I don’t like all the time-sucking transition effects on the new NI site, but I like their sound player with waveforms, something that has become more popular after SoundCloud helped to popularize it.

Beyond any words, make music. Keep moving!

I hope Native Instruments is listening.

@Will: Obviously you realised that you may have read an insult which wasn’t there. For the record: I’m a “traditional” musician (saxophone) as well as an electronic artist. I’ve toured and played in rock, jazz, funk and other non-electronic acts. I’ve also been a “digital media artist in a rock band”. In fact, a visualist as an on-stage member of a rock band.
There was zero intent in my post to cast aspersions on club-wielders.

As to the “implications of generalizing”, well generalizing allows us to get on with the job of communicating, without having to explain every point to exhaustion. Here’s another great generalization: People who take offense to generalization, generally generalize in their rebuttals to said generalizations.

English pedantry aside (and thanks for that, great way to get the brain going in the morning):

@Onyx: I’ve only just discovered Techdirt, and it’s fantastic!
As a sax player and WX5 owner, I’ve long been a fan of what you’re doing as well, but as I live in Australia it’s hard to check you out live, so it’s great that you’re embracing Bandcamp (which I love, too).

@Will J. C.: I agree that the prices seem a bit steep for the new Beasties stuff, but they’re a prominent artist, and the “reissue” may mean that it’s more “true fans” who will be getting these.

That aside, what’s exciting is that they’re making their catalogue very readily available. You don’t have to go through some other company’s website and give your information to someone you don’t know, it’s all right there.

As to the “tricks to help you get your music out”: I don’t think what Trent is writing is really about tricks or “quick fixes”, it’s about setting yourself up to be sustainable as an artist. I’ve been involved in the label model, and it’s not setup around sustainability for an artist, it’s about sustaining the label.

Sure, big companies can help you get your music out to people who want to pay money for it, but if in a year you move to a new label, you don’t have a way of getting in touch with those people. Whereas you’ve helped the label to build their marketing database for them to promote their new big thing.

Michael’s NARM talk has some very specific examples of these exact things being used by new artists to become successful. Have a look from the 15 minute mark of the video. He specifically mentions: Josh Freese, Corey Smith, Jonathan Coulton, and Moto Boy.

My argument for “new” artists giving things away is purely one of scale. The one thing that all successful or profitable artists have in common is a large fanbase. Without fans, (who I define as “people who likw what you do and would consider giving you money for things you do”,) you have no chance at success.

For someone to become your fan, they need to have experienced and enjoyed something you do, and there is absolutely no way to argue that you can get more people to experience what you do by forcing them to pay you for it. In a world where there is literally more free entertainment than you could ever possibly consume in a lifetime, any barrier to entry reduces your audience. Even requiring an email address or account signup is a barrier to entry.

However, once someone has experienced or enjoyed something you do, they are also more likely to introduce your work to someone else who hasn’t experienced what you do. Which may make them a fan too, and the cycle continues. Kevin Kelly’s “1000 true fans” is great to think about at this point, but specific numbers aside: You need to have a certain number of fans before they can sustain you as an artist.

I know I’m not saying anything new here. You’ve heard or read these arguments many times before, but I have personally lived through the “rockstar lifestyle”. My band played on primetime TV, we had a huge head start because our frontman was on Australian Idol, but that still wasn’t enough. Looking back, I believe that’s because not enough people were able to see what we were up to post-Idol, and because we couldn’t interact well enough with our fans.

As for the rest of the stuff, Reznor may bring up a number of interesting points, but I remain skeptical. Yes, these tricks may help you get your music out, but I’m not sure they’ll turn you into a particularly successful or profitable artist as Reznor seems to be implying. In fact, I have to wonder whether there are many possibilities for new artists becoming really successful in today’s environment–examples, anyone?

What do you call a drummer that is always on time for practice and plays right every time and doesn’t whine? An MPC!

Okay, I’ll stop.