Online Music Selling
Thousands of well known artists sell music to listeners all over the globe using the internet. What about the lesser known, unsigned or independent artists who might struggle to reach audiences? Alterhit is a budding resource for music exchange between artists, labels and their audiences. The unique business model allows music lovers to enjoy a vast array of songs by artists who may not reach their ears by any other means.
Major record labels have several options for promoting their albums and the artists will no doubt reach countless listeners. Unfortunately, market forces and popular surveys will indicate to these labels what sells and what will not. These market forces then dictate which songs are most popular and hence receive the most airplay. Unsigned artists must choose to conform to the marketing machine or risk getting left out in the cold.
Selling your original music online is fraught with risks and you may never sell anything. Music is highly subjective and what is music to one is noise to another. In order to be heard, to reach the audience that you probably deserve, you have to expand your horizons. The internet is a maze of information and music is abundantly available to download. Listeners need a road map to find the best music online, it won’t find them.
Some musicians are reluctant to embrace the online music market. The CD is tangible and it is adorned with artwork designed to sell the bands’ image and catch the listener’s eye. Online music is a growth industry, programs like iTunes being synonymous with selling music via the internet. Today’s music fans will be more likely to browse a music catalogue in iTunes than to drive to the local music store and flip through CD cases.
Unsigned and independent artists are not going to stand out in a list of band names. Those who do stand out in such lists are supported and promoted by well known record labels. A record label doesn’t distinguish between artists based on merit, or musical aesthetic. Major labels promote those artists for which they paid the most to sign. The goal of a record label is not to ensure that talented artists are enjoyed by the largest audience possible, but to ensure that their return on investment is maximized.
The end result of the major record label marketing machine is an artist becomes molded by the promoters and coerced into writing “marketable” songs. The artist’s image and personality that you, the listener, fell in love with may or may not be true to form. The CD cover art may well have been run past dozens of corporate yes-men. The songs themselves may not be written by the artist, but by someone who knows how to make a song catchy and radio friendly.
Artists should have the freedom to write the songs they want, without concern for marketability. Music fans should have the choice between cookie cutter songs and songs borne of emotion and meaning. Music need not conform to market trends or record label promotion demands. It is a great tragedy that the truly original artists are overshadowed by those who produce songs for a marketing machine.
