Music Business and Trend-Mongering

Myself and Dave Franz interviewed some folks when we were at the SXSW music conference last month. Take a look at the two-part video interview here

Following hot on the heels of No Depression’s announcement that they were closing up shop, Harp Magazine, another one of my favorites, announced this AM that they too were ceasing publication.

From my old contact there, Jake Flack:

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I am very sorry to tell you that, effective March 20, 2008, I will no longer be the Associate Publisher of Harp. Because of the declining revenues and increasing costs related to print publishing, Harp is discontinuing publishing as of that date. The March/April issue (with Dave Grohl on the cover) will be the last issue printed and distributed. The company is shutting down operations and will not be publishing the May issue.

It’s been my distinct pleasure to work with all of you. For the past five years I’ve been very fortunate to work with so many wonderful people who are dedicated to putting out and promoting great music. I’ve always felt that Harp provided a first class platform for giving independent music a voice that otherwise might not have been heard. We were able to do that because our advertisers shared that vision.

I apologize for the mass email but time dictates this rather impersonal notice. Best of luck to everyone and thank you so much for everything!

Jake

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It’s always a drag to see another positive entity in the music business go down, but I suppose I am not incredibly surprised. When I think of the parties and folks at SXSW that made an impression on me, much of it was online focused: Ioda’s party on 6th and Red River, Imeem’s event, the Ourstage folks, and so on. Similar to mid-level indie labels, I think mid-level music print mags are in for a tough haul, in particular those that are not making a serious push for online business. Online businesses with marketing dollars prefer to spend it on online advertising: certainly keyword buys, but also newsletter affiliation, banner ads, and contextual marketing. With online marketing, you can pinpoint exactly how successful a particular campaign is, and more importantly, online marketing folks know that it is easier to attract someone that is already online than it is to to attract someone that is offline. To survive these days, Harp and others need to monetize their online efforts by creating an online community, that A) folks want to be part of, and B) advertisers see value in.

Those that are not evolving are going to be left behind…

Whew. Just got back from one of the largest music conferences in the world – SXSW (South By South West) in Austin, TX. It’s like a musical wonderland down there. I was floored by Earthless, These are Powers, A Place to Bury Strangers, Chuck Prophet, Mark Kozelek, Brad Barr, The Peasantry, and in particular, Monotonix, which might have put on one of the most ridiculous/riveting performance I have ever seen. Check them out:

I suppose that seeing good music at SXSW is a given, but now that I am back and catching up with my RSS feeds and emails, it’s a little surprising for me to see that some folks have an opinion that SXSW is a waste of time for bands, the business has changed in such a way that the industry folks in attendance don’t make a difference anymore, and that the conference is so crowded there is little chance that bands can make any impact anyway.

To me, that’s a bit of a close-minded and jaded way to look at things.

It might be true that the major label A&R folks that are at SXSW are interested in locking bands into 360 deals that are likely not in the best interest of artists. But from a promotional and business standpoint, there are fantastic opportunities. We all know the Internet has changed everything about the business – sales, distribution, and how music is discovered. Commercial radio has fizzled as a means to expose folks to new music, having been replaced by blogs and online music communities. And the blogs have been in full effect at SXSW. Sean Moeller runs a tremendous music blog/site called Daytrotter, and he’s been holed up at Big Orange Studios in Austin the whole week recording exclusive live sets and interviews with folks like Peter Bjorn, from Peter Bjorn and John, Kaki King, and Johnathan Rice. The notion that there is too much competition at SXSW is discounted by that fact that the Internet allows the new breed of tastemakers to bring SXSW to you. All it takes is one blogger writing about your performance to make an impact on hundreds or thousands of folks immediately, both through editorial and multimedia content.

It always comes back to the music. If your music kills and you work hard, good things will happen. Berklee put on a show on Friday afternoon at Friends on 6th street, where my good friend and Berklee alum Brad Barr performed. Brad played a beautiful Townes Van Zandt-inspired set (to my ears) of original music. Directly after the show, Brad was approached to play a solo set at the High Sierra Music Festival in California next year, as well as an opportunity to play Middlebury College. Cory Brown, the founder of artist-friendly Absolutely Kosher records, was in attendance too, rocking out to The Peasantry. It’s tough for me to see how these things could be viewed as anything but positive for Brad and The Peasantry.

Barry Kelly, Dave Franz, and myself shot some video interviews with heavy hitter forward thinking industry folks while we were down in Austin. I’ll post a link when we have the piece edited all together.