Please note that this is more of an essay than a short blog post. This was a large brain dump that may not be as cohesive as a polished essay, but I'd love to get your feedback, especially if you work for a major touring company or record label (I read the web logs, I know you read!).
Music is an experience. On our saddest days, we listen to an album that will cheer us up or one that shares the mood; whereas on our happiest days, we celebrate with our favorite album. The reason we listen to these songs/albums is that they relate to past experiences or provide future insight that satisfies us. I remember that I experienced an ad-hoc concert at Universal Studios in 1996 by a little known piano player named Lao Tizer… he blew me and the sparse crowd away and since then, when I’m in a certain type of mood, I listen to his new age slash contemporary jazz music and live thru the music…. As one big experience.
One band who I’m fortunate to have experienced many concerts of is the Dave Matthews Band. By today’s standards, they’re historical. They were established by a bartender transplanted to the USA from South Africa in 1991. For the past 15 years, they have been popping out chart topping hits and platinum selling albums – but I’d argue that that isn’t why they should be remembered…
Concerts are extremely lucrative to record labels. Traditionally, concerts were left untouched by the music industry as artists made the bulk of their revenue from album sales. Now that we are fortunate to have digital distribution en mass (thanks Shawn!), album sales have become microchunked: consumers have the ability to purchase only what they want from a particular album and receive it in real time from the half dozen or so major digital outlets including iTunes and Rhapsody in a hyperefficient payment/distribution model.
Over the past 5 years, concerts have been a significant revenue generator for touring artists and their respective labels. Bands can generate substantial revenue from tours that they could possibly even bypass the major labels… look at the former band, Dispatch, or Of A Revolution (OAR) though currently now signed. These bands supported themselves, grew a fan base, and toured nationally by selling records out of the hoods of their vans (literally… I was there).
Concerts are more than just listening to music. They are synonymous for an ‘experience.’ Artists who can create experiences will have fruitful careers. If I were to ask you who are the top 3 touring bands with huge followings, you’d probably say The Grateful Dead, Phish, and the Dave Matthews Band. Why? Each fanbase has a nickname: deadheads, phish(ers), and dancing nancies. Within each of these fanbases, there is a culture that radiated originally from the band, highly influenced by the fans, and now, fans influencing the band in a cyclical ecosystem.
I was fortunate to get away from the office a few weekends ago and head up to my annual Dave Matthews Band experience in Saratoga Springs, NY. Some of you know that I went to undergraduate at Skidmore College in Saratoga and spent many-a-night at SPAC under the stars listening to great music. Usually when going to the DMB shows, I’m with a group of people who have been to dozens of shows as well… this time was different, I was with someone who had never been to a DMB concert before nor had they heard their lengthy catalog of music any more than the latest pop-star on MTV.
As a marketer, I had to “sell” the show to my colleague. I thought this would be easy as I would name the songs that were hits – and my colleague would instantly be psyched about the show… but contrary to my thoughts, it didn’t work out that way. Maneuvering through many marketing techniques, I realized that playing to emotions would be extremely powerful…, more powerful than a lot of other techniques. It was then where I briefed my colleague about the crowd, the lights, the amphitheatre, the vibe, etc. Instantly, my colleague was excited.
2 full set-lists and 48 hours later, my colleague had been through their first DMB show(s) and I had just finished a major milestone for me… 75! I could listen to Dancing Nancies, Say Goodbye, Hunger for the Great Light or Watchtower all day, but the experience of the crowd is what draws me to the shows. This was exactly what my colleague commented on… the lights, the crowd participation, the dancing, the vibe, and the enthusiasm displayed by staff to the band, to the security to the crowd was so powerful that it captured the thousands of people at the sold out 2 night stint at SPAC.
If I was to do the math, I probably have spent well over $20,000 traveling all across the world to see the Dave Matthews Band. I’m not the only “idiot” who does this as one family member refers to me about my DMB addiction. There are thousands of us who are stimulated by the experience that the band and crowd create.
An experience is a 2-way communication. The band must entertain, and the crowd must react. The reaction is the variable for the most part and you’ll learn this over many trips to significant amounts of venues. Hershey Park crowds are much different than Madison Square Garden… the songs they like, their demographic profile, etc, all play into this variable. However, this variable provides the major portion of the 2-way communication for this “experience.”
Bands like the Dave Matthews Band will succeed ultimately because they can not only play to the fan base (and that in itself is hard), but they can be dynamic and react and collaborate with the crowd. Lots of bands think they get on stage and compete with the crowd… collaborate with them. The crowd will make or break the show… not one broken string on the guitar, or an amazing riff or drum solo. The more you can get the crowd on your side and have them work with you to create the experience, the richer and voluptuous the show will become… thus creating a culture for your fanbase that will be enriched by each new member.
This experience which has historically been limited to the XX,XXX amounts of fans that come out each night to the concert can be transcended. Why not capture this energy? Many different bands have subscribed to inefficient concert recording services that record in real-time and sell the concert directly after to fans. This is good…. Steps beyond where we were 10 years ago. However, why not make the concert live? Your answer would be production costs. Yes, it is expensive, possibly prohibitively expensive, but with new forms of recording and the broadband penetration across the world, a concert of 5000 people is going to be considered peanuts in a few years. A concert of tens of thousands of people in various viewing platforms is going to be regular…and not just sitting back and watching on their screens solitarily, but contributing and collaborating pre/post/during the show is going to be important…why? Because concerts are experiences.
The Internet has been great for bringing people together. However, it’s been harmful because it allows people to search and surf alone. An experience is a two way relationship – if we’re going to be watching something online, especially a concert, lets watch with other people and lets communicate.
I think we’re going to see a renaissance in the web soon. I was really excited when Kevin Wall kick-started Network Live and even offered to fly out to Beverly Hills on my expense to discuss ideas and opportunities with him and his senior management team. Yet, I am still left quite unsatisfied with what anyone has done in terms of collaboration with the music world no matter what part of the industry they exist within. Lets bridge online and offline together and create that social platform that doesn’t yet exist and then more artists can become like the Dave Matthews Band and create amazing experiences for their fans. After all, I’d argue it’s not the music… it’s the experience that we latch onto.
