Surviving a Saturated Content World

Working in the radio industry or as an artist you're familiar with the term cross-over. It represents music that plays well in multiple formats of programming. Today we will use a term that's applicable to any creative person faced with getting their content in front of as many people as possible. You are operating in a saturated content world. There's a bit of irony here which I'll let you wade through before getting into the meat of our discussion.

"Established brands operate with teams working on a variety of platforms including social, blogs, and aggregators. They push content across smartphone, tablet, and desktops. Persons online access billions of pages daily."

I thought of the phrase "saturated content world" this morning while thinking about the problems we face in getting audio content to the masses. For a brief ten seconds I considered it a stroke of genius before (as is my SOP) I Googled the term and found it was used twice before. Here is where it gets curious.

According to Google, the first person to use this is a Millie Haynman, in an article December 4, 2012. Millie just happens to live in Solon, Ohio, 10 miles down the road from me in Newbury, Ohio. Maybe there's something in the air in these parts.

The second listing for "content saturated world" at Google is from Tom Furr, who used the phrase in an article on February 27,2013: "Its time all businesses moved forward from a text saturated content world...." Tom lives in Newbury, Bershire, United Kingdom - a little more than 10 miles down the road but in a town of the same name as mine.

Curious, and off-message that the three of us share: The game has changed. Unless you have the backing of a major player, with resources to place your name in front of millions of people, you are faced with raising content to the surface in a pool that's so vast it makes the world's oceans seem quaint.

For the radio industry online, and for artists trying to use any number of internet based services: 1) just because you have this pipe leading to everyone's device doesn't mean everyone is even remotely interested in what you have to offer; and 2) the concept of "being found" is very literal today.

Established brands operate with teams working on a variety of platforms including email, social, blogs, and aggregators. They push content across smartphone, tablet, and desktops. Persons online access billions of pages daily. Ponder that thought for a second; it's at the heart of our saturated content world.

If your attempts at recognition are limited to the knowledge you, alone, carry, there are huge limitations placed on your efforts. Take into consideration that upgrading your knowledge on each of the methods mentioned for exposure requires untold hours/days/weeks of reading and testing. This "level playing field" the internet was supposed to have delivered is really not level at all.

As someone who has worked online, alone, since January 1997 I'm going to be the last to say "give up." I've found a way to make it work, but also started out with nearly three decades of writing software code before coming online in 1997.

I write to inform, to put into perspective that which others want to make appear simple; online is not. The internet is not easy-to-use correctly. People have too many choices today to make a goal of getting free exposure attainable in short order. So this concept of just getting online and success will follow is false.

Our saturated content world has made the task of being found daunting, complex, and extremely difficult to navigate. If you want to survive that is the first thing to understand.

The second is to comprehend failure. It occurs more often today due to the huge numbers of attempts at success. As I told our son, "Failure is why God created persistence."

If you want to survive, to thrive in our saturated content world, then push on despite the odds. We are now all playing the lottery with creative works.

There's no better way to demonstrate this than to juxtapose that term "saturated content world" (which I thought was so brilliantly composed) to "content saturated world." Google it. There are 26,200 returns, as opposed to 2 for the other.

I'm sure someone on that list lives down the street from me, and they used it long before I had a "stroke of genius" this morning.








Today's indie artist introduction is to...

Pixley Arbuckle

sample song

Something Wrong with You Download Song Tweet

We listen for songs that evoke emotion; fast, slow, female, male, group, it doesn't matter. When an artist has the power to please, they should be given a chance to be heard.

Give The Connie Lansberg Quartet's "Crush" a listen.

Add it to your playlist, free! Such is the new world of music distribution.

It's time internet radio programmers reach into a huge pile of untapped talent.
It is here where new hit songs will increasingly be found.





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