New Music Essay Research Paper Problems and

New Music Essay, Research Paper

Problems and Their Solutions

Problem:

The music industry ripping off the kids!

There was a time when music had integrity. Back when the gangsters and racketeers ruled the music business, the music had a real sense of integrity to it. That was back when gangsters knew of “this hot new band/artist” they had noticed in their buddy’s club. Then, if they owned their own club, they book that band for gigs. Or maybe a relative of theirs was in a band, and that band had street credibility; all they needed was a break. The bands took pride in making a full album, a collection of songs reflecting their current state of affairs. Back then the people who ran the record companies were music fans.

In the last ten years, however, a disturbing trend has taken over. While all of the rockers were out entertaining the people, all of the scholars were off getting their business degrees. This led to a massive take-over. When the scholars finished their schooling, some of them used their business degrees to get into the music business. They became record label executives, and as a result, they viewed the record label as more of a bank then an entertainment industry. Of course, every label gets in the game to make money, but the simple fact is that music fans will buy whatever they are told to buy, for the most part.

Gone are the days of bands having to prove themselves on the club scene, building their live performance and song repertoire. The music business is now a fast-food industry – 15 minutes of flash, here today / gone tomorrow artists. The ones who suffer are the kids, but the target demographic that the labels go after are none the wiser.

The Solution:

An at-home, online, record store that allows the fans to pick and choose their music.

Technology has taken the music world by the throat, and there’s no better tool to promote music than the Internet. An online record store would put the power in the people’s hands, instead of putting the people into handcuffs.

The first thing you would do would be to build a website for music fans. This website would provide links to any artist you were seeking. The website would also include feature sections. For instance, if a particular artist were having a lot of hits for their website, they would be featured. New artists would also get their own section as well. After all, if they’re new, people may not know of them. This option would benefit these new artists as it would give them exposure.

Now, with this format, all parties would benefit. The fans who want the music would benefit the most. We live in a day where music video has become the most important promotional tool. The problem is the music suffers. Video networks have strict rules about what gets aired, and what doesn’t. And, since the record labels are worried about the bottom line, the artists are forced to compromise their talents in order to get airplay to sell records. Again, the kids are the ones losing out because they are not getting the most from their artist.

What’s even more aggravating is, with this compromise for airplay format, artists have become “filler artists.” They have a couple of decent songs (again, they are compromised songs) that get the airplay to sell records, and the rest of the albums are filled with weak material recorded for the sake of having “a full album” Kids hear a song they like on the video network and go shell out $20 for the CD. When they get it home and listen to it, they are usually disappointed that they forked over $20 dollars for 2 or 3 songs. This may not seem like a lot of money, but to a school aged kid on an allowance, or a university student living off of a student loan, it’s a heck of a lot.

With my solution, the kids get to choose whatever they want. They could go on to an artist’s website and, for a fee of say $5, download and burn the album to a CD. This way, everybody wins. The kids save a lot of money. Instead of shelling out that $20 for one CD, they could have 4 CDs for that price. The artists would also benefit greatly. The most successful artist in the industry makes less than $2.50 per unit sold as things stand today. The artists would receive a much larger portion of the profits this way, so they win out as well. The artists would save greatly on CD pressing costs, since the album would be “on the net”, thus, they wouldn’t feel the need to rush things to recoup expenses, which would make for a much better product.

With this format, the record companies, as we know them, would become obsolete. Again, this would benefit all parties. Traditionally, an artist forwards a demo of the new album for approval by the record company. The record company will usually reject it. So, the artist goes back to the studio to fix it up some more so the record label will be happy. While all of this is taking place, the artist is incurring greater production costs, and they are also shredding their integrity bit by bit, making for a lesser product.

With my solution, the artists and the fans ultimately win out. Without record company politics involved, the fans get the artist’s finished product the way the artist intended it to be. The artists save money. The fans save money. Most importantly, the music keeps it’s passion and its integrity, which is the way music is supposed to be. Like I said –