Who needs record companies?

[silenced]

Click to read Forune magazine article: Who needs record companies?

Ice Cube takes the risk and earns the reward. He pays to create his own album, finds his own distribution, sells 500,000 copies, and pockets all the profits himself - no record company to "share" in 95% of the profits with him.

Do direct to consumer distribution and other changes in the music business mean that you don't need a record company any more?

As you considered a record deal offer (major or indie label) what are your considerations? What can a record label still do for you? Is it worth it?

Getting "signed" still seems to be the aspiration - maybe just for the validation perhaps, or maybe an unspoken assumption that "I will be different" and the money will follow for me (even as musicians are outspokenly cynical about record companies).

Thoughts?

[Nubus]

I did hear Ice Cube talking about his venture. He has the juice for it. Labels can still be of use to a lot of musicians who one, do n't have the start up cash to front for the digipak or vinyl which they'd love; or two, can hardly even organisze a practice, let alone all that goes into a release. As far as crooked-ass scouts or back-stabbing reps, they can shrivel up and go away for all I care.

[GearJunkie]

major labels will be gone within 10 years. look at gnarls barkley who had a #1 single just based on downloads alone.

A band with (sadly) the image, the means, an internet connection and a decent song can take over the music industry without ever walking into a label's office. Look at these little MySpace superstars who have no major label, no label at ALL and are gracing the covers of magazines because.... well... they're myspace superstars. That's all it takes now.

Hip-hop artists are the new rockstars. They've got the big houses, fast cars, porn star girlfriends, but soon enough, that'll take a backseat to how many MySpace friends you have.

It's a scary thing, but soon enough MySpace is going to take over "hanging out" with your friends. Look at any 15 year old girl on the site. My cousin, for example, is 15 and posts about 20 bulletins a day, changes her picture on a daily basis, and has people coming to her site all the time. Why? Because she's taking the time to get into people's heads that there's "a change" and getting people to come back and see what's different.

Bands are doing the same thing. They'll add a new song to the site, post a bulletin, put up a new image supporting the new song, etc etc.

The only problem is that ASCAP/BMI/Whoever doesn't treat MySpace plays as a "public performance" like a radiostation would, so you're not getting any royalties off it. Once either a site like MySpace or MySpace in general start doing that, you wont need the radio, you wont need TV, you'll just need MySpace and YouTube and you'll be able to live off the royalities of "on demand" music. Why call your radio station and request the song when you can just hear it for free on a MySpace page or see the video on YouTube?

[dagosto]

Originally Posted by GearJunkie

Once either a site like MySpace or MySpace in general start doing that, you wont need the radio, you wont need TV, you'll just need MySpace and YouTube and you'll be able to live off the royalities of "on demand" music. Why call your radio station and request the song when you can just hear it for free on a MySpace page or see the video on YouTube?

I agree with most of what you said, but were are those royalties coming from if the downloads are free? I think that myspace an youtube are great place for artists to hook fans but the monies will only start showing up if you get downloaded off iTunes or some subscription service like that.

[dolivas]

The only thing I can picture might be happening is that people become complacent to keeping a site like MySpace or YouTube unique. For the few times I've perused MySpace I can generally see the shift away from a unique communal - hey let's meet people around me that I can connect to in some way - to mob clanship where your search isn't for making any long lasting ties to anyone who sends you an invite but rather using the invite to build your own reputation.

The more people on your list the more "internet fame" and boasting you can do... case in point the recent Axe using someone who had MySpace fame to do an actual retail sponsorship:
http://www.economist.com/business/di...ory_id=7233972
However, to me it just seems very superficial and incoherent. You have literally thousands on bands on MySpace or YouTube who can control how their target market can criticize their own music. Just by having invites a up and coming band can control or limit any dispariging remarks a lot of people would have about their music.

Once you have so many kids being purposely steered to say hey you rock! it becomes a circle jerk in my opinion. If you see any of those MySpace top of their lists:
http://topartists.myspace.com/index....music.topBands
to me it becomes apparent that what you're seeing here is really that juvenile highschool popularity contest. It's not hey who'se the rightfully best sounding band or the most ahead of trends but it's who has the most minions trolling other MySpace pages, blogs, putting crappy jpg posters on sites etc. who are in one mass stampede to the top of those charts.

The bands, in my opinion, that are into doing this are doing it because they know that Johnny-come-lately music companies are now trolling MySpace for what's the next big thing. Sheer lazyness in terms of both the audience listening to such artists and the companies (and in some part the "artists" themselves) going after them creates spawn such as Lilly Allen:
did I mention the circle jerk:: http://www.myspace.com/lilymusic and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McT_P...=lilly%20allen and http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/articl..._Alright_Still and finally http://www.cokemachineglow.com/revie...right2006.html

who in my opinion suck musically but have the PR of a manic street team.

We don't need record companies but we do need some sort of way to stem and thin the herd... For all of our supposed technology what exists right now are flashes in the pan so far in the interwebs.

-- end of long rant --

[mikegee]

Originally Posted by dolivas

The only thing I can picture might be happening is that people become complacent to keeping a site like MySpace or YouTube unique. For the few times I've perused MySpace I can generally see the shift away from a unique communal - hey let's meet people around me that I can connect to in some way - to mob clanship where your search isn't for making any long lasting ties to anyone who sends you an invite but rather using the invite to build your own reputation.

The more people on your list the more "internet fame" and boasting you can do... case in point the recent Axe using someone who had MySpace fame to do an actual retail sponsorship:
http://www.economist.com/business/di...ory_id=7233972
However, to me it just seems very superficial and incoherent. You have literally thousands on bands on MySpace or YouTube who can control how their target market can criticize their own music. Just by having invites a up and coming band can control or limit any dispariging remarks a lot of people would have about their music.

Once you have so many kids being purposely steered to say hey you rock! it becomes a circle jerk in my opinion. If you see any of those MySpace top of their lists:
http://topartists.myspace.com/index....music.topBands
to me it becomes apparent that what you're seeing here is really that juvenile highschool popularity contest. It's not hey who'se the rightfully best sounding band or the most ahead of trends but it's who has the most minions trolling other MySpace pages, blogs, putting crappy jpg posters on sites etc. who are in one mass stampede to the top of those charts.

The bands, in my opinion, that are into doing this are doing it because they know that Johnny-come-lately music companies are now trolling MySpace for what's the next big thing. Sheer lazyness in terms of both the audience listening to such artists and the companies (and in some part the "artists" themselves) going after them creates spawn such as Lilly Allen:
did I mention the circle jerk:: http://www.myspace.com/lilymusic and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McT_P...=lilly%20allen and http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/articl..._Alright_Still and finally http://www.cokemachineglow.com/revie...right2006.html

who in my opinion suck musically but have the PR of a manic street team.

We don't need record companies but we do need some sort of way to stem and thin the herd... For all of our supposed technology what exists right now are flashes in the pan so far in the interwebs.

-- end of long rant --

excellent points... i agree with a lot of your comments... here's my rant;

the record companies are going to glom onto the current myspace frenzy, and they'll figure out a way to usurp myspace for their own corporate goals, it's already happening, in fact. ie; myspace is a great altruistic DIY idea/concept, but the corporate mentality of the industry will continue to prevail. its all about the masses. and making $. whether or not you are signed to a label or not... but this isnt necessarily a bad thing, because, the more cds you sell, the more $ you make. that's what is confusing about this whole discussion about the corporate music industry, if you ask me... i mean, contracts are negotiable, and if you have a good lawyer, you can get a fair contract with a record company, but ya gotta know what you are signing. it really comes down to distribution, and i am not sure if it is possible to get nationwide (physical) distribution without a record contract. but if brick and mortar record stores are soon to become a thing of the past, then its a whole new ballgame (ie Internet distribution). the next 10 years are going to be very interesting, for sure. my guess is the record labels will still be around, on the Internet.

ok, i'm done ranting now too haha

[mikegee]

Originally Posted by dagosto

I agree with most of what you said, but were are those royalties coming from if the downloads are free? I think that myspace an youtube are great place for artists to hook fans but the monies will only start showing up if you get downloaded off iTunes or some subscription service like that.

well, i think, if you just post partial snippets of your songs, you can hook the listener into buying your complete cd and/or download, and then, you dont even have to worry about "record label royalties" because the buyer will be giving you the $ directly, for what they buying, circumventing the record label totally... that is, if you are selling your music independent of a record label. more $ for you, no money for the record label (yay!) mmm more $...

[GearJunkie]

mike's comments about labels being around but being on the internet, i'll agree with, because they need it for promotions. distribution on the internet is super easy. itunes, purevolume, you name it. it's not like you're gonna go to itunes and they'll be OUT of the album you wanna buy.

Labels are looking for a good MySpace presence though when they're signing a band. What it says to labels is "this band knows how to sell themselves, they know how to promote, and we're not going to have to work as hard on promotion and whatnot if they're already doing it." 90% of the time if i'm watching Letterman or Conan or god forbid, Leno, and I see a band I like, 9 times out of 10 I can go to "www.myspace.com/whateverthebandsnameis" and hear the song I just heard a second ago. Every band is on it. Bands that are recently signed usually have some intern setting up a MySpace account for the band before ink is dry on the contract, assuming the band doesn't already have a well working account already.

Bands that become a "featured artist" on a weekly basis on myspace get an average of 45000 plays A DAY. THAT is your gung-ho promotion, that is your print-ads in rollingstone. Who needs them when you get stuff like that. These 14-15-16 year old kids that troll myspace all day long and keep up on their bulletins are the ones that LIVE for stuff like this. Putting a bulletin up saying "we're gonna be on Letterman tonight" brings in big numbers, and with 3rd party companies making myspace "letter sending programs" can automatically find the people close to the city you're playing next, and send out an automated email saying "hey, i saw you live in pittsburg. tomorrow night we're playing x-bar and go on at 8 pm. hope to see you there." The promotion costs go down, the band can pull in their KEY MARKET and do exactly what they want to do.

MySpace is a huge thing for labels to look at, and I just wish it was able to treat the artists as well as they could be.

[mikegee]

ok, thom yorke of radiohead has a new (solo) album out, and he's not signed to a label. it looks like, so far, his album has peaked at #40 on billboard charts. currently #76 in the top 200 chart. not bad for an Internet album. But this doesnt take into consideration he is already an established recording artist, which has helped him sell his cd without the help of a label. still, its an interesting example. it can be done.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/disco...289&pid=245357

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/chart...1-100&g=Albums

[dolivas]

Originally Posted by mikegee

ok, thom yorke of radiohead has a new (solo) album out, and he's not signed to a label. it looks like, so far, his album has peaked at #40 on billboard charts. currently #76 in the top 200 chart. not bad for an Internet album. But this doesnt take into consideration he is already an established recording artist, which has helped him sell his cd without the help of a label. still, its an interesting example. it can be done.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/disco...289&pid=245357

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/chart...1-100&g=Albums

Just for clarification the album peaked at #2 when it debuted. Which is behind Kid A's position when it came out a while ago. Very good numbers indeed.