So, the other night, I was sitting with Eli (the man responsible for the programming of this fantabulous website), in his LES apartment as we – well, he – was tweaking the finer details of the site.

My iPod, set to shuffle, was kicking out tunes through his his donut-style speakers while his roommate Natasha floated in and out to check in on our progress. (I must admit, those little JBL’s produce a pretty decent sound. . .but then again, it’s not like their kitchen has the seating capacity of Radio City Music Hall, either). Anyway – there we sat, enjoying Nut Brown Ales from an upstate brewery as we listened to Ella, Graham Parsons, Duke, Neil Young, Rufus Wainwright, The Beatles, P-Funk, Coltrane, Tribe, Hank III – whatever music the iPod deemed fit to serve up next.

As Eli dutifully tackled each task that I managed to dig up for him, he asked (perhaps hoping to slow me down a bit), “So, what do you think about the state of music?”

DANG! That’s a loaded question!

“Are we talking ‘the state of the art of music’ or ‘the state of the business of music’?”

As soon as those words came out of my mouth, though, I realized that the distinction doesn’t really matter so much – any discussion of one inevitably involves the other. Ever since Bob Caveman commented to Mark Caveman on how much he admired Mark’s cave-paintings, wondering if maybe Mark might do the same for him – perhaps for a few pelts? – art and commerce have been inseparable.

So – the state of music? Of course, it’s relative. . .it depends on where one stands on the “Music <-> Business” spectrum as well as how married one is to standard operating procedures. It could be argued that things are a disaster! “The old business model is quickly disintegrating. . .pirating is running rampant. . .cats and dogs sleeping together. . .mass hysteria!” But one could easily make the argument that things have never been better. “The power, more than ever, is in the hands of the people – the artists and consumers. . .the barriers to musicians getting heard, and consumer hearing what they want to hear, are falling. . .things are truly looking up!”

Me? Personally? I’m not too married to the industry’s SOP’s. . . .and quite frankly, I’m bored and disappointed with the way the biz tends to operate. I’m equally bored and disinterested in most of the products that it churns out – especially the majority of what is in the “pop” realm. I’m not going to say there isn’t an audience for Pop. And some of what charts under Pop I truly do enjoy. Of course, the folks in the music biz are charged with the task of maximizing sales, so if the masses don’t dig it, if they don’t go out and buy it, it’s time to cut your losses and move on. “Pop” is short for “popular”, after all – a.k.a. music for the masses. . . .multi-platinum sellers. . . .artists who appear on the intro to Sunday Night NFL Football. . .you dig? Beyond that, artists are typically not going to get the patience and support they need to “find their audience”. After all, there are quarterly financial statements to be delivered to the corporate parents – and, besides, the A&R guy that signed the artists, the guy that has been crusading for them at HQ, just got let go as part of the “re-org”. On top that, “Well, sorry lads, but the marketing department at the label can’t seem to figure you out. . . .and, well, no one that works here anymore much wants to be bothered with you.” (See – Sam Jones’s film doc about Wilco, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.)

Man! Why even go to a label?

After all, the “Big Label Deal”, the holy-grail for most every artist since the 40’s and 50’s, has always been in most ways a crappy deal for the artist. The artist spends years honing their art, improving their songwriting skills, driving around the nation, packed into funky, dirty busses/station-wagons/Econo-line vans, perfecting their chops at countless honky-tonks, juke-joints and downtown dive-bars in front of audiences in the single-digits (including the bar-staff). . . .with the hopes of a Columbia, Capital or Arista taking them on, plugging them into their massive marketing machine and making them Super Stars!

For all but maybe 2 or 3% of signed artists (don’t quote me on the exact stats), this Big Label Deal was a “loss-leader”. The artist is required to pay for all their own costs – the producer’s fee, studio time, the label’s administrative costs. . .any costs that the label could attribute to the artist. Sure, the label pays for these things upfront, but all these costs have to be re-couped by the label before the artist starts to see their fraction of a % of the music sales. AND, the artist would typically have to give some or all of the ownership of their music (the recordings and the publishing) over to the label.

So, why even go to a label? What’s a brutha to do? Labels have really been the only ones that have access to and can afford to put you in a state of the art recording facility. Labels have been the only ones that can get you heard by the people – get you on the radio, get you on TV, etc. Labels have been the only ones that can get your vinyl/reel-to-reel/8-track/cassette/CD on the store shelves.

So, the artists has had no choice. You HAD to sign with a label and not expect to make any money until, if all goes well, you get to sign that second contract with some serious leverage on your side.

So – how has the artists realistically expected to make any money from their art? Mainly though touring and merchandising.

But, technology is permitting the tables to turn.

Coming Soon: Hear Forward? – Part 2