Hypothetical Scenario:
You’re a fairly new band. Your band has only played a handful of shows. You have a three or four song demo CD you recorded on your own and that you distribute (for free) at shows to try to gain some notoriety. You are playing shows as often as venues will let you and are outgoing and friendly with the audience at shows. You have put your songs up on MySpace and/or Facebook, and yet, you don’t seem to be gaining any popularity. You and your band-mates are bamboozled.
Did you know your three or four song demo CD is up against 97 million (97,000,000) other songs? That’s some pretty tough odds against you. According to MusicHype CEO Kevin King, that’s how many songs are in the world. King made the proclamation of 97 million songs world-wide at a Digital Music Forum West presentaion on Oct. 6th. He says that figure represents all the songs in the Gracenote database.
If that number surprises you as being too high, think about it for a minute. We’re talking about all of iTunes, Amazon MP3, Google, YouTube, Topspin, last.fm, Rhapsody, and now Facebook (among many, many more). If anything, I’d say that number is a bit on the low side. Think about the local bands that don’t have music online. Think about street performers who don’t care to make a CD. What about those songs that your Mom or Grandma used to sing to you as a child?
What does this 97 million number mean, though, to a musician? It means that if you aren’t somehow tapped into mainstream radio crap, if you don’t have connections with the higher-ups, your chances of becoming known, much less popular, are now worse than ever. Sure, Twitter and Facebook can help, but you’re still competing with millions of others just for attention (good, bad, or indifferent). The market is so saturated, even the good unknown bands are having a hard time getting an audience. Additionally, it doesn’t help when today’s society puts more emphasis on dancing, dressing vacuously, and acting like a stripper than on having actual musical talent.
Moral of the story? The world needs MarsBands.com now, more than ever.
