Then/Now-Niche Edition

THEN

Howard Stern left terrestrial too early, he became societally marginalized.

NOW

Howard is king of his niche and reaches a larger audience than any of the late night talk shows. Reminds me of Bryan Adams recording "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You." AOR considered him a sell-out. Soon AOR was toast and Adams had a career as a crooner.

THEN

If you were all over the press, everybody had heard your music.

NOW

Almost no one has heard Amanda Palmer's music.

THEN

If you had a tiny core audience, you were financially challenged.

NOW

If you have a tiny core audience, you can raise enough money to make your album on Kickstarter, and own the copyright to boot. Just don't think since you raised all that cash anybody other than the core is going to be interested in what you produce.

THEN

Albums all cost the same price.

NOW

Hard core fans will pay for special packages, delivered most famously by Topspin. If you're not tapping the deep pockets of your hard core fans, you're leaving money on the table.

THEN

You put out one album every three years, it took that long to reach every potential audience member.

NOW

You release music constantly, to satiate the core, no one beyond it cares. In the old days, your favorite act released an album when you were in high school and when the next one came out you were married and had babies. Now, if an act waits until the summer to follow up their fall release, it's too long.

THEN

Music was scarce, so when we bought albums we played them.

NOW

Music is plentiful. Only the hard core wants to go beyond the hits. Are you playing to the core or to the masses who don't care?

THEN

You were on late night TV and everybody knew your name.

NOW

You're on late night TV and all you get is a stinking high-priced video.

THEN

If you opened for a major act, you believed you'd made it.

NOW

You play the festival and you're forgotten within the year.

THEN

Marketing was top-down. You spent a lot of money and convinced everybody they should pay attention. I.e. Mariah Carey.

NOW

Marketing is from the ground up and Tommy Mottola is out of work and Mariah Carey is on a TV show that no one talks about anymore.

THEN

Major labels were interested in careers.

NOW

Major labels are interested in hit singles. They've got to make the quarterly numbers, for their bonuses. Short term corporate thinking hasn't only hurt the industrial companies.

THEN

The Police traveled around the world, breaking their music, playing wherever their visionary manager had been with his CIA father.

NOW

You create YouTube videos at home, all in search of virality.

THEN

It was about the music.

NOW

It's about the marketing. Just because you know how to use Final Cut Pro and can create an interesting visual, that does not mean anybody wants to listen to your music.

THEN

There was a bar. Either you were signed to a major label or were irrelevant.

NOW

There is no bar, everybody gets to play. And the public is so overwhelmed in this chaotic world that it's hard to get anybody to even listen to your music.

THEN

There were record reviews in magazines and newspapers and they meant something.

NOW

Everybody's got a blog and believes they're a writer and the audience is so overwhelmed with opinions that they pay attention to almost none of them.

THEN

If you had a hit, it could not be escaped. They played it at the game, in public spaces...

NOW

They play classic rock in public places. You think your number one record is known by everybody, but you're sorely mistaken.

THEN

The mainstream media was self-satisfied, believed it was in charge.

NOW

The mainstream media is self-satisfied, believes it's in charge, when the truth is most people trust narrow but deep websites more than the smorgasbord of news in the mainstream.

THEN

The mainstream blanded itself out ever further to not alienate anybody and gain viewers.

NOW

Bland network TV has sinking ratings, sometimes eclipsed by what's on cable, which has to be edgy to survive.

THEN

Your song was written by Diane Warren.

NOW

Your song is written by you, otherwise no one cares. The essence of success is honesty.

THEN

The Top Forty divas use more outside songwriters and producers than ever before.

NOW

The day your hits dry up you can't sell a ticket and the nobodies no one knows continue to ply the boards and earn a living.

THEN

There were stadium shows.

NOW

Only Taylor Swift can sell out a stadium.

THEN

You could live off the money from your record deal.

NOW

If you even have a deal, compensation is low, you're dependent on the promoter to keep you alive.

THEN

The most powerful person in the music business was the head of the label.

NOW

The most powerful person in the music business is the promoter. Lucian Grainge gets all the ink, but Michael Rapino has all the money. And he with the money triumphs. Universal folds and people still make music. Promoters go under and artists starve.

THEN

You had to buy the record to listen to it. And it was expensive. So if you bought it, you played it and became a fan.

NOW

All music is free. And if it's not exceptional, you don't play it, even if the act is a superstar or coming off a number one record.

THEN

We were interested in what classic rock artists had to say.

NOW

We don't think any classic rock artist has anything to say worth hearing. We don't want to hear any new material, only the old stuff. Meanwhile, the artists are delusional, they think their new stuff is just as good.

THEN

Bands were rigid, solo albums were rare.

NOW

Everybody's got a solo project, everybody's putting covers up on YouTube. We're in a heyday of creativity.

THEN

You couldn't get enough music news.

NOW

There's more music news than anyone can read, and most of it is playing to the lowest common denominator so you ignore it.

THEN

You had no idea what people thought of you and your music.

NOW

People are hating and loving you all over the web at the same time. If you don't believe in yourself, you become paralyzed and irrelevant.

THEN

Taking chances could kill careers.

NOW

If what you do doesn't resonate, you just create something new. Now, more than ever, is the time to take an artistic risk.

THEN

What you wore was important.

NOW

Most people have no idea what you look like. Your music is paramount. Ignore the Top Forty wonders, they're two-dimensional, time-stamped ciphers.

THEN

Being the first to use a new computer technique got you kudos, from Michael Jackson employing morphing technology in the "Black Or White" video to Aerosmith releasing the first digital single to...

NOW

We've got future shock. There are so many new technologies that we're drawn to basics, i.e. music.

THEN

We had universal anthems, like "Stairway To Heaven" and "Free Bird."

NOW

Nothing lasts.


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