How The Internet Liar-Proofed The Music Industry“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
Abraham Lincoln didn’t know it at the time, but his words captured the genesis of the record industry’s collapse.
50 Cent’s newest album debuted with 160K sales. The following week it dropped off 60% to 65K sales. But 50 Cent has also sold 16 million records this decade. Something bad happened for 50 Cent late this decade. But it’s not just him. It’s everyone whose sales ever relied heavily on fame.
All you have to do to really get a deep appreciation for the rot in the record industry is to turn to philosophy and science. They’re both fundamentally good at exploring human nature. They’ll both tell you the same thing: human beings are extremely good at detecting bullshit. The reason we’re so good at it is because the real world has always been full of people who take advantage of other people. Being swindled by another person can cost you your reputation, your livelihood or in some instances even your life. It’s a serious matter.
People everywhere are good at detecting liars because we have to. A person’s voice, words, body language and especially eyes give off subtle cues about his qualities and trustworthiness. These cues allow job interviewers to make up their minds about somebody within the first 5 minutes. It’s also why we say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. In fact, scientists say that one of the reasons humans have evolved so much white in the eyes in relation to other animals is because we have to be able to read people’s intentions quickly. The contrast between the white and the dark part of the eye makes it easy to see whether somebody has shifty eyes when they’re explaining something, for example; one indication that they may be lying. In high stakes situations, not being able to read someone’s intentions well could be risky. The eyes give a lot away. Just ask any professional poker player.
This takes me back to the record industry. It’s been notoriously good at getting people to buy low quality products by making them seem far better than they are; in effect swindling consumers. Music celebrity has fed off of this. MTV, radio and music magazines all enabled and benefited from music products that look much better than they really are.
Remember, detecting bullshit is in our DNA. But when we don’t have much data to go by, we can be fooled. A record label that puts out a high quality single and then sells us a crappy CD full of filler material is deceiving us. And it can if it controls the image and distribution channels. By doing so it denies us much data to make a good decision.
The Internet has pretty much demolished all of that because it has made it nearly impossible to fool large numbers of people. One reason for that is that any consumer can sample anything they want whenever they want. That’s been one of the great virtues of YouTube and the P2P revolution. They let you take a test drive.
The second reason has to do with another aspect of our inborn bullshit detection system. We rely heavily on other people’s input when making decisions about what to buy. The Web and social media have killed secrecy. If I want to know about the Dave Matthews band’s new album I can see what other people are saying about it or just ask my network. Pre-Internet, I couldn’t get nearly as large a sample.
That’s why the Internet is so bad for shallow fame and so good for authenticity. It lets people form communities around the authentic things they like. The Dave Matthews band can debut at 400K without radio or MTV because they have a loyal community of fans that get the word out for them. You can’t buy that kind of loyalty. 50 Cent doesn’t sell like he used to anymore because he never really had true fans.
You can’t afford not to be authentic these days because the Internet has fool-proofed us all. It doesn’t pay to be a liar anymore. Not only does lying not pay anymore, but hyperbole isn’t as effective. The kind of machismo and loud PR you find especially in the Hip Hop world doesn’t work as well online. Machismo is usually a substitute for true substance. Developing one’s own brand of authenticity that attracts enough fans to make a living is the great challenge for music artists today. But it also shields you from competition if you do get it right.
December 26th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Um … don’t you have that backwards? wouldn’t evolution favour the less-white eyes BECAUSE their intentions (eg towards mating?) would be less transparent thus gaining a Natural Selection advantage? Just a thought.
I’ve heard it elsewhere said that what “pop-music” proved, much to the chagrin of those who believe there is a Correct and an Incorrect way to make music, is that the music didn’t matter much. Tune in Peter Sellers ‘reciting’ “She Loves You” and compare that to anything by Keats; what people buy are experiences and tribal identities, of which one possible tribe is Those Who Know A Thing Or Two About Bogus But Complex ‘Rules’ of Harmony; there’s a rule in conspiracy-hunting that says “Never attribute to malice what could be explained by incompetence” and I think you’ll find the “record biz” the post-war unit-sales machine targetting the pocket-change of an unprecidented adolescence divested of all cultural connection to their own history (shattered by WWII) and all they did was to optimize the sales equations.
So today you have this whole Myth of “building honest relationships” and befriending your audience, but I’ll tell you this: There aren’t many artists out there who’d lend $50 to a fan in need. The BS is still there, maybe stronger than ever, but that’s ok because that doesn’t matter, we already know our tribal priests are liars, but we know they do it for our own enjoyment and so we forgive them and love them for it, and remember them all the rest of our days.
January 6th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
That’s an interesting fact that I’ve never thought of before, but you’re absolutely correct. Seven years ago I had to buy a CD hoping the rest of the tracks were as good as the single, but today, I refuse to buy an album without streaming all of the tracks first.
You’re also right about other people’s opinion’s. The internet makes it possible to build a fan base without even having a single released or radio play. At over half of the concerts I’ve been to, the band with one song released on the radio has opened up for the smaller band, simply because of the loyalty levels. The artists that rely on a single getting played on the radio to be successful are in for a rude awakening. Most frequent hit-station-radio listeners I’ve known forget about that single a month later, leaving the band with a one-hit wonder reputation. The internet has made it possible to pick out those wonders from the true talent.
I’ve written a blog on how the Internet has affected the music industry for a school project, and I would really appreciate it anyone reading this would check it out and leave some feedback. Thank you.
http://lorenaburgess.tumblr.com/