Why Interruption is a Crappy Music Business Model

This post isn’t going to shock you - if you’re here and you’re following us on twitter, etc., you probably already understand where we are in the music business and you probably have some sense of what social media is about.

As described in the Cluetrain Manifesto (which is available in its entirety for free), the internet was adopted so quickly, so vastly, because it was a platform to give voice back to the people. And we’re seeing some of the first truly exciting manifestations of what that might mean today. Get it? Social media. Synonymous with Conversation Media. It was inevitable.

As much as I hate talking some of these things to death, I think it’s significant to point out that we’ve finally admitted what we’re doing here online by actually incorporating it into the phrase ‘social media’. The internet was not built for commerce, and (going forward) those that try to commercialize the online experience will experience increasing difficulty. Our tolerance for interruption is decreasing. Trying to apply billboard mentality to the internet is suicide. You might as well be shoving flyers straight into your customers’ mouths, because your advertisements have effectively stifled the conversation.

An article on TechCrunch called Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet (you can find the article below and to the left of the ads) nails it:

Pushing a message at a potential customer when it has not been requested and when the consumer is in the midst of something else on the net, will fail as a major revenue source for most internet sites.  This is particularly true when the consumer knows that the sponsor of the ad has paid to have this information, which was verified by no one, thrust at him.

Verified by no one. Trusted by no one. Seen by no one. Without naming names, I’ve been ‘thrust at’ many a time, both visually and aurally assaulted by all forms of media purposefully placed to interrupt what I was doing. Why the owners of the website would even allow this to happen, I have no idea. Because after trying to ‘hide’ two successive drop-down video advertisements, I cut my losses and close the tab.

To bring this back home to the music business, all you do-it-yourselfers should be thinking about whether you are starting conversations or whether you are stifling them. Unfortunately, the vast majority of DM’s I receive on the Artists House twitter are unsolicited pleas for promotion. What does this say about these musicians? Mainly, it says that they haven’t taken the time to even find out what Artists House does - we aren’t around to promote specific artists. 100% of these unsolicited DM’s are from people who have not once conversed with us on any level, ever. How do I know that? Because I DO check out each and every one of your websites if you @reply or DM me on twitter as part of a conversation. If you are interesting (and let’s face it, anyone who engages us is interesting simply by virtue of their interest in us), we naturally want to know more about who we’re talking with. Context is what a relationship is built upon.

Engage me, and I’ll be interested in you. Spam me, and I’ll ignore you. This should be the new battle cry of the music industry.

All this is to say that you should not be concerned about the sale, but rather putting the genuine effort into participating in the conversation. You can’t ask anyone to engage in commerce with you. As humans, we naturally are suspicious of these types. They haven’t taken the time to establish personal trust, so why should we trust your product? The sale is the exclamation point at the end of a conversation, and it will come naturally.

To continue with Artists House examples, many of you engage us on a daily basis, commenting on articles we’ve sent out, offering up your own opinions, or turning us on to some new website, service, or idea. Periodically, some of your thoughts are so compelling that we’ve asked twitter followers to continue their conversation here on this blog. For example:

• Mike from The Mississippi Kings wrote Bandcamp 1.0: The Best Home on the Web For Your Music?
• Graeme Sacks wrote Artistshare: A Modern Music Business Model That Works
• Primus Luta wrote Are You An Artist or Entertainer?
• Josh Belville wrote Viewing Piracy in a New Light

These folks are part of the conversation! Get it?