About six months ago Fast Company Magazine had a great cover story about John Legend and how he and others in the music industry are adapting their business strategy to negotiate the changing face of the music industry. After months of searching, I finally found this article online and thought I’d share it with you.
It’s a great article because it shows that things are different and artists must take more control of their careers than ever before. As stated in the article:
“We’re heading to a do-it-yourself world where artists will be taking more control of their careers,” says Michael McDonald, John Mayer’s manager. Or as Legend puts it: “In the not-too-distant future, this could mean you won’t need a label anymore. That’s the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”
This is the essence of what I’ve been saying since I started RockStar Machine. You need to be proactive in your career. Promoting your music should be your focus outside of creating, practicing and performing your music. You need to learn the business as well so that you can survive and thrive no matter what. As things change you’ll be in a better position to keep going regardless of what the landscape of the industry is.
The major factor, as I’ve also said on this blog, is the internet. The resources that are available online are not only accessible, but affordable and it puts the power to succeed at your feet.
They found that the Internet has become not only a channel for distributing music but one for insinuating bands into the lives of their most enraptured fans. They found that the efficiencies of the Web are such that for very little cost, an artist can build his own online operation and outsource everything, from peddling “merch” to boosting the fan club to ticketing and marketing.
The article is really about a company called MusicToday and how they are becoming the standard in the industry. They handle most of the things mentioned above and as the article shows, these things are increasingly becoming more important to the musician as things progress. Their name really sums up the state of the music business these days.
