Viva La Vida
The Roland Jones Orchesta (From left to right) Troy Harris, Caleb Humphries, Drew Parrot (the blurry one), Jared McEntire at Crossroads Coffee House (not pictured: Chris Jones and Jacob Wolfe). Photo by Mary Schafer.
I have attempted to sum up the music industry from the start of this blog by referencing websites, talking to a few reps and going from just the knowledge that I have accumulated through research and a little experience (leaning heavily on the research). Because my experience is lacking, hearing things straight from a reputable source is probably the best place to get great information (obviously).
With that in mind, I wanted to figure out what it was like for aspiring musicians starting out. What sort of things they go through and what their aspirations and thoughts on the music industry are.
For this reason I introduce to you: The Roland Jones Orchestra. Based in Boone, North Carolina, the core members of this bluegrass group have been playing together for about a year and are attempting to create a name for themselves in the Boone music scene.
Jared McEntire (banjo), Caleb Humphries (mandolin) and Drew Parrot (guitar) began playing together the Spring of their sophomore year at Appalachian State University. They have since added bass players Chris Jones and Troy “T-Bone” Harris as well as fiddle player Jacob Wolfe, who has only recently filled the final position in the bluegrass group. The band describes their sound as music with bluegrass instruments. They have original songs written by Caleb, as well as dabble in old time bluegrass and funnel anything from Jack Johnson to The Beach Boys through banjo, guitar, mandolin, stand-up bass and fiddle.
Their first gig was on October 24th at an Open Mic night at Murphey’s Bar, a watering hole on Boone’s main drag, King Street. The main things Jared, Drew and Caleb remembered were that bluegrass is awkward in an Irish bar, and nothing in the placed worked right. Things were difficult. Jared said the pickup shorted out on his banjo, nothing but bass picked up on the guitar, and they ran out of mics. Drew rebutted, “But the crowd loved it.”
From that point on the group has had sporadic gigs at coffee houses, fraternity parties and fund raising events. They are currently taking gigs on a “just ask” basis. They described their current status in the Boone scene as being at the very bottom of the totem pole or lowest of the pecking order.
School takes up much of their time so they haven’t yet made it up there with the big players, but they are doing some pretty inventive things to get their name out there other than just playing shows. For one they are on myspace, ilike and facebook. Another pretty inventive thing is that they are instituting a business card policy, where they will hand out business cards at a show and each time you come they will stamp your business card. If you go to 4 shows you get to request them to play any song of your choosing at the fifth show. Note to those of you that cash in on this, don’t ask them to play rocky top or free bird. Choose something a bit more original, like “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.” Ok so that’s a bit lame too, but it was just a suggestion.
Although their first bar crowd loved the show, Jared says the group tries to keep bar gigs to a minimum, “It’s hard to play soft music to a bunch of drunk people.” He also said that at bars bands tend to be just background music and until you get a crowd just coming to see you, you’re just fighting to keep a crowd’s attention. “Original stuff sets us apart, but right now songs people know keep their attention.”
On my personal favorite music industry topic, the group is for downloading and sharing of their music, for now. They support it because it is the best way to get their name out there, but they would hold a different position if their income was based on their music sales.
As for aspirations for the band Jared, Drew and Caleb aren’t really sure where they want to go with it. Jared said, “Mainly we are just hoping this gets us women” and Drew said, “To make the world a better place.” Caleb just seemed content to eat his sesame chicken.
They indicated the interview was up with a group statement, “Listen to us and tell all your friends, if not we’ll hunt you down with all of our bluegrass.”
If you want to check out a sample of their bluegrass sound check out this slide show featuring a live recording of a Caleb Humphries penned tune called “Down”. You can also visit their myspace or facebook pages.
So I ditched the whole Excel thing and decided to do a cool time-line thing instead. I attached it to the previous post about random things (including summer music festivals). However, this post is the sum of the information I was going to put into a cool Excel graph/chart.
Who likes lines and numbers anyway??? Enjoy the bout!
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Now I want a good clean fight, no swearing, no poking people in the eye or taking your mother’s name in vain. Now touch gloves and let’s get it on!
In the red corner we have Hard Copies: standing 12 or 7 inches tall (depending on the vinyl record), they are the perennial veteran of the music world.
Reputation: From Vinyl to CD’s, hard copies have ruled the at home music championship since 1912 (until recently was only challenged by radio). The analog or digitally recorded champion has more than established itself as the favorite of many. They have sold millions of copies in many genres.
Notable Victory: Most notably Michael Jackson’s Thriller selling 104 million copies world wide.
Downside: Bulky jewel cases, it’s no fun to run with a CD Walkman and you can’t play vinyl in a car.
Upside:You can hold them, you can touch them and you can even cuddle with them if you so like. They have the best sound quality plastic can provide: HARD COPIES
VS
In the blue corner we have Digital Copies: the new kid on the block. The next generation of music enjoyment capabilities.
Reputation: Recently the powerhouse hard copies have fallen a bit to mp3s, wmas, m4as and wavs. Their accessibility and ease of use have propelled them further than ever before. Has come under fire for ease of illegal distribution of material that has been copyrighted. Illegal music downloading is easier than ever with digital copies and cd burners.
The down side: Sound quality and DRM protection can hamper the digital format. Not all digital media is created equal.
Upside: Point, Click and listen. They are the easy, breezy easy to carry (with the right accessories): digital copies.
Which do you prefer??? Who will win in the fight to the death??
(Well not death… thats a bit violent, but you get the point)
The Unofficial Decision: A poll of 15 people (including some random strangers and some people I know) resulted in an 11-4 victory for the hard copies.
So for now the records survive until the next bout.
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A bit of what some people had to say about their medium of choice:
For Hard Copies:
“Natural sound that humans hear in everyday life is analog.
Birds and babies, the wind and rain; our best friend’s voice or a distant train are all heard in analog.
Our favorite musicians should be too.
Buy a record player.”
-Jacob - Boone, NC
“I like having CD’s because i feel the artwork is important- vinyl is cool too because the artwork is so pronounced– but i prefer to have CDs and then make digital copies, always having the cd there as a back up copy.”
-Krissy - Boone, NC
I have to say that a hardcopy of anything is best. In particular music has much more character when presented to me in vinyl form than when it’s glowing at me from my computer screen. Personally I don’t own many CDs or records mostly because I reserve that wonderful feeling of buying AND holding a new album for people who truly appreciate it…I just can’t seem to get that type of emotion when I walk into a music store. All in all it’s a matter of character for me.
-Adam - San Francisco, CA
“If you want to look at it this way…you get to pull out the insert that makes the front cover of the cd case and put it up on your wall like a mini centerfold. the boys of hanson enjoyed being up on my wall when i was in the 5th grade.”
-Juni - Greensboro, NC
For Digital:
“With the philosophy of sound aside, wouldn’t it make more sense to download new and buy used vinyl whenever possible simply on the basis of environmental impact?”
-Hart - Cincinnati, OH
“It depends on the artist. I would prefer the CD of most but some such as well known r&b artists i would prefer the digital but i i generally don’t care for anything other than their singles…”
-Emily - Rutherfordton, NC
“You don’t have to carry around a bunch of cds or stuff to listen to different songs - if you have an mp3 player you can have thousands of songs on a piece of equipment smaller than your cell phone.”
-Hilary - Chapel Hill, NC
“You’re not buying the crappy filler songs on albums, so you can save money by buying only the songs that you like. Because you’re saving money in that manner, you’re able to buy a wider range of music and experiment with different types as well. You can find pretty much anything immediately through digital music stores. Digital music is easier to mix, and its format makes it easier to navigate through songs (as compared to, say, tapes). It’s also much harder to damage digital music than it is to scratch, break, and lose CDs, tapes and albums.”
-Jennifer - Boone, NC
I have gotten a bit stuck on what I wanted to do for this week’s blog post. It is a bit harder to upload an Excel chart to a blog than I thought. Thus I birthed (yes birthed) this blog post out of my subsequent frustration. Anyway these are two random things going on in either the blog-o-sphere and the music world that I have realized are important to note. And hopefully I will figure out how to post my cool Excel chart for next week. I imagine that this wont be the last episode of Random Realizations though… but on to the relevant items!
1) First off thank you to Angela for the article from the News and Observer about vinyl record collectors. My realization stemming from the article is that I have completely neglected record collectors in my recent posts about the future of music. Vinyl is one medium that doesn’t seem to be dying out, in fact the popularity and nostalgia of records seems to be growing. It is one bright spot for the world of hard copy music, many believe the sound quality of vinyl is better than digital copies. My excel post was related to this, so I am not going to get too far into the subject, I have to leave something for you guys to come back to next week.
If you would like to read the story, it can be found here. And thanks again to Angela for the article!
(P.S. While you are in the blog-o-sphere check out Angela’s blog Chapel Hill, China. It’s got some very interesting posts on the situation between Tibet and China among other cool things.)
2) Second Random Realization: (except it really isn’t all that random) It is getting to be that time of year again. That’s right concert festival season. There are several big festivals that have recently released full lineups that are very impressive. Lollapalooza and Coachella seem to be the hot tickets this year. Lollapalooza has secured Rage Against the Machine, Nine Inch Nails, Kanye West and Radiohead to headline (easily my favorite lineup of the summer). Coachella announced yesterday that the “Purple One” himself, Prince, will headline along with Jack Johnson (a very close second runner up only because Prince will be there).
Check out the line ups for all of your favorite summer festivals, so you can sweat it out with thousands of other people to all your favorite bands:
Lollapalooza: Chicago, Illinois, August 1-3
Coachella: Indio, California, April 25-27
Coachella East (All Points West Festival): Liberty State Park, New Jersey, August 8-10
Bonnaroo: Manchester, Tennessee, June 12-15
Bumbershoot: Seattle, Washington, August 30-September 1
Sasquatch: The Gorge, Washington, May 24-26
UPDATE: Ok so, I really have no life at all. So much so that I made a nifty time-line of the major summer music festivals this year with Simile. It only took, like, forever. Please click on each tour and click on the name that pops up for a link to each festival website.
Happy Road Tripping! (Oh and don’t forget to pack the sunscreen!)
It doesn’t take an expert to see that the music industry is struggling. Well comparatively speaking of course. Artists are still becoming millionaires, but record sales are way, way down. Slate.com reported that music sales were down 20% in the first three months of 2007, and the top selling albums were moving 60,000-65,000 copies per week. Those sales would not have even cracked the top 30 in 2005. (Other industries were bitten by the internet bug as well)
It remains to be seen whether the industry will remain, or if musicians will soon have to all be part of the growing population of starving artists.
The debate on whether music downloading is good or bad for the music industry will go on probably forever, but that issue is not the important one. The key will be how artists and labels utilize the internet to it’s advantage. The internet holds many possibilities in a market that has been taken over by iPods and mp3s.
Already experts and artists have begun to discuss and experiment with business plans that utilize what the internet has to offer. Several albums have been released on a tip jar model within the past year. As I have previously mentioned in this blog before, the most notable example is Radiohead’s In Rainbows that was released last fall. They released their album online and offered it for whatever price the person downloading it wanted to pay. So you could pay $20 or nothing and still get the music. Of course they also released the album in stores later on to get sales, but Radiohead tried something new and it was a popular story with media outlets and well received by listeners (though, who doesn’t like good free music?). Rolling Stone went on to call it The Future According to Radiohead in a recent cover story.
It was also a hit with other artists as well, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails (see the snazzy photo above) along with recent Nike commercial soundtrack contributor and hip-hop poet Saul Williams followed suit.
Both Reznor and Williams talked with New York Magazine to talk about the decision. I found what Reznor said to be a very interesting take on the situation:
“I think it’s just an awkward time right now to be a musician. The reality is that people think it’s okay to steal music. There’s a whole generation of people, that’s all they’ve known. I used to buy vinyl. Today, if you do put out a record on a label, traditionally, most people are going to hear it via a leak that happens two weeks — if not two months — before it comes out. There’s no real way around that. I’m truly saddened because I think music has been devalued, so that it’s just a file on your computer, and it’s usually free. But we can’t change that. What we can do is try to offer people the best experience that we can provide them. Will it work? I don’t know. But I think it’s a great way to get music out to people who are interested. At the end of the day, all I care about is the integrity of the music, and that the feeling of those who experience it is as untainted as possible.”
So far the model hasn’t proved to be a success or a failure. No one has released numbers, but the music is getting to a lot of people over the internet legally.
Rick Karr did a story for NPR outlining three other business models that artists are currently using to make money out of their music via the internet. Two are currently viable: searching the internet for a sponsor and using micro-payments from listeners. Neither are hugely profitable, but they are substitutes for major label support. The third is taxing the internet, which may soon be the norm, but right now is not viable because Internet service providers don’t feel they are responsible for the acts of their users. To suggest ISPs should pay for user downloaded music is preposterous to them. However, all three of these ideas are good starts to a solution.
The internet is also forcing bands and labels to think outside of the system of releasing records, in an attempt to minimize the leaks (mentioned by Reznor above). The Raconteurs and Gnarls Barkley released their new albums as a surprise. The Raconteurs released theirs a week after it was announced they had a new album. They did so without the traditional promotional and radio build up. Gnarls Barkley announced they were releasing their album “Now,” a couple weeks before it was originally scheduled.
Blogs are also becoming very popular among musicians, this week Velvet Revolver are on the verge of breaking up over blog posts (Drummer Matt Sorum and Singer Scott Weiland). It’s great when the rock and roll drama finally moves from the stage to the blog-o-sphere, it makes the job of finding out much easier. British musician Lilly Allen established her blog, that is now on her official website, on Myspace way before she had a hit single. Among others artists that have blogs are Rivers Cuomo, Radiohead and multitudes of popular independent musicians (a list of some can be found at fingertips).
Artists and labels are definitely beginning to get out of their traditional box, and are attempting to use their supposed “Kryptonite” to boost sales or just to get the music to the people. It remains to be seen whether these experiments will actually work for the actual business, but at this point it is definitely the thought that counts.
I thought I would do something a little different this week. I decided you guys have probably read enough about the music industry to make your eyeballs fall out. So instead of boring you with another lengthy info session, I chose to spotlight one of my favorite new web features: The Hype Machine.
The Hype Machine is my favorite site on the internet to go to simply because of the first thing they say on their homepage, “Every day, thousands of people around the world write about music they love — and it all ends up here.”
Put simply it is an RSS feeder for a variety of mp3 music blogs. Of course it’s really far from being that simple though, the site tracks various music blogs (too many to count in number, I am sure). When a blog posts an mp3 they take it and post it on their homepage. It also links directly to the blog it got the track from so you can read more about why the blogger chose to post the track. It also provides searches by mp3, blog, artist and almost any other way of searching for music possible.
The mission of the site is to “make music discovery fun and get artists paid,” so tracks are not for download, but you can preview the whole track as many times as you want. Then, if you like it, you can purchase the track using one of the options they provide (Amazon or iTunes) or go out go out and get it yourself. So the blogs get read, the artists get paid, and the readers find music they love. It’s a win/win/win situation for all involved!
What’s even better, is that if you are big music nerd (like myself) you can create a profile and personalize your own Hype Machine homepage. So you can keep track of what all your favorite music blogs are writing and keep track of your favorite tracks and searches.
I recommend checking out the popular feature, it lists the top 50 searched tracks on the site. Click on the pop up player and it plays through all fifty. In fact you can do this with any search you do. Just perform a search, click on the player and you can play through all the mp3’s that come up in the search. It’s like your own personal internet radio (kinda like Pandora Radio, except you have more freedom to choose a track list and access feedback from the music blogging universe).
Well I need to calm myself down now, The Hype Machine just gets me all excited.
Happy Hype Machining!
Happy spring break to everyone! I hope you all had an enjoyable vacation. What, not all of you went on spring break last week? Sorry about that, your’s will come in due time, but for now it’s back to business.
Venues. Breaking into the music scene can be as simple as scoring the right gig at the right venue at the right time. Which, turns out, is not so simple at all. Getting a gig at a prominent venue can be pretty hard.
I asked Brian Landrum, an employee at The Grey Eagle in Asheville, NC, how many booking requests they get on average each month. He said, “Too many. Honestly somewhere in the neighborhood of 100-120 requests per month from agents, performers, and independent promoters. Maybe 20-24 of those will end up being shows.”
“It’s a saturated market to say the least.”
The Grey Eagle is a smaller and more intimate club, but similar venues that are larger such as Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill and The Orange Peel in Asheville, get more requests than that. I attempted to contact several other venues, but my guess is that their e-mail and voice mail boxes are filled with booking requests. Thus my attempts were jumbled in with everything else.
Just via looking at websites of listening room type venues, it seems that the number one concern of all venues is that a band has a local fan base. Not many venues offer what is called a “built in crowd” or a crowd that will just show up no matter who is playing. Those are usually only offered by bars that double as a music venue. For a new artist those are the types of venues to seek out.
The Grey Eagle website specifically states: “The Grey Eagle is a destination location: an artist must already have some ‘marquee value’ in the Asheville area in order to perform here.” In other words to play at this venue, you gotta be able to fill the space with your fans in order to gain a gig.
Getting a gig is hard. A band just starting out has to start off small, for example in bars and at festivals where there will be a built in crowd. Even then a band has to prove that their music is something that people would want to hear.
From personal experience (however unsuccessful it was), local bars are a good place to start out. The crowds can be rough at times, but if you mix in enough of your own group of rowdy friends you wont be able to tell the difference. Festivals are fun too, but you can’t guarantee that people are going to be listening. The festival goes may be too involved with their cotton candy or a glass blowing demonstration.
Two main points: Start Local and Start Small. Building up a large fan base is key to scoring that gig at a major local venue.
I’m still asking around about tips and tricks in venues so another post on this subject will be coming soon. If you have any hints or tips at getting a gig or dealing with venues, bars or festivals leave them in the comment section.
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The Recording Industry Association of America (or RIAA) is “the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry. Its mission is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members’ creative and financial vitality.” This statement is directly from the about us section of their website (which is I linked to above).
But this is not about what the RIAA does, but more about how they affect you and your music listening. Found below are five frequently asked questions about the RIAA and downloading music (99% of which is ILLEGAL in any way shape or form, sorry about that).
1. The simple question: Is downloading music off the internet really illegal even though it is so simple and easy to do?
As stated earlier, YES. The only exceptions being if you got your music from Trent Rezner, Radiohead or the public domain. Both Trent and Radiohead gave away albums via the choose your own price economic model, aka you can get it for free or donate some money to your favorite artist for their work. The public domain is made up of works whose copyright has run out and therefore anyone can obtain it.
2. Can the RIAA sue me for downloading music (even just one song)?
Yes. Yes. Yes. and Yes. The odds, however, are in your favor IF you have disabled the sharing properties on your file sharing client. The RIAA tend to target people who are taking active roles in sharing the music via Peer to Peer (P2P) file sharing networks or via Torrents. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has provided a very good resource called “How not to get sued for file sharing.” You know, just in case you may be guilty of any infractions.
3. How can I find music that is legal to download?
There are certain places to find legal downloads of music. Most notably from pay sites such as iTunes and Rhapsody (Correction: Rhapsody is a free service but like the ones below you cannot access the songs outside of their site). There are alternatives to free downloads though. Here are three of my personal favorite sites for finding great free/legal music. These don’t allow you to download the music to your computer, but they provide great quality music and services.
A)Hype Machine: an mp3 blog site where users can upload music.
B)Pandora: a personalized internet radio website.
C)Myspace: however high school -ish Myspace may be, in reality it is a great tool for artists of all types to get the word out on their music.
4. Is using a peer to peer (such as Limewire or BitTorrent) network illegal?
Not at all. No matter how much their use slows down your PC, the programs aren’t illegal to use when sharing non-copyrighted material. What is illegal is exchanging copyrighted material over the networks. Copyrighted material is described by the U.S. Copyright Office as “‘original works of authorship’ that are fixed in a tangible form of expression.” So pretty much, if you don’t have permission from the artist to share it or if it isn’t in the public domain, it’s probably protected by a copyright.
5. Why is the RIAA suing people who download music, I’m just trying to enjoy it?
No matter how backwards their thinking may be, (the music industry suing music fans isn’t the best way to sell records) the artists have to make money somehow. File sharing has been blamed for the decrease in album sales since 2000. Put this way: who was the last artist to go platinum (sell a million records)? Nickelback, Carrie Underwood and Mariah Carey were the last three to do it back in 2005. It’s been two years since the last platinum record. Another perspective, no one has surpassed 12 million in sales since 1999.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill conducted a 2004 study in pdf format on how downloads have affected record sales. You can read their long version there or read this Washington Post article that give you the general gist of the study. I don’t think the RIAA was very happy to hear the results of the Harvard and UNC studies.
Have any other questions that I didn’t answer??? Send them in!
Until next time keep on keeping on and go out and visit your local record stores before they close. School Kids Records in Chapel Hill, NC has announced that it is closing after 30 years of business. The closing has been partially blamed on the rise in music downloading.
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So magazines do album reviews. Most notably Rolling Stone focuses all on music and does reviews as well. But have you ever wondered how they review an album before it comes out to everyone else. I know I always have.
Here is usually how it works. Typically record companies send out demo records for reviewers before the album is released so the band and album can get press coverage. They do this in the hope that the record will sell more records.
Well, this process is now on display. Mainly because Maxim magazine recently used questionable methods in reviewing the upcoming Black Crowes album.
(Yes the Black Crowes that are mainly famous because their front man was previously married to this lovely lady)
Apparently Maxim reviewed the entire yet to be released album (giving it a disappointing two and a half circles) by only listening to the one song posted on the band’s website. The Black Crowes had not released a demo album for reviewers to hear and were obviously not happy with the magazine’s imagination of what their album will be like.
The apology by Maxim via cnn. The subsequent rejection of the apology via Stereogum.
Later this week: spotlight on the Recording Industry Association of America.
Should be fun.
Now that the Grammys are over with (at least for most of us) it is time to get to the meat and potatoes of this blog. By meat and potatoes I mean it’s time to get down to exploring the nuts and bolts of this hook-machine we call the music industry.
I have already given you an intro to this blog, but for the next half page of text and links I will give you the major players in the music industry and their roles. Note I said major players, not all the players. Keep in mind their are many people who play important roles, but they fall under these main categories. I’m really just making sure that after you read this, you still have time to do your laundry and take out the trash. Just kidding.
Editor’s note: if you are an emerging artist or have little faith in what I am about to tell you, read this article by industry veteran David Byrne via wired.com. It is one of the best articles I have read on the current state of everything in the music industry. For the quick version keep your browser in the open and bright position.
Now on to the content!
To start things out there are five major components to the music industry: the artists, the music labels, the tour promoters, the venues and the fans.
*All of the links are examples of each in relation to the popular band The Police (except the venue, that was wishful thinking on my part).
Artists
This is where the music industry begins. The artist creates the music, fans listen to music. Artists who want to make money turn their recordings and concerts into a profit by selling records, merchandise and concert tickets. Thus a music industry is born!
Record Labels
There are currently four major labels that dominate this area of the industry (Sony BMG, EMI, Universal and Warner). If an artist gains enough fan support and what music people call “buzz” a label may take notice to an artist and sign them. Once an artist is signed to a label, their lives are over because they have signed their souls over to the devil. (Actually that isn’t true, but many music fans out there would compare signing to a major label as making a deal with Lucifer himself.)
Labels essentially provide money and marketing support for artists so they can focus on making music and not on everything else. Studio time, producers, marketing, records, tours, etc are all funded by a label once an artist is signed to a label. Without a label all of these costs would have to come straight out of the artist’s pocket.
Music labels (especially the big four) have been called many bad names in their days. It is safe to say that music labels deal much more with the business end of the music business than with the music. This has led to the bad reputation that many labels have.
If my explanation of music contracts didn’t suffice here is a much more in depth source: How stuff works.
Tour Promoters
Tour promoters have recently become a large player in the music industry. They promote, plan and execute all the intricacies involved in creating tours. Live Nation, an off-shoot of radio giant Clear Channel Communications, has been making huge splashes in the music industry for the number of tours they produce each year. Artists have even begun to sign contracts with companies more geared at tour promotion. Live Nation has now created their label division called Artist Nation. The first artist to sign with Artist Nation: Madonna.
Venues
This is where the fans and the artists get together. Without venues there would be no concerts in which musicians can make significant money. There is always playing on the street, but even that is considered a venue to an extent.
Strict definitions aside, venues usually take a percentage of the ticket fee as well as a percentage of the food sold. And like a good buddy should, the venue shares what is left with the artist. Who gets what percentage of what can vary widely depending on how big the artist is and how many fans show up to the show. Everything is agreed to before hand in either a contract or verbal agreement.
Merchandise sales are the only thing that a percentage is not split between the artist and the venue. The artist typically gets all of that money. (But keep in mind, if an artist belongs to a label they also get a portion of the money as well as the tour managers, the roadies, each band member,etc…. it is a business after all)
Fans
When I said the artists are where the music industry begins… yeah I lied. The music industry really begins with the fans. Without the music fans, there would still be music, but there would be no music industry. To be able to make money on music you have to find an audience to sell it to. So without you, me and all the other music fans out there the artists would have no income. That being said, go out and support your favorite artists. Go to a show, buy a cd or other merchandise, because that is how they make their money. Go, now!
If you didn’t listen and are still there you can find a pretty thorough history of the music industry on Wikipedia. It’s fairly long, but quite rewarding.
And for kicks and giggles read this article on the music industry in the ’90s put out by the UK Times.
Until next time, Adios!
