The Death of the ”Major Label”

I'm a music watcher. Yes, I said watcher not listener.  I don't think music is solely audible. Sometimes when I hear a song I can close my eyes and SEE the music, but that's a different topic. I watch music trends. I pay attention to music news. And I wasn't surprised when I read that Moby "We Are All Made of Stars" said "...signing to a major, for 99.9% of the musicians on the planet is the worst thing they could do..." Wait! What?

But isn't signing to a "major" what every indie artist dreams of. I thought about that statement. I thought about it A LOT.

I don't always support the views of artists, because sometimes I think that they're more about the mula than the mission (you'll get that later). But that aside, I figured maybe Moby had a point.

Now I'm not touching the politics of the industry with a flaming ten foot pole. I don't do politics. I'm looking at this from a distribution stand point. I was looking at a chart of the financial breakdown of album sales. And basically after distribution cost, promotional costs and "salaries" (wink and nod at that) most artists are lucky to walk off with enough cash per album to buy chocolate bars for their crew, let alone the leased homes and vehicles some of them stunt with.

The advent of the internet and especially social networking definitely changed the landscape of the music industry. Like it or not it has changed. Now artists have a better chance of getting what they want heard to their fans plus they have a wider ocean to charter in search of fans. Whereas their scope may have been local and possibly regional, they have a chance to hit an international market with just the click of a link. Before they release an album, they can test the waters of their fanbase by "leaking" a sample of what's to come.

And with iTunes basically putting distribution right in the hands of the artists, a very key component in the original artist distribution equation has been cut out.

I learned of so many artists long before they had a major record deal. Before the industry got in the way of the music. They pushed not to simply to get a record deal, but because the music itself was a passion. I think that's why we had better music.
So with that said, maybe more indie artists need to shift their focus to "going rogue".

MOBY says "They have treated musicians badly. They've treated fans badly. They've treated the music badly, most importantly. For that reason, they either need to reinvent themselves or die quietly." 

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