Let me take you back to 1940's U.S. of America.Live music was everywhere. Managers and agents always faced a problem with new acts, how to get them bookings. Often new acts where placed on long bills as part of a variety set. So a music group would often share the evening with comedians, magic acts, ect. Of course there would always be a headline act, to draw the crowd. So for a new group you would be lucky if you got time to play more than one tune and often you would have to play a cover tune, to please the crowd. It was very difficult to get a chance to play some of your own original music.Radio and recorded music changed that. Managers and agents could now get your new band into a radio studio and record your music. This recording could then be taken to many radio stations and you could begin to get a name for yourself in a way that was never possible before. Your recordings became your passport to stardom, a good recording would get played allot, and listened to allot, and people would want to go to your live performances. Records where the greatest promotional tool a manager could wish for.
Then someone realised that there was a market for home ownership of records. Some people became concerned that nobody would go and see live acts any more if they could hear the music at home, but there was no huge decline in live music. Records became a way to earn a little extra cash but the real money was still in live music.Fast forward to the 1980's.
The music industry evolved, they realised that people had allot of disposable income and they wanted more of it. Finding quality acts was a risky and time consuming business, it always had been. So instead they correctly thought that bands could be created quickly and cheaply; and with a little promotional razzmataz, you could take a few good looking kids and create the illusion of a band. This worked rather well because people could afford to throw money at crap. However there was a problem, people still wanted to go see live acts, but sadly allot of these kids could never have been let near a stage as they had no talent and the illusion would be dispelled. So the money from these acts had to be made from record sales alone.
Then greed got the better of sense. The industry decided in order to make more money from a band they needed record sales and live ticket sales. So how to accomplish this? simple, throw massive amounts of money into turning bands into global brands, spend money on singing lessons, piano lessons, backing tapes, hairstyles, clothing, dance instructors, ect. Of course it was the bands who paid for all this work not the labels.Somewhere along our journey it was decided that records were no longer promotional tools but products, and they made the radio stations pay for use of those products. This change was the beginning of the end.Since the 60's people have been recording music for themselves from the radio, using whatever technology was available, reel-to-reel tapes, cassettes, cd's and computers. With each new technology came cries of despair from the music industry. What could have been the greatest promotional aid to bands has been reduced to claims of theft and concerns of copyright.The problems facing the music industry do not stem from violation of copyright but from the inability of the industry to evolve to meet the needs of their customers. They want their customers to devolve to meet industry needs.
Before the days of enforced radio playlists, it was the DJ's job to select what they thought their listeners would like. Now playlists are created by the industry to push music that most people don't actually want to listen to. The average primetime radio show is the same show no matter which station you tune too, they expect us to enjoy the same mindless rot day after day, then like good little drones go by the album and like happy little sheep go see the same rubbish live. Most people are not yet that robotic.The industry is failing because it is failing its customers and its acts.Sadly some bands have fallen for the industry brain-washing and have forgotten something very important about who and what they are. In the past it was considered a great privilege to be able to support your life and family by making music. Bands in the past got into music not thinking they would make it rich but doing it out of the love of creating and performing. Most bands never made any money, many had to spend their own money from other jobs in order to continue doing what they loved, but the money was not the important thing, the music was all that mattered. Only very few, who where very lucky, could leave that job as a bricklayer or a cabby and make enough from their music to pay the bills. For a while many bands lost sight of these ideas and wanted to make money more than make music, this is hardly surprising considering the attitude of the big music labels.Today music is undergoing a new evolution but it is not by the industry. The ability of modern bands to self-promote, network, and self-establish a name for themselves has never been greater. Websites like youtube and myspace are great ways to get yourself noticed. Independent recording studios are making a comeback and many bands are again beginning to see the benefits of using recordings, as they where in the past, as promotional tools and not products.If things continue as they are the music industry will destroy itself, but maybe that's a good thing. Music will never die as there will always be those with a passion for making music rather than a passion to make money.Support music and not the industry, turn off the radio playlists, and if you can afford to, go buy a ticket to a gig by a band you have never heard of. Who knows what gems you may unearth? :D
1prinnydoodOP
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