|
|
Ten Million Unsold Digital Songsby George Ziemann -- December 23, 2008 If you finally achieved retail distribution this year but still didn't sell a single copy, well, you're not the only one. From TechRadar UK:
Okay, first of all I'd like to point out that the RIAA claims to own 85% of all recordings released. This would mean that, at a minimum, 70% of the RIAA's releases did not sell a single copy this year. This is the obvious result of telling us not to listen to them. So that's working. If you're hoping to get rich selling music on Amazon or iTunes, think again. It's just not going to happen anytime soon. If you're in it for the long haul, though, you can take heart in the fact that if you sold one single album this year, you're in the top 15 percent. So there's not really that much competition out there. This is a good place to bring up the subject of making money in the music business. There are several ways to make a decent living, but most of them involve just staying off the damn stage and doing something useful, like lights or sound or collecting tickets. Alternate activities include writing previews/reviews, doing interviews and photography. I've never been a particularly good audience member. I always prefer an interactive musical experience. That's how I got started doing sound. Hung around with a band that had two old school friends. Kept telling them to change this, change that, and created a job with the band. Worked almost free, but so were the drinks. Made myself irreplaceable, made myself part of the band. Doing sound let me participate in the performances. Graduating to the concert level significantly improved the pay scale, but seriously, I would have done monitors for Blue Oyster Cult for free. The first few country concerts I did for free, too, an extension of my regular job as an electronics tech, which is the only reason I studied electronics in the first place. Paid or not, I'm going to spend time doing music, in some way or another, possibly making someone else sound better. I play music for one simple reason -- it is my highest place. It is where I self-actualize, be all that I can be, yada, yada, plus you get telepathy and unified thought with the rest of the band (like on a good night, when you all do something completely different than you've ever done before -- and do it together.). If I didn't play music, I'd have to pay for therapy. As far as the record thing goes... 1975 -- We play a concert with Styx. The road manager asks if we have a demo. Fuck no. We didn't think anyone was going to ask for one. We were unprepared. Songs must be written. We must make a good recording. Using the best 2-track technology available, we fail to achieve these goals. Repeatedly. 1980 -- In band with originals. Actually buy studio time. Go in and record five songs. Guitarist goes to teach foreign languages at Stanford or something. End of band. Studio is now gone. I might have a cassette copy. Maybe. 1988 -- I'm making bootlegs off the mixing console, at the request of artists and managers. Jack Rael, Patti Page's manager, makes a point of telling me how impressed he was with the tape from the first of four shows. "It sounds like a produced record." This was during the "Yes, I get paid to be this awesome" period. 1997 -- 4-track cassette enters the picture. New band, new state, and finally, a band with enough songs for an album. We fumbled around with that for a while and, sometime shortly thereafter a Roland digital recording thingy shows up, along with MIDI. We set to work and the band broke up waiting for drum tracks to get put together. Or finished. 2001 -- New band. New songs. Gasp! Pro-Tools. 2002 -- Band + Songs + Record. Holy shit! We actually FINISHED ONE! It took 27 years to accomplish this relatively simple task -- and it was touch and go there for a while just trying to keep the rhythm section vertical. That ProTools thing came in pretty handy, too. 2003 -- But don't try to sell your homemade CD-Rs. That's what pirates use! Letting people download mp3s? That's what pirates do! 2005 -- "We've got a ton of songs. We should record some more." "We would, but we're moving to New Orleans." 2006 -- "Glad you're back. We've got a ton of songs. We should record some more." "Why?" "No good reason. Still can't sell anything." "Nah." Late 2007 -- "We've got a ton of songs. We should record some more." "Why?" "Just for the hell of it. Because we're not dead yet." "Sure." Mid 2008 -- The first album makes it to Amazon, iTunes, etc. IT'S IN A DAMN STORE! Our "demo" is for sale in a store. I had all but given up on making this last, vital connection because it usually involved thugs. Entire process, start to finish, a mere 33 years. So lets do it again, only better, and see if we can speed that whole cycle up just a little. Now -- So we're halfway done making a new album and the word comes out -- Apple might have sold 5 or 6 billion songs, but they came from a distinct minority of the artists. If money is your primary motivation, this could be a problem for you. I had been trying to do this for so long that it's become a surreal gameFor me, it's more like a giant game that I play whenever possible. A new level just opened up. A lot of noobs. 85 percent of them didn't sell a single record online this year. It's too early to tell (our CD just appeard at retailers in October), but we were hoping to sell like 5 or 6 copies over a year -- enough to cover the cost of putting it there. Apparently, this may have been overly optimistic. My point of view is that, for less than we would spend going to a football game or skiing or whatever, we finally got to roll the dice once and toss an entry in. Pro Tip: An apostrophe in your band name creates search issues. "Sorry! Not a winner. Try again. Hope one record wasn't all you had in you." Our prototype made it in the retail door, sans thugs. That is success in and of itself. So we spend a couple of weekends and do another album to throw out there. We do this instead of playing golf or sitting around and watching TV. We actually have a long-term, realistic plan that simply involves creating more and more content. We might have to record 100 songs to find one that resonates with people, or gets inserted in a TV show, or otherwise saves your ass at the last minute from being a WalMart greeter. If it's all random chance anyway, if it's all a crap-shoot, then you just have to try again. Keep rolling the dice until you either win or get tired of playing the game. It's never too late for a miracle to happen. |
|