Tuesday night (January 24th, 2006) I had the great fortune to sit down with Jeff Lin from Harvery Danger and talk a little bit about the history of HD and where the band was heading in the future. We met at the Six Arms on Capital Hill (special thanks to Amy and Steph) in a corner booth and started talking about music, and the business of music.
A complete podcast of Jeff's interview will be available in the next few weeks at brightsidebroadcast.com, however there were a couple key points Jeff brought up and I wanted to share with everyone. First, remove barriers to your music and second, do it frugally.
Tear Down This Wall Mr. Bainwol
The thing that really caught me about Harvey Danger was their willingness to take a gamble against conventional record business wisdom. HD made the bold decision to release their newest album on the Internet for free. Yes, free. Take note all you starving artists! Capitalists all over the world are screaming bloody murder as Adam Smith rolls in his grave. Why do this? Are they crazy? I dont think so.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been more interested in creating barriers to the music than breaking barriers down to the music. It seems to be the only business in the world that thinks its a great idea to sue its own customers. While we were talking about this Jeff made a great point about Digital Rights Management (DRM) and how it is one more reason to turn off the user. It becomes a nightmare for the music loving fan to worry about playback in their car, home stereo, computer, iPod, or even sharing that great song with your best friend. It really makes no sense at all. I believe DRM actually hurts an independent musician much more than it helps. I once spoke with some people involved with Steve Vai's online music store and they said DRM had become a hindrance to them. They totally got ride of DRM and saw sales drastically increase.
At this stage in the game you should be focused on growing your listener base as large as possible. One of the best ways to do that is through word-of-mouth, and of course, myspace.com. You want people to be able to quickly share your music and if it is good people will pay for it. If you are a band out there think about your music. As Ronald Reagan said in 1987, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Independent musicians in 2006 should be saying, "Mr. Bainwol, tear down this wall!" Are you creating barriers for your fans or are you creating easier access for your fans?
Cheap is Chic
I was amazed to learn that HDs release of King James Version cost about 25 percent of the construction of the Space Needle. Jeff discussed the disadvantages of having such a huge budget to launch an album due to the fact that the band had to sell a lot of albums to break even. HD took a radically different approach to the release of Little by Little... They decided to flip conventional record sales economics on its head by creating a quality product for a significantly reduced price. This time they spent the price of a fully loaded Toyota Prius (much more manageable than a quarter of the Space Needle)! HD made a radical departure from the recording industry business model and that enable them to do what they wanted, when they wanted, and how they wanted. The other advantage is they can slowly recoup costs by growing a loyal fan network. Its a hell of a lot easier to sell 3,000 CDs at $10 each than to sell 66,667 CDs at $15 each. So, hopefully all you starving musicians will take a lesson from HD and flip the music industry on its side!