All I see these days on Linkedin, Facebook and everywhere are people bitchin’ about streaming, the declining music industry and lack of opportunities for Indie artists. Today I see on Linkedin “5 Reasons the Music Business is in the Toilet”. We all know its in the toilet, but what are you gonna do about it. Boo Hoo there are no more record labels willing to plunk down cash to fund artists. There are no more publishing deals offering cash advances. “Boo Hoo there is no place for starving artists to obtain funding.” Indigogo and others were great at first but now its worn thin. You know what they say “Can’t Never Could”.
A brief background. Major labels fought the digital age. When they finally knew they could not fight it anymore, their way of embracing it ruined the Indie artists. The way they embraced it was to buy every digital distributor there was on the planet. Then the international President of Sony stated publicly, “Indie artists are becoming competition we need to level the playing field”. Their way of leveling the playing field was to embrace streaming services, but they went to the extreme on that one too. They took hundreds of millions in advances to allow streaming services to stream their catalogs. They never asked any artists permission to do so. Then to add insult to injury they keep the yearly advances, nothing is shared with the artists. Then they fed the artists with this crap “oh it’s a great opportunity for the indie artist’s exposure”. Bullshit! How is ANYONE going to find you among Billions of artists? Enough Bitchin’.
Let’s face it streaming is here to stay, it ain’t going away. They may raise the rates by 1/1000 of a cent but what difference will that make? Major labels have always been the gatekeepers and the big money. It doesn’t matter if its music or politics the 1% who has all the money rules the world.
Face the music its always been this way. But there are plenty of tools for the indie artist to succeed. Did you know, this week was the first week in history that 8 artists in the UK’s Top 40 were indie artists? Its starting to happen everywhere. You may not be able to make yourself a superstar, but with a limited budget you can chart, you can tour, and you can make a good living.
Artists have to realize music is a business and they have to run it like a business. Business’s need advertising. In this case advertising is not only social media but worldwide radio airplay. Cause you cannot successfully tour without radio airplay. Neil Young recently said “the only way for artist to make money these days is in the live experience” Perform in front of people all over the world. Sell your merchandise and collect your radio airplay royalties and license your music. But nobody’s gonna do it for you anymore. You have to do it for yourself.
Musik and Film has been working on opportunities worldwide for the Indie Artists through world radio airplay and charting, touring opportunities. Email us at promotions@musikandfilm.com and we will consult with you and help you achieve that success.
