What the Music Industry Could Learn From Digital Marketing by Jennifer Hanser

The article What The Music Industry Could Learn From Digital Marketing by Jennifer Hanser explores the impacts of the digital revolution on the music industry and the effects of this new distribution system on musicians and their fans. Several key marketing concepts are discussed such as the importance for musicians to connect with fans in meaningful ways that can be used to create lasting relationships. One of the current challenges that stands in the way of musicians easily connecting with their fans is the fragmented marketplace that consumers frequent to purchase or stream new music content. It is increasingly difficult for musicians to track when or where new fans might have heard new music and follow up by outreaching to those fans on the basis of wanting to build a lasting relationship. Digital tracking is starting to become more complex and shift this trend, in the future it wouldn’t be too far fetched to imagine that for a flat fee a musician will be able to better connect with fans across multiple internet outlets and better track the people who support your act.

The ability for an artist to create new content that resonates with a large audience is the challenge for the 21st century musician. Finding ways of connecting with your audience that stretches beyond the just the music you create will ultimately lead your fans to become more loyal followers of anything you may choose to do as a creator. Taking this approach solidifies the current model artist are taking by posting content that adds value to an artist ‘brand name’ as a whole rather than just one album release or what you had for lunch on Facebook. The internet has done a great thing by highlighting the fact that there are just not that many people who are capable of creating content that could be considered of professional quality that consumers demand. This is not to say that there is a limited number of creators (there are more now than ever before) but they are still far outnumbered by the vast majority of internet users who are focused on information consumption rather than creation. 

A hindrance to the current system as Hanser points out is that often times the content that reaches the most people online has been backed up by sponsors and financial investment, making it ever more difficult to break through the ‘noise’ the internet has created in its wake for the typical musician. Today’s aspiring music artist has to earn the respect of a record company in order to sign a deal, this is done by demonstrating their is demand for your talent. The world is shifting to a ‘what can you do for me now’ attitude and advances for artist development are becoming increasing risky and rare for music investors. It may seem more like an uphill battle than ever for the aspiring musician or creator to ‘break’ and become recognized. Armed with knowledge and the willingness to innovate todays artist have the ability to impact more lives than ever with their creative aspirations. Understanding how to utilize new thinking in areas like social media, video websites, personal websites, and personal branding will pave the way for the future of the music industry. Being able to network with your audience and self-promote are extremely important and building lasting personal relationships will ultimately set an artist on a trajectory of success.

Hanser concludes her article with a great analogy that every artists life is like a constant movie and it is up to them to get the ‘sync’ license for their own show. I really think this statement hits the nail on the head for what an innovative artist should keep in mind. New artists, like Hanser suggests, will have to innovate more than ever to satisfy their music fans and create new content that grabs and keeps their attention at least long enough till you can create more new content that also gets attention. A shift has already taken place in the music industry where live performance is a larger business than the record industry. An innovative artist will recognize that it is still their responsibility to entertain fans at live shows and should spend their time accordingly practicing their instrument and building their chops so they can astonish audience members and earn the respect of new music fans.