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Seth Godin asks the perennial question, "how many record execs does it take to screw in a light bulb?" and cites an insightful answer from Dan Kennedy's new book.

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Originally posted in the SAB forum...
Posted: Monday March 3, 2008

Seth Godin has a PDF transcript of a talk he gave to a bunch of music industry execs about what's wrong and what's right about the music business. Most of the artists here have demonstrated that they're open to alternatives to the existing music business models just by being here. The big labels aren't going to pick up on what Seth's telling them for months, if not years - if they're still even around then. Smart labels and smart artists are either already figuring it out, or would benefit from reading what Seth has to say.

What things that Seth talks about are things Sellaband artists can do? Are any SAB artists already doing them? Are any willing to share what works for them, and what doesn't work for them, and why?

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After spending more time here, I think I've found another thing I'd change if Sellaband were mine. The way messages are exchanged between believers and artists (or believers and believers or artists and artists, for that matter). Having to bounce back and forth between two different pages is not only time consuming, but probably skews the whole views count. I'm certainly biased, but a community hosting site like Delphi Forums would better facilitate the creating and fostering of a community for an artist. (I'm biased because I work for Delphi Forums...) Even the free forums would make things easier.

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Originally posted in the SAB forum...

One of the biggest challenges new artists face is getting heard. If Sellaband were mine, I'd focus on making it as easy as possible for artists to help their believers share their music as widely as possible. A wider variety of jukebox/players that could be embedded on websites and on message boards would be a first step. Producing some kind of monthly Best Of Sellaband CDs (sorted by music category and not limited to 50K bands) that would be sent out to radio stations for possible inclusion in any new music programming they did would be a second step. A followup to that would be a standing offer to arrange telephone (or VOIP) interviews with any artist on the monthly Best Of CD with any radio station that wanted one.

I'd also make it easier for artists to communicate with their believers. I'd create a mechanism that would allow artists to offer an opt-in email newsletter to their believers through the Sellaband site, with the ability to attach an MP3 to it, if the artist wanted to do so. The MP3 could be a song, or just the artist talking about what they've been doing or what they've been working on. Music is an aural experience. A Sellaband Artist podcast feature that believers could subscribe to would be another way for artists to develop their relationships with their believers.

The major labels, like major book publishers, can make or break an artist with the marketing budget they set. Any artist who allows their label to control the course of their success like that is most likely doomed to mediocrity at best and oblivion at worst. Artists have to actively market themselves, get their music out where people can hear it, and make themselves known in the places where knowing them will make a difference.

Of course, most artists can't do it all themselves. That's where fans (believers) come into the picture. They'll be happy to share their favorite artists' music with their friends, if they're given the chance to do so. Make it easy for your believers to promote you. Obscurity is the true enemy of a new artist...