of small deals, accomplishments and accolades that soon they'll be making a living or they'll land a big career-maker deal. There are lots of ways to get deals but artists can browse a growing list of them here: http://www.musicxray.com/artist/categories and they can sign up for free to be alerted via email when new deals become available: http://www.musicxray.com/subscribe-interactions
My 2 cents
I really thought about using musicxray. My research brought me here. I do believe like anything else you will have some success and some failure. I strongly believe in making your way. Nobody is going to give it to you no matter if you use musicxray or not. Will I use musicxray? Hell yea I will. If it does not work then I am one step closer to my goal. You have to fail before you succeed. People are scared to use a service like this because maybe they have been screwed in the past. The are scared to fail or lose. If you do not act on anything then you already lost. A loser is only who does not try. So I say this. Unless you know personally someone who tried them and did not receive the service they paid for. I think its worth a shot.
I think that last post was missing the point.
"Will I use musicxray? Hell yea I will" (he said)
The point is is that they will use you. If your too dumb to understand that perhaps your
deserve getting ripped off. If you can honesty read the terms of service and still want to
"use it" then be my guest, I wouldn't do it if my life depended on it.
Mike, you should be ashamed of yourself.
@littletimmy I ended up not using them and you are right if you read(most people do not) You may think twice however I still believe you hate to fail to success.