This Video Says A Lot About Where The Music Business Is Today

When I see a lot of Google traffic coming to my blog, I check the feedburner stats and yesterday the search term Fluorescent Adolescent was generating some meaningful traffic. Flourescent Adolescent is the name of my favourite track on the Arctic Monkeys new record which is coming out next week. I don't have the record, but I've heard most of it on the Hypemachine.

So I googled Fluorescent Adolescent and sure enough my post linking to the track was number one. Number two was this video, taken at an Amsterdam show last month, probably on a cell phone or something like a cell phone.

First of all, this song has not been released. But this video has been viewed almost 16,000 times on YouTube in the past month. I am sure some people have watched it multiple times, but surely over 10,000 people have gotten introduced to this song in the past month, some portion of whom are likely to buy the record.

Second, this is not the first single, that would be Brianstorms, a good track, but not my favourite. But in effect, there's already a "video" on YouTube promoting this track.

Third, this was shot by a regular fan, uploaded to YouTube, and the quality and sound are pretty damn good for someone five or six bodies back.

Fourth, this was shot at a club in Amsterdam and is available to the entire world via YouTube instantly (or as soon as the person who shot it uploaded it).

Fifth, check out how many others in the crowd are taping the performance with their cell phones and cameras. Has to be at least five or ten others in the video doing that.

Lefsetz says in one of his recent posts:

And trust only grows person to person now.  NOBODY trusts the machine.

Let's look at what just happened here. Somebody got a hold of the Fluorscent Adolescent track and uploaded it to their blog. It made the Hypemachine. I heard it there and reblogged it. My post went to the top of Google for that search term. I googled it (but you could have too) and found the YouTube video posted by another fan. I saw that and reblogged it just now.

Person to person marketing. No machine other than the web and google at work here. The rest is us, enjoying a song, a band, and music on the web.

Comments

[Drew Meyers]

I love the "And trust only grows person to person now. NOBODY trusts the machine." quote -- this is becoming more and more true by the day as marketing pitches are thrown at people from all directions. I think that's what attracts people to the blogosphere - real thoughts without the hidden agendas (genuine conversations)

[Ninefish]

Great post Fred, but I think the video is a little more professional than a camera phone, it's a long video, and there are a couple of cuts and fades as the image goes from the out of focus [maybe because the lights are low and autofocus is not working] to some quite sharp video.
Your point still stands, but maybe someone is seeding this material rather than fans uploading stuff they made. I could be wrong, but this is quite a slick bit of video and sound.

Adrian

[Phil]

funny you post this on the same morning that netflix is getting smoked on earnings and guidance well below expectations...

as the shift you touch upon here can be generalized well beyond the music industry and is occurring so fast that companies that were deemed ahead of the curve a couple years ago now find themselves well behind it.

seems margin implosion and the increase in customer acquisition costs and churn are only symptoms of the sea change in video distribution as well...

too bad for nflx..

[KEndal H]

Fred,

Youtube marketing is becoming a big thing for smaller artists. Check out Jeremy Fisher - "Cigarette".

It has 1.4 million views. That is more than the amount of albums he has ever sold thats for sure. I think you would also really like him.

Kendal

[Grand Egress]

So I agree all this stuff is exciting and inevitable, but -- if I was to ask the Arctic Monkeys these questions, how would do you think they would answer:

1) "art for art's sake" aside, how do you plan to make a living from your music? assuming that the band doesn't mind -- even embraces -- the uncontrolled recording and distribution of the music by anyone, anytime (which presumably obliterates revenues from recordings and royalties,) then is music just a fun hobby?

2) if the answer to #1 is "we will make our living from our touring and live performances," then, will you be comfortable when a fan in the audience streams your live shows in realtime, in decent quality, over the internet? that day is surely coming soon, and will erode ticket sales as surely as MP3 files erode CD sales. and in such a world, how will music artists make a living?

[KEndal H]

Grand,

I COMPLETELY disagree with your comment. There is a HUGE difference between slumping CD sales due to MP3's and future slumping Ticket Sales due to videotaping a conference.

Here are MANY points to back my argument. First, Going to a concert is an experience. It is not something that can be replicated while sitting on your laptop checking out Youtube. Being at a conference is for the atmosphere, the LIVE music, and everything built around a concert. (starstruck, etc..)

Second, Look at it from a sports perspective. Your argument would support that because sports are on high-definition, television, that they will not sell any tickets. Is that, has it, or will it ever happen? NO! I am a Ticket Broker, and I can tell you, that people now, more than ever, WANT to go to live concerts, not watch them on TV.

Third, the concert is the new and future #1 revenue generator for artists. They know that if they can put on a good show, they will attract fans. Their album's are marketing tools to sell out their concerts.

So, as many artists have allowed videotaping for many years, I want to conclude that NO, videotaping a concert in high quality is not going to drown ticket sales, just because people know they can watch it later on the internet.

[Ethan Bauley]

Fred, you're listening to waaaay too much British rock:

"Second, this is not the first single, that would be Brianstorms, a good track, but not my favourite."

Wow! Just curious: What's your favourite colour?

;-)

[carl rahn griffith]

the grateful dead pioneered a bootlegging business model (long before viral marketing/guerilla marketing cliches evolved) to promote real commercial sales revenues, many moons ago.

that model was part of a Q&A i did at redmond a few years ago. surreal, but interesting.

btw, i can't stand the grateful dead.

love the arctic monkeys, though.

[carl rahn griffith]

ps, combine the arctic monkeys' brian with their hometown football club, which they rightly all love (sheffield wednesday, not that odious sheffield utd lot) and what do you get ....?

http://www.jimbostudios.com/video-gallery/brian-laws-storm/

ps, as i have said many times here and elsewhere, the new arctic monkeys is the hair - help these talented young guys from leeds and download/listen to their new 3 track single.

they're superb, they will be big. get them to new york, fred - you could be the next brian epstein (the good bits!), trust me, i'm a consultant ;-)

http://www.hairmusic.co.uk/

[phoneranger]

It looks like Club Paradiso. But I couldn't find the concert at www.fabchannel.com. Go there if you like Eurorock etc. Fabchannel just did a deal wth Joost (as in toast).

[Patrick Woodward]

It is amazing how word of mouth sharing around a piece of music is happening faster and faster. The bottom line is the fans are in control; no matter how you look at it. Who knows what the future holds regarding distribution but one thing will always hold true: When creative groups like bands embrace their fans, those fans will give back. Why isn't the Flourescent Adolescent video on the Arctic Monkeys website. I want to go to the Arctic Monkeys site and see how people are reacting to THAT band...I don't want to go somewhere else (YouTube) to see this video. Make it simple for me you'll gain my loyalty. That is what a band is all about.

[Andreas]

Now: I’m as much a network, bottom up, long-tail, beliver of the empowering power of the internet nerd as the next wikipedia contributing freak, but yet I’m still sceptical. At least in the respect that I simply find the audio quality to be suspiciously good. For that reason I’m inclined (with no research into the matter) to think that the case in point here is not one of true bottom-up person to person recomedation, but in fact professional astro-turfing, viral-like marketing, made to look fan-produced.

The question of course is if it matters at all? After all seing is beliving. But I actually think it is important – and I don’t think there’s a quick fix to the astro-surfers out there (he – just coined that). On the other hand; Making something look like something it is not, can potentially be very harming to a products credibility (and maybe especially so in the music business, with a lot of emotional brand-identifaction) – and that might regulate the marketing behaviour by putting a premium on cheating (after all – commercials and marketing do resemble a repeated game)

[Clyde Smith]

I have to agree with Adrian and Andreas here. This is definitely pro work disguised as a fan's site. I don't think it was shot with a cellphone at all.

While these new phones may be getting awfully good, I don't think you can get that kind of sound from a single mic on a cellphone.

But if you can, please let me know what phone was used. That might be very big news.

[Clyde Smith]

By the way, "astroturfing" is widespread. Some of the more obvious versions have gotten exposed but much more insidious versions are permeating social networks quite deeply, especially MySpace.

For example, on MySpace I'm starting to see a wave of fake profiles that look like everyday women after long seeing fake profiles of sexy ladies. I went ahead and added a number of them and, sure enough, within a couple of weeks, each one sp@mmed me in one way or another.

And that says a lot about where online marketing is today.

[BJ]

Hey – since you’re a YouTuber, you might want to check this out… There’s a video company that’s recruiting
YouTubers and if they like your stuff, (and they should) they will actually pay you when your video gets a hit.
Here’s their link… www.flownetworkproductions.com/videorevenue.htm. It’s about time the people who make
the videos get some of the money instead of it all going to YouTube!

[Mike D]

Hey Fred - I'm commenting on this several months later because I'd like to get your take on a recent incident at a Band of Horses show. Long story short - lead singer Ben Bridwell flipped off a fan who was shooting video of their hit "Funeral" and later in the show went on a rant about fans posting videos of their shows on YouTube. Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeO18vX1OEs and here's an article about it in Pitchfork: http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/44275-bohs-bridwell-talks-youtubers-new-album-sex-clubs