One of things we've been wrestling with (besides
+Google ) is how a Music Artist Like
+Ginny Vee should get out there when she goes full steam with her single releases.
If you look at the "old school" music industry it just seems to be in free fall. The digital era seems to have taken the legs right from under it. Our independent record label "A Star Made by You" was set up to try and take advantage of the current shift to "digital", "streaming" and "crowd".
What do we mean by that?
Apple changed the paradigm with iTUNES - (however it really stood on the shoulders of companies like Napster) but what it managed to do was use its huge muscle and hardware integration to create a legit way to download "digital media". From then on people wanted iPODS full of songs not shelves full of CDs.
What the record industry probably didn't realize at that time was that the shift in power moved to the Digital distribution providers like iTUNES. It also meant that in an already diminishing revenue industry, the profit was starting to be shared by these new behemoths of the industry.
In just the last 18 months there has been yet another shift - as technology, bandwidth and data plan allow something that is changing the face of all entertainment- streaming. It's not about owning sounds any more
+Spotify +Deezer and other streaming services are changing the industry once again. No wonder Apple just bought
+Beats by Dre for $3 billion.
Add in to this whole mix a large level of MP3 piracy and you can see a vast crash in the revenue potential of music. (the revenue has shifted to merchandising, branding and accessories) just look at the revenue stream for
+Beyonce
The digital era also ushered in a second change (the perfect storm) with artists no longer being discovered through traditional talent channels (
+Justin Bieber ) being one of them that was discovered through the power of YouTube.
Yes - the digital era has opened up a second channel that is out of the control of the record giants - record and music production costs have crashed through the advent of home digital recording. Digital video has opened up a hole new opportunity at low cost and high production - so new bands and artists can self produce and bring quality products to virtually millions of fans overnight.
The number of "internet" bands and artists has burgeoned. And that has created even more issues for the record industry - as again their control on revenue slips, their products get diluted and in the end they are left relying on a group of A Listers such as
+Katy Perry +Lady Gaga +Shakira and a host of other artists
+One Direction +5 Seconds of Summer to name a few.
Add in to that the +xfactor and more and more channels start to get exclusive access to upcoming talent - but it has a difference. That new talent (voted for by the public) and exposed for weeks on end with "heart warming stories" ensures and immediate fan base for the initial digital release.
All of this leaves "B" listers with a major dilemma within the music industry. Do they try and go the traditional route to the music industry -via the big labels such as
+Sony Music Entertainment +warner music +universal music and the others or to strike out as one of the ever growing independents. Using lower level - less cost production o get to market (to get discovered by other internet based means). It leaves artists trying to weigh up the pros and cons of the big labels.
PROS: of the big labels are: instant credibility, large scale global marketing, having available resources, instant distribution in all formats and the marketing machine professionals behind you
CONS: I you don't explode only one - you're done, most bands that sign never get released - they get shelved, loss of artistic control
At the minute
+Ginny Vee has her complete control, and luckily has the choice to do either. But via the "A Star Made by You" label she already has access to studios, video makers, photographers and a huge team of web experts who joined the project that are behind her social media and web presence. She has been asked to be part of a major international project that is aimed at going to the major labels - but to be honest, the team thinks they want that independent artistic control for some time yet.
Already Ginny's
Facebook is over 15K followers, her
Twitter approaching 20K followers, she has a surge in Instagram, Blogger and her own website traffic. She recently (as she decided) allowed a few of her album tracks to be released on
+SoundCloud (check out the button at the top of the page) so that loyal fans that have been supporting her on Facebook have been able to listen to some of her great music ahead of a full global launch (a major would never allow that!!). But Ginny is determined to run her project for her fans and followers - not the label - so in the short term she is happy to stay independent and gain a major groundswell of support - taking advice and requests from fans and followers alike.
It's always a hard decision - but the advent of the digital era has certainly made both paths equally valid.
You can catch up on Ginny's
MUSIC here.
