Before the Internet, when all music came on pieces of plastic, the record companies controlled distribution. They had the warehouses to store the LPs, CDs, and tapes. They paid the trucking companies to ship them music to record stores around the country. Record labels were the only game in town. Downloads and file sharing have changed this forever and record companies need to redefine what benefits they offer their artists.

At the recent Adobe MAX 2008 conference. Eric Snowden, Sr. Creative Director at Atlantic records, gave an excellent presentation, “Atlantic Records: Connecting Fans with Bands.” which described some of the innovative ways Atlantic helps its artists turn casual listeners into fans.

What’s in it for the musician?

If you’re a musician, what benefit (other than prestige) do you get from signing with a major label?

The first thing you get is a team with a vested interest in your success. (Without being too naive about the beneficence of record companies, if you do well, they do well.) On this team you get people who have skills that you probably don’t. Just as most companies spend most of their time perfecting and producing their widgets, most musicians concentrate on making music, not on marketing themselves and ‘maintaining their brands.’

On the Web

The presentation focused on the web sites for two acts: T.I. and Paramore. T.I. is an rapper who has sold tons of CDs. Paramore is an “indie” band that just released its second album. Because T.I. and Paramore are at different stages in their careers, Atlantic’s strategies for marketing them are different: in brief, increasing community for T.I.’s fans and increasing access for Paramore’s.

Atlantic has given cell phones with cameras and Flip video cameras to all its artists so that they can upload their own candid photos and videos to their sites. This sort of behind the scenes access is what fans crave. Paramore is constantly blogging from the road.

Fans are encouraged to participate via forums and to contribute their own photos and videos. All user-generated content is tagged with paramore.net (to encourage others to visit the site).

On your phone

All Atlantic bands have mobile websites. These mobile web sites are not second-class citizens: Due to the restrictions of the medium, the content isn’t quite the same as the main sites, but there is the same priority given to mobile content. Chat, authorized and unauthorized photos. All designed to give fans instant access to the bands and to their communities.

On your desktop

Atlantic has also created an Adobe AIR application (i.e., a standalone desktop application based on Flash), FanBase, that features an audio player, chat room and a continuous feed of official and unofficial news, photos and videos from some of Atlantic’s top artists. FanBase allows fans to find out more news and information about their favorite bands without having to launch a browser.

Whether on the web, desktop, or phone, all of sites are designed to keep fans engaged and excited.

But, I’m not a musician …

While your widgets may not be as sexy as a slow dance ballad, businesses today need to connect with your ‘casual listeners’ and turn them into fans (and let them connect with each other). Who wouldn’t want to have fans? People who are truly excited about what you do and tell all their friends about how cool you are?

For instance, an online forum doesn’t just establish a sense of community. It could also allow your customers to help solve each others problems cutting down on your customer service costs. It can also be a great (and inexpensive) way to get real feedback on how your company and your products are perceived. Access and transparency can both help your bottom line.

On a very basic level, both of these industries made the same mistake: They assumed that they were selling actual physical items: pieces of plastic in the case of the music industry, and sheets of paper in the news industry. What they failed to realize was that they were really selling content: music and information. And because they failed to realize this, these industries are suffering.

Rather than develop their own ‘iTunes store,’ the music industry, which had always controlled the storage and distribution of physical LPs, tapes, and CDs, has sunk to relying on scare tactics and lawsuits against its own customers. Radio stations which used to introduce us to new music have been consolidated and homogenized by giant conglomerates, and are largely ignored by young music fans. MTV is more concerned with celebrity cribs and pimped out rides than it is with music.

Newspapers, which used to be our primary source of in-depth information and investigative journalism, have faced declining readership and revenues. Rather than investing in their brands and taking their content online, most newspapers have cut back their staff and rely more and more on syndicated content.

Newfangled solutions
In sharp contrast to the mainstream media, bloggers, internet radio stations, and other new media outlets offer an almost infinite variety of viewpoints and voices. Savvy musicians like Radiohead, Govt Mule, and Trent Reznor have left their big labels behind and are using the internet to develop their careers and connect with their fans in ways that fly in the face of conventional wisdom.

• Radiohead offered its most recent album, In Rainbows, as a pay-what-you-think-its-worth download months before physical CDs were available in stores.
• Govt Mule? Never heard of them? They record all of their concerts and have sold more than 1 million downloads on their website.
• Zappa Plays Zappa are offering free concert downloads to everyone who buys a ticket to see them play: buy the ticket, see the show, and download it the next day.
• Trent Reznor has uploaded his songs and lets his fans create their own remixes. There’s also a Nine Inch Nails edition of the iPhone game, Tap Tap Revenge, for his fans. If you score above 150,000 points, you get entered in a drawing for a signed guitar and tickets to the NIN show of your choice.

So, what do YOU do?
Does your company make software, or do you provide ways for your customers to communicate more easily? Do you sell widgets, or are your widgets just a packaged form of something more basic? Once you figure out what your business really is, there’s no end to the innovative ways you can connect with your customers and expand your business.