Is Everyone In The Music Business?
Yesterday, during one of those rare moments of personal clarity, I wrote on the MidemNet blog:
The line between music fan and music professional has become difficult to draw.
The
demise of traditional media and rise of social networks means that fans
are as powerful as publicists and radio promoters once were.
…I'm an authority, not because Billboard prints my words, but because I do.
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So with this logic anyone with a scalpel is a surgeon, or with a wrench is a mechanic, or a hammer is a carpenter?
What is it about music criticism that let’s us easily forgo training, taste, quality or even basic writing skills?
This is, I think, the future of music. Everyone will view themselves as a creator to some degree or another. I don’t think most artists are prepared for that. They are still thinking in terms of finding fans who will support them, but I think the “fans” will look for their own ways to express themselves via music.
Here’s something I wrote about it:
http://brandsplusmusic.blogspot.com/2009/09/people-formerly-known-as-fans.html
great post, I’m going to let this marinate in brain for a while.
Helpful Hint: the professionals are the ones making money. The fans are the ones spending it.
well put Justin
But so many people who put out music aren’t making money. It’s a field that attracts a lot of weekend warriors. Since they are creating music, they think of themselves as musicians on the hunt for fans.
I guess I am talking about a mentality rather than who actually makes a living at this. The number who can make enough to quit their dayjobs is pretty small compared to the number who record music, play gigs, etc.
And all the advice about these being the glory days for the DIY musician is likely to encourage more people to do it. Some people have suggested that the death of the major label system means there are now huge opportunities in music, which leads more aspiring musicians to think they can create their own mini-music businesses.