What happens now when the same people discover an independent artist they like?
The thing with our generation is that we search for meaning. If we feel an artist doesn’t need our help or is disconnected from our reality most of us won’t mind downloading. That is because they think buying an album or not will not make any difference to the artist. On the other hand when it does make a clear difference, when the same people feel they can help someone take it to the next level, they will give them their full support.
These people will go see that artist live, buy their entry ticket, maybe invite a friend, buy the CD after the show (- even though their IMac doesn’t have a CD slot, and they probably have never owned a CD player since they left their parent’s home). They may even buy merchandise. I have witnessed it many time with people who have never paid for music through the traditional channel.
We may be used to having free music everywhere, radio, TV, parking lots, and so on. But this is free music we didn’t particularly ask for. We might like it, but there isn’t much more to it. We know that should we pay for it or not, it will always be there. On the contrary if we feel an artist needs us to exist, is trustworthy and if that artist has managed to build a certain level of intimacy with his audience, we will go all the way. He deserves our financial support and we will supply it without any hesitation. That relationship plays a major role in our involvement. Millenials need to feel part of something bigger. It has to make sense to them and to the person who receives it.
Millennial’s Relationship To Music Consumption, By A Millenial.
http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/millennials-relationship-to-music-consumption-by-a-millenial.html
