Another blog article, on our views of some defining features in the Music Industry.

Record Labels

In the last few years, with the arrival and dominance of downloading music (both legally and illegally), the Music Industry has shifted and Major Labels have lost a small amount of power, making them not quite the high entities they once were.

You see. Major Labels have a tendency to give some of the best/biggest bands in the world larger contracts for 3,4,5 album deals - but what happens when they don't receive such a profit from album sales as they once did? What happens when physical sales diminish?

I'm not saying that the Music Industry is falling apart, the Major Labels (such as the Big Four: Warner Music Group, EMI, Sony BMG and Universal Music Group) are still receiving big business and the demand for new music will always be there; my point is their profits have been cut somewhat.

More and more bedroom-run-labels, and small DIY Record Labels are springing up everywhere, going from album-to-album, helping upcoming bands who deserve the help but who are overlooked by the likes of the Big Four.


In my opinion, DIY labels such as..

- Big Scary Monsters
- Fierce Pands Records

- Gravity DIP Records
- Moshi Moshi
- Smalltown America
- Xtra Mile Recordings
- Transgressive Records

..are some of the most important units in Music today. Okay, so some have a larger budget than others but they're still doing things on a much smaller scale to the Big Four financially, with similar outcomes (if not better).

I know its easy to find songs to download for free illegally, but i'm asking you - for those on smaller labels in particular, use your money and help them continue.

We've released the debut EP from Science vs Romance (myspace.com/sciencevsromancemusic) and if we were to find people downloading it illegally, then, to be honest - we'd just give up as we wouldn't be able to survive.

Bands

As for bands looking for labels, my main advice is to send out as many demos as possible to Labels. If you send out a demo to 3 labels, you've got little to no chance, send a demo to 203 labels and you're more likely to get noticed.

Never give up!

My main advice for bands is persistance. Don't compromise your style/genre and sound of music just to mimic another band. How do you know that the music you're currently making is what the Industry is craving?

Individuality!

If you fancy involvement in our Monthly Podcast, a song of yours played to those who are going to be listening, send one track to inanemergency_dial@hotmail.co.uk with a short biography, and relevant info (MySpace URL for example).

We're determined to change the Music Scene in Norwich for the better, so get involved and help us do BIG things!

Sunny