Christmas Number 1

[Spiderman]

Originally Posted by thedonal

What about all those people who spent years of time and passion developing musical skills? And songwriting skills. And just decent bl00dy music!

Those with talent can stand up for themselves (to a degree) and go to another record label if push comes to shove.

Pick a talentless nobody with no future prospects in the industry and you can bully them all you like, pay them naff all, and generally treat them like a cash cow till they are burnt out and yesterdays news and throw them away.

Modern slavery at its finest. The best bit.?
You can make a shed load of money by making a tv show about it and let the public work themselves into a state of near hysteria picking which of the possible slaves will be the lucky one to gain this notoriety.

Originally Posted by Spiderman

Those with talent can stand up for themselves (to a degree) and go to another record label if push comes to shove.

Pick a talentless nobody with no future prospects in the industry and you can bully them all you like, pay them naff all, and generally treat them like a cash cow till they are burnt out and yesterdays news and throw them away.

Modern slavery at its finest. The best bit.?
You can make a shed load of money by making a tv show about it and let the public work themselves into a state of near hysteria picking which of the possible slaves will be the lucky one to gain this notoriety.

Yeah. There's a reason that music contracts are called exploitation contracts.

Though very talented people can also be naive- Sabbath never got any cash for their first album. Still don't as far as I'm aware.

And the great thing about X-Factor for those who run it is there's a triple whammy- the advertising money for the ad breaks, the money from the phone lines and the money earned from the record sales.

I think it's actually a good thing that the web has turned up for music- there is a medium now for people to sell their own music with the only investment being the acquisition of the musical skills, the instruments, the recording time (or the gear to record with) and paying for an e-commerce site. At least they recoup the rest themselves.

[Spiderman]

its tough enough for the ones who have talent too. Had mates who had a band, got a 2 EP deal with Sony and then they dropped them. They made no money and it took all their love of making music away for the most part.

Exactly. Though a mate is managing a band who have just signed with Zimbalan- a company who put the music up on all the usual digital sites and collect a percentage for just that. Apparently, the contract is fairly reasonable and it gets your music out there.

Personally, once I manage to finish some tunes, I'm going to be aiming for library music and the like- I'd rather make a bit of cash from it for now and hopefully fund my ability to go out and do gigs (another nasty aspect of music these days- I adore gigging, but most venues are as equally cynical and grabbing as the record companies).

[Spiderman]

yeh but at least by gigging you're putting yourself out there to the public who enjoy gigs.

Funny that band i just mentioned did the gig circuit and even tho i didnt like their style of music at all i'd go along to support them when i could. One night they got blown away by this other band. Other band went on to be Coldplay!

Yeah- I miss gigging as much as I used to. Doing it on bass right now- but itching to show off on guitar again. Will work something out for that next year. I'm going to start turning up at a local jam night soon- just to get the experience again.

[Spiderman]

well it was an easy ride for me. Tone deaf and can play any musical instruments to save my life, lol. So i went into pirate radio instead, woohoo!

Originally Posted by Spiderman

Its good we know we love each other underneath and we just enjoy a debate aint it.

I have heard about your large audience debates...

Anywho. Didnt Arctic Monkeys kick off their careers without record companies? Im sure I heard they used Facebook and other bits.

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by Spiderman

well it was an easy ride for me. Tone deaf and can play any musical instruments to save my life, lol. So i went into pirate radio instead, woohoo!

Never took up that promising career in proof reading then?

Originally Posted by the_lone_wolf

Never took up that promising career in proof reading then?

Oh no you di'n't!!!!