No Business in Music

So, I just ran across an article; and it has opened my eyes to the harsh reality I have already been slowly acknowledging over the years. 

It's not just this one.  There's a ton of bloggers and articles online and in print talking about the chaos of the music industry; the business of music has completely collapsed and is all but dead.  Today, fewer than 40% of the worlds most renowned studios stand the test of time; and I'm not talking literally.  I'm sure the buildings are probably still there.  However, their facilities, equipment, and treatments have probably disappeared quicker than the experts that ran them.

D.I.Y. killed professionalism.  Internet killed TV, and global commerce killed personal freedom.  If you belong to any of these groups, please stand up.

I'm disheartened at the lack of fight; not by the music industry; not by the film industry...  No, they've been the ones fighting hard to cling to their old business models and trying to continue the way of sucking every last penny they can as the business model - along with them, slowly dies.  I'm talking about you, the uneducated; naive individual.

I just learned a new word today and that word is Googlization. I dare you to post a comment with at least one way you can't get to youtube; and I bet if you find one, that device or method is old and obsolete anyway.

The music industry needs to die already.  I'm serious.  There's no such thing as a patron of the arts anymore.  Hell, there probably hasn't been since the Renaissance.  Let's recognize facts: Businesses don't just give money away. They expect money in return.

It's no surprise then that the music industry has gone belly up.  Music is like ideas.  An idea should be free to share.  Music is either priceless... or worthless. The revolution of sound recording is nothing more than a really, really long fad that's finally reached maturity.  Think about that one long and hard, from your smartphone... while you're on the toilet.  Don't forget that courtesy flush.

I sound pretty cynical I'm sure by now.  I have good reason.  People don't care about ideas anymore, they care about dollars. They care about the bottom line.  There's a war going on, a silent... stupid one.  And by stupid, I mean education.  DIY revolution was instigated by the amazing trickle down effect of technology over time to the point where now not only is software capable of producing sounds for you, but the hardware it takes to run everything is super affordable.  If you need a history lesson, a cost analysis map, or even a comparison: read my previous blog post - Figuratively Speaking.

I share a similar sentiment to Rob Tavaglione, in his article "Music Production Biz in '12" (see first link).

" Major label budgets are now indie-sized; indie budgets are now “go make it yourself and we'll distribute;” and unsigned artists are making their own records with friends on laptops (or tablets, or phones, etc.)."

That empowering freedom has fallen into the hands of the uneducated, unaware, and uncaring.  "Let's all go make our ideas" with little to no respect for the process of how to do so properly.  It's no wonder indie musicians are skeptical about "studios" especially when anyone with a few scraps of recording gear, a room in their house, and an internet connection can advertise themselves as an "affordable studio".


A message to everyone: stick with your own recording gear. You're not going to get signed and the labels are probably going to be all the worse for you anyway.  Stop caring about your music already, no one else does and that's because they're one step ahead of you, probably trying to sabotage your audience and stealing your fans.  You really need to get off your high horse, and get your head out of the clouds about how "the people still do care and love good music".  The club scene has killed traditional venues, no one wants to go just listen to someone play live.  The music business is dying so expect to give away your music for free, at least be happy when people listen to it and actually like it.  Cd's and Vinyl? So last century, they're like Disco; they just don't know it yet.


And lastly, but most importantly... don't give up.