Country Time
Music Industry Finally Evolving, particularly in Nashville
By: Matt Bjorke
Last updated May 21st , 2010

In my last column I talked about how people are finding success via independent means or independent labels.  Recently Nashville lost a major label. Lyric Street Records as it was folded into parent company Disney Music Group's Burbank, CA offices as all but some of the staffers who promote singles to radio were cut loose.   The label, which was around for over a decade, let Sarah Buxton, The Parks and Love and Theft out of their contracts.  This whole development is much like the corporate mergers of the last fifteen years or so as the Music industry struggles to change their model from the successful album-driven profit margins to streamlined 360 artist-development driven models. 

Independent record labels like Toby Keith's Show Dog Universal have lead the way in this regard as they take a cut out of everything an artist does, from their publishing to their touring right down to each t-shirt or belt buckle an artist sells.  While on the surface this would seem 'bad' for artists who largely made their living off of tour revenue, it really isn't so bad if you think about it.  Instead of a recording company focusing solely on 'loaning' hundreds of thousands of dollars (and sometimes millions) to artists to get their radio career and albums off the ground, these labels now instead focus on developing and signing artists or acts that can do more than just  be some  good-looking studio creation.  They will also help build careers and long-term success instead of flash-in-the-pan 'one hit wonder' types.  It's really a win-win.

The record company earns more profit than just the 99 cent download and the artists get people actively interested in their careers, people who want to promote everything an artist does, not just what their album is doing.  Albums and singles work as the promotional tools (as they have for country artists for years) to get fans out to the shows where they not only get entertained but where they'll buy some merchandise (which costs as much or more than the CD or digital album) and hopefully get to meet the stars.  

Sometimes, artists can build their careers this way. This is how the Zac Brown Band has built their career, it's how Colt Ford has continued to go from grass-roots artist to national touring artist and it's literally how most of the Texas music artists have built their careers.  A great example of this kind of artist is the Eli Young Band who grossed somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 million in the Southwest region alone.  

Now with grassroots becoming an inherent part of the Nashville and the music business as a whole, perhaps the music industry will become what it used to be, a place where artists can build life-long careers with their record companies an taking an active interest in their careers rather than just a passive interest in 2/3 of the industry.  It's good for the artists, it's good for the companies and it's good for the fans.  

[Tags] Country

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