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Thursday, April 3, 2008

“DIT”: Defining the Music Industry together in this new era by Gilli Moon

Another in a series of posts from singer/songwriter Gilli Moon

The new artist entrepreneur grew out of the ashes, like the phoenix, of dying Rome. It's just plain and simple. No one should be at the mercy of a large corporation when they don't even know the way. Many celebrity "major" artists once signed to major labels, have left them, and became indie, starting up their own labels (Radiohead, Simply Red to name a few). This is not just because they chose to. In some situations, the majors no longer have the power to keep up the level of promotion and finance, that these artists needed in the past. While there is still a "system" in place that the majors seemingly think they are in control of, because they still have more money to play with, it's a daunting future for them, because the income streams are so fleeting and ever changing.
Where we’ve arrived at is a slow shift of a quagmire – that is, it is seemingly unmoving and we don’t know exactly what the next phase is, but at the same time, there are shifts happening where artists are becoming more empowered, and labels are starting to change their face in order to meet the new business models, working with and by the artists’ playing rules. It’s a really exciting playing field, and not just for indie artists: but for the labels too. Everyone has had to change the way they do business and now we are all on the same playing field with bat in hand.
Artists have been able to control their sales & distribution, as well as their public awareness campaigns, themselves, and easily through internet interfaces. I'll explain further down about that. The record companies, in turn, are almost modelling their marketing tactics off indie artist ideas. For example, Marie Digby. Apparently she was so successful on Youtube.com promoting herself from her living room, playing raw, passionate original songs direct to 2.3 million friends, that she became an instant star, following that landing songs in TV shows and filling stadiums. Indie artist? Seemingly. But not really. There was no mention that she was signed. Just a girl with guitar. What we discovered later was this was a calculated marketing tactic by her record label, Hollywood Records, owned by Disney, to reach the new consumers who want to discover their own talent instead of being force fed. It worked. We all loved her Youtube site, and thought this 24 year old was a self-made success, and we were all discovering her. But the label was behind the ploy the whole time. You can read more about that here, and read other people's thoughts: http://www.p2pnet.net/story/14155
Personally, I think it's great. It's a clear example of how independent artists are offering the way, AND it's a solid affirmation that we are now all on the same playing field: artists and labels - we all can reach our audiences without having to "play that devlish game".
Where does it leave the independent artist? Well, I still think that although the "new model" is REALITY music, independent artists are more REAL in their marketing than anyone else. We are the first to let our fans into our worlds: our websites, our blogs, our free downloads. We want to interact with our fans, and we want them to be part of our development. Some indie artists invite fans to become investors in their CD production which is a great new way of including them in the early days, as well as helping to fund the album and its eventual marketing.

posted by Digital Freedom Campaign # 8:19 AM

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