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Comment by fatdog789 | Hacker News Reader

One example. Which actually fits what I said; the free views online did very little to help his career. It was only after signing with a record company that commercial promotion pushed the music into public awareness: a studio-funded website, studio-funded placement into Entourage, and studio-funded placement into the queues of radio stations.

I am surprised that none of you brought up Marie Digby or Katy Perry. But then again, their careers mirrored that of Souljah Boy: free promotion did little to help their sales until the traditional studio machine kicked in.

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I'm not sure how you say the free views online did very little to help his career. Soulja Boy would not have a career if there weren't so many people interested in crankin' dat Soulja Boy via Youtube.

The Arctic Monkeys may not have made money from their free promotion, but the free promotion got them the contracts that finally got them money.

It may be true that once established, free promotion will only do so much for sales. So then what?

Stop whaling and start catching tuna. Instead of signing artists that established their own fan bases, sign more, newer artists and don't spend so much money overengineering all the audio into flat loudness. Then, offer access to the catalog on a sliding scale - the more new, unestablished artist impressions, the cheaper the licensing fee for the time period. So you get paid a reasonable fee for a site that enables 24/7 Michael Jackson, or you drum up cheap awareness of new artists as sites like Pandora seek to institute thesixtyone-like rewards and incentives for listening to new music.

Studios already do that with smaller artists. You just don't hear too much about them...b/c the money scales directly with perceived commercial value.

Studios chase whales because in a hit-driven industry, one successful whale will pay for his own marketing, and all costs associated with several tons of tuna (good or bad).

Think of it like the App Store: a few successes drive the system.

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