Lunch of Champions

The Big Record Labels Just Don’t Understand Online Promotions and Advertising

As is the case with most big companies, the major record labels just don’t understand promotions and advertising in the Web 2.0 world.  They are stuck trying to apply 20th century advertising techniques to 21st century technologies. Basically, the game has changed, and the established record labels refuse to change their game plans.

Today I received an email from Columbia Records letting me know about a single being released by one of their multitude of artists.  The email basically went like this:

“Check out this awesome musician’s tour schedule! By the way, he’s releasing a single soon, and you are stupid if you don’t write all about it!  Oh! We almost forgot, whatever you do, don’t put a link to the mp3 in your review of the single.”

What these folks fail to realize is that most indie bloggers don’t give a damn about singles.  We like albums.  And we like posting mp3s on our blogs.  We like to be the guy that tells our friends about track #12 on a band’s record.  Put simply, we are not commercial radio.  We aren’t mouthpieces of record labels. Oh! And most of us do this for fun and not profit.

Generally, we write about albums we like.  Usually, we will listen to a record 5 or 6 times before we write an article about it.  Only once or twice have I written an article having heard only a song or two, and that was only because the song moved me or blew me away   And I should note for the record that I haven’t heard a mainstream single impress me for some time…

Us indie writers are trying desperately to create scenes and accept the few rewards that come with being influencers in our little corner of the internet: free records, free concert tickets, and access to bands.  When a record label with all the power and funding of Columbia Records sends me a run-of-the-mill email with a link to an mp3 single that they then forbid us from sharing with anybody, it rubs me the wrong way.  In fact, it makes me mad.  They should be sending me physical copies of their acts’ records and offering me tickets to their shows (so that I can review their live performances).  Instead, they are asking me to write up reviews of their second-tier artists’ singles!  What world are these guys living in?!

It is clear that Columbia Records’ promotional department does not have any understanding of the most basic Web 2.0 ground rules:

1. Build relationships
2. Reciprocate

It’s no wonder that smaller labels are pulling the carpet out from behind these big behemoths – They get it.  They are asking me if I want copies of records, and they are asking me if I am interested in interviewing bands.  Meanwhile, the Giants hide behind new releases from Britney Spears and Bruce Springsteen, offering nothing to the new scenemakers – bloggers.  If the big labels want to regain any of the clout they lost since the 1990′s, they will need to start listening for a change.