Music Belongs to Those Who Make It!

Today’s music artist isn’t a prostitute for a bloated music company (also known as, The Man). Today’s music artist releases their own music and relies on viral marketing and word of mouth to build up the buzz. The difference between today’s music industry and yesterday’s is very simple: The internet has made massive advertising campaigns outdated.

Before the collective breath of the internet, before this inhale and exhale of cultural information, it was impossible for a music artist to get their music to the entire country. It costs thousands, if not millions, of dollars to launch an advertisement campaign. No individual artist or small, independent publishing company could cover those costs. Artists were forced to sign the contract if they ever wanted to make it into a studio. This basically meant they weren’t making any money from their CDs, but they cleared checks doing tour dates.

Thankfully, My Precious (the internet) has solved that problem. As an upcoming music artist you can use free websites like youtube, twitter, and blogger to build yourself a career. You have the power to make a video that can be seen by millions, and you can do this for free.

Take Amanda Palmer as a perfect example. If you don’t know who she is, perhaps you ought to spend more time plugged into the brain drain, eh? Palmer has made a successful career off of giving her songs away for free. She has her own blog, and she develops her own marketing campaigns. For instance, her most recent Album, Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under, had a little marketing tool attached to it that involved designer panties. She sent out a message on her blog for her fans to create AFP (Amanda Fucker Palmer) Panties that she could wear on stage while touring. The results? Well... Feel free to check out the mouthpiece of her latest album, Map of Tasmania! She wears a lot of the "user submissions" in the music video


It’s true that the sell-out cookie-cutter hacks (Justin Beiber) still exist, but think about where that kid was discovered? Usher was jonesing for some talented little boy to live vicariously through, and he found this little boy to stalk on youtube. The rest is history, right? PS: I wonder how many times Usher has shown Beiber “The Usher Abs?” Ugh. That relationship is creepier than Father O'Flannigan and his harem of alter boys.

The point is that there has been a power shift on whose opinion matters most. Of course the consumer still tops the list. The democratization of information is ever-stronger with the internet being the driving force behind many careers. However, unlike years past, the musical talents are the ones who get to choose how big they become. Every video they upload, every blog they write, every song they release for free, is putting them one step closer to getting picked up into the collective consciousness that is social media.