Tag Archives: analogy

A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories, Piracy

The World Revolves Around Someone Selling Something

The whole world revolves around someone selling something.

At the most basic level, if you are working a normal 9 to 5 job, then you are selling your time each day so that you get a wage.

If you are a car manufacturer you are selling a vehicle. In order to sell that vehicle, the manufacturer needs to a lot of pieces to come together. They need people to create the vehicles, first in drawings/design and then in assembly. Before they even get to the assembly stage they need people to manufacture parts for the vehicles. All of the people involved in the process have sold their time for a wage. The company has paid that wage, which they forecast they will cover by the sales of their vehicles.

So what if the vehicles do not sell due to LOWER PRICES and COMPETITION in the world market places. What if the vehicles don’t sell because owning a motor vehicle is not seen as a rite of passage any more by the younger generation. Instead of having a hit car they have a dud.

Let’s use that analogy for a musician.

You are a musician. In order to sell yourself, you need to do the following; Invest time in learning an instrument. Invest time in creating. Invest time in assembling the song together in a studio or your own DIY studio. In all of the time invested, you have not earned a cent. Then you end up releasing your music to the world and the following things would most probably happen;

NOTHING. With so much competition for listener’s attention the odds of your music getting heard without an established audience is VERY LOW. Maybe the songs did get heard and are just not good enough for someone to talk about them or share them.

So what is your next step?

You will either give up or you will create more art so that you can find an audience. Or if you just want to get a gig each week that pays some dollars, you will end up in a cover band.

Just say that SOMETHING happened with your release. If your music is released on a small independent label of some sort and you have a small fan base expect it to end up on P2P networks and YouTube accounts of other users. That doesn’t mean that you had your music stolen or that you have lost sales. YouTube can be monetized while P2P/YouYube views means that you have a potential fan base.

So what is your next step?

Scream piracy or create more art so that you can connect with your growing audience.

Just say that SOMETHING MORE happened. If you music is released on a large independent label and you have a decent following (like Machine Head, Dream Theater, etc.) then expect it to end up on P2p networks, cyber lockers and YouTube accounts of other users.

In this area artists are at the level where they don’t want to lose the audience they have nor the income they generate. The life cycle is album-tour.

Just say that ALOT happened. Here the scenarios and possibilities are endless.

The question that is hitting every carmaker around the world is how do they sell their vehicles (and make money in the process) to a whole new generation because the OLD way of making a car and just releasing it and expecting people to buy it is just not working anymore. Companies like General Motors have taken on board youth-brand consultants, Subaru is trying to get the emotional connection correct (whatever that means) and Ford is using social media as a way to connect with new buyers.

That same question is hitting every musicians and the recording industry around the world.

How do they sell themselves when the old way has not been working for over 15 years.

It’s about people. The human beings that are your fans. And you need to develop that connection and relationship with them. The car makers know that and they are trying. Do you know that?

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Music

Bands Will Have That One Big Product, and Then They Will Write Some Sequels To It

There is a story over at the NewYorker from a while back about the One Hit Wonder known as “Candy Crush Saga”.

As we all know by now millions upon millions of people around the world play Candy Crush Saga.

– It is a free download and it has been downloaded over half a billion times.

– A person can play the game for free.

– However, certain users of the game are willing to pay for extra lives and various performance boosting tools while the other users are happy to remain on the game without paying for any extras.

– The Irish company “King Digital Entertainment” who is the maker of the game had close to two billion dollars in sales, with a pure profit margin of $567 million.

It seems like there is a lot of money to be made if there is a freemium option available especially if you have a star product to push.

King Digital has over a hundred different games that are available, however it is Candy Crush that brings in the money. It is King Digital’s “star product”.

Even in music, bands normally have hundreds of other songs or countless albums in existence, however it is that one star product that they are known for, except for the few great acts who would have multiple star products.

Metallica had “Master Of Puppets” and “The Black” album.

Motley Crue had “Shout At The Devil” and “Dr Feelgood”.

Dream Theater had “Images and Words” and “Scenes For A Memory”.

Machine Head had “Burn My Eyes” and “The Blackening”.

AC/DC had “Back In Black”.

Def Leppard had “Pyromania” and “Hysteria”.

Ronnie James Dio was a true legend by having a few star products in different acts. First off was Rainbow then Black Sabbath and then as a solo artist with “Holy Diver”.

Kingdom Come had their self titled debut.

Skid Row had “Slave To The Grind”.

Bon Jovi had “Slippery When Wet”.

Twisted Sister had “Stay Hungry”.

RATT had “Out Of The Cellar”.

Quiet Riot had “Metal Health”.

Ozzy Osbourne had “Blizzard Of Ozz” and “No More Tears” as a solo artist.

The world of heavy metal and hard rock contains many more examples. In the end luck plays a huge part in breaking music to the masses.

And as the article eludes too, most new products fail in general. In the music industry, the failure rate of new music is amplified and as it is an industry that faces a lot of competition between the acts alone.

And as with everything that rises it eventually falls. The true greats pick themselves up and rise again, while the ones in it for the money just fade away. Check out this quote;

“Typically, companies will have that one big product, and then they’ll sell some sequels to it. But, unless they manage to become the center of an ecosystem, over time they tend to weaken and disappear.”
By Michael Cusumano, a professor at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management

There is a lot of truth in that.

Remember when Bon Jovi rewrote “Slippery When Wet” and called it “New Jersey”.

Or when bands rewrote their main hit song over and over again trying hard to recapture the success

Music is a competitive, hit-driven industry and there is no guaranteed recipe for success. But in order to give it a shot you need to know how to play your instrument and you need to practice your songwriting skills.

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