In recent years, the biggest thing that has happened to the music business has been social media. And streaming, of course. Everything’s changed. Streaming music, when I was in school, we talked about this. We knew that it was happening. It was just a question of what the music business was going to do about it.
So, while waiting for the answer, musicians needed to find other means of income. I love the fact that you can be an independent artist — for real. Being able to own your distribution. Being able to own your narrative of your brand. Being able to own everything that surrounds the ecosystem of how you make money. That is important. If you’re an artist, you’re going to want to do that.
Granted, you can phone it in and have the label be a sort of consigliere for everything related to you. But that’s not the best way to do it. The label is just a big bank with a marketing team and a PR team. With the right capital, you can do all those things on your own. And you can have your own teams that you hand-select — teams that get your brand and get your vision. And you can have a lot of success doing these things on your own.
This is what Beyoncé figured out. This is what Chance the Rapper figured out. This is what Wu-Tang Clan figured out. This is what all of these huge names in music have figured out for themselves.
One of the biggest ways that the music industry has changed has been the democratization of the industry for the little guy, as well as the older talent that’s out in the world and trying to reclaim the narrative of their music.
If you’re interested in using music education to learn more about finding success as an independent artist, but aren’t sure you have the resources or time, consider giving online music education a try. It may be exactly what you need to get a jump start toward the career that you desire.
