It used to work like this if you were a musician headed for stardom. You got signed by a major label.  You recorded an album and a single was released.  Promotion people who either worked for the record company or were hired by the record company got the song played on the radio.  The record company made sure that the single and the album that followed were in the stores, both the big box retailers like Wal-Mart and the traditional music retail outlets.  The Marketing and Publicity department got you featured in magazines, newspapers, and on TV.  People heard the song on the radio and then went to the record store and bought it.  Then you went on the road on a lavishly decked out tour bus and played for huge crowds.  After the show, you met some of the local bigwigs and media people and maybe a fan or two who won a contest.  There was a chance that you might get a gold record.  Then you could be called a superstar.  You might even get nominated for a Grammy, and if you won people would care about that and it might even set off another flurry of sales activity.  Then you would be a Grammy-winning superstar.  If you released a CD or did a tour, fans would come to you.  That was a given.  You didn't have to really do anything more to keep that going except put out a new album fairly often and show up and play.  That's how celebrity worked.

Then the rules of the game changed fast.  Huge corporations bought the radio stations and installed ultra-conservative formats that investment bankers and stockholders were comfortable with.  Airplay for new music dried up except for the most heavily promoted youth-oriented flavors-of-the-day.  Record stores became a thing of the past, closing their doors or shifting away from music and into games, DVDs, and electronics.  They couldn't compete with stores like Circuit City and Wal-Mart that could afford to sell CDs cheap in order to lure shoppers into the stores where their additional purchases would make up for any lost profits on the music.  Those stores have a relatively small amount of shelf space so anything that wasn't heavily promoted and guaranteed to sell big immediately had little chance of getting on the shelves or staying there for long.  Record companies took a hit in the process.  There was no incentive to develop artists when space on the charts and in the stores depended on immediate success.  They had to focus on the few releases that could do that, cut the rest of the artists from the rosters, close the boutique/specialty labels, and downsize the support staff.

Oh, by the way, while this was going on the Internet happened.  Suddenly people could go online and hear samples of songs before they bought them.  Online retailers let them share opinions and even write their own reviews.  You could check out the music and find out what people thought about it before you committed your cash.  Not only did fans start gathering to discuss the music in online forums, they also created networks of friends all over the country who were meeting each other and going to concerts together.  Then they would go back online to share their experiences, which made the circle grow even more.  More people got to know each other.  More people shared their passion for the music and their favorite artists.  It didn't have to be someone who had a big hit single or was on the front of all the magazines either.  Fans could discover new artists, create their own buzz, and again the circle would grow by word of mouth.  As time has passed the amount of formal and informal channels for doing this seems to be growing as fast as creative people can come up with new ideas.  Even just a few years ago, who would have imagined such things as Blogs, podcasts, iTunes and iMixes, sites like MySpace, Internet radio stations and sites like Live365 that encourage the programmers to interact and share.  All of this is accessible to anyone who is interested enough to learn about it and put in some time, and it doesn't even hit the budget as hard as golf or scrapbooking.

The result of all of this is that people are creating communities based on discovering and sharing music.  Savvy artists, managers and record companies know this, and they are working it.  It's not easy because it's a big, fragmented, multimedia patchwork and there is no single strategy or linear process to follow.  You do a variety of things, see what works best, and then do more of that. 

In our little corner of the world there seem to be two camps: the artists who work it and the ones who are trying to turn the calendar back to 1987.  The first group includes the ones who have informative websites that are updated and up-to-the minute, visually appealing and easy to navigate.  These sites usually give fans a chance to communicate with each other and often with the artist.  Some artists send out newsletters on a regular basis, letting people know what they are up to, where they are playing and if there are any articles, interviews, or media appearances to check out.  Some of them are even experimenting with podcasts and tracking Internet radio play.  They are being proactive and not relying on their record company to do all the work.  When you see these artists in concert, there are always passionate, enthusiastic fans who seem to feel some kind of kinship with these musicians, even if they have never met them.  As the cliché goes - you can "feel the love."  

On the other side there are some artists, usually the ones who have been around for a long time, who see that the airplay/sales/stardom model isn't working for them and instead of getting resourceful they freak out and freeze up.  They might haphazardly put up a website that isn't maintained or updated, but the idea of doing what is necessary to create and maintain a community of fans is beyond them, either because they don't know how or because they think the fans should come to them just like they did back in the day.  It is especially disheartening when one of these artists releases a brilliant piece of work then engages in self-sabotage by sticking their head in the sand and clinging to the old ways.

An axiom in radio is that your most hardcore group of fans is responsible for the largest percentage of time spent listening to the station.  They are the ones that contribute to ratings success and the revenue that follows.  Then there are second and third tier listeners, and the goal is to turn them into fans.  Keeping the first group happy and nurturing and encouraging the others are the main goals of the game.  Music marketing these days works the same way.  Create a community of hardcore fans and then nurture them by giving them ways to feel like insiders: to get to know the artist, hear the music, get information they need, and connect with each other.  Some of them will even start contributing their talent and time to help get the word out.  Enthusiasm is contagious. Borderline fans and newbies who are just checking it out will find a fun, welcoming community and want to be a part of it.  It's work, and it's work that can't be done from a distance.  But it's the only way to cut through the clutter and reach the people who are going to buy the music and go to the concerts and play the music for their friends who just might end up doing the same thing and passing the word themselves.  Without them you may be playing brilliant music, but you're playing to an empty room.

- Shannon West