I’ve been hearing about ArtistData.com for a little while, and am very sympathetic to their core belief that “musicians should only enter data once.” I signed up a while back, but haven’t used it yet so I cannot comment on how well it works. I can, however, comment on the way they’re trying to spread the word. Perhaps there’s a perfectly good explanation for this, one that isn’t “we set up spam accounts and follow a ton of people hoping they click through to us”, but it kind of seems like spam to me? Lets assume I am wrong, this still helps me segue to one of my main frustrations in the music industry. The lack of patience.
It brings me back to those early MySpace days when people would get bots to friend as many people as possible, turning their friend counter is some sort of advertisement of how good a band must be. “Our 200K friends can’t be wrong, even if you’ve never heard of us!”. This kind of short-term thinking is classic “Music Business”. We operate in a business that often values the short-term over the long-term. “Can we create a real lasting career for this artist? Maybe, but lets go for full market burn out in one album cycle and get a ton of money fast.” Don’t think this is not the prevailing attitude in the major label late 90′s/00′s model. Leave some money on the table, per Lefsetz, so you’ll be able to charge more later. It doesn’t matter how many ‘friends’ or ‘followers’ you have, it matter what the quality of your relationship is with those that do follow you. Patience truly is a virtue, and an uncommon one in our business. Have it, and win in this new world.
Pingback: What If Danny Meyer Worked In The Music Business