The New Music Business Whether you like it or not.

[sventvkg]

Poker,

 

To answer your question, no I dont' see how it's possible to make a profit as a band. Sorry, but I don't see that as a viable business option in the future for long term promotion. Bands will have to get creative with stream shows and maybe 1 regional show that gets promoted by the artists touring stripped down on a more widespread basis. I can't see how you're going to be able to tour a band and do anymore than van living, and just squeaking by for a long long time. I'm sure there will be a few bands that do that for years and will be able to break out into a more profitable situation but that will be the exception rather than the rule I would think.

 

I don't think the major artists will disappear all together but they will continue to sell and mean less and less. As far as live business goes, those singles-based pop artists don't do much live business anyway. Radio is becoming more and more irrelevant as the days go by as well. No those acts will still be around but as much as the mainstream media machine will trumpet them, they will mean less and less to regular people. I don't think Indies will be taking a big chunk of the market but the market is so fragmented in a million different directions that Indies already do currently outsell the pop stars if you add it all up. Also, I don't think it's going to be about selling product in the future rather an artist's worth will be based on all the business he/she can do. Live, merchandising, licensing, and sales of music. The Big Machine's version of who is popular and who really will be will be 2 different things as we already see that. Bands and artists that do good consistent live business for instance ARE NOT the mainstream pop people but rather artists that for the most part, don't get much airplay. So we can see here that airplay and mainstream media pushing of these singles, based top 40 artists doesn't necessarily translate into long term success. Sure you get the initial marketing push that will move some music in the beginning and that's becoming less and less, but it doesn't seem to garner miuch more business. Tomorrow's artists will have to gauge their success on more than just music moved and we are seeing that already.

[BlueStrat]

 

Poker, To answer your question, no I dont' see how it's possible to make a profit as a band. Sorry, but I don't see that as a viable business option in the future for long term promotion. Bands will have to get creative with stream shows and maybe 1 regional show that gets promoted by the artists touring stripped down on a more widespread basis. I can't see how you're going to be able to tour a band and do anymore than van living, and just squeaking by for a long long time. I'm sure there will be a few bands that do that for years and will be able to break out into a more profitable situation but that will be the exception rather than the rule I would think. I don't think the major artists will disappear all together but they will continue to sell and mean less and less. As far as live business goes, those singles-based pop artists don't do much live business anyway. Radio is becoming more and more irrelevant as the days go by as well. No those acts will still be around but as much as the mainstream media machine will trumpet them, they will mean less and less to regular people. I don't think Indies will be taking a big chunk of the market but the market is so fragmented in a million different directions that Indies already do currently outsell the pop stars if you add it all up. Also, I don't think it's going to be about selling product in the future rather an artist's worth will be based on all the business he/she can do. Live, merchandising, licensing, and sales of music. The Big Machine's version of who is popular and who really will be will be 2 different things as we already see that. Bands and artists that do good consistent live business for instance ARE NOT the mainstream pop people but rather artists that for the most part, don't get much airplay. So we can see here that airplay and mainstream media pushing of these singles, based top 40 artists doesn't necessarily translate into long term success. Sure you get the initial marketing push that will move some music in the beginning and that's becoming less and less, but it doesn't seem to garner miuch more business. Tomorrow's artists will have to gauge their success on more than just music moved and we are seeing that already.

 

 

Well, I think bands CAN be profitable, but as I mentioned earlier, the trouble is there is no longer a middle class of musicians. It's a huge gaggle of starving artists at varying levels of popularity, and a small number of highly paid elites at the top, with not much in between. The days of nobodies making a survivable living until they become sombodies are all but gone.