Creme de la Creme

As the music industry continues to alter and adapt, how will good music rise above the rest? At a time when anyone with Garageband can record on their home computer and post the song on the internet within minutes, how will the good music rise above the rest? In the recent past, it really came down to the A&R (artist & repertoire) employees at the labels discovering new acts, investing in them, promoting them, and then allowing the consumers to decide which albums, artists, and songs were worthy of their listening time.

And while record labels still contain a formidable influence in new band discovery, the old model here is getting flipped around with the internet. Now, it is more about the band becoming popular on its own and then getting noticed by a label who will take the band along from that point forward.

Take Zac Brown’s recent record deal with Atlantic. Zac Brown has been playing and developing a following for the last 10 years. After ‘Chicken Fried’ received serious airplay, Atlantic Records soon took notice.

So what is the key to getting a song to rise to the top? First, the music must be good. It must provide a reason for people to listen. And secondly, there must be -

Buzz.

In today’s interconnected world of vast social networks, a natural progression of friends telling others about the new great song they just heard is one of the fastest ways for a song to reach the next level. In a time where people control their music intake through personal choices with their ipods (as opposed to radio programming), recommendations of new music based upon buzz carry weight.

Buzz doesn’t necessarily mean the song will last much past 6 months, but it does mean that the band will be promoted naturally and with fewer marketing dollars. So of the songs that get the buzz and get passed along to your friends in different social networks, very few may be listened to a year from now, 5 years, or 250 years.

As a new band, chances are that a record label is not going to notice you at your next coffeehouse gig. But they may notice you if there is enough online buzz around your music. And by that point, you may not even need a label to come along because you may be making it fine on your own.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com