A changing world

[john]

Hey gang

 

I was thinking about how things have changed. People’s attitude to music and musicians has changed. Tools and services have changed availability and price. How music is valued is definitely different. The attitude of musicians is different too. We are conditioned to accept these changes.

 

How have these changes affected you? How has your outlook changed?

 

Cheers

 

John

[GregB]

In the 'bad old days', the managers, labels and publishers retained the big bucks and lived the life, while the artists were worked like slaves for pennies (although sales in the millions did count for something!) and paid for cars/drugs etc..

 

At least these days, artists CAN be in total control of their own destiny and finances, although this does require time, effort and skill.  However, they are competing with millions of others for a slice of the rapidly diminishing revenue pool.
 

As most artist are desperate to be recognised and promoted, instead of the old label system, there is a myriad array of digital services which prey on the naive.  Flashy websites which claim to be able to promote an individual can be setup and operated by just one or two 'entrepreneurs' without any other expenses.  The reality is that, with a million new releases each year, how can anyone claim to be able to promote YOUR music/profile above anyone else's.  Any subscription model of say $5 per month, spread over 10,000 desperate wannabes, is a fantastic business model ... and you don't have to DELIVER ANYTHING!  Eat your heart out, Jordan Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street)!  And there are dozens of such services preying on artists and new ones are constantly appearing.   Just one example is that 99% of the messages I receive from Reverbnation are about industry 'opportunities' ... but taking advantage requires a premium membership ($$).  What a surprise!

 

[Christophe Tatlocke Holmes]

On 5/2/2022 at 4:12 PM, john said:

Hey gang

 

I was thinking about how things have changed. People’s attitude to music and musicians has changed. Tools and services have changed availability and price. How music is valued is definitely different. The attitude of musicians is different too. We are conditioned to accept these changes.

 

How have these changes affected you? How has your outlook changed?

 

Cheers

 

John

I'm not sure things have really changed that much. Even over decades there are many constants: The industry has taken advantage of artists, there are a few very successful and highly rewarded artists at the top and huge numbers of unsuccessful and unrewarded ones at the bottom. Every generation has great singers and musicians that would arguably have thrived in any era.

 

I think the main difference is one of visibility; thanks to social media anybody who can work a computer can (and often does) put out a single, and so the musical landscape can seem to be overwhelmingly cluttered with mediocrity. And of course it is - but that's always been the case - we just didn't all have so much access to it until now.

 

My outlook has changed mainly with regard to the realisation of how much work you have to put in to be any good. I think the sheer amount of music around can give a false impression that it's easy - but eventually there's no escaping the effort and time to get anywhere halfway decent.

Edited May 9, 2022 by Chris W

[john]

6 hours ago, Chris W said:

I'm not sure things have really changed that much. Even over decades there are many constants: The industry has taken advantage of artists, there are a few very successful and highly rewarded artists at the top and huge numbers of unsuccessful and unrewarded ones at the bottom. Every generation has great singers and musicians that would arguably have thrived in any era.

 

I think the main difference is one of visibility; thanks to social media anybody who can work a computer can (and often does) put out a single, and so the musical landscape can seem to be overwhelmingly cluttered with mediocrity. And of course it is - but that's always been the case - we just didn't all have so much access to it until now.

 

My outlook has changed mainly with regard to the realisation of how much work you have to put in to be any good. I think the sheer amount of music around can give a false impression that it's easy - but eventually there's no escaping the effort and time to get anywhere halfway decent.

Hey Chris

 

What you say is largely true from the perspective of indie artists. There’s a smaller pool of current upper echelon artists. Obvious income streams have vastly changed. Don’t you think how the public views music in general has changed? The space occupied by musicians and artists has been greatly eroded and replaced to a degree by gamers and social influencers. Artists are somewhat diminished in the public eye.

 

What you say about work is very true. It always has been. It is aptly named an industry. The artists that achieved great success were often the hardest working, or at least they had at some members who worked damn hard. The biggest mistake by unknowns was always to wait to be discovered, quickly followed by leaving the business of music to someone else.

Today’s artists find themselves on a much more level playing field but there are still plenty who believe someone else should do the hard work, while they and their art should remain untainted, unsullied by business. Weirdly they will happily spend the money made but at the same time try to distance themselves from the making of that money, as if they are better than such base needs. That said, it is a perspective often held by those with the luxury of another means of income making music naturally more hobby than profession.

 

Cheers

 

John

[Christophe Tatlocke Holmes]

"Don’t you think how the public views music in general has changed? The space occupied by musicians and artists has been greatly eroded and replaced to a degree by gamers and social influencers. Artists are somewhat diminished in the public eye"

 

To be honest, I wouldn't know. I was surprised to find out that Rihanna is a better selling artist overall than the Rolling Stones though. So is Taylor Swift, which would seem to suggest that current artists still have a pretty huge following.

 

I'm not sure it is a more level playing field for musicians now - in fact probably the opposite. Changing formats has given record companies the opportunity to regularly reissue the work of old established acts with very little investment at the expense of taking on and developing new acts. That's got to make it harder for new acts to succeed I'd have thought.

Edited May 10, 2022 by Chris W

[john]

35 minutes ago, Chris W said:

I'm not sure it is a more level playing field for musicians now - in fact probably the opposite. Changing formats has given record companies the opportunity to regularly reissue the work of old established acts with very little investment at the expense of taking on and developing new acts. That's got to make it harder for new acts to succeed I'd have thought.

It is more level in some ways. It is actually easier for an artist to carve out a basic living than it used to be…. In that lower echelon artists have access to tools. If they get themselves together They can also work around some elements of restricted budget by working together. Unfortunately they often lack quality contacts and knowledge. They often approach marketing in a piecemeal, fragmented fashion when they need to have coordinated campaigns across multiple platforms.

 

Everybody having access to the same tools has the effect of drowning out good acts amongst poorer quality acts. At the other end labels do drown out new artists by re-releases, freeze independents out of the physical marketplace by block ordering pressing plants, freeze out new songwriters with charts dominated by cover versions, the dominance of private fame schools in supplying artists and writers from within certain groups in society and multigenerational fame dynasties keeping larger scale success within the hands of a chosen few.

 

Yet still, for artists willing to learn, work hard and work together a level of success is much more realistic. Top level status remains just as out of reach as it ever was, if not further…

[MikeRobinson]

One thing also worth considering is that the "cost of goods sold" is now zero.  You can create anything and put it up for sale on an international marketplace and it costs you nothing to do so.  However, the "signal-to-noise ratio" is therefore also "off the scale."  There is no "barrier to entry."

 

But also consider this:  "there is no point in your daily life where you do not encounter music."  Maybe you do not notice the music, but it is still there.  In any store that you enter.  In any video that you watch.  The marketplace for "music" is insatiable.

Edited May 12, 2022 by MikeRobinson