The Future of Music Careers (pt 1)
http://www.called2music.com/articles/5/1/The-Future-of-Music-Careers-pt-1/Page1.html
Peter Spellman
Peter Spellman is director of career development at Berklee College of Music, Boston, and founder of Music Business Solutions, a training resource for music entrepreneurs. He is the author of "The Self-Promoting Musician," "Indie Power," and several other music career guides.
By Peter Spellman
Published on 01/5/2007
The beginning of a new year is a good time to reflect on where things are at and where things may be going in our industry. A few of my colleagues have expressed their views on "industry trends" and, as usual, their insights were penetrating and refreshing.
THE NEW MUSIC ECONOMY
I hope both musicians and industry careerists will gather some guidance for setting their sails amidst the mercurial waves of a transforming entertainment business.
First, some noise from the trenches:
* Of the 27,000 albums released last year by the recording industry, less than 5000 sold over 1000 units.
* Since 1988 only 16 classical albums have sold more than a million copies in the United States; five of them were put out by Victoria's Secret.
* The source of most music listening hours is neither Cds nor radio; it's video games.
* When pop star Sting needed a marketing partner for his 2000 album release he chose Compaq Computer.
* "Ten years ago, rock musicians would never listen to dance music and dance musicians would never listen to classical music. Now, most of the rock musicians I know own samplers and most classical composers I know also are listening to dance music." -- Moby
* Worldwide entertainment and media spending will reach $1.4 trillion by 2006, (PriceWaterhouseCoopers).
The news is good and bad. We're seeing nothing less than a global restructuring of the economy. This isn't a brief shudder; the organizational structures of the last century are being torn apart. Business worlds are deconstructing and reconstructing. Everything is blurred, fuzzy and vague. And the meanings of 'work' , 'career' and 'job' are being re-written.
We're also witnessing (and feeling the effects of) the end and beginning of the music business. Like humans, industries pass through developmental stages: birth, youth, maturity and death (or transformation). Our industry grew rapidly, matured, plateaued and is now in the throes of transformation.
How successful this transformation will be depends on how creatively the musical industrial complex can dance with the changes. Unfortunately, so much of the music industry is beholden to corporate owners itchy for corporate-size profits and driven by rigid corporate imperatives.
This wrecks havoc with "artist development"; it wrecks havoc with business development, and necessitates high turnover of both artists and employees. Complicating industry maturation is an event no one saw coming: a new distribution channel called the Internet. The big labels are contracting as a vast Web is spinning around them.
The Internet is both threatening to take the rug of necessity out from under vast sectors of the traditional music business AND providing musicians and songwriters with direct access to global audiences. All of this adds up to a picture today where it is no less risky to "go indie" than to "get signed", signed, that is, as an artist or as an employee.
Choosing to go indie is exploding across all industries not just music. We need only think of indie film or book publishing. Independence is a mark of the times we're living in. We are profoundly on our own in this milieu. And that's the rub. We're beginning to accept that we will never return to the more static, less opportunity-rich but also more comforting world in which most of us were raised.
The changes we're living through are both permanent and dynamic. The real social revolution of the last 30 years is the switch from a life that is largely organized for us to a world in which we are all forced to be in charge of our own destiny. That's the scary challenge. And also the exciting opportunity.
Today we have three different music 'industries' developing side by side: The mainstream pop/rock business, which will continue to market established stars like Celine Dion and Whitney Houston.
The chaotic illegal record business, involving at one extreme pirates and bootleggers, at another experimental and political artists refusing to accept the restraints of copyright law; and in between the usual variety of pirate broadcasters, home digital distributors, and so forth.
The indie, genre music scenes, local players connected through web sites and digital radio, but commercial in their niche, making enough money to go on making music but not necessarily seeking to play 'the game" of ever-increasing ladder-climbing success.
The first industry is contracting; the second is and always will be present; and the third is poised for quantum development.
The lesson: Unless you're seeking Britney Spears-level fame, then avoid the major labels and prove yourself in the independent sphere first.
Someday you may want to partner with a major company (record company or otherwise) but, for now, focus on creating your own success, building your value, maintaining control of your career and music trajectories, following your muse and your spreadsheets with utter dedication and focus.
First, some noise from the trenches:
* Of the 27,000 albums released last year by the recording industry, less than 5000 sold over 1000 units.
* Since 1988 only 16 classical albums have sold more than a million copies in the United States; five of them were put out by Victoria's Secret.
* The source of most music listening hours is neither Cds nor radio; it's video games.
* When pop star Sting needed a marketing partner for his 2000 album release he chose Compaq Computer.
* "Ten years ago, rock musicians would never listen to dance music and dance musicians would never listen to classical music. Now, most of the rock musicians I know own samplers and most classical composers I know also are listening to dance music." -- Moby
* Worldwide entertainment and media spending will reach $1.4 trillion by 2006, (PriceWaterhouseCoopers).
The news is good and bad. We're seeing nothing less than a global restructuring of the economy. This isn't a brief shudder; the organizational structures of the last century are being torn apart. Business worlds are deconstructing and reconstructing. Everything is blurred, fuzzy and vague. And the meanings of 'work' , 'career' and 'job' are being re-written.
We're also witnessing (and feeling the effects of) the end and beginning of the music business. Like humans, industries pass through developmental stages: birth, youth, maturity and death (or transformation). Our industry grew rapidly, matured, plateaued and is now in the throes of transformation.
How successful this transformation will be depends on how creatively the musical industrial complex can dance with the changes. Unfortunately, so much of the music industry is beholden to corporate owners itchy for corporate-size profits and driven by rigid corporate imperatives.
This wrecks havoc with "artist development"; it wrecks havoc with business development, and necessitates high turnover of both artists and employees. Complicating industry maturation is an event no one saw coming: a new distribution channel called the Internet. The big labels are contracting as a vast Web is spinning around them.
The Internet is both threatening to take the rug of necessity out from under vast sectors of the traditional music business AND providing musicians and songwriters with direct access to global audiences. All of this adds up to a picture today where it is no less risky to "go indie" than to "get signed", signed, that is, as an artist or as an employee.
Choosing to go indie is exploding across all industries not just music. We need only think of indie film or book publishing. Independence is a mark of the times we're living in. We are profoundly on our own in this milieu. And that's the rub. We're beginning to accept that we will never return to the more static, less opportunity-rich but also more comforting world in which most of us were raised.
The changes we're living through are both permanent and dynamic. The real social revolution of the last 30 years is the switch from a life that is largely organized for us to a world in which we are all forced to be in charge of our own destiny. That's the scary challenge. And also the exciting opportunity.
Today we have three different music 'industries' developing side by side: The mainstream pop/rock business, which will continue to market established stars like Celine Dion and Whitney Houston.
The chaotic illegal record business, involving at one extreme pirates and bootleggers, at another experimental and political artists refusing to accept the restraints of copyright law; and in between the usual variety of pirate broadcasters, home digital distributors, and so forth.
The indie, genre music scenes, local players connected through web sites and digital radio, but commercial in their niche, making enough money to go on making music but not necessarily seeking to play 'the game" of ever-increasing ladder-climbing success.
The first industry is contracting; the second is and always will be present; and the third is poised for quantum development.
The lesson: Unless you're seeking Britney Spears-level fame, then avoid the major labels and prove yourself in the independent sphere first.
Someday you may want to partner with a major company (record company or otherwise) but, for now, focus on creating your own success, building your value, maintaining control of your career and music trajectories, following your muse and your spreadsheets with utter dedication and focus.