Years ago, many years ago in fact I picked up my first guitar and started learning how to play. As with any musical instrument it was difficult to learn, and practicing was a pain in the tush. However, I prevailed and started playing in band in Jr. High School and wrote my first song and performed it live when I was in 8th grade. As the years passed by, I joined many bands and started the process of becoming a well-rounded musician. By the time I was a senior in high school I was mastering the art of playing lead guitar in a band. I dreamed of assembling a band of fine musicians, cutting a record and eventually playing to sold out arenas and receiving a Grammy for my songwriting skills.
Alas, as in so many musicians lives the real world took over and I got married and gave up my dream. However, years later I joined a band in the late 80's and the drive to make music was relit. The early 90's I had the privilege of recording and playing with some very talented musicians. We were on the verge of getting signed by a record label but internal conflict kept that from happening. I did record a solo album in 1994 which I'm very proud of however, it wasn't until the 21st century that I devoted more time to writing and performing my music.
I tell you my story because as I was getting older the music industry went through some radical changes. Back in the day you assemble a band worked hard building a fan base and hopefully, one day a record label exec would be interested in signing you. We went from 45 rpm to 331/3 rpm records to 8-track to cassettes to CD's. If you were successful and sold say 1 million records, your royalties would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then digital music came along and that changed everything.
As the turn of the century happened someone figured out that digital music could be shared without a cent going to the performer. It was a giant mess. Record labels were suing housewives for thousands of dollars for sharing music illegally. Of course, consumers weren't happy and neither were the record labels. Then a wise man said, "Hey why don't we sell music in a digital format" and that's when Apple made available digital music for the masses. As time went on other companies sprang up to do the same thing and now we have dozens of companies distributing music digitally. First you could download your favorite tune for a buck and could keep it forever. The artist would get a share of the dollar that was spent by the consumer.
Then streaming became available. The consumer never really owned the music they just streamed it on their favorite streaming service. Streaming took over and actually owning music became a thing of the past. Streaming made available thousands of songs for the listener to choose from. But along the way the artist who made the music was left out in the cold. Instead of making thousands of dollars when your record was purchased by millions of fans now the artist made less than a penny every time someone streamed a song.
For every song that was streamed a million times the artist would make around $3,000.00. That's a far cry from the hundreds of thousands of dollars an artist would make if their record sold a million copies. My dream of making big bucks with a successful record launch is no longer there. Now artists have to tour to make up for the difference in the lack of decent royalties. Now you know why attending a concert is so much money per ticket. Sure, the top of the heap artists are still making good money with streaming but not like it was years ago. Many famous artists as well as independent artists have forgo working with record labels and produce and distribute their own music. Music producers can record digitally in their homes and distribute their music themselves to their fan base. And because of the millions of producers making music out there it's even more difficult to break through in the music business.
Where does the music industry go from here? Who knows. In the foreseeable future streaming companies will make more profits and the artists will be left behind with only their memories of making money making music.
