There is a lot of hub bub out about the web replacing the traditional
music label.  This news has been heralded by many indie artists (myself
included) as the savior of our kind.  The web has leveled the playing
field between artist and corporation, empowering us indie musicians to
make our own destiny within the music business by connecting directly
with our fans.  While this is true, and I am a huge fan of the tools
the web has to offer, I want to stress something to my indie colleagues
- the web, while it offers us a way around the traditional record
contract, is no more of a savior than that elusive record deal ever
was. 

Many of us artsy types aren't so good at the business stuff (or
refuse to embrace the mindset as we view it to be too "corporate" or
some self-defeating bullshit like that).  We think if we are the best
at our craft, and stay true to our artistic vision, some suit will
swoop down and rescue us from obscurity.  We know we will eventually
have to fight the corporate machine for our creative freedom, but in
that model, the worst case scenario is we come out a martyr for our
art, which fits nicely within the narrow confounds of our suffering
artist self image. 

What I am stressing here is this: do not allow a
web marketing strategy to become the new savior of your music career. 
While a web presence is a crucial element, it is just that, ONE
element.  Endlessly adding friends on myspace does not mean these
people will show up at your gig.  Spamming every media contacts inbox
with press releases ain't gonna do much but piss people off (and so on
and so on).  See, I write today's little rant because I found myself
expecting the same thing from my web strategy as I had of a record deal
some years back.  I had a great concept album and a cool viral strategy
for the video series, time to start printing the tour tshirts.  While I
am proud of how far things have come over the last year, there is a lot
of ground to cover, and I know now I was avoiding some fairly tough
decisions (as I had in the past) waiting for my digital ship to come
in.  Life would be a whole lot easier if we could just be more honest
with ourselves from the get go.  Stupid brain. 


Reminds me of a Langhorne Slim song:

I've always been waiting for something
someone to come pull me through
now I see that it's all up to me
there ain't nothin' no one else can do