The Life: Signed V Unsigned

 There has always been a rift between independent artists and artists signed to a major label.  Which one is better?  Which one has the best chance for exposure?  Which one is the most lucrative?  These are a few points of view from both sides.  These points can suggest which one is better, signed or unsigned.  More recently, especially since I started my radio station, which caters to independent artists; I have noticed something very interesting. Independent artists today follow many music industry trends and laws. This takes the creativity and freedom away from the independent and they may not ever recognize this. 

I wonder why this action has been happening lately. Is it because the independents feel that in order to compete with majors, they have to be just as an artist signed to a major label?  According to Quora.com, Josh Briggs, a music publisher at Terror Bird Publishing writes, "While this would be nearly impossible to calculate, I'd say there are easily tens of thousands, not counting every kid that gets a guitar for his or her Birthday.  The SXSW Festival and the unrelated events surrounding it host upwards of 3,000 bands, the vast majority of which we could define as "independent."  In 2012, "independent" music made up 32.6% of all music sales." To put 32.6% in perspective, an article at Rollingstone.com, Kreps, D. (2015) writes, "Streaming was up in a big way in 2014 with 78.6 billion audio streams to go with 85.3 billion video views.  That marked a 54.5 percent increase over the total streams in 2013.”  Therefore, independents accounted for 53,431,400,000 streams and video views.  That is just streams.  This huge number proves that independents can compete with artists signed to a major label.  Therefore, what is the need to want to do what the industry does?  There are so many great opportunities and demographics an independent can serve.  In addition, there is so much creativity lost when you try to appeal to the massive "Pop" crowd.  Maybe these independents are unaware of this huge number.  Maybe these independents lack the business acumen to complete market research.  After writing this, this may actually be the case.  I do not see many independents watching the careers of fellow hugely successful independent artists like Ryan Leslie.  If you do not feel he meets your bar for successful artists, and article at Huffingtonpost.com (2012) states this, "Singer Ryan Leslie has lost a lawsuit over the reward for a stolen laptop, and must pay $1 million to the man who recovered and returned the computer.”  In order to be sued for that million, I'm pretty sure you have to have access to that type of cash.

So in conclusion, stay strong, remain creative.  Independence is freedom, and freedom is everything.

-City-

Pic Ref: http://www.independentmusicawards.com/imanominee/10th/design/concert-photography