None of this spring cleaning is entirely unexpected. The pressure of the falling revenues in the record industry; the impatience of some of the investors who bought heavily into music publishing several years ago only to find that this seemingly safe and steady business is neither; the credit crunch that set in last year; and the recession’s effect on the advertising, broadcasting, and media businesses that make up much of the music market these days, have all done considerable damage over the long two or three year winter of our discontent. Now, everyone’s wandering out into the backyard, surveying the damage, and getting out some pruning shears and fertilizer to see what gets burned, what can be saved, and what it would take to actually get things growing again.

The interesting thing is that most of the recent acquisitions have not involved the usual suspects. The major companies like Sony ATV, Warner Chappell, Universal and EMI have not been making any big purchases. Maybe they’re saving their pennies for that rainy day when something really exciting goes on the block, like EMI, or a handful of the catalogs from EMI. Maybe they’ve got their own financial pressures, as most of the major publishers’ parent companies have been buffeted by the storms at their associated record labels, electronics companies, or film studios. Nor have some of the most active independent players, like Imagem, been involved in the recent hunting and gathering. This could reflect a desire to consolidate what’s already been acquired before going out to buy more. It could be that the current crop of catalogs for sale just wasn’t all that attractive. Or perhaps BMG Rights, in an effort to get on the map, is buying at a premium price, and simply outbidding everyone else.

So what does all this mean to the music weasels and those who love/hate them? Other than a reassuring statement that life does indeed go on, that even in the deadliest of times there are new things coming to life, or perhaps that there is a sucker born every minute, the spring season shopping spree also confirms a couple of inescapable facts:

1. At the moment, this is a shrinking business when it comes to employment opportunities.

While only Chrysalis has made a public statement about “synergies” and a “reduction in the overall cost base” (which in office-speak means “chopping heads”), it’s obvious that most of these moves will result in a few less weasels on the job. That’s not new news to those in the A&R world, who have seen constant cutbacks both in numbers and in salary over the past years. A word of career advice to those graduating this spring: A&R is not a growth sector. If you think you have an ability to recognize and develop talent, become a manager. Book clubs or festivals. Start your own company. Do NOT spend your time applying for jobs at major record labels or music publishers. It’s like becoming a blacksmith at the dawn of the Automobile Age.

2. Songs last. Companies don’t.

No one purchases a music publishing company because of its brilliant infrastructure, executive team, or efficient operation. They buy ‘em for the songs. Other than the BMG purchase of Cherry Lane, which may have been partly an effort to acquire a North American office and infrastructure, most of the recent purchases and acquisitions are about what music acquisitions have always been about: music. A few years from now, no one other than the people directly involved with the company will remember the existence of S1 Songs. But radio will still be playing Sheryl Crow’s “Everyday Is a Winding Road” and people will be dancing to “Disco Inferno”. Indeed, “Take Me Home Country Roads” and “Leaving On A Jet Plane” had been with Dreamworks Music Publishing (remember those guys?) before Dreamworks went to Dimensional Music and then on to S1, and now to Chrysalis. I rest my point.

3. There are still bulls in the china shop.

As fragile as the music publishing business feels at the moment, with mechanical incomes plummeting, film and television fees falling, performance fees stagnating in the face of dropping revenues at the broadcasting companies, and even the concept of copyright being under attack, the investment community has not given up on music publishing. Or at least not entirely. While a number of investment-backed publishing companies like S1 have long been on the selling block, there are others who have had enough success in the music industry to re-up their financial stakes, and seek out new buying opportunities. Bicycle Music is one of these, as is BMG Rights, which is funded by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. As is usually the case, alot of money men went into the jungle– a few played sensibly and conservatively and are still standing on solid ground. Others overpaid, over-borrowed, or over-promised and found themselves knee-deep in something less than terra firma.

More importantly though, what does all of the buying and selling mean to small independent music publishers? For most of us, there are no wolves at the door, but no big benefactors either. It’s easy to assume that what’s happening with the bigger players doesn’t impact us. But to do that would be to miss some opportunities that may grow out of the March and April madness. Here are a couple of things to consider:

1. It’s a good time to build your team.

While no one likes the idea of people losing their jobs, the prospect of a lot of idle weasels out on the street could mean a chance for you to pick up a few additions to your own company at a very low cost. While you probably won’t be looking to hire people at their old salaries, you may be able to employ some very experienced people on a short-term consulting basis to help you address challenges in your business, make a few key introductions, or expand into markets where you lack experience. If you need help in a specific area, try putting an ad in the Billboard classified section, or an online posting for “help wanted”. You may be surprised at the people you hear from.

2. Keep an eye out for investors that might be in buying mode, and build your network of music attorneys to help you find them, or them find you.

Now that the economy is rebounding, Wall Street is bonusing, and interest rates are staying relatively low, there will be people with money looking at buying up copyrights. As we said earlier, for all the problems, music publishing still looks like a sound (heh heh) investment to the financial wizards. After all, these are the guys that thought mortgage-backed securities were a great place to park money. At least with music publishing, they can hang out at clubs with musicians and feel cool. If you can find even one or two wealthy backers not afraid to make a modest investment, you may be able to go out and acquire a few solid, proven catalogs or copyrights that will add huge value to your business.

The key to finding either prize (the money-bags investor or the songs for sale) is to build your network, particularly among music lawyers. The attorneys are the ones on the front lines of daily deal-making, and all information flows through them: who’s buying, who’s selling, who’s looking to get into the business and who’s desperate to get out. The more solid and extensive your lines of communication with the music legal community are, the better your chances of meeting a potential buyer, or hearing about an upcoming sale.

4. Sometimes it’s good to be the little guy. Look for writers who want personal attention and service with a smile.

Having been through several purchases and mergers myself, the one thing I can guarantee is that this summer and fall, chaos will reign. Companies who have made big purchases will be faced with the prospect of trying to absorb thousands of new copyrights into their already overwhelmed systems. Employees will be consumed with trying to figure out who their new boss is, and how long he, she or they will be around. And songwriters, faced with the absence of the A&R person that signed them, will be completely lost in the shuffle and be searching wildly for any way out.

If you can offer a well-organized, aggressive, small publishing operation with an emphasis on personal attention, you may be a very attractive option, even to writers with big hits on their discography. In fact, the big writers may be the ones most interested in working with you, as they have less need for a big advance upon signing. Despite what many in the corporate world think, most songwriters are not impressed by big offices or the size of a company. They’re looking for people who understand their music, are as ambitious and driven as they are, and who pick up the phone when they call. That’s going to be hard for them to find as all of these mergers start to overwhelm the companies involved. Don’t underestimate the power of the personal touch.

The real truth about music publishing is that bigger is better only when the company is up for sale– on a day to day level, most songwriters are far happier at a small or mid-size publisher that can focus on them and their music, rather than on the logistical challenge of administering thousands, or hundreds of thousands of copyrights. In truth, most creative executives are happier in a smaller environment as well. And in a rapidly-changing industry in which lean and mean is a necessity, and speed and adaptability are survival skills, many of the light-weights will fare better than the heavy-weights. It’s going to be a busy spring and summer in the music publishing world. My advice is: keep one eye on the action, and the other on the prize. When everyone is cleaning house, they’re bound to leave some good stuff behind…

It occurred to me as I walked the same quarter mile circuit along Sixth Street for the three hundredth time in three days that the primary benefit of SXSW for A&R people is not the opportunity to hear hundreds of up and coming bands in a single four day span. The primary benefit of SXSW for the music weasel is exercise. Instead of sitting around an office all day, the middle-aged weasel is forced to actually walk from place to place, thus ensuring more aerobic activity than most of us have seen in months. Many also seemed to be working on their arm muscles as well, with lots of pouring and heavy glass-lifting to build those biceps.

During Austin’s giant music-fest, it also occurred to me that the only thing sustaining the music industry at the moment has nothing to do with music. The only people at SXSW that brought their checkbooks and actually had money in their accounts were the media and branding companies. Record label A&R were there of course– after all, there were parties with free food– but there were far fewer than in years past, with whole major label teams missing in action. Music publishers were there too, hoping to meet people in the advertising business. Of course, the music supervision crew was in full effect, but unlike the good old days of two years ago, they were no longer the coolest kids in the room. Given the falling revenue at most broadcast companies and the ridiculous glut of music that is chasing the same gratis spot on The Hills, synchronization licensing fees have dropped to the point where even indie bands desperate for a break have realized that there is no pot of gold at the end of the Hollywood rainbow.

The only people left with any juice at SXSW are the magazines, the websites, clothing brands, car companies, or beer companies. Like it or not, music’s greatest value at the moment is as a marketing or branding tool for companies eager to target a very specific, target audience. Musicians of course are eager to embrace what they see as crucial avenues of exposure– meanwhile, the brands view music as simply one more way to attract the all-important but ever-elusive, A.D.D.-addled college and post-college demographic. The music industry may think they’re using the media. But it’s clear from the amount of music being used by the media, advertising and branding businesses, compared to the amount of music actually being sold, that it’s the media, advertising and branding people using us.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just that once more, the music industry finds itself a pawn in a game that it doesn’t control, a plight that seems to be the underlying theme of music business history. First it was radio– since the Fifties, the record industry has found itself on bended knee, pleading (or paying) for any favors that the gatekeepers of radio might dole out. Then it was television, with MTV able to extract free 24-hour programming courtesy of the record labels. Make a half a million dollar video, give it to MTV for free, then hope they choose to play that video from among the other fifty half a million dollar videos they received that week. Wow, what a business model.

Of course, the previous decade brought us a new power player in Apple, and once again, the record industry was left at the mercy of a different business, which sees music largely as a means of selling electronic equipment. And now, with the loss of album sales draining any profitability from the business of selling music to the consumer, there’s a new power alignment emerging– and once again, the music industry finds itself a supporting actor in someone else’s play.

Why couldn’t music companies have created Sirius Radio or iTunes? Why could a music company not have diversified into the advertising business? How did Sony, which is an electronics company as well as a record company, manage to get beaten so badly with the iPod? Why do music companies not own music magazines or music websites? Even when someone tries to create some synergies with moves like the Time-Warner-AOL merger, they manage to let the politics of the various businesses impede all attempts to make the companies work together. Only a handful of organizations, Disney being the most obvious example, actually seem to have understood that controlling the means by which the music reaches the audience (the Disney Channel, Disney Radio, Disney Girl magazine, even Disneyland) or the merchandise related to the music is far more valuable than simply finding and developing artists and leaving the rest to someone else.

Just as musicians often seem to have a blindspot when it comes to realizing that there’s more to music than simply the technical level of musicianship, music business types seem to be unable to see that the power lies with those who understand how to use music to attract an audience (radio, television, internet companies and other brands) rather than those who simply discover and manufacture the music. As a result, the music weasels are left outside the Levi FADER Fort trying to talk their way past the doorman so that they can see their own band perform.

Of course, there’s not much we can do now to undo the mistakes of the past. So given this new world order, what can a savvy publisher or songwriter do to make sure that his or her music is a media magnet, that it’s brand-friendly and advertising-attractive? The one thing that even the most short-sighted weasel can see is where the money is– and ain’t in radio and records. Here are four things to keep in mind when you’re making music as a marketing tool:

1. Versatility is not an asset.

The only time versatility is valuable to a musician today is in a wedding band. The rest of the world is all about narrow-casting, about appealing to a specific, definable core audience and being immediately recognizable to that group of people. Take a look at the magazine stand– there are very few general interest magazines left. Most media companies, whatever their format, work hard to appeal to a very specific, specialized audience. That’s what gives their advertising space value. In the same way, when they consider an artist or a band, they don’t want someone that appeals a little to a lot of different types of people. They want someone that appeals a lot to a very specific group of people.

2. Know your audience.

This does not mean being acquainted with everyone that shows up at a gig or having a million MySpace or Facebook friends. It means understanding exactly who your audience is– demographically, emotionally, and financially. What is the age range of your audience? What do they do (school, work, retirement)? What are their hobbies? What movies do they see? What books do they read? What other music do they listen to?

If you can’t define your audience in that way, then a brand, advertising exec, or press person probably can’t either. That means they have no reason to think that you would help them sell jeans or makeup or alcohol or magazines (which of course also need to sell jeans and makeup and alcohol). Bands that work in the Marketing Age have easily identified audiences, which is sometimes more valuable even than the size of the audience, as measured by record sales or downloads.

For those who are songwriters, rather than artists, the point remains the same. If you wish to write for a specific artist, you need to have some idea as to the nature of the artist’s audience, and what that audience wants to hear about. A song will define the person that sings it to his or her audience, so you have to be sure that the song is presenting the artist to that audience in a way they will understand and appreciate. I’m not suggesting you write jingles. I’m urging you to do your homework, and know how the artist for whom you’re writing is trying to define himself or herself.

3. Understand music as fashion.

The branding, advertising and media worlds are not in music for the long haul. They’re not in anything for the long haul. The media business relies on constant change and ever-shifting sands, that’s what keeps it relevant and entertaining. Fashions will change every spring– they have to, because there are magazines and new clothing collections to sell. Likewise, your music, when it’s part of the media world, has to be up to the minute, reflective of the moment, and sonically on the cutting edge. And then it has to change as times do.

There’s no point in criticizing fashion for being “trendy”. That’s the nature of it. It would be like complaining that water is wet. Likewise, there’s nothing wrong with music that’s trendy. But to be effective in this new media world, you have to stay one step ahead of the trends, knowing which sounds are in vogue and which are getting worn out, what subjects are ripe for picking and which ones are past their sell date, and when it’s time to move on and re-invent your whole musical approach. The advertising, media and fashion worlds make the weasels back at the record company look like long-term thinkers by comparison. In this world everything is always changing, and fast. Which leads us to:

4. Seize the Moment.

A music manager was recently telling me about an incredible placement he had just obtained for his artist, which had the young artist featured prominently in a major national advertising campaign for a big consumer product. If this artist had already landed one such huge opportunity, he suggested, imagine how many other brand or advertising related calls were going to come his way, once people saw this campaign?

My first thought was: None. The problem in working with a brand is that it is “branding”– the brand is now identified with the artist, and the artist with the brand. The bigger the campaign, the more “branding” takes place. Once you have defined yourself to your audience, and closely identified yourself with a particular product, it becomes harder, not easier, for other brands to embrace you. Once you’re on the cover of Rolling Stone, you’re not going to get hyped in Brooklyn Vegan. Because advertising agencies or products are focused on using your music to define their brand, it will, by definition (pardon the pun), take you out of the running for many other related products, who don’t wish to share their definition with any other company. In this media/advertising world, you’ll only get a couple of big chances.

That means you have to make the opportunity work for you. If you know that you’re going to be working with a particular brand, or getting a key placement at an important media outlet, then you have to build an entire strategy around that, making sure that you are prepared to use that exposure to build your audience (and database), drive sales (which means making sure music is ready and available) and establish yourself as a key part of the brand’s identity (which means supporting the company in every and any way possible).

This is not like the old music business, where you could tour around without too much planning, and slowly build a fan at a time for as long as it took. These opportunities are windows that open and close rapidly. You have to have your social networking, music distribution, touring and marketing campaigns ready to capitalize on whatever opportunity you get, and be prepared to measure and document the results. You also have to fully embrace the brand, to make sure you hold onto the chance for as long as you can. If it means going to Phoenix to play for a room full of car salesman or softdrink manfacturers one day, then you better do it with a smile. Trust me, it will be far more useful than any conflicting gigs your record company might have put on the schedule.

This week, I’m in Miami trick! I’ll be at the Winter Music Conference and Ultra Fest on Thursday and Friday– give me a shout if you’re down there. Or I’ll see you at the Beatport Party, or the Belvedere Vodka/Sirius Radio Listening Lounge, or…. you get the idea. If you can’t beat ‘em, let ‘em throw you a party.