At 5:54 PM -0500 4/1/06, Darcy James Argue wrote:
On 01 Apr 2006, at 5:40 PM, Peter Taylor wrote:
But isn't that the point? They decided to promote their music
themselves on MySpace Music presumably because the record companies
couldn't recognise they had any prospect as moneyspinners (but I
don't have any knowledge of that).
I think the point is that they didn't *need* record company backing
to succeed (at least not initially -- once they had generated some
momentum on their own, their label certainly helped them get to the
next level).
But clearly, the days of record companies as exclusive gatekeepers
are rapidly waning. And good riddance!
Let's not forget that for the last--what? 20 years?--record
companies have been functioning as promoters and distributors, NOT as
producers. In fact today they EXPECT artists to produce their own
masters and turn them over to the companies. When I was recording
back in the '60s, there were still A & R people who actively tried to
match up artists and songs, and who took responsibility for producing
the actual recordings. No more.
Of course the corollary is inescapable. With no gatekeepers, the
market will be (is?) flooded with crap, and the artists who do have
some talent will still have to cater to the fickle taste of their
public. For every group that manages to have the kind of success
Darcy describes, how many groups will go absolutely nowhere?
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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