Is The Music Production Business Dead?

[Rajiv]

1.) Since 2014, music industry revenues have been slowly, but steadily growing. Most of this growth is attributed to an increase in streaming services, which is more than offsetting a continued decline in downloads and physical media. Digital revenues are up 19.1% in 2017 compared to 2016.

I wouldn't have expected that. I'm certainly no expert in the music business. But on a personal note, signing up for a streaming service has reduced the amount of money that I and my family spend on music. Is that typical? I wonder if the streaming is adding new customers, rather than just converting existing ones. Is this real growth? Or just shifting money around? Or taking more from the artists?

[bongo_x]

The business is not what it used to be and it's not just record sales. As someone pointed out, every town had at least a few live music and dance clubs. People aren't the same way about music, no matter what people say.

But so many have a bad impression of the music industry because of comments like the ones quoted in the original post. There are good people and bad people in every business, there are no bogeymen. Lots of people with names and experience, artists included, have stupid bitter views about things. Just because someone is famous or has their name on good work doesn't mean they know everything.

It seems the person telling the story always earned their money and should have made more, but other people in the business were charging too much and ripping people off.

[SODDI]

I don't think it's dead yet, but it certainly smells bad.

I would suggest that you observe a parallel industry for a glimpse of the future. Disney, now that it owns both Fox AND Marvel, is pulling all of its licenses for its "products" from competing services (Amazon and Netflix) in order to launch its own Disney streaming service. They killed off Luke Cage and Daredevil from Netflix so that they could exploit those Marvel properties themselves. If you want Star Wars and The Avengers, you will need to subscribe to Disney streaming. It's all about the money

The thing about music streaming is that pretty much everything is everywhere, Somebody, someday is going to tighten that up.

[Vortifex]

Streaming is terrible for artist incomes but that 20.5% drop in downloads is a sign of the times. My son's happy with his iPhone and Spotify subscription. He's got easy access to all the music he could wish for and has no interest in buying individual downloads, it would just be unnecessary expenditure.

The cellist Zoe Keating had two and a quarter million streams this year and it earned her less than $13k. In contrast, synthwave band The Midnight has sold 2021 copies of their album Kids on Bandcamp at a minimum of $7 each, earning at least $16k before Bandcamp's cut.

Artists are being screwed while the Spotify execs are earning 7 figures. I guess that's one thing that never changes.

[funky lime]

Just about every movie, tv/radio show/advert, trailer, video game, corporate training video, podcast, yt channel, uses music. Weddings often have bands or DJs, same with private parties and bigger events, clubs, festivals, fairs, parades.

And then there's the huge business of selling dreams to aspiring artists. I mean gear, instruments, plugins, lessons. Surely music production equipment falls under the umbrella of the "music production business." There's no shortage of dreams on this planet. That's the whole fantasy of stardom, being the next Beyonce or whatever, and while that might arguably be bad for music as an artform, it does help keep the industry afloat. I mean, what is the purpose of this forum, really? People in the music business are making money from it.

The indie video game scene alone is full of brilliant composers, and the video game industry has grown wildly in the past decade and continues to do so. A soundtrack can make or break your game, so this segment of the industry has been yielding some fascinating music that is often packaged with the game in "special editions" and whatnot. People pay extra to be able to download the music.

High end media usually calls for high end production. Low end media, likewise, provides opportunities for more modest productions. And there seems to be no shortage on either end. I don't see movies, games, or shows going away soon.

There are new and exciting bands popping up all the time. It's just that the band lifestyle is often not geared toward getting rich; some of those people just love playing shows, festivals, making meaningful connections with audiences, traveling and creating art, and accept that they aren't going to get rich, because getting rich isn't the point.

Streaming is publicity. It gets music out there to everybody. Those who truly want to support the artists will do so, and streaming is a means of connecting those artists with those patrons.

Like anything, music is changing. But I think it's too deeply ingrained in our culture to let it die. It might seem dead if that's how you choose to look at it, but that's the nature of pessimism. And the business is certainly much different than it used to be, in many ways.

Music as a commodity still has value, certainly. But it doesn't really resemble music as art, sometimes, so it can be easy to overlook.

[Zexila]

Just about every movie, tv/radio show/advert, trailer, video game, corporate training video, podcast, yt channel, uses music. Weddings often have bands or DJs, same with private parties and bigger events, clubs, festivals, fairs, parades.

And then there's the huge business of selling dreams to aspiring artists. I mean gear, instruments, plugins, lessons. Surely music production equipment falls under the umbrella of the "music production business." There's no shortage of dreams on this planet. That's the whole fantasy of stardom, being the next Beyonce or whatever, and while that might arguably be bad for music as an artform, it does help keep the industry afloat. I mean, what is the purpose of this forum, really? People in the music business are making money from it.

The indie video game scene alone is full of brilliant composers, and the video game industry has grown wildly in the past decade and continues to do so. A soundtrack can make or break your game, so this segment of the industry has been yielding some fascinating music that is often packaged with the game in "special editions" and whatnot. People pay extra to be able to download the music.

High end media usually calls for high end production. Low end media, likewise, provides opportunities for more modest productions. And there seems to be no shortage on either end. I don't see movies, games, or shows going away soon.

There are new and exciting bands popping up all the time. It's just that the band lifestyle is often not geared toward getting rich; some of those people just love playing shows, festivals, making meaningful connections with audiences, traveling and creating art, and accept that they aren't going to get rich, because getting rich isn't the point.

Streaming is publicity. It gets music out there to everybody. Those who truly want to support the artists will do so, and streaming is a means of connecting those artists with those patrons.

Like anything, music is changing. But I think it's too deeply ingrained in our culture to let it die. It might seem dead if that's how you choose to look at it, but that's the nature of pessimism. And the business is certainly much different than it used to be, in many ways.

Music as a commodity still has value, certainly. But it doesn't really resemble music as art, sometimes, so it can be easy to overlook.

Great post!

[Zexila]

In OP there's line:

The golden era is over and I feel sorry for those trying to make a living in this day and age.

IMO golden era started, you can have pretty much nice setup for cost of one synth back in a day and make radio ready music on your laptop with virtual plugins, you can release your music to wide public easily, even reach some folks you couldn't in million years before, game changed.

This is an nice interview

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Mostly folks who got hurt by game changing are same people who are bunch of hot air, like that quoted remixers, people don't care about DJ's that much anymore, it's all about artist's that actually make their own music and remixes how they please and in their own style, today pop stars make collaborations with them, because they need something for clubs and in particular style, they don't make acoustic pop track and than guy make some niche club mix that barely resembles original, but it sounds club-y, whatever that means, 90% of that remixes are just lame, you got one niche version of one hot air remixer which is barely usable in actual sets, I mean guy makes one "trancy" remix, imagine how many non trance DJ's will play that, not much, game changed, adopt.

[wagtunes]

In OP there's line:

The golden era is over and I feel sorry for those trying to make a living in this day and age.

IMO golden era started, you can have pretty much nice setup for cost of one synth back in a day and make radio ready music on your laptop with virtual plugins, you can release your music to wide public easily, even reach some folks you couldn't in million years before, game changed.

This is an nice interview

|

Mostly folks who got hurt by game changing are same people who are bunch of hot air, like that quoted remixers, people don't care about DJ's that much anymore, it's all about artist's that actually make their own music and remixes how they please and in their own style, today pop stars make collaborations with them, because they need something for clubs and in particular style, they don't make acoustic pop track and than guy make some niche club mix that barely resembles original, but it sounds club-y, whatever that means, 90% of that remixes are just lame, you got one niche version of one hot air remixer which is barely usable in actual sets, I mean guy makes one "trancy" remix, imagine how many non trance DJ's will play that, not much, game changed, adopt.

I'm not even sure how to respond to this but I'm going to try as someone who has been doing this since the 70s.

Back in my day as today, you needed talent to make it. In some manner, shape or form, you needed some kind of talent, even if it was novelty talent. That would at least, as we used to call it in the trade, give you "two and out", meaning a two year career to make your killing.

I would have been happy for that but at the time I had no talent. I was God awful.

Point is, if I DID have talent back then, the kind that I have now, I would have had an easier time making it as a writer. Because back then there was a process that everybody had to follow as there was no Internet, no social media, no nothing beyond, play your stuff in clubs and/or send your material to publishers, AR reps, labels, managers and so on.

That was the game. Labels had budgets for this kind of thing. There were people who literally made their living looking for talent.

Today? All of that is gone. Everybody is on their own. There are no more publishers to contact. There are no more labels to send demo tapes to. Nobody has the budget to invest in an unknown. So if you want to make it today, you need to hit social media. You need to do all your own promotion. You need to wear every hat that there is to wear in the business unless you're independently wealthy and can basically buy yourself a career.

In going the above route, you are going against more competition than there ever was. The social media noise level is 1000 times greater than anything you ever had in the 70s or 80s. Your chances of getting any kind of significant following now are slim to none. And even those who make it (take the top Trance acts as an example) make very little money relative to what people made back in the day.

Yes, the game has changed. The problem is, the game is almost impossible to win.

FYI, I have no horse in this race. At age 20 in 1977, I didn't have the talent to make it. At age 61 in 2018, I don't have the desire to make it.

But if I did, I'd have a better chance getting a date with Angelina Joli.

TLDR - No, things are NOT great today. Comparatively speaking, they're not even close.

[Zexila]

Today? All of that is gone. Everybody is on their own. There are no more publishers to contact. There are no more labels to send demo tapes to. Nobody has the budget to invest in an unknown. So if you want to make it today, you need to hit social media. You need to do all your own promotion. You need to wear every hat that there is to wear in the business unless you're independently wealthy and can basically buy yourself a career.

There still are, but you don't need them, that's the thing, it's easier now to make yourself important for them, it's not just the chosen ones, it can be anyone, win some remix competition and who knows, you can be next Avicii pushed by most major labels in industry, he got big like that too, won few remix comps and boom, little 15-16 year old boy called Martijin too with his KRK's, FL and tons of others, there's tons of people who make music today and release it, that wasn't possible before, you needed to invest so much to just be mediocre and pretty much unheard off, today you need way less and way more people will hear how mediocre you are, not you per se, but globally.

In going the above route, you are going against more competition than there ever was. The social media noise level is 1000 times greater than anything you ever had in the 70s or 80s. Your chances of getting any kind of significant following now are slim to none. And even those who make it (take the top Trance acts as an example) make very little money relative to what people made back in the day.

They were even slimmer before, especially for mediocre produced niche stuff like trance from the 90s, now they are making millions, that same folks who couldn't pay rent with that stuff in 90s, they are now pop stars and some others are paying rents even, gigging and getting recognition.

Dunno really, if you make music people like, you will sell, perform and be heard, if you have chops to be writer, producer and etc, chances are huge you will succeed, only folks who have issues with new game are people who can't deliver above competition.

My colleague and I have this same convo's all the time, as I say to him, you can't make EDM the same as someone who started on dance floor, now when our pop clients need EDM like stuff new kids on the block are killing it, you just hear without even looking at credits who did the track, you hear that details only EDM youngster could pull off, someone who feels that stuff with whole his being, you can't fake it better than they can make it, he breaths this stuff, pop music is now all about being fresh, at least here, it's all about who can make you something fresher and cheaper, gates opened for anyone who can deliver, you can reach to anyone these days and be heard off, cheaper, better, tough times, but there's room for more people to eat the pie.

[jancivil]

if there's one thing I care less about doing than being commercial, being in it for the money, it's de club and this EDM bidness. a lot of drinking and taking the wrong kinds of drugs in order to numb your ass.

there's a real generation gap there. but that's nothing compared to the gap in values.

[jancivil]

"if you make music people like, you will sell... chances are huge..."

[Zexila]

Sure, but there's still demand for same stuff as before, except for hot air charlatans, which many turned out to be when real talents got chance and competition got tougher, also mainstream music is mostly an promotional medium, but there are still people who love and buy music, I really see no problems, especially for people who make non-mainstream music, actually even they can be heard by someone on the same streaming mediums and places, for a change compete.

[Zexila]

"if you make music people like, you will sell... chances are huge..."

Don't know what is funny, many of you from this forum are having more listeners than you could even dream off, especially how niche your stuff is, but now your listeners have chance to get to you and in some cases some circles actually buy and support you, back in a day you wouldn't made a penny from being you, today there's someone who will actually pay and listen to that. Well, that's maybe funny.

[jancivil]

Whether it's back in the day or now, you have to do a LOT more than be good at music. Personally I think next-to-no one in EDM for da club is good at music, but whatever.

You have to be out doing it, you need some money behind you, you need to move merchandise, you need to, or someone behind you needs to have business savvy and treat it as a business and constantly be aware of things at that level.

To assert 'people like it' and 'chops at both blah and blah' means a "huge" chance you'll make it shows me, to be frank, a lack of experience on this planet and following that, terrific overconfidence in your assessments.

But of course if you proceed from the notion of "I will make music people will like so money and success will naturally come to me" certain other failures of the reasoning engine are bound to follow. Struck me as rather vapid, you know. But knock yourself out, I'm done.

[wagtunes]

Whether it's back in the day or now, you have to do a LOT more than be good at music. Personally I think next-to-no one in EDM for da club is good at music, but whatever.

You have to be out doing it, you need some money behind you, you need to move merchandise, you need to, or someone behind you needs to have business savvy and treat it as a business and constantly be aware of things at that level.

To assert 'people like it' and 'chops at both blah and blah' means a "huge" chance you'll make it shows me, to be frank, a lack of experience on this planet and following that, terrific overconfidence in your assessments.

But of course if you proceed from the notion of "I will make music people will like so money and success will naturally come to me" certain other failures of the reasoning engine are bound to follow. Struck me as rather vapid, you know. But knock yourself out, I'm done.

God I wish there was a like button on this forum.