POSTED BY
Elliott Hurst
|
123 VIEWS
Ok, so this is my first ever blog and it's about the state of Indie music. Today, March 18, 2008, the day I turned 37, officially signals the mainstream acceptance of the death of the CD. The Office for National Statitstics in the UK drops CD sales and 35 mm camera sales from their basket of goods to measure inflation. That means those types of sales are NO LONGER RELEVANT to measure the state of the economy.
We've known about the impending doom of the CD for years now, and it's death has long been forecasted and declared, but this certainly is the final nail in the coffin.
Which leads me to this: if record labels, who rely on CD sales are not funding bands to become international super stars because they can't be renumerated in CD sales, how will there possibly be the next U2 or even Coldplay? The answer is there probably won't be.
Which means there will be less super stars and more working bands just making a living. How will they do that? Not by selling their music. Those days are long gone. Indie bands will make their living by playing live shows and selling merch. Maybe there's another revenue stream in licensing, but primarily, that is it. the music is marketing for the band and the band is a BRAND. And how do you utilize your marketing? Through working your social networks. That is why they're popular, they're growing, and they're getting more sophisticated... social networks are the key to building your fan base.
So it's not the Super star dream; today's industry will be fuelled by thousands and thousands of Indie bands simply making a living and making music... still sounds like a good dream to me.
