On the blog, Country Music Life, other country music fans and I write about music we like. We write reviews, compile lists, and tell stories about country music and how it impacts the life of people.
Being tuned into the country music world makes me a vulnerable to what people say about music and specifically the business side of things.
A common phrase is, “The business side of things ruins music” or “The same musicians play on every artist’s record so every song sounds the same”.
You know the drill.
That got me thinking about why the business people behind the music industry operate the way they do and how it relates to blogging.
Music Industry Formula
In the music industry, the business people – marketers – look for products the public wants. Marketers try different things. They experiment with different artists.
When something works and people like a style of music the marketer will work to bring that product or song to scale as quickly as possible to satisfy the demand. This is where songs start sounding the same.
Eventually people start to complain. Tastes in music change. New styles are discovered and the entire process repeats.
Over time there are songs that really don’t lose their luster, but for the most part it’s an evolving process.
In the business of blogging the same pattern happens.
Blogging Success Formula
Bloggers experiment. They try to find formulas. When something works they repeat and work to bring the product to scale to capitalize on the attention and demand they’re created.
After awhile the attention in a certain kind of blog post may fade and the blogger needs to experiment again (or a good blogger will keep experimenting).
For example, on Country Music Life I experimented with different kinds of posts. I found some success with news posts early on. I’d try to keep up with country music news around the web. I’d highlight something unique and provide my thoughts on the story.
That worked for a time, but I always kept experimenting with post types.
Then I stumbled on list posts where I would research and compile lists of country songs (ex: sad country songs). People liked this even more. I scaled the formula probably 20+ times over (ex: funny country songs, new country songs).
That worked even better and still works well.
The trick is to keep testing to continue finding more formulas that work.
And when one formula goes out of style there will always be something to fall back on. It’s the way things work in the blogging world and it’s similar to how marketers work in the music industry.
Discussion
I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on the music industry and blogging.
Anything to share?
Rock Concert image courtesy of crsan – christianholmer.com