von Prof » 2. Juni 2009, 11:32
Ein sehr lesenswerter Beitrag zur Veränderungen in der Musikindustrie, verfasst von Rob Thorne fürs Headbangers Blog:
When I first got started in this business back in 1985, there was considerable value in an album of recorded music, in and of itself. An LP or cassette was, at that time, the primary item a band could offer for sale, and certainly the most important connection they had with their fans. Record companies recognized this value by financing the recording process in legitimate studios, and they would see the project through each creative element until it hit the store shelves. More importantly, the band at hand would be focused primarily, if not entirely, on creating meaningful music.
Perhaps I was naïve then, but things have changed in the last twenty years. Now the recordings a band makes are considered “commercials” for concert ticket sales and merchandising. Once the primary retail item, now a CD is a soundtrack for the branding of an artist. One could argue that the music business has always been this way, but certainly we live in a unique time when record companies require a percentage of proceeds from ticket sales and merchandising just to survive.
Is this necessarily a bad thing? The demand for music is higher than it has ever been. Ticket sales are up. Rock band t-shirts have become casual fashion for middle-class America in the Walmarts and Targets. But what does it say about our culture when an industry makes more money selling accessory junk than the music itself? When the measure of an artist is more about bounce rates and widget hits than it is about songs?
If the counter-culture in 1999 defied lip-syncing center-fold pin-ups dominating Billboard’s Top 10, in 2009 it has embraced the very same marketing strategies just to be heard. Now, record companies can only afford to be interested in artists that come to the table with their “brand” already put together. Artist development in the A&R departments is a thing of the past. It leaves one to wonder if bands like Judas Priest or Deep Purple could get a foot in the door in today’s climate. And that, I believe, is the tragedy of our time.
We can see the promise of a new era on the horizon - an era in which all artists are independent. Still, commercial success will continue to rely not only on talent and skill, but on visibility; and visibility will continue to rely on the “powers that be” behind an artist – capital, favors, and good ol’ fashioned grass roots campaigning. Kind of like a presidential election. But the paradigm will have shifted, and the new generation will never know or understand what we sacrificed in the process. Goodbye A &R, it was sweet knowing you.
(Quelle: Headbangers Blog)
I guess this ?Old-school Oathbanger" will have to get satisfied with the regular edition :ph34r:
