From The Desk of Judith "Judatta" Lindsay....Death of the "Star-Making Apparatus"

The “star-making apparatus” is damaged.

This pivotal point, above all others in the industry is the leading cause for the fear-mongering. It hides itself behind many monikers; the ‘death’ of intellectual property or the ‘collapse’ of the music industry. But really I think it comes down to the damage done to the ‘star-making apparatus’ which signifies the loss of control over consumer attention.

Previously, it was necessary for bands to get signed by a major label to have any chance to ‘make it’ in the music industry. We can villainize the majors all we want for the nature of these record deals, (basically the rape of artists creative control) but in many ways it made sense. The cost of recording an album was extremely high. It simply could not be done in your basement with garage band (somehow they were able to exist without mac books). Not to mention that because of the limited nature of popular media outlets i.e. radio and TV, it was again very expensive and near-impossible to get your music played without major support.

With these limitations of media and technology the ‘star-making apparatus’ was logical. It made sense to throw all your eggs in a few baskets, because there was only a handful of radio and television stations to broadcast music on (vs. say, the internet). What was presented to listeners was quite controlled by a few companies. The exorbitant production costs and demands made sense because labels wanted to place the ‘best’ possible music in front of audiences (best = created with the latest technologies and supervised by the premier producer of the time). That was expensive (9/10 major label records ended up costing more than they earned. But with the decline of technology costs and rise of the internet, how we can publish and consume has radically changed.

Now the system is suddenly thrown into complete whack. Major labels cannot guarantee their product will be economically successful. This is where the attack on intellectual property stems from. It’s not that music will stop being created, that’s ridiculous. Rather it’s that from an investment stand point the industry looks like a crap shoot. With the endless number of music discovery sites and music blogs, they have lost the fixed attention of the consumer.

While this is tragic for the major label model, we have to discern the difference between what is best for the major label model and what is best for music overall. In the file sharing age, the average artist is receiving more profit than ever before. So if artist are able to receive more profit and create sustainable careers independently, then isn’t that better?

The point is downloading is not the problem. Copying files is an inherent function of technology. Its adoption by consumers was logical. The problem is that consumer habits have changed while the industry has not.