Three Reasons I Stopped Writing Audible Hype.
Posted by Justin Boland on May 08, 2008 | 11 comments
1. “New Business Models” Are For Rich People. The biggest disconnect between my theory and practice was this: here in reality, 95% of our planning doesn’t mean shit and never will. Most things will not work out, unseen factors always blindside you, and our assumptions are usually wrong. Don’t misconstrue me, I’m not throwing a philosophical tantrum, just saying that the only real “business model” you and I need to worry about is the one that’s randomly happening right now.
We work with what we have. What we have is seldom enough to work with, so we compensate by learning new skills, working as hard as possible, and maximizing the resources we do have.
2. Marketing is Simple and Boring as Fuck. I am a compulsive autodidact and the music business is hardly the first subject I’ve built my entire life around. Like most of the subjects I get into, there’s not a ton of depth to the field of marketing—seriously, you read a couple Jay Levinson’s books and you’re as well-prepared as any “expert” you’ll run into. They’ll be able to quote a lot more people than you, but you’ll both have the same toolkit for actually getting things done.
Seth Godin writes very short books for a very simple reason: there’s not a hell of a lot to say aside from “Work Hard and Work Smart.” Success in any business is more dependent on who you know than what you know—online reading can only help you so much.
3. Audible Hype is Redundant in Current Form. There’s already a New Music Strategies, and there’s already a Music Think Tank, and the fundamentals of the DIY daily hustle haven’t changed much since back when Derek Sivers was starting CDbaby. The technology has—our economy has—but the importance of playing good shows, making good music, and building good fan relationships has not changed. (Neither has the basic need for outstanding talent.)
So I’m going to be converting Audible Hype to more of a knowledge resource than a news or music marketing blog. The tone will become much more personal and specific: I write for DIY hip hop entrepreneurs. Apparently it’s useful to a wider audience, too, which I’m grateful for—but Audible Hype will be a much more focused project from here.
UP NEXT: You will absolutely never read about Music 2.0 on Audible Hype again. If there is a new model, great: people with more money and connections than us will implement it, and the world will be a better place for all musicians. What I can tell you about is what I know about, and that’s World-Around Records, the label/anarchist hip hop collective I work for. I’ll be providing a detailed work at the machine we’ve built, what works for us, and the open-ended questions we’re still wrestling with on a daily basis.
Thanks for your patience.
11 Comments
1 rafi says...
Damn, you just rendered my planned critique of music business advice sites totally unnecessary.
Posted at 12:11 p.m. on May 9, 2008
2 Justin Boland says...
^^I'd still like to read it, though.
Posted at 12:25 p.m. on May 9, 2008
3 Bruce Warila says...
Right on. I am working on a post that I'm thinking about calling - The Death of DIY - Stop looking for answers...Nothing will really matter but the music.
However, you are contradicting yourself a bit. The "model" that I believe in, is the model you are following with World-Around Records. Doing what you are doing with WAR is the only thing I can get behind right now. If I were writing a business plan, investing money or advising investors, I would say - stay away from stand-alone artists and invest in groups/collectives/labels/consortiums/franchises, but not stand-alone artists or bands.
Stand-alone artists are not, and can barely be entertaining on the Internet. Clusters of artists can. The person that can figure out the "model" - how to cluster artists and make it all work, will be creating a real business.
Looking forward to hearing more about World Around Records. This is - BTW - the best thing you could be writing about...It's a great model.
Posted at 1:21 p.m. on May 9, 2008
4 Justin Boland says...
Well, I agree with you...we were lucky with World-Around Records, though. I look back at the past year of our operation, and it was mostly formalizing informal networks that grew organically and mostly by accident.
We were fortunate to have a very robust network of committed and very talented people. But I can't pretend this was all some master plan on our part.
Posted at 5:08 p.m. on May 9, 2008
5 adrew says...
Andrew
Posted at 7:38 p.m. on May 9, 2008
6 Dragonfish Killswitch says...
Good points all around, looking forward to hearing about where your at with the label. Glad you're back 37!
Posted at 3:42 a.m. on May 12, 2008
7 Julian Moore says...
I hear you. Good luck with the new direction.
Posted at 7:43 a.m. on May 12, 2008
8 Bruce Houghton says...
Welcome back. I missed ya. Can't wait to hear........
Posted at 6:11 p.m. on May 15, 2008
9 DMLH says...
Looking forward to hearing more about your practical reality experience man, what you are doing is interesting in and of itself and reporting on whats actually happening in your corner is probably the best thing any new media journalist can be doing right now. anyway the "music business" is so 20th century....
Posted at 10:09 p.m. on May 16, 2008
10 Matt @ Kurb says...
I totally disagree with your 3rd point, the first part anyway.
I think you of all people had a unique voice in the niche.
Dubbers great and all but he's an academic. You wrote about real life for musicians, when you told people NOT to play every gig, that was massive.
Look forward to hearing more from you, man.
Posted at 9:53 a.m. on May 17, 2008
11 scottandrew says...
Agree with others above; I hope you'll continue posting.
Posted at 7:38 a.m. on May 27, 2008