Professor Pooch's Music Biz Commentaries

Professor Pooch's

"State of the Music Business Address 2010"

I know you’ve all heard all the complaints from the Major Record Labels and their subsidiaries, especially from the RIAA [Recording Industry Association of America] that represents them, saying that because of the Internet and all the illegal free downloads associated with it, plus piracy, etc., that “… sales have gone way down.”

But do those numbers actually reflect the actual state of the Music Business?

What you aren’t hearing is that Music Sales have actually been increasing the last few years - just not always using the traditional paths, means, people and sources.

Question: How many Musicians/Bands/Groups/Songwriters do you know who are on MySpace, Reverbnation or wherever who sell their Recordings, either by Digital Downloads or CD sales at gigs, etc? And how many of these musicians do you know that actually get their Recordings “scanned” to become part of this number sold that the RIAA uses to measure sales?!

Right to the point, the Major Labels now have competition from an unlikely source - the masses. And the direction the masses are taking is often called: “the New Model”.

Due to the advances in technology, especially relating to recording, plus all the Social Networking available through the Internet, there are now many more people showing an interest in being in the Music Business than ever before. At last count, there were estimated to be 7–10 million Musical Artists on MySpace alone.

It is fine if you interested in going through a Major Label, but realize there is rarely such a thing in this century as them spending time, money and effort on “Artist Development” anymore. The Major Labels have become so paranoid about their “bottom line”, that most of them will expect you to be able to jump right into 500,000 sales in a matter of months after they release your product - or they’ll drop you with a thud!

And they rarely sign an Artist anymore who hasn’t racked up at least 50,000 sales going the self-label or Indie route, and/or created a giant buzz of talk and publicity. Then, when the Record Labels see that you are already semi-successful on your own, they will come to you directly.

But, this leaves you with an interesting decision to make - should you, or shouldn’t you even want to go with a Major Label?

Yes, there definitely can be major advantages going with a large label, such as possible financial advances, maybe quicker large-scale fame through wider Distribution, Radio and Promotion, etc.

But why are more and more Major Artists purposely not re-signing with a Major Label when their deal ends? It’s simply because they’ve realized that they will probably make way more money selling 50,000 records on their own than selling 500,000 through a Major. And with way less restrictions. And they don’t have to wait for the label to first recoup [get back] what they spent to help them record and sell all those records, adding to that the much smaller percentage they’d eventually receive than if they would pay themselves.

And all the while retaining “Creative Control”, plus ownership of their songs [Publishing], and ownership of their recordings.

Yes, I realize these Major Artists are already known, but if you still need those 50,000 sales for the Majors to even blink at you, anyway…

Lots to think about nowadays, isn’t there?

Obviously no matter which route you take it really helps to be talented musicians and performers, with great songs, performing out there for the people. And you’ll have to spend your own hard-earned money, or work out a deal with a studio so that you have musical products.

But you have access to the Internet just like the Majors, where you can put your music up with the idea of having fans bring in other fans through word of mouth and hearing your recordings and seeing your videos, and buying your recordings and merchandise, and telling them where you’ll be performing next.

And by using Companies/Sites such as Tunecore.com and CD Baby it makes it even easier for you by offering services dedicated to helping you with your sales and placements on all the important sites, such as I-tunes – with the benefit that these type companies and many more are now willing to help you while using a completely different type of business deal.

Many are even non-exclusive deals, meaning you can sell your products through more than one company. And you can retain ownership of your songs! And there may be no “recoupment” to worry about - you get paid from sales starting at record #1!

There are also “community sites” where people can read all about you and listen to your music as well as see where you are playing next, and see your Videos and can “spread the word”, such as MySpace.com, Reverbnation.com and You-Tube, for example.

What is really interesting is that even those Musicians who believed that they were “too old” for the traditional Record Companies to consider; or are into Jazz, Classical, and other “non-popular forms of music”, both now have a route they can take while actually achieving a larger audience and more sales for their music than that they ever could have dreamed possible.

Even many of the older Stars from the 60’s and 70’s, and ‘80s who were dropped from their Label have had a big boost in promotion and sales through their Own Sites working as their Own Record Companies using the Internet.

To me it’s quite clear: Since most people now have the capability to accomplish quite a lot on their own, and since the Labels don’t want you until you create a large buzz anyway, and since you still own a large amount of creative, business and legal control of everything, you then have a much better bargaining position:

Yes, you can still go with that Major Label you always fantasized about – but more on your terms.

The Music Industry is a changing…