The Murder Of Music, Think Before You Act Options

[Emir Hot]

My friend and an awesome neoclassical shredder Borislav Mitic has recently signed for Lion Music which is the metal label from Finland that also released my album.

Just before he released his new record he posted a very seirous story about "The Murder of Music" on the Lion Music's website. Some of other Lion Music artists (including me) also gave their input on this subject.

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

I would be interested to see comments on Borislav's text from GMC community.

[Staffy]

Since this seems to be a "hot" topic, I will give my response to the issue. I have some experience from the industry as well as beeing a musician and a studio owner back in the old days.

In my opinion, things are evolving very fast at the moment, and makes radical changes on the market for record distrubution. The only one's who really looses this battle is the big record companys, who cant make money for nothing anymore. Internet is really improving the link between the musicians and their audience, without a big company taking all the revenue. The sales of music has to be reformed in a way where the musicians get a decent percentage of the revenue instead of peanuts from the companies... (Michael Jackson had some 5 % on "Thriller", which is considered to be high....) Also there will be more room for small indepndent labels to make great music as well as artists selling directly to the customers - which is good.

More positive things:

1. The musicians have to benefit from playing live and hence selling their records on the concerts. This is good for both the music itself and the musicians, since all the "plastic" artists will disappear by nature since they are not performing live.

2. The competition amongst musicians will increase - this will enhance the quality of music.

3. Since the musicians will put a lot more effort in to their live act - we are supposed to find a larger number of artists on stage, and the range of venues will increase imo. Also it will be much more attractive to listen to music live, rather than just buy a record.

4. The record business itself will suffer hard from loosing their revenues - but in contrast, the power and the rights management will be handled by the musicians, which is incredible good!!!

This is my opinions in the topic and since the Record Company's have behaved like bloodsuckers against both the customers and the musicians, Im not taking bout the small and indepedent one here, they really had helped to build up this situation by themselves!!!

//Staffay

[Emir Hot]

I would dissagree on some of these since I felt it on my "own skin". No offence Staffy, just my oppinion

1. The musicians have to benefit from playing live and hence selling their records on the concerts. This is good for both the music itself and the musicians, since all the "plastic" artists will disappear by nature since they are not performing live.

I partly agree here. It is good to play live as much as possible, we all enjoy that, but we also have to have time for some private life. I understood that you're saying that music should be like job from 9am 'till 5pm everyday in order to make enough for living. I am supporting the idea of playing one 2 months tour in a year plus some festivals. That would make you profit for the next 6 months and the proper album sales for another 6 months until you release new album. We have to find some time for ourselves as well as for writting music at home, not on the road. You said people should buy our albums on the tour. How can one come to see the show if he doesn't know the songs from the new album. I would first buy the album then go to see the show. Just my oppinion.

2. The competition amongst musicians will increase - this will enhance the quality of music.

Well, because of the situation, many don't play proper live shows. There is no competition anymore. I am seeing legends like Neil Murray from old Whitesnake as well as hundreds of famous guys all over London playing pub gigs for £70 per evening. That's really sad. How can I enhance the quality of my music if I don't have money to make good stuff in the studio? Studios are really expensive if you're going for something that can compare with top trends.

3. Since the musicians will put a lot more effort in to their live act - we are supposed to find a larger number of artists on stage, and the range of venues will increase imo. Also it will be much more attractive to listen to music live, rather than just buy a record.

It is always cool to see your favorite band live but I hardly see my favorite ones. The ones that used to play in front of 100.000 people are now playing in front of 1000 or less people. The real examples are Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Whitesnake and rock legends like that. These bands are all from the UK and only 5% of people in this country nowadays know some of their songs. Because of the new "modern music revolution" no one is buying their concert tickets nor the albums. They can only have 5000 of more thousands of people in countries where they never played. That was proved in Serbia, Bosinia and Croatia where they had 10.000 people in each country a couple of years ago. I am 100% sure if they come again next year they wouldn't have 1500. That's more than sad. 7 days ago I saw Gary Moore in front of 300 people.

4. The record business itself will suffer hard from loosing their revenues - but in contrast, the power and the rights management will be handled by the musicians, which is incredible good!!!

If I was trying to promote music myself (without my label), nobody would ever hear about me. For example in my case - my label's power, contacts, distribution, promotion etc... is something that they have been building for the last 15 years. There is no way I would be reviewed, interviewed and distributed in all world famous rock/metal magazines/webzines and countries without their help. I've tried this before and everytime my CD finished in a rubbish bin. When these guys send an email or a phonecall, things are done in a second. I wouldn't be able to manage that myself, that's just not possible.


To conclude. These independant labels with some history are a great help for artists. They do it all for you. You just cannot dream of getting publicity and distribution the way they can do it. The problem is that people don't buy stuff. People illegaly download music and artists suffer. I am not against internet distribution but please tell me, what does Itunes have to do with my music and why people have to buy stuff there? Just because Apple made good commercial campaign and now taking billions from artist's hard work - all that just because they're called Itunes. They didn't exist when Beatles were making music, now they are taking profit because they are selling their songs. I will never agree with that and that's why I will never buy an Ipod or an Apple Mac - even though I think their computers are great.