As seen, heard, and read on WBUR

That idea doesn’t sit well with everyone, including Boston musician and rock critic Dave Wildman. “I don’t know, it freaks me out,” he says with a laugh. Wildman likens Ebel to a talented street performer on the information super highway.
WBUR.org

It’s success if that’s what he wanted, definitely. If not…then no, he’s still got more work to do.

My guess? Dude still has a lot more work to do.
Justin Boland, comment on Hypebot.com

These two comments, though lamentably myopic, are understandable. Believe me, I can level with these opinions by making only one assumption: Their definition of “success” is stuck in the coke-filled limousine of Motley Crue, 1985. Back then, a “successful” musical act played to hundreds of thousands of screaming fans in any venue the bus rolled up to. Anything less wasn’t worthy of a mention by a VJ on MTV, let alone the envy of aspiring musicians around the globe.

Fast-forward to damn-near-2010 and see where that definition of “success” has left the music industry. The big-production high-overhead “success” acts are barely staying afloat through flagging CD and online sales while the record labels try to own more and more of the artist’s work. So far only one forward-thinking group of industry insiders has put their finger on the pulse of the problem:

For the past 50 years the Artist business has been fractured with multiple competing interests. A) Record Companies whose main interest was the exploitation of the artists recorded music (masters). B) Publishers whose interests are similar but share in mostly the same income pot as the Record Labels. C) Live concert promoters, focused on selling concert tickets and sponsorships. D) Merchandisers mostly focused on selling various clothing and souvenirs at concerts and traditional retail.

Mixed in with all this you have Business Managers, Lawyers, Agents and Artist Managers whose roles are to not only coordinate the Artists schedules and business strategies but also have all of the above parties cooperate with each other.
Terry McBride, founder of Nettwerk and co-founder of Polyphonic

So given the current state of the economy, the music business, and technology, this leaves us with the million-Euro question: What is Success in the Music Business? I believe it is the same success that has driven Apple since day one… profit. If a music act can continue to bring in more money than it spends, it’s a success.

Take it a step further and we arrive at the crux of my definition of success as an artist: If you can remain profitable and grow as a business, you are not a success– you are a series of successes. Every step up is another success, a bigger success, and another bit of weight to add to the momentum like Katamari Damacy building the moon.

1. I released self-produced albums. Success.
2. I backed up a star at the Grand Ole Opry. Success.
3. I no longer need a “day job”. Success.
4. I have thousands of fans in more than a dozen countries. Success.
5. I no longer need to play shitty 4-hour Journey-and-Bon-Jovi-laden bar gigs to pay my rent. Success like you wouldn’t believe it.

Is Mr. Boland correct? Absolutely. I am only beginning this journey and God only knows where it will lead me. Am I where I want to be? Yes… but not where I’ll want to be tomorrow. That means I can’t rest on some deflated view of “success”, I have to move forward. Am I a failure because I don’t own a private jet powered by strippers and hundred dollar bills? Absolutely not.

We are only failures if we subject ourselves to the narrow limitations of others. I choose to be a success.

Photo by James Cridland

The real sticking point of Bylin’s article is that the labels have painted themselves and the artists they “represent” into a dangerous corner: The faster you clock that want-turnover rate, the harder it becomes to make a loyal repeat customer out of a music buyer. If a fan feels compelled to fill 40 gigs of space with entirely new music every 3 months, they will have no choice but to steal. Who can afford that much music at a dollar a track?

The Solution: Music is NOT the Product

In the face of this hyper-shortened attention span, a simple shift needs to be made in the mind of the consumer: The albums and tracks are not the product you’re buying. You’re not a fan of a song or a little round disc, you’re a fan of an artist or band.

It feels a bit ludicrous that something so obvious should be so revolutionary, but again- it’s all about conditioning. We were fans of artists once, maybe from the sixties to the mid-eighties. Then it became all about the chart-toppers. The only way entertainers can fight the song-of-the-minute trend is to turn music buyers (and stealers) into subscribers. Yes, here’s the obvious plug for Matthew Ebel dot net, enjoy.

Seriously, the solution is a subscription.

Beyond Track Sales

Online download stores have tried subscription models and largely failed because they are not selling a product that’s distinctly different from anything we can find on Limewire. They’re only selling tracks. Scratch that, they’re only renting tracks. With a culture already keenly attuned to stealing music, how can you convince them to buy tracks when they find a song they like, let alone every single month?

The solution is to up the ante and offer more than tracks. It’s time for artists to offer themselves as the product. In my own example, Matthew Ebel dot net, fans subscribe because they want more than tracks. They want custom-written songs. They want live recordings- even the not-so-good shows that prove I’m human. They want to support what I do and who I am, not just fill their ears with noise.

The mindset is completely different.

Music itself is an art of expression, but few artists are only able to express themselves via one medium. I know many, many musicians who are accomplished painters, actors, or authors. They are musicians by trade, but their blog posts and web comics should be winning awards. Why aren’t more artists capitalizing on their talents? Don’t they realize that their fans want to support them?

I used to fear asking for money until something was made clear: That fear is part of the short attention span tracks-for-sale mindset. The real music fans don’t want to be customers, they want to be patrons of the arts. They play Rock Band and Guitar Hero because they wish they could do what professional artists do. It’s not about the songs, it’s about the Rock God icon that they become with a little plastic guitar.

Focus

All an artist or label has to do is shift the focus from the music to the musician. Once that focus is clear, the possibilities for a truly sustainable music business open up. The label’s presence will have to fade to the back, just like an artist’s agent or manager. The artist must become both brand and product.

When a fan’s focus changes from tracks to artists, they will be more willing to support that artist through regular contributions. The subscription model only works if they become part of that artist’s world. The fans want to come in.

Let them.