So yes, the decline of the music industry (see previous post) is a lie! We are in a golden age of music-making and music distribution. Anyone can make a decent recording with a little digital recording device. Anyone with a little bit of scratch can find a modern studio with amazing tools to capture sounds.
And there are many, many ways to get your music out into the world. Yes, it's a little like throwing a message in a bottle into the raging ocean of media; it's a daunting prospect to try to get your sounds heard amidst that Tower of Babel-like entertainment echo chamber we've created for ourselves, but it can be done.
It means that all the work is on the artist's shoulders, which is something whitewolfsonicprincess is going through right now. For our band, it means that you create and record the music, but that's only a third of the process, the next third is creating the "packaging," and then the last third is coming up with some kind of marketing or distribution plan. It's DIY on steroids. It's a daunting challenge. But totally empowering too. There's no one to sell out to or to compromise with, except of course, ourselves.
Check out Terry Flamm's latest post. Terry is a great internet resource who writes about music on an almost daily basis. He tells us about a new release called "English Kills." The music is available as a download via Bandcamp and the band's website. This is a clear-shot road from musician to fan. No great music behemoth standing in the way, acting as arbiter, or gatekeeper, or funder, or distribution channel either.
That's pretty amazing. Create the music and get it out there. And maybe it's work that wouldn't normally get to see the light of day, and it has a chance, a chance, to actually blossom in a million ears!