Read a pretty an interesting interview at 26thstory.com featuring Seth Godin. He’s the author of many insightful-makes-sense marketing books and a big music fan too.
Anyways, at one point he talks about the future of the content industries, specifically music and books. As an author, he thinks spreading his ideas is much more important than unit (books) sold. The major book industry is focused on selling content only (units) and pays out authors very little in terms of royalties.
Sound familiar?
The author can go and make money from speaking gigs (at least for non-fiction writers) and other spin-off merchandise, tv shows, board-games, film adaptations, etc..
Sound even more familiar?
The more people know and get excited about his ideas, the more opportunities open up for him. Giving before receiving is the name of the game. The more people who know and get excited about music, the more people showing up to shows and buying merch.
It’s about thinking of the bigger picture, not just being stuck on one revenue stream.
By the way, you can download Seth’s new book, TRIBES, in AUDIO for…FREE here
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTOQUnvI3CA] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ycCLXLiZWs&NR=1]
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Thanks for the book recommendation. I am reading what Seth has to say.
Musicians need to build and control their own following. Use all the music hosting, band sites as lead generators back to your own site. Even give away songs for free. Build an email list with email marketing software (getresponse, aweber). Sell people a variety of products and different price points. Sell things indirectly related to your music. See what sticks.
Example – sell guitar/drum/bass/vocal lessons to your community through a membership site where people pay a monthly fee. Sell a membership to a VIP club where you post new song demos, videos, photos, etc before they’re released to the public.