How the 21st Century Cold Music War Began
The 21st century music war is not one yet fought with guns and explosives.
It is a war fought with dedication and determination from normal people who have the extraordinary gift of making music which makes them artists. The war is fought against major corporations like Sony, Universal Studios, and Time Warner who in the late 20th century bought out all of the independently owned and operated record companies like Mercury Records, Island Records, Polydor Records, Hollywood Records, Def Jam Records, Virgin Records, Tommy Boy Records, Sire Records, Motown Records, and even EMI Records and their affiliates that gave very gifted artists a chance to develop and grow before a major label would be interested in signing them. Now there are only a handful of indie labels in the US. Most of those labels lack the executive creativity and experience necessary to spot, sign, and allow the development of new highly creative and musically inclined artists. That leaves the new highly creative and musically inclined artists financing their own music, one CD after another. It could take an artist 10-15 years to develop on their own, because of the amount of time it takes to pay for studio time, CD pressings, and any promotion. It takes an artist 10 years to truly develop with major label backing. A good example of this is artist Alicia Keys. Her first CD was never released by Columbia Records. The next CD was OK, but was only marketable and appealing after other producers were hired for large sums of money to make the songs sound that way. Her last CD however showed her talents after approximately ten years of recording learning and growing. The problem is that when the indie artist is finally ready for a major label investment, the major labels often claim that the artist is not the type of person that the major label wants to sign, but after working very hard, like a slave to music for years, time to recover is needed. Often the major label offers to give one of the older artist's songs to a singer, who is usually much younger, for the singer to perform without the artist being involved. More, the labels often tell a developed world class artist to go somewhere else, when they are investing in ghetto kids with no musical abilities, no knowledge, and no skills. I think that major labels think that hip hop and urban music, teen pop/rock, and country music are the only styles of music that sell in the global music market, but the fact is that urban, teen pop/rock, and country music globally have a mere 250 million record buying fan base combined. There are over 5 billion people on the planet, and over half of them buy records. No wonder the majors are losing so much money. They don't think. Now the music world is at war, because the indies are left out. To top that off, the best outlets for indie artists like Myspace cater to the majors; which is majorily urban, teen pop/rock, and country. Do something different why don't you? People are tired of Britney, Justine, Shit Hop, and twangs. Redoing old style r&b won't get the job done either. Great minds don't reissue. They create something new. All indie artists, who are the greatest creative minds, want to kick some major label ass.
It is a war fought with dedication and determination from normal people who have the extraordinary gift of making music which makes them artists.
The war is fought against major corporations like Sony, Universal Studios, and Time Warner who in the late 20th century bought out all of the independently owned and operated record companies like Mercury Records, Island Records, Polydor Records, Hollywood Records, Def Jam Records, Virgin Records, Tommy Boy Records, Sire Records, Motown Records, and even EMI Records and their affiliates that gave very gifted artists a chance to develop and grow before a major label would be interested in signing them.
Now there are only a handful of indie labels in the US. Most of those labels lack the executive creativity and experience necessary to spot, sign, and allow the development of new highly creative and musically inclined artists.
That leaves the new highly creative and musically inclined artists financing their own music, one CD after another.
It could take an artist 10-15 years to develop on their own, because of the amount of time it takes to pay for studio time, CD pressings, and any promotion.
It takes an artist 10 years to truly develop with major label backing. A good example of this is artist Alicia Keys. Her first CD was never released by Columbia Records. The next CD was OK, but was only marketable and appealing after other producers were hired for large sums of money to make the songs sound that way. Her last CD however showed her talents after approximately ten years of recording learning and growing.
The problem is that when the indie artist is finally ready for a major label investment, the major labels often claim that the artist is not the type of person that the major label wants to sign, but after working very hard, like a slave to music for years, time to recover is needed.
Often the major label offers to give one of the older artist's songs to a singer, who is usually much younger, for the singer to perform without the artist being involved.
More, the labels often tell a developed world class artist to go somewhere else, when they are investing in ghetto kids with no musical abilities, no knowledge, and no skills. I think that major labels think that hip hop and urban music, teen pop/rock, and country music are the only styles of music that sell in the global music market, but the fact is that urban, teen pop/rock, and country music globally have a mere 250 million record buying fan base combined. There are over 5 billion people on the planet, and over half of them buy records. No wonder the majors are losing so much money. They don't think. Now the music world is at war, because the indies are left out. To top that off, the best outlets for indie artists like Myspace cater to the majors; which is majorily urban, teen pop/rock, and country. Do something different why don't you? People are tired of Britney, Justine, Shit Hop, and twangs. Redoing old style r&b won't get the job done either. Great minds don't reissue. They create something new. All indie artists, who are the greatest creative minds, want to kick some major label ass.
More, the labels often tell a developed world class artist to go somewhere else, when they are investing in ghetto kids with no musical abilities, no knowledge, and no skills. I think that major labels think that hip hop and urban music, teen pop/rock, and country music are the only styles of music that sell in the global music market, but the fact is that urban, teen pop/rock, and country music globally have a mere 250 million record buying fan base combined.
There are over 5 billion people on the planet, and over half of them buy records.
No wonder the majors are losing so much money. They don't think.
Now the music world is at war, because the indies are left out.
To top that off, the best outlets for indie artists like Myspace cater to the majors; which is majorily urban, teen pop/rock, and country.
Do something different why don't you?
People are tired of Britney, Justine, Shit Hop, and twangs. Redoing old style r&b won't get the job done either.
Great minds don't reissue.
They create something new.
All indie artists, who are the greatest creative minds, want to kick some major label ass.