#18309 by Craig Maxim
Sun Dec 30, 2007 9:05 pm
Sun Dec 30, 2007 9:05 pm
You know what?
I'm pretty stoked about the music biz these days. The Majors are on the way out. If I remember the stats correctly, the top selling album of 2006 would not have even cracked the top ten albums of 1996. This figure alone, shows how much they are suffering financially from past decades. The Majors have had a strangle hold for a long time, but they made a major error in not getting behind the digital revolution. Spending all their resources fighting digital downloads instead of finding creative ways to profit from it, they have found themselves left in the dust, and they will never recover. They will never again be the force they once were.
Indie labels will rule now.
In the past, much of it due to the Major Label stranglehold on the business, and payola as the standard operating procedure, several things were a given...
1) Only 20 somethings had much of a shot at getting a deal.
2) Even after getting that deal, with shrewdly designed contracts, the Majors set it up so that they recouped all their expenses and made a profit first, before the artist had a real shot at monetary reward. This meant you had to outlive the average life expectancy of a successful artist, which is 1 album, 2 at most, and maybe 2 to 3 years of success, before the public moved on to the next thing.
3) Playing live was less of a requirement. Of course a tour was expected to promote an album, but artists could tour one year, and take 2 or 3 years off, or even more, maybe just doing some television or playing single concerts now and then to keep them in the public eye. Because there were record stores and then CD stores in every city, and in every mall, there was much profit to be made from that alone if the album was successful.
4) The Majors had much more to say in what musical genre was successful and which ones weren't.
5) Many better artists never got much of a chance to be heard widely, if they weren't savvy enough to make contacts with the powers that be, or did not have the acumen to promote themselves well to those powers.
Think of the world now....
Through the internet, thousands upon thousands more artists have a shot at being heard and received well.
CD stores are going bankrupt, due in part to the ease of online downloading and MP3 players, and the rest due to WalMart's huge position as a music retailer (They have done this to video as well). But what this also means, is that if you want to sell physical CD's enmasse you are going to have to sell them at shows. Artists, even very successful ones, are going to have to get out there and work again, selling CD's and T-Shirts and the like, on tour, to see the profit of past decades again. This is not a bad thing, but a very good thing. No more being spoonfed the cereal of the month. You will have to keep working and playing to the fans at real shows to stay on top now.
Age will become less important. It will still matter, because we are a very image conscious society, but it will matter less, because the majors cannot effectively "keep you out" now. If your music is solid, and it strikes a chord with the public, I think even older artists have a better chance than ever before, of finding success, if your music is worthy of it.
Going indie, which has gobbled up more and more of the market, and is well on it's way to being king now, means better contracts for signed artists. Generally, indie's don't have the resources of the Majors, and the consequence is that they end of working harder for their artists, because they simply don't have the finances to put into huge marketing campaigns and payola schemes. So, your label is working harder for you, and has more of a working relationship with you, and this also means you receive a more appropriate share of your royalties. There is less of a chance of a single album taking off and leaving you broke if the follow up album goes nowhere.
So, I for one, say "HELL YEAH!!!!!"
It is a new frontier for music. It is the new gold rush and dash to the west for the pioneers and those who are determined enough!
Goodbye to the oppression and suffocation of artists by the Major labels, and Hello to FREEDOM!!!!
I'm pretty stoked about the music biz these days. The Majors are on the way out. If I remember the stats correctly, the top selling album of 2006 would not have even cracked the top ten albums of 1996. This figure alone, shows how much they are suffering financially from past decades. The Majors have had a strangle hold for a long time, but they made a major error in not getting behind the digital revolution. Spending all their resources fighting digital downloads instead of finding creative ways to profit from it, they have found themselves left in the dust, and they will never recover. They will never again be the force they once were.
Indie labels will rule now.
In the past, much of it due to the Major Label stranglehold on the business, and payola as the standard operating procedure, several things were a given...
1) Only 20 somethings had much of a shot at getting a deal.
2) Even after getting that deal, with shrewdly designed contracts, the Majors set it up so that they recouped all their expenses and made a profit first, before the artist had a real shot at monetary reward. This meant you had to outlive the average life expectancy of a successful artist, which is 1 album, 2 at most, and maybe 2 to 3 years of success, before the public moved on to the next thing.
3) Playing live was less of a requirement. Of course a tour was expected to promote an album, but artists could tour one year, and take 2 or 3 years off, or even more, maybe just doing some television or playing single concerts now and then to keep them in the public eye. Because there were record stores and then CD stores in every city, and in every mall, there was much profit to be made from that alone if the album was successful.
4) The Majors had much more to say in what musical genre was successful and which ones weren't.
5) Many better artists never got much of a chance to be heard widely, if they weren't savvy enough to make contacts with the powers that be, or did not have the acumen to promote themselves well to those powers.
Think of the world now....
Through the internet, thousands upon thousands more artists have a shot at being heard and received well.
CD stores are going bankrupt, due in part to the ease of online downloading and MP3 players, and the rest due to WalMart's huge position as a music retailer (They have done this to video as well). But what this also means, is that if you want to sell physical CD's enmasse you are going to have to sell them at shows. Artists, even very successful ones, are going to have to get out there and work again, selling CD's and T-Shirts and the like, on tour, to see the profit of past decades again. This is not a bad thing, but a very good thing. No more being spoonfed the cereal of the month. You will have to keep working and playing to the fans at real shows to stay on top now.
Age will become less important. It will still matter, because we are a very image conscious society, but it will matter less, because the majors cannot effectively "keep you out" now. If your music is solid, and it strikes a chord with the public, I think even older artists have a better chance than ever before, of finding success, if your music is worthy of it.
Going indie, which has gobbled up more and more of the market, and is well on it's way to being king now, means better contracts for signed artists. Generally, indie's don't have the resources of the Majors, and the consequence is that they end of working harder for their artists, because they simply don't have the finances to put into huge marketing campaigns and payola schemes. So, your label is working harder for you, and has more of a working relationship with you, and this also means you receive a more appropriate share of your royalties. There is less of a chance of a single album taking off and leaving you broke if the follow up album goes nowhere.
So, I for one, say "HELL YEAH!!!!!"
It is a new frontier for music. It is the new gold rush and dash to the west for the pioneers and those who are determined enough!
Goodbye to the oppression and suffocation of artists by the Major labels, and Hello to FREEDOM!!!!