Entertainment For Lively Minds
Small fish, big pond...
Much has been written - and I dare say a whole heap more will be - about the collapse of the music industry as we know it. However most of it, naturally enough, seems to centre around the biggies of the business but I've seen precious few articles concerning the effect of the digital revolution on smaller labels.
What chance of artists getting their music heard beyond the environs of myspace and their ilk without advertising budgets and pluggers toiling away on their behalf. Is this going to make the tiny labels tinier still - or is this finally their day?
I say this as I'm about to put out a record on a small label in a few months time and whilst I'm not expecting to be able to fund a new collection of polo ponies it'd be nice to be able to buy the older, ailing ones the occasional sugar lump.
Can a living be made if you haven't already established a large fan base? Maybe I'd better hang onto that paper round just in case...
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Work hard
I think the answer is the traditional route of getting out there and working - do lots of gigs! Flogging CDs at gigs is a good route. But you have to work hard. I too am a keen muso/writer etc but all of other priorities get in the way of being out playing 4 or 5 night a week which I think is what you have to do.
Also I think you have to think about all the dimensions - musicians these days do a bit of teaching, a bit of writing (as in prose not music), heaven help them, even some regular work, sound engineering etc etc - the old portfolio working idea - then I think you can make a living, but it is hard work.
It is more democratic now
Which in theory would mean that it opens more chances for more people. However, business adapts and it will soon develop strategies to control the supply of music again.
For instance, I had an email from Weezer today saying that if I pre-order their new album on iTunes, I will get exclusive access to gig tickets first.
5 years ago, iTunes look like a fresh new appraoch to music. Now it looks like a business striving to develop a near monopoly on the supply of music.
Might be worth...
...listening to this chat with Jon Webster of the Music Managers Forum where he touches upon this very subject.
No-one owes you a living
While it would be lovely to earn a decent crust doing something you love it isn't always possible and there's no law that says musicians - no matter how good they are - should be able to get money for what they do.
Small indie labels are all very nice and cosy but at the end of the day if they don't make money then they have to either absorb an operating loss somehow or fold.
Perhaps if more people went into the business with a no illusions about making money from the outset then we'de get some more interesting, persoanl and experimental stuff being released.
A decent crust..
Thanks for those responses - I am aware that nobody owes me anything at all. Up til incredibly recently it's been nigh on impossible to make a record without incurring large costs (if you wanted it to sound halfway decent) but that has now changed and the laptop/bedroom artists are everywhere. I think this is hugely positive as it brings the old homemade DIY punk rock ethic right back into focus... if it's good music (now there's a subjective term) it'll get heard... but making a living?
What you are saying about small labels being 'very nice and cosy' is really patronising and actually quite contradictory. If you want 'more interesting, personal and experimental stuff' then who do you think is going to provide it - EMI, Warners? No it's the small labels, isn't it?
Our last record sold about 5,000 worldwide, about 20% of which was downloads. We're on a 50/50 split (try getting those terms on a major - haha) after costs so I am making some money but not quite enough to pay all my bills - it's enabled us to make the next one which is something. That was 4 years ago and I'm curious to see how things have changed in that time. Beyond all recognition as far as i can tell.
I started playing music because that's what I do - of course I've had countless shit jobs but have managed to avoid that for the last 10 years by producing stuff for other people, doing the odd bit of ad music and just started doing library music for another company as well.
People don't go 'into the music business' - they make music and then find that the only way to get other people to hear that music is to have to tangle with the most appallingly insincere onerous twats that they'll ever have the misfortune to encounter.. and of course the hilarious part is... they're all failed musicians themselves!
It's a means to an end rather than some glamour trip - believe me, most jobs I've done have involved far less graft, determination, ups (occasional) and downs (too many to mention) than all of them put together.
Good for you
Good luck with it!
Seconded...
When I tconsider a few of my muso friends who are earning a crust through music as their primary source of income, slogging it out on the independent and folk circuit I can only think how cushy my office based job is. Just thinking of the huge number of road miles a couple of chums chalk up over the course of a year - Edwina Hayes and driving-without-due-care-and-attention ukeist Victoria Vox - with gigs averaging three or four nights a week... no way I could hack what they do to make a living.
This year both have been regularly touring, Victoria playing solo in bars and coffee-shops around the States (and coming over to the UK and France in May/June), and Edwina bashing the A-roads of the UK playing in folk clubs, pubs, art centres or suporting other artists.
Coincidentally, both have self-financed and produced their own albums this year, Edwina's "Pour Me A Drink" and Victoria's "Chameleon", which serve as a further income stream through selling via their websites and at the end of gigs. Both have taken the "proper" small independent studio route rather than the "bedroom portastudio" route and the results speak for themselves - proper professional sounding recordings of songs honed and crafted live on the road.
Both are making a modest living (neither's going to be retiring to the Bahamas on their own private island any time soon). Perhaps they are two examples of an aspect of the new paradigm working out in practice. Whatever, they basically have my eternal admiration for their sheer guts and hard work in making a go of it.
If anyone's interested in checking them out live or on CD/download you can hear their music on...
http://www.myspace.com/edwinahayes or http://www.myspace.com/victoriavox and while you're there just take a gander at their "Upcoming Shows" lsitings. Respect!
Food for thought (well, a quick snack)
5,000 sales worldwide? I don't know what the hit rate of this website is, but I imagine this blog post of yours will be read by more people than that.
And what exactly is a "failed musician" when one's at home? One who tries to make a living from it and then gives up, disillusioned? Someone not talented enough to be a "proper musician"? Someone without the guts to give up the day job? All of the above?
I've known quite a few people who some may define as "parasites living off the musical talent of others" - A&Rs, road managers, distributors, retailers, journalists, etc. - whose love of and commitment to music was greater than that of many of the actual musos I've known. Just being the one who plays the notes doesn't automatically elevate you to a higher moral, artistic or spiritual plane.
Who's the real "failed musician": Jerry Wexler or Kenny G?
I know your question is rhetorical but..
... Kenny G definitely can play an instrument so I'm guessing Jerry Wexler?
Also I think 5,000 sales is pretty good all told. And probably more than the number of people reading this blog. So more power to the Carwash elbow.
I'll definitely buy one
as long as you call it "Appallingly Insincere Onerous Twats"
Absolutely (or, as Edwin Starr would have it, "Assaloola")
I wasn't knocking Carwash, just taking issue with what I felt was a - how shall I put this? - not-perhaps-as-thought-through-as-it-might-be dismissal of non-performing musical industrialists as "failed musicians".
As for the figures, Uncle Fraser'll know, but I was basing my estimate on the old Usenet rule of thumb that for every poster there are a couple of hundred lurkers, and the replies to most blog entries here do hit double figures, so assuming 5,000 or so readers for a typical piece of the drivel we slap up here instead of working doesn't seem unreasonable.
I've no problem with the rest at all. As you say, more power to Rose Royce fans everywhere.
Sorry...
...but I'd be amazed if there are 5000 readers of this blog.
And Carwash's albeit-slightly-bitter assessment of music industry workers is pretty accurate, I reckon. That vile Scottish ex-A&R man they had on the Podcast a few weeks ago is a prime example. And every music hack who routinely slag off U2, Stereophonics and the like would give their eye-teeth to be the bass player in either. They're fooling no-one. The lack of self-esteem and decent earnings that go with being a struggling music journalist fuels the jealousy and cynicism in their attitude. IMHO.
Good luck Carwash, keep going.
Flippin eck, Tucker...
You go on one small porridge and coffee-fuelled rant and see what happens?
I thank you for your encouragement - and a potential album title to boot (i think it may well be better than the one we have so far...)
Ok, I know that the business we call music isn't entirely filled with 'failed' musicians but anyone who's spent any time in it, particularly amongst a & r people, will appreciate the 'wanker quotient' is way above normal levels, that's indisputable. And no, I certainly wouldn't include crew-types in this list as they're generally the ones who keep the whole show together and the 'turn' sane on the road.
5,000 people reading this crap? Seriously? I'll check my wspelling next time...