What Good Is The Internet To The Indie Artist?

Bobby Bensley · From: Orange County, California, USA

Ok, this is the A&R guy and promoter coming out in me but I have to pose these next questions.

“What kind of opportunities do you see that the Internet presents to you as an artist?”

Do you simply use the Internet as a place to hang out and share with friends or is it something you see as a viable tool in the promotion and distribution of your music?

Having promoted and marketed music online for 4 years now I think I have a pretty solid idea of where the net is as a tool for the artist today and a better then average insight into what the future holds for artists online.

I believe that I have identified two market segments with the great potential for artists online. (Read; Indie Artists) These are the market segments, which have room for Indies to succeed in the distribution of their music. These areas are the niche markets such as the resurgent Traditional Country Music niche and Heritage Artists defined as those who have had substantially successful mainstream careers and now years later find they still have fan base and name recognition. They may have Platinum on the wall from the past but today 50,000 units sold would be a wildly successful release for them.

The thing is these markets tend to overlap in many ways. Many Heritage artists also fall into the current niche markets such as Traditional Country, Alt Country, Classic Rock, Blues, Jazz, Americana, Rockabilly etc. The thing all these market segments have in common is they tend to play mostly to an older demographic. While pop and current rock genre classifications fall into the realm of the young all these heritage genres play to audiences that are 30 years old or older.

Some of them i.e. Rockabilly and Alt. Country are developing strong followings among niche oriented youngsters making it possible for Heritage artists in these genres to actually experience a resurgence of fan base.

While currently the younger demographics dominate the Internet and have become accustomed to getting their music free from the P2P systems it is still the older demographics that are making the purchases on the web.

It is the adult consumers who have the disposable income to spend on music and other non-essential items. They are also rapidly discovering the convenience of shopping online.

Research has shown that the older music consumers are more likely to buy a re-released title from a heritage artist then they are to buy a top 10 selling current hit. Why? Because as a whole we tend to want to listen to the sounds that take us back to a time in our lives that we most remember as unencumbered and comfortable. A time when memories were born and life still held mystery and intrigue. We tend to listen to and buy the music of our youth or that reminds us of our youth.

So with the average age of Internet users going up daily and with the daily expansion of Broad Band adoption I see the Internet as playing a huge role in the distribution of music in the future.

I see cross platform compatibility in digital music delivery and I see it within 10 years or less. In the same time frame I see it replacing Radio and physical distribution, as we currently know it. The current system of Major Labels is on its way to suffering the same fate as the Railroads did with the advent of Trucking if they do not wise up and adapt rather then react.

I think the future of the Independent artist has maybe never been brighter then it is right now and I think it is because of the Internet that this is true. In the end those who jump out and show the first truly substantial success online will be those who take the chances in this time of development. They will be the artists who are here online, now, and are pioneering the way and building strong Internet presence for their names and their music. Those who establish themselves now are the ones who will be in position when this thing we call the net truly breaks open. The rest will be in a position of playing catch up.

Peace,

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Bobby Bensley -JavaMusic A&R

Keith DeLong · From: Dartmouth NS Canada

For those of us in Canada, shopping on the web is not such a great deal what with exchange rates, duty, etc., unless it's something we can't get here we're not apt to order CDs of mainstream artists. We can buy CDs in stores here as cheaply as in the U.S., if you factor in the exchange. Some independent artists can't be found though, so I would agree that the web is a good place to market independent recordings. You can give the web browser a 30-second clip of your material, they see your picture, know what you sound like, etc. etc.

Bobby Bensley · From: Orange County, California, USA

Personally I think it is better to provide full length tunes then clips and here is why.

I can cut 30 seconds of good out of just about any piece of music. So clips can be decieving and also they are simply to short to really give me the flavor of the song. You can't cover verse chorus bridge in a 30 second clip.

I have been working with and promoting thousands of indie artists over the past 4 years and we have found that the promo delivery that sells the most CDs is

Making every song on the CD available in its entirerty but in a Mono Lo-Fi stream for all but 2-3 songs.

Give 2-3 full length 128 kbs downloads to really hook a listener on your sound and then make the rest available in the AM Radio quality 28 KBS Mono Lo-Fi stream.

This is a combination that lets them hear the whole album and really get a feeling for it yet does not give it all away.

There are even Online distributors out there that will pay you up to 7 cents for every download you distribute.

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Bobby Bensley -JavaMusic A&R

erik · Posted 21 Jul 2002 5:54 pm

I think short clips are still important because many people, like me, have a standard modem connection( 6 kb a second). It takes too long to download a 4mg song just to find out it is not your cup of tea. I can learn A LOT from short clips. Works well for me at cdnow.

Also, i've heard some very lofi mono downloads at soundclick.com that made me wonder just how well the production is.

[This message was edited by erik on 21 July 2002 at 06:58 PM.]

Bobby Bensley · From: Orange County, California, USA

It is true, lo-fi does not translate production very well. It tends to compress the Highs out of existance.

Overall though We have found that Lo-fi is a very useful tool for promotion.

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Bobby Bensley -JavaMusic A&R

Uwe Haegg · From: Hilleroed, Denmark

For us country lovers that live in Europe, the internet is the only way to get the music that we love, unless we want to settle for the mainstream products that can be bought everywhere.
One drawback is that the nosy and always eager Tax ond Customs office always want their share.
If I could buy an entire CD by downloading it
from the source on the net, in good quality, I would do so anytime. Hopefully, that is the way things will go eventually.

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