Birdmonster

In the course of researching this book, I decided to track the progress of Birdmonster, an up-and-coming San Francisco band fronted by Peter Arcuni, an editorial assistant at Wired.

The experience proved all too instructive.

Birdmonster is a prime example of how the three forces of the Long Tail are overturning the status quo in the music industry.

Like all new rock bands, Birdmonster started by hustling for gigs. But rather than pestering club owners for a break, the band members realized that there was now a smarter way. In club booking, the headliners are typically signed up first. Then, once the dates are set in the calendar, the club looks for opening acts to support them.

Since virtually all club schedules are now online, opportunities for opening acts can be found simply by searching for the letters “TBA” and some other keywords to limit the search to local clubs. Then it’s simply a matter of contacting the club and offering to fill that gap in their lineup.

But getting the club owners’ attention isn’t enough; they need to know that you’ll be able to attract a crowd, too.

For that Birdmonster used grassroots Internet marketing. It started an online mailing list and encouraged fans to register as “friends” on the band’s MySpace page. It put a few songs on that page and listed its other gigs, along with pictures.

Bookers could check it out, listen to songs, and see pictures from previous shows, while reading raves from the band’s fans.

Birdmonster also courted Internet radio stations, which have none of the constraints of traditional broadcast. As it happened, it was “Ted,” the owner of San Francisco’s BagelRadio.com, who convinced the booker to give Birdmonster its first big break, an opening gig for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

That (and a battle-of-the-bands contest) led to opening for the White Stripes, which was at that moment the pinnacle of indie rock.

Birdmonster had arrived.