Daily tips for musicians, artists and bands on how to have a long term career in the music business.
I started my career as a bass tutor at The Academy of Contemporary Music back in 1997 (probably a Wednesday). 4 years later I set up BIMM (The British and Irish Institute of Modern Music) with some amazing friends which is now the largest set of music colleges in the world. My online academy DK Music Business Academy is dedicated to artists looking to build an audience and monetise their music.
This channel is all about helping you build your career in the music industry, whether that is releasing and promoting music or finding opportunities as a musician. We are in this together!
I've only started trying to get more serious about music a year and a half ago. I intended to make dance music, but switched to lyric based synthpop/new wave stuff so I could get some writing in. It's not been easy since I am depressed AF and have been for a while. But I do take hope from the fact I keep returning to it and am now working with a clear view of three tracks, which helps keep my attention. Gotta get these babies delivered somehow. My aim is really to get the message across lyrically, and learn to adapt musically to said message. I doubt there would ever be a market for it though. But the thrill of maybe one day delivering said babies is enough for me for now. What I like most about learning music is developing an understanding of what it would take to be an actual musician. Good lord.
You explained how one will get caught.......You never said how to create "fair Use", so that was really a waste of time. I guess if Al Yankovic was able to create "fair use" because he changed the words and some of the music arrangements of Michael Jackson songs???
One of my friends is a big artist. They told me, and I wont name them, they dont make nearly the same money making new music like they used to. Because streaming has killed making new music for them. So the only real way to make good money is to play live. He makes far more money playing live than he used to. Streaming is making live music more expensive because this is only real way professional music writers make decent money.
Unpopular opinion: I saw a documentary about the music industry win the 80s. There were bands getting famous where the guitar player just started playing. They did not know how it has to be. They played what they feel and everyone played different. Nowadays I come over kids playing better than me. Much better. Everyone has so much knowledge and is highly skilled. Everyone uses the same tools and has the same knowledge. No fun, just professionalism. So everything sounds the same in the end. Professionalism kills creativity. I guess that is part of the problem.
HA-HA ‼ After scamming everybody for how many years now, Spotify finally got "scammed." This guy's a fucking hero 👏🏻 If anybody should be going to jail it's the fraudsters at Spotify who have engaged in shady business practices from day one‼🤬
i'm sure theres good songs out there but the system that brought out great songs and albums is dead and long gone. Ironically, Its been replaced with too much music, most of it junk, since anyone with a computer can create whatever they think is music. The music labels were that filtering system that found the great songs and the great talent. It was an exclusive club. There is a reason, in the heyday, it was a badge of honor to be a signed artist. But in the end, the only way you can define success today in music to do it for the love of it. Love what you create even if no one else does.
Record Companies are like living dinosaurs. Old model that doesn't really fit the mold of today. They got left behind thinking of the now instead of the future. Once they change their model they will survive again. But on the other side, too many desperate people with delusion of grander thinking they will be massive. They end up broke, and when they break up they can't write and release for years sometimes depending on the contract.
I always thought IT was the best industry to be in working full time while supporting music on the side. 15 years in IT I've become disillusioned by its promise. The industry is for the most part a sham these days. And though all that makes for great song themes, even that is getting tiring. For the briefest of moments there I thought that I was getting really good at music writing and production and that this could be my exit strategy into becoming a full time musician/producer what have you but thank you the warning. I've always thought what you said in the video was true and I needed that reminder. Putting all that pressure on the music to do good will probably just make me hate music. I just need to sort out this dayjob thing.
Great video Damian, with important insights. I admit sometimes I like to use Spotify as the scapegoat but you’re right, it’s more complex than that. I’m a drummer in the US and just moved from L.A. to Chicago where the musicians are great btw. My view is this. The music business is eating its own tail, They’ve bought the catalogs of major artists from the 60s 70s and 80s and aren’t interested in anything of quality. Just reissues and sync. Tastes change. Music changes. They have been caught flat footed. Might we be best served to let it destroy itself and as you said in the video build something new from the ground up?Grassroots. The Emperor has no clothes. Just Let it go.
It's up to artists and fans to be brave, and use other solutions - even if bullied and threatened. But this is another hallmark of capitalism, and there's enough mindless consumers / weak sheep, to fill the demand.
Brilliant! I'd add that you can't bitch about "no one goes to live music" if you don't go out and support those small shows yourself. It's an effing community; show love to get love. Thanks for the insights, Damian!
Well, Damian, sir. That was more practical than about three months of my degree. Thanks for giving us such a great overview of what this game in 2024 is all about. Will certainly be making a plethora of immediate changes and so much more even to think about. Probably going to see you in the Academy later on. Gratidao
Good video. I have to disagree on something tho. Artists who sign with Live Nation are to blame as well. You claim artists are left with no option, but that's simply not true. You always have the option to do the right thing, even if it comes to a personal, in this case, financial loss. You compare Live Nation and their monopoly to the mafia so let's use them (mafia) and organized crime as an example. Would you look the other way and let things slide if people join and side with the mafia and organized crime because they "have no option"? Ofc not. Society doesn't work that way. What you're doing is still wrong. Same thing applies here. Doing the right thing is never easy or convenient, but it's the right thing to do. More importantly, it will never get any better if people (artists) decide to join a corrupt system (Live Nation) instead of doing the correct thing and fight back.
Not to mention that most of the artists that sign with Live Nation and play at these exclusive venues are some of the most successful and famous artists in the world. It's all greed, period.
An arena in CT where I frequent quite often, tickets at the side of the stage (lower level) were about $110 after tax max, depending on the artist. Now, those same area seats are about $250. And this pricing is for three shows I tried to attend, but decided to pay under $100 in the back. It is disgusting. Instead of paying $750 for three I paid $319. Still ridiculous for the back. Ticket fee $23.20/ea, ticket price $82.00/ea
WOW. Does anyone remember a guy named Derek Sivers? He was a musician, and became a businessman out of necessity. He couldn't get online distribution for his band's CD because he wasn't on a label - and his Music was great. Nobody cared... So he put a shopping cart on his website and started selling the cd himself. His friends in other bands asked if he would put their cds on his site as well, since no distributor would give them the time of day... He was happy too. Then, their friends started asking Derek to hist their band's cds as well. Again, he was happy to - anything he could do for his fellow musicians.... and then he started getting requests to host cds from total strangers in other countries.... And that's how CD baby snowballed into something much bigger than anyone at the time imagined it would ever be. As CD baby became more and more of a success, Deeek got more and more into building Infrastructure for the Artists on his site to Use to make it easier for them to not Only sell their CDs but also for them to do other things necessary for their careers, as well as making it easier for music lovers to find exactly the kinds of Artists they were interested in. Before his staff mutinied and Derek sold the company to Discmakers... That Platform had become a Thing of Beauty. Today, its still a good company, Tony Van Veen and Discmakers still help Artists get Their Music into the hands of Music Fans worldwide... But its a very different company than it once was. Daniel Ek's remarks remind me of a speech that Iggy Pop made to industry people several years ago on the BBC. Iggy's speech was the first time id heard an old school Artist talking publicly and at length about the new music business and making the transition from making records and playing shows to producing and promoting content. If Daniel Ek heard Iggy's speech at All, well then I think he missed the point entirely. Iggy was saying that the only way he ( an Artist with a career of over 60 years and a huge worldwide following) could expect to Profit from making music in this day and age was to either record his records for FREE or else for Dirt Cheap. It being so easy to just steal the ones and zeros right out of the air now. As for Spotify, it reminds me So Much of MTV..... In that they Too started by building their Empire on the backs of Musicians too.........
Neoliberalism always leads to monopolies, competition is seldom healthy, altruism is the real way for a brighter future but unfortunately in a capitalist world we're a long way from that
I've never agreed with dynamic pricing. That's where this really went off the rails. It should be face value, and fees should be capped at no more than 5% of face value. (Signed, the one who slept outside with a sleeping bag at 13 in a queue for physical tickets.) (Also, while I'm shouting at clouds, I miss having the ticket stubs from shows ever since it's all been digital.)
The monopoly and dirty tricks must go HOWEVER as long as most of the money go to the artists ticket prices SHOULD be high and much higher than they used to be because music has been DEVALUED forever. People complain that a concert used to be 20$ but will gladly pay 100$+ to see a therapist for one hour/ a lawyer/ get a massage/ a spa treatment etc. Is a concert not worth that? Concerts can be life changing. Hundreds of people TRAVELLING to YOUR town to make a unique show happen SHOULD cost that and MORE IMO. SUPPORT THE ARTISTS SUPPORT MUSIC!!!
It's a total rip-off. I long ago decided never to go to a stadium event again anyway, because there's really very little connection with the band. It's all huge light shows, huge screens out of sync with the sound and not necessarily showing what you want to look at from moment to moment. All that plus a huge, noisy crowd taking up half of your awareness. And now you have to pay hundreds of $/£ to experience that s**t? Nope. Nope. Not even for my favourite acts.
I made a similar decision a while ago too. My reasoning is that I am usually so far away that I can't see who is on the stage. I know it isn't but it could be anyone. What's the point in paying mega bucks to watch a TV screen. I want to see first hand the artist at work, the talent and intricacy of their performance. Stadium gigs are for getting wasted with your mates and shouting the songs at the top of your voice. I don't want to pay hundreds to do that, thanks.
Don't blame the companies for being greedy gits, blame the idiots who are willing to pay such high prices. I'm quite happy to boycott the big venues if I feel I'm getting ripped off. No one singing songs for 80 minutes is worth being ripped off for. Let them sing to an empty stadium.
I do blame the companies. They are taking advantage of technology and their unchallenged power to rinse punters. It means more and more people are priced out of enjoying their favourite bands live. It's out of control capitalism. They do this because business laws allow them to. Change business laws to prevent these behemoths from behaving this way.
@@LilOlFunnyBoy Not really. It doesn't mean more and more people are priced out of their favourite bands, because they're selling places out. Otherwise they'd lower the price. Your argument isn't with Ticketmaster, it's with the stadium full of people who are stupid enough to pay high prices. They're the ones pricing you out of a seat. If everyone in the country decided that a ticket should be no more than £50 and that's all they're willing to pay, guess how much a ticket would be. Although I do think that dynamic pricing should be illegal. If you're waiting on the phone for 4 hours, the price should be as advertised and not some random number.
@@grahamtaylor6883 You just said yourself that you are not prepared to pay the extortionate prices. That's literally what being priced out means. You and hundreds of thousands of other people that want to see these shows, can't. There are people out there for whom a £400 pound ticket is peanuts. That's their target market. Not you. If 50k people want tickets and there's only 10k seats they will inflate the price until 40k drop out. Unfortunately consumer power means nothing when consumers are not equal in spending power.
@@LilOlFunnyBoy It's not a case of being priced out, I said I'm willing to boycott if I feel I'm being ripped off (slightly different). But to be honest. I'm not their target anyway. I'm generally not a big fan of live music. I always feel I'm getting ripped off regardless, beer prices, food prices, toilets, getting in, getting out etc. It's lost its appeal to me. I agree with everything else you've said. But that's just how a free market works unfortunately. Or fortunately if you're on the receiving end. Ironically, I've seen in the paper today that Oasis are adding a load more dates, so maybe prices will come down? To their original starting point anyway. The last time they played together in 2009, tickets were £44. Crazy how much they've gone up. But then again, sourcing music is basically free now a days, so I guess we can't have it both ways.
@@grahamtaylor6883 That's the thing. The free market is not an immutable law of nature. It works however you want it to work. If it's creating a situation that's unfair or undesireable then you change the rules to make it better. Of course that is unlikely to happen if the status quo benefits those with the power to make the change.
I haven't finished the video yet but, this video actually makes me want to lower my ticket prices which I think I will starting next year as I only have 1 major show left for this year
Sometimes undercutting to realistic levels will bring more people out simple because of the fact that it’s something that is actually accessible to us schlubs that don’t have daddies with a trust fund.
