Hey Bob,
I completely agree.
You and I yearn for the visionaries, the Ahmets, Clives, Jerrys, Berrys, Herbs, Ricks, and Jimmys. These were the noble chiefs who knew talent and took chances. Your label was deemed successful because you signed great acts like Led Zeppelin, The Carpenters, The Police, The Jackson 5, Aretha Franklin, etc., not because you reorganized, trimmed some fat, and saved money.
Puh. Wall Street is right!
As a market develops and expands, the visionaries thrive and change the world. As a market contracts, the bean counters take over and celebrate profitability as they fall down the increasingly sterile, vapid staircase.
Lucian Grange is no more "internet savvy" than my Great Dane, Bravo. Don't get me wrong, he's a great businessman and a great leader, but how in the hell can ANYONE pulling the levers in this music industry of ours be mistaken for "internet savvy" when it's the last industry on the planet Earth that still doesn't know who their customer is?
Let that sink in…
All tickets are sold online now; by definition, this is ecommerce! 2023 was heralded as the biggest year yet for worldwide ticket sales. So, how are ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Amazon 1,000 times more digitally sophisticated than platforms like Ticketweb?
I've been working with artists and promoters in the digital marketing space since 2019. The first three shows we promoted used three different online ticket outlets. When I spoke with support at each outlet, asking where to put the Pixel (different term for a "cookie" aka digital sales and traffic tracking code), they asked, "What's a pixel?". These ticket outlets aren't Silicon Valley startups, they're digitally ignorant music industry people trying to sell tickets online.
Today, Ticketweb is one of the most advanced because they'll let you inject a pixel ID number, but no proper code, so we don't get data on who was shopping, who abandoned their cart, and who purchased.
We can't retarget the specific accounts to get them add tickets to the cart
We can't send consumers that abandoned a cart a message getting them to purchase those tickets.
We can't inject Hotjar code to see where people are getting stuck on the purchase page so we can change the sales copy.
We can't inject attribution code to eliminate blind spots on platforms like Facebook Ads and determine which ads are working and which are not.
We can't use the data to teach the algorithms to better identify who the artist's potential fans are!
The venues are worse with good ol' Ethel who's worked the ticket counter since 1942 in charge of the online ticket platform.
They get away with it because the artists and the industry aren't asking, but this kindergarten level approach to digital marketing would be mocked in true ecommerce.
What happens when you go to Amazon to shop for a product but choose not to purchase? That product follows you around and you see it on every website, your gmail, your Facebook, etc.
Can you imagine this kind of power marketing artists?
The Lucian Grange's of our industry approach digital promotion by spending $50k-$100k and if a song doesn't go viral in 2 weeks, it's a failure and they pull it. The same approach to a radio single would be ridiculous, right? "The singles been out for 2 weeks, but it's not a smash yet…let's pull it!"
The fundamentals of marketing, reach & frequency, are still the fundamentals, and the fundamentals still work. The strategies and tactics must change on a digital platform because it's consumed differently.
Streaming is still the same ol' way of doing business through a distributor but on a digital platform. I'll remind everyone that the only value a distributor brings to a business deal is they have a relationship with the end-user that the creator of the product or service either can't have, like it was with physical product and record stores (although Columbia had one hell of an email list back in the day with their direct to fan mail marketing, didn't they?) orchoose not to have, like it is now.
There's nothing internet savvy about the music business.
Hollywood eventually figured it out. The studios and the networks began their own streaming services, eliminating the distribution middleman, and DECOMMODITIZING their products. You got young kids, you got Disney. Period. Your 5-old daughter doesn't give a flying F**K about your politics.
Hollywood has your name, your email address, your credit card, and your data!
Bob, I haven't had a live cable hookup in my home in the last 10 years, consequently that's the last time I saw a tampon commercial; they know I'm not a buyer and they're not spending one penny marketing to me! However, any label trying to break an artist on radio today is purposefully paying a fortune to put their artist in front of people they know don't like him/her or aren't ready to come into the market yet…I digress.
But a supposed "internet-savvy" music business? Puh-lease.
You're absolutely right, Bob, the market retooled 30 years ago (do you even remember the name of your local travel agent anymore?). The music industry is still stuck in 1969 but with cool new digital toys.
All is not lost though, Bob. Reach & frequency still apply, and miracles still happen when a compelling artist is regularly introduced to millions of people. Only now, we can tell who likes them!
Sadly, the retooling won't happen until the bottom drops out of radio, because that's all this industry wants to know about.
Johnny Dwinell
Daredevil Production, LLC
1604 8th Ave. S.
Suite 340
Nashville, TN 37203
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