We have all heard the story about a band playing their heart's out on stage while a mysterious person in the audience was lurking around. After the gig the mystery man approaches the band and tells them he is a record executive for a big label and wants to sign them to a contract worth millions. The band signs it on the side of the stage and instantly become mega stars. If this story was ever true it sure isn't now.
Due to the revenue streams drying up because of the ability to download content for free, everything has changed. Record companies now wait until the artists are signed by a big agent before approaching. The reason is because of the new paradigm in the music industry. There has been a power shift over the last couple of years and the big agents now have a strangle hold. Do the big agents want this new power? No they don't. They would love to revert back to the old days when record companies were in charge of PR, promotion and getting bands airplay. The music industry still makes many people a lot of money. Someone had to step in and save it after the collapse of record company spending and it was the big agents. If they hadn't have stepped in there would be anarchy.
Anarchy sounds good in principle but it's a disaster for the music industry. Anarchy would mean that there would be no structure in place for artists to rise to the top and get out of a 40 mile radius of their home town. Anarchy would mean that there would be no system to weed out the bands that suck.
How did big agents save the music industry? I will explain that in my next blog.
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