Maybe you've already heard, or maybe you're just finding out, or maybe, you don't really care, but there are now only three Major record companies on the planet Earth. That's right. Three record companies now control all of the major record labels.
This past November, Citibank, which owned EMI sold it's holdings to both Sony and Universal. Universal bought the recorded music section while Sony bought the music publishing arm. There has been some concern as to how the sale of EMI while fair in the financial realm, but as there is considerable back catalog that continues to do well, as well as new up and coming artist whose music is making en roads in the mainstream market, their appears to be no real worry about whether there be loss as opposed to profit.
Obviously, the sale is not going to be a losing venture, financially. But, what about the music? Most of the radio stations in this country are already owned by major corporations, which has, in my opinion, given rise to a lot of what we hear in most markets, as a sound alike phenomenon. Now with only three record companies, there's bound to be an increase in the similarity of sound between the artist already in the mainstream and those whose music is yet, but will soon be released.
From time to time, complaints are posted by music fans who are increasingly disappointed that the music that they love is continuing to be harder and harder to find. What music it that? Music with more melody and words that you're not ashamed to sing in front of your family and friends.
I know that I've posted about the increase in rhythm and special effects in top 40 music. And, how Disco has come back, triumphantly to the top of the charts, as Dance music. But, this music is having it's greatest success with it's target audience of 14 to 24yrs of age. With music sales trending up in 2011, there's no reason that I can see for the Big Three to abandon what clearly is working for them.
Fear not. The internet is an amazing place. The DIY movement is growing. While sites like Myspace still embrace the major label artists, there is a tremendous number of unsigned bands and artists whose music has to be heard to be believed.
I create and record music, but I am and have always been a music fan. I see the loss of yet one more record company as a decrease in competition, and a loss of reason for those at the top to care about the quality of what they sell, as long as as the product is professionally made, packaged, and yields huge monetary gains. There is no longer an incentive to seek out or present anything that remotely represent variety or diversity. But, whenever I find something thing that I think is good, I think that from now on, I will try to share it with as many others as I possibly can.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Up From The Ashes
Ever heard of Myspace! Sure you have. But, since the rise of Twitter, YouTube, and the mighty Facebook, Myspace kind of lost in the shuffle. Fear not. After the exit of News Corp which sold the site for 35 million dollars to Specific media, the sites new owners have vowed to put the music back onto Myspace, as it relaunched in October.
The new Myspace is not attempting to compete with Facebook. Instead, they are returning the sites focus to music. A lot of the advertising once spent on Myspace has move on to YouTube. The site's user interface has been, and is still in a state of flux. Many users who abandoned Myspace in protest over News Corps heavy commercialization, have been slowly trickling back, as the site continues to become more user friendly again.
Many of the Myspace users who never left have continued to network and meet new friends, bands, or artists amongst it's 120 million users. They have been enjoying the new cleaner, leaner look and some added features that make reaching out much easier than it was in it's early days.
The new Myspace will continue to cater to the so called "premium" artists, those whose music is promoted by the four major record companies. However, much of the music and music profiles from countless independent bands and artist still remain. Scores of music files containing some of the most obscure DIY artists still abound. If your looking for that hard to find song, band, or artist it is most likely that you will find it on Myspace.
Many of the returning Myspace users no doubt have been pleasantly surprised at just how much easier the site has become to use. Perhaps, if you were a Myspace user who moved on to Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, you might consider coming back to Myspace. If you do, you'll find that it is slowing returning back to "My Space," instead of "Their Space." Personally, I find myself spending more time at Myspace rather than Facebook, but being a DIY artist, I think that that only makes sense. After all, Myspace is where the music lives.
The new Myspace is not attempting to compete with Facebook. Instead, they are returning the sites focus to music. A lot of the advertising once spent on Myspace has move on to YouTube. The site's user interface has been, and is still in a state of flux. Many users who abandoned Myspace in protest over News Corps heavy commercialization, have been slowly trickling back, as the site continues to become more user friendly again.
Many of the Myspace users who never left have continued to network and meet new friends, bands, or artists amongst it's 120 million users. They have been enjoying the new cleaner, leaner look and some added features that make reaching out much easier than it was in it's early days.
The new Myspace will continue to cater to the so called "premium" artists, those whose music is promoted by the four major record companies. However, much of the music and music profiles from countless independent bands and artist still remain. Scores of music files containing some of the most obscure DIY artists still abound. If your looking for that hard to find song, band, or artist it is most likely that you will find it on Myspace.
Many of the returning Myspace users no doubt have been pleasantly surprised at just how much easier the site has become to use. Perhaps, if you were a Myspace user who moved on to Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, you might consider coming back to Myspace. If you do, you'll find that it is slowing returning back to "My Space," instead of "Their Space." Personally, I find myself spending more time at Myspace rather than Facebook, but being a DIY artist, I think that that only makes sense. After all, Myspace is where the music lives.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
There And Back (Part V)
The year was 1989. Two very important events in music would happen in that year. The first took place early in the year as the first ever Rap Grammy was given to DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince. Just two years earlier, a rumor had circulated that an independent Rapper had grossed more than $750,000 selling homemade tapes from the trunk of his car. I'm just speculating, but it is quite possible that industry bigwigs, realizing the potential for big dollar success may have done a little finagling in order to get the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences or NARAS to bestow it's highest honor on Rap music in recognition of it's success at the cash register.
The second event was the release of the hugely successful album, "Back On The Block" by Quincy Jones. The album was a veritable whose who of music and featured a melding of various genres. Everyone from Ray Charles to Steve Lukather and Jeff Procaro to Sarah Vaughn, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, David Paich, Chaka Khan, Kool Moe D, Big Daddy Kane, Ice-T, and many many more were present. The album was the first of it's kind by a major figure in the music industry to embrace Rap music and included it, woven into the fabric of various other genres. Only Quincy Jones, the man who produced, "We Are The World," could have brought together so many talented artists, representing so may different musical styles, into a single project and successfully make it all sound right.
These two events helped to set the stage for the current state of affairs in today's popular music. With Grammy success and a big name producer/artist such as Quincy Jones endorsing it, Rap and the artists who performed it appeared to be heading for the stratosphere. However, music in general would never be the same. The following year, in 1990, Rap artists began to pop up on everything from R&B to Rock, Pop, Jazz, and even Country. Even Earth Wind & Fire recruited the likes of the Boys and MC Hammer on their release, Heritage.
MC Hammer quickly became an international success with his Rick James inspired, "You Can't Touch This." Both Rock and Jazz had flirted with Rap in the early 80s, but the early 90s saw groups such as Diggable Planets have success fusing Jazz and Rap. And while Rap had been used in films since the early 80s, the Grammy success now made Rap more appealing as a legitimate source of film content. Producers and directors began to seek out Rappers, not only for their music, but also as actors in their films, as a way of giving their movies, "street," credibility.
By 1992, R&B artists such as Babyface, Janet Jackson, and Boys II Men, began to see an erosion of their audiences as the spotlight began to shift towards the likes of Dr Dre, Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg. And though it had been around since the late 80s, and made most notable by NWA, Gangsta Rap found it's biggest success in the guise of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. These two artist would come to embody the so called, "east coast, west coast feud," which many have said never really existed. It's was alleged to be just media hype designed to lift the Gangsta Rap style into the mainstream music consciousness.
One thing is certain, Rap music produced the first ever generation gap within the Black community, as many Blacks over the age of 35 never embraced the music. Consequently, they rejected the music and deemed it as inferior and degrading to Blacks on the whole. Many people from all walks of life believed that the music was only about big corporate interests exploiting many of Raps biggest successes in order to make monster profits. There were those who believed that just as with Disco some twelve to fifteen years earlier, the sound of the market place, once again was being manipulated by those at the top of the music industry. However, this time around, "keeping it real," led to presenting the most street creditable product possible. And, by so doing, the public is and has been none the wiser and continues to "pony," up at the cash register.
Young would-be Rap superstars would come in off the street and be given a one or two record deal, with possibly a scene or two in a movie, and a boutique label to sweeten the deal. It's interesting how the boutique label actually served as a way for each Rapper to literally recruit his/her own replacement. A Rap career seemed to only last from about one to three years which has created a "revolving door," that keeps new faces before the public, while serving up a sound that has been showing signs of fatigue since it earliest days.
But, there was more going on then who would provide the most drama in the Rap music scene. As the 90s rolled on, and after the deaths of both Tupac and Bigg, a new product was making it's way into the spotlight, as the "made for play," put together, boy and girl bands were about to become the next big thing.
The second event was the release of the hugely successful album, "Back On The Block" by Quincy Jones. The album was a veritable whose who of music and featured a melding of various genres. Everyone from Ray Charles to Steve Lukather and Jeff Procaro to Sarah Vaughn, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, David Paich, Chaka Khan, Kool Moe D, Big Daddy Kane, Ice-T, and many many more were present. The album was the first of it's kind by a major figure in the music industry to embrace Rap music and included it, woven into the fabric of various other genres. Only Quincy Jones, the man who produced, "We Are The World," could have brought together so many talented artists, representing so may different musical styles, into a single project and successfully make it all sound right.
These two events helped to set the stage for the current state of affairs in today's popular music. With Grammy success and a big name producer/artist such as Quincy Jones endorsing it, Rap and the artists who performed it appeared to be heading for the stratosphere. However, music in general would never be the same. The following year, in 1990, Rap artists began to pop up on everything from R&B to Rock, Pop, Jazz, and even Country. Even Earth Wind & Fire recruited the likes of the Boys and MC Hammer on their release, Heritage.
MC Hammer quickly became an international success with his Rick James inspired, "You Can't Touch This." Both Rock and Jazz had flirted with Rap in the early 80s, but the early 90s saw groups such as Diggable Planets have success fusing Jazz and Rap. And while Rap had been used in films since the early 80s, the Grammy success now made Rap more appealing as a legitimate source of film content. Producers and directors began to seek out Rappers, not only for their music, but also as actors in their films, as a way of giving their movies, "street," credibility.
By 1992, R&B artists such as Babyface, Janet Jackson, and Boys II Men, began to see an erosion of their audiences as the spotlight began to shift towards the likes of Dr Dre, Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg. And though it had been around since the late 80s, and made most notable by NWA, Gangsta Rap found it's biggest success in the guise of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. These two artist would come to embody the so called, "east coast, west coast feud," which many have said never really existed. It's was alleged to be just media hype designed to lift the Gangsta Rap style into the mainstream music consciousness.
One thing is certain, Rap music produced the first ever generation gap within the Black community, as many Blacks over the age of 35 never embraced the music. Consequently, they rejected the music and deemed it as inferior and degrading to Blacks on the whole. Many people from all walks of life believed that the music was only about big corporate interests exploiting many of Raps biggest successes in order to make monster profits. There were those who believed that just as with Disco some twelve to fifteen years earlier, the sound of the market place, once again was being manipulated by those at the top of the music industry. However, this time around, "keeping it real," led to presenting the most street creditable product possible. And, by so doing, the public is and has been none the wiser and continues to "pony," up at the cash register.
Young would-be Rap superstars would come in off the street and be given a one or two record deal, with possibly a scene or two in a movie, and a boutique label to sweeten the deal. It's interesting how the boutique label actually served as a way for each Rapper to literally recruit his/her own replacement. A Rap career seemed to only last from about one to three years which has created a "revolving door," that keeps new faces before the public, while serving up a sound that has been showing signs of fatigue since it earliest days.
But, there was more going on then who would provide the most drama in the Rap music scene. As the 90s rolled on, and after the deaths of both Tupac and Bigg, a new product was making it's way into the spotlight, as the "made for play," put together, boy and girl bands were about to become the next big thing.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Go With A Pro
Back in May, I mentioned the three major Performing Rights Organization, also known as PROs. They are, ASCAP or American Society of Composers, Artist, and Publishers. BMI or Broadcast Music Incorporated. And SESAC or Society of European Stage Authors and Composers. If you are an artist and you write your own songs, it's a good idea to join one of these.
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers or ASCAP was founded on February 14th in New York City. The organization was formed by a group of prominent music visionaries at the Claridge Hotel. Their first office was in the Fulton Theater Building. Dues were $10 dollars for writers and $50 dollars for publishers. Some of ASCAP's earliest members were, Irving Berlin, John Philip Sousa, Jerome Kern, and Weldon Johnson. ASCAP was and continues to be 100% member own. ASCAP licenses Radio, TV and Film on behalf of it's members, whose music is uses as content. Radio is ASCAP most important source of income.
BMI or Broadcast Music Incorporated began in 1939 in Chicago when a group of radio industry leaders got together to charter a new non profit organization, as a recent ASCAP license agreement was about to expire. BMI was to be a less expensive alternative to ASCAP. Under BMI's charter with Radio, members agreed to pay the new entities operating and capital expenses with amounts of half to equal the amounts that were paid to ASCAP. Broadcasters quickly began to shift to BMI. By 1940 650 broadcasters and several music publishers had joined. BMI is credited with introducing the concept of logging, first with sheet music and live performances and then with on air personalities keeping track of music that is played on the air.
Formed in New York in 1930, SESAC or Society of European Stage Authors and Composers helped European publishers with collection of their American royalties. It also helped broadcasters meet their FCC requirements by supplying them with Gospel music from the ample catalog. The company didn't sign a songwriter agreement till 1970, but it's continuing growth allowed the company to establish itself as a force in the Nashville scene. The SESAC catalog now includes music from all genres. In the 1990s, SESAC began using cutting edge technology to detect performances and here in the 21st century, they have turned their focus toward music in film and television.
These organizations work on behave of their members to insure that they are rightfully compensated for their efforts. Joining one them is strongly recommended, especially if you write and/or record your own music. And, they can provide you with useful services and give you a higher profile, depending on how hard you work your catalog.
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers or ASCAP was founded on February 14th in New York City. The organization was formed by a group of prominent music visionaries at the Claridge Hotel. Their first office was in the Fulton Theater Building. Dues were $10 dollars for writers and $50 dollars for publishers. Some of ASCAP's earliest members were, Irving Berlin, John Philip Sousa, Jerome Kern, and Weldon Johnson. ASCAP was and continues to be 100% member own. ASCAP licenses Radio, TV and Film on behalf of it's members, whose music is uses as content. Radio is ASCAP most important source of income.
BMI or Broadcast Music Incorporated began in 1939 in Chicago when a group of radio industry leaders got together to charter a new non profit organization, as a recent ASCAP license agreement was about to expire. BMI was to be a less expensive alternative to ASCAP. Under BMI's charter with Radio, members agreed to pay the new entities operating and capital expenses with amounts of half to equal the amounts that were paid to ASCAP. Broadcasters quickly began to shift to BMI. By 1940 650 broadcasters and several music publishers had joined. BMI is credited with introducing the concept of logging, first with sheet music and live performances and then with on air personalities keeping track of music that is played on the air.
Formed in New York in 1930, SESAC or Society of European Stage Authors and Composers helped European publishers with collection of their American royalties. It also helped broadcasters meet their FCC requirements by supplying them with Gospel music from the ample catalog. The company didn't sign a songwriter agreement till 1970, but it's continuing growth allowed the company to establish itself as a force in the Nashville scene. The SESAC catalog now includes music from all genres. In the 1990s, SESAC began using cutting edge technology to detect performances and here in the 21st century, they have turned their focus toward music in film and television.
These organizations work on behave of their members to insure that they are rightfully compensated for their efforts. Joining one them is strongly recommended, especially if you write and/or record your own music. And, they can provide you with useful services and give you a higher profile, depending on how hard you work your catalog.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Whatever Happened To....
Whatever happened to DVD-A or DVD Audio? Created in 1999 and released in 2000, DVD-A or DVD Audio is a format that was to become the successor to the CD. Depending on what source you read, DVD-A was either developed by Toshiba, Panasonic, or the DVD Forum whose members include, Hitachi, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Pioneer, Philips, Sony, Time Warner, Toshiba, and JVC. The format makes use of a DVD's larger memory capacity to add greater bit depth and resolution and 5.1 surround capability.
A second format called SACD or Super Audio CD, was developed by Sony and Philips and was released in 1999 as an alternative to DVD-A. With the advent of 5.1 surround sound, the two formats were billed as the next big thing in high end audio. But, though many artists had dabbled with surround mixes of their work at the outset, major label foot dragging coupled with consumer disinterest has ultimately left stereo, the once and future king of the audio formats.
A year after the release of DVD Audio, Apple offered the world the iPod in 2001. At the time, the Mp3 was taking the industry by storm, and Apple took advantage of the trend by creating iTunes, which converted CDs into Mp3s. With the arrival of the iPod Mp3 player, Apple was primed to make a move that would change the way that most of us buy our music.
While it is true that the Mp3 is inferior to the sound of a CD and can't come close to what you hear with DVD Audio, the Mp3 offers music lovers two very important considerations. Those are, the immediacy of a digital download and a very low price per song. And over time, it has been determined that a bit rate of 320kbps produces a compressed audio file that yields what has been called, "near CD quality," sound.
Most SACD or DVD Audio discs sell from $17.99 to as much as $59.99. and most available titles are from Jazz and Classical artists. Mean while, most albums sold as digital downloads are $9.99 with single tracks being sold at $.99 or often even lower. I think that the pricing tends to make a consumers decision a little obvious. After all, what is a little distortion of your audio, if you can't really tell, or know what to listen for?
Why bring all this up? I'd being lying if I said that I don't buy Mp3s. Sometimes, it's the quickest and most affordable way to hear the music that you love or have been searching for, for a long time. But, I record my own music, and the software that I use produces 24bit 48khz sound, which is so good that when you play a CD after to listening to it, the CD sounds a little fuzzy and not as defined. I was looking forward to DVD Audio, just as I was hopeful that CD prices would fall instead of rise like they did. Fear not. The flac file is slowly being adopted by software manufacturers everywhere.
Flac is what's known as a lossless codec that is similar to a zip file. In this case, a CD or Wav file can be compressed into a flac file without any loss or degradation of sound. This is possible because nothing is being removed from the file as in Mp3 conversion. And, when the flac file is expanded the result is an exact duplicate of the original music file. But wait, there's more. A flac file when played, sounds identical to the original file from which it was made.
I'd say that there may be hope for greater sound quality yet. Now, if we can only increase the bandwidth, then we'd be talking.
A second format called SACD or Super Audio CD, was developed by Sony and Philips and was released in 1999 as an alternative to DVD-A. With the advent of 5.1 surround sound, the two formats were billed as the next big thing in high end audio. But, though many artists had dabbled with surround mixes of their work at the outset, major label foot dragging coupled with consumer disinterest has ultimately left stereo, the once and future king of the audio formats.
A year after the release of DVD Audio, Apple offered the world the iPod in 2001. At the time, the Mp3 was taking the industry by storm, and Apple took advantage of the trend by creating iTunes, which converted CDs into Mp3s. With the arrival of the iPod Mp3 player, Apple was primed to make a move that would change the way that most of us buy our music.
While it is true that the Mp3 is inferior to the sound of a CD and can't come close to what you hear with DVD Audio, the Mp3 offers music lovers two very important considerations. Those are, the immediacy of a digital download and a very low price per song. And over time, it has been determined that a bit rate of 320kbps produces a compressed audio file that yields what has been called, "near CD quality," sound.
Most SACD or DVD Audio discs sell from $17.99 to as much as $59.99. and most available titles are from Jazz and Classical artists. Mean while, most albums sold as digital downloads are $9.99 with single tracks being sold at $.99 or often even lower. I think that the pricing tends to make a consumers decision a little obvious. After all, what is a little distortion of your audio, if you can't really tell, or know what to listen for?
Why bring all this up? I'd being lying if I said that I don't buy Mp3s. Sometimes, it's the quickest and most affordable way to hear the music that you love or have been searching for, for a long time. But, I record my own music, and the software that I use produces 24bit 48khz sound, which is so good that when you play a CD after to listening to it, the CD sounds a little fuzzy and not as defined. I was looking forward to DVD Audio, just as I was hopeful that CD prices would fall instead of rise like they did. Fear not. The flac file is slowly being adopted by software manufacturers everywhere.
Flac is what's known as a lossless codec that is similar to a zip file. In this case, a CD or Wav file can be compressed into a flac file without any loss or degradation of sound. This is possible because nothing is being removed from the file as in Mp3 conversion. And, when the flac file is expanded the result is an exact duplicate of the original music file. But wait, there's more. A flac file when played, sounds identical to the original file from which it was made.
I'd say that there may be hope for greater sound quality yet. Now, if we can only increase the bandwidth, then we'd be talking.
Monday, August 15, 2011
In The Market Place
Indie labels took the Grammys by storm this year. DIY artists are enjoying greater success as well. Part of the success is due in large part to digital distribution.
What is digital distribution? Simply, it is the dissemination of recorded music over the internet via mp3 or some other compressed file format. It is taking the artists' music and placing it with the various emusic stores. I think that just about everyone knows what an emusic store is by now. The most notable of these is iTunes.
Some are calling digital distribution the new market model, however my personal opinion is, that it's way to early to tell how the market will shake out. There are too many variables like streaming, the cloud, and high end audio that have yet to reveal what their true impact on the music business is going to be. It is true that the internet has given artists a voice who would otherwise not have one. Online distributors such as The Orchard, Tunecore, CD Baby, Reverbnation, and Catapult are currently placing the artists' music in emusic stores such as iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon, eMusic, Zune, Spotify, and others. But what separates the online market place from the major labels is the level and amount of promotion that goes along with the distribution of each release. DIY artists are pretty much on their own when it comes to promotion, and traditional media is still a very powerful means of getting the word out about new releases.
The rise of the internet as a powerful and effective delivery system for the dissemination of music has created a sort of gateway, in the guise of the online distributor. Several decades ago, if you wanted to take your music to the masses, you had to do it by way of a major record label, or at least a large independent. Label execs were essentially the arbiters of good taste. If you were lucky enough to be offered a contract, so much of who you were as an artist may have been negotiated away, that by the time your album hit the market, it probably didn't sound anything like what you had when you started. Not to mention the large portion of artists' royalties collected by the labels in order to recoup any cash advances that were paid.
That being said, the lure of retaining a greater percentage of ones earnings is a very strong one. Most online distributors are only charging a flat fee upfront, with the emusic stores taking a small percentage from the actual sale, leaving the artist with a much greater portion of what their releases are actually earning.
If you're looking to release a CD then The Orchard or CD Baby is a good idea. The Orchard delivers it's artists' music to brick and mortar as well as the online music stores, while CD Baby can sell your CD release at their website and get the music onto iTunes. Reverbnation and Catapult can sell your music from their site and get it into the online stores. Tuncore, which has been my personal favorite for the last few years, gets your music into iTunes digital stores in every country. Plus they can get your music to Rhapsody, Amazon.com, eMusic, Zune, and Spotify. While Reverbnation offers a free widget, I like the distribution pricing and the features offered by Tuncore, and I like their widget's design and functionality.
Being an independent artist I'd have to say that I'm biased. Not so much against the major labels as I am in favor of doing it myself. While it may not be for everybody, I like the freedom that the DIY movement allows an artist. You can work at your own pace and produce the kind of music that you love.
What is digital distribution? Simply, it is the dissemination of recorded music over the internet via mp3 or some other compressed file format. It is taking the artists' music and placing it with the various emusic stores. I think that just about everyone knows what an emusic store is by now. The most notable of these is iTunes.
Some are calling digital distribution the new market model, however my personal opinion is, that it's way to early to tell how the market will shake out. There are too many variables like streaming, the cloud, and high end audio that have yet to reveal what their true impact on the music business is going to be. It is true that the internet has given artists a voice who would otherwise not have one. Online distributors such as The Orchard, Tunecore, CD Baby, Reverbnation, and Catapult are currently placing the artists' music in emusic stores such as iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon, eMusic, Zune, Spotify, and others. But what separates the online market place from the major labels is the level and amount of promotion that goes along with the distribution of each release. DIY artists are pretty much on their own when it comes to promotion, and traditional media is still a very powerful means of getting the word out about new releases.
The rise of the internet as a powerful and effective delivery system for the dissemination of music has created a sort of gateway, in the guise of the online distributor. Several decades ago, if you wanted to take your music to the masses, you had to do it by way of a major record label, or at least a large independent. Label execs were essentially the arbiters of good taste. If you were lucky enough to be offered a contract, so much of who you were as an artist may have been negotiated away, that by the time your album hit the market, it probably didn't sound anything like what you had when you started. Not to mention the large portion of artists' royalties collected by the labels in order to recoup any cash advances that were paid.
That being said, the lure of retaining a greater percentage of ones earnings is a very strong one. Most online distributors are only charging a flat fee upfront, with the emusic stores taking a small percentage from the actual sale, leaving the artist with a much greater portion of what their releases are actually earning.
If you're looking to release a CD then The Orchard or CD Baby is a good idea. The Orchard delivers it's artists' music to brick and mortar as well as the online music stores, while CD Baby can sell your CD release at their website and get the music onto iTunes. Reverbnation and Catapult can sell your music from their site and get it into the online stores. Tuncore, which has been my personal favorite for the last few years, gets your music into iTunes digital stores in every country. Plus they can get your music to Rhapsody, Amazon.com, eMusic, Zune, and Spotify. While Reverbnation offers a free widget, I like the distribution pricing and the features offered by Tuncore, and I like their widget's design and functionality.
Being an independent artist I'd have to say that I'm biased. Not so much against the major labels as I am in favor of doing it myself. While it may not be for everybody, I like the freedom that the DIY movement allows an artist. You can work at your own pace and produce the kind of music that you love.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Shameless Promotion
Time for a bit of shameless promotion. The new Nprogram album, Work The Program was recently released online. I consider the album to be R&B/Pop. The album has nine new songs and the three internet singles, Count On Me, On The Spot, and Dreamin, plus there are alternate versions of those singles. It's available at iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon.com, Zune, eMusic, and Spotify. You can listen to full length steams of each song by clicking the widget below!
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