[…]Just remember…if the world didn’t suck, we’d all fall off.[…]…

IMHO, by far the most important first step is to get on myspace since that has critical mass globally with millions of concert listings and tiny bands. That automatically puts you on lots of aggregators too, like this: http://gruvr.com/city/Jakarta/

From there, bands can start building up fan-bases and you can engage them with messages, email alerts, etc. If you can get small numbers of people to your shows, you can even play the shows for very low cost but sell merchandise people can use at the shows…

This is a really interesting case study. I am no musician but I have a great interest in the music industry and its current evolution.

However, I am still struggling with understanding how a musician in the same predicament as Herdian can ensure that he will be able to monetize his future success. There has been many discussions on- & off-line that free music is the right thing for the consumers. But Herdian case shows a glimpse of an unsustainable business model, especially considering the global scale of the music business.

Let’s say Herdian offers his music online to the world. Will the net profit from conducting concerts and producing t-shirts or other complementary products be enough to sustain his opportunity loss of revenue from music sales? If he became highly successful, the answer is probably yes. But if he doesn’t reach the top level, he might have to struggle to run concert production and t-shirt sales or what have you. He can’t possibly go to various countries to entertain just a few paying listeners in each country.

I know the argument against pricing online music. But free music doesn’t seem to be the answer – albeit it is what the consumers want. Perhaps there is a middle ground where he prices his songs low enough for consumers to do impulse buying without having to resort to looking for the pirated version?

Would be interested to hear thoughts on this.

Cheers.

Arvisco still respect n support-
peace