jeff

I had a totally weird conversation with the head of A&R at one of the major labels last week. I had expressed interest in one of the bands that his label dropped due to budget constraints. He was a good guy and felt pretty awful about having to let go so many artists with whom he enjoyed working. We didn't talk specifics, but it seemed like there were dozens of artists that the label released from their contracts. It must be a pretty tough to receive a call as an artist when you learn that you have to start from scratch...

I thought about the conversation a bit more over the weekend and I began to wonder if getting dropped were really that bad of a situation. I started thinking about all of the great artists that have been able to have successful self-releases - maybe not "successful" from the perspective of a major, but certainly a profitable situation and one where the artist gets FULL CONTROL of creative direction in the release of his or her music as ART. I then remembered checking out Cake's show in Golden Gate Park about a year ago. In front of a fairly mainstream crowd of several thousand folks, their lead singer, John McCrea, announced that the band had "successfully extricated" itself from their major label deal. The crowd went wild... it was totally bizarre (and great) to see the fans in support of a multi-platinum band moving to the next phase of its career, but as a free agent.

More and more, I hear stories of bands achieving "success" but on their own terms and by their own definition - not necessarily selling tons of albums, but simply maintaining a sustainable business. Major labels today work for mainstream crap that lends itself to being shoved down people's throats in large volumes. So it's not surprising to hear most artists also say that they've never made money selling music - they make money mainly through sales of tickets and merchandise. In the old days, bands would go on tour in order to promote album sales. Today, many artists today give away their music in order to promote their shows...

So what happens to the artists that are in the middle of the pyramid - who have real fans, but can't or choose not to sell a million units? Maybe it's within this artist "middle class" (for lack of a better term) that we will see a new breed of truly incredible music. Promotion will be done primarily via word of mouth... distribution will be mainly on the web... and much of the music will be free... These artists will find new ways to make money and sustain their careers. The artist middle class will be a group of people that possess not only creative capabilities, but also solid business acumen. It's happening already and it seems that as the traditional label model dies, there are a whole lot of opportunities that await these artists who take their careers into their own hands...