are major labels dead?
In a short answer, yes. But why? There are many reasons why major labels don't have the impact that they used to. In the past, a band's dream and only hope of success was to be signed by a major label. They could promote you like nobody else could, they could book you a half-year tour in twenty-four hours, and they could sell your albums to millions of customers like it was nothing. So what changed?
The evolution of technology has brought on tons of new methods of music deployment that allow consumers to experience a larger variety of artists than ever before. With the invent of the internet, p2p file sharing, digital media players, and digital music sales, people have access to more music than they can even handle. Thirty years ago (even fiften years ago), the only music that people heard (other than local music) was what was on the two or three radio stations in their town. Those radio stations were fed from major record labels and the artist selection was minute. The internet has given independent labels and solo artists the ability to sell their content to the same customer base that major labels selfishly kept ahold of some years ago.
To add to the downfall that the internet caused on major labels came the invent of inexpensive, easy-to-use, home recording hardware and software. Anybody with a basic computer setup could affordably record a decent sounding album with a little hard work and creativity. The combination of these two developments (the internet and home recording studios) brought on a large wave of new artists that possessed medium quality albums that they made for little to no cost. With more content on the table, major labels began to have an incredibly tough time promoting specific artists and independent labels began to push forward becoming more or less equal to major labels.
Today, major label artists often come out barely breaking even in terms of money; including profits from tours. According to Scott Legere, an entertainment business instructor at the Institute of Production and Recording as well as a manager at Prince's Paisley Park Studios
- 36,000 titles were released in 2004
- 8,000 were from major labels
- 33 made it Platinum
- 69 made it Gold
- and less than 1% actually made a profit.
Major labels have already begun shutting their doors or merging with other labels. Independent labeled artists, however, are the only ones still profitting. Artists can make a smaller number of sales and still maintain a very nice income. Very often now, independently labelled artists are showing up on Top 40 lists globally.
Music will never be the same industry that it was thirty years ago; but, that doesn't mean that the industry is going downhill. With some new and creative methods, we can begin to take advantage of these new mediums of delivering content to customers.
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