- szenario arts recommends to read these profound thoughts.
An excerpt:
MUSICIAN 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…
Developing Music Careers in Uncertain Times
A Psycho-Spiritual-Musical Manifesto
By Peter Spellman
If you were to judge the health of the recording industry by the mainstream press you’d have to conclude things do look pretty bleak. Industry trade groups like the RIAA and the IFPI continue parading their woeful data on global CD sales and there are no signs of improvement. In real dollars the industry has been flat-lining for nine straight years.
And it’s not just the recording industry that’s ailing. Other sectors of the biz – music publishing, music products and the concert industries – are also registering declines.
The key word here is “industry”. It’s important for those in the biz to make the distinction between the music “industry” and the music “trade.” The former is primarily the domain of transnational corporations and organizations like the RIAA and the major music companies; the latter the domain of most musicians and a tremendous diversity of small music enterprises, most “under the radar” and perceived by the former as basically insignificant in the larger picture.
It’s anybody’s guess if the “industry” will re-emerge to its former financial glory (I doubt it), but if anything is clear to me as a student of history it’s that “the next big thing” is, well, small. There are forces at work taking the rug of necessity out from under large sectors of the corporate side of the biz, and not just the music industry either. The same is happening in film, design, hedge funds, travel, insurance, publishing, real estate and almost every other industry sector you can name.
Interestingly, the very same forces undoing long-standing industries are encouraging small-scale players. There is power in the corner of individuals today that there has never been before. In music, it’s particularly acute.
To flip Paul Simon’s lyrics from the song “Can’t Run”, “the music business suffers while the music thrives.” It’s nothing new that the coolest stuff has always come from outside the industry. But now the music trade has a chance to control its own processes too, apart from the pressures of corporate imperatives.
And that’s exactly what it’s doing.
What are these powers music workers now have? How about:
- the means to both produce and distribute music on a global scale,
- new business models to partner with in the world of music and beyond,
- the Internet pipeline that has clearly become an Open Mic to the world,
- lightweight plug-and-play software infrastructures providing musicians with ways to have the look, reach and efficiencies of larger companies.
We have the power to galvanize global audiences and build a network of support for the rest of our careers. Sounds pretty good, huh? It should. But remember the timeless words of Uncle Ben to Peter Parker: “With great power comes great responsibility”.
And that’s the rub…
the complete document can be downloaded here PDF (1.5 MB)
