The Power of Perception

[Jim Alfredson]

Found this on CDBaby, the online company that handles our credit card orders. Thought it was an interesting read. What do you all think?

The Power of Perception

Part 1 - "Indie" has a bad name

Funny, when IUMA closed, I looked at the message board on fuckedcompany.com

There were people ranting about, "Those fucking indie musicians can't pay anyone to listen to their crap. They think just cuz they moaned into a mic that now the world owes them a favor and a dollar. If it was any good, they'd be on a major label."

And believe it or not, that was the general consensus, not just a lone nut.

Made me wonder if a lot of the world feels that way. Maybe we're off in our little circles of indie musicians talking about empowerment and independence, while the rest of the world is using that "i-word" as a rubber stamp on your forehead to classify as "LOSER".

So I'm going to be doing an experiment on CD Baby soon:

Removing our references to "indie" or "independent".

Marketing these CDs to the public *NOT* as "indie" or "support your local musician" or any of that...

...but just calling them "the best CDs you haven't heard yet."

[ I have a cute picture of a baby who doesn't want to eat, mother forcing the spoon into his mouth while he winces in disgust. The obvious slogan would be, "Tired of being force-fed your music?" ]

Our biggest returning customers, the ones who buy $200 worth of CDs every WEEK, are often the European or Japanese customers who don't know that these artists aren't in the USA pop charts! As far as they're concerned, this is what's hot in America.

Just last week I was talking with artist/friend Bari Koral, who is doing quite well. She hired a publicist to get stories/articles/features in all the cities where she's touring. The publicist is a friend of hers who usually works with major label artists. So they took the approach of NOT mentioning that Bari is an "indie" artist, but just marketing her as "a great new artist coming through _____[your town here]____" - the same way this publicist would have treated any brand new major-label client. And the people coming to her shows now are looking at her thinking she's the next Sheryl Crow or something.

The general public doesn't care what label you're on, (who ever looks at the record label logo?), as long as you don't make a point of telling them you're NOT on a big label. (as usual, Ani DiFranco is the exception.)

Anyway - this is just one way of looking at it, but one I'm going to try experimenting with.

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Part 2 - People listen with their expectations

I still STRONGLY believe that people listen only 20% with their ears, 80% with their expectations.

If you tell someone, "This is the biggest-selling artist in Australia of all time," then put on a CD, I'll bet they'll listen to it differently than if you said, "This is a girl I went to high school with, who's broke and trying to make a demo tape."

Brian Eno calls it "creating context."

Which is why I think it's perfectly OK to make up lies. It's all part of the art. It's all just entertainment. (Granted, I'm a California native so excuse this Hollywood approach in my blood.) Just smirk when you're busted.

DIFFERENT THINGS TO SAY BEFORE PLAYING SOMEONE A SONG:

Stephen King wrote this song.

When they played this at a strip club, the dancers liked it so much, it's now being used at every strip club in Florida.

Everyone I know hates this song.

Oh my god you haven't heard this yet? It's the biggest underground hit at every college in the country. Kids are burning tons of CDs to give to their friends. Rolling Stone just called it "the most bootlegged song in America."

This got banned from German TV.

This is the new theme song to "Friends"

Paul McCartney called this "the best song ever written".

I wrote this about you.

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Part 3 - my favorite quote: Brian Eno on Miles Davis

Brian Eno quote that changed my life:

"When you listen to Miles Davis, how much of what you hear is music, and how much is context?

Context is everything that isn't physically contained in the grooves of the record. It includes your knowledge that everyone else says he's great: that must modify the way you hear him. That he was a handsome and imposing man, a member of a romantic minority, that he played with Charlie Parker, that he spans generations, that he underwent various addictions, that he married Cicely Tyson, that he dressed well, that Jean-Luc Godard liked him, that he wore shades and was very cool, that he himself said little about his work, and so on.

Surely all that affects how you hear him: I mean, could it possibly have felt the same if he'd been an overweight heating engineer from Oslo?

When you listen to music, aren't you also 'listening' to all the stuff around it, too?"

- Brian Eno

[Jazzmoose]

It's a damned interesting read, if nothing else. I must admit, the "indie" tag often sounds like the old "we're number two" ads from Avis, if I remember right-kind of self-defeating. It seems as though an act is aiming for the ghetto (in the sense of a narrow slice of the population versus the population at large) rather than the big time. On the other hand, is their anything wrong with that? No, but as the article mentions, telegraphing that you're willing to settle for a tiny slice of success might limit your chances at even reaching that level.

And I've always loved that quote from Eno. But then when I think of Miles Davis, I always think "great bandleader", "great promoter", "great inovator", but rarely "great trumpeter"...

[Big Wheel]

I need only listen to "Solea" on Sketches of Spain to realize what a great trumpeter Miles Davis was. It ain't all about having Maynard Ferguson-level technique.

Of course context plays a role in affecting one's listening experience. But Miles would have affected me deeply on an emotional level regardless of who he was or where he was from. We're talking about the guy who recorded "Blue In Green," for chrissakes. You can't listen to that and tell me your experience would be fundamentally different if you didn't know who Miles was.