The first thing is the end in music today.

I am currently reading Clive Davis's newest book "The Soundtrack of My Life." One of the things he started was Arista Records. Arista was merged with RCA. RCA this week closed Arista. That and Jive also. I loved the performers on Jive in the 1990's and 2000's. RCA is part of Sony records. Clive was president of Sony for a while also. I am friends with the current and last couple presidents of Sony. I think it would be a tough spot to be in. 

See record companies use to do 6 things

• Find new performers
• Record music for the performers
• Manufacture in solid form the music. Records/Tapes/CD's
• Market the music
• Promote the music to radio
• Protect the music from infringement. 

The first thing I noticed a few years ago was the trend for labels to fire their A&R departments. They stopped looking for new performers. They concentrated all their efforts in their heritage performers. In one way it made sense. Labels use to have a saying 7 out of 10 performers lose money. 2 break even and one will make enough money to pay for the other 9 and the next 10. So why not just spend all your time one the proven performers. 

Maybe because for the past 40 years you have trained the public to expect new emerging performers and trends. 

Record music for the performers. They use to have there own studios, Producers, and Engineers. That may be why in the past producers where so sought out. Now you still have a few high profile but their records are so hit or miss they have become hired guns. It was great when musicians played music and you didn't have systems that people could build music in their bedrooms. Yes build. It has now become move this track or stem over a beat and create songs and loops that you,,,

Release on iTunes, and CD Baby. Manufacturing is gone. In fact Sony as an example use to have 11 dedicated manufacturing plants in the US alone. Now they share the same one that UMG and WB use.  Here is the major reason that the music industry is dead. No matter what else 

if you do not have a PRODUCT to sell you are out of business.

And why market music when everyone who can record can sell their product at the same outlets. iTunes. 

The next thing I noticed was that the FTC had for years blocked Labels from radio. In the old days the term was payola. Labels would pay and gift DJ's to get their music on the radio. Why, because people would hear new music and buy the music and that was somehow unfair. 

Today, the touring companies have bought the radio stations. Yeppers LiveNation and AEG now own a large share of radio. Who do they play? Why the bands that are touring with LiveNation and AEG. I guess the FTC was right. Not very fair to the Labels though. BTW they also own the ticketing companies, promotion, and have vested interests in production. I should mention also that they now have a management arm for the artist that sign LiveNation deals. I think it is funny that LiveNation festivals are 100% paid for before they ever sell a ticket (Sponsorship) and that a large number of their festivals are sold out before they ever release the performers line up. There goes the notion that its all about the music. 

Last I guess I should mention protecting the music, Why? If you post it on Youtube and Vemeo and someone infringes, well you get paid. That is why Bieber was making a million a week with every little girl in the would posting her singing his songs. He gets 50% of the ad at the bottom of the post. Now he is having lip syncing contests. The best part of this is that all the lawyers that had been chasing people for infringement are now looking for other forms of income. It has changed so much that most of the performers I work with use Creative Commons so that others WILL use their tracks and stems. Even the Federal protection laws so restrictive for this new environment have had to create another for of looser protection. Of course the only reason for copywrite was for litigation.

So bottom line. It looks like Labels may soon be a thing of the past. I BTW have had 4 label deals. None of them really good. The biggest problem I think people have had with them was that they didn't know what a label did. I wish I had a buck for every performer I have met that said his label wasn't booking them and they had no shows. I, for years, would argue that the labels didn't do booking, that was a agent which on most cases wouldn't book you without a label deal. Now that people are getting LiveNation deals could agents be a thing of the past also? I know I am not applying to any agency's.