With the onslaught of downloadable music, and the apparent ignorance of music labels, is the music industry doomed?
I've often mused about the future of the music industry. It is common belief that the music industry is stereotypically shallow, one idea that I agree with in principle. We're constantly flooded with music videos that all essentially do the same thing: Have rappers boasting about something while women gyrate around them, rock bands attempt to look deep by walking around playing their instruments, or female artists shaking whatever they've got in an attempt to appear sexy. It's boring, and the music all blends into the same song after awhile.
But this is the industry, and it makes money. MTV alone piles in money from viewers, ad revenue, and their bogus "viewer's choice awards." Truth be told, music is almost entirely defined by the businesses that surround it.
For starters, there's only 5 major music companies that produce and distribute music. They of course own a ton of smaller production studios, but they still receive the profit. While unknown bands attempt to be signed to a label, if one of the big 5 get a hold of them, they actually end up paying a ton of money. While it's commonly assumed that once a band is signed they're set for all the costs, it's not so. While the label will provide better equipment and set them up for concerts, 90% of the costs will go on the band's expense, not the other way around. Essentially, once a band is signed to a major label, they go almost 10 to 100 grand in the hole from the getgo. In order to pay off these debts, they need to get the exposure, and they need to get it fast - so they go to MTV with a music video (that the company will produce and charge them for), getting in return 10% of the profit that the sales will generate. Imagine a world of business where the label pays 10% of the expenses and gets 90% of the return... well, there's no need to imagine, because it's largely what happens in reality.
For a band to take huge risks and attempt to be substantially different is borderline suicidal for them. In order to pay off their debts, they need to appeal to a large audience - which is determined mostly by record sales. To venture into the unknown - they put their financial success in jeopardy. For an unsigned, truly "independent" band, this is a risk they can afford to take, assuming they can compile a local niche audience and afford to produce their own album (like how The White Stripes got started, for example). But from their, the success they can achieve is largely limited. Everything comes directly out of their pocket, and they have to do all the work to get distribution (which is mostly on the internet or in independent record stores). Concert venues are even more difficult to obtain, as they are against TicketMaster, which governs over where signed bands play - for an independent band to get into a venue that hosts TicketMaster bands - is next to impossible.
This is where the role of small, independent producers comes in - the kind of bands that "indie" music is typically labeled under. Generally more fair to the bands, splitting expenses in a more even way, and having some kind of connections for venues, as well as better (if not the best) equipment for producing albums, they offer bands the alternative. The only problems? These businesses are prone to go broke, as 90% of bands don't make it past a first album, as far as financial profit goes. While great upcoming bands can use these companies to get into business, they take on the risk that the company could fold, and take them down with them in the process. The other issue is that more often than not, successful independent production companies get bought-out by the big 5, and the chain continues.
So where do we go from here? What is the future of music? While originality is of huge importance to the progression of music styles and genres, there is undoubtedly a limit to how far they can push the envelope before alienating their commercial worth. But eventually, the 'same-ol, same ol' approach to music will get old, and lose it's force-fed popularity. While there's obvious advantages to being part of a label, there's huge disadvantages (particularly the cost). This in turn can make rushed second albums, which take away from the success of the first (such as in the case of The Killers, or in the 90's, the "sellout" of Metallica), but it boils down to the immediate need to pay off debts and turn their talents into profit.
There's well over 1 million different kinds of bands in existence, and that's just per genre. While only a couple hundred will ever find "huge" success, others will exist for years in obscurity, while even more will never culminate into anything. So I pose this question to all who have wondered what I have: Where does the music industry go from here? Is it in danger? Will it survive? What can be done to alter this situation, if you feel it needs altering?
(FYI: The majority of information I got for this article was from the
Documentary "Money For Nothing: Behind the Big Business of Music")
