Real Data
I had a thought the other day when I was in a cab riding through New York. I saw all these show posters for some bands that are sort of mid-level and I was wondering how those bands were doing. And it may be because I’m on the periphery of things and can’t really tell if this exists or not. But it seems to me that there’s a dearth of real hard objective facts in the conversations that are happening about the music industry.
To put it more precisely, it seems like the music industry has obviously evolved. And there’s a good amount of data at the high end that looks to measure performance for the old industry. That is, CD sales on a national level and attendance and ticket revenue for major venues. But, given that most of the music industry actually happens in the longer tail of clubs, session musicians, and working class musicians, it feels like the data mis- or under-represents what’s happening in the middle market.
Obviously, we’ve all read about how CD sales are declining. And we’ve read about what’s happening with digital sales. But the music industry that I’m part of, and that most of my friends are a part of, isn’t really defined by those statistics or those metrics. Irving Azoff and Jimmy Iovine have nothing to do with with what I, or my friends, are trying to do every day with our music.
Our music industry is probably defined by things like what rates session players are getting for gigs, whether that’s changed from last year, how many days they’re being booked on a time scale, etc. And it’s further defined by the strength of the venues where we play. Madison Square Garden is somewhat interesting. And Bowery Ballroom is more interesting. But even more interesting than that is how clubs like Rockwood, The Living Room, Town Hall, Union Pool, Pete’s Candy Store, etc. are doing. Because if those clubs go out of business, we don’t have anywhere to gig anymore. And if they’re doing well, as I suspect some of them are, then whether or not national CD sales are declining is largely irrelevant.
This is, I think, gettable and useful data. You’d have to build a database of session musicians, of local studios, and of clubs, and you’d have to, by hand, start pulling together a survey that asks those folks how they’re doing, particularly in reference to previous time periods. And then, you’d give survey respondents the aggregate answers to the survey for free and you’d charge for high-end analytics that cuts the data more finely and helps them understand how their business is performing against relevant benchmarks.
Maybe it’s something like if they’re charging too much or too little for drinks. Or if the session guy is charging too much or too little for his gigs. Or if a band is getting below or above average cuts from the door based on attendance.
My instinct is that this data, some kind of monthly index that would be distributed to the middle-market industry players, is both quite valuable and currently unavailable. There may be a business there. A small business. But a service that would be helpful to the people that are actually part of today’s music industry. Not the old guard of the music industry – older dudes in LA and New York that don’t have anything to do with the constant hustle that’s happening every day on the street as artists try to get their music heard.
