Major Labels....
What do you all think of major labels? Do they have a future? With the internet ,and all the access to all the music that's out there and indie labels bands etc, Will lps cds go the way of the horse an buggy? Will all music by purchased via downloads? Or will demand for a physical product keep them around?.....
Comments
That said...it doesn't seem to be a business model with much of a future, and eventually will probably be phased out completely. Music from all sources, including major labels, will be sold via download.
What would likely change is the \"medium\" by which your freshly purchased data is played...these days we have iPods et al, and current stereo equipment for the home is being made with MP3 capability built in. It's that whole home network/merging of phone, computer, audio, and TV thing. You'll buy your tunes, and it'll be in your computer, which is on your home network, which will allow you to play it on your home stereo and/or TV sound system.
Then, of course, soon Big Brother will have a microchip installed in your brain, and it will scan and transmit your pleasure brain waves, which will be collected by MegaMusic International Inc., for their use in marketing and A & R people to choose \"good\" bands to sign. :roll:
Someone just commented in another thread on MP3 quality. While you can notice a difference, it's very minute. Also, I usually listen to music at loud volumes, so when you turn it up like that and it's decent compression rate, you won't hear the loss in quality.
i believe that there will be more and more bands recording and promoting themselves via home studios and puting their music on myspace and internet radio.The big change I feel will be that it will be an industry standard to only sign bands with xxxxx of hits on their myspace page and the bands playing out will be S.O.L. :x Big festivals will play a bigger part and the old 2 band show will go the way of the \"Beta\" videotape and the 8 track tape
But then when album oriented music became the rage, thats when you really got/get the full flavor of a band or artist. How many sleepers became hits because you listened to a full 30/40min. of music from some one?
Could a band like Pink Floyd make it in todays music atmosphere? Would an lp such as Dark side of the moon stay on the charts for twenty years with internet down load?
Me I guess I am still old school. Like to have something to show for my money. I have no clue how mp3downloads work. If your puter crashes can you down load what you bought, again? Or do you have to pay for it again? And if you back up your tunes then wouldn't you have a cd collection anyways? And what about album art? Ain't artist already starving. And now to take that job away from them! Where's the love for our fellow man!
2 band shows a thing of the past? Well there goes our bang for our buck. I remember in my youth, The norm was 3 sometimes 4 known acts for a show and also an unknown act to play for the 50 people that got there early! Festivals aren't nothing new back in the 70's we called them stadium concerts. If you weren't one of the lucky 5000 to be up front ... binoculars didn't even help, in fact the stage seemed farther away with them..mmm that may have been due to the alcohol and..............
I think if the major labels put out a quality product they wouldn't be complaining about dwindling cd sales. I know I am a little gun shy about buying something new. Can't say how many times in the last several yrs I have bought a cd and aside from the song which was the reason I bought it, the rest of the cd sucked. Not even close to that one song.
How long would've Led Zepplin lasted if you heard stairway..... then bought the lp only to find out the rest of it sounded like Ono Yoko!
Lately labels have sunk their eggs into smaller baskets. A/R scouts are rare to find, and the industry is adapting to a new medium. I personally think the nostalgic history will yield a compromise and music tours will be a part of promotion again. That depends if the public can decide that music production works in the craft can support the costly tours. ( Music Media sales)
Music is an art. Art like any craft can be in the form of a macaroni plate or a famous painting. Music always evolves as the tastes of the public lead the appreciation factor or value to that artists works. It does not say much for music when a slice of pizza and a beer at a club has more value than months of artists blood sweat tears as well as time away from family etc. They just can't cut it and never will cut it in merchandising t shirts, stickers, posters and hats. The music is the key ingredient that the value must be attributed and catered to. If the public decided that music mediums have no real value, you won't be seeing artist tours if ever.
Labels are given a bad rap and some has been of thier own doing. The music industry will have to see what next steps are made. Will the people be happier with 2-3 mediocre productions or boosted compressed mp3's, or do they want other mediums. We have yet to see, but the same arguments go on continuously.
Being signed or promise of being signed will be a tough thing. Labels are not really looking as much, A/R teams are gone. A few might get picked up from myspace but not near as many that used to flood the labels daily. I think the label market will pick their crop and measure by different business models. I think the indie will decide their business models work or bust. The label will earn far more from a Daughtry, Clarkson, or American idol artist than they will a no name indie.
NIN and Radiohead will do well, but without the larger media force, they can dry up faster than duds produced by the labels. The bigger difference is that if Radiohead or NIN fails, the investments they had to make to pay for their own tours will seal their own fate.... that otherwise, the label would have endured just like they did every 19-20 potential artists they invested in.
I can't go with the NIN or Radiohead argument since they already have been sponsored toured and built their following with the aid of their labels. Now some out of blue myspace bands start getting airplay and media attention... I would be less to debate any need for a label. Fact is, they are few an far between. Maybe as a casual artist just tooling around for fun.. but no way the arena type performance groups. I don't know any indies who could rent the Staples arena... but maybe they could if they sold enough t shirts
Seems like a wash..... it's another phase in a new era of medium types. Once again, always decided by the support they can gather.
mediums will always change with technology.
one of the reasons I keep occasional text drafts is there are no longer any written styles of compositions and letters describing what consists in ones daily lives. If and when we have overcome by technology what will be left to describe our lives to our families and offspring?
Will we keep productions of mediums always to be used by the next?? Or will those creations become unknown since no format of hardware or media will be available for one to view past history? I keep a journal for my family as well as cd's and dvd's. In 100 years people will still at least be able to read..... even if technolgy of its time is dated and long gone... the journals and photo albums can be observed.
prime example... look how many people lose their Digital photos they meant to make hard prints. Hard drive fails and the only memory is what is in that persons mind. There is no record of that day's events or even a story to be told... it's not written nor seen. technology has its pros and cons.. as they say.
pointed out about archiving, digital has proven to be just terrible. The film industry is experiencing this in a big way rite now. Vinyl is still it for music.
Now, in some instances, it has come full circle where you can pay the band directly. You can place the songs on your media of choice. Pay the band once (which is undoubtedly more than they would have received from the record company), and you have can put it on a CD, cassette, mp3 player if you like.
But also in as much as the majors dropped the ball by not getting in at the start of the internet download. The internet allows us the consumers to see/hear what is all out there! Allowing the consumer to decide what they like or what the next rage is, in effect making us all A&R guys! They don't have as much control over what the next big ' it ' is. Though they still have control over the ' free ' airwaves to push what/who ever(s) music they want. So they still own the mass marketing avenues. But I think it doesn't have the same impact due to the fact the we have the resource to to know what all is out there.
Take Heart for an example ( as they were just mentioned on another thread ) I know they and plenty others are on the download side of the debate. Why? cuz the majors don't want anything to do with them, so how else can they get their music out there. Then there is the Donnas, their label dropped them, so they started their own label, if it wasn't for the internet I wouldn't know what they are doing lately. Same goes for NY Loose thanks to the internet I know what Brittany and her chops are up to. I know stuck on the chick bands, but it goes for a host of others too.
As was mentioned it's come full circle as consumers, we now have the ability to bend the majors over a chair for a change. And they don't like it.
Just like they have done to consumers over the decades, no lubricant.... Hey boy squel like a piggy! :shock:
More fire and energy than when they started. Living in Portland in the 70's
I was able to see them a couple of times when they were still in the clubs.
So I've watched them through their career and they still amaze me.
When R-head and NIN go public like that and of course list where to find those music d-loads you have to consider the purpose. They need the media. The labels have always had the media and routes to put out the message of the artist.
Artists have choices today beyond what was restricted to being signed. That is a good thing. For those artists that wish to drive ahead with a tour of some kind, they are on their own to invest the capital and time the labels could do for them in days.
So in a sense, it's a wash. For either to be as successful, they'll need to meet in the middle. Artists cannot invest the kind of up front capital for a PRO type tour. Most can't handle press relations other than a website. labels are great at procuring and sponsoring.
Look around and you will see many small entities of business production mgt groups for indies. These are owned and sponsored by former label prodigies... reinventing the wheel, but in a different business model. Instead of owing the label, you'll have to find investors, procure touring mgt teams etc. So instead of one bill to pay from record and touring sales, artists have 4-5 and must first procure capital to fund ( group mgt, marketing, touring mgt, legal, etc). These are the things indies are finding today.
I've talked to several groups attempting to tour and they are asking question after question. They can do alright on their own, but to set up for large capacity label type events is not as easy a task.. where it was always a simple phone call for a label.
Sadly, I've seen a few really good groups just go doa since it was nearly impossible to fund themselves. Some even took out loans... Labels also signed a group with the idea of a return on their investment.
You see a lot of artists whining about the labels from their 10 million dollar homes, and sports cars. Would they have ever made as much as an impact without that label?? If they had to go by todays model, they'd be talking from a simpler 3 br home or condo.. not a 10 mill bling crib. The label brought them to where they are.
Proprietary rights are another thing. Book Publishers are another example but the writers NEED the publisher access. Most artists and authors have succeeded when following better contract arrangements. Other artists were not so smart.
Actors have legal agreements with every movie now going to DVD etc. part of their cut is on future expected proceeds from movie rentals, box office sales and DVD's.
Newer artist label contracts have been ones that suggest once the returns of the investment (capital) have been made, the rate of exchange for the artist is higher... Sort of like a loan for car or home where you pay the interest first.
With as many mediums to push their sales, artists can do increasingly better by comparison. You have to have some smarts though and good legal teams to assure the terms. Artists whining about contracts and rights should have read them a bit more.
Now for downloads, napster etc. The labels were more interested in legal terms of the deal since so much of it was illegal. They compromised.. you have Itunes etc now and many legal ways to traffic downloads. An artist like Metallica was not happy when their whole album was bootlegged before a release. You can't have one set of rules for one thing. You have to make it clear what is legal or not in every instance, unless you want to keep getting legal teams together to fix part A, part B, part C and so on. The POLICING is one thing, and they are within their rights. Why persons do not get this is their own lack of knowledge on the subject as well a chance they CHOOSE to take.
Nobody is being sued for owning a cd and copying one for their car. The means to sue are there as the law suggests, but only illegal file sharing is at the forefront of any policing.
People used to record cassettes and cdr's off radio airplay. What is in the AIR is legally provided. You can record it, but you can't DISTRIBUTE or sell it. You do not OWN it. That's the big difference. By it's legal format terms, recording an LP to cassette was illegal. Always has been. Nobody was charged with doing it for their own purpose so long as they did not distribute. I had many guys in schools selling cassettes of LP's for $5. Good Maxell XLII's and nice recordings. TOTALLY ILLEGAL. They did get sued after the school notified the police. It was a simple fine and they had to give their earnings back in good faith. That was the old form of piracy. The judge warned them of a potential 10 year jail sentence on the NEXT offense. Seems stiff of punishment for recording some albums on tape. The CDR is another form. Labels and Artists know you have the means to transfer mediums. They can't get around that. It's how you obtain and distribute that makes the legality an issue.
File sharing is transference of ownership of proprietary works. That is in fact illegal. If you submit to terms of Itunes etc, You are bound by that contract of what you do with that licensed material. You sell it, and you can be prosecuted. You make copies for YOU.. they won't come after you. It's the distribution that bears the burden of legal policing, not ownership.
The terms do specify all cases of legal methods and illegal methods within distribution. Some heard the \"make an mp3, and you changed the format of the orig which is illegal\". Yes, that is part of the bigger legality descriptions they added, but they are not chasing anyone down for that. Every instance of legality being assumed is media blown out of proportion. Many people know what is right and what is wrong. Every site they go to may have an agreement the click \" I understand\" ( napster, itunes, amazon).. well, you better read before you apply. There are a lot of open ended arguments with publishers and E books. Media such as DVD and so on are also being tossed around.
Nobody albeit the industry nor the file distribution networks paid attention or at least made the public aware of what activity was legal or not. Millions got used to the freebie, and it's like taking candy away from a baby. In past years, other outlets have compromised and observed as has the public since the agreements at sites are clear and define points. File types are also specific to hardware in many cases. It will be more relaxed in the future once the terms all all settled. Most people know EXACTLY when they are bootlegging something or pirating mediums. They know.... they also know it's illegal. There is no argument there and that is the bogus excuse not being tolerated in these cases... \"I didn't know\" ??? Not working any more judiciously. Especially when a person has 10,000 songs on the suspected drive but only owns 50 cd's.
What most don't ever hear is the same hdd's purged by police find many instances of illegal software and other mediums that the pirateer didn't know was illegal! It won't fly in court. This has been on TV and every magz for years since the napster suits. People KNOW.. some take chances.
If artists want to openly freely distribute, or offer an album download at $3 that's their choice. They stand to earn equivalent as they would in label returns. They just have to have the capital to start off with. Works either way.
Piracy and the legalities of such I have no problem with, as the saying goes \" Pay unto Ceaser what is Ceasers! \" But when they miss the bus and then go after those who got a free ride on it, because they were sleeping, now that erks me! Putting a stop to it is one thing, demanding money cuz they were asleep at the wheel is another!
I thought labels covered the cost of sound /lighting and any stage sets and the cost of transporting it. Aren't there promoters anymore? Aren't/weren't they responsible for procuring the arena or what ever venue? And speaking of such. There is alot of complaining here in my parts about a $ 10.00 convience fee being added to ticket prices! Does anyone know what that BS is about? Does anyone else have this new charge on their tickets? Maybe thats a new topic?
I had a conversation once with a guy who was telling me that I didn't know nothing about the music scene in my town. While he and his bands hungout/played at the venues where the who's who in the biz and such hung out at, and my bands didn't. While that is true to a certain extent, I told him it really didn't matter. If you was that good, anyone who thought they could make money off you will know about you and seek you out! It happened to him! A local club found his band on my space and they got the gig! It very well could have been a label calling! And I think that is true with the internet and labels,fans etc. It iliminates some foot work. What is success being the top band and known by everyone locally or is it when that happens regionally or just having several pockets around the country or is success when your known at the national level, like guitar 3456 said sitting in your ten million dollar digs complaining about how the label did you wrong?
At what point does an indy label become a major or will they ever ? I think todays atmosphere opens a lot more avenues for bands and consumers . Personally I would like see the old days again when you could cut a 45 run down to your local radio station and see if they would play it. But I guess my space has filled that void.