Music is so internet-centric because iPods consume bits and because of music’s younger demographic, iTunes, and torrents. It stretches to say that Apple pushed music into the domain of the legitimate internet, but only a little. Amazon is trying to do the same with print media via its Kindle.

Reading digits and hearing digits are the lingua franca of the internet. Right now, you are reading digits. So writers need to also develop direct-to-audience strategies.

This point is discussed at sfsignals in a post titled Mindmeld: how has the internet impacted book selling? (A wordy title. Ick. Who wrote that?) In any case, a quote from Lou Anders, editorial director of Pyr, an Imprint of Prometheus Books:

I agree firmly with Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow that the best advertisement for a book is the book itself and that everyone (or most everyone) has a threshold point - a certain page count - at which they give up reading online and purchase the physical book, whether that’s three chapters or three-quarters of the way in! (With me, it was a third of the way in to Michael Swanwick’s The Iron Dragon’s Daughter.) All of which is to say that I am very down with the net as a tool for promoting reading.

Reciprocity and curiosity are two innate qualities that Artists must leverage in order to successfully self-promote and generate income. How? If your audience is coming to you, what can they buy?

Also, make them want to return. Always leave them wanting more.

Seth Godin writes brilliantly insightful stuff. I highly recommend his blog. He articulates the concept of promotion with striking clarity:

Nobody says, “That Yo Yo Ma, he’s so self-promotional,” or, “can you believe what a self-promoter the Dalai Lama is?” That’s because they’re not promoting themselves. They’re promoting useful ideas. They’re promoting tactics or products that actually benefit the person they’re reaching out to.

Paris Hilton is a self-promoter. You don’t get any benefit out of her appearances other than temporary entertainment value and some schadenfreude.

I wish I had written that.

Promotion is a simple, and often repetitive, declaration of benefit. It is an act of branding. I might promote this blog - pwnership.com - in the following manner:

Pwnership. Pithy commentary about the internet and the Artist. Insight wrapped with humor, a sense of hope and possibility. Artists can find validation and income on the web. Pwnership.com discusses how.

The interview between Thom Yorke and David Byrne is a must read for any artist contemplating how to make a living. The money - big money - quote:

Byrne: Are you making money on the download of In Rainbows?

Yorke: In terms of digital income, we’ve made more money out of this record than out of all the other Radiohead albums put together, forever — in terms of anything on the Net. And that’s nuts. It’s partly due to the fact that EMI wasn’t giving us any money for digital sales. All the contracts signed in a certain era have none of that stuff.

For any artist, the closer the connection to the audience, the greater that natural reciprocity creates significant income. Close connection to the audience. That’s the secret.

Mr. Head struck pay dirt. He built he audience over the years. Then he sold direct. A simple model. For him, it rained clover.

David Byrne, in his Wired Magazine article, makes the following point:

So what happens when online sales eliminate many of these expenses? Look at iTunes: $10 for a “CD” download reflects the cost savings of digital distribution, which seems fair — at first. It’s certainly better for consumers. But after Apple takes its 30 percent, the royalty percentage is applied and the artist — surprise! — is no better off.

Not coincidentally, the issues here are similar to those in the recent Hollywood writers’ strike. Will recording artists band together and go on strike?

Musicians do not have a union, they do not go on strike. They might avoid a Baseball-like catastrophe to their product. But they also would miss out on the chance taken in big steps with each new contract. As a group, musicians have the opportunity to chose alternatives to record labels.

Consumers substitute. Consumers like better stuff. Consumers like cheaper stuff. The first part to moving away from record labels lies in the simple better+cheaper recipe.

Distribution and publicity are two remaining large needs to work away from labels. The internet is rapidly and radically changing the ability to either self-source or out-source those skills.

Several great links today. I’ll have comments later, but wanted to post them here to start. First off, thanks to Cory at Boing Boing for discussing Wired Magazine’s David Byrne’s Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists - and Megastars.

Money Quote from David Bryne:

So I have seen this business from both sides. I’ve made money, and I’ve been ripped off. I’ve had creative freedom, and I’ve been pressured to make hits. I have dealt with diva behavior from crazy musicians, and I have seen genius records by wonderful artists get completely ignored. I love music. I always will. It saved my life, and I bet I’m not the only one who can say that.

What is called the music business today, however, is not the business of producing music. At some point it became the business of selling CDs in plastic cases, and that business will soon be over. But that’s not bad news for music, and it’s certainly not bad news for musicians. Indeed, with all the ways to reach an audience, there have never been more opportunities for artists.

Scanning the article further, there is reference to I Think Music, a great web site for any musician.

Thoughts later. Right now, I remember my older brother dressing up like David Byrne from Stop Making Sense for Holloween, and scaring me, because I was 7 at the time and because he dork-danced.