You Are Your Future

Fanscape CEO Larry Weintraub is an industry veteran with 25 years of marketing experience. His extensive work in social media has given him insight into the relationship between the brand and the consumer. He has constructed a start-to-finish scenario of what the record company of the future looks like:

The record company of the future is a one or two person operation. It's the artist and if the artist is not a business person, it's their 'manager.'

The artist finds a way to record their music on the cheap. Whether they record it live at a club or multi-tracked on their home computer, it costs them very little. If they want to spend a little more, they have a job and put a little cash aside each month.

Armed with a finished album and a nice piece of accompanying art, they give their music away to the world. It's available to stream on their MySpace page; it's available for free download in exchange for an email. To the paying world, it's available on a site like CDBaby.com that also helps them upload the music to iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, and everywhere else.

When the artist plays a show, they sell their "burned" CDs for $5 with a copy of the artwork and a personal letter saying thank you. They give each paying customer three extra burned copies to give to their friends.With the finished product they go to Craigslist and find someone who can help them do their artwork for next to nothing.

Music is free. And they realize this. If people are willing to pay, they may do so. But the music is the gateway to the live show, the T-shirt, the licensing for a movie trailer.

Then they promote their album by managing a fairly simple website; a MySpace page will do. They respond to every single person who makes a post. They blog about what is going on in their lives. They ask for opinions about the music. They respond graciously. They have a YouTube channel for live performances, they have a Facebook page and a Twitter account. They communicate with their fans. They let them in.

The chances for becoming a star are slim. But they always have been. Now the artist is in control. They are not indebted to a major company that doesn't really care about them. It's up to the artist to make things happen.

View original article here:

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/10/record-labels-are-losing-power-to-fans-artists282.html