The Music Industry has changed as much over the past 30 years as it has since the invention of the phonograph. The internet has forever changed the way we consume music. I remember when the only way to listen to a song was to go to the local record store and buy the CD and the only way(s) to see an artist perform was to go to their concert or buy a DVD of their performance. Now, in the age of YouTube, Spotify, and other social media, you are a few keystrokes away from listening to and/or watching your favorite artist(s).
As a musician and as an avid consumer of music, I believe it’s a good thing. As an artist, all I feel I can do is get my work out there so people can listen to it and the internet has made that very easy. All I have to do is upload a song or a video to a platform and people can listen to it a millisecond later. As consumer, it is a fantastic thing because, frankly, I don’t have enough money to buy even a CD a week. It’s great to be able to listen to my favorite music and not have to worry about my bank account.
As an artist, am I upset that people can listen to my music free of charge? No, I am not. That is because physical media, CD’s and other, haven’t been a significant source of revenue for the artist for a long time. Even before the internet really took off, even the biggest artists in the world were happy to get $1 a record from their label.
Money from album sales is slightly more relevant to independent artists because they are getting 100% of the profits from those sales, minus expenses of course. If we do some basic math, we can see how much it matters. Let’s say, for arguments sake, you are a very successful regional artist and you sell 5000 CD’s at a price of $10 each. That’s $50,000 in your pocket, which is no small chunk of change. However, that’s no easy feat. Most independent artists would be jumping for joy if they sold 100 CD’s much less 5000. However, the reality for independent artists is, the more people listen, the more engaged they will be. The more engaged they are, the more likely they are to buy your merchandise, as well as pay to see you live.
Live shows have been the primary source of revenue for musical acts for a long time. Before the internet, in general, artists made most of their money from touring and the record labels made most of their money off of physical album sales. It was a great time.
Around the early part of the 2000’s when file sharing blew up, that changed. Record labels could no longer count on album sales alone to recoup their expenses, let alone make a profit, which is fair in my mind. Why you ask? It’s because working at a record label is like any other job. You show up in the morning, sit down at a desk, you work, you go home and you repeat. Sure you get a lot of free stuff in the form of CD’s, merchandise and concert tickets, but the life is far from glamorous and you don’t do it out of the goodness of your heart. You do it to get paid and if you don’t get paid, you’re not going to work, it’s that simple. So the labels adjusted by inventing the 360 deal. That meant that the label took a percentage of your touring profits, as well as a percentage of your merchandise and album sales. Artists were not happy about this at all. I was and still am 50/50 on the subject. Of course, artists were mad that they had to give up a share of their main revenue stream, however, the 360 deal meant that the labels were more invested in your whole career, not just album sales, which meant they were more motivated to promote you and get you on stage.
Over the past 10 years that landscape has matured further. Labels today are offering more versatile contracts, with shorter terms and other adjustments, to match how music is consumed. I, as an artist, again, am 50/50 on this. Shorter and more flexible contracts can be a good thing for artists because you’re not locked in with a particular label, or other, for a long length of time, hence giving you more bargaining power going forward. Of course, if your work doesn’t perform well, it can work in reverse but let’s not think of it that way.
The biggest upside of the music industry today is that you can be totally DIY about it and do it yourself. Is it easy? Of course not, if it were easy, everyone would do it. Is it possible? Absolutely! All you need, outside of your instruments and some basic recording software, is a computer and you have all you need. It’s never been easier to start a record label, distribute your music and do everything else yourself. Pre 2000’s, if you didn’t have a record deal, you were stuck playing small clubs and the only people who would listen to or have the opportunity to buy your music/merchandise, were those that saw you live. Now, with a few keystrokes and clicks of a mouse, you can make your music available for consumption to millions, if not billions of people and that is beautiful thing.
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