--- Bob Olhsson <olh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
And where exactly do you propose that artists are likely to get this money not to mention enough experience to learn how to communicate effectively?
They will get the money from concerts and live performance engagements which are ALREADY the primary source of income for most musical acts. VERY few musical acts outside of the lowest common denominator hit recordings put out by the RIAA lables make much money on sales of CDs. Indeed, many of them never see a cent from CD sales because most recording contracts deduct production and promotional expenses before any royalties are ever paid.
Part of of my premise that the above question overlooks is the fact that producing and distributing such recordings is VASTLY cheaper than it has been and the cost keeps getting lower and lower. These days, even tiny, obscure small time groups who probably have no busniess being anywhere near the big time are able to afford to put out their own CDs.
Now, it is very true that producing recordings and promoting ANY business, be it a band or anything else, is a specialized skill and not all musicains may have that skill. But so it is with cutting payroll, keeping books or attempting to book engagements. To the degree that a band is successful, it is able to hire a professional to take care of such things. To the degree that the band has yet to acheieve such a level of success - well, the lack of a musicians's ability to multi-task could very well impact his ability survive in the marketplace. Again, this is nothing new. Bandleaders such as Fletcher Henderson were very talented artists but their careers were limited by the fact that they were not very good businessmen.
Musical acts, like any other business endeavor, have a need for capital. Earning and saving up that captial through enough bookings or through having members work day jobs in one way of getting it. In the past, record labels made such capital available. Indeed, the ONLY reason an artist in his right mind would sign up for a major record label is the promotional support the label provides and the hope that it will result in FM airplay and make him famous. An artist gives up a great deal of control with such a contract - and there is nothing wrong with that because the record company is the one taking the financial risk. If (or, more precisely, WHEN) record labels cease to exist, musical acts will still have a need for capital. And there will still be investors who will wish to invest in and share the profits of talented acts.
The upcoming new era will be WONDERFUL for a great many musicians. The current system basically caters to a handful of lowest common denominator superstars. There will probably be far fewer superstars in the future. But musicians who cater to specialized audiences and niche genres will have a much rosier future than they have had in recent decades. Venues such as myspace, Internet radio and even p2p file sharing enable new audiences to discover and find them - venues which simply did not exist before and audience which were impossible to reach on AM/FM radio.
Like I said, the vast majority of professional musical acts make jack diddly squat in the scheme of things from CD sales. Many ALREADY view CDs primarily as a way of gaining visibility and, therefore, interest in their live concerts and other profit centers such as sales of tee shirts and such.
My guess is that most will choose a different career except for the few who can attract corporate patronage. To a great extent this has already happened and the result is the new music that nobody considers worth buying we hear on commercial radio.
Actually, the stuff you hear on commercial radio is primarily the lowest common denominator stuff that the RIAA lables are trying to push on people. There are LOTS of other musical acts out there who most people have never heard of and who perform every night and have loyal and dedicated fans. Just go to myspace.com sometime and you will see them - there are LOTS of them out there, including some who play music from the 1920s and 1930s decades. Yet to someone who only listens to AM/FM radio, they are all but invisible. Thanks to the Internet, such acts ARE gaining visiblity and, along with it, new fans. The demise of the RIAA and the diffusion of traditional AM/FM audience concntrations across thousands and thousands of Internet stations and other venues will be the best thing in the world for musicians - with the exception of the small but fortunate percentage of RIAA acts who have been able to achieve FM airplay and have benefited from such audience concentrations. Those artists will not benefit because there will suddenly be many, many more competitors out there who will now have ways open to them in order to gain visibility and fans. But if you are an act that spcializes in something different or in a niche genre - well, the future is very exciting indeed.