How often do you tell your friends what music you are listening to? How often do you recommend a new song or burn a CD for a friend? Are you helping distribute the music that you listen to?

You might not realize it, but you likely are the most powerful sales force for the music you consume. Record labels spend millions of dollars to promote a band. Labels put their artists in the movies, buy radio time (yes, this still happens all the time even though “payola” is illegal), get endorsement deals, pay for positions in record stores just so that consumers can be reminded of a certain album or artist.

If labels spend so much money “forcing” these artists upon listeners why aren’t they always successful? This is because labels cannot buy recommendations from fans. No matter how much money is spent you can’t influence how consumers share information about a brand/product/service after they consume it. For music this means music fans hold the power in deciding which artists or songs really are successful. If fans like the music or the artist they share it with friends and if not they don’t.

Labels can easily sell a hundred thousand copies with marketing buzz alone in the first week, but this does not mean the artist is successful or makes money. Selling a million copies, supporting a large profitable tour and making money for the label ultimately requires fans to share the music and recommendations with their friends. This unique nature of music gives fans the control over its distribution.

What does this mean as a music fan? It means you should take advantage of the wide variety of music that is around you. Don’t simply settle on the music you are presented and expand your search beyond the radio. Listen to what your friends are saying about their new music because only they know who next favorite artist will be.

If you are a music fan and enjoy promoting independent artists watch this:

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