I was thinking about this today when i was talking to a friend "Candice Pillay" who is based in LA and she broke in as a model and now has released a Mix Tape CD through her Myspace account this past february and to date has sold about 50,000 of them. It made me think, what is really the point of a label at this point? And what would happen if they all folded? seriously think about it, how many of your favorite artists would sell their stuff and manufacture their own stuff? I know we think that all our artists could do this, but seriously think about your favorites, could they manage it?

lastdecember said:

I think we would see a better improvement in true artistry and musicianship.

lastdecember said:

It would probably depend on whether said "artists" were doing it for the love of the music or the celebrity status.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

or commercial reasons ($$)

In today's market it would probably be a good thing. THey've obviously shown they don't know their asses from their elbows about business the way they carry on about downloading and the artists they promote.

But it used to be that a label was a trusted "gatekeeper" for talent. You knew that if an artist was signed to a major label, they had to have SOME kind of talent. THat's something I'll definitely miss because with all these cottage industry bands out there, there's an overwhelming majority of crap.

cubic61052 said:

they're all doing it for commercial reasons. otherwise, it's called a hobby.

But an artist that can sell 50,000 of their cd off their Myspace site is making more than an artist topping the charts with a label, thats the issue. My thing is how many of "Artists" would even be able to sell their stuff online and have the know how and patience to do that, without a labels machinery, honestly i dont think very many would have it in them to do it.

lastdecember said:

Maybe I should have been a little more specific.

The ones that are in it for love the art will put out the extra effort involved to make it work.
The ones that are in it for the celebrity status and are used to having label staff handle all the extra work involved will be to lazy to make it work.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

I would dance the Holy Ghost dance like I was in my daddys Pentecostal Church. These labels are the reason why the industry is in the toilet. They need to GO!!

lastdecember said:

If an artist can sell 50,000 CDs on their own, they are doing EXTREMELY well. Most well-known acts only get about 1 dollar per CD sold by a label, but someone selling them online themselves might keep 10 bucks per CD. Sure, they're selling fewer units, but making more PER unit.

Most artists out today are really in it for the fame - not in it for music's sake at all. Seems like everyone does music to get their foot in the door for acting roles.
[Edited 5/11/07 15:57pm]

From my experience, musicians are shitty businessmen, you'd have to have somebody helping the artists with the business end of it. IRS will come knocking when you start making money so you had better know how to play the game.

This would apply to all of the new artists and 50,000 cd's may help pay the bills but the real money isn't in mix tapes but live performances and merchandising. Some real non-talent bands figured this out a long time ago and are still rich moving the product.

Labels should either reinvent themselves as something else within the age of new media or go away like many business will.

How can I find a job within this changing environment?

theAudience said:

Exactly. But some of these artists (especially today's rap) are in it for the money & the sex. That's it. They don't care if their "hit songs" become classics decades later or not.

theAudience said:

TonyVanDam said:

honestly, most of the songs that do become classics decades later were written with that intention in mind. they've become classics because they were written to be hits. of course, those songs were based on good expressing universal emotions with extremely catchy melodies, so i'm not saying that today's "hits" are necessarily all going to be classics. but i think when any pop becomes too self-consciously arty and is aiming at being a classic for the ages that it's doomed to fail, and it usually does.


the classics were all written with "hit" in mind.

RZR said:

No necessarily..... ars gratia artis