b) How and why could any band ‘make it’ through social networking/content sharing sites?
In the last decade, the music industry has become increasingly dominated by merging companies, buying smaller companies and becoming bigger and bigger. They typically sign artists to short contracts who have no longevity in search of immediate profit; often novelty (in a loose sense) artists. The increasing financial power of such labels has meant smaller labels and artists cannot compete financially in terms of promotion or distribution. Social networking and content sharing sites combat these problems; Independent or smaller label artists are able to have their music heard offering them a chance to be heard by the masses without a major labels financial support to promote and distribute their music.This has been proven to work, with bands such as The Arctic Monkeys and Lilly Allen finding fame through myspace, bands playing online 'gigs' streamed to anyone who will watch, or creating a popular youtube channel. Whether these artists then use this to remain independent and continue to distribute music themselves online, or to get recognised by record labels are two ways such media can then further them.
Hey
ReplyDeleteI hadn't considered the music industry side of it when I did this question. I focussed more on this from a band/artists perspective, but this really made me think about the business side of things and the huge impact that these sites have
:) xxx
Yes I think that side is important to consider as part of the whole picture.
ReplyDeleteIf you hadn't guessed from my postings I'm very interested in (and not in favour of) the conglomeration of record labels and the kind of artists that merging labels etc tend to produce(i could talk about this all day, but wont).
In short, I think it really impacts the quality of music we hear in the charts and on the radio, in that these labels are interested in quick profits and sign short contracts with novelty/fad artists with care for profit rather than quality.
IMO the new ways of online music sharing/distributing are very positive in terms of allowing real artists with staying power to compete with this. I hope i've explained this well enough...
I wonder what Dani Moffatt thinks, she's on placement in a part of the music biz as we post!
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