Yes. I totally think we need this section. I would love to talk more about the business side of recording. So much of it is so wacky, there’s a ton to learn about it.
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Enlighten us with some behind-the-scenes plugin business stuff?
It’ll be interesting to hear how people are succeeding in the music scene these days. I know it can be done. There are a lot of resources available to artists, but it’s definitely a whole different set of rules and challenges compared to 10+ years ago.
Yes me too i would love to see this section take off.
I think fewer people than ever are succeeding in music. First, you must define success. Getting rich? Just make a living? It varies from person to person. The problem, as I see it as a gigging/recording guy, is that there is too much competition and music has no value anymore. The creative/recording process is devalued by the ease of home recording. Any joe blow can sit in his room and record and release his stuff for free. There is very little skill or technique involved. A guy can record an entire album without so much as making an actual sound, except for vocals. Drums, guitars, bass, keys, it can all be done in a spare bedroom without any actual noise being made and without needing to know how to do any of it. That devalues and marginalizes the actual dedicated recording studio’s place in recorded music. This potentially hurts those that are educated and invested in recording-for-hire. Next, the cosmos is literally flooded with this abundance of self-produced music. The internet has enabled anyone anywhere to release their music and make it accessible to all corners of the globe - often for free. Music is worth what someone will pay for it. If you give it away with the hope of gaining a following, then it’s worth exactly that - nothing. Now all of this can be good and bad. But it has definitely added to the devaluation of music. Let’s not even get into streaming. From the gigging side of it, things may be even worse! Original music is not lucrative at all, and there are way too many bands fighting for the same space. The power has left the bands and now rests solely with club/bar owners and halfassed promoters. You don’t like sharing a bill with 6 other bands and only getting a 20 minute slot? Cool, some other band will gladly fill in. You don’t like buying your own tickets to your own show that you have to resell to make your money back, which basically equates to pay-to-play? No problem, some other dumb band will gladly take the hit.You can stay home. Gone are the days that a club/bar had to hunt for “talent”. Bands are abundant and all too willing to play for free just so they can get out and play. Lots of people make actual money off of live music. None of those people are in the actual band. All of this conspires to make music tougher than ever.
Basically, for me, I just do it because I love it.
I bet sim-software and plug-in designers are rolling in the dough though! That’s probably the smartest area to get into.
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I would personally define ‘success’ as meeting whatever goal you set for it. That MAY be financial, but it may also be intangible (bringing joy from a significant other, notoriety from peers, building an audience, etc).
To me, that is success.
“The devaluation of music and what it’s now deemed to be worth is laughable to me. My single costs 99 cents. That’s what a [single] cost in 1960. On my phone, I can get an app for 99 cents that makes fart noises — the same price as the thing I create and speak to the world with. Some would say the fart app is more important. It’s an awkward time. Creative brains are being sorely mistreated.” -Vince Gill
I think he does an amazing job of summing up the current music scene. I think you nailed it also, @Greg_L
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looks interesting, hopefully it will take off!
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Good thread. So what IS success.
A few years ago, a couple of song me and my missus wrote/recorded made it to the heights of the US indie charts. They took off because some friendly DJs in Nashville liked them and ran with them. It took work to get them to those DJs but they took off. Many of those guys remain close friends. SO getting stuff out there CAN be about who you know.
In 2012, we pushed out an album. A single track (one my wife who co wrote it, HATES) on it took off in Finland, Estonia, Spain, Sweden, Germany and to a lesser extent France. No idea why, but streams of those songs still pulls in small royalty checks every six months and the stats show they pull hundreds of streams every month. BIZARRE since we did NOTHING to promote it outside my own web site.
My proudest moment has been Sir Bobby’s Song. It’s a track I wrote in just 20 minutes the morning my soccer manager hero died. I did VERY little promo for it, just letting the soccer club know it was there (alongside dozens of similar tribute songs.)
It’s had tens of thousands of Youtube views and a production company picked it up and used it as closing theme music for a National Radio tribute show about Sir Bobby. That pulls in royalties on every repeat (usually annually)
My point is NOT to boast about achievements (if that’s what they are) but to show there can sometimes by no logical reason why something works and sometimes you can pin it to a guy called Greg and a woman called Debbie in Nashville or whereever.
I’d love to hear other folks’ experiences of getting stuff on air etc.
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That’s awesome! This is the kind of stuff that is so much fun to read. Every story of how music reaches a crowd will differ, but I think we’ll still find some common threads as more are shared. Thanks @Coquet-Shack!!
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