by Amelie Mueller

Created on: July 06, 2009

Pick up any mainstream music magazine, open up the pages, and you will assuredly be scared into believing that the music industry is a sinking vessel with no hope for rescue. Headlines not so subtly telling us that while video did, in fact, kill the radio star, yet a new killer called the internet has emerged and it has viciously slaughtered the video star. The glossy pages that once gave us a glimmer of hope that someday we too could be rock stars are now telling us that if we want to keep shelter over our heads and food in our bellies to abandon all hope of ever being a professional musician.

Facing all the doom and gloom of the mainstream media, what is a musician to do to counteract the negative attitudes smothering the industry? Ever hear the saying, keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Yes, that's right, befriend the internet. The evil device that is causing the collapse of the major labels and is being blamed for the downfall of the music industry as a whole. Truth of the matter is the internet isn't killing this machine, it's changing it. For the better. The only ones dying are the ones who are refusing to change with it.

Ask anyone who is going out to shows and supporting the local scene. The indie scene is alive and well. Artists are putting the music back into the music scene. Making audible works of art for the craft of it, not to get attention from some suit coat promising fame and fortune. We are allowed to create and produce songs the way we want them to be heard as opposed to the way an aged CEO who doesn't even understand the art thinks the world should hear it.

To say the industry is failing is myth that the profiteers have created and spread with scare tactics. Artists were never getting rich of off album sales. Most made pennies on the dollar off the sale of a CD while huge corporations sat back and made bank off of the hard work of artists. The internet and widespread advancements in technology are allowing bands that would otherwise never have the opportunity to put out a record, to put out multiple albums and collect 100% of the profit should they choose to sell it.

Quite simply, it's evolution. Those who learn to adapt will have embraced the transformation. Figured out ways to use the digital era to their advantage. These are the individuals that will be blazing new trails and leaving the unwilling record executives behind to write stories of how things used to be. Time to sink or swim; which will you choose?

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