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So what now? What do the big guys do? What do the little guys do? Remember at the beginning when I talked about how Music Industry is less about the production of music, but more about the creation of an identity? You may be thinking to yourself “Wait, doesn’t that kind of contradict what you just explained”, and the answer is yes, in many ways it does. I feel that the concept of indentifying yourself with a scene is dying. I also agree that now more than ever, the production of so many different types of music is better than ever. But, there is also a different way of looking at it. People are no longer looking to identify themselves with a scene, but rather identify themselves as an individual. And as far as the production of music, you don’t need to worry about it, music is producing itself. I mean myself for example; I am a 22 year old college student, and I had a full professional-level studio in my house (I also got myself a lot of debt, but that is beside the point). Even now that my studio is gone, I still have the capability of creating record-ready tracks at any given time. What does this mean? It means that today, more music is being made, more people are listening to it, and most importantly, each individual consumer is listening to more music. The way I see it, I look at one person, and the music they listen to. Lets say before, this person maybe listened to 10 different artists, they ones they truly like. They keep those CDs in the car, listen to them on repeat all day, they can’t get enough of these songs! Now, that same person has an iPod, or some other MP3 device. Instead of having 10 CDs in their car, they have hundreds at their fingertips. To me, this sounds like more sales. If before they had 10 CDs from 10 different artists, this means that they spent about 150 dollars, divided 10 ways. Each of these CDs has 15 songs, which means they bought 150 songs total. That means on average, they spent about 1 dollar per song. Now, in our time, this person doesn’t have these CDs anymore. Now, they are listening to only the songs that they really want, no more of the songs they just skip over every time on the CD. Not only that, but they are listening to more artists too. Let’s say for example that they now have 50 different artists on their iPod. From each artist they have 3 songs. So, they have the same 150 songs as before. Each one of these songs cost them 1 dollar on iTunes; 150 dollars. Now, lets just say, in theory (and this may be a hint to the conclusion of this essay) that these songs, while available on a CD, are not mass marketed via the traditional means of music sales. Rather, they use the readily available, and free, means of promotion (e.g. MySpace, PureVolume, word of mouth). This means that the bottom line on the production of this music is very low. This, in addition to the lack of need for CD production and distribution costs, creates a very high profit margin; let’s just say for example 3 times the amount that would be made selling the CD (if divided by per-track). That means that those 10 artists from before, they are still selling their music, but instead its 3 tracks online. Those 3 tracks make 3 times as much money, so in essence, it is equivalent to the profit of 9 tracks off a CD. Initially, this can be seen as a loss. But, instead of 10 artists, you have 50, that means that 40 more of the artists are making this same amount of money. Not only that, but because more people are listening to more music, let say in theory that the number of people that bought these songs are double the amount of people that would have purchased the CD. That means that selling 3 songs to twice as many people is equivalent to selling 1.2 CD’s. So not only is there greater profit made off selling just the 3 songs online, but 5 times as many artists are enjoying this benefit. What it really boils down to is cutting costs. In every other industry, one of the ways to increase profit is to cut costs. Using online means of sales is the best possible way for music companies to cut costs. When you cut costs, you increase profit. So now, in 3 sections, I will specify some steps in how the Music Industry can be saved.

First off, what everybody needs to do. Every person in the industry, from the biggest of the big guys, to the guy playing his guitar at my favorite dive bar, needs to move on from CDs. CDs need to become just like what vinyl records have become; a novelty item, not something you pay for the product, but rather with the purpose of having it. The environment music is in is all based off the album. If you look back, the album was just a way of collecting as many songs as possible into one place. When vinyl records were the main means of media, they would pack as many songs onto the record as they could, sometimes they would even have 2 records because they couldn’t fit everything onto one. Then, when CD’s came out, it was the same thing. They would fill the CD, as to get as much good music out to the people as possible. But, during the life of the CD, it has become less about getting as much music out per sale, and more about creating some sort of ideological mix-tape of the artist, usually to high-light only several of the songs. Today, or primary media is quickly becoming MP3 players, a form which can hold hundreds and thousands of songs in 1 location. So what is the purpose of the album anymore? There is no need for the collection of songs into a single place. The consumer wants to create their own collection of songs in a single place, and create their own identity as defined by their music. Strive away from the concept of “album”, and work back towards the concept of music. Once the bottom line can be reduced to that of the production of the music itself, profits will me maximized. The means are out there, and they just need to be embraced. Additionally, concerts, shirts, stickers, all that good stuff, they still provide direct income for the band. The separation of performance and record will allow artists tour more, and market themselves across a larger spectrum. No more of these “XYZ CD Tour”, but touring becomes a form of marketing for the band, not the album. This creates more life-time customers per artist, and combined with the cheap and effective way to download music, allows more people to “explore” more bands.

Now, just the big guys turn. The first and foremost thing that needs to be done is what I said everyone needs to do. Done and over with, we can move on. But, by doing the aforementioned, the big guys lose their greatest strength; the mass distribution system and marketing power. What needs to be done is a re-direction of focus for the companies, and instead of focusing on production and distribution, focus on the name. Just like in any industry, a branded name means a lot. The big guys can use their already established names to get more artists than anyone else, create more hype than anyone else, and in turn, most likely sell more tracks than anyone else. Use the money saved by abandoning the old-fashioned means of distribution to hire more A&R Reps, talent scouts, and market managers. These allows greater depth across the global industry, and allows the better targeting of specific audiences, rather than the mass “blitzkrieg” style marketing, where you just sweep across everyone and hope for as many hits as possible.

What about the little guys? Well, the little guys need to take advantage of this opportunity. Where before, they had to focus on distribution and getting the name “out there”, now they have access to the largest possible global market there is. They are no longer knocked out by the power the big guys had, they are on an even playing field. Not overwhelmed by the need to strive for big marketing efforts, they are more driven by the ability to hit the market they want to get to, and that’s it. But, most importantly, localize. Now, at the same time, one always needs to have a global state of mind. Again, another contradiction, but hear me out. The little guys will already be global, as the product is available to anyone with a computer and an internet connection. But, this also allows you to be more local than ever before. It becomes easier to focus on markets that offer the opportunity for success, and ignore the markets that don’t. Why waste thousands of dollars to host a show in San Francisco, when demand states you should be playing 3-4 shows a year in New York. Doesn’t matter whether the band is based out of Tampa Bay or Portland, localizing means localizing the demand for the product.

Now what excites me most about the possibility of all this to happen, is the result. More artists will get paid more money. Record companies will become more specific, and ideally more successful. The consumer is allowed the freedom to only pay for what they really want to buy. But, most importantly, I truly believe that this will make success in the music industry for everyone more about finding the best possible product than ever before. My dream for the result of this entire concept in a nutshell: May the best music win.