You could reasonably argue that there have been better times to get into music retail. All the same, I’ve taken a very small step towards that this week on behalf of some New Zealand friends of mine who have recorded my favourite album of the past five years: The Overflow by Humphreys and Keen.
I was looking for a way to sell vinyl from my site. My friend (and fellow H&K fan) Owen had arranged a gorgeous limited edition vinyl pressing, cut at Abbey Rd studios in London, and I enthusiastically offered to do the online retail.
The sale of digital downloads was no problem whatsoever, because of Bandcamp. And yes, I’m an evangelist for Bandcamp – but with very good reason. It’s brilliant (and I’m on their board of advisors, if you need the disclaimer).
But having set up a physical online retail store in a completely different realm, I know that it’s not something to be taken lightly. It can be a mammoth task. But I have just one album to sell – and I wanted to do it from my personal website. I’m not building HMV or Tower Records here.
I have a new page here on New Music Strategies, which outlines some of the ways I can help musicians, and independent music businesses. Naturally, I’ve called it my Help page.
I was trying to think of a suitable picture to put at the top of that page, and I had a song stuck in my head. So I went to YouTube, found the video clip and embedded that straight in there.
But then I started to worry. Here I was using a song that was still under copyright on a page that is, for all intents and purposes, entirely commercial. In a way, I’m using the song a bit like a jingle. That can’t be right, can it?
I give a lot of speeches, presentations and talks at music industry events and in educational institutions. I’ll generally talk about whatever I’m asked to talk about, or whatever I happen to think is specific and relevant to the group of people I’m talking to.
Quite often, I’ll rewrite my speech on the day, as I get a clearer idea of who my audience is and what their specific concerns are. But every now and then, I get passionate enough about something to prepare a presentation in search of an audience.
I’ve pitched this to Popkomm, and I’ll pretty much say this to whoever’s listening. This is important, and it’s urgent.
An un-consultancy is a bit like a normal consultancy, but more grass-rootsy. A while back, I wrote a blog post that explains the origins of un-consultancies and the idea behind them.
Essentially, you get lots of good and targeted advice that’ll help you get to the next stage of your music business career – but as consultancy can sometimes be on the expensive side for independent artists and small businesses, this is a way to share that cost, but still get that one-on-one, face-to-face help.
If you’re going to be anywhere near the city on May 30th, it’d be really great to see you.
Andrew Dubber's New Music Strategies attempts to unpick and explain what’s going on in the online music environment - and from that, develop strategies to help independent musicians and music businesses cope and thrive in a changing media environment.
Go back through the New Music Strategies archives completely at random and discover things you may have missed, or remind yourself about things you may have forgotten. Click here to explore.
Although we don't always agree, you're always thought-provoking! Really like the site design, simple and effective, really like the articles. Now if only you could see things my way more often ;-)
Jeroen Bouwman, Business Development Director, Universal Music
Search
Get updates via RSS
Get New Music Strategies updates in your feed reader. Click the button.
Get updates via email
You can have New Music Strategies delivered straight to your inbox.