As I’ve been researching and thinking on the subject of what making music and sharing it with others actually means these days, I was thinking how we are all advertising driven. This website is ad driven, how ever little driving is actually done. Nonetheless, advertising powers the art. So many people are able and striving to “sell” their music, but what does that actually mean in this world we are forging?

In the past music has been a product with many different business models, there was the concert, the tour, the cd, the publishing, the t-shirts. Then came the clothing lines, the sneakers, the branded guitars, and everything else. People are talking about the death of the cd track, and I kind of agree. Music, as a product, is different than it was, and now it is somehow the same as a lot of things. I’ll try to explain.

It seems like our entertainment culture is centered around aggregating audiences, and collecting like minded people together in order to share something. It is simple, and it works for people who attend church, indie bands, as well as people who are into the new XBOX. (Also, this website will hopefully one day do the same thing for the independent artist. Just a little self plug…) So, the “product” is an experience, and attitude, a perspective on…well anything.

Once you have aggregated the audience, then the next step is to sell out. I remember when that was such a bad thing to do for musicians and there are many examples in history where it alienated the true fans and the like. But once you have that targeted audience, people who like your music, artists “sell” them to the advertisers. Your music is perhaps about something specific, and audiences of a Brooklyn Indie band, vs a Texas Alt Country band would be different, and different advertisers would want different things.

What does this mean for the indie artist? Does it mean that tours are all sponsored by Coca Cola?

But I wonder if I’ve gotten more conservative as I’ve aged, or if I feel that advertisers are different in the way that they co-opt an audience. Google itself is run on advertising, and I think anyway, that they are seen as doing something good for the internet and its’ users. Have the tools of the advertisers become more subtle?

Or is selling out, as dirty as it ever was?