To get a good understanding of how my intern Ryan thought, I emailed him a document describing how Obama used social networking and I asked him to apply it to music. This is what he said (completely unabridged):
I have been studying a lot of Obama. He masterfully did to the American people what every musician should try to do: built a loyal tribe (as much as that word has been overused into oblivion by hypebot, it’s still the best way to describe it). I think those principles can be applied without even changing them, although for it to make sense I quickly have to explain that most if not all of my business plan for my band is based off how Tucker Max has run his company. Tucker Max masterfully used a message board to support him for years with ad revenue, and I think message boards could be huge for musicians who know how to use them.
Anyway:
- Personal/Social/Advocate: A personal level: listening, be our friend on facebook/other social networks, commenting on the songs, participating in message board discussion. Social: posting videos/pictures of concerts, being a high volume poster on the message board. Advocate: someone who would help advertise our concert by putting up flyers around school, perhaps getting us in contact with the school radio station, hosting an afterparty for the band to interact with fans, and maybe even housing the band (an idea I thought might work: a private hour total concert split over 2 half hour sessions in return for housing a band for a night). I think empowering super users such as making them moderators or having them help with the publicity for a given show goes along with this as well.
- Source material: maybe not on such a level as Trent Reznor, but I think this definitely means having tons of videos and pictures up, all for free download for fans. Whatever (reasonably appropriate) media we have should somehow be available for the fans.
- Going where people are/making it easy: this means being on all the popular sites, having our material on MySpace, Facebook, Last.fm, ReverbNation, etc etc. Also having an interactive and clean website is important.
- Analytics: Google analytics is great, and I’ve heard about something called band metrics that apparently is supposed to be good. I would say that geographical metrics are more important for bands than most, as then you can see where you can tour the best.
- Picking the right team: I’m not sure this is super applicable to bands as you’re pretty much on your own for the first few years, but picking a team that has your best interests in mind and can complement your faults the best, and that understand the future of media are all extremely important when picking a label or manager or whoever else you choose to hire.
Ryan made some very valid remarks. However, he floated around a couple extremely key points. Although Obama is an Ivy Leaguer just like Bush and most presidents, he used his story and his character on top of the substance of his beliefs to win the hearts of minds of (most of) America. They got to know who he was to supplement what he believed in. In addition, he was dead on about the role of his supporters; by getting them involved, they become even more passionate about the cause and this raw passion conveyed from one person to another means more than some guy in a suit saying, “Vote for Obama”. AND by taking these tactics off the street (ie the annoying door to door bullshit) to various online mediums, the scope of Obama’s reach magnified and his various beliefs become a movement. THIS is how a band gets fans; substance alone doesn’t win fans and sure as hell doesn’t win presidencies.
Nice Ryan (and Chaitt). Looks like you guys read highlights from the Edelman report. One thing I would add, that both of you guys touched on, is that he didn’t “seem” like a politician. He was completely personal, and connected with his numerous, small tribes across the country like he was one of them. Most importantly, it felt genuine (an uncommon mix for politicians).
Very true alex. He was a guy you’d wanna get a beer with, which is where the paradigm is shifting in music in music. To quote Billy Crudup’s character in Almost Famous, “You, Aaron, are what it’s all about. You’re real. Your room is real. Your friends are real. Real, man, real. You know? Real.”
HEY! really great, informative, thought provoking post, thanks for that. Funny that you mentioned “guy you’d wanna get a beer with”, this is how many claim W. Bush was able to take office… the first time. I would argue that Obama is much more than a guy you’d wanna get a beer with, though i totally would drink my face of with him, somehow he was able to capture being genuine and being larger than life…its hard to explain, we’ve never seen someone in our lifetime achieve rockstar status (in the political world) yet seem so REAL !
I don’t where i heard the quote recently, but it said something to the matter that if you know the history or back story of the music, you will be more invested/interested in the music. Obama achieved this. anyway…thats my 2 cents, keep the posts coming!!