Middlemen…

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 7 Comments

The Internet has changed just about every way people do business in the past 10 years.  The middleman is dead…..we can get what we want, when we want it….and at a lower price over here, NO OVER THERE!

Major labels WERE the middlemen of music…..they could get the star to the public, and that was THE ONLY WAY.   Alas, the Internet killed the rock star too.  The days of the major label creating a superstar are over.  Hell, the superstars that still do exist can’t even sell their music.

……

The more I talk to my musician friends, the more I realize how much we all want the same thing….to make a living playing music. We don’t want millions, we don’t want to be on MTV (not that it actually exists anyway), we just want to write and play and be listened to.

These days, my friends and I don’t need a Major Label to get our music out there, but that goes for the hundreds of thousands of other bands out there as well.  We now have more choices, more niches, and more clutter than ever.

So how can we be heard??  Not only how can we be heard, but how can we make money?  Music is free, and anyone who doesn’t think so is fooling themselves.  The real question is how long can we keep it up?  How long can we struggle?  BUT….if this is what we’re called to do, how can we do anything else?

We’re back to the old days….the strong will survive….and they will survive on word of mouth.  The ones who write a song so good, people have to send it to their friends….who make a video so good or so funny or so interesting, that people are gathering around their offices at work to watch it….the ones whose live act is so amazing every fan tells 10 people about the next one.   So grab your pens and paper and guitars…we’ve got work to do….we need to be incredible.

Tags: bob lefsetz, major labels, middlemen, mtv, seth godin