The Independent Musician’s Dilemma
A friend of mine is a distinguished concert pianist. Despite having studied under the best in the business he’s never really achieved what he deserved, which is a terrible shame but it has to be said, the classical world is every bit as competitive if not more so than any form of contemporary music. Nowadays he lives as a virtual recluse, I went to see him the other day to admire his new acquisition, a brand new Steinway B. My immediate reaction was utterly shameful because instead of admiring the sheer beauty of this instrument I blurted – “blimey album sales aren’t too shabby then?”
Anyway, thankfully this indiscretion was immediately forgiven and I got down to discussing music, life and the universe as I invariably do. He does have a couple of albums out incidentally but they’re not doing all that well from what I could gather. It turns out that the Steinway was not the result of any musical success; he was able to buy it because he inherited some land and sold it for building. This is interesting because in our local musical instrument shop, quite a big one as it happens, you rarely find any actual musicians in there, it’s full of estate agents, solicitors and the like buying gear for their talentless off-spring. Very few musicians I know of could actually afford to go in there, let alone buy anything. Anyway I suppose there’s not really much point in installing sophisticated electrical equipment in a hovel…
My trouble is that I’m not a businessman, I’m no marketing expert, I’m not a record promoter, I’m not an audio engineer or producer, although I do claim to know what good production is. And, I’m not a music manager and I’m certainly no lawyer, although I did take on a case (civil action) as a ‘litigant in person’, against one of the largest law firms in the country. This was the third most stupid thing I have ever done which might be the subject of a future chapter and will probably have you all pissing yourselves with laughter when I tell you about my confrontation with a judge and two barristers.
I’m more or less convinced that with the exception of the judge real success in the music business depends upon the involvement of at least some of these aforementioned entities, you will only get so far without them. Of course there’s always the odd exception but as a general rule of thumb, I believe it is a truism.
The music business is one of the largest businesses in the world and if you exclude the people that work in that industry by going it alone as an independent you are going to feel the squeeze at some point, that’s why it’s a closed-shop. If you become popular as an independent the doors start opening a tad, but at what point that happens is anyone’s guess. When it starts affecting their trade perhaps? If this happens then you could be heading for more problems than you bargained for. I’ve heard of a number of cases where bands have been signed, paid off (advance) and their projects immediately shelved, and there’s nothing they could do about it. Why, I don’t know, I suspect it has something to do with whose toes you’re treading on higher up the food-chain. In other words you could be being signed purely to protect their other interests? This of course only happens at the very commercial end of the market which, it has to be said is completely flooded with product.
I remember when I started out; having been a victim of an independent record company that went out of business and took all the multi-track tapes with them, I decided to go my own way. Sod it! I thought, if they could do it, which they self evidently couldn’t, I could! Labouring under a massive miscomprehension and a ridiculous sense of optimism I ventured into hitherto unknown territories. I decided to raise some money, pull in every favour know to mankind. Oh and write some new material, find the best musicians I could, that would work for peanuts and or just their expenses. I was determined to control my destiny and not be at the mercy of bureaucratic incompetence.
Following the nightmare of trying to keep the recording costs within my budget I somehow ended up with a finished master, god knows how? The stress was so great that at one point I went home, decided to go for a walk and got half way down the road before I realised I had a loaf of bread under one arm! It got to a point where my parents very nearly ended up having to bail me out financially, how embarrassing is that! So what you’re listening to is essentially my inheritance. As I said, I laugh in the face of profit. On top of this though most of my friends thought I was absolutely stark raving mad calling myself Higgs Boson –
Oh how they laughed! – What’s wrong with being a Cornish pirate?
Anyway after this I had a couple of well connected friends who I thought could advise me on marketing etc. One of them just happened to play golf with the head of EMI (Europe) apparently he told him that he had this mate who is releasing his own album and does he have any advice? He replied ‘that’s fine but what he’ll find is that there aren’t enough hours in the day’.
How bloody true that was, and still is!
You see what many independent musicians fail to realise is the shear amount of work required not to mention the know-how, and it’s the know-how that’s important! That and a shit load of cash.
You see as part of this advice I was given a copy of a marketing and costing schedule for the band Blur; album: Parklife. This made very interesting reading, apart from an admission to the illegal practice of fly-posting, EMI spent £100k just on the initial launch party. Now on the face of it this would seem like wild extravagance, but is it? Put all the top music journalists in one shed, ply them with drink and goodie-bags, what have you got the following morning….great reviews – sales skyrocket, well that’s the theory. This of course is nothing new but to think you can get anywhere near the same results by just hanging an album out on the net as an independent is completely absurd!
I’ve had people on here saying I’m talking crap because their daughter or whatever is an independent musician and they are really successful. Yeah, whatever…Well, many people claim to be successful but success is relative is it not. My brother for instance lives in a hedge, but he’s happy, so ‘he’s a roaring success story. Not so much being in the gutter and looking at stars as being in the sewer and dreaming of the gutter!
What I have come to realise is that when other people’s livelihoods depend on your music you stand a much greater chance of success. That’s not to say there’s not a balancing act to play here because it is possible to get tied up with a small independent label and for your career to go absolutely nowhere, because they don’t have the financial clout to get your music the publicity it may or may not deserve as the case may be. And of course they control your destiny because they have you under contract! The EMI schedule also made me realise that I am standing at the bottom of a very steep curve! Especially when I talked to the head buyer of a national shop chain who simply said unless you have a substantial ad campaign (100k plus) he could not even contemplate stocking my album. This didn’t really come as a bomb-shell but it was very disappointing. In conclusion; without mainstream distribution you have very little!
All I’m saying is that when people like Joni Mitchell retire because they can’t stand what the music industry has become its time to wake up and smell the coffee, which is somewhat ironic given that her latest release is being promoted by Starbucks. According to Joni they have great distribution. How the fuck did a coffee retailer get great distribution? It’s a funny old world!
Let me just say here that if you intend venturing into a music career unless either you or your parents are a multi millionaires just forget it. The point is that extremely wealthy people can afford to fail time and time again before something takes hold. Look at Simon Cowbell, even this man went into bankruptcy back in 89 and was forced to move back with his parents, who, well his father was at the very top of EMI…say no more… I can only comfort myself with the thought that wealth at some point becomes a source of deprivation, unless of course I become rich and then it’s all perfectly acceptable. lol
I have previously said that many of the problems in the music industry are down to all these rappers and hip-hoppers etc. I don’t know so much? Maybe the problems are more closely related to all these old bands re-releasing old stuff time and time again, flooding the market and soaking-up all the cash. As you know many of these old bands are fabulously wealthy and as a consequence have enormous advertising and tour budgets. Independent acts have no way of competing against the shear monetary power of these old bands.
They also control significant sections of the media. You can barely pick up a life-style magazine without a double page editorial of some octogenarian duffer aimlessly meandering around his multi-winged mansion wondering where in the hell he is. This festive season the shops are literally flooded with the Rolling Stones, Led Zep, Floyd etc. you name it they got it out there for sale – don’t get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against them releasing new stuff, although I can’t quite believe any of them still have the energy. Are they still on drugs? Probably; beta-blockers, Movicol and warfarin, to name but a few? It won’t be long before these festivals they play at will have to install easy access ramps and a team of surgeons on stand-by in case one of them needs a triple bypass. When are they going to retire?
So then, what next for the Higg and this so-called life in music? Well – I’ve said this before and I think it’s worth repeating. When you attempt to climb Everest in a pair of flip-flops at some point your feet will drop off and you end up dying alone, in agony! – blimey I’ve cum all over Eric Cantona….
Actually my next project will be a cheap to record solo piano effort with maybe some mild synth-like embellishments. Basically, these are pieces I’ve written over the years, some new some old. Don’t be fooled by the recording costs though, to make a solo piano album interesting is a bit of a personal Everest for me. I intend to release it on vinyl only and to buy it you will have to write to me in person and explain why you would like a copy.
You will of course have to include a full CV with your application. You may be lucky and be granted an interview whereby you will be given the opportunity to expand your ideas and demonstrate your worthiness and ability to understand what it is you are listening to. This of course flies in the face of popular business sense but the thing is, I have followed expert advice and I’m still absolutely fucking nowhere – so I think I’ll turn the whole thing on it’s head, see how far I get? Probably nowhere…….
What!
Contradictory.
Me?
NEVER….
Your eternal friend in oblivion…..
Higgs