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.

[blindwillie]

I have the greatest respect for you Emir but I disagre with this part:

If you believe that what you've said can make an artist make a living of music by himself then try this:

1. Spend a year writting songs/lyrics/arrangements
2. Spend a month or two recording a demo for it
3. Spend 2 months rehearsing songs for the real recording
4. Call some good musicians to play on your real record and pay them (In my case I needed a good drummer and singer if I wanted some genuine rock stuff, because of these famous guys I actually sold something)
5. Find a good studio and spend another 3-4 months for the recording/mixing - and of course pay for it
6. Put your songs on Twiter, Youtube, Myspace etc...

Please tell me after 2 years of hard work how much did you earn and how much did you spend?

This implies that you expect that _anybody_ following your plan should be guaranteed big success.
I think you know very well that's not the way things work. As in _any_ profession, you have to find a big enough group of customers that's appealed by whatever you are selling. The fact that you have a plan and have or have not certain skills in an area and have put in a certain amount of effort is in no way, and have never been, a guarantee to success, not even enough to get a descent job. Put it in perspective to other professions. It's not important what you want or how you want to do it. What's important is how the guys with the money wants it.

It is not a matter of if I can succed with your plan or not. The point is that there are artists that HAVE succeded indepent from the big labels. (Well, success is in the eye of the beholder. They don't have their own Neverland, but themself consider it a success)
Maybe there is something wrong with your plan? Maybe you have to change your musical style?
Being a succesful, rich, famous guitarist in a world that isn't really into guitarbased music is a tough task. And with thousands and thousands and thousands of great, very skilled guitarists it will be very hard to find your own space out there.

And there is nothing special with ex-superstars playing on pubs for a living. Should a relative short time of success guarantee you to live the rest of your life in welth? It's very sad to see, I agree with that, but that's the outcome of the short life cycle of everything now. We think we have to get new things and distractions all the time. Buy ourselfs happy. This way of living is a disadvantage for the "good" artists, the ones with skills. Those who gain from it are the "shooting stars" that fade away as quick as they appeared. We just want the very very latest, give me something new all the the time, more and more and more.

[Emir Hot]

This implies that you expect that _anybody_ following your plan should be guaranteed big success.

No, I didn't say that That was my reply to Jafomatic's post where I understood that if you're selling stuff yourself, using youtube and appear in search engines would have a better result that being a signed artist where someone else is helping you with promotion and the rest. Then I suggested the list of things to try and see if that's a real formula for success. I think it is not.

The bands You mention is really bad examples imo. since they got out of date many years ago...

I mentioned the ones that I think are worth mentioning if we're talking about rock legends and the quality of music. Unlike Nirvana and similar bands that killed everything that was good in 90's, these bands know how to hold C major chord at least The point is that they are all from the UK and I got shocked when one of my guitar teachers at university in London didn't know that Smoke on the Water is Deep Purple song. The guy has masters degree for guitar. If I had to learn to play guitar from Nirvana-like bands, I would have never become a guitarist. All you hear in my playing comes from the bands I mentioned. That's of course in my case.

[Staffy]

I mentioned the ones that I think are worth mentioning if we're talking about rock legends and the quality of music. Unlike Nirvana and similar bands that killed everything that was good in 90's, these bands know how to hold C major chord at least The point is that they are all from the UK and I got shocked when one of my guitar teachers at university in London didn't know that Smoke on the Water is Deep Purple song. The guy has masters degree for guitar. If I had to learn to play guitar from Nirvana-like bands, I would have never become a guitarist. All you hear in my playing comes from the bands I mentioned. That's of course in my case.

I will definitely agree to this, Steve Lukather said in an interview in the late 90's that "I haven't heard a new band with a good guitar player since 1982...", but the point here is that if You wanna make the "big" money, song-writing and beeing member of a band that hits the top 40 is the way to go. I think there's still room for great guitar playing in the new styles that are emerging, but as someone else said here: the old days are gone! But it is also a question of trends, maybe in some years we will have a 70's revival or 80's ... (which I personally NOT longing for ) Everything is really a balance between Your own imagination bout music and the commercial aspects. All musicians have to "sell out" themselves a little bit, it's just a question of how much..... Personally I quitted working professionally long time ago since I felt like a prostitute - just playing what people wanted to hear, not what I was liking myself. Its all about to find a balance really.

I agree with Emir here, although the situation is not black & white. Today, labels are still strong and can advertise artists better than they can do for themselves. But as the time passes by and times are changing, some artists emerge and become famous solely on the means of internet free self promotion. This was not possible before, and labels understand that they have no control over that area, they never did because that area doesn't give them what they are after - profit. As they get less and less money from record sales, they are signing many more artists with less sales to increase profit. This watering down will produce greater number of signed small artists, and they can soon become equal to the artists that choose for the indy label. The labels of the future will shift their interest to Internet and battle will continue there. It has already started, as big labels are trying to kill the free services. They are not doing this just to eliminate piracy, they are doing this to create monopoly once again. But this time, I don't think they can succeed. Internet is way to open to control it.

I couldn't have said this better myself, but in my belief the battle has just started, we're gonna see drastic changes in how music is to be distrubuted, consumed and spread through the internet. And this will benefit the really GOOD musicians in my belief, such as Emir The one's who can't play or sing and has been pitch-shifted in the control, they will simply be gone in the future. Thanks heaven for that!!!!

//Staffay