3 ways to make it in music

[jonhall5446]

do you really think, though, that without some type of serious cash flow (marketing and promotions) to convince "listeners" to remember who you are, that they will succesfully find you on the internet when they start hitting the net to pay 99cents per download in massive droves?

Yes, I do agree with what you are saying, bbuuuuuuuttt!

We have only tapped the surface of the ease and convenience of mp3. It won't be too long before we can download our favorite song of the night before we leave the show. The comsumer will gain more control over popular music. It's already happening, if you haven't noticed that the record industry has lost a ton of money then you must live in the hills somewhere... Consumers are finally realizing they don't have to pay $20 for record full of cookie cutter bullshit. The consumer is realizing that they have a choice in what becomes popular music

 

[Middleman]

I was followijng the logic, and agreed with it, until i came to this part...

"The neat thing about this future model, which is unfolding now, is that it puts the little guy right up there with the big acts. The masses can browse the database, look for new artists and not have their choices limited by the few i.e. record companies of the past 30 years. If a new artist gets a lot of airplay then they will rise in the ranks towards the larger takings. However, the niche artist can still have a following for a smaller audience and not be run out of town for low album sales. "

I think this is naive personaly. People will go online to download that artists that they have heard on the radio, MTV, TV etc. They will not for the most part trawl through databases of unknown artists searching for good music. Of ocurse SOME will, just like some record buyers currently like to search through small record shops for obscure good music. But most sales will be to 'mainstream' artists that have the backing of a large lable with the financial muscle to push them, get them TV appearances, brirbe, er i mean hire record pluggers to get their artists on the prime time radio, get them on MTV, get them plugged in the music press and magazines,etc etc, none of that will be open to the little guy any more than it is now. Big music biz is not about to roll over and let the independents have a fair share of the action, never, they have too much money and influence.

So I think you'll see little difference between the type of stuff/artists in the download charts as you'll see currently in the purchased CD charts. The public buys what the public hears, controlling what they hear is not about to be bust open to every aspiring artist, won't happen.

I think you are right in the near term but wrong in the long term.

In the long term the internet makes playlists and radio funnels, because that's what they are; funnels of decisions that consumers buy into, obsolete.

It's all about supply and demand. There is much more supply than demand in the music business and radio/MTV cannot cover the supply. They also are not doing a good job of bringing multi million dollar, multi album artists to the forefront.

Right now MTV and the radio, because they are part of the same broken down system of the last 30 years, are delivering short life, one hit wonders by the dozens. They glean the feild of existing talent, pick a few, promote them and then abandon them. They also support a few older long term artists i.e. Elton John, Sting, McCartney etc.

The potential of the new market paradigm I see is music direct to the end user. A simple site search engine and list of most popular downloads, produces popular artists by taste and not by control. Play charts and top ten plays are based on business plans that demand quarter to quarter earnings. Search engine and download lists somewhat make it a users choice world vs the "here it is and you need to buy it from us" world. We really don't need radio or MTV anymore but I imagine the larger acts will continue to gravitate up to them.

Diversity is the name of the game. The companies that have diversity and art in mind will be the immediate winners of the new order. Those who maintain the same old formulas, long past their prime, will tend to fade away. This is the vision over the next 5 years. After that I imagine the last vestages of Sony and others, will attempt to buy the infrastructure Microsoft and Apple are building. This has the potential for taking things back to control of the artist scenario again. But for a while here, there will be some new opportunities.

As long as we keep feeding off radio and MTV for our opinions we lock ourselves into their view of the world. There is another view of the world, your own musical interests and what you genuinely like.

Oh, another opportunity is internet radio geared toward specific music genres. These are low cost, don't depend largely on the advertising model of existing radio stations and could be another great paradigm moving current airplay models into an environement of homegrown vs big corporate.

Radio of the past required large infrastructure of transmitters and marketing departments. Anyone can build their own station now at a lower cost ie. a server and a database, cheaply streaming new artists out there.

Well, there is my view of things to come. My overall point being that those who who get on the stick right now have some open ground for new opportunties.

Last, the fame and success thing, new artists have to get over this concept. The whole basis of the internet music industry produces new possibilities where fame is not as high but could be longer. The same for return on investment, possibly less money over a longer period of time. Remember, nobody is taking an inventory risk here so music doesn't have to be obsolete.

In fact, I have been searching for years for Ralph McDonalds album, "The Path". This is an incredible percussion album. No way to get it now as it is out of print. This will not occur when, like the TV commercial says, "Any movie ever made on demand". Soon this will be said about music availability --- post 2004....

 

[lanterns]

again,
there's A LOT LOT LOT more than 3 MEASLY ways of "making it". this thread is ridiculous.
copyright your tunes and try try try to sell them. it's not gonna cost a million but it's not free. the musician's ego is not a publicity tool, it's a downfall. so get off the message board and on the phone, guy.

 

[Middleman]

so get off the message board and on the phone, guy.

Totally agree. Sitting in front of a computer in your spare time is not exactly a method for success.

 

[glynb]

Middleman - it's funny, I agree with your analysis, but disagree with your view of how it will all work out 'long term'.

Short term the Internet is like the wild west, there are opportunities to do things because the big biz boys are only just getting a grip on it and catching up.

Lomng term, they will control the main download services, the ones that make the money, they will control the download 'charts' and what's in the charts is what will get played by the major radio stations and MTV etc. What is played on the media is what people will go online to download, and we're back to square one, the only difference being that there's no plastic CD products involved, only a download.

Of course independents will sell a few downloads, just like now they sell a few CDs, no major quantities. Nothing new there.

I cannot accept that long term the internet will kill off big music biz and open up a market of wide diversity and ordinary people downloading all sorts of varied music, they will want what they see and hear in the media, just like now that will be controlled by the ose who have the biggest marketing budgets. I sincerely hope it turns out the way you optimisticaly forecast, i really do, but I can't see it.

The very idea of a 'download chart' is a major step towards industry contol. To have a chart you need structure, organisation, reliable statistics, etc the very things that the wild west internet shouldn't be about! Enjoy the freedom while it lasts!

As for wasting time on discussion groups, I post during work time, so i get paid to do this ;-) LOL

 

[Middleman]

Yeah, who really knows what the future may bring, we can only speculate. This was my speculation.

Regarding the big boys moving in and controlling it again, that will be more difficult because they don't own the channel really. The internet is not controlled by them which will always provide an unknown variable factor.

In the past they controlled, through payola, the radio stations. In a less obvious but similar way they control MTV i.e. through parties, drugs, inside favors etc; you know the biz. As these were their primary conduits they could exercise more control. Today the internet can enhance the experience they offer but they cannot control where people go for their music or what people want to play. This one factor keeps them in check.

My hope is that a few bastions of sanity, i.e. real artists, artistic communities and developing artists, can maintain viable sites as an alternative to the mainstream. These have all but been wiped away in the current music industry. Web sites are relatively inexpensive to run and maintain so a small companies only challenge is to maintain visibility. Once again, advertising revenues are not a critical factor in maintaining a website. Artists that pool money, take a minimal subscription fee etc. can stay viable. They could not own their own radio stations or TV stations in the past. This then is the incredible value to the masses of this new communications channel called the internet.

By the way, if I indicated this will kill the record companies, that is only wishful thinking. It will constantly keep them in check which is where I prefer they be. This last 10 years of boy bands and girl bands is a pretty forgettable era which was the death of artistic evolvement.

 

[glynb]

Yeah, who really knows what the future may bring, we can only speculate. This was my speculation.

Regarding the big boys moving in and controlling it again, that will be more difficult because they don't own the channel really. The internet is not controlled by them which will always provide an unknown variable factor.

In the past they controlled, through payola, the radio stations. In a less obvious but similar way they control MTV i.e. through parties, drugs, inside favors etc; you know the biz. As these were their primary conduits they could exercise more control. Today the internet can enhance the experience they offer but they cannot control where people go for their music or what people want to play. This one factor keeps them in check.

My hope is that a few bastions of sanity, i.e. real artists, artistic communities and developing artists, can maintain viable sites as an alternative to the mainstream. These have all but been wiped away in the current music industry. Web sites are relatively inexpensive to run and maintain so a small companies only challenge is to maintain visibility. Once again, advertising revenues are not a critical factor in maintaining a website. Artists that pool money, take a minimal subscription fee etc. can stay viable. They could not own their own radio stations or TV stations in the past. This then is the incredible value to the masses of this new communications channel called the internet.

By the way, if I indicated this will kill the record companies, that is only wishful thinking. It will constantly keep them in check which is where I prefer they be. This last 10 years of boy bands and girl bands is a pretty forgettable era which was the death of artistic evolvement.

Well the 'big boys' won't own the internet of course, just like they don't own the high street or the shopping mall, they don't need to. All they need to do is buy up things like Yahoo and Google and make sure their products come up first in search engines and are advertised on the home pages etc. That's just one example, there are other ways they can ensure continuing market domination, even of the web.

But, yes i agree that the Internet is wonderful for independents because it alows them to 'set up shop' very cheeply, in a completely new way. Very exciting and liberating. The trick will be getting anyone, apart from a few friends, to look in the shop window, especialy as there will be a million simlar shops for people to look at across the virtual globe!

"Today the internet can enhance the experience they offer but they cannot control where people go for their music or what people want to play. This one factor keeps them in check."
Well they can't 'control' but what they can do is heavily influence what most people get to hear, and therefore what most people choose to download across on the net. That's enough, it's all they need to do.

I think it will map out that there will be a few major download sites with all the hyped music marketed by big music biz. The major download sites will be either owned by or heavily in league with the majors, like MTV is. Unless you can get your song on the download site and promoted you'll have no chance of a download chart position, therefore no chance of exposure, just like now, all controlled.

Best way to deal with it, assuming it bothers you, is not to buy any music from the majors or download from them, but instead buy music from genuine independents. The only major difference is hype and marketing telling you how cool an artist is. There's some great independent music out there, its just finding it!

Good thread, I've enjoyed this.