Connect With Fans + Reason To Buy = The Business Model →

I’ve always thought that the worst mistake an artist can make is to wait around and be “discovered,” but the conventional wisdom has always countered that the traditional record company system is the only route towards financial solvency. Not so, says Mike Masnick, who cites the success of both the famous (Nine Inch Nails) and the not-so-famous (Jonathon Coulton) as two examples of a clearly viable formula:

So, let’s look at Corey Smith. In the earlier part of this decade, Smith was a high school teacher, playing open mic nights on weekends. But then, he started focusing on building his music career. He started playing numerous live shows, and really worked hard to connect with fans. He gave away all of his music for free off of his website, and used that to drive more fans to his shows. On top of that, he offered special $5 pre-sale tickets to many shows, which has a useful side effect: his biggest fans would convince many others to go as well, building up his fan base, and getting more people to go to more shows. He tried pulling his free music off of his website as an experiment, and saw that his sales on iTunes actually dropped when he did that. In 2008, mostly thanks to live shows, Corey was able to gross nearly $4 million. While giving his music away for free. Connecting with fans and giving them a reason to buy worked wonders.

My friend (and former bandmate) Jonah Matranga has been working with this model for over a decade: He created a community around his music, he maintained direct contact with (and input from) his audience, he wandered around the world playing in people’s living rooms, he established a sliding-scale payment system for t-shirts and records, and most recently, he created the “Unique Recordings” series — in which he makes exclusive studio recordings commissioned by the fans. (The suggested price range is $80-$100 per original song and $90-$140 for a cover.) In the process, he also makes a living — and, in fact, a better living than some of our friends with major label deals.

Let’s not forget the lesson of Martha Coakley’s failed Senate campaign in Massachusetts:

Coakley bristles at the suggestion that, with so little time left, in an election with such high stakes, she is being too passive.

“As opposed to standing outside Fenway Park? In the cold? Shaking hands?’’ she fires back, in an apparent reference to a Brown online video of him doing just that.

In other words, success is no longer who you know. The new paradigm dictates that if you want something, you’re going to have to stand outside in the cold shaking hands.