Can The Internet Save You From Yourself?
As we finally put the Y2K scare to rest, (even though I would
be happy if the bank accidentally deposited a million dollars
into my account), most artists are still living in the imaginary
world of what the internet can do for them at this stage of
their career.
One of my favorite topics for discussion these days is their
misperception about the internet. And boy is there a lot of
it. Primarily stemming from all the “fish stories” out there.
Believe me, I have heard all the rumors, hype, half-truths
and the big whooping lies about artists getting hundreds of
thousands of hits, thousands of downloads a day which translated
into tens of thousands of CD sales and major labels rushing
to offer these new “net successful artists,” a million dollars
a year. If you believe this stuff, start hitting your head
against the wall to clear your brain. Then focus your vision
on reality.
Once you have your vision back and your head clear, lets
talk about what is reality and what’s not:
Artists that tell you they get hundreds or thousands of
hits on their sites a day are probably not lying to you. They
just don’t know what they are talking about! People visiting
your site are not measured by hits but by “unique visitors”.
One person coming to your site watching your web site download
can add up to hundreds of hits. How? Hits are based upon the
pieces of information viewed on the various pages of the site.
I know a band that gets over 100, 000 hits a day. Translation,
12 people a day looking at their site.
Artists that tell you they have thousands of free downloads
a day must be paying a good amount of money to their server.
Simply because they would have to have large storage areas
on the servers to process the thousands of visitors a day.
If you know of an artist who have thousands of downloads a
day, there are a few small companies who would like to learn
from them (Liquid Audio, MP3.com, Amazon.com, etc.).
One of my fav stories, the thousands of CD sales connected
to the “internet only” promotion. Sure your internet presence
will translate into sales in conjunction with your off line
efforts but if these “free downloads” translated into big
sales, why is it not happening for the artists on MP3.com?
They have had (according to them) over 900,000 downloads (but
to my understanding) less then 1 percent of the people who
downloaded a track buy the CD of that artist from them. Even
a well known band, who shall remain nameless, (even though
you obviously know who it is), claims 3 millions CD sales
from internet only promotion. Liquid Audio had 30,000 downloads
for the group. What a deal. Each one of the people who downloaded
the song bought 100 CDs. Those are quality fans!
Lets be honest about major labels. One, they are afraid of
internet savvy artists. Two, if you are having this much success
with the “net”, why are you giving away your music and your
money to someone else who doesn’t understand how to use it?
The long and short of it is this. The internet can work and
in the future it will be even more beneficial then it is right
now. The problem is that we want it to be biggest thing in
our career right now! While we have great technological advances
almost every day, we still need great advances in music buying
fans. Otherwise all the new stuff the internet can offer isn’t
going to help.
Your job is to use the internet as a promotional tool that
will yield some sales along with your home based promotion
and marketing efforts. If you use the internet as a vehicle
to stay in touch with your fans and to provide exposure for
new ones, you will grow and be successful.
When people try to tell you their “big internet fish stories”
without any proof, do the same thing you did with the people
who try to sell you on the ideas that national college radio
campaigns are what you need, or small commercial stations
in ghost towns will inspire labels to sign you or just letting
the world know you are around through print ads will get people
to come to your shows, just tell them you are trying to sell
CDs and downloads and they can tell their stories down the
street at Guitar Center.
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