As follow up to some of our discussion from last week, here is an article about major artists leaving their record labels or selling to fans directly.
Will it work for them? What about new artists and bands that are small and not well known?
Jonathan sent me a link about an artist who was discovered because of myspace. The music industry is in turmoil, but I still am not sure the major labels will go away entirely. What do you think?
Friday, October 12, 2007
Change in the music industry
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4 comments:
I think we're at a time when people aren't sure which way to go with record labels and how to market and sell their music. There are too many choices and none of them are solid. Artists are trying new ways and staying with "old" ways probably hoping something more solid pans out.
I spent over $40 last night on 2 CDs of some music that's a little harder to get.... but not THAT obscure. They're birthday presents. I also ordered an import but I don't have a total on that one yet. I'm guessing it to be about $40 with shipping.
This is a difficult question. In country music, country radio is still the most important way to market artists’ music. To get on country radio you need the support of a label with money and quality people working for it. To this end, many independent labels have appeared in Nashville with good people working for them and money available for radio promotion. These independent labels have launched the recent careers of popular artists such as Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, Little Big Town, Rodney Atkins, and Craig Morgan.
These independent label successes prove that you don’t have to be on a major label to launch a career. That said, maintaining success requires a lot of money and effort that it is yet to be seen if independent labels can maintain.
Two examples show the difficulty in this process. Jason Aldean recently released his second album and it is selling pretty well. His lead single from this project did well on country radio. On the other hand, Little Big Town lead single from their second album on an independent label, co-founded by former country star Clint Black, is struggling. Some people have wondered if the fact that Black has also promoting single has caused the independent label in question – Equity – to be searched to thin?
That is hard to say. What is not hard to say is every record label needs a distribution network to get their albums into stores. It is still the case that most country music is sold in stores like Wal-Mart and Target. Until this fact changes, you need access to a distribution network to get your artist’s music into those store. These distribution networks are controlled by the major labels. Until that fact changes, and the need for money and other resources to maintain a presence on radio disappears, major labels will still exist and be needed.
I stumbled upon a Web 2.0 site called TuneSquare where unsigned musicians and bands can post their music and suscribers can download songs for free.
This is their philosophy and business concept: "Simple, open and free - while still paying artists for their work. As opposed to other websites, we wanted to create a wide-open place for listeners to download the songs they want - when they want - without any requirement to register on the site.
Out of respect for our users, we have carefully chosen how and where to implement our ads on the site, so that they appear to users in the least annoying way we could conceive of. This is as a result of an ongoing conversation with many involved members.
TuneSquare is financed by international companies and the service is totally free for our members and users.
Our business model works by showing a flash-advertisement during the time a song is played. 50 percent of the total monthly ad revenues, from both flash and static advertisements on the site, is divided by the total number of downloads all songs receive during the same period."
Sounds like a great idea and a wonderful way for new bands to get their music out in the marketplace.
Another thought on this subject. Veteran artists with established fan bases can do very well with independent labels.
Former country superstar Rickey Skaggs founded his own independent label many years ago. He says he can make more money selling 100,000 albums on his independent label than he could selling 1,000,000 albums on a major label.
He has says it has everything to do with overhead. It should be noted Rickey no longer seeks to have his music played on country radio, so I think he saves a lot of money there.
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