Mariah Said It!

dacalion

Hands Of FIRE!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 259
Mariah Carey said "this is a dying industry and we all know it..." during her acceptance speech on the BET Honors Award Show. So I gotta ask...do you see the music industry dying? Can you imagine a world without music? Seriously, is it?

Your thoughts...? (and I mean serious thoughts about this)...I see possible signs everywhere.
 

dacalion

Hands Of FIRE!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 259
I even question that...where is it growing from? Surely not the beginning stages where most things start, thats us...we are the inspiring musicians/artist/producers of the future but look around?!?!?! Fade just finished a ton of work on the site making illmuzik bigger than it's ever been. Clev posted a dope ass Raw Nature joint in promo and look at the responses/views.

Normally I'd say...ok, this is a producers site and we just don't show any luv for each other BUT what about those of us that have been here forever and understand how important it is to push our very own brothers up. I think the industry is weak and it's future is even weaker. It's sad when you see the effort of others grinding hard and 5 or 6 out hundreds of their own show appreciation. No?
 

Sucio

Old and dirty...
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 304
I think with the industry...I think she means that the labels are losing power, because they are losing money....
 

thedreampolice

A backwards poet writes inverse.
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 21
I even question that...where is it growing from? Surely not the beginning stages where most things start, thats us...we are the inspiring musicians/artist/producers of the future but look around?!?!?! Fade just finished a ton of work on the site making illmuzik bigger than it's ever been. Clev posted a dope ass Raw Nature joint in promo and look at the responses/views.

Normally I'd say...ok, this is a producers site and we just don't show any luv for each other BUT what about those of us that have been here forever and understand how important it is to push our very own brothers up. I think the industry is weak and it's future is even weaker. It's sad when you see the effort of others grinding hard and 5 or 6 out hundreds of their own show appreciation. No?

Here is my harsh answer to this. Everyone here sucks at marketing, including me. But I am getting better! We need to spend 2-3 times the amount of time marketing as we do making music, let alone time on strategy and building our brand and networking. Look at the indie artist's that are killing it, Owl City comes to mind, but I can name a bunch of others. They market well, and make great music and they make TONS of money!
 

LP*

ILLIEN
I think major labels really are going to have to change their whole business strategy. But for independent artists I think it's just getting better. Mac Miller's album for example debut at no.1 and he is independent, but that took a lot of work though, like Thedreampolice mentioned people have to get better at marketing, and Mac put out a bunch of mixtapes and made a bunch of videos and all that shit he made himself relevant. I think for an independent artist to succeed they have to constantly grind and use things like the internet to keep themselves relevant and build a large fan base and stay in touch with their fan base. Joe Budden (i know he's back on a major now) for example had Joebuddentv and i think that really helped keep him relevant while he was independent. But I think some artists are realizing they can make a lot more per album sale independent than on a major. I also think major labels will always be around maybe more for the "pop" type of music, however I dont think they will be as powerful as they used to be. In the 90's and before it seems like the only way to go was with a major but now people have way more options due to technological advances. Idk just what I think.
 

LouBez

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Dac take what Tech N9ne is doing as an example of the independent artist working harder than ever but thriving. The guy put together a tour of 90 in 99 days with his label and Machine Gun Kelly. They charge the promoters 20,000 to show up and shift the responsibility of promotion and sound to the promotion company, cutting a shit load of the costs a record label would be paying for lugging a bunch of concert sound gear around the country for 99 days. So you take that 20 stacks multiplied by 90 to get 1.8M divide that by the 5 acts showing up and everyone is making 360,000 stacks off the tour alone...that's more than enough to live nice off for the year, then these guys have their album sales and 267 days left in the year to do their own shows and collect more money. People are figuring it out and in 2001 or even 96 an artist like tech would probably never ever get the opportunity to do a tour like this based off of his sound alone, but because of the empowerment through work ethic that DP mentioned the guy gets to go coast to coast and make history with the longest hip hop tour ever.

The old ways of doing things described in "Everything you need to know about the music business" are being rendered archaic, that's for sure. But creative people who have a real product and the energy to hustle will always make money in a given business no matter how bleak the outlook is for the major corporations. Especially with something like music because at the end of the day their are plenty of musicians who will play for free, plenty of people who will want to see them, and plenty of little Clive Davis types who will figure out a way to get rich off of them.
 

UNORTHODOX

Father Timeless
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 44
Mariah Carey said "this is a dying industry and we all know it..." during her acceptance speech on the BET Honors Award Show. So I gotta ask...do you see the music industry dying? Can you imagine a world without music? Seriously, is it?

Your thoughts...? (and I mean serious thoughts about this)...I see possible signs everywhere.

She means the industry, not music entirely. The underground in cahoots with the internet, Software industry, and freelance bloggers and jounalists are reinventing the industry. The labels are becoming mnagment firms and less traditional companies (They still have $$ and connects, just not artist development and creative knowledge or taste)

The music industries model of distribution and control is totally dying! Music as a whole is growing and thriving! Never has the indie artist have to work has hard, but never have they been so empowered!

And they still refuse to completely adapt to the new technology's. I saw something about them suing google for pirated searchs, not caring about building a relationship with google to boost their OWN sites rank in searches.

Music is indeed growing. But being an artist has always been difficult work, its just a different playing field, different tactics, and a slightly different skill set (You need a biz mindset and to be on your game. but we aren't the last generation, we're better equipped for it)

I even question that...where is it growing from? Surely not the beginning stages where most things start, thats us...we are the inspiring musicians/artist/producers of the future but look around?!?!?! Fade just finished a ton of work on the site making illmuzik bigger than it's ever been. Clev posted a dope ass Raw Nature joint in promo and look at the responses/views.

Normally I'd say...ok, this is a producers site and we just don't show any luv for each other BUT what about those of us that have been here forever and understand how important it is to push our very own brothers up. I think the industry is weak and it's future is even weaker. It's sad when you see the effort of others grinding hard and 5 or 6 out hundreds of their own show appreciation. No?

The beginning stages are the people that are spending money on shows, merch, delux versions of CDs etc. The superfans. They're growing in number and volume of voice. Im growing, and feeling this. By 2015 we will be head deep in a new golden era, trust me.

About the "Luv", how often do those guys post on here? Ive never had any interaction with any of them, where was the "brotherly" bond build? That goes for everyone else that doesnt post but can post their shit. I dont support those that dont support others, publicly on here. Period. I dont care who co-signs.
The industry is weak, but the infrastructure for the next industry is STRONG. And its getting stronger! I may not mess with most of the new music, but the talent and creative levels are almost up to par (in some cases beyond). The 90s will be loved, but will absolutely be overshadowed. What most people truly miss is movies, music, shows, basketball, football, boxing, TV shows ALL gelling and creating a productive super culture. Its coming.

Edit: *Good posts but LP and Lou also*
 
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