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Your analysis is flawed in that you're only assuming the popular ones are successful. Do you also think successful companies are only those that are used by mi

by physcab 16y ago

Your analysis is flawed in that you're only assuming the popular ones are successful. Do you also think successful companies are only those that are used by millions of users? Its true that the endorsement approach only works for popular artists, but everyone else can take the Youtube approach and let their content speak for themselves. Plus, not every artist wants to be mainstream popular. A lot of artists just want to get their music heard and know more about the people who listen to them. They make their money by touring and merch just like the popular ones do. And artists don't need a lot of capital anymore. Yes, labels sink enormous sums into the production and marketing of a track in the hope they have a Lady Gaga hit, but I think you'd be surprised by how many successful artists there are that have chosen to go their own way and do just fine. Hell, I'm looking at the data right now its its quite convincing.

tjmc 16y ago
I think we're discussing different things. Clearly there are plenty of independent artists - punk rock has a long tradition of independent label publishing going back decades for example. Anyone who just wants to put their music out there now is well served by distribution providers like CDBaby. I'm talking about successful disruption of the established music industry and the oft mentioned suggestion that simply offering artists a distribution alternative will do it. It won't. We've had a decade for grassroots indy web publishing to take over and it hasn't. My point about the long tail isn't that it doesn't exist, but that it's largely irrelevant. Just as Youtube has barely scratched Hollywood, indy music publishing isn't moving the profitability needle of big music enough for them to care. They still have the back catalog, they continue to acquire the vast majority of popular artists and they're still driving the creation of the most popular music which is where the money is.

by physcab 16y ago

tjmc 16y ago

I think we're discussing different things. Clearly there are plenty of independent artists - punk rock has a long tradition of independent label publishing going back decades for example. Anyone who just wants to put their music out there now is well served by distribution providers like CDBaby. I'm talking about successful disruption of the established music industry and the oft mentioned suggestion that simply offering artists a distribution alternative will do it. It won't. We've had a decade for grassroots indy web publishing to take over and it hasn't. My point about the long tail isn't that it doesn't exist, but that it's largely irrelevant. Just as Youtube has barely scratched Hollywood, indy music publishing isn't moving the profitability needle of big music enough for them to care. They still have the back catalog, they continue to acquire the vast majority of popular artists and they're still driving the creation of the most popular music which is where the money is.