Why Your Music Matters Now More Than Ever

This is a guest post from a good friend of mine in the indie music business, Will Duke. Will is the creator of an amazing online music mastering service, SoundOps. He is a great advocate for indie music and I think you are going to enjoy this. If you are interested in writing a guest post on Gen-Y Rock Stars, please shoot an email to marketing@genyrockstars.com.

photo by gussifer | thecolorawesome.com

There was an article in CNN a few weeks back titled “What Will Save Rock N Roll?” In the article the author looked at reasons why the mainstream music industry is in trouble. Boy, could we certainly add to this and entertain the prospect of the “why” for pages and pages.

What astounded me was the response from Jeff Price, the CEO of TuneCore, the largest (to my knowledge) digital distributor of indie music to major online retail outlets such as iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody and more. Over at the TuneCorner Blog Jeff writes:

There is more music being created and recorded today then ever before in the history of humanity. Although sheer volume of music creation does not make it good, the fact that more people are creating it certainly increases the odds… TuneCore Artists have made over $32,000,000 in music sales in just the last 22 months. Some TuneCore Artists are actually outselling Top 40 artists – guess the Top 40 aren’t really Top 40 anymore.

At SoundOps we believe in the power that laptops, software, and collaboration have brought into this new musical generation too. Bands no longer need to sell millions of records (CD’s or downloads) in order to consider themselves successful. Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 True Fans was a testament to how powerfully a small collective of rabid fans can have an impact on revenue and lifestyle. Seth Godin devoted an entire book to this concept and it could have been single-handily directed towards the heads of record labels.

Indie music matters. It matters how it sounds, how you look, how you perform and even your personality offstage.

Why? Because engagement matters today more than ever.

There are just too many options, advertisements and “stuff” in people’s view all the time. Bands that engage their fans, that constantly produce quality content (that can be music, video, blog posts, pics or just talking on Twitter), and look to build an old school development with their listeners will win in today’s market.

Jeff noted that the bands on TuneCore are earning big boy checks without the big boy budget. That means more money in the artist’s pocket. There is the theory of breaking into this crowded ADD generation and their iPods that still boils down to great song writing and a quality product that people want to share. That is why your music matters.

• Your music matters to the girl in New York who lives and breathes your lyrics as she walks home from school and dance class to homework and a battle every night with her mom.
• Your music matters to the karate class that uses your rocking theme to get them warned up before a big match.
• Your music matters to the snow boarder and the pizza guy.
• Your music matters to the sub cultures, the new car commercials, the McDonald’s ads, and it matters to the guys and girls who zone out on YouTube and share their lives with their friends over social media. It matters so much, that they are actively looking for you, looking to be engaged, instead of waiting for your songs to come on the radio.

That, my friends, is what’s contributing to the greatest musical revival we could have ever asked for. It’s not about MTV and Top 40 radio anymore; the major labels can’t hold it. It’s about Garage Band and Fruity Loops, Web 2.0 and iTunes. And that is okay with me.

Here’s to making music and sharing it with the people in our lives.

This post was written by Will Duke from SoundOps, the online mastering studio that helps take musicians through the process of mastering their tracks interactively through their revolutionary Online Studio Gateway. Check them out today and take your music to the next level. Contact Will at will.duke@soundops.com or visit his blog to learn more about indie audio mastering.

Tags: guest post, Music Marketing, soundops, will duke