Why we download music to save artists

If you’re in the music industry to make money, as is the case for most people who are IMO, you may be weary of the quirks of the business. It’s definitely not easy finding new talent, nurturing the artists till the fruition of their potential and then market their work to hopefully make hit songs and generate income.

The relatively new trend of music competitions has a new business model to propose. They've been around long enough to be considered “legit” and many young people look at these competitions as a chance to advance in their future. This is so far from the truth it’s not funny. These shows are not, as advertised, an avenue for new talent; they are a business-driven initiative to abstract musical composition from the performance arts.

Why put up with the obsessions and temperament of every new aspiring musician, educate them on business matters and guide them through their career when you can deal with these wide-eyed young people, that have practically no demands and are thankful for the opportunity? Why not just utilize existing raw talent, that may or may not exist, and release covers of old hits in the online music stores and make a fortune?

There’s already an enormous back catalog, a long list of thousands of songs from previous decades to choose from, and most songs are too old for the young crowd to remember (or care) anyway. All they have to do is keep producing renditions of the same, truly beloved, tunes and by the time they are exhausted they’ll just cycle again through them…

It’s genius. They’re releasing quality music, with little to no fuss and expense overheads. The audience is entertained and they get to do business with predictable results. If you’re one of these “bottom-line” business-savvy people, I don’t know why you wouldn't look at this model and go:

“Why don’t we just do this forever?”

The era where corporations cared about developing artists is gone. Sure they’ll always be new artists with awesome new tunes, but they are left to develop on their own, , “in the wild” as they like to say. People want music in their lives, and they are getting it under this new model readily, with production quality and affordable pricing. And that’s all an audience would ever want, apparently.

Music: We did it folks!