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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | Kelly Minnis <redchapterjubilee@yahoo.com> |
| Subject | Re: going major label |
| Date | Tue, 14 Nov 2006 13:17:05 -0800 (PST) |
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> With CD sales slipping, brick and morter music
> stores dying left and right, and the financial ruin
> most bands seem to experience when signing to a
> major, just why would a band sign with a major? Are
> they really not aware of how the system is so
stacked
> against them or are they just so blinded by the
> notion that they could be the next Killers or
> Strokes that they just don't see the reality of the
\
> situation?
I think it all depends on what you're going for. I
think of established indie artists who take off for
the majors a few albums into their career. They've
already picked up a fanbase who will buy their albums
but it's time to see if your music can appeal to a
wider variety of people. That doesn't necessarily
mean you "sell out" and change your music so more
people will like it. What that means is that you are
affiliating yourself with an organization that has the
means of promoting you on a larger scale than an indie
and get your CD's into the big stores that normal
people shop at. We're not normal people. We're
record geeks. Normal people buy their allotted two or
three CD's a year at Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy,
Circuit City, etc. If one of my bands had the
opportunity to go major label I think I'd do it. But
I'm not dying to do it so much that I'd sign the
shittiest deal possible just to do it.
The other part of this is that on the ground floor
many majors realize that at least for non-pop genres
they have got to work to get those albums to sell.
Patience and artist development is beginning to be
talked about. There will always be the pop singers
and groups that are plucked straight from obscurity or
other mediums to pop stardom. Those acts cost
millions to break and rarely does anyone break even.
In order to be solvent these days the labels are
trying to relearn what they forgot 30 years ago. This
is certainly not industry-wide but I still have
friends in the biz and the industry is starting to pay
attention. They know they can't blame file sharing anymore.
Kelly Minnis
www.redchapterjubilee.com
www.myspace.com/greatunwashedluminaries
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