Being an Indie Artist.
It has never been anything but difficult to be an indie artist. Nowadays, it’s just gotten harder. One look at the news will tell you why. David Byrne, lead artist of the Talking Heads and creator of How Music Works, was in Billboard recently, reacting to the multiplication of websites offering music streaming, “Do we generally do what is best for the customer in the moment, or do we think about our way of life and personal satisfaction?”
More than 700 autonomous music names recently united to sign the Fair Digital Deals Declaration, which battles against unregistered paid music streaming websites. Among their other concerns are the concerns for indie artists being left underpaid and under-informed because of digitalization of music.
This isn’t just about specialists getting their due. This is also important to indie artists and youth that has no means to finance the talent and bring out new music that the industry constantly needs, to save stagnation. Here are some reasons why it’s so difficult to succeed as an indie artist in the present music industry.
- Indie music is being cut-off by online platforms
In my blog “Indie Music in The Computer Age” I had talked about how, with invention of technology and new, generally economical recording instruments, more people can take part in the production of music than any time in recent memory. Studio time is costly and hard to get, so most, if not all, of innovation is focused on the home-PC, laptop and iPads. As a result, anybody can create studio-quality music from their own home. Each home-made recording can be viewed as a fresh recording. Also, innovation makes sure this is accessible to the overall population. After equipment and programming costs, the eager artist need not stress over more costs, similar to expenses for studio space or sound specialists. As generation has been made simpler, marketing and publicizing have additionally gotten to be less demanding in view of current headways in innovation, to be specific through the web.
However, while it’s one thing to get peanuts for your music, it’s another to not be allowed to publish music online. Lately, YouTube decided to block music from all indie artists, some of them being extremely successful bands, unless they agreed to YouTube’s terms, which unfortunately are quite unfavourable to the indie artists. Smaller labels and autonomous artists could soon be affected by the changing cyber rules, which would support big players like Amazon that can afford to strike profitable deals with telecom service providers, giving both parties the power to exercise control over internet usability, which basically, should be openly available to everyone who wants to use it for art.
- Financial Issues
Smaller labels are continuously reducing the cut-off rates that an indie artist receives for each sale. They blame it on the market which is full of free streaming easily available for anyone who wants to get a new song. The rates are expected to reduce significantly in the future.
- Relocation
While there is a perpetual hunt on for talent, across the world, all the time, we all know that it is important to be noticed even for the hunters to catch you. Social media can get you a few likes and some fan following, but if you really want to “make it big” in the industry, staying in your hometown is not going to help. You need to move out to a place which has more awareness and scope for your work. Where you can run into the possibility of finding bands and publishers that might be hunting for artists.
In order to achieve this, the first step is to relocate. And relocation does not only involve cost of shifting. It is a sure-shot 100% hike in your monthly expenditure, with higher cost of living in a bigger city, and other expenditures associated with living away from home.
- Paid Music
With the availability of free online streaming, it has become increasingly difficult for indie artists to earn money through downloads. Nobody wants to pay for downloads. iTunes pays 70 cents per download. How many downloads can an average indie artists expect to get for an album? And whatever is earned, has to be divided amongst any number of people. While people are not too willing to pay for a famous song, there is a lesser chance to sell something they haven’t even heard.
In my next blog I am going to cover a few more points about the difficulties that the indie artists face today. Share your experiences with me and I will add them to my next blog.
