Thanks Mike.

If you view your music first and foremost as your ‘art’ then you will most probably be very happy with the current and evolving environment. Technology allows you the opportunity to produce a more ’professional sounding’ version of your music much more cheaply than ever previously possible. What’s more, it then allows you to make your ‘art’ audible to a potential audience of billions. At its core is this not what ‘the artist’ should seek, to produce good work, and allow as many people as possible to bear witness to it? If your music is ‘good enough’ and enough people hear it, then natural order of things will dictate that you recieve rewards of some sort. I could be loads of money, it could be that some girl / guy you like thinks your cooler than she / he might otherwise have, or it could just be the personal satisfaction comes from producing anything to the best of your ability as a result of self sourced motivation.

All that said, for a ‘genuine mega talent’, reduced recorded music sales means it is probably harder to become mega rich off music than it was in the past. If you then follow the food chain, it is also becoming much harder than it was previously for ‘big industry’ to get mega mega rich off those mega talents. This is good. As old style pop stars begin to run out of relevance, dinosaur companies will have less and less to feed on. Fast moving niche animals should propser in their wake.

But is the outlook really more positive for those in the more ‘musician - fan symetrical’ ‘new industry’? An answer lies in an analogy with another recreational / professional ’sector’, sport.

A hell of a lot of people play a sport their whole lives, always trying to get better at it, whilst knowing full well that no one will ever pay them to do it, but they are commited to practicing their sport because it is a passion. They are happy because their fun is derived from the activity rather than the result. Only a very small percentage of people play sport for money. An even smaller percentage consider getting well paid for playing to be a right… Pay most people anything to play a sport they like and they will be stoked, it’s gravy… The same applies to those who administer the sports sector… A bit of money at the top, but again, the majority of sports’ administrative activity is driven by passion…

Music and sport have a lot in common, they are both recreational activities around which both commercial and non commercial sectors and cultures have developed, with channels of cross over existing between the two.  

If you are looking to do business in the music ’sector’ because you are attracted to the activities you wish to perform and the culture that encompasses them, then there is every chance you will be as happy as an ‘artist’ in the current climate. This environment is ripe for innovation, broken things are just opportunities waiting to be recognized. If what you do is the result of passion then the commercial results you achieve will be gravy. If  maximising commercial results is your passion, then there are plenty of ‘industries’ where you would probably be happier. In this regard whether your business activities are compact disk or web 2.0 based is completely irrelevant.

What has happened is to music is that a noisy, democratic collage of niches is emerging from a chaos that followed the implosion of the old industry order. This has happened comparatively quickly enough to exhaust the definition of evolution and cross into that of revolution, and like many revolutions it’s a great time for artists and innovators, not so great for industrialists. Unfortunitly Internet driven or not, this revolution is still part of a cycle that applies to all human social constructs, the tightening and loosening of control. Today’s revolutionary is tomorrow’s dictator. Make hay while the sector loose, and before today’s innovative new businesses become tommorrow’s consolidated, angry dinosaurs.

In my humble if somewhat long-winded opinion anyway ; )

http://business.theage.com.au/business/music-industry-ponders-its-future-as-cds-lose-their-shine-20090315-8yzt.html?page=2

http://www.futureofmusicbook.com/2009/03/04/terry-mcbride-of-nettwerk-interview/

The sky is definently the limit for those who want it badly enough and are willing to use the tools available to them. The big companies like the major labels only think the sky is falling because they’re losing money and thats all that seems to matter to them. In recent times it has been made clear that music fans are just as, if not more passionate about their music. Its about relationship building and value-adding. Something those big corporations don’t seem to understand.

They have to either adapt or fail. Those who are trying to make it for themselves know the value of hard work and determination. They go about their daily lives, with an interest in making money and developing a career, but more importantly a passion for music. They take up the opportunities presented to them, but also make their own.

“Look at the bands that have broken through in the last few years - almost without exception (unless they are pure pop) they have got a large part of the way under their own steam. That’s how it’ll be from now on for most bands.”

I firmly agree with this!!