Dispatch from Midem (The World’s Music Market)
A Rough Guide to the Modern Music Industry for Independent Artists
by Niall James Holohan – submitted (without success) for Publication in March’s edition of Hot Press
“Unsigned” is an antiquated term. Over 80% of releases last year were Independent releases. All over the world, intelligent artists who are willing to work for themselves, are waking up to the fact that it is more possible, now, more than ever before to have a sustainable career, playing original music, without a record label. As the music industry experiences the biggest shake up it’s ever seen and every one from mobile phone companies to booking agents tries to grab the golden leaves, what that means to you, as an Independent artist is that it’s possible to keep your master recordings, your royalties, your copyrights and out source PR, booking, promotion of shows etc to whichever companies show the most enthusiasm and belief in you. You no longer need physical distribution. Your distribution’s on line and your live show no longer promotes your album. Your album promotes your live show. In fact, everything you do, as an independent artist promotes your live appearances. Lost? I’ll explain. But before I do, for the sake of context, take a look at this brief run down of the modern music industry, written back in the year of our Lord, 2004, by Justin Goldberg from Indie 911 in the U.S.
Before they were bought out or merged into beverage companies, telecommunications, conglomerates and internet concerns, record companies were run on instinct & driven by entrepreneurial personalities connected with the process of breaking artists & selling records. But as these companies grew larger with mergers & consolidations, those instincts were replaced with bottom lines & balance sheets. The era of slow artist development quickly evaporated. Now major record labels expect & need artists to explode on impact. Most of them don’t, and many great artists deserving a real audience are overlooked.
Consider these facts.
Of more than 37,000 titles released this year (2004) from major record companies, less than 5,000 records will sell more than 1,000 copies. Meanwhile, over 90% of the records released by major record labels over the last two decades never even made a profit. What’s left of the current major label system are designed to generate high sales from creating short term stars, not careers. Artists selling less than 100,000 units are likely to be dropped from the roster.
By dramatic contrast, artists releasing their own material, selling a fraction of those units can reap impressive profits without giving up their copyrightss or anything else. Even sales as low as 5,000 copies on an indie release can generate enough resources for indie artists & labels to continue with what they do. Make music
So, what has happened in the 5 years since then? The industry hasn’t crumbled as some suggested it might. Not yet, anyway. It certainly has been bent out of shape. People are definitely buying less CDs the world over in 2009. People are downloading (illegally and otherwise) more now too. Majors have had to tighten their belts further with the rise of social networks sites (you know the names) and the likes of YouTube (and others) providing much of their content for free. Lay offs have been massive at the Majors. Meanwhile, Indies have started to look to unite & strengthen to act as one big, arguably strange ‘anti-major’ in order to get our cut of the money the likes of youtube (and others) have been paying to the majors for the content we see there. Heads of labels, Koch (U.S.) and Pias (Europe) have formed Merlin, to try and broker a deal for this cut, and any registered Independent label can become a member of Merlin since last month. If everyone was shocked and excited in 2004, everyone’s got serious in 2009. Serious about regulating an industry that’s refusing to regulate itself since the start of the century.
In the past six months alone, there’s been much talk about what was referred to be one pretentious git at Midem as the ‘Radiohead initiative’. Less has been said about Prince’s album giveaway with the Sunday World / 21 nights in the 02 arena campaign. The album was FREE (Sony are suing Prince over that little deal) and Prince made his money on the live shows. Madonna’s signing to Live Nation also reflects how the entire industry and not just the bottom end is being turned upside down. With record companies left with little or no money to invest in acts, it’s no surprise that publishers and even concert promoters are now getting directly involved with artists. Jessica Koravos, Managing Directo of AEG Enterprises, UK (who built the o2 Arena and it’s brand new big brother, the o2 world arena to be opened in Berlin in September) made the point that her company not only need big artists to fill those venues now, but also in 20 years time, when Prince, Madonna, U2, Bruce Springsteen and the like will be too old to do so. If record companies no longer have the resources to develop another act the size of Coldplay, that doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen. There are plenty of other sides to the industry who have the cash to develop artists ..so, if you’re an artist, I’d advise you look to them for your advance, your tour support. Whatever it is your fantasies tells you, chances are you’d have more chance of getting some money of a mobile phone company now than you would from a record label.
But what if you don’t want to deal with the mobile phone companies?
Hmmm
I arrived at Midem, the World’s Music Market, in Canne, which takes place at the end of January every year, a week ago, as a delegate and exhibitor with the Music from Ireland stand. All this really meant was that I could sneak into the trade hall the day before the convention’s kick off and childishly observe a rabid team of construction workers sawing wood (literally) and building the market place that we’d all be doing our business in the following day. It was mental! Like an out-take from the Truman Show where a dedicated team build the set for tomorrow’s world. Except here, at Midem, it’s a real world where real business is done, to bring art, music and other questionable content into my life & yours. It’s where decisions are made about what, if anything, that content is going to cost the consumer and most importantly for those I hope are reading, what it’s going to cost the artist.
Right away, I felt very empowered being there, seemingly, one of very few artists who have informed themselves about an industry in flux. You should hear the way a lot of the other, I’d say 20th Century artists are talking here, all apocalyptic language ..as if the end of the record company giving you lots of money to make an album in a studio with a jacuzzi means the end of great music and people who love it! That’s the gist of what they’re saying. What I’m hearing, though, is really quite similar to what I hear at home, a lot of talented but frustrated musicians, confused by the complexities of the modern music business who’s prefer to concentrate on their art than get involved with the economics of it all. So many are still looking for someone else to appear out of thin air and provide them with a living. I even heard one Canadian artist say that Ani Di Franco and Aimee Mann are only “independent” ‘cause no one would sign them. It’s this kind of thinking that I’d like to try and remove from any reading artist’s mind because it’s precisely that attitude of entitlement that frustrates & embitters talented artists & stops you from negotiating your way towards what is positive about the massive changes that are happening in the industry as we speak. You can’t be blamed for feeling like your head’s melted thinking about this stuff. Mine used to be too. But if you know who you are and you know what kind of life and career you want to have, it becomes easier to tune into the voices that are worth your while listening to.
So, yes, even if I do say so myself, I also HAVE to say that I so stand out among these kinds of artists who are, frankly, not willing to do the work, either out of ego (if you’re cynical) or some ridiculous bohemian ideal which means that to be poor and starve for a businessman is somehow artistic ..or, mostly, who just find it too hard to think that way. At the risk of offending my fellow artists, it seems that a lot of you have the symptoms but not the disease, the MySpace, but not the songs, the skinny jeans, but not the business acumen. Yes. Business acumen. I never subscribed to the idea that to live in squalor, or to appear to, would make me any more artistic than someone from Dalkey who makes a great record in the comfort of their family home. I mean, what’s the difference? In fact, it’s ironic that most of musicians that are glorified and said to have ‘died for their art’ most likely died because they were on the road longer than was humanly possible and were frankly, either too ignorant, damaged or scared to stand up to the business men who had an interest in keeping them on tour. Janis Joplin. Jimi Hendrix. Jim Morrison. Kurt Cobain and so on. These people didn’t die for their art. They died, like we all do, for no good reason. Their life should be celebrated. Their music. And they certainly should not be held up as some icon of bohemia, as if to say to know your business is not to be artistic and to starve, on the dole, on drugs, with no songs, or to die on the road is. Rubbish. Especially in the 21st Century. If you don’t value your life and what you do, then the price you’ll pay to someone who’ll put value on it for you may be more than you really want to give up. It is certainly more than the cost of reading an article or two or seeking some friendly advice from fellow musicians or those at the FMC (in Ireland).
No surprise then that most of the business people I’ve met here are intimidated by me too, because I’m not afraid to talk like this to anybody and ’cause most of them (middle men) are eliminated by my existence, the self-sufficient independent artist, in the right place at the right time. As an independent artist, all I need is people to play to and someone to let those people know I’m coming. Promotion and shows. You do not need to have your album in shops any more. Why bother, when less and less people are buying records in shops anyway? Why bother, as long as it’s on the internet, the biggest shop in the world. It may seem intimidating that you’re album is now pitted against, not just those independent artists in your city, but every independent artist in the world & the argument against MySpace is that it has no way of filtering out the shit. But there’s no difference there. It has always been the job of the artist to stand out and still is ..
It’s true, the internet’s not fool proof. Having a MySpace or a website of your own is certainly not THE ANSWER & even the site itself is 40% owned by the majors in the U.S. ..As all of us who have one should know, it’s akin to putting a sign up on a road that nobody has to go down. You have to drive people to it. And I’d argue that it, it turn should drive people to your live shows. If you play enough and you’re good enough, those who don’t buy the record at the show will find you, on line & buy your record ..& like Justin pointed out, sales as low as 5,000 units (on line and at shows, more than likely) can keep you alive as a working artist without having to sell your shirt to the kind of people you most likely became a musician to avoid in the first place anyway.
Don’t bother spending your humble resources on retail marketing if no one’s going to go to the shops to buy your album. Don’t be scared to say “you know what, the people who would buy my album wouldn’t go into Tower to buy it” ..That’s true of most, if not all of us Irish Independent artists. Fewer people are going to record shops for any kind of record now anyway. It’s only a physical distribution industry that’s in trouble that may intimidate you into feeling like you SHOULD be in the shops. That, and your own vanity (“To be in the shops is to exist”) ..Again, this is just nonsense if you’re plugged in.
The bottom line, if you’re in an independent band, is you are running a business, whether you know it or not, whether you’re doing it well or not ..and as such, the only thing you should do is whatever you can generate enough money and resources to get you to the next shows and the next album. Don’t be afraid of making money, or losing money. Use it, as fuel to keep you on the road. You’re going to need to tour outside of Ireland if you want to be a full-time musician anyway. So, keep your money, leave the PR companies and shops to Justin Timberlake, Dustin and whoever else can afford to kick water uphill. Your shows are your marketing. It’s just another soon extinct middle man’s idea that your album must be easy to find ..and no wonder a lot of larger companies subscribe to that idea ..when, for the most part what they’re peddling is expendable unimaginative jingles. It stands to reason that the purchase of that pap has got to be an impulse buy of the back of the kind of HEAVY advertising you can’t afford, because any one who has time to think about it ..is not going to seek it out …are they?
I imagine, if you are like me, then you want to make the kind of music that people will value enough to seek out anyway. After all, if something’s easy to get, it loses it’s value ..just like, I don’t know ..a college degree ..means little now ..if we’re honest about it .. ..I mean, you really need a masters to stand out in 2009 ..so, as much as an achievement it is to make an album and I admire ..well ..most people ..who can finish one off (so many people don’t) ..it means nothing in and of itself ..everybody’s got an album coming out in March! What will set you apart is either 1 / what you have to say as an artist or 2 / your knowledge of the business and your ability to stay alive, in it, over, hopefully, decades .. ..these are our PHDs to our album-making-degrees ..and what’s more, if you have the balls to make the kind of record that would have made you say to your friends .”.shit, listen to this” then you won’t feel like a fake for trying to get people into it and people won’t feel duped if they decide they like it ..In fact, it’s not marketing ..it’s just getting yourself out there, unafraid to be judged ..
So, go find new and interesting ways to promote yourself. Create them. Make Ireland weirder. We’d all be better off. Furthermore (if I can get all Shakespearean on you) ..all the business men say it’s absurd that music is now being taken for free from there ..they’ve tried encoding it and restricting it and even fining people who download music ..but to me, music’s wild & it’s just going back where it belongs ..in the air ..we’ve had 100 years of music lovers paying for artefacts (down deep in which the music is contained) and the internet has put that model of physical product at great risk. As most of the business men struggle to figure out ways to make money from you downloading music (and videos) to your i-pod and phone (soon to be the same thing) most of the artists are frustrated that companies won’t give them lots of money to make an album (like the old days)
Why complain ..when you can assemble a home studio for a few grand and make your album yourself ? What do you then? ..well, the world of music lovers, both here, in the UK, in Europe and beyond are crying out for you to simply PLAY LIVE ..despite the increase in ticket prices (even at Whelan’s size venues the world over) ..music lovers are showing up in ever increasing numbers to see music live ..this is great news for us independent musicians ..
* * * * * *
To sum up ..I’d argue, friends, that if you still consider yourself an “unsigned” artist, then you should watch your head as you walk out the door. That implies that the only thing missing from your make up is the record deal, which, quite simply, in most people’s cases, is not the case. Even if you were, up and running, touring, making enough money to get from town to town and record to record, you may still not get “signed” ..but so what! If you were at that level ..besides some childish fantasy of being held at shoulder height, why would you want to be “signed” anyway? Seriously. All it would mean is giving more of your hard earned money away to someone who never took a quarter of the risks you have. If you can wrap your head around it & admit it to yourself, it’s a good thing, where you’re at. Right now.
So, decide what kind of life and career you want to have. Spend some time informing yourself about the industry. (Talking Heads’ David Byrne has a great column in Wired magazine if you’d rather take a well known person’s word over mine). If you’re buying my rant ..I’d suggest you set about de-mystifying the industry for yourself as I have done and I’ve no doubt that once you have, you’ll find it a lot easier to see the wood for the trees and find those people who are hungry and driven as you are (or should be) – those people who have the belief and the ethics to see you through to the next stage of your life and career. It’s true, too that some of the indies are part-time charlatans with no money or resources to help you and that some major companies do have A&R people who work with artists this way too. I’m not saying it’s black and white. I was particularly impressed with NICK RAPHEAL, EPIC RECORDS (works, hands on to develop artists). If you want to be FAMOUS that badly, give him a bell. Otherwise, though, I’d suggest we all stop standing around with mops and pretending we’re cleaners. When you’ve got your head around that, then make a point of ignoring anyone who tells you ‘maybe’ ..A ‘no’ is better than a ‘maybe’ ..at least you know where you stand. Don’t listen to anyone in PR who tells you how English bands got up and running without realising themselves that what they’re regurgitating is another English PR companies press release. Don’t listen to anyone who talks about “the Canadian model” or what “the Norwegians have done” with their music scene over the past few years unless they’re actively seeking to set up similar support those countries provide for their artists, here in Ireland. For all the complaining that goes on about publicans acting like promoters, and the lack of performance agreements & grants (can you name a great record funded by an Art’s Council?) ..Ireland’s basically a country too small to make a touring living in, full of people who all hornpipe out of the womb. You’re lucky to get one song out of you at a party in Dublin before your guitar’s snapped out of your hands, which ..as far as the party is concerned, is great ..but it does mean that you need to look beyond this place in order to make a living playing music. By dramatic contrast, set yourself up some shows in Germany and more than likely, if you take out your guitar out at the after party, you & your band will be providing the music for the rest of the night too. Musicians are less ubiquitous in Europe and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that appreciation of original live music is greater there too so don’t listen to anyone who tells you what you “should” do unless they’re going to help you set up shows in France or Spain.
OK.
I’m going to buy a child size guitar now so when I meet this publisher at 5, he’ll know he’s dealing with an eccentric genius! The WORLD, not just the music business, is in need of this kind of shake up and faces like mine, who are happy, not frustrated, or struggling, ’cause change is happening in their time.
In 2004, as a bright eyes singer/songwriter, I was asked to perform at a few of the bigger industry conventions. In The City (New York) NEMO (Boston) and South X South West (Austin). At that time, everyone was talking about the rise of the digital age – mp3s, file sharing sites, the internet – and what it would mean to the music industry. Independent labels and their artists were excited about this new phenomenon which was opening up avenues for new artists to gain exposure. Major labels were worried that their content was being “stolen” by consumers and more frustratingly, free content platforms (like youtube, who’s meteoric rise through 2007 has really shaken the majors to life) and they’re profit margins were already starting to lose weight. Those who were too big (logistically) or too scared of getting used to things, as they are, spoke in apocalyptic language. The digital age of P2P file sharing and free content providers was threatening to take down the whole music industry!
The future’s crying out to be invented
Any takers?
- thanks to Nancy Harris & & Julia Molony for help is streamlining what was, a much longer rant ..
) I then spent the rest of the evening arguing with a wannabe Victorian capitalist – he had a brash mix of highly opinionated and undereducated statements that judging from his mannerisms, few people ever questioned. But once again he’s a winner as he is significant enough for me to not only remember, but to moan about to the five continents that are currently tuned in to my ramblings.
