The rise and fall of music industry
Once the music industry was all around major labels. Getting your performance heard was a vital task for a band. Usually you had people called A&R Scouts, who were scouting around the clubs in cities in the hope to find a good band. By the words "good band" I don't necessarily mean the music, it can be everything , what will bring cash to the label - that's what these people were there for. The promising bands were signed, heavily promoted and then ditched, once their music stopped being popular. That was the old model of music industry.
Later came internet and so called "self-promotion". You are no longer tightened to music industry to get heard. You can put your music anywhere on music portal, where milllions of people can hear it (it is in theory, in practice, they won't hear you until you appear on the front page), but the illusion it gave to many musicians was worth the pound. Internet has become overwhelmed with milllions and millions of wanna-bes, who all hoped to become major super stars. Somehow internet helped bands get some kind of promotion, it also helped fans to stay in contact with the band directly. For example, after the concert, the fans might report, what was good and what was wrong, write their comments and somehow promote the bands by passing the word to each other.
However in my opinion, since the old model we still haven't found a working model for music industry. You can't deny the job big labels are doing on promotion. Trying to get your song to the listener's ears is still a very very difficult task, if you are not coming from the major, considering the amount of recordings pushed to the market each year by LastFM & Co. Mass media promotion still belongs to the big labels, if you want a proof, try to send your demo to the major radio station without being a major label and you will see, how far you can go with so-called self promotion. Self promotion on the internet is still fictious, you won't be able to go far with it, even if you build a decent fan base by playing everywhere you can. Until your band appears in the RollingStone, on the Radio 1, on the TV , or on the front page of the online magazines, you can promote yourself as much as you want without getting anywhere.
I somehow find it not fair, when major artists ditch major record labels after these artists become famous and go on their own. Yep, it is nice to get all the harvest and be on your own, once the label has done all the promotion for you. Its hell lot of money to get you featured in major magazines, organize interviews, local and national radio stations, etc.
However the excitement of the self promotion is heavily backed up by music services like Taxi, CD Baby, etc. and by the the industry music equipment. The sales of the instruments, mics, soundcards, software are booming nowadays - everyone wants to feel like a super star. Once in the while some online music industry organizes things like band contests, where they pick up a demo (sometimes it is difficult to explain the criteria used to pick up the music). But the mission is not to promote this particular record, but to show others that it possible "to make it". So they buy more and more recording equipment and generate more and more profit. In this situation everyone is happy, however this model is somehow a bubble, which will explode, when less and less people will want to do music. Since late 50s music has become some kind of fetish, which helped sell lots of music related stuff and a lot of excellent bands have established music genres as we know them nowadays. Since late 90s music scene becomes more and more boring, repeating itself and clichéed. It looks like no more new music is needed anymore. We have produced enough good music since last 60 years, so why to bother and invent something new? Record labels survive by re-compiling ,releasing and re-mastering of old stuff, nobody cares about new artists the way it was before. So the record labels will never have a chance to restore the old model. It is dead, so farewell, let's move on.
I guess the only way you can have fun as a musician nowadays is become detached of music industry. You won't become anyhow closer to music icons we had in the past, just look at the successful bands nowadays, they are ok, but there is no iconic flavor around them anymore. However, the stress you would have now to put to pursue your music dreams will eat all the pleasure. It is better that your income does not depend on music. It will improve quality of your music, your creativity and will let you sleep at night. I don't mean it is not good to come out and play somewhere, but you will be enjoying it even more, if you don't depend on it.
Later came internet and so called "self-promotion". You are no longer tightened to music industry to get heard. You can put your music anywhere on music portal, where milllions of people can hear it (it is in theory, in practice, they won't hear you until you appear on the front page), but the illusion it gave to many musicians was worth the pound. Internet has become overwhelmed with milllions and millions of wanna-bes, who all hoped to become major super stars. Somehow internet helped bands get some kind of promotion, it also helped fans to stay in contact with the band directly. For example, after the concert, the fans might report, what was good and what was wrong, write their comments and somehow promote the bands by passing the word to each other.
However in my opinion, since the old model we still haven't found a working model for music industry. You can't deny the job big labels are doing on promotion. Trying to get your song to the listener's ears is still a very very difficult task, if you are not coming from the major, considering the amount of recordings pushed to the market each year by LastFM & Co. Mass media promotion still belongs to the big labels, if you want a proof, try to send your demo to the major radio station without being a major label and you will see, how far you can go with so-called self promotion. Self promotion on the internet is still fictious, you won't be able to go far with it, even if you build a decent fan base by playing everywhere you can. Until your band appears in the RollingStone, on the Radio 1, on the TV , or on the front page of the online magazines, you can promote yourself as much as you want without getting anywhere.
I somehow find it not fair, when major artists ditch major record labels after these artists become famous and go on their own. Yep, it is nice to get all the harvest and be on your own, once the label has done all the promotion for you. Its hell lot of money to get you featured in major magazines, organize interviews, local and national radio stations, etc.
However the excitement of the self promotion is heavily backed up by music services like Taxi, CD Baby, etc. and by the the industry music equipment. The sales of the instruments, mics, soundcards, software are booming nowadays - everyone wants to feel like a super star. Once in the while some online music industry organizes things like band contests, where they pick up a demo (sometimes it is difficult to explain the criteria used to pick up the music). But the mission is not to promote this particular record, but to show others that it possible "to make it". So they buy more and more recording equipment and generate more and more profit. In this situation everyone is happy, however this model is somehow a bubble, which will explode, when less and less people will want to do music. Since late 50s music has become some kind of fetish, which helped sell lots of music related stuff and a lot of excellent bands have established music genres as we know them nowadays. Since late 90s music scene becomes more and more boring, repeating itself and clichéed. It looks like no more new music is needed anymore. We have produced enough good music since last 60 years, so why to bother and invent something new? Record labels survive by re-compiling ,releasing and re-mastering of old stuff, nobody cares about new artists the way it was before. So the record labels will never have a chance to restore the old model. It is dead, so farewell, let's move on.
I guess the only way you can have fun as a musician nowadays is become detached of music industry. You won't become anyhow closer to music icons we had in the past, just look at the successful bands nowadays, they are ok, but there is no iconic flavor around them anymore. However, the stress you would have now to put to pursue your music dreams will eat all the pleasure. It is better that your income does not depend on music. It will improve quality of your music, your creativity and will let you sleep at night. I don't mean it is not good to come out and play somewhere, but you will be enjoying it even more, if you don't depend on it.
