I'm a singer songwriter who is embracing streaming and seeing revenue rise.
I put acoustic performances on YouTube and encourage people to check out the full recording on spotify or iTunes if they still use it.
I'm small enough that people don't put my recordings on YouTube and when they have, I've sent them a polite message asking them to take it down and explain my reasons. They always do it without me having to get google involved. Although I'm partnered and I'd receive royalties from other people's uploads due to content ID match. (I've uploaded all my songs on unlisted videos to make sure this happens).
From my side of it, if people know you're a small business and you have the correct people skills then people respect it and honour your wishes.
I have small numbers on social networks, but they're consistent with each other, and I'm selling about 50% of the number of tickets to my tours as I have on my highest social network. (3100 tickets for my next uk tour of 13 dates in may vs. 6700 twitter followers and YouTube subscribers).
You're so right that trying to get heard in the noise is almost impossible. Old school marketing still is brilliant though. A personal tweet or message to someone on Facebook is more successful than bombarding people with statuses and tweets and it almost guarantees people seeing or responding to you. I'm not talking about spam. I'm talking about engagement. Speaking to the people who have clicked "like"or "follow". Sending them messages asking how they are and what they're up to. And when they respond and ask the same questions of you, you can tell them about your latest project. It's up to them if they really want to then support you.
Yes this is time consuming. But it does make it feasible to make a living from your music at a small level. If I get 2000 people spending £50 on me a year (a few gig tickets, tshirts, CDs/iTunes, other misc merch) and also watch my videos on YouTube and listen on spotify, then there's at least 100000 revenue. Yes there are expenses in that. But as one man with a guitar with a home studio set up, this is more than adequate to make me a living!
The thing that challenges me the most is to find the time to write songs and make content that keeps them interested when I have to do all the business/direct marketing. As you keep saying, an artist needs to be an artist.
I want to take more risks and be a better songwriter but do I have time? I'm not after fame or fortune, I'm after making a living, however humble from the years I've spent learning how to sing, play, perform and write. I'm doing this ok, and I guess as i keep doing it, hopefully more word of mouth things happen so I can stop the direct marketing and free up my time to write more frequently.
Anyway.
Thank you for continuing to challenge me to new ideas of business and art!
Dave Giles.
I love great art, no matter the medium.