OurStage asked our community of artists to give their insights into the current state of the industry. Some were here hopeful, others frustrated but all had a lot to say on the topic. Here’s a selection of their opinions. Enjoy!
The industry is in my hands and your hands now and that’s extremely comforting. The gatekeepers are the resourceful people who can find a way to exist in this industry that has no model. The industry used to be a pyramid, with the superstars on top and the masses below all itching for their chance at stardom. Now the pyramid has been squashed and is much more equitable but we need to find the way to get to the equity. I think things are more representative of ‘input = output’ and you’re no longer just waiting to hit the ‘lottery”. That is more comforting to me than the way things used to work. Let the old model burn!
The Recording Industry is dead. I see it and my friends that were a part of it are feeling it.
The Music Industry is alive and well. This shift (away from the labels) is creating some unique opportunities and challenges. The greatest change is in the content- away from the label suits and their opinions- Art created by artists without doing the numbers first.
The greatest challenges for indie artists include quality control and promotions. It’s hard to build a following when your DIY album sounds like shit and you don’t have any money to promote.
There’re a few great resources indie artists can use to improve their odds- The Elements of Mixing is an online community of Mixers and Producers that support one another and provide feedback. It’s free to join.
As far as promotions are concerned- I am still figuring that out. I believe video content is important for any band and there are production companies like Bed Stuy Mediaworks that will shoot a green screen video for your band on the cheap. I have had luck getting out of work graphic designers and photographers to work for me for free. I guess I’ll figure more of the promotions stuff out when the SFR album is done and we have something to pitch.
- Jake James, Sexual Freedom Riders
Indie artists are taking over. No longer can industry suits bully the indie guy anymore. Indie artist are making a living using the Internet and Internet Radio to do their own thing. It use to be hard to get reconition if you were unsigned but now there are new companies springing up everyday helping artists without industry politics suffocating the artistry.
My prime example is Tim Myers. This guy started with a MySpace page and his album. Within two years he worked with big acts and and landed a national commercial for Target that used his song ‘Brand New Day’. I had no idea he was a indie artist until I did research on him because I liked the catchy song. To my amazement he was unsigned!
More and more I hear indie artists on hit TV shows and commercials. Lets face it, it’s sad when the big boys pass up the major record company artist to go to an indie artist because their music is ‘RAW’ and ‘PURE’ and ‘REAL’ because there were no politics and red tape that influenced the song. Now people like Tim Myers and others are sitting back smiling while their songs are blasting on televisions nationwide.
‘Brand New Day’ is the right phrase for the times when it come to the music biz. It truely is a brand new day in favor of us indie artists! Cheers and enjoy my indie brothers and sisters!!
- Ger-rel
I have experienced the many ups and downs of the industry, from being an artist in a group with no direction, to watching artists come out of nowhere and take-off seemingly instantly. The industry is saturated right now and has become somewhat like a popular sport that everyone wants to play. It is far from ethnically limited and it is very common to find yourself promoting your music to someone who is attempting to do the same thing. The Internet networking phenomenon seems to be a race to see who can generate the most friends and many talented artists are being washed away by a tidal wave of chaos.
- Jeff Browne, Jthoro Rainwater Entertainment
People nowadays say that the state of the industry is at its low because of all the technology and how music is easily accessible due to many people leaking songs. I can totally agree with what they’re saying. I also think the industry has changed for the worst because there are TONS of multi-talented artists out there that are still fighting for success, and you have lucky artists who barely have talent and just completely rely on marketability. It used to be that it takes talent and hard work to get to the top, but nowadays it also takes luck. That’s why so many artists choose independent routes to get to their own definition of success. The industry will only get worse.
- Ivan Richard, I-Rich
Using myself as an example, my latest CD hit #11 and #14 on two major charts, received 20 rave reviews in print and online mags, I toured all over the US and Europe, made numerous TV and radio appearances, and get tons of hits on my sites. In spite of all this I’m stuck on a small indie, have no retail distribution, sell very little online thru iTunes and CD Baby, and no one seems to have an answer for me on how to get to the next level if in fact that level still exists. Most acts I meet on the road are in the same boat. There’s no marketing leadership and the labels, venues, and web are filled with no talent artists that come and go. Free enterprise is causing gluttony and making it impossible for the consumer to differentiate who’s real and who’s not.
The industry has always relied on icons to set the scene. There have been a handfull of sucessfull artists that set the criteria by which all others must conform. If you do not fit within that criteria, you can expect to be ignored by the media. If every singer has to sing like Britney Houston and dance like Whitney Spears, then what we will have is a lot of second rate Britneys. Unless you can perform a song better than the original artist, you are only a B version of that artist. American Idol and other talent search shows are reinforcing the bellowing formula that has predominated the Western world for about twenty-five-years. The sixties was one of few times an artist like The Beatles or Byrds could keep breaking new ground on every record, ignoring criteria, and setting new precidents. I do not know if that will ever happen again. We have formula Rap, formula Country, formula Rock, formula Dance. And the industry wants everyone in a typical and marketable category. Most of the original artists are relegated to college radio and CD Baby. We’re stuck in cycle of predictable music. Will it finally move on?
As a solo artist, putting out my debut album, I feel as though there are a plethora of opportunities out there to expose one’s music, and reach one’s fans. However, with so many different options, it can be overwhelming to try and figure out which ones might be worth the time and effort. You really can spend all day on the computer putting eggs into different baskets…I find it easy to connect with people within the industry, but it’s definitely a challenge being a business person and an artist too. Living in the age where if you made music, you were sought by industry folk before you might have sought them out- I think it might have been easier to build a team, and acquire support early on in your career.
It is certainly easy for artists to feel overwhelmed and defeated in today’s marketplace. Because the Majors , in their sloth and greed did not define a new direction, they failed. Not only themselves, but the whole industry of listeners. When software companies and video game companies were innovating, sometimes more than once a year, the record companies were litigating and praying for a miracle. As a good friend once said, if it was a shoe store with only two good pairs of shoes and everything else was garbage, they wouldn’t last a season. Well, they lasted a little longer than a season, but mostly from catalog sales, and now the internet has wiped that out forever. Also on the independent artist front, I empathize with the overwhelming feelings that most indie artists have , between social networking, printing up flyers, answering emails and posts, and writing, producing, and manufacturing, most artists are doing the work of ten people or more. This is a stark contrast to what I used to see when I would go into labels for meetings. It was not unusual to see most of the people on the floor surfing the internet, chatting with colleagues, or just daydreaming.
That was then , this is now. I predict in the next two years a collapse of the major label system, similar to the intransigence of General motors in the face of competition from abroad. While toyota innovated and listened closely to customers, the labels sued their customers. The get what they deserve. As for artists, I strongly suggest reaching out to the vast talent pool that is being created by the economic downturn. As an engineer/producer that had many hit records and awards, I can personally tell you that my mantra is innovate or die. I am looking into more and more ways of trying to make my projects a better experience for listeners, whether its adding HD mixes, videos, biographical material, free mp3s to share with friends. All these add value to the listener, and echoing what I read above a happy listener is the name of the game. the music business is not dead, its only lying in the middle of the road…It’s high time we pick ourselves up and get out there and prove that the indie model can work. Ive seen it first hand.
Bassy bob is a veteran of the business, with 30 years mixing records for artists like christina aguilera, sheryl crow, bob dylan, and biggie smalls. He now considers himself an “indie” artist. He also teaches mixing now to indie producers and mixers.
I know it’s not the nicest thing to say, but every perspective on this thread is somehow ridiculous… the most common mistake being to confuse one’s personal situation with the state of the music business as a whole. Sometimes brilliant artists just don’t make it out of bad luck, personal problems, whatever. But just as often as not, it’s because they’re not doing all the right things.
Now the pirating craze and youtube, yada yada, has created a huge shift in the music industry. Suddenly, the whole virtual world has no true need to pay for music. So many artists and record labels aren’t getting paid for their product. While it’s happening it’s actually a good thing for American music as art. Suddenly all these talented underground bands don’t have to wait around to be discovered: there’s at least a possibility of making it big with a little internet promotion. The Jay Z’s, Green Day’s, and Eric Clapton’s of the world(not to truly knock those artists) now have to compete with even more talented minds of their genre who’ve been selling weed, participating in anarchist riots, or wandering around the crossroads of Mississipi.
Of course, everybody and their cousin is trying to do that. But those artists who do something truly awesome and INNOVATIVE have a good chance(expertise coupled with creativity is rare enough in any field or era.)
But it’s a gold-rush time in the music industry. It won’t be long before independent artists can’t break through so easily again… and people will have to pay for their music again. I don’t know how it will happen, or care that it does, but it’s the nature of the world… as I see it.
When our Album was released in the Sixties we traveled for weeks into different States to Record Distributors and Radio stations just to give ONE SONG of the 14 Track Album a shot. Distributors would place your recording near the Top of the Pile (30 or 40 done) If-well sometimes you paid them. Thankfully most were ethical and placed you near where you deserved to be. If a Radio station had placed you at Number One you were on the top of the Pile. Unfortunately you were under the control of the Label and that Labels budget. I once had an interview with One of the Big Boys at CBS Records who just simply swung his chair around until his back faced me and called out next. Believe it or not”we are friends today”!! In summary-had the music Industry not changed in my favor I would not have recorded my latest tunes and instead would have been left gingerly re-hashing the Reissues of the 1965 Album and getting Gigs here and there. Thank Goodness the old way is dead and the New way is giving Birth to those who deserve to be heard.
Bobby