The internet offers the opportunity to express yourself and be heard by the whole world in a blink of an eye and musicians found this as the perfect way to get away from record labels and do things on their own. This kind of escape is dual and mostly has negative results on art and on artists as well…why do I say that? Because in a big record label there is a team, there are connections to the main media, there are the best people involved and they are making the big money plus also keep in mind that I am not signed so I don’t really have an interest to write this favoring the labels but still…in a professional team you are a musician, nothing more nothing less and that’s why you can be creative and prolific, because there is someone maybe better than you covering every single aspect of the product that you sell.
By themselves musicians have the tendency to become dictators, self called gods, they start to believe they can PR, shoot a video, edit it, do make-up, materials for promotion, articles in the press…almost everything and that way the music fades, it gets weak. Ok, maybe you can get some money as an independent musician but you will never get the thrill of the big rollercoaster, you will triple your stress and effort and let’s be honest you will never win against a big record label, you will never have the radio, the TV, the sales, the money, the no. 1 hits and the top professionals, the exposure…..so on.
I do believe that you don’t need a record label to become an artist but you absolutely need it to live as one, to make your message heard working shoulder to shoulder with the top people of the industry, people you can never hire as an independent.
I wrote this after watching a lot of attempts of so called “independence” by people who are really destroying the art of music and music video by trying to do everything as cheap and as fast as they can working with amateurs or mixing, mastering, composing, directing, promoting alone….I am independent but I hope that will change soon not because I don’t work with the best right now, my team is truly gifted, but because I want to fight in the big league, that is the true competition.
pbflofficial 