Music Students Get Direct-to-Fan, Labels Far Less Relevant

For the past three years I have given a seminar in the Fall to students at Berklee College of Music in Boston. The school has a great music business program, and has a high concentration of incredibly talented artists and has always stayed at the forefront of what is going on in the industry.  Depending on the crowd, the seminar covers various topics ranging from best practices  for marketing, distribution, social media, discovery tools, etc. Questions generally focus on how best to establish and maintain a money making career, what are the best channels for promotion, things of that nature.

This past September both Phil (Nimbit co-founder) and I presented the seminar, together preaching the good word of direct-to-fan; what the model is and what the methodology entails, how it changes the landscape.  Now, in the past, when I talk about this I’ve been looked at like I have five heads. This year, the room was packed and the air was still, as if each person was waiting for the next word out of our mouths. The students were well informed and their questions were far more directed towards the nuts and bolts of building their own business (as opposed to “how do I get signed?”).

Here’s what was interesting. One question I like to ask every time I get in front of a group like this  is “How many people consider a label deal to be a viable option for developing their career?” Two years ago when I gave this seminar, nearly 80% of the room raised their hands. Last year less than half the people indicated that a label deal was part of their success strategy. This year when I asked the question, exactly ZERO people raised there hands.

Just think about the implications of that for a moment. The next generation of artists and music entrepreneurs just told me that traditional labels, particularly the majors, don’t even factor into their equation for success.

The most interesting part? History will not care which labels hear this message and which ones become irrelevant. Tomorrow’s music entrepreneurs and artists are already working under different assumptions and they have a different model in mind altogether.

-p