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Taylor Chick Instructor: Malcolm Campbell English 1102 4/25/13

Exploring the Relationship Between Independent Artists and Twitter

I was first introduced to the world of independent music about a year ago, and oh what a world it is. I had heard of the term indie before; however I just assumed it was associated with hippy-culture. I never knew what it really meant. Then someone named Josh Doyle followed me on Twitter. At that time I was using Twitter as a very basic platform: interacting with a couple friends, keeping an eye on some of my favorite bands, and following a few parody accounts. When Josh followed me I was immediately intrigued. Who was this guy? I did what anyone in the 21st century would do; I clicked on his profile in the hope of gaining some information. I immediately saw that we both followed some of the same bands, so that was probably how I ended up on his radar. What struck me were the words independent artist in his bio, a space where Twitter allots you 160 characters to describe yourself. I clicked on the link to his website and started to listen to his music. Immediately I knew it was something else but one question remained unanswered. Why did he follow me? This is where my journey through the connection of independent music and Twitter began. Independent music, often shortened to indie, is most commonly defined as music produced by an artist that is free from the strings of major record labels. Culturally, the term indie has numerous meanings; in music however, the word indie serves as a modifier to a vast amount of genres: for example, indie-rock, indie-rap, and indie-folk (King). Ed Christman, a

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reporter for the international music magazine Billboard, believes that the definition of indie music is complex because the landscape of the independent music industry is constantly changing. In his article What Exactly Is An Independent Label, Christman writes, Over the last 15 years, things have only gotten even murkier. Majors used to just buy Indies; nowadays, they also invest in Indies; and they even do joint ventures with Indies, sometimes on an albumby-album basis (Christman). But what are independent labels? Its important to understand that it is possible for an independent artist to have a record deal and still be declared independent, but only if that record deal is signed with an independent label. When stripped to its foundation and basic functions, an independent label is just a smaller version of a major record label (Ostrow). The two entities can be compared to the difference of services between a local and an international business; there are advantages and disadvantages to both. Now that the foundation of independent music is set, the next question to tackle is why; why would someone choose to be an indie artist rather than sign with a major record label? Signing with a major label provides many benefits, as well as numerous disadvantages. According to Jonathon Ostrow, Publicity Director at the music industry-marketing firm Cyber PR, the predominant benefit is that the artist has access to vast amounts of funding. Referring back to the previously mentioned business metaphor, a larger national company would have more capital than a smaller local company simply because they are larger. Money is essential in the music industry. Artists need to buy equipment, studio time, editing time or software, production of physical CDs, tour support, and multitudes of other necessities. A major label will easily provide an artist with that funding (Ostrow). Another key benefit is that major labels have countless marketing and networking connections with established artists, managers, producers, and etc. This means they can get an artists name out into the public. If an artist wants to make a

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career out of playing and recording music then there is an absolute need for publicity; they need people to know who they are, buy their music, and come to their shows (Castelaz). This process is known as creating a fanbase. The size of a fanbase directly translates into the success of an artist (Gordon). At this point a major record deal sounds like a non-brainer, so what are the disadvantages? The biggest reasons artist refuse major record deals is that the bulk of profits from their music go to the label. These are known as artist-unfriendly contracts, and guess what? The majority of the artists you hear everyday on the radio have them (Ostrow). When a song is played over the radio, bought on iTunes, or a CD is sold in-stores; the profit gets dispersed to many different groups. The distributer will keep anywhere between 30 to 60 percent, depending on the circumstance and distributor, but the rest will be given to the record label. From there it will be divvied up into what are called royalties (also known as intellectual property). The label will keep the majority; the rest is dispensed between the producer, writer, and the artist. At the end of all of this, an artist signed with a major label will often end up with as little as two to five percent of the original profits (Sisario). This is why being an independent artist or signing with an independent label is appealing to some artists. An unsigned independent artist will directly receive the royalties. An artist signed with an independent label will still receive the majority of royalties, which ultimately averages out to between 60 and 70 percent. This happens for two reasons. One is that an indie artist often plays the role of performer, writer, and sometimes producer. The majority of the money that is divvied between those roles in major record labels will go to the artist (Castelaz). The second reason is independent labels often issue artist-friendly contracts. These contracts not only grant artists a fair amount of the profits, but they also allow the artist to maintain the rights to their work. The

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artist, as opposed to the record company, has the ability to decide where and who plays their music. But just like with major labels, independent labels have disadvantages. The foremost being that there is access to a small amount of funds and that the artist themselves have to cover so many different roles (Ostrow). As you can see, there are plenty of advantages and disadvantages to both major record labels and independent record labels. Indie artists have numerous hats to wear, whether they are unsigned or signed. In the music production process they have to write, record, perform, and often produce the songs themselves. What happens after the music is produced? A major label has the connections and resources to promote an artist and help build their fanbase. Independent artists are forced to network for themselves, leaving them with the responsibility to build their fanbase. Fanbases are the key to success for a musical artist. The same amount of time that goes into creating the music is put into promoting it, if not more. Indie artists, and artists in general, make music in hope that someone else will relate to it (McLean). Kylee Gordon is a writer, editor, musician, and the author of the book Recording Secrets Behind 50 Great Albums. In her article Survival of the Artist, published in the magazine Electronic Musician, Gordon states To survive as an artist, you have to nurture the fanbase so people feel responsible for helping your career move along. (Gordon). If an artist has a strong fanbase, eventually the fans will do the networking. So as an independent artist, Josh Doyle most likely followed me in hopes of increasing his fanbase, but how effective is that technique? Twenty years ago the most efficient way to gain a fanbase was to play shows and stroll the streets personally handing out CD samples of your music; but we have now entered a digital age where people spend a lot of time online. Nowadays the most effective way for artists to promote their music is online using social networking sites; however going out, playing shows

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and touring is still an important factor in growing a fanbase. Ryan DeMarti, manager of the band Linkin Park (who is successfully signed with the major record label Warner Bros Records) reminds artists that, Not only will touring make you a better band, but you will build your fanbase with real fans who will hopefully stick with you through think and thin (qtd. in Survival of the Artist). But touring costs money, something that independent artists are limited with. A free way to grow a fanbase is through the Internet, specifically social networks. Think of your favorite artist or band. Do they have a Facebook page or Twitter profile? Chances are they do. Social networks make it easy for artists to keep their fans up to date on new music, tour schedules, and even everyday activity. This makes the fanbase feel like they are involved with the artists career. The idea is to nurture the fanbase so it can grow. Keeping fans in the loop will cause them to feel like they are important to an artist, and they should be. There is no doubt that social networking has become imperative for an artist to utilize in order to grow and nurture their fanbase, the two most popular networks being Facebook and Twitter. Currently Facebook has over one billion users and Twitter has an estimated 500 million (Smith, Craig). Why is Facebook more popular? Facebook is a very personal platform when compared to Twitter. A Facebook profile can include information ranging from their age, date of birth, occupation, religious and political views, family members, and location. Twitter harnesses a less personal format, allotting their users a 160 character bio space and limiting posts, known as tweets, to 140 characters. A Twitter profile will commonly include a users name, a short sentence in their bio about whatever they choose, and their tweets (Bruno). A study performed by members of the Psychometrics at Work Research Group from The University of Manchester compared observations of the usage of Facebook and Twitter of participants and compared them to personality traits. Facebook and Twitter offer different services that appeal to different people.

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The study found that people generally use Facebook for social interaction between family and friends, where as people generally use Twitter for information and opinion sharing. Participants in the study stated that they personally know most of their Facebook friends but they do not personally know all of their Twitter followers. The cause of this was found to be that because Twitter offers a sense of anonymity (Lee). Users can interact with other users while still keeping their personal life, well, personal. But how does this transfer into the music world? When an artist creates a profile on Facebook its called a page. Fans can like this page, post on it, and receives updates about its activity; but the artist cannot reciprocate this action. The only way an artist can directly interact with a fan on Facebook is if that fan posts something on the Artists page. The artist will not receive a notification that this has been done, and can only respond if they happened to stumble across it. On Twitter however, users can follow each other. When a fan follows an artist, the artist has the ability to follow back. Artists can also directly reply to fans tweets. This provides the fan with instant gratification, which nurtures the fanbase. From the standpoint of a fan, Twitter is often more preferable because of the ability to interact directly with an artist. Many artists understand this, and that is why they utilize Twitter as well as Facebook (Gordon). Now we know why Twitter appeals to artists and fans, but how should an artist approach their Twitter usage? One technique that appeals to some artists is the follow everybody approach. The idea is that if an artist follows a large number of people, a sizable chunk would follow the artist back for various reasons including curiosity, interest, courtesy, and just for the heck of it. Clyde Smith, senior contributor for the heralded music blog Hypebot, believes that while this produces large numbers, your followers are not really invested in your music. If you want to use Twitter to help build a fanbase and make business connections, focus on real people

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who clearly care about what you are doing or have something to say, he writes in his article Instead of Building a Fake Following Why Not Build a Fanbase (Smith). Smith brings out the valid point that an artists followers will not be as invested, but some artist choose to use the follow everybody technique because it produces such larger numbers. A larger follower account means theres a greater chance of more people seeing an artists name. The opposite of the follow everybody approach is simply to follow the fans that show an interest in an artists music. These are people who are constantly interacting with the artist, responding to their tweets, and tweeting links to an artists page or music (Gordon). When an artist follows someone who has been doing this, the fan sees it as a reward and will further promote the artists music. Again this is nurturing the fanbase and keeping them happy. Twitter is not only used to follow people, its used to post tweets (messages of no more than 140 characters that your followers can see); so what should an artist tweet? Rachel McLean, a graduate student at the School of Business and Creative Technologies at the University of Bolton, observed the social networking techniques of successful musical artists. From these observations McLean deduced three common traits in their social network posts: truth and sincerity, clarity, and legitimacy. Truth and sincerity reflect the concept that the artists content was honest and accurate. Clarity describes that what is said is both intelligible and comprehensible. Legitimacy means that the content that the artist posts fits into the moral norms and values set by society. McLean believes that if an artist follows these three traits, their online promoting and networking will be successful (McLean). In theory McLean is correct. Would you want rather read something genuine or something insincere? The most effective way to use Twitter as a promotional vehicle is through authentic communication directly between the artist and fan. It gives fans a feeling that any time, any day, the band can say something really

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fascinating. If you make people feel like theyre missing out on something if theyre not following your tweets, thats a great way to build demand, says Omid Ashtari, entertainment business development executive at Creative Artist Agency (qtd. in Twitter, Music, and Monetization). To gain and maintain followers an artist must keep their attention through authentic and personable tweets. Otherwise Twitter will not be an effective medium to build a fanbase with. Now that weve learned how an artist should act on Twitter, the next question is what should an artist tweet about? Independent solo artist Amanda Palmer believes that a key part to being successful artist on social media is to interact with your fans. She states: You have to treat your relationships with your fans like a relationship with a friend. Its not all about taking what you need and asking for something when you want it. Its about having an ongoing conversation and caring about and listening to the other person. If you only go to your Twitter fanbase when you want something, youre not being a good friend. Youre being that irritating, selfish friend that no one wants to hang out with (qtd. in Survival of the Artist). Though Twitter is a valuable tool for advertising, Amanda reminds us that an artist is likely to lose fans if theyre only using the site to promote themselves. If an artist takes time to respond to the people who tweet to them, then they are nurturing the fanbase; that keeps the fans happy. And when fans are happy they will be more likely to share and promote an artists music on their own. Ryan DeMarti has the same belief: When you have new projects or appearances to promote, do it tastefully without blowing up your fans Twitter feed. Its easy to cross the line and have all of your communications become online noise that your fans ignore. (qtd. in

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Survival of the Artist). A simple tweet about how an artists day went, their opinion on a current event, or even what they are currently doing is often enough to satisfy their fans. Today Josh Doyle is following 18,500 people on Twitter, and in return 19,000 follow him (Doyle). It seems like Josh has taken the follow everybody approach and it appears to be working for him. He just finished a tour of the United States and is invited to play at the legendary Glastonbury Festival in the summer of 2013 with the Rolling Stones (Doyle). What may work for some artists may not work for others. Everyone is different and everyone has the right to do what he or she wishes. Music is a very personable business and it adapts around the artist. According to Ross Hoffman, Twitters head of Strategic Sales, the social networking site is in the developmental process of creating new programs to make Twitter more beneficial for artists, brands, and industries. One of these programs is an analytical dashboard that lets an artist easily access raw data about tweets mentioning them (Bruno). It appears that the relationship between independent artists and Twitter will continue to develop and expand in the coming years. Who knows what the future holds? And while the music industry has taken a shift into digitalization and it is arguably easier to become a successful artist, Pandora an Internet radio streaming site founder Tim Westergren brings us all back down to Earth stating: You still need talent. (qtd. in Survival of the Artist).

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Works Cited Bruno, Antony. Twitter, Music, And Monetization. Billboard 123.10 (2011): 15. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 11 Mar 2013. Christman, Ed. "Independent Label: Differing Definiitions." BillboardBiz. Billboard, 18 July 2011. Web. 23 May 2013. Castelaz, Jeff. What Can A Record Label Do For You. Artist House Music. Artist House Foundation, Mar. 2006. Web. 28 Mar. 2013 Doyle, Josh (JoshDoyle). Twitter. Web. 5 Apr. 2013. ---. Also I only mentioned this a couple times but me my band are playing glastonbury

festival in England, same day as @RollingStones rock on! 3 Apr. 2013, :3 p.m. Tweet. Gordon, Kylee Swenson. "Survival Of The Artist." Electronic Musician 28.9 (2012): 22. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. King, Richard. "How Indie Labels Changed the World." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 22 Mar. 2012. Web. 01 Apr. 2013. Lee Andrew, et al. "A Tale Of Two Sites: Twitter Vs. Facebook And The Personality Predictors Of Social Media Usage." Computers In Human Behavior 28.(n.d.): 561-569. ScienceDirect. Web. 11 Mar. 2013. McLean, Rachel "The Myths Of Empowerment Through Information Communication Technologies: An Exploration Of The Music Industries And Fan Bases." Management Decision 48.9 (2010): 1365. RILM Abstracts of Music Literature. Web. 28 Mar. 2013. Ostrow, Jonathon. "Indie Vs. Major." Music Think Tank. Hypebot, 16 May 2010. Web. 28 Mar. 2013.

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Sisario, Ben. "As Music Streaming Grows, Royalties Slow to a Trickle." The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Jan. 2013. Web. 26 Mar. 2013. Smith, Clyde. "Instead of Building a Fake Following, Why Not Build a Fanbase" Web log post. Hypebot. Skyline Music, 31 Dec. 2012. Web. 4 Mar. 2013. Smith, Craig. "How Many People Use the Top Social Media, Apps & Services?" Digital Marketing Ramblings. N.p., 3 Apr. 2013. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.