Esem / Eesn

is it a great time to be in the music industry?

November 18th, 2008, in the small hours

All due respect for Dave Kusek, I have his book "The Future of Music" and I love it. But this time, with his "Cycles in Music" presentation, I'll take issue. By the way, If you learn anything new from this video below, drop me a note.

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So he makes a point that music started out being free, then goes through all the changes technology has lead us to, and concludes that the future is bright for artist-based management companies that look after the interests of their artists. This is all perfectly fine, but what if artists do not want to be managers? How do we cut through to listeners if we wanted to stay away from giants like iTMS or middlemen like the distributors?

:::

People are still educated that downloading content (especially when not buying it) is bad, and at the same time major record labels pump tons of mediocre product in our direction, all dressed-up in name-checks, cross-references, and endorsements. As the values of music production diminish, fuelled by user-centric/taste-agent services (which screams middle of the road at best, myspace at worst), so does perception of music's importance. Up to the point of, "Yeah, everyone can make music nowadays" Really?

This might be a great time to be in the music industry, but not as an artist.. or maybe if you don't expect to make any money back from it. It contradicts the western notion of time being the equivalent of money, because an artist will put in their time but will probably get nothing in return for it. Because the difference between then and now is, there are now no patrons. I, for one, cannot say if consumers will become the new patrons, or it will just go free for all, and we'll all do music as a hobby. (good time to check out Nokia: Comes with Music)

I do however know that there are tons of good music being produced and not being released. I know that because I have to nudge my friends to send me tunes they otherwise only keep to themselves. In the meantime, Dave Kusek is a manager, also a vice president of a music college, technology developer, writer, and consultant. From where he stands, it's ever so easy to say 'It's a great time to be in the music industry'. But to me this is not a presentation about the future of music. This is a presentation about the future of the music business, which is an entirely different thing. How about really standing at the artist's end of the chain, pondering over the idea that kids are your target group, that your product is free, that your work of art is consumed rather than enjoyed, and that none of this stops everyday life draining your pockets? Then talk to me about the future of music.

P.S. I expect the 'live/gigs' argument to be tossed at me at first opportunity. I dare you to stop listening to recorded music if you're all about performing.

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Comments:

Renzu says:

I think this is part of a greater trend of technology reducing the careers of the past to the hobbies of the present. What used to require a rack full of wildly expensive gear in a full blown studio now just requires a computer and some optional cheap hand-me-down gear from (say) Craigslist. Even a good-enough recording studio isn't that hard to put together these days. Less people are being paid the big bucks for their expertise and gear but, thankfully, producers like us no longer have to pay big bucks in order to get anything done. Software has also removed much of the hassle (which translates into time spent) and quality barriers in making music, and the internet has removed several barriers/hassle in distributing music, so it's much more manageable as a side hobby now than it ever was. From a pure music-making standpoint, I'm glad to be making music _now_ as opposed to 20 years ago. I think in any age, making a real living from your personal art is a tremendously challenging thing anyway. I know that live shows are the last commercial refuge for artists/bands, but even that as a relatively sure-fire commercial avenue will disappear whenever future tech. like full immersion VR etc. comes into play, and suddenly immaculate 3D reconstructions of live events and other recorded experiences are on the piratebay. Technology in general eliminates old lines of work (1/3rd of all Americans used to be employed in agriculture/farming a century ago for instance, now it's like 2%) while creating new industries (web design, video games etc). Music recording/production is gradually becoming one of those things. Whether that's good or bad depends on what you want to get out of the field I guess.

posted: February 5th, 2009, late evening

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