Since
the great technological advancement known as the internet has come
along, the music industry has undergone massive changes. That is,
the major labels have lost a ton of money. They have blamed their
losses on piracy and file sharing. I beg to differ.
The
major music labels/distributors started hemorrhaging money when they
got into bed with Walmart and other department stores and allowed
these stores to dictate the price of music. Walmart said they were
going to sell CDs for $9.99 to $12.99, take it or leave it. The
labels buckled like a belt, thinking they'd make the money back in
the greater number of units sold.
Walmart
also demanded that records with “objectionable” material or
subject matter be censored. The labels caved again which led to
changed cover art and lyrics. Sometimes entire songs were removed
from an album or “clean” versions with the naughty words spaced
out were sold. If cover art was not up to Walmart's squeaky clean
standards, album covers would be blacked out and made to look like a
Spinal Tap album cover. They made it more difficult to buy a record
with the word “fuck” in a song than it is to buy a firearm.
This
deal with department stores is what also led to that really annoying
sticker that would go across the top edge of a jewel case. This
sticker, that would never lift off in one piece and left a residue so
your CDs would stick together, was made solely so the slack jawed
clerk at the department store wouldn't need to know anything about
music in order to find something in the inventory. If Jim Bob, who
worked in electronics, got popped for a DUI the night before and
missed his shift, Joe Jack from hardware could fill in.
All of
these decisions were made before the internet and the “plague on
society” that was Napster. Mom and Pop record stores and chain
stores like Tower Records, Sam Goody and National Record Mart bore
the brunt of these poor decisions. Once it was determined that the
major labels and distributors were going to be fleeced by Walmart,
they decided to jack up the prices on everyone else. Those $9.99 CDs
at Walmart could be found at a Mom and Pop store, where employees
actually cared and knew something about music, for $19.99. This very
quickly led to empty storefronts all across the country.
All the
while, hubris and greed were being blamed on file sharing. Copy
protection started to be placed on CDs so people couldn't rip them
into their computers even though they owned the CD. Album sales
plummeted and, with the rise of iTunes, the single became the focus. Instead of turning out a cohesive, end to end, solid album, artists
were pressured into focussing on a single that would crack the iTunes
top 10. The goal was suddenly to get listeners to buy one song for a
dollar, not an entire album for $10.
Now
with Spotify, and other streaming services, people can pay $10 a
month and listen to however much music they want. The licensing
agreements work out well for the labels but leave the artists with
fractions of pennies. This is why most artists cannot afford to stop
touring and partially contributes to skyrocketing ticket prices. And
if you take a look at Spotify's financials, you can see that once
again, the major labels backed the wrong horse.
This is
all a very long winded way of saying why I love independent artists
and labels. For the most part, they operate outside of this game of
enriching a few executives, and a lot of lawyers, with their art.
They
tour all of the time because they have to. Most of them sell their
records at shows or through mail order out of their homes. The music
is their life and they wouldn't know what to do without it.
There
are small labels all over the world that take chances on putting out
records in small runs that may or may not sell. They are certainly
not profit motivated but try to put something interesting out into
the world and keep the lights on at the same time.
This is
why I get most of my music from Bandcamp of late. It is a massive
sea of music to sift through but it has opened up the world to
artists. Bands from other countries that can't get North American
distribution or bands that just can't afford to put out a physical
release are able to put their music out there. I have come across so
much good music from Australia and even Icelandic punk rock that if
the shipping costs are prohibitive, I can at least get a reasonably
priced download.
Indie
bands were never truly beholden to the major label machinery so they
aren't really affected by its implosion. They've always had to tour
like crazy and sell t-shirts to put gas in the van to get to the next
town. Their situation doesn't change all that much other than their
music getting to more people over the internet which may lead to a
new town for them to aim the van towards.
I saw
Dinosaur Jr. three times on their last tour cycle and the Melvins
seem to come through town on an annual basis. They understand that
if they want to eat, it'll have to be out on the road. Larger
entertainment acts are now realizing this since no one is buying
their music but renting it from a streaming service instead.
There's
always the complaint that new music sucks and bands just aren't as
good as they used to be. That seems to be the argument of the lazy
and disinterested that only listens to the radio. Ever since the
nationwide Clear Channel takeover, radio has lost almost every shred
of what made it special when stations were owned locally. The
regional hit single is a thing of the past and everything is starting
to sound the same. It now takes more of a nose to the ground
approach to find new music. Labels like Castle Face, In The Red,
Drag City and Hardly Art are putting out interesting releases all the
time. Great music is out there but given the consolidation of the
media landscape, you have to dig deeper to find it.
I give
a weekly listen to radio shows by Iggy Pop and Henry Rollins to aid
in the search for new music. They both have great musical curiosity
but they come at it from different angles. I might not be into every
song they play but there's always something that I'll write down to
look into later.
This is
not to say that once a band starts to grow too large and graduates to
larger venues that I write them off with shouts of “Sell Out.” I'd much rather see a band in a cramped club with a few hundred other
people than in an arena with 20,000 people. I'll stay home but I'll
still buy the record. European festival season can definitely help
bands pay the bills by playing in front of crowds of 100,000 people. Begrudging a band for their success is something I try not to do and
so many others find it way too easy.
There
is always hope in the underground. The corporate shit show that
music has become can be avoided. You just have to be willing to work
for it.
