It seems redundant by now to say it, but the new music market that artists face today is a lot different than at any time in the past. The way people enjoy music is different, and the way music is purchased is different. I wrote recently about ways artists can respond to these new market realities by applying a bit of creativity to the way they release their music. You can read the entire article here, but the main point is that  artists should not blindly follow the traditional approach of new releases staggered across multi-year gaps. Fan engagement is at a premium, and by releasing less new material more frequently an artist can hold the attention of fans more effectively, longer.

One way to enhance this approach is through a subscription model. When you release a new track each month, or a new EP every six, you want to make it as easy as possible for fans to know about it when new material drops, and to get their hands on it once it does. Since most artists can’t afford to create a fresh marketing blitz every four weeks, why not push a subscriptions? Instead of promoting the new releases themselves (which you will obviously still have to do to a large extent) you promote access to all future releases. Fans pay a flat fee that allows them to receive each new track in their mailbox (whether digitally or physically – or both) as soon as it’s released, for whatever length of time you choose. Convenience for the fan, and a captive audience for you.

There are different ways to go about implementing a subscription service. Artist John Wood, who I wrote about a few days ago, offers his fans a tiered model. Each tier costs a bit more than the one before it and includes additional value – from private live performances to a song written for the fan’s birthday or “unlimited hugs.” Tiered offerings have been getting a lot of attention lately with the success of similar models from Jill Sobule, Amanda Palmer, and Trent Reznor, among many others. The ones that work the best capitalize on fans’ desire to connect with the artist. Personalization and especially actual interaction are big selling points and fans have proven their willingness to pay for it.

A lot of the artists listed above also offered fans the option to subscribe by donating an amount of their choosing. Pay-what-you-want has already proven its worth, so I won’t get into that here. I will say that I understand why many artists are hesitant about this concept. It’s a risk, for sure. But I would challenge you to take the risk and give it a try – I think you’ll be surprised at how generous many fans are willing to be to support the artists they love. Also remember that when a subscriber chooses only to donate the minimum it does not necessarily equal a lost sale. That person likely would not have subscribed in the first place if they had to pay more for it, and now you have one more set of ears exposed to your music.

If you haven’t created a release strategy for yourself or for your band you are making a mistake. You don’t have to use the ideas that I present here – they’re only meant as suggestions. But if you are simply doing the same thing that artists have been doing for decades you’re not going to be able to compete in the new music marketplace. Take a look at your existing fan base and map out your goals. What do you need to do to reach the next level, and how can you adapt the way you release your music to help you get there?

If you have any questions about starting your own subscription service I’d encourage you to take a look at some of the artists I mentioned about and see what has worked for them. You can also feel free use the comments section, or email me and I’d be happy to help you work it out. What do you think? Are any of you readers already doing something like this?

Here’s a recap of what went on in the music industry this week (technically two weeks this time.) Make sure to check out anything you might have missed and leave your comments. Know something we don’t? Submit a story.

Most Popular:

How to create a release strategy for the new music marketplace – Capitalize on the new ways fans are consuming music.

Trent Reznor quits Twitter – how real is too real in social media? – The “most innovative man in the music industry” finds that broadcasting his life may do more harm than good.

This Week:

New album releases July 7th, 2009 – Check out the albums that dropped last week and download straight from iTunes/Amazon.

Radiohead Manager, MAMA and Nettwerk Team Up to Create New Alternative to Record Labels – Finally, some big names get behind a model that respects artists and consumers.

The hidden risks of real-time buzz – Real-time media (such as Twitter) can be a great tool for promoting your music, but it can come with a price.

Number-one way to make sure your band fails – A good reminder on the importance of gigging.

Music Video Picks:

Dirty Projectors: Stillness is the Move

And don’t forget to check out the archives.

This Week in Music History:

1987 Bruce Springsteen played his first ever show behind the Iron Curtain when he appeared in East Berlin in front of a crowd of 180,000. The show was broadcast on East German TV. (This Day in Music)

If you were on Twitter at all yesterday you probably heard the big news. NIN frontman Trent Reznor - often hailed as the most tech-savvy man in the music biz – has given up on Web 2.0. How could one of the most prolific rock star Twitter users (641,977 followers at time of writing) pull such an abrupt about-face?

Reznor explains himself in an open letter posted on the NIN forums that is characteristically articulate and colorful. In it, he cites ‘idiots’ as his primary motivation for giving up on social media, saying,“I decided to lower the curtain a bit and let you see more of my personality. I watched some of you get more engaged because you started to realize there’s a person (flaws and all) back there, and I watched some of you recoil in horror because I’m not what you projected on me. All expected. I’m not as concerned about “breaking” your idea of NIN at this point. It is what it is and I am what I am.”

How real is too real?

This brings up a something I’ve actually been thinking a lot about lately. At what point does openness in social media go from being helpful to harmful in the artist/fan relationship?

Let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment. Celebrities – whether movie stars, rock stars or pro athletes – appeal to us largely because they’re unapproachable. We see the roles they play or listen to the songs they sing and we begin to build up a persona in our minds that we project on the celebrity. They become something larger than life, and when our access to them is limited there is nothing to contradict what we’ve imagined to be true. That’s exactly what happened with these NIN fans. They latched on to something in Reznor’s message and that became who he was to them.

“My world is upside-down.”

Then he joined Twitter and fell in love. Reznor hasn’t exactly been shy about his love life lately, and his updates have frequently been one-hundred and forty characters of romance, butterflies and batting eyelashes. I’ve put a few of them up for you here to check out yourselves. Not exactly the angry, self-loathing industrial music poster boy so many had come to idolize. These updates disrupted the image he had cultivated in the 90′s and which his legions of fans had since elaborated on. Some have seemed to grow with him, endeared by this softer side of Trent. Others hate him for ‘selling out’ and turning his back on everything he had preached for over a decade. As one fan put itin response to one of Reznor’s mushier updates, “My world is upside-down.”

Reznor responds to all of this in his letter, “I was not expecting to broadcast details of my love life there, but it happened because I’m in love and it’s all I think about and that’s that. If this has bummed you out or destroyed what you’ve projected on me, fair enough – it’s probably time for you to leave. You are right, I’m not the same person I was in 1994 (and I’m happy about that). Are you?”

Leave some mystery

Trent Reznor has every right to grow up. He should grow up! No one can keep writing the same words for ten years without starting to force it. Yet, it isn’t just that he is a happier, better adjusted individual than he was when he began his career. He simply communicated to much. The man behind the music revealed himself to be very little like the music he made and that just isn’t what many fans want. They want the entire experience of artist and art to be consistent.

If you plan on taking away all of the mystery and inference of your persona as an artist you can expect to turn a few people off. Just to be clear: I’m not in anyway advocating that musicians come up with some pre-planned alter-ego designed to best compliment the type of image they’re going for. I’m just trying to be realistic about what it means to be an artist. Build relationships and be authentic – but remember to leave a little mystery, too. Authenticity is not about divulging every thought that runs through your head, it’s about being honest in what you say and do. Even being a little vulnerable. I don’t think that Reznor will be the last high profile artist to recognize the double-edged nature that social media can be in the artist/fan relationship.

The lesson here? Bare your soul in your music, not on Twitter.