Dear Musicians, it pays to connect with your audience

Radiohead came up with a pretty awesome way to sell their latest record, "In Rainbows." Before reading the article, I had heard of their brilliant idea before. It got me thinking, why don't more musicians do what Radiohead did?

I thought of an example of something similar. Before John Mayer released his latest cd, Battle Studies, in November, he turned his official website, run by his record label, into a blog so that he could share his recording and writing experience with his fans.

Before his cd was released, he gave us snippets of lyrics, videos and pictures from his process. He took us through how he decided the album art to why he put songs in the order that he did. It was really interesting.

While we still had to pay $13 for it when it came out, those who ordered it online from his website get a code to preorder tickets for his tour before anyone else. Another fun feature on his website is that he has every show professionally recorded, that way, when you get home you can download the tracks from his concert that you were just at (for free!).

He wrote:

Here's what Battle Studies is.
(Apologies for cellphone internet. Heavy media comes tomorrow...)

It's a house,
in a clandestine location,
that's being converted into a music studio.
No, not a music studio.
An entire music experience.
A living, breathing, ever-evolving organic space that contains every part of the record making process.
Everybody involved has left their comfort zone. Including myself.
I need to be disoriented again.

I'm going to share as much as I can with you throughout the entire process. Notes, lyrics, sounds, pictures, ideas, videos.

Tomorrow we look at some new guitars and I explain the approach in detail...

I hope you'll like it.

JM