Digital Design Blog

The Long Tail: Has the Bird Flown?

Wired Editor Chris Anderson has had a profound effect on the internet industry with his book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. One of the key tenets of his theory, for the music industry, was that self-publishing and digital distribution via the internet would create a viable alternative for artists who did not want to sign with a major record label (or any label).

Case in point was a San Francisco-based band called Birdmonster who, at the time of Anderson’s writing, were earning glowing praise and sales for self-releasing their own music. The DIY dream, he called it.

This week, on Anderson’s Long Tail blog, his Wired colleague Steven Leckart sits down for a Q&A with Birdmonster who recently signed to a
a label, FADER (an offshoot of the magazine of the same name). The unglamorous reason: the DIY path is big business and hard work:

Q: Last time around, you had plenty of interest from indies and majors, but ultimately decided to self-release. Why did a label seem more desirable this time around?

A: I think what it boiled down to was the question: “Do we want to be musicians or do we want to run a business?” To do both equally well just seemed unrealistic. The first time around we had written all these songs in a bubble. By the time people were starting to notice, it just made sense to do it ourselves….

After the release of No Midnight and the year and half of non-stop touring, all we really wanted to do was go home and write another record. That was all the band wanted to give our energy to, but the business side had become draining(physically, mentally, and financially). So it became apparent to the four of us that if we wanted to be continue down that artistic road, we’d need help in other areas. Then it became a question of what type of label and deal was right for us.

Interesting stuff — and a POV rarely acknowledged — when we look at the power of the internet to let all entities go direct to consumer. Especially interesting in light of this year’s SXSW music conference where the majority of content was focused on helping bands utilize the internet to thrive in a world where traditional record labels were on the wane.