Musicians need to get past the thought that the music, as ART, is the product. That time has passed, simply because the scarcity value has disappeared. It is the intangibles of the performance that are of value now, and that is what you need to embrace.
So my advice is to make a living off ancillary stuff. Do your concerts with t-shirts, offer insights about your music that are not available on the CD, create a community of fans/followers who will pay for the experience and the trinkets denoting that that follow and support you. Make your website a community place to engage your fans, not as a place to sell music, per se.

They are the gatekeepers. And I mean that in a good way. I’m sure Jill’s music is good, but how does a listener differentiate Jill from the thousands of female singer/songwriters in America, who are also good? And that’s only in her genre; when you add up all genres, you’re looking at millions of artists, all trying to make it big.

My theory is that the labels create value by limiting the number of options consumers have. Now I know, I know, most people think options are good. However, I disagree, and marketing logic tends to agree with me. 10, 20, even 100 options are good. But millions of options are bad. People want a simple menu to choose from. The classic example is that of 2 ice cream shops next door to each other. One has thousands of flavors, the other has 3. The latter one almost always succeeds.

So what happens? There are many websites for up and coming bands, and these, in addition to myspace, flood our brains with too many options. We choose a few, and ignore the rest.

Sure, labels pay for your CD to be produced, but that’s not their core value, and as everyone here as pointed out, it’s very easy to record your own high quality album. The problem isn’t the recording, the problem is getting it into the hands of 100,000 screaming fans. And sadly, in most cases, indie websites and myspace alone won’t do that. You need to have your name in bold at Best Buy. You need to be on the front page of iTunes. You need a marketing machine to make you stand out from the millions of other artists. You need to get past the gatekeeper.

I’m also a musician (well, part time at least), so I empathize with this challenge. However, I don’t think it will ever go away until there exists a more efficient way of making one artist stand out from the rest. I’m sure many can think of a few examples of artists that did make it big through myspace, but the odds of doing so are much smaller than getting a record deal, even a crappy one.

So what can you do? I hate to say it, but make a better album, and make it stand out from every other musician out there. Then sell yourself to the labels.

That is.. if you want to actually become a famous musician. I prefer to avoid the selling of the soul and keep my day job and jam out on weekends.

-A

I totally hear you and appreciate your candid feelings related to music services. To clarify, we’re not interested in tying up musicians to any one portal. We’re just two 20 year olds that are tired of the current, gimmicky offerings that ultimately fail to offer much more than a simple web url (and this doesn’t mean much, especially when nobody knows who you are!).

In your situation, all a record label offers is “album” financing. They won’t be effective in promotion. And given that you used quotes around the word, perhaps you are questioning whether your next project should even be a traditional 12-song package. While you may not have a Radiohead opportunity, you are an established artist with an established fan base. As such, I would encourage you to try to find a way to produce your next project without going to the majors, although I don’t think the shareholder idea is the proper model.

Although digital reigns supreme, do not underestimate the value of tangible items to consumers. Bundle digital and physical versions together, and make sure to offer high bit-rate versions. And I think you could use your USB key idea to bundle your concert experience. Include it in the pricing of concert tickets. I want to stress, however, that the USB sticks are a good idea for the perception that they provide consumers, not because it makes sense as a distribution method. The majors are trying to sell digital music in physical form on CD’s and USB sticks. It’s a miserable idea, and when they debut in the US (Ringles) and UK (flash USB) in the coming months I’m sure it will quickly become apparent. However, your USB key provides a sense of ownership to the concert-goer, and offers an opportunity to create a rich media experience very different from downloading a .zip file of mp3′s accessed through your web browser.

Video! While it may not be economical to make every live show available, video is an essential component to promoting musicians today. Package it with your USB key. Bundle some video – concert, documentary, music video, etc – with your album. Professional digital content production and distribution is extremely affordable.

Get your music out there. Make it available on all the web 2.0 music services but don’t invest all your time or energy in one particular site. Despite one reader’s claims to his “game-changing” service, these companies haven’t proven anything yet. So do your due diligence and make your content available at all of the relevant portals, but don’t let them convince you that any one site is the answer.

But in the end, it all comes down to touring. It’s paying the rent and the gambling debts. So, use the endless possibilities that the digital world offers to tailor an online experience that complements your live shows. Leverage it for greater touring revenue.

While I wouldn’t want to be a Wall Street investor in the music industry right now, it’s a crazy space ripe with opportunity. Be creative and innovative, and take responsibility for your online presence.

http://www.ipromote.com enables users to generate a banner display ad with streaming audio/visual capability in just minutes and geographically target the ad to wherever you want. Many musicians in particular have already used iPromote with excellent results.

Imagine advertising your music across the Internet and attracting users to you website where they can buy the music.

We think that “User-Generated Advertising” will be a huge part of online promotion in the future.

iPromote.com — Get the Word Out!

Whichever way you decide to go, you might want to check out RockMe. It would be a great way to promote your new blog on Yahoo, or a new album. It’s been going real well so far and is really a new way to reach out to and interact with your existing fans, and find new ones.

Just let us know if you’re interested and we’ll plug you into the schedule…

The house concert thing is great. In fact I am in Milwaukee (not a usual stop on my tour) for one. This should be more of a treand. It’s great for the artist (usually pays fairly well) and is great for the fans. It is like playing in someone’s living room. Well it is.

jill