Interesting video on the death of the music business

Rick Rubin *is* some old guy, but not just *any* old guy:

This documentary was really, really good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-La_(miniseries)

 

Anyone in the Music business?
Anyone made ANY Money in that business?
If so how?

Rocket River

 

Corporations and private equity have ****ed the music industry the same way they’ve tried to **** healthcare

I live in Nashville, every clerk is a musician. Corporations monopolize distribution and marketing sectors to try and get new young artists to sign their lives away

It looks depressing af

 

It's never been better for new upstart country music artists.

 

people dont pay for music anymore. streaming killed that. it is what it is and theres not really any point in bemoaning it because we arent going back to the way it was. record companies got really greedy in the late 90's as we saw CD's regularly going for $20 when they previously were like $10-$12. i think it created a snowball effect as it drove more people to illegally downloading their music.

also, music just isnt as important to youth culture as it was from the 50's to the 90's. kids used to take their social/style/philosophical/political cues from bands and artists, but that has been replaced by internet, video games, social meida, ect.

and when you get something for free it doesnt hold the same value. if you bought an album you listened to the s*** out of it because you own it and paid your hard earned money for it. now with everything at your fingertips the listener is not as invested in the music they are consuming.

i think guitar-based rock music is seen as passe by many younger people today. its like if someone was listening to benny goodman in the 90's...its just not considered "cool". for the record, i think the benny goodman quartet kicks ass.

 

This is it in a nutshell. If the today's youth culturally valued music, there would be more of a market for music ... more a chance a band to make a living at music.

 

im a hobbyist, not a full timer but I make some money from playing gigs. In any given year it’s probably no more than a couple thousand. I was in a band on a record label and we would pay for the recording and they paid for mastering, producing CDs and vinyl, distribution and promotion. Never made any money on that end. People don’t buy physical albums anymore. Vinyl actually sells, but it’s so expensive to produce now that you have to charge at least $20 to break even. The live shows are where we actually made money. Albums are basically a promotional tool at this point. Like I said in my previous post, if your goal is to make money then the stupidest thing you could do is release an album of original material

another band I was in a few years ago self released an album. We funded that from live performances. At first we were selling for $10, then $5 then were basically giving away. I would put CDs by the tip jar and say take one. I remember a dude dropping a $20 in the jar and I told him to take a CD or two and he said “no thanks”. I literally couldn’t give them away!

 

The last new car (2021, $30+K) that I bought did not come with a CD player ... it was a special order =

I am down to playing my CDs either on my ancient PC desktop or my DVD player.

 

The key to getting rich during the Alaska Gold Rush wasn't to be the guy who is digging up gold. That's a boom-or-bust lottery ticket.

The key was to be the guy who sells the shovels, sluices, and other supplies to the guys who dug up gold.

The recording industry is still pretty alright so long as you aren't the poor rube actually trying to make music. I don't want to share details that aren't mine to share, but I've heard some recent stories of ridiculous largess from people currently working in the background of the music industry in LA (producers and engineers). Guessing the record company execs are still getting paid, as well.

Its mostly the lowest rung, the "talent" that gets f**ked.

 

The Process kind of fascinates me

1. Make a song (write and produce it)
2. Copyright the song
3. make masters
4. Stream Song for Fun and Profit?

Is it that simple

Rocket River

 

Remember when lip-syncing was so looked down upon? Ashley Simpson's entire career went up in smoke when she got caught using tracks on SNL. Now every act that plays SNL uses tracks and no one cares. Hell, Motley Crew doesn't even play live at their concerts anymore.

 

Thats always been my biggest pet peeve............it used to be taboo but now you have these "kid groups" who are more about performing then actually singing.....................if I had gone to a RUSH show back in the day and G. Lee was lip synching and it sounded just like the album I would have been pissed, groups like that are BETTER live.................now you just have people who can't really sing but they can dance, it seems to be all about the production value and the actual singing and playing an instrument are a thing of the past

 

i think every band/artist is different and it depends on what level youre at. for bands ive been in its usually...

1. write material
2. perform new material live a bunch
3. record/mix/master album
4. produce physical copies of album (CD, vinyl). and in this day and age it might not even be necessary, especially if youre trying to not lose money. its not unusual for a band to not release a physical copy of an album, instead just putting it on streaming sites, bandcamp, youtube, ect. lots of bands are doing limited runs of CDs if they do them at all. people will actually buy vinyl still and im even seeing cassettes make a comeback which i think is super weird.
5. the copyright thing ties into "publishing" or "licensing" of music. i know im registered through BMI and i get a very small check every once in awhile for something ive done. they basically collect royalties and distribute the money to all involved parties. i think the two biggest ones are BMI and ASCAP.
6. there are also places like distrokid and cdbaby where you can upload your music to streaming services. anyone from bedroom producers to bigger touring acts. the artist has to pay a fee, but they get you up on all the major streaming services and i think automatically get your music copyrighted.

 

A lot of bands use backing tracks. ... you know ... when you hear a keyboard part and there is not a single keyboardist on stage in sight.

One of my most favorite bands and their most popular song ... Queen and Bo Rap ... had a backing track or they could not play the song live.

And then there is the Paul Stanley / Jon Bon Jovi problem. Their vocal chord are so shot, dropping keys is not going to help. There is no way these bands can play live; their singers can not sing for 90+ minutes a night. What to do? David Coverdale owns its, by having his keyboardist sing the high parts that he can not. Coverdale just nods at the keyboardist when he needs an assist.

And then there is Don Henley.

 

And Motley Crue.