I came across this article today.
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2015/09/youtubes-biggest-threat-to-the-music-industry-may-not-be-what-you-think.html
If you're feeling lazy and you don't want to read that article (although I highly recommend it), I'll give you the skinny.
Apparently, the next generation (after Millennials) isn't nearly as interested in music as generations prior. In fact, they're more interested in youtubers like this "PewDiePie" dude (a gamer, who reviews games, and reacts to games on camera, and makes $1M per month from Youtube doing so). If you ask me, this is getting a little creepy - a little too "Truman Show." To know that the next generation's media consumption boils down to watching people live their lives on youtube videos, religiously. Apparently, on average 15 hours of youtube watching per WEEK!
Really creepy if you ask me. And VERY sad for the music industry. Say it ain't so. Again, I know who I would point fingers at (pirating, the internet, labels, streaming, radio, mass media, etc) for not keeping the interest of their market and instead turning the music industry into a communist system where the rich stay rich and everyone else works for pennies. I mean that's literally what's happening in the music industry. In fact, gamers sitting on their butt produce far more interest (and money!) than what's on the radio. Sad.
Speaking of movie references, this reminds me of that great scene from "When Harry Met Sally" that so accurately portrays my feelings on the matter. They're driving to New York, and Harry asks her to tell him the story of her life to pass the time. She says "well, nothing's really happened to me yet, that's why I'm moving to New York." And he responds, "So something will happen to you? Like what?" And she says "I'm going to journalism school to become a reporter." And his punchline: "Oh, so you can write about things that happen to other people."
When I was a kid, a hobby of mine was just sitting in my room, putting on a cassette (or CD) and just staring into the speaker like a doofus, hoping to glean some meaning from the vibrations and tones and lyrics. I would lay on my floor with large coily-cabled headphones and close my eyes, trying to paint a picture in my head of the band singing to me, imagining where everyone was standing, or what they might be doing in a music video to that song. I'd do this for hours, daily. I'd even invite my friends over and we'd stare into the speakers together. We'd talk. We'd laugh and crack jokes. We'd air drum or air guitar (back before anyone I knew played guitar or drums).
And look where we are today. People put on music on a 1/4" mono phone speaker and put their phone on the table next to them while they surf facebook. The highest quality digital format available to the mass public is CD. STILL. After almost 30 years. Every industry is booming in the entertainment world except music. Movies, Film, TV, Youtube, social media, apps, etc.
SO. Here's my crazy plan to save the music industry:
1. Pay Artists Fairly for streams and radio, and let them define what their music is worth. No, iTunes, you don't get to tell me my song is worth $1.29 if I think it's worth $1.41. It's the principle of the thing.
2. Abolish record labels entirely (now that everything is digital, what's the point? They're just a bank with a lot of phone numbers.)
3. After ^ is complete, Establish new ways for artists to get loans, funding, independent of labels.
4. Encourage mediocre artists to practice before they publish. Seriously. Stop thinking you're amazing and wait until you're ready.
5. Encourage the general population to embrace HD Audio. Analog, digital, home theater, home stereo, headphones, car, ALL of it. We have more technology now than ever to have AMAZING sounding audio all around us.
6. Encourage local cities to cherish their local artists and DISCOURAGE playing covers. Covers don't help music grow forward, they make it move backward. If you don't have enough material to fill up a set, you shouldn't be playing a gig.
7. Encourage local venues to have standards like "you must be this good to play this venue," otherwise, people will stop going to that venue because they're tired of mediocre shows.
8. Encourage touring, gigging, and advertising of artists. Don't look down on them for wanting to share ART with YOU.
9. Discourage turning artists into corporate sellouts because they're desperate for money.
10. Revitalize music in a social media environment - because it sucks now.
11. Establish higher quality streaming and never make it free to the public.
12. Encourage artists to be themselves, come out with wild new material, as long as it's true to their passion and has nothing to do with market pressures.
13. Encourage people to turn off the computer and pick up a real instrument.
14. Promote the idea of "music listening" as a HOBBY. As something to sit and just DO. No wonder kids have ADHD problems today...they are suffering from information and electronics OVERLOAD.
15. Abolish the giants that control radio play and "who deserves to be on radio." All they care about is money.
16. Encourage people to record at home...but when the time is right to actually make the real record, record with someone who knows what they're doing. Aside from having an ACTUAL studio, with nice rooms, equipment, etc., you have an unbiased third party who can guide you along the way, leaving you to focus specifically on the music and the performances, and them to focus on all the technical parts. Almost every great record has been made this way. Seriously.
17. Promote ACTIVE listening...actually thinking about lyrics, melodies, and what it all means.
In truth, this has nothing to do with the fact that I'm an audio engineer for a living. Before I was an audio engineer, I was a musician. Before that, I was a music lover. Now, I fill all three of those roles. I couldn't care less if my job disappears in 10 years. What I really want is for music to live on, to grow, to expand. I want it to improve. I want to be able to turn on the radio and hear a KILLER song that I've never heard before (which now happens about...once a year?) To me, there will always be a career in music. Even if it pays worse than crap, I'll still do it. It's what I love to do. It's my passion. But I believe that the industry can change. It has changed SO MUCH in the last 20 years, it's time for us to catch up and make it our own again.
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