Music Business Networking In The Internet Age

Master of Net‑based networking Jyoti Mishra, best known for his hit single 'Your Woman' under the name White Town

The growth of the Internet and email‑based communications should have made it easier to contact the people who could help you to further your music career — but, of course, it's not that simple. Robin Morley offers advice on how to use message boards, email and newsgroups to develop useful contacts...

When it comes to music, the on‑line world is a battlefield — and a very messy, confused battlefield at that. Record companies are torn between killing off music services like Napster, and carving out their own (revenue‑providing) niches in the same area. Internet companies are either trying to circumvent the rules on paying for music, or desperately trying to establish what those rules actually are. Users are getting mixed messages from all angles as to what's illegal and what isn't.

And us musicians? Our responses to the Internet vary wildly too. Either we're happy for others to download our music free (usually the opinion of the up‑and‑coming, or the already‑rich) or we go pale at the thought of all those royalties vanishing down the drain (everybody else). Speak out in favour of Napster, and we risk the wrath of record companies, other artists and collection societies. Speak out against it, and we're labelled Luddites, Philistines, or just plain greedy.

But as these issues — important though they are — continue to dominate our thoughts, it's easy to miss the bigger picture. Yes, the Internet can help musicians in numerous ways, allowing us to do things which would have been difficult or impossible a decade ago. But the World Wide Web, in its current format, is only a small part of the reason why.

To put things into context, let's consider what the founding principles of the Internet were. Most people know that today's Internet grew from a US Department of Defense system called Arpanet, whose purpose was military research. Yet immediately Arpanet went on‑line in 1969, certain of its users began to use its revolutionary 'electronic mail' feature to create... well, communities. By setting up mailing lists, researchers at different military installations could discuss topics of shared interest. One of the first large lists was 'SF‑LOVERS' and was devoted to chatting about science‑fiction (you can well imagine the reactions of the military top brass to this kind of 'long‑haired' behaviour...).

Now jump forward to 1978, when Ward Christensen wrote a program called MODEM, allowing two home computers in different locations to exchange files via a telephone link. What MODEM heralded was not a huge fortune for its creator (he published it free‑of‑charge in a computer magazine instead), but a worldwide outbreak of bulletin boards. These too were a form of community — a means for computer users with a common interest (be it Star Trek, disabilities, Judaism or sex) to find each other, share information and learn. By 1993, there were 60,000 bulletin‑board systems in the US alone.

All of which tells us something important: whether they're huge '60s mainframes or souped‑up 21st‑century multimedia boxes, computers joined together do one thing brilliantly. They bring people together who would otherwise never meet, but who could potentially be very useful for each other.

In '80s yuppie‑speak, it's called networking (though the word reeks a little too much of Filofaxes for some folks' tastes). And in a business like music, where the truism has always been 'it's not what you know, it's who you know' — it can be invaluable.

One person who knows this better than most is Jyoti Mishra. In many ways Jyoti's story symbolises the ultimate SOS reader's dream — that of a perennial music enthusiast, indie artist and home‑studio owner who reached number one with a single he recorded in his bedroom (1997's White Town single 'Your Woman').

After this smash hit, Mishra left EMI, and now releases albums on his own Bzangy Groink label. But although his career has followed a strange and wonderful path from indie to major, and then to self‑sufficiency, there's been one constant strand throughout: Jyoti's use of the Internet, both as a way to broaden his knowledge of music, and to create 'career possibilities' for himself — though Mishra would be the last person on earth to use such a phrase.

"For me," he explains, "since the mainstream media is tightly controlled by certain groups of people, and most of us haven't got access to it, we have to — in the words of Noam Chomsky — compensate for the absence of resources. Which means building up a network of people through the Internet who you might have something in common with — whether that's some common aesthetic or working method, or because you just get on with one another. You don't even have to like each other's music, just help each other out a bit."

Mishra has been on‑line since 1995. "I was a fairly early adopter," he says, "which meant that because I was involved with newsgroups and email before 'Your Woman', I had, in a weird way, a wider support network when success came. As I was going through that experience, I was still posting to newsgroups like uk.music.alternative, and people were posting back, saying 'Well done — something might come of this...' Then, when it was number one, everyone was going, 'We can't believe it!'. It's almost, in the soppy, cyber‑hippy sense of it, an extended family, and that's invaluable if you're a solo artist. After all, if things are going badly, I don't have a band to turn to."

Networking Tool 1: Newsgroups

Deja's site provides access to a treasure trove of archived Usenet postings — just click on the 'Discussions' link at the top of the screen.

Though they're still highly popular today, newsgroups (or Usenet — the two terms are synonymous) are a throwback to the '70s bulletin‑board culture touched upon above. Born in 1980 as a means for Unix programmers to discuss the operating system with one another, the arena has since expanded to encompass tens of thousands of different interest groups. Most popular email programs, such as Outlook Express, contain features for reading and contributing to newsgroups, just as most ISPs provide access to them.

Why are newsgroups potentially so useful? Because unlike conventional sources of information, newsgroups are organic, ever‑growing entities — like a cross between an encyclopedia and the world's biggest contacts book. Not only are there people out there on Usenet who know the answer to even your most obscure question, but every single one of those people is instantly accessible, and could potentially become a 'colleague' in your musical career. You could strike up a conversation with a famous artist, a famous producer, or someone you've never heard of who's doing equally well for themselves. You could end up talking to someone who signed to that label you've received interest from, and glean tips or warnings from them. Or you could give a helping hand to a beginner in your particular speciality, gathering another useful contact along the way.

But how to find these people? You could search through the available newsgroups in your newsgroup reader, scanning the list for something that looks relevant. With all those thousands to work through, however, this might take a while: and many seemingly appropriate lists are either on their last legs, or full of little except irrelevant commercial postings (known as 'spam').

A much better idea is to use a web‑based Usenet archive such as Deja (www.deja.com). Originally known as Dejanews, Deja looks at first glance like an on‑line buyers' guide similar to Which (and that's exactly what it's being turned into, for commercial reasons). Click on the 'discussions' link near the top of the main menu, however, and you'll be able to search years' worth of newsgroup postings by keywords. The possibilities are endless. You could look for specific individuals, whether they've posted or simply been referred to, for particular types of instruments, or for the titles of records similar to your own output. If you've released music, or have begun to make a name for yourself live, you could even search for your own material and seek out fans (a quick bit of vanity on my part brought up a message enquiring about my music from someone in the unlikely location of alt.music.nin — a Nine Inch Nails forum).

Once you've established which newsgroups seem interesting, the temptation is to join them and get networking straightaway. But hold on. "Whatever you're interested in, there's almost certainly someone out there who's a complete expert on it," says Jyoti Mishra. "Now, you could probably get to know that individual personally, email them and share information — provided you don't act like a complete tosser when you first go on‑line."

Ah yes — 'netiquette'. It's a phrase we've all heard, and it describes a set of rules for on‑line communication which have changed little over the decades (see the 'Netiquette' box below). Of course, Sound On Sound readers aren't stupid — but you don't have to be in order to accidentally alienate your potential contacts. "Time and again," says Mishra, "you see people come in to newsgroups who are probably OK in real life, but because they're on the Internet they forget about manners and politeness. So they get shunned — nobody will talk to them, or pass on any information. What you see on the groups themselves is only the tip of the iceberg: many people on newsgroups email each other privately, which is how the networks build up. Get frozen out of that world, and you'll be missing out on a great deal."

The time‑honoured key to acceptable newsgroup use is 'take your time'. Browse postings for a few weeks, gauging what's appropriate and what isn't. Flaming, in particular (ie. slagging off other list members ) should be approached with caution: what seems light‑hearted to one person can be hugely offensive to another, particularly if you haven't previously posted enough to give them a flavour of your true personality.

Of course, you may not even see replies to your posts if your ISP's newsgroup service isn't up to the job. Jyoti uses three separate ISPs for different functions, and Demon Internet is his Usenet recommendation. "One morning, I tried scientifically testing them all, to see how they performed. I downloaded all the new message headers for my favourite newsgroup [uk.music.alternative, or UKMA for short]. Demon gave me 247 new messages, Pipex gave me 193, and BT gave me just 53. That's like being partially blinded by your ISP. People should check this aspect out before they commit to anybody."

If you're lucky enough to come across someone on a newsgroup with whom you'd like to correspond 'off‑list', then again, tact is the order of the day. Many newsgroup posters 'disguise' their email addresses precisely because they don't want unwelcome messages. So send a quick two‑line message saying hello, and checking that your correspondence is welcome, before going into huge detail — or worse...

"I have had a few emails in the past where I've taken one look and thought, 'ooh — nutter!'" says Jyoti Mishra. "I just kill‑file them straightaway [ie. add them to the news/email program's list of addresses to ignore in future]. When you approach other people, you should do it with care, I think."

"The other big no‑no is sending anything unsolicited. There's nothing I hate more than trying to get my email and finding I've got some 10Mb attachment waiting for me — I just delete it straightaway and kill‑file them globally. Forever." Then there are copyright and plagiarism issues to consider. You perhaps shouldn't be too surprised if someone rips off a track you've sent them unsolicited — but that's assuming they're prepared to receive it in the first place. "I often get people sending me lyrics," says Jyoti, "which again, I delete immediately, without reading them. Because what if I look at them, then unconsciously regurgitate them later in my own work, and get sued? Don't put lyrics on the web, on newsgroups or in unsolicited emails, that's my advice — unless, at the very least, they've already been published."

Feeling discouraged? You shouldn't be. Despite all these potential problems, most newsgroup posters are only too happy to hear from other like‑minded individuals — otherwise they wouldn't be on the newsgroups at all. And it's here that the democratising power of email really comes into its own: to the boss of an indie label, for instance, an email from an up‑and‑coming musician looks exactly the same as one from a major‑label CEO. You don't need headed notepaper to get them to read it, nor do you need to get past their secretary to 'speak' to them. Because emails are quick and easy to compose, if the person you're contacting finds your message interesting (and you follow a few suggested rules — see that 'Netiquette' box again), they're often much more likely to respond than they would have been before the days of email.

Jyoti Mishra can't stress too much the extent to which net‑based communications have helped him. "It's the only thing that's kept me going over the last three years. If it hadn't been for the Internet, I would've had the 'one‑hit wonder' experience, dropped from sight and just sat at home getting fatter and growing a big Brian Wilson beard," he says. "Instead, in my email inbox now, I've got communications about three different cover versions I'm doing for different tribute albums, two radio jingles, a possible remix — and that's just the 'work in progress'. I've come to know Fatboy Slim's engineer, Simon, Ant Chapman, who used to be in Collapsed Lung and now DJs across the world, The Cuban Boys, who've been working on remix projects alongside me... I wouldn't have had any of that without the Net."

Networking Tool 2: Mailing Lists

A firm believer in using web sites as 'on‑line business cards', Jyoti Mishra has ensured that his home page features a prominent link to his email address on the entry page of his site.

Email lists are similar to newsgroups in many ways: they comprise a set of people with a common interest, discussing it over the net. The main difference is that rather than being public, they are closed entities, for subscribers only. If this sounds elitist, it's not really — most groups are extremely easy to subscribe to, although some require an element of 'vetting' by a moderator. The most popular list host is eGroups (www.egroups.com). Join an eGroup, and you'll get the option to receive messages as individual emails, as daily 'digests', or not at all — once you've joined a group you can always read its latest messages on the eGroups web site.

The advantage of mailing lists is their convenience: there's no messing about with newsgroup software, downloading 'headers'... just flick through the emails as they arrive in your inbox. With the help of web‑based email such as Hotmail, you can also read and respond to them anywhere — even at work, where newsgroup access is likely to be limited. The disadvantage of these lists is that discussions are structured differently from Usenet. Although there are 'threads' (specific topics of conversation carried on by a number of participants) they aren't necessarily displayed as such — so a daily digest of 25 emails can veer wildly from topic to topic as you read through it.

Apart from this, the networking principles remain the same: bide your time, discover other list participants' interests and activities, then 'test the water' with someone you'd be interested in corresponding with. You certainly won't be short of choice — in the 'Arts/Music/Instruments/Synthesizer' category alone, there are 133 different groups.

Networking Tool 3: Email

Yes, that's right — simple old email. We've already touched briefly on what makes electronic mail such an important and versatile tool — the fact that people find it easy and painless to respond to.

The eGroups web site is the jumping‑off point for some of the world's finest email‑based mailing lists.Because of this, there's another cool aspect to email: personal contact details are relatively easy to get hold of, whether the people you want to target are high‑flying music biz professionals, or just fellow gigging musicians whose output you enjoy. You can scour their web sites, looking for those useful little 'mailto:' links. You can browse professional directories. Or, if they work for a large company, just pick up the phone and ask someone in the same department for the address. Often, even if they wouldn't dream of giving you someone's direct phone number, they'll usually give you their email with few qualms. If all else fails, and you know the addresses of other people in the organisation, try guessing by using the same format (eg. 'firstname.lastname@bigfatrecordl...').

If you're contacting a fellow musician for a chat, your first approach should probably be a two‑liner along the lines of what we discussed above. But what if you're after someone's professional attention — for instance, to try and secure a record deal? After all, you can hardly send your demo tape this way (we've already established that massive MP3 attachments are a no‑no). Nevertheless, email is a great way of sending tantalising snippets of info, like bits of band news and press cuttings, reviews of recent gigs, and so on. Follow this up with a link to your web site (you do have one, don't you?) or a home page on a music download site like mp3.com or peoplesound.com.

If you can provide a link to some streaming Real Audio samples of your work, all the better. After all, the faster Mr A&R can get to hear your music, the less his enthusiasm is likely to wane. If not, then MP3 files are a good alternative. Many large companies, after all, are likely to be accessing the Internet on high‑speed leased lines, so what seems like a huge download to us humble modem users won't be quite so much of a burden to them. But they'll only bother, remember, if you capture their interest in the main body of the mail. And less is more: send short messages, infrequently. Otherwise it'll be into the kill‑file for you...

Conversely, you need to make yourself easy to contact too. Many music web sites these days are so concerned with funky front‑pages that the artists' contact details are relegated to an elusive page four menus in. Being something of an old hand at this Internet lark, Jyoti Mishra subscribes to the minimalist approach — but for practical reasons, as well as aesthetic ones. "I think web sites are important," he explains, "but to me they're almost like a business card. I try to make my site (https://bzangygroink.co.uk) reflect what I think — but if you prefer, you can just look at the first page, click on a link and email me." Oh — and it goes without saying that you should check your incoming email regularly.

Then there's the other creative use of email — the collaborative approach. "I pass material back and forth with the Cuban Boys purely by email," says Jyoti. "They're the archetypal on‑line band: they don't even live near each other, they just email all the time. You simply couldn't have done this a few years ago. MP3s are chunky files, but if everybody concerned is happy about downloading them, they're pretty manageable — and it cuts out the mess and expense of couriers, international mail going astray, and so on."

Networking Tool 4: The Next Generation

The future holds even greater possibilities for musicians who understand the power of networking. Already in existence is Kenjin — an intelligent search program which aims, among other things, to 'read' any text document you're working on, then put you in touch with other Kenjin users who are working on the same subject. It doesn't take much imagination to see how brilliantly this principle could work with music software.

Imagine: as you rifle through your computer's sample banks for that killer sax line, your PC automatically puts you in touch with a saxophonist who also happens to have the same studio package open. Fifteen minutes later, your track has the sax break of your dreams, the saxophonist's bank account has been credited with a modest session fee direct from yours, and most importantly, another musical affiliation has been created. Either that, or your PC finds a sax sample from someone else's library, and you spend the rest of the afternoon nicking sounds off each other... oh dear, I feel one of those 'copyright headaches' coming on...

And speaking of intellectual property nightmares, even the much‑vilified Napster could have its part to play in bringing musicians together. Simply use the program's search function, seek out a user on‑line who shares your taste in music (or if you have released recordings, maybe even someone with copies of your stuff) and send them an instant message. Perhaps the user who responds may be a musician, or perhaps a home studio owner, but whatever happens, you'll get a chance to learn why people across the world listen to the music they do. You'd be foolish to turn your nose up at that.

In fact, the only task that will really tax us in the future may be finding the time to actually make music. Jyoti Mishra knows all about this: "The awful thing is that I now spend at least three or four hours a day writing emails and Usenet postings. In a way, you have to set yourself boundaries about when you're going to be creative, and when you're going to deal with the business side of getting your music out there. That's a very important thing to work out. Otherwise," he warns, "doing all that networking can soon become a full‑time job..."