The Artist Once Known As, then Formerly Known As, and now Once Again Known As Prince is to be given a lifetime achievement award at the 2006 Webby Awards. Prince is being accorded this honour at the US’s major online awards “for his use of the Internet to distribute music and connect with audiences.” Tiffany Shlain, founder of the Webbys, described Prince as “a visionary, who recognised early on that the Web would completely change how we experience music.”
Prince the pioneer
Prince may not have been the first musician to sell his music online, but he was the first major artist to do so with 1997’s “Crystal Ball” being available exclusively online. “Long before Myspace and Itunes, Prince used the Web as a new way to distribute music, premier videos and build his relationship with fans,” Shlain added. Prince’s website (www.npgmusicclub.com) now features seven full-length CDs and exclusive downloads unavailable anywhere else.
Why would Prince abandon traditional music retailing channels for online only retailing? Mathematics. You may make as little as 6% on every CD sold while signed to a major label, but you can earn 80% profit on every self-released CD you sell.
Getting straight to the fan
These days, thanks to the aforementioned Itunes and Myspace, and many similar sites, bands all over the world are marketing their music directly to fans, completely bypassing the “traditional” methods of promotion and sales. This means that CD retailers, radio stations and, most importantly, record labels are all being cut out of the musical loop.
Much is being made of the way British bands like the Arctic Monkeys and (before them) Test Icicles used their web-based success to break into the pop charts.
This is indeed an interesting turn. What’s more interesting, though, is the way the Web has enabled bands that might otherwise never find an audience to carve out a good living doing what they love.
Enter the Brain Surgeons
One such band is the Brain Surgeons NYC. Based in New York, the Brain Surgeons are the brainchild of husband and wife team Albert Bouchard and Deborah Frost.
Bouchard was the drummer and prime songwriter of 1970’s metal giants Blue Oyster Cult. Frost’s name will be familiar to readers of such august music journals as Rolling Stone, the Real Paper and the Village Voice as one of the best rock critics in the United States, but she was a musician long before she started writing about rock ‘n’ roll.
Between them, Bouchard and Frost have seen every aspect of the music business, from almost every angle. “At this point there is no upside to being on a major [label],” Bouchard said. “It’s nice to be able to call the shots.”
A good web presence (www.cellsumrecords.com – geddit?), constant touring and favourable reviews have allowed the Brain Surgeons NYC to build a large and loyal constituency. This in turn has allowed them to tour further afield, and that constituency now includes Canada and continental Europe. “We have actually been doing the independent thing for over ten years,” said Frost. “Many of our early fans were computer ‘geeks’ who were some of the first people hooking into the Internet. So called ‘mainstream’ labels depend on the mega-success of ‘mainstream’ artists like Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey, and ordinary people, as well as true music lovers, know where all of that’s at. We are not appealing to people interested in the lowest common denominator.”
Another advantage of the Web is that you can use multiple outlets for your music at no cost or risk to yourself. The Brain Surgeons also market CDs and downloads through CD Baby, Amazon, the Other-Artist and, naturally, Itunes.
Incredible innovation
The latter is most significant, as Frost sees the future of music distribution, “definitely via downloading…though legal, where artists are compensated properly. It’s a great opportunity we ourselves take advantage of all the time. You want a song immediately, you don’t have to go to a store and deal with some know-nothing clerk who doesn’t have a clue what you’re talking about. It’s an incredible innovation.
“If people want to find or hear our music, they can do so immediately. There’s no middleman, shipping records to some chain store for some kickback or whatever it once was…there are no returns of merchandise…which so often return, months later, in subsequently unsaleable condition…there’s not a weird lag between the time merchandise is shipped and returned (something you can not possibly do with a more perishable commodity such as milk, for instance). But basically, your dealings can be between you and the consumer/listener who desires it. What can be wrong with that? You deliver immediately to those who want to buy what you have to offer. There are no gatekeepers.”
To do this, all you need is a computer with Internet access. “But you also have to have the goods – the music people will want and/or relate to – in the first place,” Frost adds. “It also depends how much you are willing to work, to seek out and then follow up contacts – perhaps not unlike any other kind of salesmanship.”
Advising young bands starting out, Bouchard quotes musician Mike Watt, “Start your own band, paint your own picture, write your own book, poem.”
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