It’s not really news anymore that Paul McCartney put out his newest CD, Memory Almost Full, on Starbucks’ Hear Music record label. The thing that struck me was his quote in the press release. He said:
It’s a new world now and people are thinking of new ways to reach the people.
Too true. In fact, it’s so true that Prince just found a new way of reaching people, causing quite a fuss in the process. On Sunday, his newest CD, Planet Earth, was released in the UK as a giveaway in one of the national tabloids. Copies of Planet Earth are “flooding” the Internet according to the Wall Street Journal. And just to be sure that this whole “free” concept continues in Prince’s go-to-market strategy, he plans to give copies of the CD away at concerts in London. But you can buy it in record stores – you know, if you really want to – starting July 24. Retailers are, as you might imagine, pretty upset about the whole thing.
One more thing: On May 28, 2007 the New York Times published an article by Jeff Leeds, Plunge in CD Sales Shakes Up Big Labels (registration required). In this article, Aram Sinnreich, “a media industry consultant at Radar Research in Los Angeles” was quoted as saying:
Everyone in the industry thinks of this Christmas as the last big holiday season for CD sales, and then everything goes kaput.
Ok, so let’s say that Paul McCartney is right and it is a new world. And let’s say that Aram Sinnreich is right and the whole industry is going to explode or whatever after the next Christmas season. How does Prince play into all of this and what do his actions mean for a generation of emerging artists?
I think that Prince and Paul McCartney share something important here, and that they are important models for future artists. We already saw how powerful the Web 2.0 world can be, and that’s just for the tiny portion of the world actually using the tools. If you throw MySpace into the mix, then the number of users increases (please don’t debate me on whether or not MySpace is or isn’t Web 2.0 – it is, but it isn’t), but that particular tool seems to be on the way out, if my many music industry friends set any sort of standard.
So Prince and Sir Paul are models because they have identified the truth of the matter, which is that the old channels are not working, and they have each crafted a strategy that is designed to help them connect to new listeners while maintaining their current audience. Prince’s answer is to give stuff away, and Paul’s is to try to continue to work through established (or establish-ing) channels. And they are doing this before Mr. Sinnreich’s doomsday.
These are great models for emerging artists, and as it turns out, emerging artists are in the best possible position to deal with these issues. They don’t have a hefty backlog that they need to manage. They don’t have binding contracts (or if they do, the contracts are for tiny amounts of money). They are nimble enough to be able to harness the Web 2.0 tools in a meaningful way, rather than relying on an army-sized staff. Emerging artists are also hungry, and I mean that artistically and, well they are actually hungry. They have to work in order to survive, which creates a mindset that relies on innovation rather than the tried-and-true.
Need some proof? Ok, let’s look at Prince’s model: give stuff away. On Wednesday, June 27, David Harrell published a fascinating blog post on giving stuff away, or really, giving away tracks from his band’s upcoming CD. It was a fantastic list of Pros and Cons and there was a wonderful follow-up piece published a few days later. The final decision:
The consensus opinion is that — at least for our specific situation — it makes sense to try, that the potential upside is greater than the minimal downside. So the current plan is offer free mp3 downloads for every track from our third album, which is scheduled for a fall release.
So it’s only one example, but it’s for real. My own experience revolves around an Either/Orchestra track, Yezamed Yebada, which was the leading download from AllAboutJazz.com for quite some time – it may still be. The last press release was issued in December, announcing the 10,000th download of the track. Not bad, eh?
Ok, so that’s the Prince model, but what about Sir Paul? Instead of giving stuff away, why not try to use hipper channels that are still operating in a similar way to what we are all used to?
World Culture Music was created earlier this year by a group of amazing NYC based artists. They bring the DIY model – oh, yes, tried-and-true, but not just a cottage industry based out of the trunk of someone’s car anymore – to the jazz genre. The first release, Kendrick Scott’s The Source, is incredible music, some of the most interesting improvised music I have heard recently. An upcoming release – which I cannot wait to get – is Julie Hardy’s recording The Wish.
World Culture Music is sort of like an ArtistShare for emerging artists, and they have a mission:
World Culture Music’s mission is to blur the labels in music, cross the cultural divides, bypass the corporate structure and provide the next generation of talent an outlet to fulfill their creative visions.
Artistically, there is no question that they are doing this. Bypassing corporate structure? Well, that’s trickier. Kendrick’s CD is available on iTunes and on CDBaby, both of which are corporations (or at least affiliated with corporations), last I checked. But they are here, and hopefully here to stay.
Maybe they need to give some stuff away…
Thanks,
Rick McLaughlin