Post #2 Connecting With Your Audience

Whether or not you listen to “Radiohead” or even know who they are, they just changed your life.  A band from England, the group used to connect with its audience the old fashioned way, by having fans download it’s music illegally, (I mean buying those CDs) or by going to concerts.  The band’s record label pegged you as a criminal if you did the first and made money if you did the second.  The band made money when you did the third.  If I were “Radiohead” I wouldn’t be pleased, as this arrangement limited the band’s ability to connect with its audience, as many people could not or would not buy the band’s CDs for $14.99 when it only cost a buck to make.  And the band got relatively little from that spread, Capitol and Best Buy did.

So when the band’s contract with Capitol Records expired, it decided to take back control of the distribution of its music and income stream, by not resigning with Capitol.  This now left the band with no one to sell and market its music (aside from the band itself.)  So to reach more people and make more money, it decided to let its audience decide how much to pay for the music.  That’s right, you download the music and decide how much to pay for it.  And while many will no doubt download the music for free, (as they currently do) many others will pay something.  Either way, more people will listen to the band’s music (and since the band only made real money touring or selling t-shirts anyway, its downside is little.)

So what’s this got to do with the Library?  Without new web tools, “Radiohead” could not have reached out to expand its audience on its own, it needed new technologies to make this possible.  And those tools can be used by the Library to reach out, connect with and expand its audience too.  There are over 100 million Ipods walking around out there, so why not offer podcasts of books.  My mom will always visit the Library and pull out her card and check out a physical object we call a book.  It’s who she is.  My daughter would read more if she could download the book and listen to it on her commute to school.  It’s who she is.  And as my daughter will need the services of the Library for many more years than my mother will, shouldn’t the Library meet its audience where it is, and how it lives? (hint: my daughter will not be changing her habits and lifestyle to accomodate the Library, and when she gets a job and pays taxes and votes, she isn’t going to give the Library money just because, especially since she and her kind will be paying my Social Security.)

Change can be hard for some, and not everyone sees the need for change. What we did before was good enough.  But not for my daughter, and we need her more than she needs us (regardless of what we may think.)  We now have great new tools to reach out and connect with our audience.  Let’s use them.

Radiohead’s pay-what-you-think-it-is-worth new music is entitled “In Rainbows” and can be downloaded beginning Oct. 10 at inrainbows.com.

~ by bassperr on October 4, 2007.