Everyone’s trying to be like them but are they trying to be like YOU?!

What’s up Nation. I know all of you are probably knee deep in Christmas (holiday) shopping. By the way, I think today is your last day to get your online ish done and have it delivered by the 24th so make sure you handle that. Anyway I was out in the madness they call madness they call New York holiday shopping this weekend and happened to find myself in a record store. Honestly it is the first time I have been in one in probably a couple of years. It was a harsh reminder of how badly the music industry has suffered.

Now there’s no secret that the music industry has been annihilated by digital media downloading and file sharing but no one has talked about the silent killers. Small business and deregulation. I think people have been so quick to blame the recent music sales nose dive on the consumer’s reluctance to actually buy albums but what about our economy. Over the last 10 years the term “deregulation” has become part of the common man’s vocabulary. Most often we hear it used to describe how our utilities can now be provided by more than one source. This has enabled smaller companies to compete with the incumbent larger ones and has meant more competitive energy prices. Well the same can be said for music. Music is no able to be produced by any one. No longer do you need a record deal to release an album. You just need a computer, a microphone and cd burner. Years ago studio time was so expensive and the process so time consuming that putting out a record wasn’t feasible for the novice but computer software advancements and the advent of cd media and burning has enabled anyone to become an artist.

To that end owning a label, production company, management agency, publishing house has also become just as easy. So now we’re experiencing a new phenomenon that’s further watering down the game. The all-in-one artist. No longer is an artist just an artist but he’s the CEO, producer, emcee, dj, garbage man extrodinaire. I know how hard it is to run a company, a quality organization. It requires serious multi-tasking skill. So how could i do it if I was also touring the world, banging roadie b*tches, and recording a new album at the same time. Something has to give.

The proof is in the pudding and that’s why there’s been so much talk about industry layoffs. The people who are running these companies are artists or share their same mentality. My man The Swift Chancellor, although he needs spell check wrote a good article about exactly what I’m talking about. In it he says “Often times the spirit of entrepreneurship breeds self reliance which often mutates into arrogance. That arrogance often leads the artist to take on responsibility they are simply not trained to handle. Responsibilities like booking, marketing, contracts, merchandising, etc. An artist who does all the aforementioned duties loves to fancy himself a renaissance man. I call him or her naive. Your primary job is to write rhymes and songs.”

Never have truer words been spoken. The current economy has promoted and exalted small business to such an extent that some large business owners and most established artists try to emulate the “do-all” business model. Young aspiring artists often approach me and say: “I want to get signed…I want to get put on.” My first question is “why? ” I understand trying to be like Jay-Z. But if you can produce your music, put out an album and promote your music just the same as a signed artist does why then give up your percentages? After all the head of the label is using the same business model you are using to get signed. In the end we as fans suffer from the diminished music quality. So don’t be so quick to blame the entire decline of the music industry on digital media…you’d be surprised to see whose biting who.