To Stay Alive, Can the Blues go Digital?
Many who have read this blog will already know that I've taken some time to write about the blues. It is a genre that caught my attention many years ago. A key question among many with a passion for the blues is, how does this important genre stay alive? A secondary question and probably equally important, how can the blues modernize itself and remain popular enough to encourage talented artists to continue to generate more new music?
Many of the legendary performers of the past have not been replaced. There have been fans that have come to the genre over the years; but as I have witnessed myself over the years, the audiences appear to continue to grey.
While there are varying views about how an artist performer could develop their musical career, it should not be assumed that any performing artist is entitled to success. Many weekend warriors try their hands at becoming professional but revert back to finding a "day job." After all,it makes perfect sense to take advantage of better financial options. The "art" then is pushed to something done on weekends and evenings when it is possible to do so. Still, the dream for many is to focus on their craft, improve it, and hope that many can enjoy it in exchange for some sort of financial reward. Playing music is an art. Art is created best without the expectation of financial reward. The blues has had many talented performers in the past that have lived the "starving artist" lifestyle. Some may have even felt that their craft was worth the sacrifices and was willing to accept them. Music also organizes itself as an industry whether you like it or not. There are many reasons why some musical artist succeed and others fail financially and in some cases, it may be simply timing. In the end, financial success as a musical artist depends on the willingness of people to pay. Reality can be hurtful sometimes. In looking at today's music industry, some key facts are obvious:
The market for music has changed: In the past, it was possible to find a bar or restaurant for an artist performer to play to hone their craft. The hope was that restaurant and bar owners would pay you to play in exchange for you to draw in an audience that would then spend money in the establishment to offset any additional cost from the entertainment you provided. Fewer places like this exist today. Bars and restaurants smaller and audiences for live music have also become smaller. Restaurant and bar owners are looking for certainty before they are willing to pay a live performer.
Attractive Recording Contracts Are Hard to Get: Everyone can record today. It may not be great audio but kids are doing it all the time. YouTube is full of amateur video performers in hopes of becoming the next Justin Bieber orShawn Mendes. Successful and popular performers like Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes can be found on the internet but it happens for one in a million..
Popularity Fades Fast: The attention span of audiences seem to match the digital media they listen to. A song may be popular one day and then hard to find a few weeks later. A fringe genre like the blues makes it even more difficult.
Establishing a Unique Brand is Difficult: There are so many artist performers out there today. Performers only get noticed if they become popular. That can even be more complicated when an industry encourage replication of what is successful. They don't like a risky different sound that their audiences may not like.
The Future of Music Appears to be Social Media: It has become increasingly evident that digital online media is what is driving musical success. For musicians and fans rooted to the indie approaches of the past will ultimately be marginalized. For performers, that may also mean a decline in fan base and possibly a day job somewhere in the future. For fans looking for local indie music, it may mean finding solace in used music stores or learning how to use new music streaming services to find new music. I include myself as well.
Learning from Social Media
When most people think of social media, services like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google Plus come to mind. In music, sound and video streaming are more interesting. In sound streaming, online radio are common. Free music streaming sites like Spotify, Soundcloud, and Reverbnation are common ones (iTunes is free for a limited time). When it comes to video streaming YouTube is number one with a number of smaller services like Vine, and Vimeo finding niches.
Spotify and What It Can Tell You
While I have been a user of streaming services for some time already, I only recently began to take interest in the Swedish music streaming service called Spotify. The simple fact that Spotify seems to has developed a wide audience and has a massive volume of music available on it that got me interested. It also offers artists a per stream royalty. Spotify covers much of the Americas, Europe and parts of Oceania. For a sense of its broad coverage, it claims to have more than 100,000,000 active users and claims more than a half a billion of registered users in an area of the World with and estimated population of about two billion.
Initially, I found it didn't suit my purposes. After signing up and being a blues fan, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of blues music available on it. More importantly for me, the analyst side of me began to assess the relative significance of the information that Spotify can provide. 100 million active users in this part of the World is significant and especially because not everyone buys music. It would be safe to say that those 100 million plus are probably the key record buyers in this part of the World. What does Spotify tell us? If we can assume that those 100 million plus active users represent those consumers that sustain the music industry, it says a lot. It tells a lot about what people are listening to and how many there are. As an example, hip hop musician, Drake, currently is the artist with the highest number of current individual monthly listeners in the world at more than 36 million. That is a massive global penetration. For comparison, a top blues artist like Joe Bonamassa generates about 360,000 monthly listeners. If you have Spotify check out Joe Bonamassa-Artist Profile. Joe Bonamassa's total streams on Spotify would exceed 5 million streams and at a conservative estimate of $0.006 per stream, royalties would also exceed $30,000. That would not sustain a career but with the introduction to markets that an artist could not visit, it too is likely to impact digital music sales and invitations to perform.
Conor Gains Band Courtesy of Montrealjazzfest.com
Using a local band example, Conor Gains Band is a Cambridge Ontario-based blues band that has a small presence on Spotify with about 52 monthly listeners. It's not many and it is also unlikely to drive much in the way of royalties. At the same time, Eight of the 52 are identified as being in Sao Paulo (the band's largest Spotify market) and three in Belo Horizonte. That is a combined eleven monthly listeners that it would be doubtful for Conor Gains Band to reach otherwise. This is even after a recent tour across Canada. If you have Spotify check out Conor Gains Band - Artist Profile. And on YouTube Conor Gains Band - Evil Man live at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2015. There may be other traditional ways to develop a market that provide a base that isn't accounted for electronically. My fear would be that they would not be sufficient to sustain a career. I also suspect that they are distributed thinly across the marketplace and difficult to market to.
A fan can register for free on Spotify and collect artists of their liking (Download Spotify). While its charts are dominated by popular music, blues has a big place and for me, it's a place to discover new blues artists from around the world like the Veldman Brothers (The Veldman Brothers - Artist Profile) in the Netherlands and Jon Amor Blues Group(Jon Amor Blues Group - Artist Profile) from the UK to other regional artists already known like Nuno Mindelis (Nuno Mindelis - Artist Profile) from Brazil and the Black River Bluesman (Black River Bluesman - Artist Profile) from Finland. It's great to have all your favorites in one place. Spotify is worth browsing. I know I will.
