A Pro Musician Answers Your Questions About Professional Music

[Master Cthulhu]

Music is different. If someone is getting paid a lot to do music, then they are likely popular. To maintain the popularity, the record label dumbs down the sound for the mainstream masses, which only enjoy simple, catchy tunes. Every single mainstream album has one or two good songs on it, and the rest is all filler crap. All they have to do is promote a single song, make an MTV compatible music video for it, and wala. They make money, but the music sucks. But, hey, they're making money so they have to be good, right?

Or you could just put your voice through an auto tune, the mainstream music fans today love those.

[smoothmoniker]

Originally Posted by Master Cthulhu

Music is different. If someone is getting paid a lot to do music, then they are likely popular. To maintain the popularity, the record label dumbs down the sound for the mainstream masses, which only enjoy simple, catchy tunes. Every single mainstream album has one or two good songs on it, and the rest is all filler crap. All they have to do is promote a single song, make an MTV compatible music video for it, and wala. They make money, but the music sucks. But, hey, they're making money so they have to be good, right?

Or you could just put your voice through an auto tune, the mainstream music fans today love those.

What you're ranting against is how the industry worked 10 years ago.

Labels are becoming irrelevant. Every year, more and more of my work is for artists who have bailed on the traditional label structure, and who are making a living doing music that they own instead. They may release an album, or more commonly these days they record one or two songs at a time and release them online. They get placements on TV or film, those are the big chunks of money, the rest comes from merch and concerts.

10 years ago, anytime I talked to a younger artist, they all asked the same thing, "How do I get signed?"

Now, none of them ask that. They don't care. They all ask, "How can I make a living doing this"? If you can appreciate the significance in how different that question is, you can start to appreciate how much the industry has changed.

I think that's a really, really good thing. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE playing on big budget label albums, where everything is completely 1st class. But almost always, the music is unbearable. I love much more being in the room with an artist who is really, truly and artist, and where I get to become part of their thing for a little while, and make truly good music. Music I can be proud of.

[sugarpop]

Originally Posted by smoothmoniker

What you're ranting against is how the industry worked 10 years ago.

Labels are becoming irrelevant. Every year, more and more of my work is for artists who have bailed on the traditional label structure, and who are making a living doing music that they own instead. They may release an album, or more commonly these days they record one or two songs at a time and release them online. They get placements on TV or film, those are the big chunks of money, the rest comes from merch and concerts.

10 years ago, anytime I talked to a younger artist, they all asked the same thing, "How do I get signed?"

Now, none of them ask that. They don't care. They all ask, "How can I make a living doing this"? If you can appreciate the significance in how different that question is, you can start to appreciate how much the industry has changed.

I think that's a really, really good thing. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE playing on big budget label albums, where everything is completely 1st class. But almost always, the music is unbearable. I love much more being in the room with an artist who is really, truly and artist, and where I get to become part of their thing for a little while, and make truly good music. Music I can be proud of.

I was actually wondering about that as I read the thread. Back in 1989-1993 I worked in the music industry, for a label and then a recording studio, and my cousin (who is a musician) made two records, one for Polygram and one with RCA. The musicians didn't really make very much money, unless they made it to a certain level, even after being signed to a label. In fact, some of them ended up owing money to the label if the sales didn't pay for all the promotion and recording bills, which happened a lot. Most of them made money from touring, not from record sales. Until they made it past a certain level that is.

So I'm glad the industry has been turned on it's head. That needed to happen. The thing that was so great about the 50s, 60s and 70s and the music that was created, is the industry didn't have as much control over the artists as they have today (or 10-15 years ago), creatively I mean. Everything has become so homogenized, because of the business end of it. The one area where I would say that isn't really true, is in the jam band arena.

[smoothmoniker]

Originally Posted by sugarpop

Everything has become so homogenized, because of the business end of it.

I think that's overstated. Radiohead, Beyonce, Fleet Foxes, and Lil Wayne are all bands that have been singed and promoted by "the evil music industry". That's a pretty wide spread to call "homogenized".

[sugarpop]

Originally Posted by smoothmoniker

I think that's overstated. Radiohead, Beyonce, Fleet Foxes, and Lil Wayne are all bands that have been singed and promoted by "the evil music industry". That's a pretty wide spread to call "homogenized".

I'll give you Radiohead. And I didn't say the industry was evil. It employed me for several years, with very interesting jobs. I just believe there are a lot of people making records that are mediocre when it comes to talent, and there are plenty of very talented people not making records. That's all. The executives are going to market certain things that they know will sell, regardless of how good it actually is.