Bob Baker's The Buzz Factor

To all appearances, Nettwerk is just a midsize music management company with an indie record label on the side. Many of the artists on its client roster -- which includes Avril Lavigne, Dido, Sarah McLachlan, and Stereophonics -- are mainstream acts. But McBride, the company's cofounder and creative force, is quietly carrying out a plan to reinvent the music industry, including legalizing file-sharing and giving artists control over their own intellectual property.

Industry insiders like McBride think the old model is as antiquated as the 8-track. "The future of the business isn't selling records," McBride says. "It's in selling music, in every form imaginable."

"Nettwerk and BNL are trying to get people to see beyond the physical number. Generating revenue, especially in the artist-run model, is about selling music in various mediums, selling concert tickets, licensing music to TV, ring tones, packed USB drives, etc. That is how success is measured, not by the physical album sales.

"The artist-run model is the future. If we can break bands using this model, the industry will be forever changed," McBride says. "We are making a music company, not a record label."

Hey Bob, just got your Myspace Marketing book (already own the Guerrilla Marketing one) and am almost done with it. One possible addition for future editions would be this ...

There is a function called "Add Friend to Favorites" which is a sub-list you can create with some of your friends. I believe this can help with the two clashing schools of thought:

1) It's good to have a lot of friends because it makes you look more legitimate and popular.

2) It's better to have more quality friends that will actually listen to your music and potentially support you and buy your music.

If you find the friends that are most dedicated (the ones that comment and visit your page frequently) and add them to your favorites, you can keep them organized and separate from your "filler" friends who are just there to bump up your friend numbers. This makes it easier to target your true dedicated fans, while still keeping the advantage of a lot of friends.

When someone walks up and is thinking about buying, I am NOT into hardcore sales -- anything but. But if you understand what's going on, you can at least not scare them away. I've read a lot of books on sales (Zig Ziglar, etc.) and have gleaned what is relevant and appropriate -- and easy! -- for musicians in this context.

For example, and this is so obvious in hindsight: People buy music to benefit THEM. So 'casual' comments about how your album will benefit the customer will close lots of sales. You might say, "This album is really great when you need energy to clean the house," or "This is a kickin' dance album!" or (in my case) "This album is really great to listen to when you go to sleep," or "This album is really good for traffic jams."

Anything along these lines paints a picture in the customer's imagination of what it would FEEL like to own this music and how that would be a GOOD THING! That's when they get their wallets out.

Sunday night I got the idea for a song that would gain me expsoure with returning college students. Monday I wrote the song. Tuesday I recorded it. Wednesday I contacted the music director of the college radio station. Friday I delivered it to him, and by Saturday it was on the radio!

The only thing it takes to get your band out there is an idea, some focus, and an understanding of others and their needs.

MySpace, the social networking phenomenon, [will enter] into the crowded digital music business with the launch of an outlet that will allow artists to sell their music directly to consumers.

The service, which is based on technology from Snocap, a San Francisco-based digital music distributor, allows bands and other artists to upload their music to their MySpace profile pages.

Unlike the set pricing that has become the hallmark of the digital music industry, the service will allow for variable pricing. The artists can set the prices for their songs.

Selling music to your fans through MySpace should be just one of your revenue streams. The most effective musicians use MySpace as a funnel into their own web sites, street teams, and shopping carts. The sooner you can move folks off of any external platform and into your own database, the better you'll be in the long term. That way, if any one platform disappears overnight (like MP3.com did), you'll still have other ways to get support from your audience.