The guys at Financial Aid Podcast, who spearheaded helped spearhead the “Bum Rush” effort posted some great reflections on the the results. The final numbers aren’t in, but it looks like a decently strong statement was made. It didn’t scratch the day’s “Top 100 sales” chart on iTunes in the US, but made some good inroads internationally.
They offered some great insights and lessons-learned in their posting. I agree with all of their points, and am specifically interested in how for a future “Bum Rush” to have more transparency or a communal feeling in the choosing of a band. Choosing the artist is definitely a complex issue. A good idea would have to have some kind of nomination and voting process to choose the next artist, or perhaps form some kind of selection committee put together of independent artists, podcasters and listeners that could select the band based on nominations. My only fear would be a loss of buy-in from people who voted for a band that didn’t get selected, but I think it outweighs the concern of the current skepticism about the process. I could see how it could come across as a scam. I personally was pretty skeptical early on, until I heard the interview Black Lab’s lead singer on the Musician’s Cooler podcast. Too bad more people couldn’t hear that interview earlier on.
I also agree that it would have been nice to have more work-friendly artwork. If you go to iTunes and search for “Black Lab” you get an image that’s not really safe for work or around your family. I can appreciate Black Lab’s artistic expression, but I think that needs to be taken into consideration if you’re looking to make the music marketable to a wide audience.
It would have been nice to continue the viral marketing, perhaps by making some badges that people could put on their web site or blog.
Overall I’m glad I participated, and bought a really cool song from it.