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>> "being able to DIY record your band and instantly distribute the sound to the entire planet, for free. You can also DIY record and distribute professional mu

>> "being able to DIY record your band and instantly distribute the sound to the entire planet, for free. You can also DIY record and distribute professional music videos, communicate with your fans in real-time, and take payments from anyone in the world." Not of that matters unless you can get people to discover your music. That's where labels come in. Once you get enough people listening to your music you can get to support someone on a tour and you should grow organically from there but that first hurdle is impossible for most people to get over, regardless of how good their music is.

brandonmenc 11y ago
> Not of that matters unless you can get people to discover your music. That's where labels come in. No, that's where curation comes in. Labels are just curators. That role has been taken over by Tumblr, Facebook, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, etc. I've discovered orders of magnitude more bands just by rabbit-holing on Tumblr than I ever did reading an Alternative Tentacles catalog.
- k-mcgrady 11y ago
  Labels are also marketers. You can pass the curation role off to other people (bloggers for example) but they need to have a way to discover the music in the first place and that is usually pushed to them by labels.
  - TheOtherHobbes 11y ago
    Labels were promoters. There used to be serious shenanigans involved in getting records into the charts - when charts still mattered. DJs would be - let's say - "encouraged in creative ways" to promote music. (I know one band who got airplay after delivering a lawn mower to a DJ. Because he needed one. That was one of the more legal things that happened.) The top DJs could make or break careers. Everyone understood this. I'm not sure how many people realise that labels still exist, and they still do a lot of PR. In fact A&R spending has increased over the last few years. But it's a lot more diffuse than it used to be, and it's no longer as easy to influence the market as it was. So labels take far fewer risks, and they do what book publishers do - wait until they find an artist with a buzz and a following, and then try to hype them.
    - pjlegato 11y ago
      Why the faux-demure attitude, with the "let's say"? Call it what it was -- outright bribery, known as "payola" in the music industry. It's been widely documented -- Google it.
gozur88 11y ago
>That's where labels come in. Or youtube or Pandora. If I were trying to get a band going today I'd blanket the internet with my music and try to make money off of live shows and t-shirts. All it takes is one popular video and everyone knows who you are. What the labels used to bring to the table is control of shelf space in record stores and control over what gets played on the radio. You just couldn't get around that cartel no matter how much people liked your music. But shelf space is a commodity of dwindling importance, and people don't go to the radio for new music any more.
- k-mcgrady 11y ago
  >> "All it takes is one popular video and everyone knows who you are." Totally agree. But you make that sound easy :) The only way that's really going to happen is it you get extremely lucky or make something really gimmicky that can go viral.
  - brandonmenc 11y ago
    > you make that sound easy How was getting signed to a label, even an indie one, any easier? At least now it's all up to you creating something people want instead of convincing a gatekeeper you're worthy. > The only way that's really going to happen is it you get extremely lucky You mean, like getting signed to a label?
    - k-mcgrady 11y ago
      Getting signed to a label seems easier to me. An indie label isn't hard to get your music in front of and if it's good they'll sign you and you can focus on the thing you do well while they promote you. Remove the label and you need to be a good musician, marketer, promoter, you need to make lots of connections a label would have already had access to etc.
  - gozur88 11y ago
    I don't think it's easy no matter what you do. That was always the case, though. There must be thousands of serious musicians for every one that makes it.

brandonmenc 11y ago

> Not of that matters unless you can get people to discover your music. That's where labels come in. No, that's where curation comes in. Labels are just curators. That role has been taken over by Tumblr, Facebook, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, etc. I've discovered orders of magnitude more bands just by rabbit-holing on Tumblr than I ever did reading an Alternative Tentacles catalog.

k-mcgrady 11y ago
Labels are also marketers. You can pass the curation role off to other people (bloggers for example) but they need to have a way to discover the music in the first place and that is usually pushed to them by labels.
- TheOtherHobbes 11y ago
  Labels were promoters. There used to be serious shenanigans involved in getting records into the charts - when charts still mattered. DJs would be - let's say - "encouraged in creative ways" to promote music. (I know one band who got airplay after delivering a lawn mower to a DJ. Because he needed one. That was one of the more legal things that happened.) The top DJs could make or break careers. Everyone understood this. I'm not sure how many people realise that labels still exist, and they still do a lot of PR. In fact A&R spending has increased over the last few years. But it's a lot more diffuse than it used to be, and it's no longer as easy to influence the market as it was. So labels take far fewer risks, and they do what book publishers do - wait until they find an artist with a buzz and a following, and then try to hype them.
  - pjlegato 11y ago
    Why the faux-demure attitude, with the "let's say"? Call it what it was -- outright bribery, known as "payola" in the music industry. It's been widely documented -- Google it.

gozur88 11y ago

>That's where labels come in. Or youtube or Pandora. If I were trying to get a band going today I'd blanket the internet with my music and try to make money off of live shows and t-shirts. All it takes is one popular video and everyone knows who you are. What the labels used to bring to the table is control of shelf space in record stores and control over what gets played on the radio. You just couldn't get around that cartel no matter how much people liked your music. But shelf space is a commodity of dwindling importance, and people don't go to the radio for new music any more.

k-mcgrady 11y ago
>> "All it takes is one popular video and everyone knows who you are." Totally agree. But you make that sound easy :) The only way that's really going to happen is it you get extremely lucky or make something really gimmicky that can go viral.
- brandonmenc 11y ago
  > you make that sound easy How was getting signed to a label, even an indie one, any easier? At least now it's all up to you creating something people want instead of convincing a gatekeeper you're worthy. > The only way that's really going to happen is it you get extremely lucky You mean, like getting signed to a label?
  - k-mcgrady 11y ago
    Getting signed to a label seems easier to me. An indie label isn't hard to get your music in front of and if it's good they'll sign you and you can focus on the thing you do well while they promote you. Remove the label and you need to be a good musician, marketer, promoter, you need to make lots of connections a label would have already had access to etc.
- gozur88 11y ago
  I don't think it's easy no matter what you do. That was always the case, though. There must be thousands of serious musicians for every one that makes it.