At the mercy of the Listener
Being Discovered...
Over the last few weeks I've blogged about the modern music industry and its internal workings. How
things work from track order to familiarity is King! So I thought I'd do a little re-cap on what in my findings became apparent.
Firstly, we had track order. Here I discussed the importance of placing the best tracks in positions 1-3 since relying on the listener to stick around for track 4 seems folly with statistics showing the listener losses interest very quickly.
Secondly, the unfortunate habit of skipping tracks also puts pressure on the artist to captivate the listener. Already proven is the fact that 50% of your audience will skip the track before the song even finishes. A nod to songs under 4 mins or less if ever there was one.The more alarming fact was that you lose 25% of your audience through skipping, in the first 5 secs. Hell the drummer has just about hit the first stick on the hihat and it's all over for some!
Thirdly, to engage with someone through the medium that is music, to get them to discover you, to stop them skipping the track, to keep them listening past track three, to get them to download your tunes all comes down to one thing and one thing only, the songs have got to be good, really, really good. Who is the judge of that? You the listener...
Lastly, Familiarity that's what the masses thrive on. They can't sing along to your tune, with lighters and mobiles held aloft, when they don't know the words or the melody to your songs. So many factors go into what makes for a good entertaining show but I think the obvious one is, the one that is usually missed..... observing the crowd. Maybe you just might have to compromise your ethics on cover versions or do some serious leg work on getting your songs out there and known. If you have lost the audience, you've lost everything. It's no good getting caught up in your band, your tunes, your instrument playing and not notice no-one is listening any more.
People want to be entertained, they may have paid good money for the privileged, we who are categorised as relatively unknown artists, and to the same extent, established artists need to remember, it's all about the fans. After all where would any artist be without them?
In conclusion the independent artist, the unsigned hero\heroine has it all stacked up against them but some would say no more than so called established artists. The age of social media has narrowed the gap but like any business it requires money to thrive and that can be the deciding factor. It's estimated that a budget of $1 million is what it costs to produce a hit single these days and get it onto mainstream radio.
On a good note the disenchantment that is ever growing with mainstream music may well drag underground bands\artists into the limelight and we can all bathe in it's refreshing audible glory.
