It's no secret that the record industry is suffering.
Major labels struggle to find a hit, hemorrhaging millions of dollars into a single artist, exhausting a trend then moving on. Indie labels like Sub Pop and Matador are giving majors like Interscope and Sony serious competition thanks to the Great Leveler known as the Internet. As Wired magazine editor in chief Chris Anderson's research on the "Long Tail" effect suggests, the major label way of business might just be on its way out the door.
The Long Tail Effect starts with the idea that mainstream media are primarily hit-based - if it doesn't sell a million copies, it isn't worth the marketing or advertising time. Therefore, the public is fed a steady stream of potential blockbusters, with the media hoping to cash in before a new trend starts.
But think of music, for example, as a two-axis graph. On the vertical axis is the popularity of a given item, and on the horizontal axis is total inventory of that item. The beginning of the graph is huge: mega-hits and platinum albums by major label artists. That part is relatively short, taking into account the huge volume of music made. The "Long Tail" refers to the infinite amount of niche markets that exist outside the mainstream, millions of releases with relatively few consumers and low inventory. Added together, those niche markets can be more than the mainstream.
Businesses like Amazon.com or Insound.com, who don't have to worry about stocking individual stores (an expensive task, and a great liability with more esoteric releases that won't fly off the shelves), can serve niche markets spread out all over the country. Geography is no longer a factor.
In the end, however, the "Long Tail" effect doesn't hold much weight if the people don't know about it. The theory is that consumers can find anything they want, and in a lot of ways this is true. But people can't find it if they don't know what they are looking for.
So how can independent artists get out their music? How can they come out from being lost on the Long Tail to being noticed by a potential niche market? There are many answers to this question.
One of the more proactive and progressive solutions to this problem of Long Tail overload is Team Love Records. Based in Omaha, Neb., Team Love was started by independent musician Conor Oberst (of Bright Eyes fame) and friend and former major label employee Nate Krenkel in 2004. The idea was to have artists who make records, just like every other label, but to make every album available for free download on the Internet. This gutsy move seems to have worked.
"By no means do we want our bands to not get paid, and by no means do we not want to sell records, but lacking the resources that bigger labels have," Krenkel said in an e-mail interview. "If [online communities like] Myspace and shit like that are out there spreading the word on our bands and saying, 'Yo, you can get this off Team Love,' etc., then that is great."
Free downloads, in the end, become free publicity. Indeed, the buzz generated by Websites like MySpace.com is loud. Kids can talk instantly about the new band they just heard over blogs and online communities, or share MP3s over instant messenger programs. That's buzz that Krenkel and Oberst counted on.
Christopher Paul Richards, local musician and former bassist and singer of the now-defunct D.C. band Q and Not U, agrees that sheer presence on the Internet can benefit.
"The more time we spend on the Internet, the more we're going to crave these live, real-time, in-the-flesh experiences. I think they can compliment each other really nicely and it looks like Team Love is a pretty good model of that," Richards said.
"If we realize our idea overshot, we have no problem curtailing our free policy, but for now we think it really doesn't matter. Only a small group of listeners pay attention to the label," Krenkel said.
Local, independently owned record stores are doing their best to keep on top of the Internet explosion. Smash Records in Georgetown now sells clothing in addition to CDs and records. Crooked Beat in Adams Morgan specializes in harder-to-find independent recordings, and has a special section devoted to D.C. bands. The record store also conducts a small online business to supplement its brick-and-mortar earnings.
Independent musicians, labels, and record stores are all adapting to keep pace with the changing market. But even with the Internet changing the face of independent music, what hasn't changed is its spirit. No matter what computers are doing, bands still have to tour like crazy, hit the streets and work as hard as ever - maybe harder - to be heard. Does this improve what we hear? Does this separate the wheat from the chaff, or simply make the wheat harder to find? These answers are different for everyone, but one thing's for sure: DIY's not dead.
