Almost Tomorrow - The Wilco Model

From noon CST Saturday until noon CST Sunday, Wilco will be streaming their entire new record The Whole Love, which hits "stores" on September 27th. No matter your opinion of their music, their marketing and promotion acumen is downright remarkable. If there's ever a band that's learned this business and taken advantage of the "new music industry," it's Wilco. How many bands can be dropped from a major label and have their careers then take off? Well, Wilco did just that back in 2001. And despite never releasing a hit song, they have built a massive brand behind the Wilco name and mystique. Now playing regularly to 5-8K fans, simply from a business perspective, it's astonishing what they've been able to sustain and grow for nearly two decades.

I have no idea who runs the business that is Wilco, but I imagine it's a combination of longtime manager Tony Margherita and Jeff Tweedy. And now 17 years in, I can't recall a Wilco record having more hype than the new one, their first without major-label backing. And regardless of sound or the yet-to-be-determined actual quality of the record, it's been their business approach that's created the excitement. For the past few months, they've been enticing fans with videos, in-studio photos, tour announcements, teasers, album artwork, track listings and the exact things that fans both old and new thirst for in the bands they love. And they've done so at a pace that has never been over-the-top or with bravado. If Wilco were a politician they'd be Barack Obama circa 2008.

Tomorrow afternoon fans will get a taste of The Whole Love, a very fitting title for a band that in the eyes of many, can do no wrong. And as the rest of the industry works its way through a tumultuous time, in many respects, Wilco should serve as a model for an industry in search of a new paradigm.