Are you building your musical tribe?

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a marketing presentation from marketing guru Seth Godin, in conjunction with the launch of his latest bestseller: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (Portfolio, 2008).

In one of those worlds-converging moments, I found that Seth’s surprise musical guest — and musical marketing example — was Oasis client  Jen Chapin (accompanied by her inimitable bassist husband Stephan Crump).  I hope you have had the chance to hear Jen, perhaps at the grand opening of Oasis’ Manhattan office:  If you don’t know her yet, Jen’s a singer and songwriter and an advocate for the charity World Hunger Year, founded by her dad, the late Harry Chapin.

Here is the marketing lesson Seth drew in his talk from Jen’s lineage:

Jen Chapin performs at Seth Godin event, New York Times Center

The world has moved on from the career-building techniques that worked in Harry’s era: in those days you could hinge everything on just one single career-making advocate — in his case, DJ Jim Connors, later immortalized in Harry’s song W*O*L*D.  In Jen’s/our era, you need to build, fan by fan, your own supportive “tribe” for your musical career.

So, in this day of from-the-ground up, democratized musical career building, the question is: What are you doing to build your tribe?