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Digital Audio Insider is David Harrell's blog about the economics of music and other digital content. I write from the perspective of a musican who has self-released four albums with the indie rock band the Layaways.
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November 02, 2006
More Fish, Smaller Pondsby David Harrell
More Fish, Smaller Ponds
This NY Times piece on the CMJ Music Marathon frames what I believe to be the central conundrum for today's musicians: The profound shifts in recording and distribution technology mean that an ever-expanding number of musicians (ranging from major-label artists to self-released indie rockers) are all competing for the time, money, and attention of a listening audience that is NOT expanding at the same rate. Growth of available content is outpacing the growth of listening hours.
One consequence is the end of what Robert Christgau calls the "monoculture," especially for music. But that's not resulting in a complete free-for-all in listening and buying habits:
It wasn't supposed to turn out like this. Only a few years ago, the Internet threatened to blur boundaries of genre and culture making it easy for listeners to fill their iPods with whatever caught their fancy.Twenty years ago, many bands aspired to be the next R.E.M. Today, the goals are more modest, as captured by this bit in the Times piece:
But listeners of all sorts like having what Mr. Christgau called a shared experience. That's why the old monoculture flourished in the first place. And today's indie-rock fans have something that's smaller yet similar: a mini-monoculture. That is, a robust infrastructure of Web sites and blogs, along with a (necessarily vague) consensus about what indie-rock sounds like.
Even more than usual downtown Manhattan is full of bands most people have never heard of, hoping to emulate the success of other bands most people have never heard of.Which isn't necessarily a bad thing -- getting the attention of a few bloggers and generating some download traffic is certainly a more reasonable goal than getting signed to a major label and selling a million records. And there's room for more bands to do so. But it's still a competition, and -- Long Tail or not -- only a small percentage of artists will "succeed" at any given level. (Thanks, Porter, for the link.)
related: The Long Tail, the Fat Middle, and Tiny Slices, A Little Is Enough (my guest post for Shake Your Fist), An Interview with Robert Christgau (PopMatters)
tags: CMJ Music Marathon the Long Tail
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Popular Posts
A Long Tail Experiment
By the Numbers: Using Last.fm Statistics to Quantify Audience Devotion
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An Interview with Jonathan Segel of Camper Van Beethoven
Price Elasticity of Demand for McCartney
Sony and eMusic: What I Missed
The Digital Pricing Conundrum series:
Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four
THE LAYAWAYS
Out Now -- "Maybe Next Year" -- The New Holiday Album:
"This is a sweet treat, deliciously musical without being overbaked for mass media consumption." -- Hyperbolium
"Perfect listening to accompany whatever holiday preparations you may be making today." -- Bag of Songs
O Christmas Tree - free mp3 lyrics and song details
Away In A Manger - free mp3
Download from eMusic, iTunes, Amazon MP3, or Bandcamp. Listen to free streams at Last.fm.
"...about as melodic and hooky as indie pop can get." -- Absolute Powerpop
"Their laid-back, '60s era sounds are absolutely delightening." -- 3hive
"...melodic, garage-influenced shoegaze." -- RCRD LBL
Where The Conversation Ends - free mp3
January - free mp3
Keep It To Yourself - free mp3
Download from eMusic, iTunes, Amazon MP3, or CD Baby, stream it at Last.fm or Napster.
"The Layaways make fine indie pop. Hushed vocals interweave with understated buzzing guitars. The whole LP is a revelation from the start." -- Lost Music
"Catchy Guided by Voices-like rockers who lay it on sweetly and sincerely, just like Lionel Richie." -- WRUV Radio
Silence - free mp3 lyrics and song details
The Long Night - free mp3
Download from eMusic, Amazon MP3, or iTunes, stream it at Last.fm, Napster, or Rhapsody.
"These are songs that you want to take home with you, curl up with, hold them close -- and pray that they are still with you when you wake up." -- The Big Takeover
Let Me In - free mp3
Ocean Blue - free mp3
Download from eMusic, Amazon MP3, or iTunes, stream it at Last.fm, Napster, or Rhapsody.
More Layaways downloads:
the layaways website