Every Unsigned Musician Must Read This

I have broken my self-induced exile from this blog because I found this article on The Quietus, published back in May: How The Music Industry is Killing Music and Blaming the Fans. It is fairly long, but it is definitely worth the read. I would love to hear your thoughts after you have read it, but first, a couple of points.

In years past, I (and many others) had painted a rosy picture of a bright future for unsigned musicians. Sadly, the outlook is looking bleaker than I had imagined. A while back, I was savagely attacked by trolls on another website for sharing my optimistic views, which in turn led to my self-induced exile. Turns out the trolls may have been partially right, although I still maintain they could have been nicer about it. Seriously, there is simply no justification for acting like a troll. (I apologize if I offended any trolls with that last statement.)

It is also quite probable that the Quietus piece goes too far the opposite direction, although the author makes some great points. I hope the reality is somewhere in between the two viewpoints.

James Marshall Crotty of Forbes online wrote an analysis of the original Quietus post today, and made an interesting point: "One must also remember that for most of music history, musicians, en masse, made very little money. There was an anomaly in the sixties that convinced musicians and labels that they could all get rich. Not true. Never was true."

Maybe there is a glimmer of hope after all.

Sources:

http://thequietus.com/articles/06318-how-the-music-industry-is-killing-music-and-blaming-the-fans

http://blogs.forbes.com/jamesmarshallcrotty/2011/07/17/the-quietus-opinion-black-sky-thinking-how-the-music-industry-is-killing-music-and-blaming-the-fans/

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"The Music Biz Could Cure Its Ills In One Week" According To Radiohead

Ed O'Brien of Radiohead had some amazing things to say at the Midem Conference. Check it out on the paidContent:UK website:

Radiohead: The Music Biz Could Cure Its Ills In One Week | paidContent:UK

(Via Well-Rounded Radio)

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Happy New Year 2010!

I don't know about you, but for me, 2009 was a pretty good year. For instance, I have always dreamed of teaching at Berklee, and now here I am, exactly 10 years after receiving my doctorate!

2009 was a banner year for indie music as well. Even though "indie music" has been co-opted by the mainstream to some extent, we are finally beginning to see the emergence of a "musical middle class." Artists are now able to reach an audience without the aid of a record label, and some are actually make a living without donning a paper hat!

I have recently seen several predictions stating that the major labels will finally "get it" in 2010. I don't agree. I think they have found their niche, and they will stick with it. As long as there are pre-teens consuming "High School Musical" sequels, and adults watching "American Idol," the labels will survive. They will have to learn to live with being smaller, and they will never again see the runaway profits of yore.

I predict that we will see the continued emergence of the musical middle class in 2010. I believe we will also continue to see new and innovative distribution channels for music, although we are probably several years away from seeing any of them achieve dominance.

It's an exciting time to be a musician, and I can't wait to see what the future brings. Happy New Year!

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10 Years That Changed Everything

As we near the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, we're seeing the typical year-end and decade-end lists that tend to make the rounds. As I think back on the last ten years, I see it as a time of major change for the music industry. Here is my list of some of the changes I have witnessed in the past ten years:

• Digital downloads surpassed CD sales
• Independent labels became major players
• Established artists like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails successfully opted to release their music independently, rather than sign a new record contract
• The ever-shrinking major labels lost their mojo, desperately clinging to outmoded ideas and suing children, the elderly, and dead people
• Numerous distribution avenues emerged, allowing independent artists to get their music directly to fans
• Social media emerged, allowing artists to interact directly with fans
• A new generation of music consumers emerged, ingrained with the belief that music should be free

I'm sure I could come up with many more examples, but we'll stop there. Feel free to post your additions and thoughts in the comments.

All of these changes have left musicians and music industry types wondering where we will be when the dust clears. How do we make a living? How do we "monetize" our product if the conventional means no longer work? In fact, what is our "product," if not our songs? Many have come to believe that the way forward is to think of the artist as the product or "brand."

Meanwhile, the major labels are floundering. Frankly, they have lasted longer than I would have anticipated. One lifeline for them has been the popularity of reality television. If you doubt that, just look at all the buzz around Susan Boyle with her recent album release.

At this point, it's anyone's guess what the future will hold. Judging by what has happened in the last ten years, though, I'm convinced it will still manage to take most of us by surprise!

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How I Learned To Beat The Music Industry

Subtitle: The Method Behind the Manifesto

I want to briefly explain some of the reasoning behind my previous post, "The Artist 2.0 Manifesto" (here it is, in case you missed it.)

After years of trying to "get signed," I made the decision to concentrate on teaching, while still writing and performing on the side. However, I never let go of the "musical dogma" I had developed over those years. That is, the ideas pertaining to the commercial potential of a song, sticking to a certain musical genre, creating an "image" etc. Even though I no longer had a burning desire to get signed, these thoughts still colored my thinking and perception.

Over the past 3 or 4 years, I have spent quite a bit of time researching emerging methods unsigned artist can use to disseminate and promote their music. My initial motivation was that of convincing my students that they don't need to "get signed" in order to have a successful career. I've learned a lot, which is nothing new to readers of my blog, so I won't bore you with the details.

I have also developed a theory, for which I have little or no hard data, only my own observations. I believe that most people are much more eclectic in their musical tastes than the "Music Industry" would have you believe. For example, most of the people I know, whether they are musicians or non-musicians, have a wide variety of musical styles in their ipods and iTunes music libraries. I have also noticed a number of independent artists recently who are incorporating numerous genres into their music. This is most prevalent with artists in the Creative Commons movement (Jamendo,) but I'm even seeing it on MySpace. I've also met many people who are not musicians, but enjoy listening to more "challenging" music.

I also believe that the success of Susan Boyle calls into question nearly everything the industry has asked us to believe regarding "image" over the last 30 years. If you doubt this, go to allmusic.com and look at some of the artists who were successful before 1981 (the year MTV went on the air.) Some of those folks were not very pretty, but they were amazingly talented. In fact, many of them continually evolved as artists as well, and one album often sounded completely different from another. In fact, you might find a wide musical variety on one album. All of those things are "no-no's" by today's major-label standards. Here's a good example: Van Morrison would probably not get signed today.

I think we have quite a bit of ground to cover before we find a working business model for musical artists, but I do believe the old rules no longer apply. It's time to let go of old dogma!

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Trent Reznor: Advice for Up and Coming Bands/Artists

If you ever get a chance, you should watch all 40 minutes of this interview. However, I feel this particular segment is very important to new and emerging artists!

Update: The video was supposed to stop when he began talking about his favorite gadgets, but apparently it does not. Feel free to watch the rest, but understand that there are 20 more minutes. Also, look for @recdmavn's name and (briefly) her face while Trent is talking about Topspin!

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The Internet Police

Interesting article on TorrentFreak about file sharing:

Indiana Gregg to The Pirate Bay: The Internet Police Are Coming | TorrentFreak

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More Record Label Hypocrisy

Sony BMG Sued for Software Piracy - Assets Seized

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We're Not Out Of The Woods Yet!

The Royalty Scam - New York Times

You must read this article. Billy Bragg brings up some interesting issues, and I think he's right on the money. This quote especially made me think:

"The claim that sites such as MySpace and Bebo are doing us a favor by promoting our work is disingenuous. Radio stations also promote our work, but they pay us a royalty that recognizes our contribution to their business. Why should that not apply to the Internet, too?"

The moral of this story: For years, the record labels have been making loads of money off of artists, yet sharing very little of the profits with the artists themselves. Along comes the internet, promising new avenues of distribution for artists, yet the artists still don't seem to be getting fairly compensated for their work! Mr. Bragg feels, and I agree with him, that we need to find new methods for artists to protect and be compensated for their intellectual property.

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Replaced By Robots

As I was randomly shuffling through the lame music on commercial radio today, I was alarmed at the increasing use of blatant auto-tune. Then, something occurred to me: Maybe the major labels are trying to desensitize the public so that they will be able to eventually replace human singers with robots! Just think how much they will be able to increase their profits if they don't have to pay artists.

Then, of course, the final step will be to eliminate the songwriters. I'm sure some programmers are at this very moment working on applications that will examine current hits and "compose" similar music. It's too bad there are so many sheeple out there who will probably listen to it!

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More Major Label Hijinks

Can you believe the gall of these people? Seriously, don't even try to get signed to a major. If you want to know how it feels, try standing on a street corner in the inner city, naked and holding up a wad of 100 dollar bills, and see what happens!

Enough of my yakkin' -- just check out the link:

hypebot: Old School Accounting Plagues Music 2.0

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The Hypocrisy of the RIAA

I'm too mad to even comment on this one:

RIAA plays both sides of the street in music royalty debate

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Bad News For The Record Industry

This has been a noteworthy week for the future of the music business. It began when Radiohead released their latest album, "In Rainbows," as a "pay-what-you-wish" digital download. The catch, of course, is that they are no longer affiliated with a record label. Rumor has it they had more than 1 million downloads, and took in a fairly good profit as well!

The same day, rumors surfaced that Oasis and Jamiroquai were considering a similar move.

Now, it looks like Madonna might be thinking about jumping ship from Warner to sign a record/touring/merchandise deal with concert promoter Live Nation, a company which has never been in the record business prior to this.

Of course, the labels have been watching all of this like hawks, as evidenced by this leaked memo from EMI Records.

Things aren't looking so good for our friends at the record labels. Of course, it's tough to feel sorry for them when they are spending their time suing Native American single mothers who make $36,000 a year!

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Another indie band "sticking it to the man!"

I'm talking about Common Rotation. I only found out about these guys because one of the band members, Adam Busch, is an actor who had a recurring role on Buffy. The band is making an effort to completely sidestep the traditional music industry and all it's trappings. They have been releasing their own recordings since 1999. On their last tour, dubbed the "Living Room Tour," they played acoustic house concerts, for donations only. Their new website features the "Union Maid," where they offer a free download, either an audio clip or a video clip of a new song, every day. They even wrote a protest song about Clear Channel!

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Record Label Consolidation

Check out this short opinion piece in O'Reilly Digital Media regarding record label consolidation. In the immortal words of my friend Dr. Kwon: "this is what I'm saying!"

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