In creative circles debate is raging: Does social marketing offer you the chance to break the chains and escape from the corporate music ogre? Or do you think that record companies pumping out plastic pop have dumbed down the music making process to a degree that its either make that or nothing?
Apparently it’s all still top down if you believe the emotive rabble rousing thoughts of John Cougar Mellencamp.
Yes, that’s right – John is back and the Cougar is mad! In his article which ran recently on the Huffington Post website, John took pot shots at corporate record companies over their pumping out of plastic pop and the businesslike manner in which they sucked the soul out of music.
It was hard to know just how serious he was when he lambasted the record sales tracking systems, which were installed as a way of avoiding the borderline trade fraud going on in the industry. Has it cleaned up the black economy of music? Somewhat, they say, but not entirely.
But there’s something perhaps worse than the Satanic soul that lurks inside what is really another international money raking industry. And that is that John Mellencamp – like so many respected creative talents out there today – overlooks the rise of social marketing and the power it is offering back to those creatives with the guts to take it on, even while staring it right in the eye in his opening paragraph.
Democratisation of media is at hand, and yet the old guard will still not recognise the opportunity it presents them to escape the ‘top down’ pressure of record companies – simply for the price of taking on responsibility for their own marketing.
Anyone of creative talent who is seeking to build a career from their passion needs to be aware that they will be involved in the marketing of their product at some stage, to some degree.
Whether you are marketing it to get signed to a company that will ultimately take on your marketing for you, or whether you engage fully in your own social marketing, nothing is more certain about your career.
Importantly, social marketing is offering a far more palatable solution to John Cougar’s problem. Creatives can now use social marketing systems online to work around the established rules to the ends they want.
But - and this is important – that social marketing involves a lot of hard WORK.
There are now a growing number of artists, writers, videographers and all manner of other creatives finding great success, having taken on the risk and the work involved in marketing their product.
And whether or not they are doing it to avoid long fingered corporate music meddling is no longer relevant.
This is the rise of the social marketing era. This is the DIY attitude at its pinnacle.
Wouldn’t you rather take charge of your creative product and engage in social marketing methods and see what can be achieved?
