
David Byrne's Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists - jamesbritt
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/16-01/ff_byrne?currentPage=all
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jamesbritt
Two things: First, I didn't realize at first it was from 2007; I noticed that
only after I went back to get the link to send to a friend. I still think it's
interesting and relevant.

Second: Reading Byrne's description of what is music, and how it was tied to
social events, I thought to myself that, well, people could play music
themselves, and if not so inclined could whistle, hum, or sing without needing
other people. Then I imagined a world where all music had to be generated by
people, or, more to the point, where playing music was not ubiquitous and
easy.

What a weird existence that would make.

I realize there are people today who live this way, but I have a very hard
time really understanding what that means, how that changes life.

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michaeldhopkins
Actually, playing or singing music would become ubiquitous and easy. You'd
know hundreds of very singable songs. You'd hear live music almost everywhere
you went in a city. Group musical activities such as concerts and dances would
become very popular again. The art of writing music would probably approach
its former levels over several generations (once the low point generations had
passed on.)

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asmithmd1
Now that a group the size of a band can produce a product are there any
"record labels" for tech products? I know I wish there were someone I could go
to for my products to handle the functions below that David Byrne lists as
label responsibilities - I just want to make stuff, not run a business:

Fund recording sessions (VCs / Angels do this)

Manufacture product (Many Contract manufacturers exist)

Distribute product (SparkFun, ThinkGeek, Seeedstudio)

Market product (Do contract marketeers exist?)

Loan and advance money for tour expenses tours.

Advise and guide artists on their careers and recordings Handle the accounting

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allenbrunson
i wasn't quite so successful when i submitted this article at the time it was
written: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=105027>

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pan69
I really enjoyed the conversations between Brian Eno and David Byrne
supporting the article.

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michael_nielsen
For those who enjoyed this article, Byrne writes a superb blog:
<http://journal.davidbyrne.com/>

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stevenj
Anyone know how much it costs to start a small indie record label? Or how much
capital existing ones started with?

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jamesbritt
That's a good question. Depends on what a record label is supposed to do. Some
things that come to mind: Curation, publicity, managing (if not actually
providing) distribution of recorded material.

Seems an MVP of a record label could start with next to nothing if you know
how to promote on the cheap.

A more involved label might front a musician the cost of pressing physical
material (CDs, vinyl) , maybe arrange tours (for those so inclined). Maybe
help hire a decent producer when needed.

Anyone here work with or for, or own, a label?

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elektronaut
I'm in the process of starting one, mainly for the purpose of publishing my
own band.

What you need is an artist, a distributor and a handful of cash. A record
label is in the business of creating and marketing the actual product, and the
minimum cost is the price of pressing and shipping the records. The label
might also front the money for recording, mixing, mastering, and hiring a
designer to do the artwork. Booking, management and live promotion is usually
a separate business area, but with indie music you'll often find bands, labels
and promotion overlapping quite a bit.

The tricky part is of course getting your product in the hands of your
customers. Selling them online is one option, but if you want to get the
records into stores, you really need to partner with one or more distributors.
They take a percentage of the price (20% is a good number), and have
established channels for promoting, selling and shipping the product.

We're doing the first release on a shoestring budget. We've recorded and mixed
everything ourselves, and traded services with a designer and photographer. I
haven't gotten a quote from the pressing plant yet, but I've budgeted $500 for
professional mastering and around $2000 for the first run of 500 12" records.
CDs are alot cheaper (about half, I think). We need to sell around half to
break even,

Add in the costs for professional recording, mixing, artwork and promotion,
subtract the money for the artist and the margin for the distributor and
record store, and you'll see that you'll have to sell ALOT of records to make
a decent profit. A couple of thousand unit solds is a big success for a small
artist.

Bigger labels will invest in artists expecting that most of the releases will
be losing money, hoping to score a hit once in a while that will turn a
profit.

Starting an indie label in 2011 is not exactly a brilliant career move unless
you're exceptionally savvy, but it's a fun and not too expensive hobby.

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ethank
This is such a refreshing thing to read because it cuts through all the
reddit/armchair/whatever "record companies are going to die" and presents a
more balanced picture.

Also Byrne gives Bob Hurwitz, who I consider one of the greats in the business
his due.

All this applies today, even though this is an old article. I think it is
telling that in the past four years since this was written, a lot of the
things he talks about did happen, but it also got substantially worse.

The great thing is: the holes that are there, where the record companies
aren't servicing artists are getting filled by entrepreneurs who are making
services and tools to fill the gaps. Songkick, Eventful, Soundcloud, TopSpin,
Bandcamp, etc. All making good on the promises that labels aren't anymore.

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jamesbritt
I'd never heard of ithinkmusic.com before, but have been looking at
soundcloud.com and topspinmedia.com.

Anyone here have any experience as an artist using these sites?

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warp
I'm not an artist, but as someone buying music online I really like bandcamp.

Soundcloud seems more like a github for music to me, a place where musicians
and listeners talk and collaborate about music, not a place where users like
me would go to download or purchase a finished album.

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wyclif
Classic quote: _"Not everyone is as smart as those nerdy Radiohead boys. Pete
Doherty probably should not be handed the steering wheel."_

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brevitae
Great link, thanks. I just quit my coding job to spend a few months on the
analog side of things. We'll see how it goes.

