So the Internet has changed all of our lives, in many large and subtle ways. Anyone disagree? I thought not. It has affected the way we shop, communicate, read, educate and view the world. There are a lot of arguments for how good or bad all this is, but that is not the point of this little opinion piece. Instead I want to look at one area of this revolution, the area most important to this site and what it is all about. The music revolution.
This essentially was supposed to mean how the Internet would level the playing field. Making it as easy for a couple of guys in a garage in Finland to get their music produced and distributed to the world all by themselves as it would be for a band in California signed to a major record label. The age of the evil record label was drawing to a close. Soon, good, original music would be downloaded across the globe, CDs of all types would be purchased and whizzed around the world with the money staying in the hands of the artists themselves. The death if you like of big corporate control of the music industry.
So has anyone witnessed any of this? The record companies seem to be bigger and fewer, but that is by their own greedy doing rather than anything else. Sure music is huge on the Internet, to prove it recently 'MP3' became the most searched for phrase on the net, overcoming long time ruler 'Sex'. The rapid growth in hard drive space and the phenomenal success of CD burners are directly linked to this. But what is everyone downloading? Is it exciting new bands, unsigned geniuses and self-released prospects? Or is it more simply the same old crap that MTV plays, the Celines, the Mariahs, the Backstreet Boys etc? Are the independent musicians being ignored and swamped in the huge uncontrollable mass the Internet has become.
The crutch of the whole revolution was going to be bands selling their CDs online. Avoiding the need for a distribution deal. To be fair it is now easy for any band to do so. Whether it be on their own site, via the Internet giant Amazon or by our favorite etailer CD Baby, it is now possible for any band to get their CD out there. The problem is they are not selling, not at all. A recently study indicated the average self-released band with a CD available online sells approximately six copies per year. Six, most bands sell more than that out of the trunk of the drummer's battered old Ford after every gig. Six, or half a CD per month. Of course this is an average, a lot of bands sell a lot more, but then that means a lot sell a lot less, and you can't get much less than six a year.
So has the revolution failed in its most basic of tasks, helping new and talented musicians find success without having to deal with the corporations of the world? Well it is a little early to tell, but the signs are not that great. That is one of the reasons we started this little website, to help bring attention to those people out there putting out music, to help create interest, and maybe even sales, for them. We are pretty damn proud of what we have done thus far. We hope you are enjoying it as well. Thanks for reading, and do me a favor, buy a CD we recommend.. let's help move that figure up from six, because it is just not good enough, is it?