Hello : As most of you know for the last few years there have been some major changes in the music business. Espically in the recording industry. Music stores close left and right every day and Virgin records has just decided to sell or close all their stores. Last year it was Tower Records. Bands are starting to give their music away for free in hopes that more people will come to their shows or buy their merchandise such as T-Shirts,Cap's etc....

 Large high dollar recording contracts are almost a thing of the past except for well established already famous musicians.

 To the avrage musician trying to break into the music business what this does is take all the money out of the sale of music itself and force the recording artist to do more shows just to live. In larger cities like here in Chicago just to git a gig to play has become a nightmare. With more and more bands and musicians looking for shows for revenue the wages have gone down and the lines of bands and musicians wanting to play is getting very long.

 A few months ago Starbucks Coffee decided to go into the music business with their own label. Wal-Mart has their own label now to. Mabey Toys R Us is next?  Or 7-11??? Buy a slurpee and git a CD?

 Here again we see lot's of clubs asking musicians and bands to play for free and letting them sell their CD's and merchandise to make a few bucks???? One friend of mine does 5 shows a week for free and has been doing that for almost 4 years. Wanting the exposure and trying to create a fan base is the reason for that in hopes of a recording contract one day? Or the sale of a few T-Shirts or mabey a few CD's???

 The cost of producing a good quality CD ready for market is still high. To the independant musician such as myself that cost is yours to eat. In hopes that you might be able to sell a few CD's??? I guess you could work at Burger King during the day and live in a homeless shelter and do free shows at night??? To me this is as close to insane as it git's. It makes the saying "Starving Musician" take on a very real meaning. Mabey one day soon you will be able to find your favorite musician/band on the street with a can for donations doing live free shows? Or mabey they could trade music for food and shelter?

 here is an article you may want to read about the broad spectrum of it all:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article2602597.ece

Peace
Leo

HI : Taking the time to give everyone some feedback about music in general. Although I dont want to admit it ive been playing a LONG time! When I first started to play the guitar I did all the normal stuff. learned scales and chords and bought music books of all my favorite bands and musicians.

 As a lot of you know the music is seldom ever right so trying to learn all the songs of my favorite artist was hard for me at least. Then I figured that why even try to learn them because I knew how to play so why not just write all my own songs.  My question to myself was: will I ever be as good as Hendrix? Or  Clapton or Santana??? At that young age my answer was NO!!!  So the most logical thing to do was make my own music and hope one day I would get good.

 Then  as I got good at playing and writing songs and everyone wanted to hear my music I got my first dose of the reality of  all the sleezbag music producers and labels ripping off every young sucker that came along.  Most of them had a god all right and it was money.  They could care less what ever happned to me or anyone.  Today that has not changed one single bit except now it takes even more money to even try to open a door in the music world.

 Listine to the radio are they playing good music? Do they have the best songs and the best musicians on the radio? NO is again the answer  and the chance you will ever make it in the music world is slim to none.  Now we all Blog and have My Space websites to expose and promote our music. Thousands and thousands of us are here all trying to make that one right conection to the top. Dont hold your breath to long!!! 

 It's great to have all these modern tools to use to let others know about our music BUT  as the comunity grows bigger and bigger every day and musicians become more skilled than ever the question comes to mind what is the future of music and what is the future for us as musicians?  Tower Records went bankrupt and is closing all it's stores. They were one of the few music chains that would display and sell local musicians music without a label. Some of the largest recording studios in the world are closing now and being replaced with condo's.

 Music sales worldwide are down as much as 40% and recording contracts for musicians by major labels is down as much as 30%  With that being the case one has got to ask the question what in fact is the future of music?  The answer is dim at best. When people expect us to give our music away for free on the Internet as MP3 downloads they sure arent going to buy our music. And if we think that as unsigned musicians we can make a living selling our CD's online we are fooling ourselves. Few if any have ever done that. Eating beans the rest of your life an wearing rag's might be a good lesson in humility but it sure doesent make for a good life. Working a regular full time job and trying to be a musician full time gets real old fast to.

 So for the faint hearted or those less than devoted to music it for sure will never work. Believe it or not LUCK still plays a big factor in music. Being at the right place at the right time still has a lot of merit. So if your not lucky and your not willing to give up a lot dont even consider music for anything other than a hobby. The stuff I just shared is not negative it's factual and true. Reality sucks but it is reality!

PEACE

Mojo Zap