by midNIGHTriot

Created on: January 27, 2007   Last Updated: February 12, 2007

The future of the music industry, what a topic to write about. As an aspiring rap artist, I wish I knew exactly. The music industry is filled with trends, and building relationships. A lot of people say where you get, how far you go, how successful you are, depends on luck. That might be true in a way, but I don't believe that. You get where you get based on how much work you put into it. You meet people who can advance your career by getting yourself the exposure you need, as well as networking as much as possible.

A lot of artists, bands, managers, agents, they all seem to blame the record labels for their lack of success, or them making it harder for independent artists to make any money. This is the industry, it's a business, if you don't want competition, struggle, a fight to get to the top, then this isn't for you. No one else is to blame for what you aren't accomplishing, other than yourself. Its not a record company's fault for you not being where you need to be to get signed, it's yours. They are in the music business, to make money. People who create a business, want to make money.

There are only a few major record labels out there right now. That makes it very limited for independent artists, and new up and comers. There are a lot of changes and trends in the industry. One of the biggest is online advertising. A few years ago, hardly any labels were advertising online, we didn't have itunes, we didn't have myspace, we only heard about new artists through the radio or TV.

The future of music, in my best guess, would be it is going to be taken to the internet. You see more and more advertisements online now, more cd sites popping up, tons of advancements made for online sales. Every major release is advertised on myspace, artists are doing live shows for aol users to watch online, interviews and videos are posted on youtube for artists to promote online. Everything is headed for the internet. Major labels have deep pockets to pour out money into it, however, if things are headed towards the internet, we'll be seeing a lot more independent record labels starting to get recognition.

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