Record Store Day 2010

Even as many in the music world continue to trumpet the death of the physical release format there is growing evidence that these claims have been grossly exaggerated.

There is no denying that digital has taken hold of the music-listening market. Digital sales continue to climb, and new records are set every few months by artists such as Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas, and others.

However, there is also no denying that the revenue being driven by digital sales pales in comparison to the figures the recording industry once saw during the ages of vinyl and the CD. The new artists might not notice the deficit, but the old-timers and record label executives have certainly felt the pinch in a big way.

The album post-iTunes

At a recent conference in the UK called ‘Never Mind the Box Set: The Album Post iTunes,’ participants bemoaned the negative by-products of the new digital world.

“We have cheapened music so badly,” admitted Paul Conroy, formerly of Virgin Records U.K. and one of the panelists. He pointed to the inflated prices of the past decade as one cause of the CD’s decline. “It was greed and short-termism because we wanted gratification today and we screwed up.”

The participants acknowledged what the DIY music world has understood for years now – that relying on digital downloads as a primary revenue source is very risky due to the ease of digital copying. “If one CD ends up on 10 different iPods, how do we make money?” asked Steve Bunyan of Union Square Music. (Please join me in welcoming Steve to the 21st century…)

Physical releases in the 21st Century

In response to the uncertainty surrounding the recording industry as a whole, there was some interesting data presented that sheds a positive light on the sale of physical formats such as vinyl and collectible box sets.

The most interesting information came from a report by the IFPI, which is based in London and represents the recording industry world-wide.

The report was described as the ‘first ever industry-wide segmentation of the British music-buying public.’ It concluded that revenue from music sales was not behaving the way the industry pundits and analysts were predicting it should. In 2009 73% of music sales in the UK were from physical formats such as CDs and vinyl, with only 19% digital, and the remaining 8% consisting of performance rights.

The report itself doesn’t appear to be online, but you can read Billboard’s coverage here.

Not all consumers are the same

73% is a big deal. It means that while many have shifted their music consumption habits to digital downloading (whether legal or illegal) there is still a healthy subsection of consumers looking to spend their money collecting physical formats, particularly vinyl.

This data might be surprising to many new music industry pundits, but it’s encouraging news for musicians and record labels.

The IFPI report actually breaks the total physical spend down into different categories, including Physical Fanatics, Traditional Physicals, and Digital Dabblers. Each category, as the names suggest, exhibits a different blend of music-purchasing habits. I think these are great distinctions, because they avoid the kind of blanket generalizations that cause artists and record labels to throw all their eggs in one basket – the way so many have done with digital.

Musicians and labels would be wise to pay attention to these demographics because they could provide useful insights into how their particular audience wants to consume their music.

For example, if you are only selling (or giving away) digital downloads, you may be missing out on a significant number of fans that would be interested in purchasing physical products such as vinyl records. Those vinyl record sales mean revenue. It doesn’t take an MBA to understand that if your fans are willing to give you money for something, you should be offering it.

Vinyl is alive and well

It may sound like common sense to offer multiple formats for your fans to choose from. Unfortunately, the DIY movement has been so zealous in declaring digital the Savior of the Unsigned that many have forgotten that there are still many, many people out there who want something physical to purchase.

It’s all part of a natural progression. Something new arrives on the scene and the industry watches as it begins to take hold of the market. They see that nice upward trajectory and the projections begin to grow more and more fantastic with each passing month. Digital is going to take over the world! The CD is dead! Physical releases are dead! The ALBUM is dead!

Is the CD dead? If it’s not it certainly seems to be on its last breath. But physical releases in general? The album itself?

I wrote an article a few months back about a resurgence of vinyl records that continues to grow even as CD sales – and recorded music sales in general – continue to decline. That data, along with the information collected by the IFPI report, suggest strongly that we all jumped the gun a bit in our doomsday projections.

More people are buying vinyl records. The majority of these vinyl releases seem to be special editions with unique packaging, or box sets that give a new depth and design edge to an existing catalogue. These types of releases use the sonic advantage and nostalgia of the vinyl format to give fans something of value. And, so far at least, fans have proven that they’re willing to pay for that value.

Artists – are you taking advantage of this?

Photo credit: Tom Mcshane.

The album has reigned as the prince of popular music formats for nearly a century. Yet, it’s become unclear how long this reign will last. Digital technology has transformed the way many listeners experience music and fueled a resurgence of the short-form single.

For the past several years bloggers, critics, industry pros and consumers have contributed to countless articles and comments discussing the merits of this transformation. Most of these discussions have revolved around business models and economics. If the album becomes obsolete, what will it do to industry profits? How will artists continue to make money? Conspicuously missing is any thought given to how all of this will effect music as an art-form.

I recently stumbled across an interview between Exclaim’s Vish Khanna and songwriter Sufjan Stevens that approaches the issue from a very different perspective.

For many years Sufjan Stevens was known for his prolific songwriting and ambitious projects. Between 2000 and 2006 Stevens released seven expansive albums. This month he will release two new projects, Run Rabbit Run which dropped on the 6th and multimedia set the BQEwhich will be released on the 20th. However, the last conventional album he released was back in 2005 with Come on Feel the Illinoise.

Many of his numerous fans have been wondering what’s up, and speculation came to a head a couple of weeks ago when Stevens made some comments that some took as an  announcement of retirement.

When Vish Khanna asks Stevens to clarify he quickly dispels any rumors that he is calling it quits, but he goes on to give some insight into why he has waited so long to put out a true follow-up to Illinoise.

I definitely feel like ‘What is the point? What’s the point of making music anymore?’ I feel that the album no longer has a stronghold or has any real bearing anymore. The physical format itself is obsolete; the CD is obsolete and the LP is kinda nostalgic. So, I think the album is suffering and that’s how I’ve always created—I work with these conceptual albums in the long-form. And I’m wondering, what’s the value of my work once these forms are obsolete and everyone’s just downloading music?

What does an artist do when his medium suddenly becomes irrelevant? The pundits are usually quick to urge the artist to simply switch to a new medium, because their concerns are typically focused on the business aspect. Other artists and die-hard fans will generally encourage the artist to stick to his convictions and forget about what the rest of the world is doing.

The pundits are obviously missing an important point, which is that music is not simply another product to be bought and sold. It’s an art, and the album is an art-form. The artists – and especially the fans – often forget that music is also a business and that the artist has to make money if he’s to continue making art.

So what’s a guy like Sufjan Stevens to do?

First of all, the album isn’t dead, nor is it likely to be anytime soon. Blogger hyperbole and personal existential crises aside, nobody ever said Stevens can’t continue putting out full-length conceptual epics for the remainder of his career.

It can be easy to look at the current state of the industry as a whole with all of its transitions and tribulations and lose sight of the fact that each artist and each fan’s experience is different. Just because the market is moving away from a particular format doesn’t mean everybody needs to abandon it immediately or risk becoming obsolete.

Sufjan Stevens’ fans love his work largely because of the way he has used the album format to communicate his artistic vision. If he continues to release in the album format his fans are likely to continue buying and listening to his music that way.

The same goes for any artist. Don’t get so wrapped up in the latest fashions and buzz-words that you lose sight of your own unique offering. If an established career artist like Sufjan Stevens isn’t immune to this I would imagine that many more new artists stumble get caught up in it all the time. You want to put out nothing but epic concept albums? If you can find the audience then I say go for it. You want to write 90 second musical haiku and release it in bundles of 20? If that’s what you’re passionate about and you can find a way to make it work financially, who has any right to stand in your way?

I have come to advocate a model of continual creative output where an artist releases a song or two at a time in shorter intervals for the purpose of increased fan engagement. I feel strongly about this type of release strategy because I believe it gives emerging artists the best opportunity to cultivate a strong base of core fans and keep them connected. I’m not alone in that opinion – the concept has begun to really catch on recently. But don’t confuse any one model’s acceptance with the idea that you have to give up your own vision. Maybe Sufjan Stevens would find success in smaller, more frequent releases. Or maybe he’ll come up with something completely new. But if you can’t really get behind it as an artistic form then it likely won’t work well for you anyway.

Write great music and present it in the way that best expresses what you’re trying to say. If you start there and you are serious about building your career the business models and economics will fall into place over time. Read everything you can about what is working for others and incorporate what you feel will make you successful. But don’t lose sight of your own vision and your own style in the process or you’ll risk stalling your career, in some cases before it really begins.

Modest Mouse recently released an album comprised of 7 previously released singles

The way listeners enjoy music has changed drastically in the past ten years. Technology has completely reshaped the marketplace through file sharing, single track downloads, online music streaming, etc. Yet, the way that music is compiled, released and marketed has remained largely the same.

Most artists still spend months and years producing full albums, pouring the majority of whatever marketing budget they have into a single event – the album’s release date. Despite this, most listeners will only download two or three songs. After that, they have another two years to wait for new material.

In an increasingly competitive market where fan engagement is at a premium, artists can’t afford to continue following this model. Modern music marketing is about the artist-fan relationship. Along with live performances, new music releases should be considered the backbone of this relationship, not simply a product to drive revenue or attendance.

In a recent report on the music industry by the Forrester Research Group, author Mark Mulligan argues that to spend the time and resources releasing full-length albums only serves to “put speed bumps in the continual artist-fan relationship.” Instead, he encourages artists to “think outside of the confines of the album and maintain steady, continual streams of creative output.” The report has a lot more to say about releasing music, some that I agree with and some I don’t. I cover the full report here. But I think that Mulligan is spot on in what he says here. It’s what fans want, and it can pay big dividends for the artist.

Releasing smaller amounts of music more frequently will keep fans engaged with an artist much more effectively than larger batches every year or two. Not only will that artist’s music stay in listeners’ playlists longer, it also gives those listeners a reason to check in more often to see what’s new. That’s huge from a marketing perspective – it’s a lot more effective to promote your products and services to a customer that seeks you out than one that you go out and find yourself.

This “continual stream of creative output” doesn’t have to be limited to new music, although I do believe that music should remain the primary source of content. Music videos and merchandise are obvious options, but other content could include behind the scenes footage, individual files track files for remixing, interviews, mobile apps, even games. Allow fans to submit their own content and handpick the best for official release. Anything that you can think of to give fans new ways of interacting with your music is fair game.

Adopting this type of release strategy doesn’t mean you have to toss out the album format entirely. For all the ‘Album is Dead!’ headlines there is still quite a bit of life left in the full-length as a creative construct.

Still, there are many non-traditional ways to put together an album. Once you’ve released seven or eight individual tracks, there’s no reason why you can’t compile them along with a few unreleased songs and put it out as an album. Design special-edition packaging and market it as a collector’s edition. We’ve already been seeing a move in this direction from bands like Modest Mouse who recently released seven vinyl singles before gathering them into a larger full length album. Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins just anounced plans to take that much further.

The main takeaway here should be never to allow what has ‘always been done’ to prevent you as an artist from doing something better. The changing market has opened up incredible opportunities to increase listener engagement. Take a hard look at your current release strategy – does it serve that goal? If it doesn’t it’s likely time to rethink your approach.

Originally published at Audiolife.com.

The process of releasing new material has never been airtight. These days, however, digital technology has poked so many holes in the recording industry that it’s beginning to look more like a siv. From Radiohead to Jay-Z to Muse, more and more anticipated releases are showing up online days, even weeks before their official drop.

Leaks are the new market reality.

Whether you take that news with dread or excitement depends a lot on who you are. The major labels aren’t happy about this of course. Look how they’ve responded when tracks are shared AFTER their release! Platinum and Gold selling artists who still pull in quite a bit of revenue from record sales may have something to lose as well. The rushed release of Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3 is evidence of that. At least, evidence of that mentality.

What about everybody else? How should smaller, independent artists respond to the new, leaky music business?

1. Embrace the Leak, Enjoy the Buzz

A leak can be feared, or it can be seen as an opportunity. Sure, unauthorized copies might eat into legitimate sales, but they can also be a great source of buzz. I’ll be honest with you – I love hip hop, but don’t pay much attention to mainstream rap. I was only vaguely aware that Jay-Z was releasing a new album before news it was leaked. Now I can’t escape it!

It’s much harder fro smaller bands to create a buzz around upcoming releases. And if generally fall into the less-than-50,000 copies sold category I imagine you’re interested in taking whatever buzz you can get.

For a band this size recorded music is usually not so effective as a source of revenue, but potentially very effective as promotional tool. So why not embrace the leak? It gets your music out there and and supplies your fans – and potential fans – with a reason to talk about it.

2. Update Your Release Strategy

Instead of simply reacting to a leak when it appears, proactively adjust your release strategy now. If Jay-Z can be forced to alter an important launch schedule, what makes you think you are in control of your next release?

Don’t pour years of time and energy into the creation and marketing of an album only to bet the bank on one single Tuesday. Make your new releases smaller and more frequent. Fewer tracks, more often. This affords you with much more freedom to distribute your tracks however you wish, and to respond more quickly to listener reactions. If one track suddenly spreads across the torrent sites like wildfire, for example, it might be a good time to release that other song you’ve been sitting on that pairs so well with it. If something falls flat you have the chance to re-evaluate your approach – in terms of both marketing and content – without risking a huge investment.

When approaching your releases this way a leak only means a lot less work for you. I’ve written more about this here.

3. Ignore the Possibility Completely

I’m not trying to be cheeky – many of you may never have to worry about anyone leaking your music. If you haven’t been able to generate a high enough level of anticipation, why would anyone go through the trouble of getting their hands on it early?

In a way, an unauthorized leak is quickly becoming something of a right of passage for new artists. Many smaller acts would consider it an honor to discover their unreleased tracks on BitTorrent!

So, if you never plan on building a network of excited, hungry fans who can’t wait another minute to here even the smallest scrap of tape from your latest recording, you can disregard this post entirely.

Ok, maybe that last one was a little cheeky.

What do you think about leaks – friend or foe? Have any of you ever had a track leak before its scheduled release? What did you do about it? Leave your comments below.

Here’s a recap of what went on in the music industry this week, or more accurately this time the last two weeks. Make sure to check out anything you might have missed and leave your comments. Notably missing is anything regarding the Joel Tenenbaum verdict last Friday – but don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of opinions about that. I’ll try to get something up on Monday or Tuesday. In the mean time, feel free to submit a story if you’ve got something that you think the Creative Deconstruction community might be interested in.

Most Popular:

5 Reasons Why the Performance Rights Act is a Bad Idea – Despite a lull in new developments recently, this bill continues to be a controversial topic. You can get a pretty good taste of that controversy in the comments section…

How to Create a Release Strategy for the New Music Marketplace - Practical tips for responding to the way fans are listening to music.

This Week:

Artist Uses Innovative Distribution Model in Ambitious Album Per Month Project – Ok, the title is way too long, but it’s an interesting case study nonetheless.

New Album Releases for July 21 – A list of the week’s best new releases.

Sufjan Stevens to Release BQE Multimedia Set October ’09 – Stevens’ latest project involves a full orchestra, hula-hoops and the Brooklyn-QueensExpressway. Get a first look here.

How a Subscription Model Can Enhance Your Release Strategy – A follow-up to the original release strategies article.

New Album Releases for July 28 – Another list of the week’s best new releases.

This Business of Music - What happens when art and business collide.

Music Video Picks:

No new videos this week – check out the archives.

This Week in Music History:

What bigger piece of history could there be? 1986 - Peter Cetera started a two-week run at No.1 on the US charts with the theme from the film Karate Kid II, ‘The Glory Of Love.’ It made No. 3 in the UK. (This Day in Music.com)