In honor of Dispatch coming to Atlanta, I'm going to break down how 3 dudes from Vermont became an Indie Success Story.
Dispatch never signed to a major label. Their songs were never played on any major radio stations. They've never had a number one hit. They've never won a grammy, or had a music video on MTV or VH1. But if you went to college sometime in the last 10 years, odds are you know the song "The General" by heart. And I'll bet you also know songs like "Flying Horses", "Out Loud", "Bang Bang" or "Two Coins". Dispatch's final concert, dubbed The Last Dispatch, drew a crowd of 100,000 people to Central Park to see the band perform one last time. Somewhere in America, there is a record company putting millions of dollars and all their resources into a band, trying to help them become 1/10th as popular, as Dispatch is. How did this happen? And what is there to learn from it?
I'll take a page from Malcolm Gladwell and say that Dispatch's success was due, in part, to timing. In 2000 Napster was the new cool thing, and in a weird way, it rendered the traditional record company obsolete. Here's the dirty little secret of the music industry: musicians don't make money off of album sales, record companies do. Musicians make their money off of merchandice (shirts and stickers and things) and live shows. You always hear these stories about bands like NSYNC who sell $30 million worth of records and end up make $1,500, that's because the majority of that money goes to the companies who paid for the album to be made. It's really hard to make any real money off of album sales unless you have the number 1 album in the universe. Which is part of why the Metallica argument against Napster (Their basic argument was "We're sticking up for the smaller bands because that's who this really hurts!") was so ludicrous. Bands like Dispatch have NEVER made money off of selling music, they make money off of getting people to go to their live shows. Napster was a FANTASTIC invention for the little bands. Now anyone, anywhere could hear their music, get online, see when they were coming to their town, and go to the concert. They were no longer restricted by their cd distribution (it's expensive to ship cd's to every store in America). Without the internet and Napster, Dispatch wouldn't have had near the success they had.
Instead of fighting technology like Metallica did, Dispatch embraced it. They even offered a forum on their website where fans could trade mp3s of live shows. (The Grateful Dead did the same thing in the 70s with tape trading, Phish was also a big pioneer of this idea) The internet was free advertising and distribution, two of the biggest needs that a big record label fulfills. But Dispatch also had a really good product. The songs were great, and the live shows were even better. Free marketing and distribution won't help you if you have crappy music and can't play live. The common denominator in all good artists is this: they tour, a lot. Bands have to hone their live performance, and you learn by doing. It's very hard to find a great artist of any genre, at any level, that doesn't tour relentlessly. By touring, a band can not only hone their skills and perfect their craft, but can develop a following, the people who love their music ravenously and will do anything to see the band play. And that is something that a band has to earn. In order to develop people who love your band, you have to love your fans. That means you have to do things for them. Cheap tickets, giveaways, free downloads, signing autographs, playing a few extra songs at a show, a band has to prove that they love the audience, before the audience can love them.
Dispatch also made their concerts special. Each one was unique, so if you go to 5 Dispatch concerts, each one will be a unique experience. (In the business world, this is known as client/customer retention) So the band had a quality product, loyal customers, free distribution and marketing, who needs a major record label? And look where it got them: the largest concert in the history of independent music, a cult following, a "hit" without the radio, and a special entry in my blog (ok, so they don't really care about the last one).
So why does this matter? Because if you want to go see a major act perform, get ready to shell out $100, just for the tickets. Because record companies are fighting itunes to raise their prices. Because venues are telling bands to be done playing by midnight. And there are more one hit wonders than ever. True success in music is about establishing a fan base, and that takes time, effort and sacrifice. And some good songs.
