The Musician's Corner® - Personal & Professional Development for Next Generation Rock Stars!

I’m just old enough to remember the days when artist development was a real practice among record labels and management companies. The concept was to bring an artist in and under your wing, nurture their talent and craft, and help them shape their music into a saleable product for eventual mass consumption.

Those days of yesteryear are long gone. That was when artists who were newly signed to record deals had 3-5 years and a few albums of time to develop their careers. They would record and album, go on tour to support the release, then come back and record a follow-up release, and then start the process over. The logic was that over time, an artist could build on their earlier success until they gained a larger and larger fan base.

Today, most new artists usually only have one or two singles or one album worth of time if they’re lucky, to prove their worth. The shear volume of new artists and competition out there has dictated and forced record labels to move on quickly if an act isn’t hitting right away. The consolidation in recent years of the music industry has proven both good and bad. Good, in that these large holding companies have used their large money to enlarge their audiences by reaching a cross-section of genres. Bad, in that the autonomy and spirit of the visionary (and patient) A&R departments have been stifled.

Recent articles in the Wall Street Journal have read, "as the troubled music industry grapples with its first major sales decline in more than a decade, many majors have trimmed their rosters of artists who have loyal followings yet fall short of profit goals." Enter the independent labels with major label distribution. "We’re looking at an arc of two to three years instead of two to three months," says Danny Goldberg former chairman of Warner Bros. Records, who now runs indie label, Artemis Records. Ah, a flicker of hope.

Why are some veteran artists like Carol King and Boston signing with smaller, independent record labels? Artistic freedom and dollars and cents primarily. Their smaller, but loyal fan base that can still equate to profits for the independent labels who do not have to spend mega-bucks marketing an already established artist. This situation is a win-win for both artist and label. Ironically, these established (formerly superstar) artists are the same ones who had the opportunity to "develop" twenty-five or thirty years ago. They may not be selling out football stadiums anymore, but they are still making their music the way they want to, while still affording everyone the opportunity to make a living.

Some record executives today are even talking about developing a "singles market" (again). The idea here is to introduce new artists by releasing two or three songs rather than expecting buyers to pay the $16-$18 for a full CD of an unknown. Break them in slowly while minimizing the risk, in other words. This seems in part, to be a return to the principles of artist development.

Small segments of the music industry are realizing the need to return to the artist development model. These "pioneers" are proponents for success the old fashioned way. They are signing fewer artists and are opting instead to spend more dollars on developing the artists they currently represent instead of hunting for that elusive flavor of the month. Unfortunately this is the exception to the rule. By design, many labels today have the "get rich quick and strike while it’s hot and move on" mentality simply for survival. This is leaving the music industry with a plethora of processed pop and regurgitated rock that is a far cry from it’s original intention.

The Bottom Line: There is a lot of good music out there today, but we’re running into the old quantity versus quality dilemma. Frank Breeden, President of the Gospel Music Association comments, "therein lies the yin and the yang; you can be creative and artistic and you can lose your shirt, or you can be so formulaic and profit-driven that you end up making audio wallpaper." I always preferred painting to wallpaper; yeah it’s more work, but it usually lasts longer and looks much better…call me crazy.

Tom Leu is an author, speaker, musician & media personality delivering compelling, provocative, & relevant inspirational messages that blur the lines between "the left" and "the right"...

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