MY SAY
Those of you that know
me know that I usually speak my mind, often to my own detriment. So
rather than speak ill of our music industry, I put my money where my mouth was,
and started Wrokdown. Much to my delight, someone has finally written a
book about the downfall of the record industry called "Appetite for Self-Destruction
- The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age" which you can find and buy online.
Being a musician
myself, I have watched managers, promoters, agents and
those record companies suck the industry dry.
From my perspective, I couldn’t get a record deal in a pink fit when I
started writing songs as I was over the age of 25. Destined to play covers for the last 20 or so
years like many others, I often wondered whatever happened to those great
musicians who I grew up with. Of course
they were still writing and playing, it was just that nobody who could help
them - would.
What this did was
completely alienate you out there. You
were made to believe that the only music available to you was covers, rehashes
and recycled music. And a great amount
of money was thrown at advertising all this on late night telly.
Way, way back then, in
the dim dark past, when music was great for us, record companies signed up
bands, but this didn’t mean that the artists automatically got the proceeds
from record sales. The money had to be
recouped from sales before you saw a penny.
But the belief was that if your product proved to be a best seller, you
could renegotiate a better deal. But the
record companies weren’t interested in the musos
having a better deal, and dropped them to pick up the next gullible young
band. This is why most of our musicians
don’t have much – and the truth is – only a very small percentage do.
Now in our age of
technology, the record companies who relied on sales
of cds have watched in horror as downloads have taken
over. But most of us oldies buy cds. That’s where
they dropped the ball.
But there is always
good in technology, and this evolved into musicians being able to record their
own stuff, at home, in their own time.
Big overseas acts like Paul McCartney do just that, and people still buy
the physical product. Same here in
The good thing is that
our guys are uniting – slowly but surely.
By running our own gigs, our own television shows, and hopefully our own
radio programs, our elder statesmen can teach our young up and coming musicians
how much hard work it takes to become a legend.
Anita