Longing for the day ...

Another great summary

Seth Godin has been raking over the entrails of the music industry figures from 2007 and has come up with some lessons from recent experience. I'm not convinced about some of them or the order in which they're placed ... but, like Ian Rogers' comments, they're not pitched at me. For example, Seth's 0th and 1st lessons are contradictory from my perspective (but not wrong) and must be weighed each other one a case-by-case basis.

I'm most in favour of lessons 3 and 4 from an indie perspective. Particularly the second paragraph of lesson 3 - that's what I've staked my project on. Openly and transparently ... obviously ... if you want to grow your music within the "0-150,000" range, as Hank Shocklee talks about, then these two factors are the keys to success. In keeping with Ian's observations, I'd put numbers 3 and 4 at the top of an indie's business plan. The rest are things that largely can't be affected by an indie - they're too big and beyond control - but they still must be understood as part of the landscape.

The other thing I'd add is that, for an indie, ubiquity can be approximated in the marketplace, if not in the attention of potential fans. All you need to do is spend hours and hours uploading your recordings to as many online outlets as you can. That's cheap marketing but it has two main benefits: 1) it makes you appear ubiquitous, as people will find you in multiple places; and 2) it increases the likelihood that people will find you in the places THEY are looking, not just the places you want to be found. Those are small things but when you're striving for economic survival they can make the difference ...