TuneCore’s Survey Shows Great Insight Into Health of Industry

Tuesday afternoon I saw a tweet about a TuneCore survey, which sparked enough interest to click.  However, before I continue I want to explain why I think a TuneCore survey would be contextually relevant towards the industry as a whole.  It is filled with three types of musicians who help define a large majority of the industry (since most musicians aren’t selling out MSG):

1. Hobbyist – They have a job that supports them and just want their music heard, so they distribute through TuneCore, so they’re friends, family, and fans can buy on iTunes.
2. The Middle Class musician – They make a living with music and develop their fanbase on their own without the help of a label (and don’t plan on getting one).
3. The Hustler – They legitimately think they will get big and are using TuneCore’s easy/cheap platform to easily distribute their music in the meantime.

That being explained, this is their answers and my response to a few big questions that TuneCore asked:

• Surveyors are fairly split on whether they should release LPs (29%), EPs (21%), Singles (20%), or other (30%), which doesn’t surprise me since people are still trying to figure out which format works for them.  My personal suggestion is to keep the flow of content going strong throughout the year (singles, albums, eps, remixes, vinyls, music video, cover songs, live video, interviews, iphone app, or WHATEVER it may be).
• 50% of surveyors said they should give away music free to be heard and find other ways to make money whereas 27% said you should never giveaway music for free.  The 27% probably don’t tour, have synch-worthy songs, or have merch, so of course they’d say no, so I’m not surprised they don’t want to give it away for free.  By no means should an artists be forced to give away all their music for free, but a song or two to give folks a taste would be nice especially, so bloggers can write about you if they stumble upon your music.
• 90% of surveyors say that they should always be paid for song placements (so they should stay far away from MTV)
• 60% of surveyors said that Marketing was the most valuable asset of a record label whereas 6% said A&R experience and 5% said advance, which means a lot more than a numbers.  Artists are more interested in being heard than making money and realize that reaching influencers are worth more than potentially (read: realistically) signing a 360 deal.
• Most interesting results:  When asked what they’re overall view of the music industry was, 34% said I don’t know just yet, 33% said negative, and 33% said positive.  People who answer I don’t know just yet irritate me.  It means they are indecisive or ignorant, both of which won’t make them a successful musician.   Also, it’s not as if they’re contractually bound to their answer, so it’s completely natural to be hopeful one day and concerned the next.
• My favorite result:  86% people said that “other” was their favorite site to find new music (as opposed to Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, A.V. Club, and Daytrotter).  My sarcastic guess is that they’re probably just mad that their band hasn’t been featured by those sites before.  I don’t know what they’re talking about because Daytrotter is an incredible resource to discover new music (read my interview with Sean here)

Interested in reading more.  You can check out the fill report here.