So the music industry is dying, MySpace is dying… every where we look the opportunities for musicians are drying up. Or is it that just the big music labels aren’t adapting fast enough to the changing times? Maybe their greed is finally getting the best of them?
No matter what happens in the changing tides of the music scene, I think that bands and musicians themselves need to be the innovators – especially in how they reach their fans. We’re starting to see many bands do just that, of course – but the more that jump on the innovation band wagon, then the faster we can get to the new future of the music industry.
Several bands are trying some inventive methods. One such band is SLIDE. I don’t really know if there is a way to describe their method, or a good term that fits it. But the idea is pretty simple: record songs one at a time, release them through iTunes as they are recorded, add a few remixes to make it interesting, rinse, and repeat. When they get enough songs out there, they will release a CD. Instead of “pay-as-you-go” plan, this sounds like a “finance-an-album-as-you-go” plan. I can’t speak for how they afford it, or how much money they make towards the overall cost of recording, but they are still moving forward, gaining momentum all the way.
Another innovative method is the open source record as described by Temple Foundry Mediaworks. From the sounds of it, it still seems like this will be experimental for now. My head is swirling with many questions about how the details will work out, but it is still an interesting model to follow.
The Internet (for now, at least) is still a good source to connect with fans. If your band doesn’t have a FaceBook page yet – get with the times. MySpace is turning into a ghetto fast.
Other sites have some good ideas, too. I really like what BandCamp.com is doing – you can sell albums or songs in full quality format. This is a great way to get albums out there, especially ones that might not be popular enough to justify a full CD pressing (obscure re-issue, fan club type albums, or unreleased albums that never got finished).
But I have to wonder if the dream of being a full-time working musician, making enough to live, is gone forever. Will music become a part-time hobby for most? If you can get enough people to come out and watch your shows, maybe you can become a full-time musician. But how can that happen? We used to know who the hot bands were by listening to the radio and watching MTV. Those avenues are dying. What will be the radio charts and MTV top video countdowns of the future? I am all for bands being able to do open source records and online downloads, as long as there is a way for bands to tell how popular they are. They need to know if they need to book the stadium tour or the dive-bar tour after all.
This last issue is really the missing piece. Music distribution is pretty irrelevant in the Internet age. People can find the music if they want to buy it. The issue now is how do bands know how popular they are? Where do you turn to find out what people with your same tastes are listening to? Discussion forums are dying, and Facebook doesn’t quite (yet at least) rate music popularity. That is one piece that we are beginning to miss… but are we aware of what we are missing?
(this article was also published in the April 2010 issue)
