Music Business Questions
The Music Business is Messed up, or is it?
The Music Business has changed from a decade ago. It is debatable whether that is good or not. There are new tools that a musicians can access to help them promote their art, but there is the question of whether some of those tools are taking over the art and the business itself.
Back tracks replacing real musicians, and Artificial Intelligence selecting which songs should be promoted based on an algorithm, are hot topics. For the younger generation that have been raised with both, it doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. For those of us who were not raised with either back tracks or artificial intelligence, it seems so wrong at it’s very core.
Artificial intelligence can now sample millions of youtube videos. It can compare that to what is selling, what people are viewing, whether the viewers are young, or old, or have money, or don’t have money, where they live, what their hobbies are, and on and on. That is good information to have when you are trying to market something.
On the surface, It seems that it has the potential to make music narrow by only offering up the most popular stuff until the variety gets more limited. So it’s up to us to not become tools of the machine! I am just kidding, but it is up to us to widen our horizon when it comes to music and not be spoon fed by some algorithm. It bothers me that when I look at a video of how to replace a brake pad on a car, that all of the sudden I am bombarded with information about repairing cars. I really don’t care that much about repairing cars, but the algorithm has decided that I do. It’s not the fact that it shows me all kinds of information about cars, but I am curious about what information it is not showing on my screen. That might be stuff that I really am interested in. Just show me it all and let me pick. The same thing is happening when I search a video. I might search a video because a student has asked about a specific artist. That doesn’t mean that I like the artist, but the algorithm doesn’t know that.
Artificial Intelligence is going to be used to compose music……….sigh. It is an unstoppable fact that artificial intelligence will be used for composition based on reasons similar to those listed before. The powers to be will monitor peoples reaction music. Hook them up and see when their eyes dilate, when they sweat, when they smile, when their heart rate goes up, when their breathing changes as they listen to different passages of music at different volumes and all the other parameters. That information will all be plugged into an algorithm and “perfect music” will be churned out to sway your emotions as you watch a movie, an ad, or just listen. It is going to happen because once you have the program, there is low expense and high profit to those that use it. The question of this page was, “The Music Business is Messed up, or is it?” An algorithm writing music is messed up! Where’s the art?
Musicians will be able to push back with the live show. The live show is where there is the experience and the connection of one individual with another. It’s where you get a collection of people together sharing a moment of exhilaration. An experience. A football game or a live concert on TV is not the same experience as being at the venue live. Everybody on the same wave length at the same time. There was a study done once where they found out that when a choir sings, their breathing and their heart rate begin to match up. This is true with musicians playing with musicians. There is a connection that is in the moment. That is what it is all about. Musicians connecting with each other and their audience.
I do think that google glasses will develop a product where you will have professional watchers transmitting the experience back to someone sitting on their couch at home. In other words, the person attending the concert will wear google glasses which are rigged to receive audio as well as what that person is watching. That experience will be transmitted to the person sitting on their couch for a fee of some kind. Not as good as being at the live concert, but closer. I imagine that eventually it will advance to the point that your couch will vibrate with the bass and also be some smells associated with the concert.
As far as CD’s and recorded sound in general, everything is free now. By that I mean that music is free with a simple YouTube search. That translates into the musician is not making as much income off of CD sells as they have in the past. It doesn’t look like that will change. The genie is out of the bottle. Musicians adapt by raising ticket prices, selling merchandise, and being creative in allowing fans access. On the other hand, some experts believe this is the best time that has ever been for up and coming young musicians. People are now paying for streaming services because of the convenience of it, and also being able to control what they are listening to.
The upside of Youtube and other social platforms, is that it gives all players an equal opportunity to be seen. It is great in one sense, but you need to be phenomenal at promoting your video if you really want it to be seen. If you have only a few views, your video will be buried behind hundreds of other videos that have the same search terms. Most of us just want to play music, but now we find out that we need to learn how to promote ourselves, or find someone else who will spend the time and effort to get views on our videos. I don’t think this is either good or bad, it just is.
How do we all negotiate through all of the social media platforms? What impact does the overabundance of music videos have? I think it’s wonderful that there are so many amazing players out there, and also tragic that I will never have the time to listen to them all. It has always been the case that it has been difficult for a musician to get heard on a large scale, but I think that even with today’s many avenues to promote yourself, it can be overwhelming. It is difficult to promote in today’s environment of “look at me, look at me, look at me”. So, how do we do that?
How do we negotiate a contract, what should a good manager do, when do I need a lawyer, how do I copyright a song, how do I book a gig, what do I do about players not holding up their end of the gig? The questions go on, and they are important. It’s guaranteed that you are going to come across a flakey band member, a contract that makes no sense, and deal with a wide variety of individuals all involved in the music business from one tangent or another.
Questions and Answers about the Music Business
What do Band Managers do
