The State Of The Music Industry And How It Affects EVERYONE - Read Carefully!

David Lower (co-founder of alternative rock acts Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker), recently shared with the world a lengthy, detailed overview of the hard times that EVERYONE within the music industry is facing in a big part due to "new" technologies that have completely changed the way the public gains access to NEW releases and their favorite artists.

Here are some of the VERY valid points he made:

1) No, artists can't simply tour and sell t-shirts.

It doesn't work.  In fact, shockingly few indie artists can pull this off, except for those developed at some point by the major labels (ie, Amanda Palmer) or a serious group of professionals.  Most of the others that are managing to squeak out a living on the road are doing it with great difficulty and are working non-stop.

2) The recording is now effectively worth $0; its surrounding ecosystem has collapsed.

Some people buys CDs.  Less purchase vinyl.  iTunes downloads are still increasing.  But averaged across all formats and personal valuations, the recording has effectively become worthless.  And that has had drastic repercussions for the music industry, and the lives of otherwise creative and productive artists. 

3) Spotify is not a beneficial solution for artists.  Certainly not right now, and quite possibly, never.

Will Spotify ever put a meal on an artist's table?  That's extremely speculative.  Sure, it might eventually mimic Sweden-like penetration in the US.  But that is not happening right now; it's not a fair solution for artists right now.  Instead, it is shuttling people like CEO Daniel Ek towards stratospheric riches, fattening major labels, and potentially giving Goldman Sachs bankers another joyride.

4) Kickstarter will mean something to artists in the future, but only to a relative few.

Amanda Palmer may hold the world record for a long time, but there will be other Kickstarter stories.  Some will come out of nowhere, most will involve previously-established artists, particularly those already developed by a major label or similar entity.  This will not replace the vast financing once offered by recording labels.

5) DIY is rarely effective, and almost always gets drowned by the flood of competing content.

It doesn't matter if you're singing directly into the ear of your prospective fan.  Because they're listening to Spotify on Dre headphones while texting and playing Angry Birds.   Some can cut through, but most cannot without serious teams, serious top-level marketing and serious media muscle.  Justin Bieber ultimately needed the machine, no matter how beautifully his YouTube story gets spun.

6) Sadly, most artists are worse off in the digital era than they were in the physical era. 

Actually, we have David Lowery himself to thank for this realization.  Because the implosion of the recording has impacted nearly every other aspect of music monetization (though certainly not music creativity itself.)  And its replacement is generally a fraction of what a 'lucky' artist could expect in an earlier era.

Again, all great for fans like Emily White, but not so great for everyone else.

7) Younger people mostly do not buy music; they do buy hardware and access. 

They gravitate towards free digital content, and occassionally pay for things like concerts when they have the money.  Emily White isn't a fourteen year-old, she's a young adult that probably doesn't want the morality trip.  And neither does anyone else - regardless of the generation. 

8) Older people buy less music than before; they more frequently buy hardware and access.

If you really want to sell a marked-up bundle, make another Susan Boyle.  It's still a market that doesn't revolve around free music and constant fan contact.  But older people file-trade, they stream, they steal and they buy less than before.

9) Google is a major part of the problem.

Lowery is right.  Google is not interested in protecting content creators; their interests lie elsewhere.  Copyright is a nuisance to them, unless it involves their own code and algorithms.  In fact, anything beyond the DMCA erodes their ability to serve customers, remain competitive, and make money. Which is why the Pirate Bay is one of the 'hottest' searches, and why adding 'mp3' to any artist search produces pages and pages of results. 

10) You are a major part of the problem.

Just because it's legal, doesn't mean it's helping musicians.  It's not file-trading, but the payouts on Spotify, Pandora, Turntable.fm, or whatever else are shockingly low.  It's a rounding error, towards 0. The paradox is that music fans are living in abundance, while artists are barely getting scraps. 

11) Google, the ISPs, and hardware manufacturers have won.

It doesn't matter how brutal the war with Hollywood becomes; how many Dotcom mansions get raided.  Music fans aren't going to start buying albums again; in fact, beyond the playlist, the concept of pre-packaged bundling will become increasingly foreign to newer generations. 

It's not about who's right, it's now the world the entire music community lives in.

12) Everyone lies about stealing.

I've only heard a few people actually admit to file-trading: my close friends, Bob Lefsetz, and Sergey Brin.  If you have an iTunes collection of more than a few thousand songs, you've almost certainly swapped, torrented, or swapped hard drives in your life.  And almost everyone has a collection of a few thousand songs.

13) Mass-marketed, 'lottery winner' style successes will continue.

Niches are available and sometimes responsive; more often, top-down mass marketing wins.  And most musicians are playing extremely bad odds.

14)  This ISN'T the best time to be in the music industry. 

Conferences like MIDEM make money off this sort of Kool-Aid optimism.  But I work in the music business right now; I was at a major label in the late 90s.  And the reality is that this is the greatest time ever for fans, but definitely NOT the best time for those trying to make money from those fans.  And as David Lowery so darkly described, it can be one incredibly depressing trip for even a 'successful' artist. 

That's the reality we now live in, and you really have David Lowery to thank for making it obvious. But what do you think about all of this? Leave your comments below.

Related links:
David Lowery.com

PRESIDENT Randy Blythe Has A Message For People Who Don't Support Major Acts Since They Don't Want To Feed The "Corporate Machine"; Read Carefully!

LAMB OF GOD's Randy Blythe is an avid Twitter user, and his rants are famous within the Heavy Music Twitheads. Recently, Randy took it upon himself to discuss the state of the recording industry and how even established artists like MARILYN MANSON struggle to sell records. Here are Randy's Twits of wisdom:

"So Marilyn Manson’s new record debuted at #10 with just over 38k sold, including iTunes. He released it independently on his own record. This is a guy with 3 platinum records, 3 gold, 5 top 10 debuts including two NUMBER ONE RECORDS in the US.

"He also has a HUGE CULT FOLLOWING. A #10 record? 38,000 sold first week for arguably one of the biggest “underground” type acts? IT’S FUCKING PATHETIC. The industry is DYING.

"All the people who argue about not feeding the record labels, the corporate machine, etc, about how artists should just release their albums THEMSELVES and THE FANS, THE REAL UNDERGROUND FANS will back them to support the artists? There is your fucking answer.

"I don’t listen to MM but dude has credibility for making his own artistic choices. He hasn't released a record in 3 years & his fans, his HUGE ASS FAN BASE, could only chart 38k records? That’s fucked up- MM is a MUCH LARGER BAND than LOG, & we outsold him by over 10k 1st week. Not because we have gotten bigger, but because we had a label, a promotional machine behind us. So so much for the “release it yourself & we will support the artist” “and not the greedy corporate label pigs” theory. Amazing.

"MM is rich as fuck, & this won’t put him in the poorhouse by any means, but if a huge-ass Rock star like him can only sell 38k records 1st week, RELEASING IT HIMSELF, then how are the bands putting out their FIRST record when nobody knows who they are supposed to survive? Don’t cry for me, Argentina- I can tour til the cows come home & pay my bills.

"But I feel sorry for the young bands. Good luck guys & gals- yer gonna need it. “Support the artists no the labels…” GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE.”

Related links:
Randy Blythe's Blog
Lamb Of God
Lamb Of God of Facebook

The State of the Music Industry

We recently found out that SoundScan had the lowest numbers in history! SoundScan, for those of you who don't know, was created by Nielsen Media in order to track the number of record sales. This is how the Billboard Charts gathers the statistics they use to create their famous music charts. It is also how record labels keep track of the records they are pushing. You may be asking yourself how does this affect the artists, the fans and the record labels.

The way the record industry works has changed drastically since the Digital Music era took over in the late 90's. Before the Digital era, people were forced to buy music, and people would listen to the radio or watch MTV to find about new artists. People would also go to a record store to buy some music. You would also give music to others through music vouchers. And going to a concert was always a big deal. What happened to all of this?

When Compact Disc technology was introduced in the 80's it was seen as a huge step up, since it meant that more data could be stored in a smaller device. The technology also gave the user the power to browse through the tracks of a CD in a quick and efficient manner. This was all very positive until the technology got ahead of itself and all of a sudden you could burn your own CD's. Exchanging music is a great way to find new artists, and many of us would create mix tapes for our friends in order to teach team about new artists. The problem with CD burning is that people started abusing the technology, specially once the file sharing websites like Napster became the way most people got their music. In other words, the need to purchase music or to listen to the radio or watch MTV, became irrelevant.

Around the end of the 90's the record industry saw a big decline in sales, but were still able to keep record sales at a decent level. Mainly because the generation of the 90's was used to buying music and going to concerts. So even though free music was available, people were still investing money in the music industry. Then it all went downhill at the turn of the century with the introduction of MP3 players, since it became very easy to store a lot of music in a small device. At that time the record industry took a Mike Tyson punch to the stomach and hasn't been able to recover.


You may be wondering what happened to Tower Records, Virgin Megastore and all the big record stores that helped the music industry prevail for so long. They all had to close down because people were not buying music. Before Virgin Megastore closed in Union Square here in New York City, you would see people wandering the store, looking at music and rarely would you see people buying records. Part of it has to do with the economic crisis, the other part has to do with file sharing, but the key factor is that record prices had to go up in order for the music industry to stay afloat. So what now?

The record labels are on a bind because if people don't support the artists they need to push, then the record sales are low and they have no money to break new bands. This is why record labels nowadays have to compromise when signing new talent. Roadrunner Records for example has been signing established acts such as Kenny Wayne Shepherd and The Steve Miller Band in order to prevail. As we all know Roadrunner Records had a huge influence on the Heavy Music scene in the 90's and signed bands such as Slipknot, Fear Factory, Sepultura and Machine Head. While they would like to sign new bands, the market place is closing the doors to new bands. Why?

Thanks to the Digital era it became too easy to create a record with Pro Tools and to distribute it to the world through websites like My Space. As a result, there are way too many mediocre bands and people are getting used to it. This is sad because people are not caring about the quality of the music as much as they should. So when a new record comes out, people have either heard it already thanks to the internet or they simply shut it off since they expect another mediocre record. So why won't mainstream radio and TV stations help the music industry like they did in the 90's? Well, since there is no demand from the public for new artists, they can't afford to play new artists. What can be done?

It is imperative for people to become more aware of the consequences that getting music for free has and not attending concerts have on the entire music industry. The artists who are looking for a break need to apply the old school philosophy of getting on the road and playing anywhere they can, specially when labels are looking for a band that will bring in revenue from the get go. The fans need to buy music and merchandise, and also attend concerts. Otherwise, the big labels will have to shut down and the concert tickets will get more expensive since there will be less bands around. And with the economic crisis in effect, then the labels will have to drop bands or simply shut down. It is a domino effect and it is killing the music industry. And really hurting the underground Heavy Music scene.

Related links:
Billboard Charts