kidmercury

Long-time readers are familiar with my adventures as a bedroom rock star -- an attempt to create the rock star of the future and understand the economic environment such rock stars will inhabit (low budget, cut off from mainstream media ecosystem). It's been on my mind a bit more of late, as if I sell my trading site, a small portion of the proceeds (probably like $5,000, hopefully less....would probably start with something like $2,000) I'll invest in promoting myself (i.e. Kid Mercury) as a bedroom rock star. If I can turn this into a profitable investment, I can invest in more bedroom rock stars, then connect them all.....it's the niche social network revolution.

Music and fashion go hand in hand; that's why so much attention is given to crafting the image of a musician. Lots of purists find this unfortunate: "what about the art!" they cry. I sympathize, but only a little: the answer is simply to make the image part of the art too -- a reinforcement of the message the music delivers. The challenge here is that the music needs to deliver a message. For a variety of reasons, most music doesn't deliver much of a message. If you profit from preserving the status quo, which big media certainly does, meaningless lyrics are a much safer bet. So that means Paris won't get airplay, but 50 Cent will.

Anyway, here are some characteristics I thought were important when thinking about image marketing for bedroom rock stars. As bedroom rock stars are basically the musical version of blog stars, I feel this is something to consider for marketing blog stars as well.

1. Live; spontaneous. It's about a dude in his bedroom with a flip camera. Maybe some good editing, if it can make things seem more live and spontaneous -- Julia Nunes is a great example of such. I'm wary of excessive production quality, it often makes stuff seem less alive, which hinders sociability....the social element is at the heart of bedroom rock stars, who produce content to build an interactive, online community (that can be monetized!). Of course, as technology progresses in quality and declines in cost, it will become easier to make things have high production quality without compromising the live spirit.

2. Authenticity. This is a big point and I could probably write a book on just this point, and a cursory review of the kookological fanaticism that is my blog illustrates this is the point I like the most. The rise of authenticity in image marketing relates to the collapse of the mainstream, which I enjoy pre-emptively celebrating. Big media is all about standardizing everything; production techniques, writing style, even ridiculous things like trying to give every chick blonde hair. LOL, that just looks ridiculous, people. I never seen a person look better with another hair color than their natural one (except I guess when people's hair/skin/eye color changes due to weather....that happens to me, my eyes change color from time to time, especially during the summer). Of course, that's just my opinion, there are probably some stupid people out there who disagree. But anyway, hair color illustrates the point I want to make about authentic image marketing on the web: Rihanna is a mainstream star, so she gets blonded (even more ridiculous when they're not White); if she were a bedroom rock star, for sure her hair is kept black -- or perhaps modified in a way that reflects her individuality, rather than conformity to mainstream standards. If she tried to come up on YouTube as a bedroom rock star with fake blonde hair, I think more fans would be like, "lol, wtf, this is fake, I'll put on corporate media if I want the fake stuff."

4. New Musical Standards. While standards are being broken in many ways, it is not just pure anarchy and individualism. Rather, new standards will be created. And for bedroom rock stars, it's important to be brief. This has always been true; it's common for musicians to have a "radio edit" of their songs that fit into a shorter radio-friendly format. Likewise, I think bedroom rock stars will need to adhere to new standards as well, such as:

-- Keep it even shorter. If the old rule is under 4 minutes, the new rule is under 3 minutes. But not under 2, that's too short. Sweet spot is probably between 2:30 and 3:00 for bedroom rock stars.
-- Has to have a chorus, of course, and lyrics that are easy to understand and have a message that resonates with the target demographic.
-- Has to be easy for one person to play and sing with an instrument. The goal is to make it easy for people to copy you!

5. New Interior Standards? The term "bedroom rock stars" comes from the fact that a lot of these people perform cover songs from their bedroom, i.e. me doing Get This Party Started by Pink. Then you'll see lots of people record from their bathroom because it sounds better. That's what I do now, as I'm a music purist. Bedroom is usually much better for visuals, though.

6. Have a message. Granted, we see plenty of musicians getting away without having much of a message; it's the age of celebrity, so simply celebrating one's self, which is what mainstream hip-hop is basically about (a far cry from its rebellious/political origins), can work. For now. In due time, though, I think we'll see great value in having a real message, in trying to create a movement -- to create a brand. In my opinion this will be the best way to make money in a world of free and shared music.

The other challenge as a bedroom rock star is that the more authentic you want to be, the less room there is for a closed or private area (or you can sell privacy in a subscribers area...probably lots of money in that for those who have managed to acquire the core cult group of fans); more authenticity means more transparency, and so customers get to see everything -- the errors, the outtakes, the accidents, the spontaneous creations. Dealing with such transparency in a highly social environment like the web will be a challenge for many bedroom rock stars. Don't sweat it, my fellow bedroom rock stars. Just follow your heart.

Well, these are things I'm thinking about, should I sell my business. If I do sell, pursuing bedroom rock stardom will only be a small focus; there are lots of types of niche communities I want to create, as a part of my "create a whole bunch of niche communities and connect them all" strategy. I do think, though, that bedroom rock stars will be a great foundation for creating online communities, and hence my great interest in them.