Before the days of internet – becoming a successful songwriter depended on a whole different set of factors. For example, as a non-performing songwriter, you would have needed to go out and find an artist or band willing to record your song, or have a music publisher get a cover for you.
As a performing artist, you would at least have had a vehicle for your songs subject of course to whether you or your band had a record deal.
A great deal of the “ifs and buts” of success would have depended not just on the commercial potential of your song, but on who was out there promoting for you, and how much marketing power your music publisher or record company (if you were an artist), had. Of course, much of that still applies today. So why has the internet had such an enormous impact on song writing, commercial recordings and tons of other commodities? I can tell you. Two things: digital, and distribution.
By now many of us are familiar with digital, and are using it every day in one capacity or another. There’s no question that for the past few years it has moved steadily into our daily lives in many different ways: telephones, television, cameras, satellite, cable, and not least, computers. At this time, it is credited as the best means for transmitting, storing, retrieving, downloading, uploading and even reconfiguring electronically. As a computer friendly format, digital can also be compressed and sent by internet in various ways such as PDF, MP3 and so on. Digital can also be burnt to cd or dvd and is the catalyst for being able to store thousands of songs on an iPod. A forty GB Apple iPod, for example, can store at least 10,000 songs.
The potential of digital has created many follow on solutions that make other systems of the past clumsy and obsolete in comparison. I’m not referring to analogue – it’s older audio cousin – which to this day is still favored by some recording artists and producers as a preferred method of making distinct audio sound recordings. I’m talking about distribution.
The ability and speed in which email can now be sent with attachments such as audio, video, graphical and text documents around the globe in seconds, is still mind boggling for many, if not most of us. The phenomenal moving technology of the superhighway has created a new breed of ìonline songwritersî producers, managers, and anyone else capable of using a little vision to see the amazing potential in operating a digital global label for about the cost of a laptop.
With the speed of international communication and the amount of people now estimated to be online, some 1.3 billion, and growing at the rate of one million a day, the potential for running one’s own online record and music publishing company is staggering. Anyone with a flair for music and little imagination to market and prosper, is sitting on a potential goldmine.
| Dennis R. Sinnott is a music consultant with some forty years experience in the music industry. Formerly Head Of Copyright at EMI Music Publishing in London – Dennis now provides a music consultancy company – ChristelMusic.com specifically to help and advise: Songwriters; Performing Artists; Music Publishers; Record Companies; Production Companies and all other individuals, companies and organizations genuinely motivated and interested in the music industry. To date, Dennis has written four books entitled: The International Songwriter; Seven Keys To Stardom; Masters Of Songwriting and Everything You Need To Start Your Own Digital Label http://www.ChristelMusic.com |
