The artist's decision to launch into a self defined yet uncertain travel in business-land often is preceded by finding two extremes: freedom in its entirety vs. missing cooperation with labels & media.What to do if I decide to go the hard way? Is there anyone who can tell an artist which, or at least how to find out useful strategies - and how to avoid the wrong ones? More basically, there has to be the one and only master plan, hasn't it? Or maybe... it this rather naive to believe?Who is the one to ask for? Who can lend a hand, give a guide, simply advise a whole generation of artists? Whom to trust - consultants, strategists, agencies... are those the new label people, just exxploiting artists?And finally... is there one basic approach how to present yourself and how to relate to fans?
Theme track ROLES & IDENTITIES is presented by "MUSIKMARKT".
The topic of Digital Distribution in music is a massive one. Meanwhile, it's rather a situation or state of time, not that much of a simple "topic". A separate conference on this would have been perfect. This session, however, goes about 90min.
When focusing Digital Distribution in terms of out-of-the-box solutions following a more commercial approach vs. DIY and Direct-to-Fan: What's important with services like BandCamp, Audiomagnet, Topspin, TuneCore, Nimbit? Which services can and must artists be provided with?
Also, can a DIY/D2F approach be the right one for everyone? Does it provide suitable tools for everyone? Is there anything special about DIY, D2F that commercial channels like iTunes, Napster, labels do not offer at all? In particular, it's worthwhile discussion what pros & cons there are compared to common distribution.
Yet another aspect in analysing distribution channels is the discussion that has arisen between Tom Silverman (Tommyboy Entertainment) and Jeff Price (TuneCore). No charts, no breaking – what does it take to become a „breaking artist“?
Do we need other scales than some charts measuring questionable figures of sales? Any artist selling his songs or maybe even giving them away for free on his site - where are these numbers? Why should he or she with several 10.000 downloads for free not be considered a "breaking" artist? And why are they preferring an independent presentation compared to a commercial platform?
Returning to digital distribution services themselves - are artists satisfied with how their work is presented and sold? Regarding browsing & searching - do current solutions support the customer?
Concluding it all, where is digital distribution heading to? Is there a tendency towards independent artists, acting on their own, taking over the market as entrepreneurs themselves?
What's the fall-out - and is there a life after digital distribution?
This session is hosted by .MUSIC.
