Music Business Helps and Perspectives

Add a Comment

2 Comments

Comment by 'E' thaproduca on May 7, 2008 at 6:11pm

Glad to be in any group you are part of Chip.
Hope we can do some creative things in the future.

Comment by Chip on April 29, 2008 at 9:01pm

The business practices in the music industry are changing dramatically and rapidly in the last few years. Why? My view is that digital forms of music is the root cause. The electronic format allowed sharing over the internet, easy duplication and viral distribution that has made obsolete the old model of sales of records/tapes/CDs at the local music store.

The old business model for record companies used to be identifying promising artists, putting them through a development and refinement program and then getting behind them with promotion dollars and effort to develop a fan base to which they could profitably sell recordings and make money on appearances. They took measured risks for often very lucrative financial rewards. The artist often made very little unless they were very good or one of their songs became a big hit that got play over long periods of time.

With the loss of revenue and profit that accompanied the digital age, record companies are moving to a business model with far less risk. For their profits, they are moving toward being agents of mass distribution, licensing and merchandising for artists that already have developed a substantial following and book of work.

This increasingly puts the onus for "product development" on the artist. They need to write or find a song, record it, produce it, package it, promote it to develop a sufficient buzz (as well as promoting themselves as performers and creating a fan base), and then, only then, are the traditional recording companies wiling to get involved.

So, is this good or bad? Well a case can be made in both regards. An artist is a lot freer to shape their material and their artistic focus than when the record companies used to "shape" them. There is also a more natural sorting of what people really want to hear by seeing whose stuff is getting hits on MySpace and requests on digital radio. Now the record companies don't have to guess what's going to be popular, there are reliable feedback mechanisms in place already. Also, the record companies felt the need to "slot" artists into strict genre's like pop or R&B Now thw world is exposed to a much wider range of sounds and musical stylings.

The downside is that a musically-talented individual has to have a whole lot of support early on to create an opportunity to get their works heard. Somehow they need to understand how to promote themselves and their work in this digital age -- not a simple task, especially for the computer challenged.

In these days promotion means a complex maze of fan development through a digital presence along with performances, publicity AND talent development in conjunction with a phalanx of independent resources including graphic artists, publicists, other musicians, recording engineers, producers, managers, lawyers, etc.

Well, that's my view of the situation. Let's use this forum to share best practices, lessons learned, resources we can endorse and ideas for how to help each other. I think we can all agree that we ARE NOT IN COMPETITION WITH EACH OTHER -- each artist brings something unique to the world, so sharing HOW we support that process of bringing music to the world only helps us all.

This should be fun! Let's hear your thoughts!

Chip