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Steve Albini on the surprisingly sturdy state of the music industry
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IanB
IanB
6761 posts

Edited Nov 22, 2014, 11:35
Re: Steve Albini on the surprisingly sturdy state of the music industry
Nov 22, 2014, 07:41
A lot of what he says rings true but musicians and audiences should polish their critical antennae before taking economic and cultural direction from a millionaire* producer at face value.

(* EDIT - the millionaire thing is apparently bollocks on my part. I think the rest stands up though because he is still coming at it from a position of gatekeeper privilege.)

Maybe as an American he doesn't realise that the musical eco-system here has been hit twice. Initially by the savage reduction in the number of artists being signed to labels and offered the kinds of advances that allowed the musicians to house and feed themselves while they developed their stuff full time. Then again by the changes in how unemployment benefits work. Or don't. Anyone who is not independently wealthy or being supported by a loved one is going to find it tough because getting really really good at something is rarely a part time thing.

The major labels spent decades doing stupid things but a lot of money trickled down to people who made hay with corporate budgets while the sun shined and made amazing use of the facilities on offer. Our record collections are full of the products of them. A lot of that music would not have been made or at least not developed to the same degree without that money and the time and opportunities it buys. A lot of so-called indie labels were effectively bank rolled by major label money - if not from the UK then from income earned via American major label licensees. Twenty to twenty five years added up to a golden age of inadvertent corporate patronage of outsider art music. It isn't coming back but not because it can't but because of a culture wide abdication of responsibility.

I do agree that it is fantastic that more people are making records on a home-studio level and getting them out into the world and finding audiences but you will never get a mainstream music with any kind of social or political impact if the only people getting signed and benefiting from marketing budgets and sharp elbows are the privately educated and the products of stage schools. New artist showcases and pay to play gigs in London seem to have the highest concentration of the privately educated in attendance outside the House of Commons. They literally have nothing to say beyond the tropes of love and romance. Limply lovelorn singer songwriters, a few Jamie T's and posh boy upgrades of Supergrass's shtick. I think we need a meaningful pop and rock mainstream more than ever. We're not getting one and it seems the enemy now has all the tunes.

Anyway. It must be incredibly tempting and dead easy to rubbish the old music business model when you are nearer the end of your career than the beginning. Easier still when you have already made your money and have an established rep that brings you work. To me it just comes off for the most part as wishful score settling. Good writer though.
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