Here’s an “Out of the Box” theory that just might work.
Backstory: Musicians and music itself have been the fodder for “The Music Business,” throughout our lifetimes. Musicians didn’t have enough traction in the business equation to change things, till now. It seems the only way the music industry changes is by following the public’s behavior. Examples: The British Invasion, Woodstock, Punk, Grunge, and Hip Hop were all tiny movements till the music industry stepped in and incorporated the artists and sold them to the public. The latest movement, ”Free Music,” has stumped the traditional business because there’s no new music to market to the public. So the current music business, with nothing profitable to market, is focused on selling their old music in as many new ways as the technology industry wants to pay for. As has been proven recently, this benefits established brands in music, but doesn’t seem to help anything new.
Premises:
1. “Finding a needle in a haystack” approach to discovering new music is outdated and with the number of labels getting smaller, so is the number of needle hunters.
2. The number of people creating music has increased dramatically.
3. There is no new music thinking from traditional media outlets.
4. The only people who are going to change music is the musicians.
Solution: Musicians need to put their $ where there mouth is, and they should buy new music directly from each other. If every musician bought one CD directly from another new artist, and then spread the word about this purchase to everyone they knew, musicians might level the playing field. That’s right I’m proposing a chain letter approach so musicians could promote music effectively.
A typical chain letter consists of a message that attempts to convince the recipient to make a number of copies of the letter and then pass them on to as many recipients as possible.
The “Music Chain Letter” should contain a link to the CD that the musician has just purchased directly.
The musician should explain why the purchase was important.
The letter should include a link to the artist’s web page.
The letter should include a link to a digital download opportunity. For most artists that’s direct $ to them as well.
No curse, but if you want to change the music scene, please email this letter on to any musician you know.