I Have A Dream...

I was discussing with my friend Rich Huxley the other day about the state of the music business and the od notion that the industry as a whole (and I am generalising here)has the right to sell millions of records, that this notion of buying and selling music on a large scale is set in stone.

Yet, how long has recorded music sold in vast numbers? Less than 100 years and in the time scale of the existence of music that it bugger all!!! Indeed, the commercial success of recorded music is a blip, almost a fad. But the popularity of music is far from fading just the business model in which it is presented to us. For a much better argued point of view of this check out the brilliant Steve Lawson lecture at the bottom of this post (cheers for the link to this Rich).

Of all people it was Le Roux said "what gives musicians the god given right to be millionaires?". Good point. In fact the basis of capitalism is clearly exemplified when looking at the distribution of wealth throughout music, the minority having 90% of the money and with that power, with rest of us left to fight over the remaining 10%.

The disintegration of the current business model for most people working within music can only be a good thing. Whether or not it will lead to a fair distribution of the wealth is questionable, but what it might do is free artists from the notion that a major record company will provide their payday and the answers to their dreams. It will also hopefully empower artists to sell and communicate directly to their audience, and in turn have a more realistic chance at making a living out of music.

The level of success of this also depends on radio and the democratisation of who gets played. This is another argument and one I'm going to get into on another post.

This might all sound a bit revolutionary and even naive but the more bands I meet, the more I find them more willing to go down the DIY route and the less interested they are in talking to Major labels.

"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one".