The music industry is dramatically changing: The increase in penetration of broadband has brought with it a new way to consume and discover music. Sales of CDs are rapidly decreasing and illegal downloading and file sharing has devalued music for an entire generation of youth. The digitalization of music has resulted in the fragmentation of the mass audience causing the age of the top 40 to come to an end. Traditional marketing channels have been bypassed taking the power away from the middlemen and the major record labels leaving a direct communication conduit between the music artist and the music listener.

The sale of music has moved into a new era. This is an era where consumers can choose between paying for their music or getting it for free. No longer can major labels dictate who should be listened to and no longer can they place their survival in the hands of record sales. A paradigm shift has begun and a new model of music marketing must be introduced to accommodate these social and economic changes.

Seth Godin, a ‘thought leader’ in the world of marketing has strong views on the way the music industry should go. He argues that a change to the existing business model is a necessity. He proposes a shift in focus from trying to generate the greatest number of music sales, to cultivating and nurturing relationships with communities of fans to drive sales through concerts, merchandise and souvenirs. Godin places a lot of emphasis on the idea of communities, which he calls ‘tribes’. The fragmentation of the mass audience has meant the creation of millions of ‘tribes’ which form around a common love for a certain artist or type of music. Godin suggests that instead of pushing music onto the mass audience, music should be presented to communities who already have a passion for similar music.

The key to Godin’s proposed model is the forging of solid, two-way relationships between the artist and the fans and the building of interactive communities. I think Godin is on to something here. If so, does it mean that the future of music marketing lies in PR2.0 and social media driven relationship marketing? I would love to hear peoples views on this one.

Check out this fascinating interview with Godin for Music Business Radio, here.

Also check out these blog posts:

The Live Music Talk

Rollo and Grady

Music Lessons

Music vs The Music Industry

The Proof is in the Pudding Corey Smith

Once in a while something comes along that is a faultless expression of the changing times we live in. In this instance ‘something’ comes in the shape of Israeli music producer and animator Kutiman and his online music video project ThruYOU.

ThruYOU is made up of eight music videos that Kuitman created by mixing together unrelated samples of individual musicians playing their instruments on You Tube videos. He spent weeks trawling through different clips and selecting ones that he could mash together to create coherent songs. The result is astonishing; full musical ensembles made up of unconnected strangers each playing their own ideas to themselves but each adding to the creation of anthems for a YouTube generation.

After initially only letting twenty of his closest friends know about ThruYOU, it has exploded into an internet phenomenon with over one million views in the first seven days that is was online. A ThruYOU website was set up showing all eight of the videos and the credits of all the people that are featured in the project and links to their original videos.

Kutiman’s ThruYOU project has summed up how social media has now changed the consumer landscape. This new web 2.0 culture has handed the power back to the consumer. No longer are we passive consumers of media. Instead we actively engage and participate in it to create mutual content.

The most brilliant aspect of this project is that Kutiman has empowered and given a voice to each of the musicians that he used from YouTube. Each song is created by a community. They are all unrelated individuals on their own but when connected to each other something bigger is created. This is the essence of any community online or offline.

I have embedded a couple of the ThruYOU videos here. Check them out and let me know what you think!


Check out:
ThruYOU websiteKutiman’s Myspace
Kutiman on Twitter