This post will argue that the one of the most effective ways build a brand on the Internet is to join forces with other artists.

Building a brand in any industry is difficult.  Building a nationwide or global brand in the music industry is a colossal undertaking.  When it comes to entertainment, there are dozens of alternative and competing product categories, and when it comes to music there are millions of options to choose from.

If you are looking to build a business in music that generates ongoing revenue, the only real option is to build a brand on the Internet.  If you have a strong brand on the Internet, your live show traffic will increase, you will sell and stream more music, you will sell more merchandise, and you will attract sponsors and advertisers.

The Unsprung Message Of The Month
You cannot build a great MUSIC brand on the Internet by being informative; you have to be entertaining.

The Number One Mistake Made By Record Labels And Artists
When attempting to build a brand on the Internet, every label and every artist I have ever studied fails to strongly and competitively deliver the correct, or desired (by consumers) value proposition.

The correct or desired value proposition for any product or service is the ONE BEST QUESTION that compliments the bolded question on the next line.
WHAT DOES THIS PRODUCT OR SERVICE DO FOR ME?
Does it make me sexy?
Does it feed me?
Does it make me horny?
Does it make me safe?
Does it entertain me?
Does it inform me?
Does it make me feel happy?
Does it make me smart?
Does it make me strong?
Does it make me healthy?
Etc., etc., etc.,

Does It Entertain Me?
Standalone Artist Websites And Profile Pages Are Not Entertaining
To succeed at delivering the WE ENTERTAIN YOU value proposition you have to COMPETE with EVERYTHING, AND I MEAN EVERYTHING, that delivers the WE ENTERTAIN YOU value proposition on the Internet.

By default, and by the nature of what it is, a website or profile built around ONE artist/band cannot easily compete (but it is possible) with other sources of entertainment like video games, Internet games, Internet radio, 500 television channels, movie downloads, or even with the activity of surfing the Internet, YouTube or MySpace for entertainment.  A single website or profile page just doesn’t compete.

Surfing from one web site or MySpace profile to another is entertaining, but when someone purposely dives into a website or profile owned by a single band or artist they are NOT really doing it to be entertained - they are doing it to become informed about shows, music or biographical information.

In addition, hitting the play button on your MySpace music player with five songs in it - is not the same as hitting the play button on an iPod with 300 songs in it.  The MySpace music player informs people about your music, whereas the iPod with your songs and 295 others - entertains people.  

Informative versus entertaining is the reason why the ratio of songs played per site/profile visitor is around 1.5 (songs played per visitor).  It’s also the reason why the average visitor to your site spends less than five minutes on it.  If you still think you are delivering entertainment, you are delivering the shortest form of entertainment in the marketplace.

If have to say this again (and again): You cannot build a great MUSIC brand on the Internet by being informative; you have to be entertaining.  You have to competitively deliver the correct value proposition.

If One Doesn’t Work - Try An Alliance
A gang, a consortium, a syndicate, or an alliance of many artists working together can competitively deliver the WE ENTERTAIN YOU value proposition on the Internet, and more effectively in the physical world.  Where a single artist struggles with just being informative on the Internet, numerous artists on a single site are instantly entertaining.

Long Alley - The Example
The easiest way for me to prove this point is to describe a fictional example.  Below you will read how Long Alley Music (the fictional example) competes with other forms of entertainment on the Internet, and with other things entertaining in the physical marketplace; including other artists.  (The Warped Tour is a great example of an alliance.)

Long Alley Music - The Description
There are forty-five artists contributing over seven hours of music from one hundred and ten songs on Long Alley Music (@ www.longalley.com).  Every song falls into a genre Long Alley describes as Jazz Infused Rock.  Each song on Long Alley is handpicked and voted in by the artists that co-brand under the Long Alley name.  Long Alley listeners streamed over one million minutes of music last year through Long Alley Radio.  Long Alley artists contributed over twenty-six thousand high-resolution photos of fans at shows that were snapped in thirty-six different cities around the globe last year.  The Long Alley website also showcases thirty-five recent videos featuring live and studio performances of twenty different Long Alley artists.

Long Alley Music Is Entertainment
The Long Alley website, the music player with seven hours of songs, the high-resolution photos, and the continuous stream of videos are entertainment.  Hopefully, you can instantly see and hear the difference between Long Alley and a website owned by one artist.  Long Alley can be played at a party, whereas your music player cannot (for example).

The Brand Proceeds You
Artists pre-announce and banner the Long Alley brand on every show they perform at, thereby sending smoke signals to fans that a Long Alley artist is in town.  It would be nice to show up in a city 1,000 miles away and know that you have brand recognition; especially if the brand equates to quality + the genre of music you specialize in.  It’s also GREAT for fans to be able to travel to another city and know that a branded (Long Alley) show is in town; as it’s a lot easier to make a purchase decision when you are comfortable with a brand.    

Everything Is Easier
From selling tickets to t-shirts, when fans can do it all one website it’s convenient and easier.  More importantly, if you build a syndication of artists located all over the country, it’s easier for national advertisers and sponsors to justify investing time into making deals with your brand.  Remember, if a dealmaker from a national beverage company (for example) has three hours to invest, she’s going to spend her time on the brand that has the potential to deliver the best audience.  (I will define best some other time; as best does not always equate to largest.)

Brand Together - It’s Done Successfully All The Time
Branding together does not have to be any more complicated than assembling a movie soundtrack, and as we all know, soundtracks are some of the best selling albums in the history of music; just look at High School Musical, the best selling album of 2006.

Branding Together - How Come Nobody’s Doing This Yet?
Beyond putting three bands on a flyer and playing a gig together, it wasn’t easy 24 months ago, and everyone’s brain is stuck in the past.  Look, everyone was chasing record deals and playing the zero sum game; if she got a record deal, you wouldn’t; there were only so many deals to go around…  Artists have been hoarding fans and competing for deals for so many years that real collaboration only happened with song writing or in the studio.  The days of traditional record deals are over; distribution is no longer a roadblock, and anyone can stream music and video on the Internet now.  The new mindset has to include collaborative marketing, fan sharing, website sharing, revenue sharing, and co-branding.  It’s the easiest way to be entertaining on the Internet.   

Never Put Sand Into Butter
This post on Branding Together is going to spawn an entire series of articles.  But, I want to mention a couple of cautions for those that jump ahead.  If you are thinking about assembling a content syndicate, here’s the biggest mistake you can make:  I call it putting sand into butter or glass into ice cream.  This happens when you let songs into the mix that radically diverge from the Spectral Deconvolution (melody, harmony, tempo, pitch, octave, beat, rhythm, fullness of sound, noise, brilliance, and chord progression) of the rest of the songs in your syndicate.  This is analogous to putting glass into ice cream.  

Second, if 80% of the artists you co-brand with play in coffee houses and in bookstores, use caution if you are thinking about bringing in a rock band that plays in live music clubs.  Remember, fans want stability in presentation as much as they want stability in sound.  

How To Build Something Like Long Alley Music
Sorry, the rest will come shortly.  Here are some topics I will cover in the near future:  
Creative ideas for choosing a name for a syndication of artists.
Creative ideas for sharing ownership.
Creative ideas for sharing revenue (which is different from ownership).
Creative ideas for putting the legal plumbing together.
Creative ideas for finding and selecting songs.
Creative ideas for approaching other artists.
Creative ideas for approaching advertisers and sponsors with opportunities.
Creative ideas for promoting your syndication (co-brand).
Creative ideas for doing merchandise and ticketing under a co-brand.