THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 1

THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS:

HOW NEW GROUPS START, GROW, AND SUCCEED USING SOCIAL

MEDIA

For almost 100 years the music and recording industries were seen as synonymous. The decline of the recording industry over the last two decades is one of the most well documented collapses in modern business (e.g. Arango, 2009; Goldman,

2010; Kennedy, 2009; Janssens, Vandaele & Beken, 2009). The ripple effects of consumers’ titanic shift in buying habits away from physical copies of recorded music to downloading single recordings and creating free customized streaming music feeds online have permanently altered the value proposition of recorded music.

The situation is a paradox, for while artists find it more and more difficult (and less and less profitable) to sell songs and albums, the public’s demand for music is greater than ever. The consumer-driven reset of the recorded music market, which now pays pennies for songs compared to dollars in the past, has forced artists to seek new revenue sources, without the traditional support of record labels.

Fortunately for the countless number of new musical performers entering today’s market, the Internet has made it possible for independent artists to connect with smaller and more passionate groups of fans who become a ready-made market ready to hear (and purchase) the music they create. Inexpensive and widely available digital recording technology and low-cost Internet marketing platforms like Facebook and Twitter have made record labels obsolete for all but the biggest artists. Now, the THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 2

music industry is transcending physical boundaries, moving from a commodity-based model to an intellectual property-based one; seismic shifts of power, away from giant corporations and into the hands of individuals and small groups.

To understand how artists use the Internet to promote attendance at their live performances, it was decided to take a holistic view of the music industry, exploring relationships between artists, promoters and venues, their individual business models, historic methods of business operation and the impact of the Internet on their shared, but very different business behaviors and decisions. Artists and venue owners have formed a mutually beneficial, but fragile partnership that, when executed properly, rewards both parties. These businesses will be analyzed in the context of the revolutionary changes that have taken place over the last twenty years in the music industry; changes that fundamentally altered the nature of how the industry operates, from which products and services produce profit, to the methods required to generate potential customers. These drastic changes reverberated from the highest levels of the industry, all the way down to every local garage band hoping to achieve fame and fortune. No performing artist and no live music venue has been left untouched by these changes. The music industry’s value proposition, itself, has been permanently altered. The transition from a record label-controlled model, which provided artists with enormous resources and support while exerting total control and limited access; to a free-market system where artists have complete control over every aspect of their business but without access to the resources and expertise necessary to achieve full- time success as performers, has been radical and total. All musical performers, THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 3

regardless of status or past success, have had to alter their business models and marketing strategies to acknowledge this new music industry paradigm.

To illustrate the impact of these changes, this thesis will profile and analyze three young music groups at different stages of development: a brand new local funk/soul band; an emerging regional rock, funk, Latin fusion band; and an established electronica jam band with a national following. By comparing each band’s marketing strategies to build followings, engage with fans and conversion of those efforts into attendance at live performances, a model can be developed by which live performers at all levels might better understand and use online social media platforms to build sustainable business models.

This analysis will be broken into chapters. Chapter I looks at the evolution of the music industry, how it arrived at the current model and the resulting impact on artists, particularly live performers. Chapter II is the comparison of the respective business and marketing models of artists and venues, from how they utilize social and traditional media tools to how each party benefits from the relationship. Chapter III is a description of the research methods used to collect and analyze data. Chapter IV will profile the three bands, chart and compare their online marketing efforts during specific two-week periods and correlate that data to attendance and revenue generated at their live performances during those same period.

Conclusions will focus on how to use the insights gathered to develop an ongoing research model to assist artists in developing best practices for marketing and promotion of their live performances. It is important to note that while empirical data THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 4

is used to make conclusions, much of the analysis is drawn from my own personal experience as a musician, promoter, and marketer. I have personally worked with all of the bands in the study and have an intimate knowledge of how they conduct their business. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 5

Chapter I: The Music Industry, A Business in Transition

Until the early 1900's, the music industry consisted entirely of live performances and the sale of sheet music, now known as the publishing sector. With the advent of recording technology, the industry became almost entirely focused on the much larger and growing market for recordings (Morris, 1994). While only musicians buy sheet music, everyone can appreciate and buy recordings that give people the opportunity to listen to artists from around the world that they could never hope to hear live in concert.

Historically, control over the recorded music business resided with a few companies that had the ability to afford expensive recording equipment. Record companies became a necessity for artists who wished to capitalize on the financial rewards. Record companies developed massive distribution and marketing arms to promote and sell the records they made. Artists had to sign contracts with record companies, since almost all the profits in the music business were derived from record sales.

Live Concerts: Bands Take Control

Up until the mid 1980’s, bands made almost no money playing before live audiences. A concert tour was a marketing tool to sell more albums (which, depending on the deal, gave record companies the bulk of the profits, leaving artists with very little income). Setting up a tour was a complicated process filled with middlemen. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 6

Shows were set up in a string of cities, each with a different promoter who took a hefty cut of ticket sales, as much as 15 percent after expenses. The tour’s manager would then have to collect from every promoter, often an arduous process.

In 1989, The Rolling Stones, arguably the most successful rock band ever, permanently altered the touring industry by hiring their own promoter, Michael Cohl, who offered the group a guarantee of $40 million to do a 40 show tour, an amount completely unheard of at the time.

“The way Cohl's plan worked is that he would book the entire tour himself, dealing with the venues directly and cutting out the local promoters. He would also produce new streams of revenue by selling skyboxes, bus tours, and TV deals, and by taking merchandising to a new level. He would bring in corporate sponsors like Volkswagen and Tommy Hilfiger. And most important, he would help stitch these operations together, through cross-promotion and the like, to maximize their earning power” (Serwer, 2002).

The Stones also revolutionized the staging of arena shows, adding huge set pieces, light shows, and bigger sound systems. This added to spectacle of the stadium show, allowing the Stones to charge more money for tickets and use sponsorship placement in a more creative way. The first Rolling Stones tour proved it was possible to make hundreds of millions of dollars from touring, and all the other major acts followed suit.

The decline of record sales made touring even more important for music acts.

By 2007, record companies realized the opportunity to tap into touring revenue and implemented so-called “360 deals” with new artists, giving the record label a cut of all revenue from tours, merchandise, record sales and licensing. In this type of deal, the THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 7

record label also handled all business related to all revenue streams for the band, consolidating the various business streams into one company (Byrne, 2007).

Catering to Fans: A Changing Business Model

The legendary psychedelic jam band, The Grateful Dead, pioneered new business models in music that are particularly applicable today with the Internet.

According to Green (2010) “without intending to—while intending, in fact, to do just the opposite—the band pioneered ideas and practices that were subsequently embraced by corporate America”. The band did this by delivering a superior value for their most loyal customers. The Dead created their own ticket hotline, capped the price of tickets, and reserved the best seats for the die-hard fans.

The Grateful Dead also decided to allow tapings of their live shows. At the time this was considered a very bad business move; however, it allowed their brand to spread quickly throughout the music world. They were smart enough to realize that amateur tape recordings of their shows could not be regulated and would not hurt their business. In fact, the bootleg recordings created such a buzz that the band sold even more tickets and albums.

This lesson is incredibly relevant to modern Internet marketing. In the physical world, scarcity does determine value; however, the Internet works on the exact opposite principle. The band's lyricist, John Perry Barrow (1994), stated it best:

“The best way to raise demand for your product is to give it away. What people today are beginning to realize is what became obvious to us back then—the important correlation is the one between familiarity and value, not scarcity and value. Adam Smith taught that the scarcer you make something, the more valuable it THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 8

becomes. In the physical world, that works beautifully. But we couldn’t regulate [taping at] our shows, and you can’t online. The Internet doesn’t behave that way. But here’s the thing: if I give my song away to 20 people, and they give it to 20 people, pretty soon everybody knows me, and my value as a creator is dramatically enhanced. That was the value proposition with the Dead.” The Internet: Changing Customers’ Perceptions of the Value of Music

For more than seventy years, the partnerships between record companies and artists resulted in a steadily growing income stream for everyone involved. When the

Internet first gained mass-market status in the mid-1990’s, the record industry largely ignored it, focusing instead on improved digital recordings and larger, more elaborate retail locations. But the ground of the music market was shifting beneath the industry’s feet and the earthquake was taking place online, in the form of piracy.

Free programs like Napster and rampant consumer copying and sharing of CDs and digital files sent the recording industry spinning into a steep sales decline averaging nearly 13 percent a year (Kennedy, 2009). Ten years later, the industry emerged drastically different, with power away from the record labels and back to artists. New business models developed to counteract the huge revenue losses and deal with new platforms for distribution, marketing, and promotion.

The problems with the record industry can be traced back to the transition to the CD consumer product format. The expensive capital investment in switching from vinyl records caused the price of an album to nearly double, from roughly $7 for an LP, to around $15 for a CD, a price point record companies were more than happy to stick to even as emerging digital technology substantially lowered the cost of production, duplication and distribution. Consumers, partly through the media and partly through THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 9

its own research on the Internet, learned what it cost the record companies to produce music digitally versus on a CD (Economist, 2001, p20). When the switch to digital failed to bring down costs, consumers fought back, with their first attack becoming outright piracy.

The 1999 launch of the file-sharing online web service Napster fundamentally changed the mindset of music customers. Young consumers, a key driver of record sales, grew up with Napster and other similar free services, permanently adapting a mindset that music is not a product to be purchased, but something to be copied, shared or, even, directly pirated (Janssens, Vandaele & Beken, 2009).

The recording industry’s reaction to this massive, organized piracy effort was to brand these young potential customers as criminals, to the point of taking legal action against some of them, creating a contentious relationship that has yet to be repaired. As often happens when an industry undergoes a paradigm shift, the most successful companies misread changes as threats, failing to understand the impact new technology has on altering the long-term behavior of customers. The record industry missed its best chance to creatively cultivate a new generation of customers. The corresponding drop in sales caused fundamentally restructured the industry, consolidating itself into four major labels, Universal, Sony, Warner, and EMI (now three with Universal’s acquisition of EMI in 2011) but further exacerbated the disconnect with consumers by continuing to protect their bloated infrastructure and inflated prices. Over the last decade, annual sales revenue from CDs plummeted by THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 10

more than half, from almost 15 billion in 2000 to 6.3 billion in 2009 (Kennedy, 2009, p.3)

From 1999 to 2003, while the industry frantically searched for ways to replace this lost revenue, it did little to advance web presence or e-commerce strategies

(Goldman, 2009). But, while the next generation of music customers continued to pirate music and cement their non-buying habits, a company with no ties or experience in the record industry was inventing an entirely new distribution model that would fundamentally change the way consumers acquired music—and be willing to pay for it.

That company was Apple and with its 2003 release of iTunes the company turned everyone’s desktop into an online music store. Almost overnight, Apple went from no market share to becoming the record industry’s dominant sales and distribution channel. It took the major record labels another four years to develop digital sales channels, but by then it was too late. Apple was in permanent control over the lion’s share of digital sales. More importantly, customers had once again demonstrated their nimbleness, adapting to the iTunes model of purchasing individual songs at a low cost, immediately downloaded to their computers and iPods, thereby eliminating the need for physical CDs altogether. Apple continued to be ahead of the curve, anticipating the future of online and storage technology, developing devices and software capable of managing and storing tens of thousands of songs, deepening customers’ attachment to the iTunes platform, walling itself off from any competitive threats from the traditional labels. By the late 2000’s, the conversion was complete, as the Internet became the primary source of acquiring and consuming music. But, even THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 11

Apple itself was not immune from new online music services springing up to fill voids in the iTunes service.

The two predominant types of business models in the media industry are the direct pay and subscription models. The music industry always operated on a direct pay basis, where customers purchased a physical or digital product (mp3, CD, vinyl) and then permanently owned that product. The subscription model, primarily utilized in the cable television and mobile phone sectors, has been successfully adapted to the music industry as a segment of customers expressed their willingness to pay a monthly fee for access to music content without having an ownership interest. Subscription- based companies generate renewable and predictable revenue and, as such, were attractive to the record industry executives still searching for a dependable Internet- based revenue stream. According to Rick Rubin, head of Columbia Records, "The subscription model is the only way to save the music business. If music is easily available at a price of five or six dollars a month, then nobody will steal it” (See

Hirschberg, 2007).

In the last year (in the US) Spotify has exploded onto the Internet music landscape with a smart business model similar to what Rick Rubin suggested in 2007.

The Spotify platform downloads to your computer and operates very similarly to iTunes; however, you can search for and listen to any song/album you want (most all major labels and artists have signed on), but there are commercials every few songs.

Subscribers willing to pay $10 a month receive no commercials and can stream songs on their mobile devices. Spotify also gives subscribers the ability to download and THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 12

store music on an MP3 player. Spotify has successfully managed to create a model that’s compatible with the consumer’s mindset for music consumption on the Internet.

The company doubled its market share in 2011 from 9.1%-18.7% (Vilpponen, 2012) and will soon be a dominant player in the music industry competing with iTunes, as well as the entire commodity-based music model, leading the recording industry into a new era of subscription and advertising based revenues.

Online Marketing: The Shift from Selling Songs to Promoting Live

Concerts

Record labels, as well as artists, spent the most of the early 2000s figuring out how to sell music online. Performers, however, quickly discovered the Internet, in general and social media in particular, was better suited for cultivating fans and informing them about upcoming shows. Ironically, until the 1980s, artists used touring as a way to promote record sales. Today, that trend has been reversed. Forward thinking artists began changing course dramatically and most have stopped trying to sell music online, choosing instead to inform. The Grateful Dead example noted earlier illustrates the value of building and cultivating a community, regardless of the media used.

Lady Gaga is another excellent example of community building, making her fans feel like they are a part of the process and skillfully integrating Internet marketing to incentivize fans to attend her live shows, where they often spend hundreds of dollars on promotional items. Lady Gaga has more social media followers than any other company or person on the planet (more than 40 million Facebook fans and THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 13

almost 24 million Twitter followers). She understands how to deliver quality content, with a goal of making fans feel a connection with her. She gives them backstage access through her Twitter account, where she is constantly posting photos and videos.

She also always thanks her fans and gives them rewards (Poling, 2012). An example from her Twitter: “This is a necklace I’ll give to the first monster (what she calls her fans) in line every night at the Ball. It’s a symbol of the ‘key’ that opens the pit every night” (Lady Gaga, 2012).

The winning fan then gets to sign the key that she brings on stage during the next show. This is one of the many examples of Lady Gaga’s approach to cultivating fan appreciation and creative incentivizing, a plan she executes to perfection each and every day.

Summary

Up and coming musical performers have a much different path to success from their predecessors of just 10-20 years ago. The Internet has revolutionized all aspects of independent music. Bands are no longer solely focused on getting a record deal when they can record an album almost anywhere. Traditional distribution channels are far less important to new artists, who can utilize the Internet to self-distribute for less than $50. Promotions and fan relations have shifted to social media, helping bands cut the costs of promotion. Even the booking of performers has changed, with the creation of electronic press kits (EPKs) and e-mail, making it much easier for bands to present themselves effectively to venues at a very low cost. With greater usage of mobile devices as computers, managers, booking agents and venue promoters are now THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 14

available almost 24 hours a day, and business can move very quickly. The major labels still have an unrivaled distribution network and marketing machine, but it is possible to make a good living in independent music without being a pop star. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 15

Chapter II: The New Business of the New Band

New bands are created every day. Most musicians play in lots of bands before they find one that can actually perform regularly and make money. After musicians have played around for a few years and meet other musicians at a similar skill level, a band can form fairly quickly. The first step is learning/writing songs and practicing.

Once the musicians learn the material, the band must find a venue where it can play and begin to build an audience.

Booking the first show is a difficult step for first timers, who have neither the connections nor the reputation to warrant getting a performing slot. As a result, most bands begin playing shows not at bars or music venues, but at private house parties in front of their family and friends. If they are good enough, and willing to persevere, the next step is to find a venue willing to book them where they can make money and attract more fans. Bands usually break into the bar scene by playing at open mic nights, weekday shows, or opening for other bands. Sometimes promoters will make new bands pay to play a show, where they will have to pay for an amount of tickets regardless of how many they can sell. This is usually a scam and should be avoided.

Once a band has established booking connections and an audience in a market, they can begin to headline shows, where they can have much more control over contracts, opening bands, set times, and riders. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 16

Performing for Free vs. Paid Performances

Bands always begin by playing for free or very little money. If aggressive, they can quickly transition to making decent money (average $300-$500 per show for an independent band in Ohio). This generally gets each band member at least 50 dollars after expenses (gas, food, shelter). Many bands remain at this level or, worse, get stuck at the free/token payment level. This generally happens because the band is either not very talented/appealing as performers, or they have not aggressively pursued higher fees.

There are three basic methods of compensation for live music performances: variable, fixed, or mixed payment. New bands almost always get paid based on a variable rate, normally a percentage of any admission fees charged at the venue entrance (usually referred to as “the door” or, at larger venues “the gate.”) This payment plan encourages bands to actively promote attendance to their loyal followers at minimal risk to the venue, usually a bar or entertainment center that makes its money selling alcohol and food. Playing for the door can be advantageous to the band if it’s capable of bringing in an audience and has negotiated a fair split of the door with the venue, usually in the 70 to 100 percent range of total cash receipts. As bands mature, they get bigger cuts of the door or, alternatively, are offered guarantees.

A guaranteed payment shifts more of the risk back to the venue; however, if the show is more successful than anticipated (i.e. more people attend the show), the band could wind up earning less money than if they had stuck with a percentage from the door. A band called Twenty One Pilots played the Union in Athens, OH and sold THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 17

out the show, but signed a deal for a guarantee of just $200. A large crowd showed up that night to see the band. The bar made a lot of money that night, not only by selling plenty of alcohol, but also by keeping all of the door receipts, while the band barely covered their expenses.

Some of the more successful bands play, at times, for mixed payment fees, where they receive a guarantee versus a percentage of the door. If the band did unexpectedly well in drawing fans, they would earn extra money. For example, when

Papadosio played at the Union, their contract guaranteed a payment of $2,000 versus

70% of the door. At the end of the night, with total door receipts of $4,000, 70% of the door came to nearly $3,000, a 50 percent increase in the band’s compensation. This is the best deal for a band because they have the security of a guarantee, with all the advantages of playing for the door.

Building Awareness, Reputation, Credibility, Buzz

Before a band can earn credibility with audiences, venues, promoters, or even other bands, it must first create awareness of its existence. If the music is good and people come to see it, a band will start to be noticed by the community. Every show is a chance to make an impression on someone, be it a potential hardcore fan, a musician in a bigger band, or a record executive.

Creative marketing can also help to build awareness. A clever commercial, interesting poster, or publicity stunt can help draw in an audience before they have even heard the music or seen the band. When on tour with my old band The First

Street Heat, we marched with horns, drums, and guitars, blasting music around the THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 18

city we were playing in that day, passing out fliers and mingling with potential audience members. It took a lot of hard work, but we definitely met people while marching that came out to the shows and bought albums and t-shirts.

Once a band establishes awareness, the next step is to manage its reputation. In the music industry, reputation means everything. It cannot be faked and will develop over time. There are many different components that make up a band’s reputation.

Often times, a band’s reputation with bars, booking agents, and other bands can be more important than your personal reputation with the fans. Bands should first focus on how they are perceived by the people they work with, because those relationships are completely within their control.

Does the band show up early? Are they prepared and professional? How good are they at communicating? These are very basic questions most band members have trouble answering. Hard work is appreciated in a business where everyone has to constantly hustle. Having good relationships with the people usually leads to better guarantees, more complimentary drinks, better time slots, and better opportunities to play with national acts. Also, bands must always remember to tip the bar, especially if the drinks are free. Bartenders who like the band will always take care of them.

Bands also need to build relationships with other bands. Musicians, more than anyone, understand everything a new band goes through. Most are happy to help out, especially if the members are friendly and see some potential in the new group. One way a band gets to know people and build connections in new markets is through a practice known as show swapping. To swap shows, a band will network with an out of THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 19

town act. Both acts will book shows in their hometowns and have the other band appear as an opening act. Becoming known as a good band to swap with can lead to shows with much bigger bands. This can be as simple as offering the out-of-town band a free meal and a place to sleep.

Building credibility with fans is often harder than building a good reputation with bars and other bands because the audience does not know the band personally, nor do they have trained ears to fully appreciate the quality of their music. Bands build their reputations with fans through their live performances; however, much of what makes a "really good show" for the audience is outside of the band's control. Did someone dance a lot? Did they meet the boy or girl of their dreams? Were they exceptionally drunk? These factors have a huge impact on that person's memory and perception of a show; factors a band can do little to control, except to continue promoting as much as they can and play as well as possible.

Outside of the show itself, bands also build their reputations with fans by acknowledging their importance and constantly rewarding them for their loyalty and support. Fans are the lifeblood of a band and must be treated as such. Giving away free tickets to shows, free downloadable tracks, holding contests, or making fan-of- the-week posts online can go a long way towards making fans feel like they are a part of the band.

Imogen Heap is a female singer/songwriter who has built a large online following through her impressive mastery of social media. Heap built most of her fan base through Twitter by walking her followers through the 2-year process of creating THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 20

an album. She made effective use of multimedia, posting video blogs on Youtube. She involves her fans in her projects, showing them the end result of their collective decisions. She asked fans to submit artwork via Flickr for her album packaging and crafted her biography out of 160 tweets written by her Twitter followers. Imogen Heap doesn't restrict fan to her music. She brings them into her daily life with tweets and videos about remodeling her home, learning how to drive or anything else going on in her life. This level of intimacy gives Heap's fans insight into her mindset as an artist and person. It also builds interest and awareness for the release of new albums. Heap staged special pre-release listening parties for her Twitter fans, where they could meet her, listen to the album and hear her explain each song with a little story. While many artists are struggling to sell albums, Heap's fans are so dedicated, they are more than happy to pay for the music. "Fan enthusiasm continues to climb, with people

Tweeting:

‘I would pay any price for Ellipse’

‘finally had to cave & get Twitter so I could get @imogenheap’s beautiful video’

‘Thank you so much for allowing us to download Canvas. It’s such a lovely video. I would have paid many times over to get this’” (Weintraub, 2009).

Imogen Heap's use of multiple social media platforms, with specific content tailored for each, is a textbook example for bands using social media. While emerging bands have a hard time generating that kind of audience participation, these techniques are still critically important for building and maintaining relationships with fans. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 21

Building a Fan Base

Building a fan base starts with family and friends. Sometimes they are the only people in the audience for a band’s first shows. But a band cannot sustain itself playing only for their friends and family, so they need to develop other fans. Playing a great show gives a band credibility and buzz, but once the show is over, a band must maintain communication with those new fans, so that they will spread the word to their friends and get them to attend the next show.

A band Facebook page, website and email list are excellent ways to amplify the word-of-mouth process. A band must stay connected with everyone who has attended a show. Incentivizing them, at the show venue, to like the band’s Facebook page, or sign up to receive e-mails is the first step towards turning a first time attendee into a repeat fan who will eventually buy merchandise. Identification and cultivation of the band’s most loyal followers, its “evangelists” who will then help spread the word, is key to expanding the band’s fan base. These evangelistic fans become part of the team, happily doing anything to help, from putting up posters and flyers to sending mass texts and inviting people to like the band’s Facebook page. Bands usually incentivize their evangelists with free tickets, merchandise and special content created just for them.

One new radical approach artists are implementing is the 1,000 True Fans model, which is based on the theory that independent creators can make a living from only 1,000 die-hard fans. Here's the definition of a "true fan” from K. Kelly (2008)

"A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 22

you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans."

If 1,000 fans each spend $100 a year on a band’s music and merchandise, the group can make a decent living. This is a comforting business model for independent musicians because it is plausible to develop and cultivate 1,000 true fans, compared to the likelihood of creating a blockbuster hit and becoming famous, factors largely out of the artist's control.

To be successful with this model, bands must take control of their own marketing message creation and distribution, cutting out the old-fashioned record promoter middleman and communicating directly with fans to garner support for their art. This form of patronage is similar to the way musicians survived hundreds of years ago. Through websites like Kickstarter and Fundable, artists can raise money by asking many supporters to make small donations. This new "micro-patronage" has supported artists in all mediums, particularly independently produced music and video games.

According to Kelly (2008),"The genius of the True Fan model is that the fans are able to move an artist away from the edges of the long tail to a degree larger than their numbers indicate. They can do this in three ways: by purchasing more per person, by spending directly so the creator keeps more per sale, and by enabling new models of support." THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 23

By combining micro-patronage efforts with clever incentives, artists can strengthen relationships with their fans by rewarding them for their support. Best fans can be given unique experiences, like a private concert, or dinner and drinks with the band, incentives that cost little or no money, but provide the fan with an experience not available to the general public money can’t buy. Documenting these fan experiences with photos and videos can then be used as content online to stimulate other fans to contribute more money.

The 1,000 True Fan/Micro-patronage model could be a way for independent artists to make a living from the direct support from their fans. Even signed musicians are adapting aspects of the 1,000 True Fan model. One of the best examples is the band Nine Inch Nails. After the band left its record label, it put 36 tracks online and made nine of them free to download. This generated a lot of buzz, and fans were grateful to get almost a whole album worth of free music. Giving out tracks for free also got people interested in hearing the other 27 songs. Instead of selling a regular

CD or mp3 download, Nine Inch Nails made creative packages for their fans, including a limited edition Ultra Deluxe Package signed by Trent Reznor, selling for

$300. The band sold out of Ultra Deluxe packages and made $750,000 in one day

(Greaves, 2011). Nine Inch Nails is an excellent example of giving your customers a superior value proposition, using free (but still high quality) content to lure them in, and making a sale at a premium cost by making the experience rare and unique. This is obviously not possible for an up and coming band to sell a deluxe album for $300, but they can still raise the value of the merchandise by marketing in a creative way. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 24

The Local Bar Business: Competition for Customers

There are thousands of music venues across the United States. They can come in all sizes and styles, but most of the successful ones serve alcohol. With the advent of the DJ, live music venues have diminished significantly. Most people want to hear radio hits when they go out to drink and live bands are much more expensive than cueing up a song on the computer, or letting the radio play. The types of venues that independent bands play in can often be separated into two categories: venues that primarily focus on music and venues that primarily focus on selling alcohol. Venues can also be categorized by size, because as venues get bigger and book bigger-named acts, their business structure focuses on the concert, whereas a small local bar primarily focuses on selling alcohol, with the band being a marketing device to attract more people. These distinctions are critical to how the different bars operate, drastically changing how each does business with artists.

The birth of the Internet and the subsequent boom of independent music has affected venues as much as it has artists. The overwhelming number of independent bands has driven the price of entertainment down, especially when every new band has the skills to rally their friends and family to a show with the help of Facebook.

Instead of venues paying bands as a part of their fixed expenses, they let the band charge a cover and put all of the pressure on them to promote and bring out their fans.

If the band can’t draw, there is always another one that can and the bar didn’t lose any money. As will be discussed in more detail in later chapters, this is not the best way to build a sustainable business, but most bars do it anyway. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 25

Factors on Deciding to Utilize Live Entertainment

The bar industry is extremely competitive. Patrons have many choices for where to spend an evening out, even in smaller communities. Bar owners are constantly looking for an edge to gain more customers, anything from drink specials, aggressive marketing campaigns, food, to offering live music entertainment. Bringing in a band is a high risk, high reward proposition for a bar. The capital investment for turning a bar into a live music venue is costly. Installation of a sound system, stage and lighting can cost tens of thousands of dollars. A live music venue also needs people: a booking agent, sound technician, staff to handle door receipts, even security and extra bar staff for larger events. For example, when The Union, a medium-sized live music venue in Athens, OH, opens its upstairs room for live music, it costs the bar an additional $250 dollars in operational expenses, regardless of how many customers show up that night. That $250 expense does not include the fee for the band. These expenses can often double or triple in bigger markets. That amount of money often represents the difference between making and losing money for the night. Bar owners who book live music acts are betting that the band will attract enough people to cover their additional fixed costs through a combination of door fees and food and beverage sales. The risk is compounded by the fact that nearly all the factors that determine success or failure are out of the venue’s direct control. Everything from the weather to what the competition is doing can impact the size of the turnout. But a live music venue can also reap huge rewards. Booking popular acts with sizable followings can THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 26

guarantee big bar sales, steady crowds, and increased name recognition and brand awareness for the bar.

Venue Size Dynamics

Bar venues can be grouped into three basic categories: small venues with a capacity under 100, medium-sized venues that can hold up to 250 people and large venues that can hold more than 250 people.

Small. Small venues are where new bands get their starts. They usually have little or no music infrastructure, no stage or PA system, leaving the band with the responsibility of bringing their own. Live music is not a primary part of the bar’s marketing or business strategy. The bartender might also double as the sound technician and even the booking agent as well. The bar may charge a cover, but is more likely to pay the band a small guarantee ($100-$250) in exchange for the expectation the band will handle the bulk of the marketing and promotion to attract a crowd to the show. The band hopes the bar will have a built-in group of regular customers who will become fans after hearing them perform.

Medium. A medium sized venue almost always has a sound system of some sort and usually a stage, although not a very big one. Dedicated sound technicians are hired to handle audio for shows and the bar usually has an employee who, as part of their duties, negotiates deals with bands. Medium-sized venues come in two types, THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 27

operating under different business models: one’s that charge an admission fee, or cover charge, and one’s that don’t.

Medium sized venues that charge covers for their shows minimize their fixed costs (and, thereby, some of their risk) by paying bands a percentage of the cover receipts, with no guarantee. This puts the band in the position of being the venue’s marketing and promotion partner, since it has a strong incentive to produce a crowd for the show. While a venue sometimes helps with traditional marketing by hanging posters or buying an ad in the local entertainment publication, they rarely invest marketing dollars to promote a show. In most cases, the band receives a majority of the cover charge receipts, while the bar is satisfied to profit from the increase in food and beverage sales. If the band does a good job of attracting a crowd, it’s a win-win situation. If not, it’s lose-lose, but with the bar losing less because it minimized its upfront risk. This can often lead to a boom/bust style of cash flow for the venue, where some nights are dead and others are completely packed.

Some medium sized venues operate more like small venues not charging covers for their shows. Instead, they pay the band a percentage of the bar receipts.

These types of bars usually have a stronger built-in crowd, often establishing a reputation as a venue that has quality, regularly scheduled live music. A good example of a no cover venue is the Northside Tavern, a well-known music venue in Cincinnati.

The bar has invested heavily in live music infrastructure, with an excellent stage and sound system. Northside has gained a reputation in the music community for treating bands well by giving them good pay and free drinks, two factors that make the bar a THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 28

“must stop” for bands around Cincinnati. Because every band wants to play there, the bar can be very selective about who it books, keeping the emphasis on quality music fitting their reputation. People who go to the Northside usually don’t go to see a specific group. Instead, they are loyal to the venue, trusting that, whoever is performing, they will have a good time. The Northside’s marketing is more in line with that of the bands, cultivating loyalty and evangelists to spread the word. Its’

Facebook page has more than 3,000 fans. The bar treats live music as an integral part of its operation. The bar also has predictable expenses, audience attendance and drink sales from night to night, avoiding wild expense variation and the boom/bust phenomenon experienced by venues operating on the cover charge model.

Large. The most important difference from their smaller counterparts is that a large venue is primarily in the music business, selling alcohol as a complimentary service.

Smaller venues are primarily in the alcohol business and provide music as a complimentary service, a crucial distinction affecting the business model. Larger music venues book higher quality bands and have invested in the sound system, lighting rig, and hospitality they require as well as dedicated staff for production and hospitality and correspondingly higher expenses than a small bar. Filling the venue to near capacity is crucial to profitability. To do so, it must book nationally touring acts

(or good local/regional bands) with the ability to attract hundreds of people. These acts command much higher appearance fees, often several thousand dollars. Touring bands with a substantial fan base do not play for door deals, shifting the show’s risk entirely THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 29

onto the venue. When a small venue pays out of door receipts, the band itself is not considered a significant expense. The band and the bar are almost running independent businesses that happen to compliment each other, with the band earning its money by getting more people to show up and the bar getting its money from selling alcohol to those same people. At a large venue, paying guaranteed money makes the band a fixed expense and the venue operator must handle both the bar and the music with equal skill, since their customers are there specifically to see the band.

While the bar has much more invested in each live show, they also have the opportunity for a greater upside. Alcohol is often sold at a premium and price is not a motivating factor in making a decision to attend. Instead, the experience of the show becomes a much greater motivator. Seeing a favorite national act perform live is a special event where fans are okay with spending more money on tickets, drinks, food, parking, taxis, etc. At small and medium sized bars, where customers may come several times a week, drink price is a much higher motivator.

The change in focus from alcohol to music (and the risk that comes with it) requires large venues to become good marketers. Large venues work with bands to make sure their shows are well publicized, helping with traditional media such as posters, radio, television, and print advertising. Some large venues are becoming savvy social media users, combining with bands to reach thousands of people online.

With so much money invested in an artist, it is only logical that the venue would devote resources to promoting him. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 30

A band’s ability to pack large venues around the country has a substantial following that allows them to make a living playing music fulltime. Bands that sell tickets are treated very well by large venues, who are ready to deal with all artist riders, including free food, alcohol and, at times, more unusual items like new socks (this is actually on the Papadosio rider). Artists also ask for and receive designated backstage areas where they can have privacy.

Promoters

Promoters are the third party in the venue/band relationship. They find bands and work as middlemen between venues and bands to put shows together. Promoters put up the money to pay the acts, usually paying them a flat rate. Whatever money is left over from ticket sales goes to the promoter. Much like a good venue, a good promoter has their own fan base and marketing machine to bring out an audience regardless of the act. A promoter with strong brand loyalty can be very useful to a band, especially an out-of-town band in need of help getting people out to shows in an unfamiliar market. A promoter with poor marketing skills and connections cannot bring out an audience, regardless of the act. These promoters are just middlemen, taking money that could potentially go to the band or the venue.

Impact for Artists/Audience Attendance

The size and type of venue have a huge impact on the artist, from how they get paid, to what they sound like on stage. Because of the nature of the business, musicians will always need venues as business partners. An important conclusion from this analysis THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 31

of venues is the shifting of power as a band grows, from the venue to the artist. When a band first starts out and does not have much to offer, the power is very much shifted towards the venue, but a band matures and can attract more people, power moves more towards them. This power shift is one of the main reasons why up and coming bands must be skilled in marketing, which has led to the widespread adoption of social media.

The type and size of the venue is important to the main research of the thesis because it can have a heavy effect on audience attendance. First, there are physical attributes such as the size of the venue, style of venue, location of venue, etc. that can all affect attendance. Secondly, venues that put effort into their marketing and work with the band can make a huge difference in turnout. While the main research presented in Chapter IV discusses how Facebook affects audience attendance, it is critically important to note the effect of venues on audience attendance. When discussing Facebook’s impact, physical factors related to the venue cannot be ignored.

The Economics of Starting and Operating a Band

For its members to earn enough money to make a living, a band must take in a significant amount of revenue, a process than can take 3-5 years to achieve.

Estimating revenue is fairly straightforward (# of shows x $ per show + merchandise + licensing). Figuring out expenses can be a little more complicated. The first step is listing all the band’s many expenses:

• Booking agent • Manager THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 32

• Tour manager • Gas • Sound, lighting technicians, roadie, hired musicians • Vehicle repairs, vehicle upkeep (oil changes, tires rotated), food, hotels • Printing, graphic design, video production • Equipment repairs, equipment upkeep (strings, reeds, drum heads) These are expenses a band must pay before members of the band get paid.

Band members can handle some of these expenses to help reduce costs, something all bands must master for survival on the road. The band must establish a profit goal and create a budget to reach that goal. Once the budget is set, the band should know exactly how many shows it must play, and how much money they need to make at each show, to reach their goal.

Alternative Revenue Streams: Licensing and Sponsorship

The difficulty for an independent band to achieve profitability is apparent in the mock profit and loss (P&L) statement shown a few pages down. Selling records at a profit is nearly impossible and playing shows leads to very small gross margins because of the heavy expenses involved in travelling. Because traditional music revenue streams are drying up, licensing has become an increasingly important contributor to profitability. Licensing songs to television, movies, video games, and record labels can give an artist a huge income boost. Licensing agreements can come in two different forms: an upfront, one time fee, or a percentage of total revenue (also called points). For example, my band mate, Emerson, sold lyrics to a record producer in Japan for an upfront fee of $1,500. For an independent musician, this is a nice paycheck for work he had already done. The downside is that he no longer owns those THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 33

lyrics. If, for example, the song sold 1 million copies, he would not receive another penny in compensation, even though he wrote a hit single. If Emerson had, instead, sold his song to a television show, his deal would have worked differently. Rather than owning Emerson's song, the show would have paid him a fee to use it in their show.

These fees can amount to thousands of dollars, depending on the song. Artists also receive a huge publicity boost from the exposure. In addition, there are few expenses associated with these kinds of licensing deals, making it a much more lucrative revenue stream than either touring or selling records.

Sponsorships for newer bands at the local level are difficult to secure, which may explain why it is an often neglected, but still potentially significant revenue stream. A band that can consistently bring people out to shows and influence fan behavior can make a strong case for the tangible value of a sponsorship. With mass marketing becoming more expensive and less useful (especially for younger audiences), companies are looking for creative ways to reach their target audiences.

Bands have always been a great way for companies to appear "hip" to their consumers.

Bands like OK Go have leveraged the relationships they’ve developed with their fans to develop sponsor deals worth thousands of dollars.

OK Go got creative with its business model, finding it easier to get money and creative control from corporations than record labels. According to Kulash (2010) “a record label typically measures success in number of records sold. Outside sponsors, by contrast, tend to take a broader view of success. The measuring stick could be mentions in the press, traffic to a website, email addresses collected or views of online THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 34

videos.” These measurements of “eyeballs” are fairly easy for bands to attain, but difficult to convert into dollars. Ok Go had sponsors, including Range Rover,

Samsung, and State Farm, paying for their music videos. At the end of the video, OK

Go thanked the sponsor for making the video possible. The band was genuinely thankful to the company for allowing them to complete their project without interfering with the creative process, as a record label almost certainly would. So were the fans, who appreciated the sponsor’s support of their band’s creative vision. Most importantly, the sponsors got millions of views on a video with their name on it, building stronger connections with potential customers.

For the last decade, everyone in the music business has been asking the same question: how do we make money from Internet platforms like Youtube and

Facebook? The answer is sponsorship. Internet platforms generate traffic, hits and pageviews, but rarely does such activity translate into revenue. Companies, however, are always looking for ways to be seen by prospective customers, so a sponsorship gives them online access to the band’s fans. Corporate sponsorship of music events has grown from $575 million in 2003 to over $1 billion in 2010in North America will exceed $1 billion in 2010, up from $575 million in 2003 (Kulash, 2010). The upward trend of music-based corporate sponsorship is helping replace some of the money bands used to get from record labels; however, substantial sponsorship deals are out of the reach independent bands without large national audiences.

There are dangers in creating sponsorships. The sponsor’s brand must align with the image of the band; otherwise both could lose credibility with their audiences. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 35

For example, if a band frequently sings about ending corporate corruption, signing a sponsorship deal with Wal-Mart will not go over well, either with the fans, who would challenge the authenticity of the band’s message, or with Wal-Mart itself who could be embarrassed by associating its name with a band that appears to be attacking its own sponsor. Misaligned sponsorships can hurt the reputations of both the band and the company.

Band Revenue/Expense Model

The mock financial statement below shows all of the revenues and expenses for an independent band. The band in this example is travelling and making some money, but is not quite sustainable yet. The projected net profit is prior to compensation for band members. When it comes to touring, expenses usually amount to at least 50 percent of total gross revenue. Any type of vehicle break down (such as the one accounted for in February’s figures) can severely impact the band’s profitability. In March, the band signed a licensing agreement for a commercial for a flat fee of $10,000. The licensing money makes a dramatic difference in the band’s revenue, making them much more profitable in March, illustrating the importance of non-performance revenue streams, such as licensing and sponsorship money, since they represent, largely, expense-free income and can become consistent and predictable over extended periods of time. It is also important to note that this P&L statement is primarily for touring and does not include the expenses required to make and distribute an album. A national touring band will have different financial THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 36

statements for each sector of their business, while smaller independent bands combine all sectors into one balance sheet for the entire company.

THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 37

Importance of Attendance for Bands and Venues

Both the venue and the artist need people to come to the show in order to make money, making them natural business partners. To make the show a success, both the band and the venue must work together to promote. Bands use social media and e-mail lists to reach their fans, while their publicist (if they have one) reaches out to local media for press coverage. Venues handle traditional marketing, hanging posters, passing out flyers, and making sure the media are aware of the show. Unfortunately, these responsibilities are not always clearly delineated and, many times, a venue will not promote unless they are heavily invested in a show. For a touring band, this can significantly impact show attendance, since the band is physically unable to distribute printed promotional material in an out-of-town market.

Adopting Social Media

The Internet has given independent musicians an opportunity to bypass major record labels and solicit financial support directly from fans. Digital recording technology and distribution streams have given thousands of bands a chance to create their own music libraries and share them with the world at a very low cost. The downside for bands: a dramatic increase in the supply of live music, allowing venues to transfer their financial risk to the artists, forcing them to accept non-guaranteed door receipt deals in order to outmaneuver competing bands for the limited number opportunities to perform. As a result, professional musicians became experts at marketing and promotion on a budget, naturally leading them to discover inexpensive, THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 38

but effective media to reach their fans. The rapid development of social media websites, first Myspace and then Facebook, provided bands with an inexpensive, yet powerful solution to their marketing challenge.

The Transition from Myspace to Facebook

From 2005-2008, Myspace had a stranglehold on the social media market.

While not the only online social media platform, it had significantly greater market share than all its competitors. From 2006-2008, Myspace was the most trafficked website in the US; it’s dominance, however, was about to end with the 2004 launch of

Facebook. In one of the most ill-timed business deals ever, News Corporation purchased Myspace in 2005 for $580 million, in part because of the site’s enormous traffic count. But as Myspace became more absorbed into the corporate culture of

News Corp., the site lost many of the attributes that made it attractive to users. Slow to innovate, cluttered with ads and lacking a clean, consistent design from page to page,

Myspace began losing viewers in droves to Facebook, which made all its page layouts exactly the same, with few customization options. Consumers preferred the simplicity of Facebook and did not need customization options. Facebook also required people to use their real names, birthdays and other personal information. On Myspace users easily create fake identities, but on Facebook you had to be yourself. Facebook’s rules cleaned up social media, making it more accessible for older users and a much more useful tool for marketers, who could now build real relationships with customers.

From 2008 onward, Facebook continued to innovate while Myspace floundered. Although Myspace positions itself as a music promotion site, musicians THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 39

have followed their fans to Facebook. Despite having fewer music features than

Myspace, Facebook has become quite flexible by allowing outside developers to make applications. By downloading one or two apps, a band can have all the music features of Myspace on its Facebook page, where the audience is more readily available and willing to listen.

Twitter: Crowd Generation and Manipulation

Twitter, originally introduced as Twttr in 2006, is a social networking service where users make text posts of 140 characters or less, called “tweets.” The concept came from the cell phone short messaging service (SMS) known as texting. Twitter users subscribe to other users as “followers” so they can easily see that person’s posts.

Posts can be categorized through the use of “hashtags” (utilizing the # symbol to make a word or phrase searchable to other subscribers). For example, writing

#occupywallstreet at the end of a post will allow it to be seen with any other posts about Occupy Wall Street. When enough people post under the same hashtag, Twitter designates it as a trending topic that shows up on the Twitter homepage.

This powerful search application creates what is known as micro news, where many different people create news and analysis through lots of small posts. This has become extremely popular with all types of journalists, especially when covering breaking news or sports. Because of the 140-character limit, the use of micro URLs has risen dramatically. A micro URL is a shortened version of a traditional URL and can easily be made through a number of free online services. Twitter has created its THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 40

own version of micro URLs which will soon be totally implemented into the site, giving Twitter the ability to monitor links and traffic to other websites.

For bands, Twitter is useful for interacting with fans. Because of its short and quick nature, it's often better than Facebook or Youtube for creating or joining conversations. A band can insert itself into search results by using hash tags in its posts. For example, writing #realhiphop at the end of a post will allow that post to show up in a feed whenever people search "Real Hip Hop" on Twitter. This gives bands a way to introduce themselves to new potential fans who are interested in a particular genre but who are unaware of their existence.

Facebook Event Pages

Facebook Events have been one of the primary features of Facebook. With recent updates they have become less effective, but still have one key advantage— anyone can invite their friends to an event. On average, only about ten percent of the people invited will respond to a Facebook Event, but, whenever a person RSVP’s

“yes” or “maybe” to an event, that event is saved into their Facebook calendar and shows up on the sidebar of their homepage on the day of the event, a reminder that can have a critical effect on whether or not that person attends a show. Chapter IV will analyze Facebook Events in depth to determine if they have an affect and can be used as a predictor for show attendance. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 41

Posting

Posting on both band page and individual band member’s pages is the primary method for distributing information on Facebook. By “tagging” (inserting a link to another Facebook page) both the band and the event in posts, people can easily get to either page with just one click. Because most people view posts from their own scrolling newsfeed, posting multiple times per day is the best way to remain visible to fans. The research data from Chapter IV shows, on average, approximately 17% of a group’s fans see any one particular posts, but the cumulative number of different people reached increases with a greater frequency of posts. Focusing on frequency of

Facebook posts shares many characteristics with buying commercials on a radio station, which also has a defined audience that uses the medium multiple times each day. Advertisers who buy a series of spots in only one daypart, such as morning drive time, only reach the people who are listening during that time period. Anyone not listening in that time frame cannot hear the ad. On Facebook while people always have an opportunity to scroll back and read an earlier message, it’s easy for any one message to go unread, as the non-stop daily avalanche of posts usually pushes that message off the page quickly, within 15-30 minutes for readers with many friends. To increase the chances a reader will actually see a message, a marketer must spread posts throughout the day. Frequency of message is important, not only for reaching more fans, but also for gaining repeat exposure to the people that log on more than once a day. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 42

Use of Multimedia in Posts

Another finding from the research, discussed in detail in Chapter IV, is that posts that include multimedia (photos, videos, audio) always perform significantly better than pure text posts. A 30-second Youtube commercial for a show can get many more views, clicks, and shares than a simple text reminder. Photos and audio are also very helpful. The secret to strong multimedia content is to be creative, a skill that usually comes naturally with being a good musician. An audience that likes a band’s music is often interested in a band’s view of the world and how they express that view.

Audiences love creative content and will voraciously consume and share that content with others if they find it interesting. Savvy band marketers create and distribute multimedia content to promote upcoming shows.

Incentives

Incentivizing audiences is important for reaching the friends of fans. This can be done a number of different ways, but the best way is through contests. Bands have lots of things they can give away a little or no cost: free tickets, t-shirts, albums, or stickers. Any of those items becomes more valuable if band members personalize them, even if they aren’t famous.

The best way to run a Facebook contest is to post frequently from the band’s page, asking fans to invite their friends to the band page. Other tactics include asking fans to change their profile picture to the show a band poster, or write a post in which the band is tagged (creating a direct link for friends of fans to click) Contest winners are usually selected utilizing an electronic random number generator. Better prize THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 43

packages stimulate traffic and more likes for the band’s page, expanding the audience able to view the band’s content and building its fan base.

Another effective Facebook contest uses “likes” to determine the winner.

Whoever gets the most likes on their comment wins the contest. This contest is easy to run because it has a clear-cut winner that everyone can see. It also encourages fans to share their posts with their friends, to get more likes. With the proper incentive, this technique can quickly generate dozens, if not hundreds of likes for a band’s page.

Building a Fan Base

Building a fan base was already discussed earlier in Chapter II (p. 24) and much of the same concepts apply to building a fan base on Facebook. Having a large

Facebook fan base is important to a bands reputation. For example, with only a quick glance, it is obvious that Papadosio (20,000 fans) is a much more successful band than

Sassafraz (200 fans). If a band has thousands of fans on the Internet, it can help them to book shows and get bigger guarantees, especially in out of town markets. It is important to note that having a bigger Facebook fan base comes with the perception that the band will deliver a better attended show, but this is not always the case. When looking at show attendance, it is much more important to look at fans in the market instead of total fans. Even a band like Papadosio, with 20,000 total fans, will not draw a crowd in a market where they have zero fans. Most bands and venues tend to look at

Facebook fans as a total number and use that to measure value, but they are miscalculating by not looking at the fans in their particular market, which has a much higher barring on audience attendance. How fans per market ultimately affects THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 44

attendance and revenue is discussed in more detail in Chapter IV, but it is important to understand the distinction between total fans and fans per market.

Traditional Marketing Support

While this thesis concentrates on Internet promotion, physical promotion is still equally, if not more important in certain instances. Because people are bombarded with thousands of messages per day, repetition is critical to getting casual or marginal fans to actually attend a show. Spreading messages across as many media as possible not only reaches a wider array of people, it also builds overall interest, generates word-of-mouth and reminds loyal fans to attend the show.

Posters and handbills are one of the easiest ways to spread a message. Bands often employ a street team of volunteers to help put up posters for shows in out of town markets. If the poster has artistic value, having the artist sign and number copies gives the band another item to sell at the show.

Handbills are portable versions of posters and are great reminders about the show. Printing and passing out more than 1,000 handbills for a show is typical for a local band, while large events, such as music festivals, print tens of thousands of handbills and send them to promoters all over the country.

Traditional Media Support

Radio, television, and print media all can be very helpful for show promotions, but are often inaccessible until a band has an established following. A band’s designated media person usually contacts the local media in every market where the THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 45

band performs. Reviews and interviews with traditional media give bands added credibility in the market and then be put online to use as added social media content, further extending the publicity reach.

Some bands utilize publicity stunts to stimulate media coverage. Stunts are a high-risk, high-reward type of marketing. They take time and manpower but can lead to a lot of attention and buzz about the show. For example, when The First Street Heat went on tour, they marched around the downtowns and college campuses in each town where they performed, blasting horns and playing drums and acoustic guitars. Band members all wore purple outfits while a friend of the band, dressed in a Green Man costume, led their crazy parade. This stunt attracted attention from people and even the police, generating interest and recognition for the band in new markets.

Post-Concert Marketing

The most important marketing for a band takes place after the show. Turning fans into friends is the best way to get them to come back next time the band is in town. Those that are most engaged help promote and spread the band’s music to others in the market. Tipping the bar well and building relationships with the venue’s booking agent are also important ways to solidify positive business relationships and secure future bookings.

Posting a thank you on all social media pages and the band’s website reinforces the development of personal relationships, as does welcoming all the new fans met at the show. New fans should be tracked to see if they are "liking" the band on Facebook or "following" it on Twitter. The most successful bands make new fans THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 46

feel like they are a part of something special, speaking to them in a personalized and genuine way.

As a follow up, fans enjoy seeing media from the show they just attended.

People love seeing pictures of themselves at events and posting photo albums online usually results in a big spike in viewership. One way to build new followers is to make sure people can tag photos only after liking the band’s page followed by a series of posts inviting people tag themselves in the photo album.

Video of the concert also makes for great online content. Fans are much more likely to click on a video post than a text post. Good video content is also extremely useful for booking future shows and promoting to industry connections. Promoters like to see what the band looks and sounds like in a live setting.

Some bands create rough audio mixes of their shows and then sell the concert on flash drives at their merchandise booth. Concert archives are an excellent way to increase fan loyalty, check a band’s website more frequently to hear the new music and listen to their favorite tracks. Songs posted on Facebook and Twitter also generate more clicks and shares.

Summary/Conclusions

Until very recently, Facebook marketing has not been thoroughly studied, especially in relation to musicians. While independent musicians have adapted better to social media than most businesses, there is still not a clear-cut, consistent method for producing results on Facebook. Even if a band does gain many Facebook fans, no one is sure if that really means anything. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 47

Almost all bands are using Facebook, but there are many different variations in strategy from band to band. Some bands have noticed trends, such as increased reach and buzz from multimedia posts, but no research study has analyzed the numbers to validate these assumptions. While many bands use Facebook to communicate with their fans, almost none of them analyze their Facebook insights (Facebook’s name for its’ statistics). The study, outlined in Chapter III, examines Facebook insights from three bands to attempt to find the most affective Facebook marketing strategies.

Specifically, this study seeks to answer the following research questions:

Research Questions

1. How do different types of posts and the frequency of posts affect Facebook

reach?

2. How and where do users view content? Does this change how content should

be delivered?

3. What is the relation between Facebook events and actual attendance?

4. What is the relationship between fans per market (locality) and attendance?

5. What factors affect the long-term growth of a fan base?

6. How is Facebook affected by the development of the bands (or how does a

new band compare to an established one?)

7. What is the overall impact of Facebook on show attendance?

THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 48

Chapter III: Method

This research study tracks and analyzes the impact of Facebook on three independent bands, each at a different phase of development, over the course of two weeks. The range of bands will help illustrate the progression of Facebook growth as a band matures. The three bands are Sassafraz (200 FB fans), Elemental Groove Theory

(2,000 FB fans), and Papadosio (20,000 FB fans). The study tracks both online and traditional marketing variables to determine if a band’s Facebook statistics can be predictive of attendance at shows.

All the data for this research was given to me from the bands. Normally

Facebook insights are not available to the public, but I was given administrator access to analyze the data. I have personally known the members of Papadosio and Elemental

Groove Theory for over three years and have often played with them, as well as worked with them as a promoter. Sassafraz is my new band, so I obviously have access to all of its information.

After getting permission from the bands, two weeks worth of Facebook insights were downloaded into Microsoft Excel and relevant data was separated out.

Each bands insights included over 50 spread sheets, so data were consolidated into one master chart, which is displayed in the descriptive results section below. While conducting this research, Facebook was in the process of switching over all accounts to timeline, its new layout, which completely rearranged the presentation of the data.

Elemental Groove Theory and Sassafraz were on timeline, but Papadosio was not, so statistics had to be consolidated between the two formats, another reason for the THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 49

creation of a master chart. After analyzing the master chart, where all three bands could be compared and contrasted in an easy to digest format, graphs were created to illustrate the main points related to the research questions. Finally, the bands provided attendance data from all of their shows throughout the two-week period. It is important to reiterate that my relationship to the bands colored much of my analysis.

While the numbers dictated my conclusions, much of the commentary comes from my personal insight to the music scene of Ohio and the bands themselves.

Research Limitations

Because of the limited scope of the study, and differing sizes and experience of the bands, it is difficult to create a formula encompassing all of the variables that contribute to correlating Facebook fan engagement with show attendance. Differences in the operating and marketing models of small, medium, and large bands may make it impossible to apply general conclusions accurately across all three levels of band.

However, the combination of empirical data and professional experience in the band business will provide an accurate description of how each band utilizes Facebook; the number and percentage of fans and prospective fans reached; the percentage of fans who RSVP to show invites and the number of people who eventually attend a show.

Where the three bands yield common or comparable results, some general insights and conclusions may be inferred. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 50

The Bands

According to the profiles of their Facebook fan groups, the bands in this study appeal to the same target demographic group: young adults between the ages of 18 and

34. All three groups skew towards male fans, with 60 percent of their total audience made up of men. All but one of the members of the three bands are male and band members invite their own friends as the first wave of Facebook fans.

Sassafraz. Sassafraz is a new band, formed at the end of 2011 but made up experienced young musicians. Half the band is from Athens, Ohio and half from

Cincinnati. The band has been performing mostly in their hometown markets. At the beginning of the study Sassafraz had 200 Facebook fans. Because of the members’ experience in the music scene, the band has been able to advance relatively quickly, playing shows with nationally touring acts like Papadosio and Snarky Puppy. Most of the band members are in their early 20’s, with a few members in their mid to late 20s.

Average attendance per show is still less than 100 people, with pay widely varying, from next to nothing, to more than 500 dollars, depending on the show.

Elemental Groove Theory. Elemental Groove Theory (EGT) formed in 2009 and has grown into a good regional band with solid markets all throughout Ohio, especially in

Athens, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland. The average age of EGT is 25. At the beginning of the study they had 2,500 Facebook fans. EGT is attempting to transition from being a part to full time band, but they still do not have a booking agent or THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 51

professional manager. They average a few hundred dollars per gig, but they have to travel in multiple vehicles, making touring nearly impossible. Their average attendance is about 150.

Papdosio. Papadosio is also from Athens, OH and formed in 2007. They have since grown into a nationally touring act, able to sustain themselves on the road fulltime, as well as by playing prime slots at major music festivals such as All Good and Summer

Camp. At the beginning of the study it had 18,000 Facebook fans and had just begun a four-month nationwide tour, including its first trip to California. Papadosio is represented by Autonomous Music and travels in a bus with a tour manager, sound engineer, lighting engineer, and video projectionist. It plays approximately 200 shows per year and over 40 festivals, sometimes in front of tens of thousands of people. On average Papadosio makes at least a few thousand dollars per show, almost always in the form of a guarantee. The band averages 800 people per show, but this average is skewed by their music festival performances. In the winter months, Papadosio plays for an average of 300 people, but in the summer months, that average climbs to a few thousand people.

THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 52

Chapter IV: Results and Analysis

The results that follow seek to answer the research questions posed at the end of the Chapter II. The following tables represent sections from the master chart from which all the graphs were made. Analyzing the master chart and explaining all of the variables in it will give the background information necessary to set up the graphs, which answer the research questions.

Unique Visitors/Posts & Pages Viewed

Table 1 analyzes three variables (pages viewed, unique visitors, and posts viewed). It also describes what type of content the band posted about. A yellow highlight indicates that the band played a show on that date. Unique Viewers are the total number of unduplicated visitors to the bands’ pages each day. Most visitors to the sites usually view more than one page of content, which is why Pages Viewed is always a higher number than Unique Visitors. Posts Viewed counts the total number of people who saw a band post each day, whether by visiting a page or on their own individual newsfeed. Friends of fans who see the band’s posts are also counted in

Posts Viewed.

Table 1 indicates a large disparity between unique visitors and posts viewed. It shows only a small percentage of people who see a post actually visit the page. Almost all content is viewed in the newsfeed, rather than on the page itself. This challenges one of the fundamental paradigms of the Internet that states when you put something online, it stays there forever. While technically true, in a Facebook newsfeed any one post remains easily visible for just a few minutes, until it moves down to make room THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 53

for newer posts at the top of the newsfeed. With every passing minute, the chances of someone reading a particular post decrease dramatically.

Table 1 also shows how content affects reach, as evidenced by the spike in viewership for multimedia posts, particularly pictures. Sassafraz had spikes of 196 and

149 views for their contest and photo posts respectively. Elemental Groove Theory

(EGT) saw a boost of hundreds of viewers when it posted a photo and announced it was invited to play at Summer Camp Festival (30,000+ festival). Papadosio saw its highest amount of post views when it released a new photo album. Multimedia content seems to have more reach, most likely because the content is more stimulating, leading to more likes and shares, which extends reach to the friends of those fans who interacted with the content. Figuring out which types of content are most effective could be a study of its own, but it can be inferred from the data in Table 1 that multimedia content tends to reach more people than most text posts. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 54

Table 1 – Unique Visitors/Posts and Pages Viewed PAGES & POSTS VIEWED PAPADOSIO PAGES UNIQUE POSTS POST VIEWED VISITORS VIEWED 2/11/12 283 166 2,839 Show Reminder 2/12/12 379 212 3,109 Show Reminder 2/13/12 355 174 344 2/14/12 240 128 91 2/15/12 384 201 9,197 Show Reminder and Photo Album 2/16/12 265 156 2,604 Show reminder 2/17/12 262 151 8,281 Blog Update 2/18/12 164 100 3,383 Show reminder 2/19/12 897 155 2,140 Athens show reminder 2/20/12 970 254 2,528 Show reminder 2/21/12 1,101 281 4,801 Rootwire 2/22/12 1,309 459 8,883 Artist, tour update, Allgood fest. 2/23/12 1,372 229 2,546 Show reminder 2/24/12 1,375 169 1,994 2/25/12 1,427 163 1,839 Show reminder/Rootwire AVERAGES 719 200 3,639

PAGES & POSTS VIEWED EGT PAGES UNIQUE POSTS POST VIEWED VISITORS VIEWED 2/27/12 46 26 717 Video 2/28/12 73 22 701 Summer Camp 2/29/12 91 27 570 Summer Camp 3/1/12 58 29 526 Summer Camp/Video 3/2/12 70 39 1,200 Summer Camp Pic/Tour Update 3/3/12 44 22 592 Summer Camp/Show Promo 3/4/12 45 19 179 3/5/12 50 19 511 Thank you post 3/13/12 22 7 422 Show Promo 3/14/12 20 11 442 Show Promo 3/15/12 15 12 426 Pre-Sale/Show Promo 3/16/12 26 14 107 3/17/12 12 6 342 3/18/12 9 6 62 Pictures/Text 3/19/12 7 6 47 AVERAGES 39 18 456

THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 55

PAGES & POSTS VIEWED SASSAFRAZ PAGES UNIQUE POSTS POST VIEWED VISITORS VIEWED 2/15/12 25 16 73 General 2/16/12 29 15 23 2/17/12 29 20 80 Show Promo 2/18/12 13 9 74 Thank You 2/19/12 167 84 196 Show Promo/Contest 2/20/12 29 17 40 2/21/12 21 13 31 2/22/12 10 7 12 3/8/12 16 12 104 Show Promo 3/9/12 26 14 89 Show Promo 3/10/12 14 8 42 3/11/12 9 2 19 3/12/12 50 18 149 Band Pictures/Thank You & Promo 3/13/12 28 14 108 Video Tag promo 3/14/12 22 9 104 Show Promo 3/15/12 36 9 37 AVERAGES 33 17 74

Reach and Likes

Reach is the amount of people who see any content associated with the band.

Table 2 analyzes the number of daily, weekly, monthly views, as well as the number of new likes per day. A viewer is anyone who saw any content that was posted from the band page. Almost all of these viewers are fans of the page, but if a fan reposts content, their friends that saw the post are also considered viewers. It is important to recognize that a viewer as defined by Facebook might not have actively looked at the content, but it did pop up on that viewers newsfeed while they were on Facebook.

Most of the time, the bands reach less than 20% of their fans per day. As they get more fans, the bands overall percentage of reach for each post decreases (27% for THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 56

Sassafraz compared to 15% for Papadosio). Bands can reach a higher percentage of their fans by posting more times per day, a simple, but important conclusion. Most bands only post once a day or a few times a week, believing their entire fan base is seeing their content. These statistics prove otherwise. To reach more fans, bands must post multiple times a day.

Over the course of a month, the bands do eventually reach a larger percentage of their total fans. Papadosio reached 79 percent of their fan base, still missing one out of every five of their fans over the course of a month. Sassafraz reached 166% of its fans, meaning they reached a sizeable number of people who were not its fans

(through reposting from its fans). This uncommon achievement is difficult to replicate once a band reaches the size of Papadosio; however, a band should aim to reach at least 100% of their fans throughout the course of a month. As we will discuss in more depth later on, posting multiple times significantly improves the percentage of fans reached.

Overall growth of “likes” appears fairly consistent for all bands in comparison to daily viewers. Likes grow steadily as long as the band continues to play shows and feed their online community. Spikes can occur if a band gets major exposure, such as playing at a large festival or getting their song on a film or commercial. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 57

Table 2 – Reach and Likes VIEWERS LIKES PAPADOSIO DAILY WEEKLY AVE MO. AVE NEW LIKES UNLIKES LIFETIME 2/11/12 2,135 8,763 15,352 31 - 18,681 2/12/12 2,253 8,857 15,430 31 4 18,706 2/13/12 308 7,375 15,475 46 4 18,730 2/14/12 162 6,772 15,507 20 - 18,746 2/15/12 5,518 8,539 15,935 26 3 18,768 2/16/12 1,884 7,749 15,977 31 2 18,792 2/17/12 5,152 9,047 16,016 25 4 18,812 2/18/12 2,341 9,096 16,044 23 1 18,829 2/19/12 2,083 8,711 13,119 29 2 18,854 2/20/12 2,471 9,032 13,147 44 1 18,892 2/21/12 4,754 10,063 13,536 41 1 18,940 2/22/12 8,653 11,322 14,349 56 2 18,984 2/23/12 2,351 11,386 14,152 52 3 19,034 2/24/12 1,878 10,852 14,185 35 1 19,065 2/25/12 1,750 10,761 14,108 42 4 19,102 AVERAGES 2,913 9,222 14,822 35 2 18,862 15% 48% 79% May 23,246

VIEWERS LIKES EGT DAILY WEEKLY AVE MO. AVE NEW LIKES UNLIKES LIFETIME 2/27/12 707 1,467 1,808 4 - 2,527 2/28/12 669 1,454 1,827 2 1 2,528 2/29/12 509 1,452 1,830 4 - 2,532 3/1/12 450 1,458 1,847 6 1 2,535 3/2/12 789 1,502 1,880 3 1 2,537 3/3/12 541 1,445 1,880 3 - 2,540 3/4/12 88 1,452 1,884 4 1 2,543 3/5/12 420 1,395 1,878 - - 2,543 3/13/12 1402 907 1,881 - - 2,547 3/14/12 416 799 1,888 - 1 2,546 3/15/12 382 870 1,872 1 1 2,545 3/16/12 93 890 1,882 5 1 2,548 3/17/12 328 886 1,884 1 - 2,548 3/18/12 28 876 1,888 1 - 2,549 3/19/12 13 876 1,891 1 - 2,550 AVERAGES 456 1,182 1,868 2 0 2,541 18% 46% 74% May 2,700 THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 58

VIEWERS LIKES SASSAFRAZ DAILY WEEKLY AVE MO. AVE NEW LIKES UNLIKES LIFETIME 2/15/12 71 92 210 1 0 160 2/16/12 20 103 219 1 0 161 2/17/12 71 134 231 4 0 164 2/18/12 69 148 236 1 0 165 2/19/12 169 228 301 15 0 180 2/20/12 29 235 309 2 0 182 2/21/12 18 245 318 1 0 183 2/22/12 10 238 319 0 0 184 3/8/12 87 158 370 2 0 224 3/9/12 64 161 375 0 0 224 3/10/12 25 164 375 2 0 226 3/11/12 6 162 375 1 1 225 3/12/12 117 167 379 1 0 226 3/13/12 93 178 381 2 0 228 3/14/12 80 184 377 1 0 229 3/15/12 17 184 375 1 0 230 AVERAGES 61 170 376 1 0 227 27% 74% 166% May 348

User Traffic (how and where users view content)

Table 3 shows viewership as a percentage of either daily or lifetime fans. On average, the bands reach around 20% of their fans, but only 1% do so by visiting the actual page. The exception to this is Sassafraz, where nine percent of fans visited their page. Sassafraz’s small number of total fans, most of whom are close friends and family, tended to lead to higher percentages of visits than the other two group, as they monitor the band’s progress more closely than regular fans with no personal connection to a group.

On days when a band does not post, the percentage of fans who see posts by visiting the band’s page skyrockets, not because of any real growth in fan visits, but THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 59

because of dramatic drops in the number of fans who see band posts in their newsfeeds, which is to say, zero. However, traffic to band’s page remains fairly constant. This suggests that reaching people with a post (viewing content in the newsfeed) does not change fans’ behavior so they view content on the band’s page. It’s up to the band to reach out to its fans. Fans rarely initiate contact and are even less interested in going to a page to see posts they may have missed. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 60

Table 3 – User Traffic TRAFFIC UNIQUE VISITORS UNIQUE VISITORS PAPADOSIO DAILY % OF FANS PCT POSTS AS % OF DAILY AS % OF TOTAL REACHED VIEWED FANS FANS 2/11/12 11.4% 7.8% 0.9% 15.2% 2/12/12 12.0% 9.4% 1.1% 16.6% 2/13/12 1.6% 56.5% 0.9% 1.8% 2/14/12 0.9% 79.0% 0.7% 0.5% 2/15/12 29.4% 3.6% 1.1% 49.0% 2/16/12 10.0% 8.3% 0.8% 13.9% 2/17/12 27.4% 2.9% 0.8% 44.0% 2/18/12 12.4% 4.3% 0.5% 18.0% 2/19/12 11.0% 7.4% 0.8% 11.4% 2/20/12 13.1% 10.3% 1.3% 13.4% 2/21/12 25.1% 5.9% 1.5% 25.3% 2/22/12 45.6% 5.3% 2.4% 46.8% 2/23/12 12.4% 9.7% 1.2% 13.4% 2/24/12 9.9% 9.0% 0.9% 10.5% 2/25/12 9.2% 9.3% 0.9% 9.6% AVERAGES 15% 15% 1% 19% TRAFFIC UNIQUE VISITORS UNIQUE VISITORS EGT DAILY % OF FANS PCT POSTS AS % OF DAILY AS % OF TOTAL REACHED FANS FANS VIEWED 2/27/12 28.0% 3.7% 1.0% 28.4% 2/28/12 26.5% 3.3% 0.9% 27.7% 2/29/12 20.1% 5.3% 1.1% 22.5% 3/1/12 17.8% 6.4% 1.1% 20.7% 3/2/12 31.1% 4.9% 1.5% 47.3% 3/3/12 21.3% 4.1% 0.9% 23.3% 3/4/12 3.5% 21.6% 0.7% 7.0% 3/5/12 16.5% 4.5% 0.7% 20.1% 3/13/12 55.0% 0.5% 0.3% 16.6% 3/14/12 16.3% 2.6% 0.4% 17.4% 3/15/12 15.0% 3.1% 0.5% 16.7% 3/16/12 3.6% 15.1% 0.5% 4.2% 3/17/12 12.9% 1.8% 0.2% 13.4% 3/18/12 1.1% 21.4% 0.2% 2.4% 3/19/12 0.5% 46.2% 0.2% 1.8% AVERAGES 18% 10% 1% 18%

THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 61

TRAFFIC UNIQUE VISITORS UNIQUE VISITORS SASSAFRAZ DAILY % OF FANS PCT POSTS AS % OF DAILY AS % OF TOTAL REACHED FANS FANS VIEWED 2/15/12 44.4% 22.5% 10.0% 45.6% 2/16/12 12.4% 75.0% 9.3% 14.3% 2/17/12 43.3% 28.2% 12.2% 48.8% 2/18/12 41.8% 13.0% 5.5% 44.8% 2/19/12 93.9% 49.7% 46.7% 108.9% 2/20/12 15.9% 58.6% 9.3% 22.0% 2/21/12 9.8% 72.2% 7.1% 16.9% 2/22/12 5.4% 70.0% 3.8% 6.5% 3/8/12 38.8% 13.8% 5.4% 46.4% 3/9/12 28.6% 21.9% 6.3% 39.7% 3/10/12 11.1% 32.0% 3.5% 18.6% 3/11/12 2.7% 33.3% 0.9% 8.4% 3/12/12 51.8% 15.4% 8.0% 65.9% 3/13/12 40.8% 15.1% 6.1% 47.4% 3/14/12 34.9% 11.3% 3.9% 45.4% 3/15/12 7.4% 52.9% 3.9% 16.1% AVERAGES 30% 37% 9% 37%

Dayparting: How the Frequency of Posts Affects Reach

Both Table 1 and Table 3 show that users view content in their newsfeed, not on the page itself. In the radio business, people buy ads based on ratings measurements taken in quarter hour increments, known as average quarter hour shares

(AQH). A Facebook user newsfeed operates much like a radio station, which is to say, content is linear; one piece follows the next. This differs from a traditional website, which functions more like a newspaper, where lots of different content is displayed simultaneously and the reader can choose which story they’d like to read about in further detail. Facebook posts automatically appear at the top of a user’s newsfeed whenever they log on to their page (Facebook has a function allowing users to choose THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 62

whether they see the latest posts or posts from the people and pages they follow the most, known as Top Stories). People not logged onto Facebook cannot be reached

(unless they receive message notifications on their mobile device). The average

Facebook user spends 20 minutes per visit, a primary reason why a single post generally only reaches on average 15% of a total fan base, just as anyone not listening to the radio cannot hear the radio advertisement.

But unlike a radio ad that disappears immediately after airing, Facebook posts remain on the newsfeed and can be found, if people continue to work backwards down their newsfeeds. 15 minutes worth of posts can push the oldest post down far enough that the user must click to load older posts, greatly decreasing the likelihood an older post will be read. Posting only once a day gives a band just 15 minutes of exposure that day. This can be rectified by posting multiple times per day, improving the band’s ability to find people who are online at different times of the day, thereby increasing its overall percentage of fans reached. And, while increasing radio advertising frequency directly increases costs, added Facebook posts do not cost more money, making it inexcusable to only post once a day. Unfortunately, many marketers think

Facebook functions differently than it really does. In truth, it behaves similarly to other electronic media that came before it, especially in relation to strategies for releasing content. Here we can see each band’s individual daily viewership (Graph 1a).

Low traffic days correspond to no posts. High traffic days indicate multiple content posts.

THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 63

Graph 1A - Papadosio Posting Performance

Two posts on 2/15 & 2/17

No posts on 2/13 & 2/14

On average, when Papadosio posted one message per day, the band reached 11 percent of its total Facebook audience (about 2,000 fans). When the band did not post, reach dropped to less than 2 percent (308 on 2/13 and 162 fans on 2/14). Conversely, on days when the band posted two messages, reach increased to nearly 30 percent of its total Facebook fan base (about 5,000 fans).

EGT’s number of daily users showed similar fluctuations based on the number of posts it made (see Graph 1B). The band made multiple posts on the first four days of the sample week, reaching an average of 24 percent of its total Facebook fan base each day.

THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 64

Graph 1B – Elemental Groove Theory Posting Performance

On Day 5, the band had a show and posted two messages, increasing its reach of unique viewers to 31 percent of their total fans (789 out of 2,537). On day six, the day after the concert, the band posted twice and reached 21 percent of its audience.

Day 7 was the only day the band did not post and viewership dropped to just 3 percent.

On Day 8, the band posted once and rebounded a bit, to 17 percent.

On the three days Sassafraz made one post, its reach averaged 43 percent (77 out of 180 fans), compared just 10 percent reach on the three days during the sample week it did not post (see Graph 1C). On Day 5, the band posted 8 different times, each time showing a photo of the band. The result was a near tripling of daily views (from

69 to 169), increasing total reach to 94 percent of its total Facebook fan base.

THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 65

Graph 1C – Sassafraz Posting Performance

Overall, regardless of the differences in size of fan base, each band experienced similar increases and drops in reach based on whether or not they posted on a particular day. Multiple posts on the same day stimulated increases in reach of 50 to more than 200 percent over single post reach, while all three bands experienced practically no viewership on the days they did not post.

These statistics reflect the immediate and temporary nature of messages on

Facebook, as readers concentrate on reading the most recent messages on their newsfeed. For people with many friends, a visit to review messages might only go THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 66

back as far as 15-20 minutes, thus making a message posted earlier invisible for all practical purposes.

The other key observation is that the data indicate the vast majority of users read messages from their newsfeed, rather than clicking on a band’s page. On non- posting days, the only fans reached are the few who navigate to a band’s page without the prompting of a newsfeed message, perhaps to catch up on old posts, or sparked by an outside stimulus such as preparing to attend a show. However, this accounts for a tiny fraction of overall message exposure.

While these graphs accurately describe how frequency affects reach, they do not account for the varying types of content and its affect on reach. However, Table 1 described the content of each post, with noticeable spikes in reach for the posts with multimedia content, most likely because the content is more stimulating, leading to more likes and shares, which extends reach to the friends of those fans who interacted with the content. Figuring out which types of content are most effective could be a study of its own, but it can be inferred from the data in Table 1 that multimedia content tends to reach more people than most text posts.

How/Where Do Users View Content?

Graph 2 expands upon Table 2, analyzing daily reach versus daily visitors as a percentage of total fans. Unique visitors is a much lower percentage, once again demonstrating that fans view content in their newsfeeds, rarely clicking through to the band’s page, unless there is creative and interesting content to entice them. If a user clicks to the band page, it means s/he is looking for additional content to what is seen THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 67

in the newsfeed. Logically, better content should encourage more people to visit the page to find more information of interest to them. Sassafraz is an anomoly because the size of its fanbase, but Papadasio is converting significantly more people than EGT, most likely because of increased interest from fans and their superior multimedia content.

Graph 2 - Daily Fans Reached vs. Unique Visitors

Papadosio EGT Sassafraz

Graph 3 shows the percentage of people visiting the band’s page versus people who read content in their newsfeed. The percentages on the graph are the conversion rates of viewers to visitors. A higher conversion rate means fans are digging deeper into the content by going to the actual page, presumably to look at more content (i.e. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 68

additional posts, photos, videos, etc.). These fans could be viewed as having developed deeper loyalty to the band, and also as an indication of potential buzz about a band or show, particularly if the visitor likes or comments on a particular post. As with most of the other graphs, Sassafraz has a much higher percentage than the other groups because of its small, but dedicated fan base. Papadosio has a strong conversion rate relative to the size of its fan base, due, in part, to the band’s heavy tour schedule, which engages with fans in each market prior to and after each show. EGT seems to be struggling to bring fans to their actual page, probably because their content did not incentivize or excite users.

Graph 3 - Unique Visitors as a % of Daily Fans

THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 69

The Relationship Between Facebook Events, Locality, and Attendance

Table 4 applies Facebook event stats and fans in the market in comparison to show attendance. It appears a successful show attracts more than 70 percent of the fans in the market. It is important to remember that ancillary markets (suburbs, nearby cities) are not factored into this chart. While it is virtually impossible to attract all of a band’s Facebook fans in a market to a show, adjacent markets can make up (and even exceed) the difference, one reason why Papadosio averages 88 percent attendance of its fans in a market at a particular show. The number of Facebook fans in a market also significantly impacts the percentages. For example, Sassafraz is new and does not have many Facebook fans, so it frequently gets attendance of more than 100 percent of its fan base to its shows, indicating the band has fans in the market that have not yet liked it on Facebook, but who are likely to do so in the future, indicating potential fan growth the market. EGT does not appear to have as much growth potential, as evidenced by its low percentage of fan turn out. Because it has not branched out to new markets, EGT has become over exposed in the markets where it has an established base of fans who have seen it perform many times, leading to lower attendance numbers. To get its attendance back up in developed markets, the band will need to not appear in those cities for a few months to build up demand and interest, another reason for EGT to focus on developing new markets.

THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 70

Table 4 – Events, Locality, Attendance

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All three of the bands seem to use similar approaches to Facebook in regards to promotions. All three bands invite as many people as possible to the shows and all three bands have fairly low response rates. Papadosio’s data is slightly skewed from its Syracuse show, where it only invited 16 people to an event while 34 attended

(explaining the 218% anomaly), but it still has a much higher response rate than the other bands, showing that it has more buzz about its shows (because it is more popular, but also because it plays far less often). It is difficult to measure the effect that

Facebook events have on the actual attendance, but because Facebook is the primary THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 71

method for communication with fans, especially when the band is on the road and in new markets, its effect on attendance cannot be discounted.

Facebook Events: Invites vs. Attending

The following graphs (4A & 4B) illustrate acceptance rates for Facebook

Events. On average, the bands invited 1,313 people to attend shows. An average of

151 accepted the invite (11.5%), which compares highly favorably to traditional

Facebook ad response rates of less than one percent. However, most Facebook users who respond as “attending” an event do not actually attend and, in reaction to receiving spam invites to events, users are increasingly ignoring event requests altogether, even from sources they trust. Some people who receive an event invitation, but do not respond, wind up attending anyway.

Actual attendance for the shows of all 3 bands averaged 261 people. Facebook

RSVPs underestimated actual attendance by 43 percent. While Facebook Event responses are an inaccurate predictor of actual attendance, they can serve as a baseline predictor and as a leading indicator on buzz for the show, making them an influencing factor of actual attendance. The number of comments users make is often a more important indicator of fan enthusiasm. Also, it appears there is little correlation between the number of people invited and the number who actually attend. For instance, Papadosio’s largest number of invites, for a show in Buffalo, NY, resulted in the band’s smallest attendance for the period studied. The Buffalo show was the band’s first appearance there, a more important factor impacting attendance.

For Sassafraz, both the Feb 17 and March 9t shows were in Athens, OH (see THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 72

Graph 4A). The show on March 9th was part of Athens Jazz Festival, which explains the higher amount of invites and better response rate (multiple bands and people were promoting the show from the same Facebook event). Sassafraz also had a show on

February 19th with Papadosio, but it was not included because Papadosio fans made up most of the show attendance.

Graph 4A - Facebook Fans Invited vs. Attending: Sassafraz

All three of Elemental Groove Theory’s shows were out of town, with two in

Columbus and one in Cleveland. None of the band’s members are from Columbus, but some are from Cleveland. It is important to note that the number of people invited to the event does not seem to affect attendance because invites are sent to as many people as possible, many of whom are not interested or have no way to attend the event. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 73

Graph 4B Facebook Fans Invited vs. Actual Attendance: EGT

When friends are invited to an event page, Facebook only allows users to filter their friend list by networks to which they already belong. For example, if a user is from Athens, Ohio and goes to school at Ohio University, they can categorize their friends into both of those networks. However, they cannot sort by networks they are not a part of, so if a band is playing a show in Columbus, it is not allowed to sort its friend list by only Columbus people, since the band belongs to the Athens network.

In the Elemental Groove Theory example, the band most likely invited friends in the Ohio University network hoping some of them now live in Columbus. EGT may have had Columbus friends personally invite others, since they have access to the network. Because most of the people invited to the event live over an hour away, the acceptance rate was low. The general trend of people not responding to events also THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 74

was a factor.

Locality: The Relationship Between Fans per Market and Attendance

While Facebook event attendance can, at best, be a baseline estimate for actual attendance, the variance is too wide for it to be a truly accurate indicator (see graph 5).

A more accurate indicator may be the number of Facebook fans the band has in each market. Sassafraz is only active essentially in two markets, Athens and Cincinnati,

Ohio. Elemental Groove Theory has fans in a few more markets throughout Ohio and in adjoining states. Papadosio has fans in markets all over the country. A band needs a few hundred fans in a market, because those are the people most likely to attend a live show. The difference between Papadosio and the other two bands is that they have fan bases of a few hundred people in dozens of markets. When the band promotes upcoming shows, fans in those markets get excited because they rarely see the band perform live and will make plans to attend. By looking at the number of fans in each market, the band can organize the tour with a high expectation of attracting a good crowd wherever they go, because its fans in each market have been exposed to dozens of messages, in some cases for weeks leading up to the show. Sassafraz and EGT have taken the same approach to a few markets, but Papadosio has replicated it all over the country. Graph 5 shows a fairly close correlation between numbers of fans in each market and attendance for the show (Syracuse, Buffalo, Cleveland, Ann Arbor). Most of the time, the Facebook event RSVPs indicate fewer people attending than actual attendance. One anomaly is the Athens, OH show, where Papadosio has 521 fans, but only 210 came to the show because that was capacity for the venue. The last two THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 75

shows of Papadosio’s tour were played with a popular Indiana-based band, which helped push attendance above Papadosio’s number of fans in the market. Good opening acts can have a significant impact on attendance, as they bring their own fan bases to the show.

Graph 5 – FB RSVP, Show Attedance, Fans in Market: Papadosio

THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 76

It is important to note that Facebook markets differ from traditional media markets because they are much more specific. For example, some people in Cleveland are in the Cleveland network, while others are in the suburban North Royalton,

Lakewood or Shaker Heights networks. For example, Papadosio has 328 Cleveland fans, but when suburban networks are added, the band has closer to 500 Cleveland- area fans. Adjoining markets must be taken into account when estimating show attendance and its impact on profit. This is especially important for touring bands with THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 77

dedicated fan bases that will travel longer distances to see a live performance. For example, during the dates studied, Papadosio played in Athens, Cleveland, and Dayton, but definitely drew attendance from its large fan bases in Columbus and Cincinnati, who were willing to travel to one of other show locations. Accurately projecting attendance is crucial to setting ticket prices, which dictates profit. Had the band possessed this analysis, it may have altered its pricing or marketing strategies for its

Athens show, where demand for tickets far exceeded the venue’s capacity. More out of town fans might have traveled, and paid a higher ticket price, if they had guaranteed admission to the show. Ticket prices overall might have been raised, knowing the show would be a sellout.

Lifetime Growth

So far, the variables analyzed appear to have little impact on the growth of a band’s Facebook fan base (Lifetime Likes). As bands mature, the pace of their fan growth becomes steadier and, eventually, exponential, a trend that can be seen when comparing Sassafraz’s lifetime likes, which grow by a few fans a day, to Papadosio’s, which grows by dozens of fans per day. What spurs this growth seems to be a combination of factors: number and location of shows played, Facebook marketing, publicity and word of mouth. As long as bands continue to play frequently, put out new material, and steadily release content on Facebook, they will continue to consistently gain fans. The speed of that growth will vary depending on the band, how often they play, their average audience size and their promotional skills.

Once again, the size of Sassafraz’s audience leads to inconsistent numbers. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 78

Sassafraz had a significant jump in fans (15 people) on 2/19 because of a special promotion. They offered 2 tickets to the Papadosio/Sassafraz show that night to whoever commented on the post and got the most likes on their comment. Because of the strong incentive they got over 100 likes on the post and 15 likes for their page. It was important to get traffic to the page so people knew Sassafraz was going to play early that night, at 9 o’clock. The promotion not only helped to build Facebook fans, it also served as a reminder to those attending that night’s show.

Graph 6A - Sassafraz Fan

Growth

With the maturity of the band comes a more stable growth chart, as illustrated by the consistency of EGT (see Graph 6B). For a band of its size, Elemental Groove

Theory has been growing slowly, at about the same rate as Sassafraz. While they are not stagnant, EGT can gain more fans by cultivating new markets for live shows. The THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 79

band seems to have plateaued in the markets it currently plays, growing by only a few fans per day. This trend became even more evident in the time since the study, with

Sassafraz and Papadosio accelerating their lifetime fan growth while EGT has remained flat.

Graph 6B - Elemental Groove Theory Fan

Growth

Because of its success, Papadosio’s growth rates are much more stable than the other two bands, increasing by a few dozen fans per day (Graph 6C). The graph illustrates the beginnings of an exponential growth curve. This is especially evident when looking at its growth after the study, where the band’s lifetime likes by

Facebook fans have increased 23.5% in about 3 months. The band’s fan growth rate, spurred by its tour which opened up a dozen new markets, is now more than 50 new THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 80

fans per day. The band continues expanding, appearing for the first time in California and the Pacific Northwest. As a result, Papadosio’s online fan base has increased significantly and, with headline appearances at major festivals scheduled for this summer, playing before tens of thousands of new potential fans, another major growth spurt is likely to follow.

Graph 6C - Papadosio Fan Growth

As the previous graphs show, playing shows and releasing content regularly ensures consistent Facebook fan growth. But, the key to stable, profitable income is the creation of new markets for live shows. While Papadosio’s total base of more than

20,000 fans is impressive, it is more instructive to look at its individual market totals as a predictor of potential show attendance, especially in the context of growth within those markets. Papadosio is averaging 300-500 fans in its top markets throughout the THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 81

U.S. It’s realistic to think the band will be able to attract similar numbers of new fans in new markets, but because of the niche nature of their music, it may be difficult to get more than a few hundred fans in most markets. This means certain markets can be

“tapped out,” reaching the maximum number of fans interested in the band’s particular genre of music. It is important for Papadosio to analyze these factors in relation to other statistics (record sales, show attendance for other bands in the same genre) to accurately predict growth rates and potential fan ceilings in each market.

In some markets, bands can become over-exposed to fans who no longer consider the live concert experience as a “must see” event, a problem EGT is experiencing in the markets where it has appeared many times. After a band builds a fan base in a particular market, it must move on to other markets to gain more fans.

EGT’s stagnant growth rates (especially since the study) indicate they must expand to new territories to attract more fans. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 82

Chapter V: Discussion/Conclusions

The results analyzed in Chapter IV provide the following summary conclusions to the first five research questions. The two sections that follow will address research questions 6 & 7, leading into the overall conclusions of the study.

Research Questions

1. How do different types of posts and the frequency of posts affect Facebook

reach?

Bands only reach an average of 11% of their fans when they post once

per day. Posting more times per day extends reach and increases frequency

because different people are online at different times (dayparting). Multimedia

content, especially photos and videos, seems to have an increased reach since it

tends to get more likes and shares.

2. How and where do users view content? Does this change how that content

should be delivered?

People view content almost exclusively in their newsfeeds. Content

needs to be crafted for viewing in the newsfeed. If content is not actively

pushed to the audience, it will not be seen.

3. What is the relation between Facebook events and actual attendance?

They can serve as a good baseline indicator of attendance, although it is

usually less than the actual attendance. They also can be an indicator of buzz

depending on the acceptance rate and number and quality of comments. While THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 83

it is difficult to pinpoint with numbers, FB events are still the primary method

for show promotions, making them critically important to audience attendance.

4. What is the relationship between fans per market (locality) and attendance?

Fans per market is an important indicator for attendance. Messages

should be targeted by market to avoid spamming people who have no way to

attend. Knowing how many fans are in each market and how many fans are in

adjoining markets is critical to accurately predicting attendance, which dictates

ticket price.

5. What factors affect the long-term growth of a fan base?

Facebook growth is a combination of many factors, but tends to work

consistently if the band continues to play shows, open new markets, and post

content online. Growth can be sped up depending on the content released (new

albums, DVD, etc.) and the types of shows played.

RQ 6. How is Facebook Affected by the Development of the Bands?

Throughout the study, it becomes apparent that the stages of development heavily factor into a band’s Facebook presence. Much of the data from Sassafraz varies drastically from day to day, mostly because of the small sample size and the small amount of total fans. A spike of just a few people will drastically affect percentages for Sassfraz, leading to some streaky data. Generally the data supports that Sassafraz had more involved fans than the other two bands; however, this is probably because almost all of their fans are close friends and family. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 84

Elemental Groove Theory, with over 2,000 fans, has many more fans that are not friends and family. Because of the higher number of fans, EGT’s numbers leveled out, with more consistency than Sassafraz throughout the two weeks. Obviously, since they have many more fans than Sassafraz, their reach is much broader (ave. post reach

450 vs 75 for Sassafraz). Papadosio is much more established than the rest of the bands and this is very evident in the Facebook insights. Their reach is 6x greater than

Elemental Groove Theory, able to contact over 2,000 people with one post; however, when looking at individual markets, the three bands are not so different.

Both Elemental Groove Theory and Papadosio have over 300 fans in

Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Athens Ohio. Theoretically, they should be able to bring out the same amount of people in those markets, but Papadosio only plays once or twice a year and has much more buzz than Elemental Groove Theory, which plays dozens of times throughout the year in said markets. One of the main conclusions of this research was the importance of locality in Facebook and when looking at individual markets, it shows that the only real difference between the bands (on

Facebook) is how many markets they have. When a band has more markets to play in, it increases its scarcity, leading to bigger shows in the markets it has already secured.

RQ 7. What is the Overall Impact of Facebook on Audience Attendance?

The overall impact Facebook has on audience attendance is almost impossible to determine quantitatively; however, the ability to dialog with fans, have them help proselytize, and have detailed statistics on all interactions makes Facebook an incredibly powerful tool for marketers. Certain factors on Facebook, such as FB event THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 85

RSVP data, and fans per market can be used as indicators of show attendance, which can be useful for pricing and marketing purposes. Mostly, Facebook insights can give a band statistics to help measure their success or failure in the real world. Facebook tends to mirror real life—there are no successful bands with only 20 or 30 Facebook fans. Thus, this line will get even more blurred as social networks and computing technology in general become even deeper entrenched in how we interact on a daily basis. The virtual world of Facebook and the real world are quickly blending into one thing, like two opposite sides of the same coin. While we cannot say exactly how

Facebook affects audience attendance, it is the primary marketing tool for independent musicians, making it critically important, especially in younger demographics, to audience attendance.

Post-study Notes

Since the study, Sassafraz and Papadosio have significantly grown their respective fan bases (34% and 23.5% respectively), while Elemental Groove Theory continues to flounder (6% growth). For Papadosio, a 23.5% increase translates to more than 7,000 new fans, at a rate of over 50 per day. Sassafraz has also increased the rate at which it adds fans (around 7 per day in the last few weeks) where as EGT has stayed the same for a few months, moving on a linear, rather than exponential growth pattern.

THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 86

Conclusions

Some of the Facebook specific conclusions have a major impact on how people will use the platform. For example, the data showed that posting multiple times per day and focusing on multimedia content will increase reach. This means that bands must spend more time making videos, taking pictures, and documenting their experiences, while also remembering to write text posts multiple times per day if they hope to reach a substantial portion of their fans (and friends of fans).

Another straightforward, but valuable conclusion is the importance of analyzing a fan base by market instead of by total fans. While total fans can be important to building the perception of success to promoters, venues, and fans, it is not a useful number for business practices. Analyzing fans per market, as well as the surrounding markets, can help bands make better decisions about marketing and pricing.

Analyzing three bands at various stages of development provides insight to the overarching path of the typical independent musician or musical group. Papadosio is a prime example for how to transition from local to national band. Facebook’s insight analysis shows both Sassafraz and Elemental Groove Theory following the Papadosio process, although both in slightly different ways. Papadosio has shown that the best use of Facebook is as a marketing aid for systematic expansion into new cities.

Because it has continued to release new content (music, photos, blogs) as well as enter new markets and maintain old ones, Papadosio has grown consistently and substantially. If Papadosio posted more multimedia content more frequently, it could THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 87

reach more of its fans and possibly get even more people to its shows; buzz and word of mouth about its shows is still extremely strong, and that is reflected in the active fan community on their Facebook page.

Elemental Groove Theory serves a great example for why bands need to constantly expand to new markets. EGT has played many markets outside of Ohio, but has not consistently and methodically cultivated those markets to increase attendance and street buzz. It is playing most of its shows in Ohio and its growth is stalling. Many bands fail to make the transition from part time to full time and this may be a potential example of that. EGT also does not post frequently enough, nor does it have enough multimedia content; however, this is a trend shared among all three bands and is not unique to EGT.

Sassafraz is interesting because it is new and have nowhere to go but up. Its rapid and sporadic growth accurately represents the first months of a band’s development. As Sassafraz grows into being a professional group, its growth numbers will level out as business operations become consistent, systematic, and stable. With success, touring becomes less risky (guaranteed money) allowing the band to budget more accurately. A more mature business operation develops as the band includes more specialists in its circle (booking agent, manager, etc.), who, in turn, will help the band to become even more successful by allowing it to focus on the music.

Facebook has mitigated risk for a band entering new markets. With Facebook, a band can specifically target messaging at a particular city, establishing a digital presence that allows the band to socialize with important people in the music THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 88

community. Meeting and having conversations with these people (even if it’s online) is critical to getting buzz going about the upcoming show and kick starting the word of mouth machine. Without Facebook, bands would have to rely on a publicist’s small chance of getting traditional media coverage; or the even smaller chance of the venue promoting the band’s appearance strongly enough to develop awareness and buzz.

Bands had people promoting for them in cities before the Internet, but with Facebook it is much easier to find volunteers and organize them.

Undeniably, Facebook has had a radical effect on the way bands do business.

Because of the economic pressures of the industry, musicians have been forced to quickly learn social media marketing to survive and grow. While Facebook activity levels vary from band to band, virtually all bands in the United States are fully entrenched in Facebook, using it as their primary marketing tool. It is a critical element of show promotion impacting attendance, although to what exact degree is difficult to determine from the limited data analyzed here.

The data from this study have led to many exciting conclusions, but it is important to restate the research limitations, primarily the extremely small sample size

(only 3 bands over 2 weeks). Another important limitation in the research is the focus in only one main genre/scene. While all three of the bands have distinct sounds, they are still primarily reaching for similar niche markets. Facebook insights could read differently for bands that focus on hip-hop, indie, or pop music; however, I believe that most of the general conclusions from this paper can be applied to musicians of all genres, or even any business using Facebook as a marketing tool. THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 89

This research framework should be expanded to develop a more comprehensive study. Now that the master charts are created, it would be easy to get statistics from dozens of bands and track them over the course of years. The data could be used to make aggregates to illustrate Facebook trends by market, musical genre and size of fan base. Complimentary studies could analyze dayparts to find out when people go online and how they respond to content at different times, or an in depth study on multimedia content could show what types of content are most affective in varying situations. A more complex research project needs to be conducted to see if the conclusions from this study hold up with a larger sample size and to test the questions unanswered by this research.

THE CHANGING BUSINESS OF BANDS 90

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