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Its been a long time since recordings paid artists very well. The money has long been in touring. If anything, I think the rise in streaming where you can pic

Its been a long time since recordings paid artists very well. The money has long been in touring. If anything, I think the rise in streaming where you can pick whatever you want makes discovering new music a challenge...which reduces the primary way artists used to move from unknown to known. At the same time because its easier to get your music available to a larger audience I suspect the long tail is much longer than ever before.

vibrio 8y ago
I don't work around this industry, but it seems to me you are right. I've wondered about the value added by the record labels since the emergence of the internet. It seems that the value of labels used to be production, promotion, and distribution, all of which have been massively simplified in the last 20 years. Perhaps can fans now have a more direct relationship with the artists, and the economics can be further improved by elimination of the intermediate party (record labels).
brookside 8y ago
Touring is expensive and has a certain number of fixed costs. While popular artists indeed can make a killing touring, it costs money for those playing smaller venues, or god forbid, playing as an opening act. Labels have a tour marketing budget to cover the expense of building a following on the road.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
phobosdeimos 8y ago
There are a LOT more festivals in my country then there were in the 90s. And its a lot easier to gain some fame and book a concert venue. The days of snorting cocaine in studios for months and making concept albums are over. Its back to traveling around and entertaining people. Worked for thousands of years.
KozmoNau7 8y ago
I have a couple of acquaintances who play in metal bands, and from their perspective, CD/download sales and streaming are secondary to touring. At concerts you get to engage directly with your fans and build a connection and a rapport that you just can't get from listening to a recording. The very best thing you can do to support your favorite artists is to go to their concerts, and buy a t-shirt or some other merch while you're there. Nearly as supportive is buying downloads and merch through services like Bandcamp, where they majority of the money you pay goes directly to the artists. Just in my little country of less than 6 million people, we have three big annual metal festivals, multi-day affairs with good coverage of both international and local bands. There has also been a marked increase in the number of smaller festivals that specialize in local niche bands with some international bookings, as well. And that's just from the metal scene, my primary sphere of interest. We also have one of the largest and oldest general music festivals in Europe (Roskilde) and countless smaller fests. Accounting for all genres, not a week goes by without at least one festival being held somewhere, in a country where train travel from literally one end to the other takes just ~10 hours. The festival scene has really exploded over the last 10-15 years.
mercer 8y ago
That's not been my experience, and that of many people around me. I'm pretty 'vanilla' when it comes to my listening habits. Most of the artists I listen to were famous enough already to show up on my radar, and then there are a number of artists I discovered through word of mouth or attending music festivals. Aside from a few people in my network who often provide me with new artists to follow, my approach seems pretty common in my network. But since I started using Spotify, the range of artists that I come across, follow, or become a fan of, has increased. The total count of artists I listen to in a given week is much higher than it used to be, and I'm much more likely to attend a performance when they're in town. Of course that doesn't mean artists get paid more, but as far as listening and attending performances, my impression is that it's much better now for 'unknowns' than it used to be. (obviously this doesn't mean the chances of a random artist/band becoming successful have increased, it just indicates that the chances of this becoming so is less dependent on obvious gate-keepers. I'm sure those in the know can point out many obstacles to becoming successful that are not directly related to the quality of the music)

vibrio 8y ago

I don't work around this industry, but it seems to me you are right. I've wondered about the value added by the record labels since the emergence of the internet. It seems that the value of labels used to be production, promotion, and distribution, all of which have been massively simplified in the last 20 years. Perhaps can fans now have a more direct relationship with the artists, and the economics can be further improved by elimination of the intermediate party (record labels).

brookside 8y ago

Touring is expensive and has a certain number of fixed costs. While popular artists indeed can make a killing touring, it costs money for those playing smaller venues, or god forbid, playing as an opening act. Labels have a tour marketing budget to cover the expense of building a following on the road.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

phobosdeimos 8y ago

There are a LOT more festivals in my country then there were in the 90s. And its a lot easier to gain some fame and book a concert venue. The days of snorting cocaine in studios for months and making concept albums are over. Its back to traveling around and entertaining people. Worked for thousands of years.

KozmoNau7 8y ago

I have a couple of acquaintances who play in metal bands, and from their perspective, CD/download sales and streaming are secondary to touring. At concerts you get to engage directly with your fans and build a connection and a rapport that you just can't get from listening to a recording. The very best thing you can do to support your favorite artists is to go to their concerts, and buy a t-shirt or some other merch while you're there. Nearly as supportive is buying downloads and merch through services like Bandcamp, where they majority of the money you pay goes directly to the artists. Just in my little country of less than 6 million people, we have three big annual metal festivals, multi-day affairs with good coverage of both international and local bands. There has also been a marked increase in the number of smaller festivals that specialize in local niche bands with some international bookings, as well. And that's just from the metal scene, my primary sphere of interest. We also have one of the largest and oldest general music festivals in Europe (Roskilde) and countless smaller fests. Accounting for all genres, not a week goes by without at least one festival being held somewhere, in a country where train travel from literally one end to the other takes just ~10 hours. The festival scene has really exploded over the last 10-15 years.

mercer 8y ago

That's not been my experience, and that of many people around me. I'm pretty 'vanilla' when it comes to my listening habits. Most of the artists I listen to were famous enough already to show up on my radar, and then there are a number of artists I discovered through word of mouth or attending music festivals. Aside from a few people in my network who often provide me with new artists to follow, my approach seems pretty common in my network. But since I started using Spotify, the range of artists that I come across, follow, or become a fan of, has increased. The total count of artists I listen to in a given week is much higher than it used to be, and I'm much more likely to attend a performance when they're in town. Of course that doesn't mean artists get paid more, but as far as listening and attending performances, my impression is that it's much better now for 'unknowns' than it used to be. (obviously this doesn't mean the chances of a random artist/band becoming successful have increased, it just indicates that the chances of this becoming so is less dependent on obvious gate-keepers. I'm sure those in the know can point out many obstacles to becoming successful that are not directly related to the quality of the music)