Creative Artists Matter

Recently I was reading an old article from David Byrne on how emerging artists should build their contracts with labels. Even though this article was from 2007, and streaming was not yet considered as a potential revenue stream, Byrne was using “creative control” to guide emerging artists on the type of deals they should sign.

With technology resources an artist can today easily record and make his music available to everyone. This leaves a complete freedom to create new music but in turn it creates an obstacle to find the right audience.

Young kids consider music as a commodity; they listen to music while commuting, eating, playing, sleeping etc... Music is not an experience any more, it becomes the escape door, the noise in the background that focuses or defocuses the brain. How do you speak to this audience? Would they ever understand the amount of work behind an album? Do they even know what is an album?

With playlists as the main feature of the largest streaming platforms, the old ‘unit’ used to quantify a successful artist is irrelevant. The unit today is the number of times a track is streamed. The industry has caught up with this new ways of listening to music and is now fighting to get a larger share of revenues.

But streaming has and will cannibalize revenues from downloads and physical sales. This means that an artist today should really think how he can maximize his present and future revenues. Signing an equity deal that gives up a huge percentage of all revenues for an unlimited period is not an option any more. An artist should consider each revenue stream individually: physical sales, downloads, stream, touring, merchandise and sync.

More and more options are available to collect revenues from all these channels independently: Kobalt and Believe Digital are great examples.

The missing pieces in this equation are finance and marketing. That’s the supposed added value of a label. Will this added value last forever?

After an artist has been discovered on Soundcloud or Tradiio, he needs to build a direct relationship with his fans using any social tool available. In the amount of music available today, an emerging artist needs to be accessible. His early fans will be the ones who will carry him during his career. By using their voice an artist is already marketing himself in a personal way: sharing pictures, jokes, inspiration, unfinished demo etc…

Financing a work can be done through crowdfunding (Pledge Music), small gigs, small merchandises or something new that will appear along the way. New ways of connecting with fans will appear and they will certainly help bridge digital and physical world, reducing the added value of a physical label.

An artist should take control over his career, creatively and financially, by linking with the right partners. It seems like a lot of steps, but freedom comes with a cost. In the end only the interests of artists and their fans should matter.