I was recently watching a fascinating documentary called “Connected: The Power Of Six Degrees”  that focuses on a growing field of science called Network Theory.  It’s origins stem from the celebrity-game “Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon” that challenges people to connect two seemingly random actors through the movies they’ve been in and via their co-stars.  The documentary focuses on how the world is much smaller and more connected than we ever thought it was.  They even perform an experiment on the doc, where 40 random people around the world are given the task of getting a package delivered to a specific Harvard University Professor, the caveat being you can only send the package to someone you know, who you think can help you get the package closer to the target recipient.  Then that person has to send it on to someone they know, and repeat the process until the package arrives at the intended person.  In the documentary, four of the 40 packages mailed, actually end up arriving at the Harvard professor’s office, including one that originated from a random woman living in a small village in Africa.  The documentary delves into how network theory can potentially help the world accomplish such widespread goals as combat terrorism, prevent viral pandemics, cure cancer, and more.  It’s a really fascinating documentary and I highly recommend everyone watch it any way possible.

Relating the topic of the documentary to the subject matter of this blog, it’s easy to see how the network theory principles outlined and demonstrated in the documentary can be applied to music marketing.  The package experiment truly proves that by spreading something organically, step-by-step throughout your network, it is very possible to reach a great number of people.  By travelling along a bridge that exists between you and your contact, then hopping onto a bridge that exists between them and their next contact, and continuing that process repeatedly, along these pre-existing bridges, it seems that it’s possible to reach almost anyone and everyone in the world.  Given that, it would seem that focusing on the network to which you’re already connected (friends, family, co-workers and fans), and creating something they then feel compelled to share with each of their networks is a very effective method of spreading your message.  It would seem to be far more efficient to strengthen and utilize the network connections that already exist, than to try and build new network connections where ones didn’t already exist.

It may seem obvious, but why not try spending your energy creating something remarkable that your current network truly wants to spread, and then help motivate them to do so?