The BBC technology page wrote an interesting article recently entitled “the net helps music sing new songs”. It is a great article outlining the many ways which the internet is changing music, and how musicians are utilizing the internet to empower themselves.  Discussing the continuing role of major labels, the article points out that “Some would argue that with an international reach and incredibly low entry costs, that the internet itself is the newest “major” label”. This arguement is in fact quite strong, for the many of the key roles that a major record label performs (recording, distribution and marketing) the internet also performs, and with a greater volume of music. Technological developments within music recording and production, coupled with the international reach of the internet has made it easier for musicians to record and “release” their music globally. The internet can be seen as the new “major label” for it enables far more music than ever before to be shared on a global platform,  while simultaneously putting this music in a close proximity to listeners who can discover and enjoy it.

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Yes, it can! If your goal as an artist or band is to sign with a Record Label, then having a good online sales record will definitely increase your chances of securing a deal. Many Record Labels, especially the majors, are prone to calculating the risk involved with investing their resources into making an artist or band successful, which makes sense. Most labels aren’t going to throw money at a band which they don´t think has a chance of succeeding (i.e. making money). With this in mind, showing potential labels that you have been able to achieve a good amount of online sales will make you a more attractive prospect. In addition, having a good online following and a large mailing list will earn you brownie points too, as it shows that you have an existing fan base to build on.

The possibilities which have beeen ushered in by the digital music revolution has led many to believe that it is now possible to enjoy a successful career in music without signing to a Record Label, and this may well be true. But the online environment can just as well help artists looking to sign to a Record Label by giving them a platform from which they can develop their music.

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If the online music industry had a holy book, Andrew Dubber´s free eBook “20 things you must know about music online” would be it – it is the absolute must read for any artist who wants to make headway in the sometimes treacherous and often bedazzling online music business. Actually, it is a holy book; it expounds 20 undying and immutable truths which should guide your online music strategy; though shall not, on pain of eternal damnation, question 20 things! Ok, perhaps this is going a tad to far . The truths are not immutable, because like reality the music industry is everchanging, but it does provide some pretty sound  guidelines. Containing sound insights crammed with useful tips and strategies it is a great resource to get potent advice and information about how to best utilize the possibilities now available to aspiring musicians in the advent of the web 2.0 (or 3.0?) era.

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One of the great dynamics of the digital music age is word of mouth. The sheer inter-connectivity of the internet and the ease of which information flows from people to people makes the spread of opinion from one person to another far easier than even before. Be in viral emails, the domino effect of bloggers picking up on what others are writing, a tweet or a trivial conversation on a messaging service – information, and  opinions, spread almost without effort.

Today we want to talk about one way in which word of mouth is being used, albeit quite surreptitiously, to organise and filter music. We want to talk about the AudioScrobbler, and what it means to scrobble. Before proceeding, lets dispense with the “word of mouth” label and call it “recommendation”, since the communicating is not actually done through speech (how old fashioned!). “Scrobbling” in itself is quite straightforward. When you scrobble music on services like Last FM, the information about what artists you are listening to is transferred to the Last FM database. Now what does this have to do with Recommending? Well, the clever chaps at Last FM can use this data in quite cunning ways. By using all the collected scrobble data, they can get a pretty detailed understanding of peoples listening tastes. They can create personalized radio stations, recommend playlists by other users, and chose the tracks which, by looking at what other people listen to, there is every chance that you will like.

The dynamics of this way of profiling music tastes lends well to music discovery. It helps artists because their music will be played to people who have similar listening tastes to people who listen to it already, their fans. Also, by enabling people to view and exchange playlists with other users who share their tastes, it can invoke curiosity about bands on their play list which they haven’t heard. Overall, the Audio Scrobbler is an archetypal example of how the digital music environment is using collective wisdom of individual taste to better how people can engage and consume new music.

There has been much made of the new possibilities that the internet provides for artists and bands. Some have even gone so far as to say now musicians can pretty much “do it themselves”, that is, set up their own online business to market and sell their music successfully. It is an interesting idea, and it will be interesting to see how far an artist could develop going it alone.

It is undeniable that the internet provides a good marketplace for music. The yearly amount of digital downloads is growing exponentially, with more and more people purchasing their music online now than ever. It is quite inexpensive for an artist to sell music straight from their website (digital or otherwise), and services like Record Union are working hard to make sure that it is possible for any aspiring artist to distribute and sell their music on online music stores around the world.

So the market is there, the capacity to distribute and sell is there, what of marketing music and getting new fans? The internet also ranks quite highly on this front as well. When it comes to developing new fans, social networks are a great way to get people talking about your music and joining your mailing list. There are many great services which are designed to introduce people to new music (such as Last FM and iLike). When it comes to getting people to gigs on the weekend, the internet has made this a lot more transparent. But can artists really “do it themselves”?

The question which arises is, do what themselves. Sure, it seems entirely possible for artists to make a nice little sum of money from selling their music online, play packed venues and achieve a level of respect and notoriety. If one believes “1000 true fans strategy” is realistic, then artists can make a nice salary.  But mega stardom? Platinum hits? Champagne baths? It is as yet unclear whether the internet can single handedly produce such “successes”, they require some very well tuned marketing machinery which its diversified and comparatively fragmented environment does not support.

However, you must agree, that If the internet can help more artists make a living doing what they love, this itself is a great achievement. It seems likely that the internet will have its own mega stars, but how they will materialise, or whether this will be achieved separately from the old record structure is hard to say. But at the end of the day, its always good music which will prevail, and the internet does give us access to a lot of this!