As many in the field of global music prepare to attend the annual Arts Presenters conference in New York next month, we're thinking about what questions we should be asking each other to work together to advance the field. Rock paper scissors, inc.director Dmitri Vietze invites you to join a special interest session titled "Entrepreneurial Approaches to Global Music: An Open Forum" on January 9, 3-5 pm, at the conference.
In preparation, DubMC is posting a three-part Q&A with Scott Southard, director of the International Music Network (booking agency) about the state of the field, ideas for new directions, and specific practices in increasing demand for global music.
What do you think most restricts the growth of live international music in America?
There isn’t a one-pill cure to grow this market. And what might work in one segment of the market, might not work in another. But one of the biggest things missing right now is that the casual music-buying audience lacks access to information about new music that is coming out. NPR no longer broadcasts much music. Most major media outlets are news and talk. How does the casual listener find out about new music if radio does not broadcast it, if most daily newspapers don’t cover adult forms of music? So what do they do to discover music?
They can go to iTunes, but iTunes isn’t interested in selling world music to that small segment of an audience. They are selling pop records. Menus and resources available to expose you to new music in world music don’t exist in iTunes; it is not a priority. There are no strong present models that are user-friendly to the casual consumer.
There is an intimidation factor as well. Many of the emerging ecommerce businesses in the world music area take the approach that a geographic or generic categorization of an artist’s music is how the audience is going to approach it. Few people actually think, “Oh, I’m interested in Garifuna music as a genre.” The casual music audience doesn’t approach their music purchasing that way. It could be the person buying a Lucinda Williams record that next buys a Baaba Maal record. How do they make that jump? It’s an emotional connection. Yes, there is an academic consumer, the person driven by discovering a geographic or generic genre and then mining it for all its info for all its value. That is the marketplace we are already selling to. But we’re trying to find a completely new audience.
What lessons have you drawn from other fields that could be applied to the international music market in America?
The international music market is quite healthy when looking over the past 15 years. If you go back to the 1980s, there wasn’t even the generic designation of “world music.” We witnessed the success of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the Gipsy Kings, Cesaria Evora, and Buena Vista Social Club kinds of phenomena; it has actually made extraordinary growth in that 20 years of time. But now that each generic discovery has been made and fusions of world cultures and different forms of music are becoming more prevalent, we have lost our ability to share the information and make that emotional connection.
Maybe the response is taking and applying Seth Godin’s Tribes. What he says is that in the new tech era, the new info marketplace, the phenomenon of social networking is about identifying tribal members. We’re no longer restricted by geography or profession, or ethno-demographic sets of boundaries. We are interest groups that operate like tribes that have diverse ranges of backgrounds, experiences, and demographics. What internet technology offers us is the opportunity to group together in these tribes. And once the leaders of those tribal organizations are identified, once the leadership is formed, the tribe has the opportunity to grow and assert its influence and accomplish greater means. The world music marketplace is an amazingly devoted, articulate, intelligent tribe, which hasn’t found its leadership. And because it values democratic principles, it’s not going to be an individual or single organization. It’s going to be embracing these shared values, but we have to abolish the territorial practices of the 1980s business model, on which most of this industry has been founded. Why isn’t the publicist also a personal manager? Why isn’t the presenter also releasing recorded music? Why can’t the Lucinda Williams fan also enjoy Baaba Mal?
Read part 2 of this Q & A to find out Scott's thoughts on presenter models that help build audiences and marketing that creates new content.
DubMC.com is the brainchild of Dmitri Vietze and is sponsored by rock paper scissors, inc., global music publicity firm.
