2008 Music Technolgy / Industry

HELLO 2008.

The music industry as we have known it is dead. The industry as we presently know it, well the truth is we don't know it. Nobody knows what is going on, how to stop downloading, let alone what does P. Diddy want to be called this year? Diddy right, no 'P'? Here is what we do know. Computers are more affordable then ever, they are only going to become more accessible, and you can make a hit song on Fruity Loops music production software for around $250. Put all this together, there is going to be a lot of music being created. We're in a huge economic recession and people are broke and depressed. Economic depressions have been the birth places of cultural and artistic renaissance periods. Big Band swing music is a prime examples of artistic musical expression that was birthed out of The Great Depression.

2008 will prove to be one of the most explosive musical creative years. Why? In addition to an economic crisis we have an international one. WAR. Artists do not like war and the negative energy dramatically impacts creativity. Look at Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, Billie Holiday's famous 'Strange Fruit' which referred to black lynchings and civil unrest of a divided America. Even King David was writing songs (psalms) through Wars and chaos. Every true artists will write from their pain and turmoil. However, don't look to mainstream artists like Jessica Simpson to sing about Iraq unless Daddy rights her a song to increase promotion (he's probably doing that right now, her numbers are down). You'll find the birth of music in the streets, in the underground, undefiled by globalization and money hungry record labels.

Independent artists have something Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, Billie Holiday, and the like never dreamed of: Affordable recording technology. Half the battle has been one, a well fought victory. HOWEVER, the other half is still up for grabs. It is the one vehicle that today's artists, yesterday's artists, and deceased artists, have not been able to master: Marketing and Promotion. This is where the snakes come in and this is how royalties are lost. As of toady, there seem to be few ways to mass market or effectively determine a target audience to promote music without capital investors (big boys with money). A few success stories have hit the press, but these people were truly blessed in that God delivered their target audience too them (i.e people stumbled on too them on MySpace, YouTube, or FaceBook). The labels are holding on to the marketing and promotion powers, or at least they're trying to. I don't know how much longer they can hold out. You can get a computer for $500, Fruity Loops for $250 or less, Internet for $30/mo or less (or free), and people like staying at home not spending money surfing the web. Hmmm.... I wonder what is going to happen?