Originally posted by Bobs_Hardware
What about those musicions who can barely scrape enough money together to go on tour? Or to even make an albumn? What about those that work their entire lives to make art, and not sell-out to the consumer.
You\'re in a band, how would you feel if you finally got a record deal, and sold 1000 copies of your CD, and later found out that hundreds/thousands of people were downloading your songs for free and not buying your CD?
Low and mid-level working musicians are exactly the ones who would benefit the most from a completely revised structure for the recording business.
If I were a relatively unknown musician trying to survive, I would
forget all about the traditional "big record deal." Musicians should focus first on improving their musicianship and songwriting. Practice heavily with your band and make yourself a strong live-performing act. Then play every live venue you can. Build a local fan base. Create a website for your band and promote the URL on every piece of property your band owns. Post it everywhere. Sell your music yourself on your website.
You\'ll be able to sell the songs at an affordable price, so piracy won\'t be as big a problem for you. You\'ll be able to reap the ENTIRE sale price of the music, instead of having a worthless record company leeching off of you. Also, you can establish a much more personal connection with every one of your fans who buys your music. You can send them direct mailings, and communicate with them through an online forum like this one. Eventually, by selling other merchandise through your website, I could see a musician doing very very well financially... AND they wouldn\'t have to worry about a record company telling them what kind of music they can and cannot record.
This is a revolutionary time in the music business, and it makes me wish I was more involved. Some day there\'s going to be a huge breakthrough artist who deliberately shuns all corporate music ownership and distribution. When that happens, everything you take for granted about the record business will change. You need to have some vision, just like the founders of the PC and Internet revolutions did. It\'s a golden opportunity.