Browsing my Google Reader today I stumbled into Kyle Bylin’s interview with Jay Frank of Futurehit.DNA and CMT (a division of MTV Networks) at hypebot. Jay’s new book “FutureHit.DNA – How The Digital Revolution Is Changing Top 10 Songs” you can download for free on his site.
Well, of course the digital revolution has changed music. But there are some claims of his that I do not necessarily agree to in the way Jay puts it. It’s a bit of context that’s missing.
First of all, you might easily forget about the fact that he’s talking about chart music only. During the interview I can’t help getting the feeling the majority of musicians (from Jay’s point of view) are merely in it for the money. Rules to follow, issues to avoid – just to make sure your song makes the Top 10.
Honestly, the probability any song makes it there is very low. Let’s face it: It’s near zero. You might as well spend your time and money on lotteries.
On he goes with his first rule:
“The biggest new rule is keeping the intros as short as possible. I say 7 seconds max mostly because that’s just slightly less time than most people give a track. The key reason for focusing on the intro is also because the paradigm of discovery has changed. People used to get hooks of songs thru flipping thru radio stations, stumbling upon MTV in the middle of the video, or just hearing a station in the background and not consciously recognizing a song until it’s at the hook. Now, nearly every music discovery listen is coming from the same point: an active listen starting at the song’s beginning. This includes legal and illegal downloads, streaming from most websites, video views. Google’s new music search is only reinforcing this as it offers even more discovery opportunities from the zero second point.” (Jay Frank)
One word: Nope. Many downloads, in particular the illegal and free ones, are not listened to at all before downloading. Some of these are listened to never. Some illegally shared ones are recommended by friends. The recommendation is of higher value than a first listen of the intro. What’s really important is to get your music heard within a stream of music the listener likes. And there’s only one way to actively manipulate this: Allow the potential listener to get access to your tracks most easily, most comfortably, and for free preferrably. Then he or she might buy some added value products from you, or he might recommend you to make your fanbase grow.
What about style related music in playlists at your favourite streaming service? I discovered Sarah Fimm and Charlotte Martin on Last.fm while playing my Tori Amos/Aimee Mann/etc. based playlist. It certainly isn’t limited to the first 7 sec on today’s radio (which last.fm, Spotify et al. do represent) that I decide on liking a track or not.
I must admit, I haven’t read his book yet (hey, I just read the interview a few minutes ago!). But it is necessary, and it can’t be repeated too often, to point out that today’s artist has to be true to himself.
The main change and the most important rule that has to be faced is, do not orientate towards stardom. This ensures credibility and longevity. It is not necessarily massive income that awaits, but it’s much more likely to help you earn a living than in the years before. Lady Gaga will be gone in 2 years.
One thing Jay omits completely (within the interview): Yes, technology has changed. But this also means, higher quality and a wider range of tools is available to everyone, including artists. This doesn’t stop at music recording gear. Today it’s marketing and distribution that counts (and the quality of your music of course). If you’re low at cash and you are not signed – create a hub with some good friends and supporters of your music. Highly effective and efficient tools of marketing and collaboration are available to everyone, not just for labels. Instead they are missing one thing that artists may offer – credibility.
Today, collaboration of die-hard fans and the artist himself may render the necessity of being signed less important, sometimes even obsolete.
5 Comments
Join the discussion and tell us your opinion.
While I disagree with some of the ideas Frank set forth in his book, I find many of his theories to be well thought out and accurate. In fact, I am proving them true with the success of my current single “Pray For You.”
While I do not allow any outside thoughts to seep into my writing process I certainly have this book on the brain when I am producing a single that I wish to instantly engage the listener with and stand out amongst the tapestry on radio.
The fact is, consumers have so much more competing for their attention these days and in order to grab them I got to do it quickly before something else grabs their attention.
That isn’t to say that someone can’t be listening to last.fm and be in a ‘listening mood’ and have the patience to enjoy new music. There are many people out who consume music that way. But they are still the exception and not the rule and to think otherwise is wishful and not factual. Additionally, I think the book is addressing radio singles (which while you’re statistically right, you can’t put a stat on a dream). As an artist myself, the goal is still a radio hit and in my opinion, Frank is simply saying this is the data… use it if you’d like or don’t, but it’s undeniable as a norm.
We use gut to predict and data to confirm however, in retrospect, data is king. And Frank is only predicting the future insomuch as he is identifying a provable pattern. And if I may, after reading your thoughtful rebuke, in my opinion you’re too smart to be relevant to the “consumer majority” the book is talking about.
While I disagree with some of the ideas Frank set forth in his book (I have read it), I find many of his theories to be well thought out and accurate. In fact, I am proving them true with the success of my current single “Pray For You” (has no intro).
While I do not allow any outside thoughts to seep into my writing process I certainly have this book on the brain when I am producing a single that I wish to instantly engage the listener with and stand out amongst the tapestry on radio.
The fact is, consumers have so much more competing for their attention these days and in order to grab them I got to do it quickly before something else grabs their attention.
That isn’t to say that someone can’t be listening to last.fm and be in a ‘listening mood’ and have the patience to enjoy new music. There are many people out who consume music that way. But they are still the exception and not the rule and to think otherwise is wishful and not factual. Additionally, I think the book is addressing radio singles (which while you’re statistically right, you can’t put a stat on a dream). As an artist myself, the goal is still a radio hit and in my opinion, Frank is simply saying this is the data… use it if you’d like or don’t, but it’s undeniable as a norm.
We use gut to predict and data to confirm however, in retrospect, data is king. And Frank is only predicting the future insomuch as he is identifying a provable pattern. And if I may, after reading your thoughtful rebuke, in my opinion you’re too smart to be relevant to the “consumer majority” the book is talking about.
I think the most difficult part is – as always – there are more sides to the story than a coin can bear… of course, statistics may help to guide you in writing a song that is more likely to chart. Unfortunately, there are some issues about it.
The most exciting about humans is this strange contradiction between habit and unpredictability. Some reactions to any given event might just be too easy to predict. Others are simply out of the world. In this case any strategy fails. So yes, statistics might work – but I think it’s better to find a certain niche.
I must admit, rules & statistics might work for a much longer time if you’re writing songs being a songwriter delivering to various performing artists. There’s enough examples for that, like Carole Bayer Sager and Diane Warren (unfortunately this includes the sort of X Factor and American Idol producers too). Of course, most professional songwriters (targeting the charts) won’t explicitly use statistics. It’s, like you mentioned, “gut to predict and data to confirm”.
But: data is not king. Why? It’s post-data. As soon as as you read your statistics, the action is over. Yes, mathematically you can derive rules from data which you get from charts etc. Apart from the fact that I don’t believe it helps much, it is the Long Tail I believe in. (Btw, did I mention that I finished my studies in Computational Linguistics with a thesis on clustering/classification? 😉 )
There are a few hits per year. On the other hand, there’s a massive number of niche music. It’s much more reasonable to focus on the mass of non-charting content producers (artists). Yes, it’s certainly helpful to provide a guide to professional songwriters. Yet it’s more important to make sure it’s possible to make a living with music. Given current opportunities, I tend to believe hits won’t gross in as high as in years before. Instead, a vast number of artists will cash in more. Not enough for stardom, not becoming rich – but certainly much more artists will be able to make a good living from their work.
To allow for that, it’s incredibly important to set up a solid basis. It’s important to maintain your credibility. So, in my opinion you’re much better off to simply keep writing and performing music your way. It’s difficult because you will face an exhausting and frustrating way onwards. You even don’t know if you might break it anyhow. But it’s not about breaking, it’s about making a living and longevity.
Regarding attentiveness you’re fully right. There’s just so much out there – the audience is simply stuffed.
Yes, it’s difficult to draw the attention to that one song that’s yours. But I still think there’s something wrong about focusing the intro. You might have even proved what I had in mind by succeeding without intro (hey, congrats btw!). Thing is, I don’t really believe that the consumer majority listens “more” or with higher intensity during these first seconds. First of all, if buying anything, they only do so because they know the track. I don’t have any stats, but based on what others tell me, actively browsing recommendations is done rarely. People might hear the track anywhere (streaming, radio, friends, club…) – in this case they are listening with awareness to music turned down low – you know, “tapestry” as you call it. So “the” moment a listener decides to be in favour of a track may happen during the whole track. Make it a hook to remember, or a tune, or something completely different. It depends on situation, listener – and song.
But there’s something more important and quite dangerous in being flooded with music. Actually, this might be a real disadvantage of free music. Anyone has the capacity on his computer – you can download it all. In this case, it simply doesn’t matter who the artist is. You can check later.
To the artist it’s necessary to have people who do know him. Those are the customers providing your income. The link between the listener and the music is not the most important one. It’s all about the link between the listener and the artist. It’s about how good your connection is. Now, this is more likely to generate longevity.
I think this has to be the longest comment I ever posted anywhere. Btw, just listened to your song – great one, I like. In particular, I like, well – the intro. You might not call it an intro, but 40 sec of organ plus pure vocals before the full band starts – now that’s a perfect and outstanding intro in my book… Those 40 secs break into any “tapestry”. Brilliant.
If you like to, please email me (wolfgang.senges(at)contentsphere.de). Maybe you’d even like to write a guest post over here? I’d highly appreciate that.
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