November’s Blog Post of the Month comes from Hypebot’s Associate Editor Kyle Bylin.  The Elsewhere Musician: Making Connections in a Fragmented World highlights two key points:  (1) all musicians (and especially the “successful” ones) must continuously work harder on the business side of things, and (2) the trend of shorter album cycles.

From Bylin: 

Leisure time once spent doing creative things — where an artist could take time away from it all — has turned into work that ranges from learning how to market themselves online and off, answering an endless barrage of messages from fans, bloggers, and managers, and trying to keep all of their profiles, blogs, and social media tools relevant and up-to-date.

Add this to to the changing music fan:

Music fans have set different expectations for artists and insist that they are met.  While not everyone has interest in messaging their favorite artist, those that do, anticipate a reply back.

Yes, this is a quick summary of the state of the music industry today.  This is actually where I believe services like Twitter can play an important role.  After all, Twitter does allow fans to access your daily/weekly thoughts, and therefore feel engaged and connected to your world, without the need for back and forth emails.  This efficiency should save you time.

Bylin also goes on to state that artists must wrestle with two questions:  What if we’ve revealed too much about ourselves to fans?  What if all of the mystery is gone?

Those questions do raise interesting points, but again, as stated in articles on V11 and other sources, Authenticity will be key for you.  Confirm as an artist what you believe in and where your perspective will be from, they try and be consistent with it.  Whether this is truly you or just your artist persona will be your call.

Another trend noticed by Bylin is what he calls the collapse of the creativity timeline.

What this refers to is the shrinking amount of time between albums or any creative output for that matter, based not on the discretion of the artist, but of the demands set forth by the changes in society.

For the promise of the music industry no longer grants an artist the ability to live off their music, but to survive doing what they love, as long as they are willing to do many things that they may not.  The difference is that when you start making more money as an artist, “the opportunity cost of not working feels greater and the pressure is all the more intense.” Because, not only are you expected to do more with less time — handing both the creative and business aspects of being an artist — but you also have a much smaller window to make new music and keep your audience engaged with what you produce.

Rolling Stone magazine had a short article about the trend of artists releasing “mini-albums” (Artists Break Free of the Album, Oct 29, 2009).  The article cites Smashing Pumpkins, Modest Mouse, Spoon, and Blitzen Trapper among bands that have recently released EPs with just a handful of tracks.

As stated by Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins:  “I was never comfortable with the album format.  It always felt so forced and was obviously an economic decision made by others and not an artistic decision made by creators.  It can be draining to record 15 songs over a six-month period.”  Amen!  For independent musicians such an effort can be even more draining, both with time and finances.

There are advantages to the longer album for indie musicians – registering your songs for copyright, with iTunes, etc can be consolidated.  However, a shorter album is more consistent with the digital world, and especially for digital-only album releases.

Universal Motown’s VP of Sales states in the Rolling Stone article:  “This is a business based on an old model that has to change, and the digital model has helped us realize that.  If you come up with a new piece of product every six to seven months, you keep fans and consumers on the hook.”

Shorter albums also make sense considering the model of purchasing songs is not necessarily by album, but by song.  When you purchase an album on iTunes, how often have you simply listened to the more popular tracks and just purchased one or two of those?  Fans will figure out the quality and adjust.

Jim Guerinot, manager of Nine Inch Nails and No Doubt, puts it this way:  “The advantage for the artist is you’re able to reappear on the marketplace much more quickly instead of waiting a year and a half between albums.  You can re-enter the marketplace and re-energize your base.”

Makes sense to me.