What is the Value of Music?

Last week I received an email from Isaku Kageyama a taiko (Traditional Japanese Drummer) located in Tokyo who is a regular reader of Makin' It Magazine. "I read your magazine to get insight and tips about how to promote my music." He reached out to me because he had written an article entitled the What is the he Value of Music? and he wanted me to review it. After reading the article I thought it was important that I share it with you guys so here it is.

"What is the value of music?  It's hard to put a price tag on music, and one of the reasons is because it's so intangible and subjective.  Music might make you feel a certain way, provide a doorway into another world, bring back memories, or allow you to see something in a new light.  It's really hard to put a price tag on something like that.

 

The value of music is often determined by the amount of commercial power it has.  For example, how much additional revenue can a company generate by using  certain musicians and their music in an advertising campaign?  Or, how many CDs and downloads does the music sell?

 

The value of a live performance is often determined by the number of people a musician brings through the door.  If 100 people are willing to pay $20 to see a performance, that means the promoters have a budget of $2000 out of which to pay the musician.

 

From the musicians' perspective, it's hard to demand a lot of money if you're not a big-name artist who can generate large amounts of interest in a project.  In order to demand a lot of money, musicians need to provide a missing piece of the commercial puzzle.  Otherwise, they can just be replaced with cheaper musicians.

 

What can musicians do about this?  One of the things I've been doing is getting involved in the early stages of a project.  Sometimes I might even come up with the idea for a project myself.  By getting involved early on, I can provide more pieces of the puzzle, and therefore demand a larger share of the budget.

 

Peter Drucker talks about working with knowledge as opposed to skill.  Skills change very slowly, whereas knowledge makes itself obsolete very rapidly.  In the music world, this means musicians need to know what their clients want, and how to provide it.

 

A good place to start is by analyzing your audience.  When you find that your music is appealing to a certain market, you can talk to companies that sell products to the same market about doing an event.  If your event will help the company sell their products, you might get a deal.

 

It will help your case if you know which venues to use, how to design the event to make it more appealing, promotional channels such as the media, and how to negotiate a deal so that there is minimal risk for both you and the client.

 

For example, if you know a venue that will do an event for a percentage of ticket sales as opposed to a set rental fee, that reduces the amount of risk for both you and the client.

 

It's important to gain knowledge so that you can use it to further your career.  Just don't forget to practice!" - Isaku Kageyama

Hope you guys enjoyed the article. A big shout out to Isaku! Thanks for sharing. If you would like to get more information or contact Isaku please visit http://isakukageyama.jugem.jp