Technology Musicians Fear, & the Tech They Fearlessly Use
As songwriters, musicians, and music creators, we live in a time of transition and chaos.
The revenue problem we face is simple: Musicians & songwriters are, collectively, discovering less and less people buying music in the traditional formats (CDs, downloads). (Vinyl collectors, see my footnote**)
The question we, as indie artists, ask ourselves is this: Can we make up the revenue once gained from limited pressings of CDs (say 1000, 2000, 4000 units) with other formats or revenue opportunities? (Streaming, monitizing ads, etc.)
We just don’t know.
But we do know this: While musicians might fear technology making culture’s buying habits change, musicians are using other technology, fearlessly.
For example, for my current tour (4-5 weeks on the road, 4000+ miles), I’ve used these tools, most of them free, to do all of the booking and planning myself:
- IndieontheMove.com – a venue database
- Couchsurfing – to find people willing to stay at their places
- Airbnb – to find people offering a room for a reasonable pric
- Priceline (app on my iPhone) – to find a deal on a hotel room
- Square – to accept credit cards for merch sales from my iPhone
- Google Docs – to create and share itineraries and spreadsheets
- my iPhone’s GPS & map- to navigate myself without worry
- iPhone camera & Instagram – to share photos
- iPhone camera & Youtube – to share videos on the fly
- a WordPress App on my iPhone – I’ve updated any part of my website from my phone
- Noisetrade.com – I shared a sampler of music of the songwriters I’d meet on the tour.
- iPhone’s regular apps- One day many months ago, I booked gigs while sitting at a coffee house, using nothing but my iPhone’s Wifi connection, cell phone, email, and iCal. No computer.
Honestly, I don’t even need to bring my laptop on tour. I can do anything I need from my phone, if I can handle the small screen.
Would musicians give up these new tools? I wouldn’t.
It’s difficult to give up the revenue we once had from CD sales, even if was a small revenue source; however, we need to remember that we are benefiting from the other advances. We don’t live in an”if this, than that” world.
It’s not simply a CD being replaced by streaming; it’s that the entire way we operate as musicians has changed.
Sadly, musicians and songwriters can’t expect to have their cake and eat it too. As we are creatively using the new tools, we also need to get creative with the way we will make up the revenue stream once had from CD sales and downloads.
* * Footnote * *
(Vinyl collectors, I’m inspired by you, but I’ve priced how expensive it is to do a pressing for a 7″, and it’s quite expensive. I doubt indie bands working hard for 100-1000 sales of anything a year are making much money on vinyl. Sure, Jack White might move 30,000 units, but how much is that local band in your hometown really moving at the cost ratio it takes to make a record? Vinyl is a great art form, but from a DIY business standpoint, it’s not very profitable. I also recognize some styles of music may lend to more of the audience being vinyl collectors.)
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