It's Time to Evolve...

Last summer Kanye West was coming off the most embarrassing moment of his career and very disappointing album reviews from 808’s and Heartbreak.  After a stint of radio silence he emerged with a perfectly executed comeback.  Kanye started a blog and took to Twitter, corresponding this kickoff with a visit to the Twitter offices and providing a private show for a handful of employees that took to the net, virally. Word spread quickly and tweets such as “Sorry Taylor” quickly propelled him to millions of followers on Twitter.  Kanye then started releasing free music each week on his website, yes, FREE.  What a concept !  Whoever was advising him realized the buzz from Twitter and free music was going to build morale with his fans and do more for him than any main stream marketing campaign would.  This coincided with a major shift in the music world: sometimes its just better to give this stuff away.  Artists like Drake and Mike Posner didn’t have record deals, but each released multiple albums privately and spread it virally on the internet FOR FREE.  Now both have deals and are wildly successful. 

Major media companies better start to understand, artists can do it without you.  The internet and social media gives everyone a stage, no matter what your talent is, you can showcase it on the net.

Media companies haven’t gotten the message that they are slowly becoming extinct.  Senate Bill 978 the, “illegal streaming” bill, has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee and is looking to make it a federal offense to publicly perform “copyrighted work”.  That means the YouTube sensation Keenan Cahill would be in jail right now, federal prison to be exact. The influence behind this bill are major record companies and such, who want it to prevent others from “profiting off of their copyrighted material”.  This begs the question… who is really profiting ?

Keenan Cahill was some goofy 15-year-old kid who filmed videos of himself lip syncing to pop music.  His most successful video, with a guest appearance from 50 Cent, has almost 35 million views on YouTube.  The strangest part is artists HAVE embraced it!  Tons of artists have stood up to do videos with him, and they obviously see the buzz he’s invoking. The divide between the artists and their record labels continued this week as Drake came out against a ‘cease and desist’ order that Universal records has ordered on two leaked songs of his. Drake, more than anyone, understands the power of the internet and knows that it does a lot more for him than Universal Records ever will.

Does Universal Records have a billboard on the side of a highway that generates more than 35 million guaranteed views, for free? What makes someone more likely to purchase 50 Cent’s song? A person never hearing it, or someone loving it after watching a ridiculous Youtube video.

Rihanna’s 'What’s My Name’ music video has over 186 million views on YouTube.  Its unknown the revenue that the video is generating from advertising for both YouTube and Rihanna, but I can guarantee it is substantial.  Its been published by her record company so there is some kind of agreement between the record company and YouTube.  This is the sort of revenue generation that wouldn’t have existed 5 years ago. 

Music has evolved, the internet has evolved, and people have evolved.  Record companies are never going to stop every person who pirates music and every 16-year-old who films themselves lip-syncing on YouTube.  So instead, why can’t we embrace it?  Evolve your marketing and improve your sales approach to generate sales, don’t restrict your listening base.  Record Companies could have online contests to promote lip-syncing videos and cover bands of their music, because in 2011 its time to understand that viral drives growth.  Everything is viral now.  In 2000, Metallica sued the popular file-sharing website Napster.  We now sit eleven years later, and have Hip Hop’s biggest artist giving away his music for free.  This is a good change, this is what drives a connection with your fans.  A bill such as the one being discussed in this article which will restrict individual’s access to music only stems creativity, and we’ll ultimately only hurt record companies in the future.

Drake may have said it best in his track Forever…. “Everybody got a deal, I did it without one…"  When big companies alienate their customers, it always catches up. It’s time to evolve.

Image Source: sandrarose.com