The Evolution of Music

Today’s musical artists are making it in a new way. There are some pros and some cons to this situation. People are starting to get discovered off of MySpace, mix tapes and You Tube. I believe social networking is a major help in the music industry now days. Artist such as Soulja Boy and Colbie Caillat got signed from posting their music on MySpace. Journey got their new lead singer off of You Tube and that’s where Justin Beiber was found. Record execs are going to social sites to find artist instead of listing to demos, like back in the day. Labels are making money regardless. Music companies are signing artist to label deals. There only four distributers in the United States, Warner Brothers, EMI, Sony, and Universal. If you are an artist you need one of these major labels for funding. The major deal will pay for promotion, photo shoots, and so much more. Artists who are signed to indie deals are starting to see more money in their own pockets because they own the masters to their records verses the Motown days when Berry Gordy owned the masters to his entire roster of artist. Artist are building their own studios and saving money on studio time. However, the indie label deals are resulting in the lack of quality of music. Music execs are giving label deals to anybody who has a catchy song or look. Also labels are starting to sign artist to one song deals, which saves the label a lot of money if the song does not do well. I think music downloading helps artist. iTunes and rhapsody allows customers to buy albums conveniently or the ability to by individual songs because you may not like the wack album. What will the music industry be like ten years from now? I don’t know!