People have been asking me lately why have I been selling eBooks on my website and also why have I partnered up with iTunes and are now linked to the iTunes store. Some have even said I have sold out and I am no longer independent. This article is to address these points. Firstly, the idea of selling out is not the same as expanding my business. When it comes to being an artist it seems that the majority of acts/ bands are still being fooled by an old model of what music and in particular what selling music is all about. As the mercury award goes into another year we find story after story about record sales falling.
A case in point is Estelle and her hit single American boy, despite the track being a hit on both sides of the Atlantic the album has not been selling so, as all record companies do these days, they panicked and have pulled the single from the US iTunes in the hope that people will turn their attention to the album if they are unable to download the single. Kid Rocks Album was not sold on iTunes and he sold a very respectable 1.7 million. So, I guess the companies are thinking ‘let’s follow the same path and make it impossible to get the music on the worlds biggest download site’. The fact that there is a policy iTunes have where you can not just sell full album which in a sense encourages people to just purchase the individual songs they like. As an artist I look at the album as one piece of work and would love it to be bought as a whole, however the musical landscape has changed and I believe if you don’t make what your fans want available to them then you are cutting your own throat.
In my opinion it’s about time the music industry died, or should I say old music industry because that is exactly what it is, the old music industry. In fact is it dead now? It seems that the lid is closing on the coffin of the industry. Its last dying breaths are being sustained by sales of easy listening, middle of the road music to house wives through supermarkets like the Asda and Tesco chains and in so doing making it easy to pick your copy of James blunt or James Morrison as they buy their weekly food shop and the latest trend of new artist that sound just like dead idols.
This is why for me it is essential to change with the times and try new ways of getting the music out there and if the means making partner ship with companies like iTunes, then why not? Unlike record companies the new digital arena is not going to sign you into a contract that robs you of your rights as an artist. Continue reading →
