Please Self-Release Me, Let Me Go

Although we have been speaking about an aggregate demand curve for all modern recorded rock (or prog) music, it is worth pointing out that a truly unknown indie artist actually begins with a demand curve approximating $0 per unit no matter what quantity they supply (great or small). 

The recorded rock music product is different from an agricultural product like corn, wheat, or livestock.  If you produce corn of 'reasonably acceptable' quality, it is relatively easy to convince a purchaser of multiple quantity/units that you have a functional substitute in the competitive marketplace.  Simply convince one wholesaler that you have adequate quality corn to sell and one wholesaler will purchase bushels and bushels of corn from you.

Such is NOT the case for recorded music.  Even with a very high quality music product (which is difficult to define I know but most of us can probably agree that at least certain basic attributes are generally appreciated among your target market)...  so even with a very high quality product (i.e. excellent packaging, sterling sound quality, etc.), it is still not at all easy to convince a wholesaler to purchase your product in bulk.  So indie artists typically must convince customers one at a time (or at least in very small groups at a time).

Until music consumers are convinced otherwise, they deem a unit of an independent artist's musical output to be worth approximately ZERO dollars.  That is the cold hard truth.

Stated in economic terms, there is a very pronounced and significant 'product differentiation' in the minds of consumers for the recorded music product.   Music produced by artists they already know and appreciate has a measure of known (or expected positive) value in their minds.  Music produced by an unknown indie artist at best has an unknown value and quite often labors under a dubious shadow of doubt that must be overcome before someone will 'buy in' as a 'fan' or as a 'purchaser/consumer' of their product.  

But wait... It gets worse!  Most consumers not only deem the musical output of an independent artist to be worth zero dollars.  They also deem this product as unworthy of investment of their precious time and attention. 

I once heard a modern rock music fan refer to music played on commercial radio and/or released by professional labels as "REAL" music. Their only 'axe' to grind was that they were tired of indie artists pinging them in social media. It was really an off-handed remark. But the strong implication was that the music produced by independent artists and sold exclusively over the internet was not worth even recognizing as 'genuine'. I disagree strongly with that assessment and it is certainly an extreme viewpoint but it demonstrates some of the challenges an indie artist faces.

Another approach could be to force exposure to your music by having it played while they are doing another activity (like shopping or eating and drinking).  Again, the music will need to have some quality which attracts their attention- but if the quality is there, the biggest part of the battle is simply gaining exposure.

In both of these cases, the artist gains at least a precious moment of exposure time that represents an opportunity to EARN valuable differentiation in the estimation of potential paying customers.

Yet another way is to get exposure is to get 'thought leaders' to talk about or to write about your music.  This could be a reviewer at PA or an online radio station or even a member of another band with their own unique fanbase to talk, write, or play your music.

None of this is new.  Yet indie artists seem to expect these things not to apply to them.  For some reason they expect the world to come rushing to their web presence to buy their music.  It just isn't realistic.  You might as well buy a lottery ticket.

Devoted time/attention is a resource artists crave... This is true even for artists who enjoy large labels and promotion budgets.  (And so it is that at least some of the attention-grabbing antics we see in the music industry are not merely the result of undisciplined narcissism after all!  It is actually effective promotion.  But we knew that all along on some level, didn't we?)

Making your music available through multiple online outlets is only the beginning.  After that you face the task of getting people to PAY attention.  

Fortunately, consumer attention can be effectively earned through any number of promotional activities.  Unfortunately, each of these require a certain amount of (uh-oh... here comes a 4-letter word...)  WORK!  ;-)

Komandant Shamal wrote: @Dean, you wrote this sentence at the first page of your blog: And with that the concept of self-release is doomed to inevitable failure and will never spark the revolution that many hope it will. IMHO above sentence describes perfectly this blog. Your blog is too pessimistic, it is a perfect example of defeatism and this is not a blog that has passed the test of time and that basic hypothesis that is well shown in the above sentence really was collapsed after a whole range of fantastic self-released prog rock albums released latter.

Dean wrote: Henry Plainview wrote:   I almost never listen to self-released artists, because as you said, if in this era they can't get anybody to sign them, they probably are terrible. But I can't see the ability to self-release as a bad thing in any way. If you'd rather only listen to music that other people think is good, there will still be plenty of label releases this year... And with that the concept of self-release is doomed to inevitable failure and will never spark the revolution that many hope it will.