The art of asking

Most music industry executives live in the past.

Music executives obsess with how to get people to pay for music in a world of free. They obsess over radio airplay when true fans no longer learn about new music on the radio. Music label execs actively discourage people from learning about new music on YouTube because they are afraid of "free." What stupidity! On one hand they are eager to be played on the radio that few listen to. On the other they claim copyright infringement and take music off YouTube where tons of people look for new music!

Amanda Palmer has proven that "How to get people to pay for music" is the wrong question. Rather, she asks: "How do we let people pay for music."

Amanda delivered an amazing TED talk titled The art of asking which was just posted.

You don't need to be in the music business to learn from Amanda's story of success.

No matter what industry you're in, marketing today is about giving. And about asking.

Give away your content

You've got to give away your white papers and ebooks (with no registration required). Freely give your blog posts and videos and Twitter streams and Instagram images and infographics. Heck, make your full-length book totally free on Kindle and iPad and Nook and as a PDF.

The world of marketing has changed. Don't let the executives tell you to put gates on all your content. Don't obsess over traditional ROI measures. Give away your best stuff!

Then ask

The fans you build with free content will want to support you. But you've got to ask them.

Amanda Palmer has made an art of asking people to help her. She didn't make people pay for music. She asked. "When you connect with people, they want to help you," she says. Like when she asked people to fund her new record on Kickstarter and nearly 25,000 people responded with about $1.2 million.

It's not easy to ask for help because asking makes you vulnerable. Take Amanda's advice: "Give and receive fearlessly. Ask without shame."

Here is my ask

Do you need a speaker at your upcoming conference? Are you interested in personalized training for your staff? I'd like to help. Here is a short video about my customized marketing and leadership presentations. Shoot me an email to learn more.

Comments

[Irakli Beselidze]

Thank you for great post, David! But before asking, you have to start giving all your best staff for free)))

[Brian DePoe]

David your comments are interesting but there is still much research that shows people do rely on radio for music discovery. 'True' fans will dig deeper for artists who don't get a lot of AirPlay so in truth both strategies are somewhat relevant. Record execs at the large label level are still trying to make a model that reflects the old days and that will either fail or yield smaller results, but radio is not yet irrelevant though many in the music business wish it were so.

[David Meerman Scott]

Brian, thanks for jumping in.

I wonder if the research you cite was sponsored by the radio stations...

When I was a teenager, I paid attention to the ratio and the opinions of my friends to learn about new bands. Now, my own teenage daughter learns about new bands from her friends but not the radio, instead she pays attention to YouTube, Spotify, and other "free" sources.

Radio may still be relevant for the mainstream who love American Idol. But for music fans who actually support artists, I'm not so sure. My daughter has gone to probably 20 live shows this year. I'd guess between concert tix, merch, and iTunes, she's probaly spent more than $1,000 to support bands. I wonder how many live shows American Idol fans have seen?...

David

[Chris Barry]

David --

I grew up glued to Chicago's WXRT 93.1 FM way back in my music consuming youth...but, while that station influnced my tastes greatly, my main way of discovering new music was literally hanging out in these places called 'record stores.' These places barely exist today (and Best Buy doesn't count) but they were dedicated to selling records and records alone. The good ones hired staff that had good taste and played off-beat, quirky albums all day long. So, for me, I'd spend hours in these stores browsing and listening. Often, I'd leave having purchased an album that was being played while I was there. There was one store in particular located in Elgin, IL called Appletree Records. I knew when I walked in there and this girl who wore safety pins in her ears was working - I'd end up walking out with the best shit on vinyl.

[David Meerman Scott]

Chris -- Good point about record stores. Thanks for that.

There was a decent one near my home but it wasn't a hangout. It was a place to buy only. But I've been to some cool stores over the years that even today are thriving due to "hangout" status.

[mark allen roberts]

David,

Thank you for a great post and video.
You convinced me in 2008 to start blogging, and the old school business leaders in my network criticized me...why give it away for free? They even went as far as saying ; it can't be worth anything if he gives it away for free.

It would have been easy to cave in and maybe not share what I call "thought art" for free. Since I have not caved the hardest part is learning to receive.

The best blessings come when some husband and wife email me on how they were about to quit their dream business , but they read a post , tried it, and now they have made the turn and their business is working. Had I caved, if I cave, I would miss those moments.

My readers are not anywhere near yours in volume ( hopefully some day I will be serving that many) but they have given me so much.

thanks again for the post

Mark

[John Windsor]

Wow, great video, and excellent analysis, David. This really hit home, after hitting a big ol' gate on Salesforce's site for something they should have been *happy* to give away freely.

[Trevor Young]

Love the first line David :)

[David Meerman Scott]

Mark - How great that you started to give things away! I too love to hear from people that my ideas contributed in some way to their success. It is unbelievably rewarding. Giving gifts of content and receiving the benefits sure beats working for a living!

John - I know, right? When I find gates, I wonder if the organization as a whole is secretive or if some marketer is being told by her managers that they must "calculate ROI".

Trevor - to be honest, I had to Google how to do crossouts in HTML (!!)

[Rahul]

Good one David! You may remember a talk you gave at Kolkata last year at the Oberoi's. I just happened to be there without much of a reason, but boy was it was a life changer! Thanks to you after a 5 years hiatus, I got back into the artist management business. The only trouble is that the record label wants to keep all the music up their sleeves and expects me to 'promote' their artist. Bleh!

[BretMavrich]

I loved your post, but I was disappointed with your "Ask." Instead of offering your vulnerability, you pointed to our vulnerability and need. And all you gave in return was an advertisement.

Why not do what Palmer suggested (and you) and give away a book, then ask us to donate according to how much we connected with it?

[David Meerman Scott]

Rahul - good for you! I'm thrilled the Kolkata event was worthwhile. I enjoyed it too!

Bret - Sorry you felt that way. I've been giving away things for ten years. I rarely ask but chose to do so in this post. In it was a link to my free book. But in case you missed it, here is a bunch of free stuff. http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/free-stuff/free-ebooks/

[Daniel Katz]

David, I'm a little late to the party, but thanks for the post. It's fascinating how the new connection economy has turned the music industry upside down (perhaps for the better). What advice would you give someone who is reluctant to give away free content because they consider it too valuable, i.e, an invention or a "great idea"?

[RodneyGoldston]

Hi David, great post and as usual thanks for taking a lead on a conversation so important for all us to understand.

Daniel - in a connected economy the best way to spread the news about a new invention or great idea is to give it away for free or near free. Some examples:

The founders of Google had a great idea for making it easier for to find information on the Internet. They gave it away for free. Once everyone was using it they figured out a way to make billions selling space to people willing to pay for paid spots on an search engine results page.

Sun Micro Systems had a great idea to reduce load time on internet servers. They gave away the code for free. It's called Java Script and you're likely using it now. They charge $100,000 dollars for the manual to companies who want to write programs for Internet platforms that utilize their code.

The reason for giving things away free is to achieve ubiquity. The reason you have to give things away free is because everything plugged into the net (and nearly everything is) is ubiquitous.

So how to you get someone to pay for something that they can get anywhere for free?

Here are a list of 8 things people might be willing to pay for in a connection economy when everything is free. There is also a link to where you can get Kevin Kelly's book which explains in detail why you have to give stuff away or near free in a connected economy. http://rodneygoldston.com/8-ways-to-make-money-giving-your-stuff-away-for-free/

[David Meerman Scott]

Rodney - thank you for these excellent examples of free!

[Lisa Tommaney]

David,

Loved the post and the video. Then, this morning, a friend sent this link to another story on the power of asking. It appears to be authentic, thought you would enjoy it. http://www.business2community.com/strategy/billy-joel-and-the-audacious-power-of-asking-0435167#FwwxlzK4Bu1JdDql.01

[David Meerman Scott]

Hi Lisa - Yes, I had seen that Billy Joel video via Bob Lefsetz. Thanks for sharing it here.

[Rampbusinesses]

Thanks, Lisa, for sharing my post "Billy Joel And The Audacious Power Of Asking". Glad you liked it.

David - I love when Amanda says, "We made an art of asking people to help us." That's a great thing to become an artist at! :)

[Mark Katavice]

Thanks David Sir for the post and the video. I've learn a lot. I like most the way of your presentation.