Submitted By Peter Astedt
It’s kind of interesting when you are still meeting artists that think that the highest priority is to get signed to a record label. Even more fascinating when it is actually said by people that work in the industry, often people that work at a lower local government level, but it is still fascinating.
You have seen me writing it before, but the record labels are pretty much gone. Of course, they mattered in the old days since they technically “owned” the record shops, the radio stations, and sometimes even the media. They tried to own the digital outlets as well but a quick halt to that happened by the digital entrepreneurs pretty early on. After that, the record labels have been replaced as investors by digital distributors. In the end, themajor record labels don’t really have the contacts, are not relevant enough and what I heard also are actually trying to work against the new AI systems. The only reason why they are still here is that they make a steady income from their back catalog. They have no knowledge though how to create a new catalogs by themselves.
Publishers then? I have often met people from the old industry who think that publishers are the gateway to a career. Mainly because they had relationships with the record labels. Since you already read about the record labels, the publishers nowadays are good for songwriting. If you want to work as a songwriter and write for another artist, some publishers do a great job. Publishers that just do pickup only you should avoid as well as the ones that claim to do a lot of placements.
Here comes their third myth, that placements can break your career. Back in the day yes. Now probably not. This is mainly because we are not left in linear watching. Before people actually set their clock on a certain time to see a certain program either on radio or television. Also, the supply of different shows was limited, and people tend to see the same programs and discuss them on their coffee breaks at work. Today we are flooded with content. If you are lucky, you might get a bunch of people watching the same content in one so-called digital bubble. Uncannily, they might be spread out across the planet. The effect of this is that the power that several people consume anything at the same time is almost gone. Over time, yes you can get a bit of an effect, but mostly you can’t break a song through a TV series today or even a movie not enough people will watch it and discuss it at the same time. This is why placements are not that hot any longer and many of the agencies are looking keen on AI to both produce music or have a quick way to find out who owns a song.
This has opened up a new phenomenon that we are just starting to see. The team is the new format that artists will be developed by. Sure, in the team there will be components of record labels, publishers, and placements but also adding live, images and logistics. These teams are people with large networks where they can fast track what an artist needs to make their career move forward.
Where do you find these teams? It’s too early for that. We have just started to see them officially form. They have no names or structures yet, but that will change in the very near future. Right now, these loose networks have their scouts already out there looking and discussing the latest artist. I have a couple of times in the last month been contacted by different teams that are out there doing the next step. It’s an interesting time right now when things like this are going to develop.
It’s a new beginning and a new future.