Self-publishing is a little different for musicians

I came across an interesting idea the other day: A company trying to set themselves up as an "un-label" for music. Seems to me the suggested model is similar to what is happening in the book business: Self-publishing is becoming more and more popular, the established publishing houses only taking on authors who are expected to sell - either because their self-published books sold, or because they are famous. But that means both the music business and the publishing business are rapidly becoming like a different business: The sports management business.
In the publishing business, the publishing houses have turned to marketing machines, and the production (which was once their strength) has been completely outsourced. The same thing happened in the music business some time ago, I guess. But there are a couple of important differences.
The first is that there are lots of secondary rights around music. Sampling a book is pretty meaningless if you are writing one of your own, but sampling a song adds great value to the song you are working on. There are commercials which want to use the music as background, there is income from collection societies, and so on. A musician has more ways of getting his music spread than a writer has to spread his text, and that shows in the industry structure. It also has to be part of the management of the musicians works - if it is not, then the artist risks missing out. This is something some record labels do (and others take it to the extreme, buying up all rights for the works of a musician).
The other main difference is that as a writer, you can actually make a decent book yourself, without more equipment than a computer, a camera, free software, and elbow grease. You only need the idea, the writing skill, a place to sit, and a lot of perseverance. It does benefit from an editor, but as a writer, I know that many times the editor really only checks the grammar and language, not the content; and may not add much on top of the Word grammar checker in reality.
The musician on the other hand is dependent on a lot of other people to get the music right. Not all musicians are singer-songwriters, some only play one instrument, and need others to play with to make their music work (a band, or an orchestra). But that is not all: You also need professionals to help out with the sound mixing. Sure, there is free software which is pretty good, but producing music is a special skill, and equally important to most hits as the singer. So making music is inherently more complicated than writing a book. Rights are more complex too; all members in a band has to sign releases, and so on. Or, indeed, agree to the Creative Commons license.
The "un-label" sounds to me more like a management agency than a label, and the truth is that most famous artists (and sportsmen) already use those - very successfully. They tend to be invisible, because they do all the grunt work, and the audience is not particularly interested in who booked the venue and signed up the band members anyway. So the concept is good, and already works. Actually, it works best in sports already, and as musicians are becoming more of live performers than recorded artists, we will see that becoming clearer (perhaps the current case is a symptom).
But like all business models, it can be tweaked. Here are a couple of ideas:
1. Transparency is great, so put everything online. Look at what Baseline Agent does for tennis pros.
2. Maybe the really important source of income is not the slice of the income from the concerts and the record sales (and other income), but the fees from secondary or even tertiary parties. Making travel arrangements easy for musicians (who have a lot of gear - which usually can be rented to some extent) should help getting their music out, and means a source of income from ticket sale kickbacks etc. Especially if the cost can be deferred against the takings from the concert. Selling tickets online would also be smart, but that may not be possible if the venue has signed away the rights to e.g. Ticketmaster.
3. Creating a "stable" of venues which can be booked by the artist online is a great idea, and having your own venues signed up allows you to tool the presentation of the music (you do not want a hard rock act to play in a church, usually). It would also mean being able to move musicians into slots which are not filled, helping the venues get filled up when there is a slack night, and booking lesser known artists when the venues are normally full anyway (Friday nights). Essentially, combining the booking agency with the management. That means the online tool for the musicians would need some intelligence (or human intervention), though.
4. Crossover media made easy would be good for musicians. They typically are not very good at video production etc, so having people (maybe independent filmmakers) who could help them make promotional videos would be nice. Mentoring is not a bad idea either. And why not sign up a good ghost writer, and make some promotional books? Or a real writer (or poet) for mutual promotion. A book with a CD would be different, if the music and the text complement each other.
5. We are talking about long tail here, so the agency needs a lot of musicians to get enough money to survive. That means personal attention will be at a premium, and the web can help with that too. Many musicians will need handholding and charging them for it is going to be difficult, especially if they happen to be down and out right then. But not all of them will need it all the time. So it is a little like insurance: The musicians have to pay a fee whether they need it or not, instead of the management agency charging them a percentage when they succeed. That mean a "one fits all" offering (and that the artists will leave when they are successful). Perhaps with options that can be purchased, also similar to the emerging self-publishing offerings.
I wonder what a promotion agency would look like for authors? Maybe I should try writing some more, so I can find out. It has been a while since I published something.