Are record labels dying? Is the Internet going to give musicians the power to sell platinum records and achieve ultimate success all by themselves? Not even close.
On a bad year the music industry still generates such obscene amounts of money that it makes my mouth water. That doesn’t happen because of magic social networking elves. It happens because there are record labels full of professionals with the talent, drive, and resources to connect millions of people with the music they love.
If musicians are going to be able spend their time writing, recording, and playing music for a living then somebody else has to spend time running the business affairs. I haven’t met very many musicians who are passionate about brand development, accounting, law, marketing, negotiating, booking, etc. Most musicians are either bored or stressed by those things. The reality is that it takes many full time professionals to make an artist successful much less keep them that way.
I often end up in conversations with people who have bought into the hype that artist self-promotion on the Internet is going to revolutionize the entire music industry. Don't get me wrong. Self-promotion is great for new artists and those who don’t have the mass appeal for large-scale success. But, it’s just not enough for anybody who's trying to carve out a career.
Name three independent musical artists, out of the several million on MySpace, who can support a family off of his or her music career without the help of a label. An independent artist who has already achieved success thanks to a label (cough Trent Reznor cough) doesn’t count.
What if sports teams went “indie”? What would happen to that part of the entertainment industry? What if there were no team owners, no sponsors, no advertising, no mass media, no coaches, no arenas, no hot dogs, and the paychecks were about as good as minimum wage? Would Facebook Man fly in to save the day?
Like it or not, labels aren’t going anywhere.
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