Picture this…

A guy takes a girl out on a first date.  She’s dressed up, and he’s aiming to impress. They make polite conversation over a glass of wine while waiting for their food to arrive, and each feels a spark of hope for what may come. He gets up, as if to go to the bathroom, but instead bends down on one knee, revealing a ring inside a box and asking her to marry him.

Romantic, right?

She says no. She says it’s too soon, that she barely knows him, and she runs off – scared at how quickly he moved from an innocent conversation about where he was from, to asking her to spend the rest of her days by his side.

What Happened?

He moved too fast.  Yes, it’s romantic, and yes, the thought of skipping the arduous dating process and getting straight to “the point” is tempting, but she wasn’t ready.  She wanted to discover his quirks, she wanted to discover the dynamics of their relationship without the pressure of a looming wedding, and she wanted to savor the moments they had to come.  She wanted to take her time to decide, and he rushed her.

Um, So, Music, Hello?

How does this relate to music marketing, you ask? Simple.

Musicians ask for the sale before their fans have a chance to make up their mind.

Musicians rush the relationship, doing the music marketing equivalent of proposing on the first date.

So someone follows you on Twitter, great. Reach out and say “hello” or ask them how they found out about you. Start developing your relationship with them from there. Get to know them a bit, and let them get to know you. Jumping in to ask them to buy your latest single/t-shirt/concert ticket before you’ve ever shown that you care about them just defeats the purpose. They end up feeling like just another wallet and you end up seeming like just another self-centered, out to make a quick buck, musician.

So you have a Fan Page on Facebook. Great. Use it to show your fans what you’ve been up to. Don’t just post things and walk away – participate in the conversations taking place on a regular basis.

There’s a time and a place to ask for the sale. That time and place is not every day, nor is it during your first conversation with someone who has been kind enough to show interest in your work.

Give your fans and followers time. Respect the fact that building a relationships with a fan is the same in many ways as starting to date someone new.  There are surprises, there are common interests, there are laughs, and there is a bond that grows over time.

Making money from music isn’t about getting a bunch of people to buy your first album, then finding an entirely different group of people to attend your shows, then seeking an entirely new audience to buy your swag. Relationships aren’t about a bunch of first dates!

So, musicians. Don’t treat your fans like wallets with mouths and faces. Don’t propose to them on the first date.

Over the past few months I’ve noticed some debates happening about musicians and branding.  It seems that while some musicians “get” the fact that they (and their music) are a brand, others don’t.

I come down very clearly on one side, emphatically believing that every musician should think of themselves as a brand.

Why?

Think about what you’re selling. You’re selling a product you made, featuring… you. You’re selling yourself and you’re marketing yourself. You ARE a brand whether you like it or not, and you HAVE a brand whether you know it or not.

I get that it’s personal, and I get that it’s hard to step away from the music you create and see your brand for what it is.

But, it’s necessary. And here are some tips:

• Remember Your Roots Remember what you set out to create. What feelings did you want to inspire? What impressions did you want to leave your audience with? When you first started, how did you want your music to be remembered?
• Listen To Your Fans Go do a Google or Twitter search for yourself. Go back and read reviews of your albums, your shows, or your demos. What words are used to describe your music?
• Look Forward Music evolves just as people evolve.  If you’ve been creating music for a long time there’s a good chance that your sound has evolved from where it began.  Where are you now? What’s changed? Where do you see yourself going?

Through this exercise you should begin to get a good idea of what you set out to create, what you actually created, and what you want to create next.  Take a look at the results. Are they what you expected? Are there parts that you really like? What about the parts that you don’t like?

For the parts you like – set out to develop those.

Perhaps your fans really did you music, but they also really dig how you interact with them at a live show.  Find ways to incorporate more of that fan interaction across all of your activities. How can you make them more involved in the recording process? What about arranging meetups before you perform to actually sit and say hi to your fans? Are you connecting them with each other when you notice that they have something in common? How about sharing the love and helping to introduce them to other musicians you think they may like?

For the parts you don’t like – figure out how you can change them.

Do fans only seem to dig your uptempo songs, but not really be as into your ballads? If so, why? Asking them never hurt, but also, how can you work to evolve your craft? How can you get better and make your ballads just as good as your uptempo songs?

For everything you do – figure out where it fits into your brand.

Is it a natural extension? What about a complete departure? Can it help to evolve your craft? Can you make money off of it? How will your fans react? Think about these questions as you take on new projects, and don’t be afraid to explore.  Music is personal and the relationship between band members, as well as fans and artists go far beyond typical co-worker or brand/consumer relationships.  Remember that you’re a person, making things that connect with other people (and hopefully making a living off it!).  Don’t be afraid to evolve.

What about you? What side are you on in this debate? Are you a brand, or are you just a musician?

There’s been a lot of hand-wringing ever since this whole Internets thing started to pick up steam in the music industry. Namely, the recording industry has been fretting over what to do, and how to monetize this whole digital thing.

Ed note: The recording industry is a piece of the music industry – if you’re confused, go look here.

At first the Internets didn’t affect CD sales enough to actually bother anyone, so the strategy was “ignore, ignore, ignore”. The RIAA got all put bull and started bringing people to court over illegal downloading, screaming that the people who were doing the illegal downloading (or rather, sharing songs for others to illegally download) were  responsible for the current state of the recording industry.

Jump forward a few years and nothing really changed. The recording industry was still for the most part refusing to provide legal options to people who wanted to download music, so the public was still downloading illegally, delivering the Internets equivalent of a middle finger to the big bad RIAA, as well as the recording industry.

Then iTunes happened. Suddenly there was a very popular was to legally download music, and people started doing so. Voila, problem not yet solved, but hey – it was a start.

The thing is, the recording industry and the RIAA were now playing two sides, so to speak.  They were getting the revenues from the iTunes downloads, yet still screaming and suing.  The theme as it appeared to consumers was “You’re consuming music in the way you want to, and we’re starting to allow you to do that, but we really want our old way back as we made more money, so we’re still going to whine and complain.”

Businesses have to make money, I get it. Everyone gets it.

What many companies in the recording industry fail to realize though, is that their refusal to innovate and adopt new technologies was effectively a huge middle finger in the face of the consumer. That pissed consumers off.

At the end of the day the consumer wants the music – and we don’t necessarily care about the medium it comes on.  The limitation of choice is what really pisses people off, and that was a choice made by inaction within the recording industry.

Hello to a problem the recording industry helped create.

So today I ran across his gem of a quote on brand dna, and it got me thinking.

“I think records were just a little bubble through time and those who made a living from them for a while were lucky.

There is no reason why anyone should have made so much money from selling records except that everything was right for this period of time.

I always knew it would run out sooner or later. It couldn’t last, and now it’s running out. I don’t particularly care that it is and like the way things are going.

The record age was just a blip. It was a bit like if you had a source of whale blubber in the 1840s and it could be used as fuel.

Before gas came along, if you traded in whale blubber, you were the richest man on Earth.

Then gas came along and you’d be stuck with your whale blubber. Sorry mate – history’s moving along.

Recorded music equals whale blubber. Eventually, something else will replace it.”

The quote started me thinking about everything I wrote above. How if the THING you trade or sell suddenly is made obsolete, you need to figure out a new thing, a new product, or in this case, a new transportation method (from CDs to fiber optic cables).

Directly below the article was an “Open Letter from OK Go, Regarding Non-Embeddable YouTube Videos”.

Do yourself a favor and go read the entire article. It will take you a few minutes, but the letter is wonderfully written and really shows the evolution and struggle of many to monetize this whole Internets thing, while still delivering what fans want.

I’ve included a few excerpts below (emphasis mine), but really, you should go and read the entire article.

Believe us, we want you to pass our videos around more than you do, but, crazy as it may seem, it’s now far harder for bands to make videos accessible online than it was four years ago

The label fronts the money for us to make recordings – for this album they paid for us to spend a few months with one of the world’s best producers in a converted barn in Amish country wringing our souls and playing tympani and twiddling knobs – and they put up most of the cash that it takes to distribute and promote our albums, including the costs of pressing CDs, advertising, and making videos. We make our videos ourselves, and we keep them dirt cheap, but still, it all adds up, and it adds up to a great deal more than we have in our bank account, which is why we have a record label in the first place.

Let’s take a wider view for a second. What we’re really talking about here is the shift in the way we think about music. We’re stuck between two worlds: the world of ten years ago, where music was privately owned in discreet little chunks (CDs), and a new one that seems to be emerging, where music is universally publicly accessible. The thing is, only one of these worlds has a (somewhat) stable system in place for funding music and all of its associated nuts-and-bolts logistics, and, even if it were possible, none of us would willingly return to that world. Aside from the smug assholes who ran labels, who’d want a system where a handful of corporate overlords shove crap down our throats? All the same, if music is going to be more than a hobby, someone, literally, has to pay the piper. So we’ve got this ridiculous situation where the machinery of the old system is frantically trying to contort and reshape and rewire itself to run without actually selling music. It’s like a car trying to figure out how to run without gas, or a fish trying to learn to breath air.

So, for now, here’s the bottom line: EMI won’t let us let you embed our YouTube videos. It’s a decision that bums us out. We’ve argued with them a lot about it, but we also understand why they’re doing it. They’re aware that their rules make it harder for people to watch and share our videos, but, while our duty is to our music and our fans, theirs is to their shareholders, and they believe they’re doing the right thing.

Let me say it again – go read the entire article.

OK Go (or Gizmodo, I’m not sure which) then included the Vimeo video you can see below, and me being a blogger of course put it on this very blog (I dig the song and love the video, so go forth and view).

OK Go – This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

What’s the conclusion? Well, I’d say right now we’re all in agreement on something at least. There’s far less money to be made from selling CD’s then there was 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago. This Internets thing has thrown a major wrench in the recording industry operations, and labels are suffering.

Is there a solution? That remains to be seen. Companies like Topspin,  TuneCore, Involver, Kickstarter, ArtistData and others are coming out and helping artists (and labels!) better manage things in this whole Internet-driven economy, but these companies are still few and far between in the grand scheme of things. It’s progress, but is it the solution? I don’t think it is, at least not yet.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on things. Do you still buy CD’s? Do you download music from legal online sources? What trends do you see (for better or worse) in the recording industry??

Memories are powerful. Some songs play a leading role in certain memories, while others appear as a backup role.

I recently posted a question on my Twitter account (@misskatiemo) asking people what songs they associated with certain memories.  Their answers are below.

Carla Lynne Hall: “Crystal Blue Persuasion” by Tommy James and The Shondells because it reminds me of growing up in Miami, with its blue skies and sunny days. Whenever I hear it, I think of carefree days of being a kid, with all of the time in the world to just dream and play. Ahhh….

Prescott Perez-Fox:  When I hear “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles, I am wandering through a church yard in North London on my way to work.

Amy Garland:  Footloose – This was my favorite movie growing up (still is), and I always loved dancing to the end (prom scene). Whenever the song plays at a wedding, my sister and/or I try to get everyone to form two lines and take turns dancing down the middle (like the movie). This song always brings great memories from weddings, etc to mind!

Andrew Stugots:  New Years day 1999 my cousin and best friend in the world passed away after a life long battle with brain cancer. He was found laying in the parking lot of his job.  Phillip lived life as if it was his last day on earth and pushed others to do the same. A year later I met a seer, Jennifer. I never believed in this type of stuff but take it for what you will. Over dinner with others she leaned over to me and said “Phillip said to tell you “Don’t Dream It’s Over“. I sat there with my mouth agape, she continued “Yeah, he is just singing that song over and over again ‘Hey now, hey now, dont dream its over. There is freedom within, there is freedom without….” and then she said, he waved and walked away. The song still gives me goosebumps and will make me get teary eyed.

My own memory is along the line of Andrew’s.  Whenever I hear “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” or “Amazing Grace” I think of my Grandmother playing the piano as childhood versions of me and my younger sister bound up the stairs to her house.

Chris Brogan recently wrote about “Emotions At A Distance” – or, in other words, remembering that the people we connect and deal with from behind computer screens are just that – people.

It’s easy to get caught up in the nuances of your work from inside a practice room or behind a computer monitor. Not so easy when you’re performing your music in front of a crowd, or get recognized by a fan on the street.  Music connects people across age differences, language barriers, and continents.  Always remember that people have a choice to listen to your music, and that the music you create forms a very real part of the soundtrack of their lives.

What memories do you associated with music?

I recently had the pleasure of attending and speaking at the Social Fresh Cruise, an invite-only social media 4-day floating conference/cruise from Miami to Cozumel.

The cruise was part conference, part pure fun. I was one of eight speakers for the conference portion of the cruise, and spoke about “The Recording Industry is Screwed… Now What Do We Do?”

Why yes, I do like to stir the pot. Thanks for asking.

The 45-minute “speech” was more of an open discussion, prefaced by a bit of background about the industry.

The background centered around the alternatives that exist, allowing musician to carve their own paths and often times, decide IF they even want a record deal with a major label.

The discussion portion of the talk was the most valuable, and many people contributed their thoughts, opinions and experiences about the music and recording industires.

The discussion ranged from how research completed in the 80′s about how people would contribute and use the Internet is still relevant, from how one of the attendees favorite bands used Kickstarter to finance their projects.  Many of the attendees had their own experiences to share about connecting with artists on Twitter, and as we were on the cruise with Rick Springfield’s fan club, we ALL could see a real-life example about how connecting directly with an audience really works.

To talk a bit more about one of the best comments of the discussion, I’m going to jump back and discuss a bit about my personal tastes:

I REALLY like a great debate, and really enjoy people intelligently disagreeing with my opinions. As mentioned, the highlight of the talk came from one such comment by Lucretia Pruitt, who made the excellent point that the recording industry is experiencing what a lot of other industries go through when a seismic shift in their business model occurs. Hint: This shift for the recording industry begins with an “I” and rhymes with schminternet.

In general, innovation comes from the bottom up. The start-up, the smaller companies and the ones that have “less to lose” take the “risk” and innovate. They try out new things, see what works and adopt that into their strategy. The bigger more entrenched companies usually wait to see if what the smaller guys do works. If so, they copy it and make it part of their business. Less risk with potentially the same rewards.

Now, I’m not saying that this is an absolute, but it’s certainly a trend.

The difference with the music industry, is that the “big guys” have fought against this change for the better part of a decade, instead of embracing it and trying to innovate from the beginning.  From a PR perspective, that decision has caused a huge problem for the public image of the music industry.  In many people’s minds, it is now “us vs. the music industry”, especially “us vs. the RIAA”.

I’m thrilled to see some of the “big guys” waking up and beginning to realize that the “stick my head in the sand” approach is NOT a smart move, but they must do this while remembering that consumer perception is still a huge concern.

I have much more to say on this topic, and am starting with a conversation today at 3:30PM EST/ 12:30PM PST where I’ll be participating in an un-panel on SnazL with Mary McKnight (EMI, Sacrilicious Marketing) and Mike Fabio (Warner Bros. records).

Join the un-panel and upload a video, share photos or chat to participate.

This photo provided by designwallah under a Creative Commons License

In the midst of my “4P’s of Marketing” series, I thought a dose of reality, aka “what this all means for me in the real world” would be helpful.

For those that know me personally, you undoubtedly know that I think the world is a very small place.  From running into the first person I met at college while on the tram at Gatwick airport, to meeting a co-worker’s girlfriend at a bar who has worked with my uncle (a professional photographer) before, this theory has been proven over and over again.

It was again proven true last night, when I met Andrew from Half Fiction. One of the three partners is a guy by the name of Sage, and in addition to having at least one person in common through a few degrees of separation (See? Small world!), he is the inspiration for this post.

Sage is involved with a number of projects, one of which is Ready Fire Aim.  Kind enough to send me their electronic press kit, I took a stroll around the RFA website and happened upon this blog post.

By way of a preface, I write from the perspective of a marketer who has been obsessed and involved (the playing and listening kind, not creepy ‘involved’ romantically kind) with music her entire life.  Sage’s perspective is that of a performer, and someone making a living off of their art. Excerpts provided below (emphasis mine), but you really should go read the whole thing here.

….I am going to say however that it is seriously hard fucking work rehearsing non stop and trying to work to pay the bills and have any kind of personal life at all. I call it rockstar 2.0–all work and very little play.

The days of letting the label do all the work while the artist gets fucked up, throws TVs out the window of expensive hotel suites and does irreparable damage to the room are long gone. GOOD RIDDANCE. The middle man is no longer required. What is required is that every band leader think like a brand manager. That every artist must also come correct with an unlimited supply of elbow grease and a multi-tool in his/her back pocket is also a given, but the truth is that no amount of work on the part of the artist can compensate for one crucial factor–the only thing that REALLY TRULY MATTERS regardless of label support, management, agenting or directing from ‘on high’–THE FANS and their support.

In the last 2 weeks for some strange reason I have been contacted by more people who are saying that they have bought or want to buy my record, love the music and listen to it all the time and are telling all their friends about it than in the last 2 years combined… Not only does this make me want to keep working, it makes me want to please my fans. It makes me want to work harder longer and more intensely to make them happy and keep making music-music they laugh, cry, dance, make out, have sex, meet/break up with boyfriends and girlfriends, cook dinner, drive and dance in their undies lip-synching into their hairbrush to. In other words, music to live life to–a partner/soundtrack to whatever it is that they are doing. The digital revolution makes that possible...

In a perfect world there would be no free downloading and I would be paid a fair wage for my work. Music is free and a whole generation now thinks of their media as a portable, constitutional, God ordained, inalienable right. You can either play a Lars Ulrich… or you can adapt, roll with the change-by-the-hour tide of technology and figure out a way to get people to WANT to pay you… I’m not sure why or how that is going to happen en masse but for my part as long as i can continue to engage my fans on a one-to-one level and initiate real contact between artist and consumer of art (fan has egomaniacal connotations to me so I’m going to try and stop using it) who is a REAL person on the other end of the phone, keyboard or social media platform then I will consider myself a successful artist.

…That means that the labels really ARE irrelevant as long as I outsource carefully and creatively certain aspects of the business to individuals who know how to do that better than me. That means that the fat bloated days of rockstar entitlement to bad behavior, mountains of drugs and waiting rooms of young women (and the fat bloated middlemen who plied them with it all so they could ROB THEM BLIND while they were drunk, high and fucking their brains out in extravagant hotels they were unwittingly paying for) are gone for good–replaced with the leaner meaner rockstar 2.0 approach of DIY ingenuity and hard work, the very things that made America great. See rock and roll IS America. Rock and Roll has become what our parents and grandparents did to put food on the table and roofs over our heads–just another job. It’s come full circle to being willing to do the work, play the game and write the songs that make the whole world sing from some ‘Alice down the rabbit hole’ wanderland that it has been for the last 4 decades.

In the end it all comes down to one person reaching out and touching another (consensually of course) and the honest exchange of some dollars for doughnuts as my dad would say, and to that end, my dear reader YOU are the most important part of the equation-not me. And so on this, the moment before I go and play the most strategically critical show of my life, the one for which I have rehearsed for 15 years I want to thank you for not only reading my drivel but for buying my music, telling your friends, for dancing mostly naked in front of mirrors and writing to tell me about it. YOU give me a reason to keep working non-stop all day and night, sweating my tits off in a shoebox rehearsal space at 10 in the morning 3 times a week after staying up til 4am editing and posting videos on my 20+ social media platforms. . . and for that I am EXTREMELY grateful! IT’S A BEAUTIFUL THING.

In case you’re too lazy to click on the blog post, Sage posts Beautiful Thing as a track at the end of the entry. Listen here.

What’s the point?

The point is that it’s about the music and the fans… it’s ALWAYS been about the music and the fans. For awhile, the business got in the way. Now? The business model is broken, and it’s back to the music and the fans.

Go through and read about how to figure out what your product is, how to price it (that post was a struggle to write), and then learn about where to put it and how to market it… but relate it to your life. Relate it to your art, and make it work for you.

Check this out.

I’d love to see a band do this with samples of their own music.

Chop up their music and let their fans “remix” their songs. The best fan-remixed submissions could be featured on a digital compilation.

Now there’s an idea…

Earlier this summer, my ears perked up when I heard about a presentation slotted for Alabama’s Social South Conference.  The presentation, delivered by Mack Collier, was entitled “What Rockstars Can Teach You About Social Media”, and naturally, the topic grabbed my attention.

Straight from the man himself:

The presentation centers around one key question; Why do rockstars have ‘fans’, and companies have ‘customers’?  In the end, it all goes back to how rockstars approach the people that buy their products.  They WANT to interact with them, they WANT to embrace them, they WANT to be like them.

Well now. That’s an interesting take on things.

Here’s the slide deck from his presentation:

What Rockstars Can Teach You About Kicking Ass With Social Media

His commentary revolves around 4 principles:

1. Rockstars are fans themselves
2. Rockstars look for ways to shift control to their fans
3. Rockstars find ‘The Bigger Idea”
4. Rockstars embrace their fans

You know what I think is the most interesting thing about his presentation? It’s all true.

Whether “big business” realizes it or not, Rockstars (of all shapes and sizes) have been using social tools to connect, empower and motivate their audiences for years. To many “it’s just what’s done” – to others “I have to because everyone else is doing it, too”.

Even though social media has gone mainstream for big business, I urge musicians to avoid getting caught up in the “tools of the trade” back and forth.

Who cares that you’re on MySpace if you’re not using it as a platform to connect with fans, spread the (viral) word about your music and increase your audience?

Why should I read your tweets on Twitter if all you do is talk about yourself? Is that really an effective use of the platform?

Am I supposed to be impressed by how many fans you have on Facebook?

What matters to me, and what should matter to you, is how connected I feel to you. What should matter to you is how empowered I feel to talk about you, to suggest others listen to your music, buy your schwag or attend your concert. What absolutely should matter to you is how motivated I am to do those same things myself.

What I want is you. I don’t want your Facebook fan page. I don’t want your MySpace profile. I don’t want your tweets.

I want you. I want your music. I want to feel like I’m a unique snowflake in your blizzard of fandom.

Focus on making me feel like I’m that unique snowflake and I’ll go to your Facebook page. I’ll visit your MySpace profile and pore over your photos and music. I’ll follow your Tweets (and if I’m especially motivated, I’ll even ReTweet them).

It’s never been about the tools. It’s about the goals and the results. The tools are just a path to get me there.

So Rockstars – continue thinking like Rockstars. Continue wanting to connect with me, engage me in conversation, and motivate me to action. Know that business has a thing or two to learn from you, and they’re beginning to realize it.

Thanks to a friend, I just ran across a brilliant article on Lefsetz Letter, written by Bob Lefsetz.

The article is a bit long, so here’s a quick synopsis:

Motorola created a hit with the RAZR in 2003, but neglected to keep up with technology trends as users began to demand more than just good looks from their mobile devices.  Motorola now has a small market share and is in absolute turmoil. Jump to media (back in 1949) and the beginning of widespread TV. NBC invested, and lost, money hand over fist in the new medium, gambling that it would pay off in the future. It did. Music experienced a similar crisis beginning in the 1990′s when music began moving from CD’s to MP3′s and a service you may have heard of called Napster came out.

However, instead of investing money hand over fist in the new medium and adapting, rather than digging in their heels, the music industry has been partying like it’s 1999 since…. 1999.  Radiohead moved on from EMI and has made quite the tidy sum in their self-directed path.

The artists that are still with the labels are whining becuase they’re not making any money, yet everyone (ok, most people) are still stuck in the old business model. Key? This model doesn’t work anymore.  It’s the business equivalent of trying to paint a room with a hammer. Pretty ridiculous.

Here’s where the article gets interesting (even more interesting, I mean).

Don’t focus on albums, focus on fan relationships.  A dedicated fan will want all the material, in whatever form it can be acquired.  He’s going to want the bootleg and the authorized live performance.  When you give away music, you don’t lose money, you invest in your future!

The Internet is the new medium.  It’s not only killed physical retail, it’s put a huge dent in radio and now television.  To try to corral people into old behaviors is as fruitless as getting people to refrain from buying televisions in 1949.

We live in an attention economy.  How can you get someone’s attention and keep it?  Advertising doesn’t work.  And train-wrecks and spectacles get no repeat viewing.  You’ve got to start small and honest, the antithesis of major media, who try to dun us into paying attention with their saturation advertising campaigns. HELLO!  WE’RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION!

Who says the revenue generating transaction must be for recorded music on a disc.  Didn’t Radiohead sell an expensive collectible box of “In Rainbows” two years ago?  Why aren’t labels selling collectives on everything?  Because people don’t want a collectible of the crap being purveyed on Top Forty, it’s got no intrinsic value.

These three short paragraphs make me want to stand up and applaud.  If you read the words above through the old, broken music marketing business model, you’ll think “We’re screwed”.

HOWEVER, read the above without the assumption that you have to make money by selling your music (the A –> B relationship).  Open up your mind to exploring other possibilities (here’s where I mention Mos Def’s t-shirt again.).

I’ll say it plainly – focus on your fans.

Focus on your true fans, you know who they are. They’re the ones standing in line at 4am (or overnight, depending on how big you are) to get tickets to your show. They’re the ones who buy every CD, t-shirt and coffee mug you plaster your gorgeous face across. They’re the ones who write you letters (or emails), or post on your forum, comment on your blog or wait in line to get your autograph at a show.

Your fans, your TRUE fans, are the ones that will save their money to buy your shit, whether it’s your music in digital or printed form, your schwag, or a chance to spend time with you.

Save your time trying to reach the masses and getting them to care and instead start to focus on your niche that already does care.

Go ahead, argue with me and tell me that doesn’t make sense.