LiveMusicBlog

In times past, the music business was controlled by the major record labels. The record labels controlled everything in an artist’s career from start to finish. The record label would control and artist image, airplay, access to audits, like ness, royalty rate, success and everything in betwixt while under the record label contract. When the artist career was over, the artist regularly did not have anything to show for their hard work and creativity.

Back in the day, the record label would finance artist’s project up front in the form of an advance. The advance ofttimes amounted to a loan which the performer had to repay. The record label would finance the recording, distribution and promotion of the performer project and then “recoup” the resources following the project started selling. Although it seems fair on the surface, the record label would charge the performer for much more than what the record label provide d. The record label would not only bill the performer for the things mentioned above, but they would deduct performer royalties for damaged wonderful s, record club discounts and a wealth of other expenses. In addition the record label would take these deductions from the performers’ gross earnings.

Although the record label would allow an musician to audit the record company’s books, a lot of performers did not conduct any audits. performers were generally afraid of angering the record labels by asking the record labels to show the expenses and deductions in writing. This justifiable fear kept artist’s in their place – under the record labels’ control.

Today with digital technology, the power is shifting into the hands of the artist

There’s a new trend in the music business that has record labels sweating in the boardroom. This new trend is called “Do It Yourself” (D.I.Y.). With Digital Technology anyone might start a record label and have a personal studio on their PC. There are a number of free or (very inexpensive) studio recording software applications that allow an artist to record and hand out their personal material in the absence of the advocate or control of any other record label.

An musician may conveniently  promote  and sell their CD’s and MP3’s Internet at thousands of Internet website s. In addition there are many new Internet hosting services that allow an musician to have a website dedicated to promoting their and selling their music to the rising Internet community.

There are 100’s of performers making a living selling their music Web. Think about it, if you sold 20,000 CD’s Web at $10, you’d earn $200,000. If you sold 20,000 for a record label you’d be in debt and you’d face the risk of being dropped from the record label.

By recording, distributing, promoting and selling your music yourself, you control your destiny. Today an musician could control their costs, track their deductions and not live in fear of any record company.