In conjunction with US. independent music trade group A2IM (American Association Of Independent Music), Hypebot has been asking
indie professionals: In this fractured media landscape, what is
working? What outlets and tools are helping your artists build an
audience? iTunes, eMusic and Rhapsody feature placements. As digital retail grows, the importance of real estate on the 3 stores with the largest market share becomes infinitely more important. And you can't buy it.
High quality vinyl and beautiful (but not useless) packages. People will always want to own records. The labels who make them sound and look the best will win control of that market, no matter what size it is. It's expensive, but unlike with CDs, the consumer is willing to pay for quality. And making vinyl tells people that you consider the release important - early adopters acquire it and tell their friends.
You still can't purchase word of mouth. But having a band on the road as much as possible at the right moments during the campaign is probably the closest thing. Some things don't change.
Today Patrick Amory of seminal indie label Matador (Belle & Sebastian, Cat Power, Chavez, Pavement) shares the strategies that are working for him:
- Our own label blog. Filling it with as much interesting stuff, non-musical as well as musical, non-Matador as well as Matador, has doubled our website traffic in the past year and vastly increased business on our webstore. It is also a highly effective method of syndicating promo content."
- Buy Early Get Now. Our preorder program enlists a hundred indie retailers across the country to get the early word about anticipated releases. The instant album stream (plus weekly bonuses) offers a carrot to fans who are otherwise driven toward the leak.
