Recently Record of the Day published an outgoing message from their music editor James Foley, which featured him philopshising over the state of the music industry as he has seen it from the inside, and how it has developed over the past few years. A key element of his piece focused on his concerns over the music industry’s current preoccupation and orientation towards to new music and new artists. Ironically, considering that one of Record of the Day’s primary focuses in their daily mail-out is key new records, Foley used his last message from the publication to question the privileged position that “new music” currently holds in the music industry. A particular statement of his springs to mind:
‘In the past six years I’ve seen the obsession with the new - particularly in the UK – become so prevalent that it has led to an intensifying of the worrying short-termism in terms of artist signings, development and media attitudes’
I have to disagree with the general sentiment of this statement, and indeed the general apprehensive attitude Foley expresses toward the progress and development of new music. In my opinion there is still plenty of space for established acts in the music industry. Fair enough, the handling of artists into their second and third albums by record companies is often appalling. Many labels are constantly looking for the “next big thing”, without actually nurturing and supporting the talent they already have. But there is no doubt that new music is exciting – it shows promise, progress and freshness, something more established acts often find difficult to maintain.
It is therefore utterly vital to focus as much attention as possible on the new acts - on the burgeoning music industry. Music must progress, and it is very difficult for artists to push their music developmentally, let alone music genres and the industry generally, once they are established. Record companies, (excluding a few very good independent labels) are literally all about revenue, which leads to a great deal of restriction on how artists actually develop. Gone are the days when artists can work on their sound and develop a proto genre with every new album. This is not 1969. Labels want artists to recreate the sounds that the audiences know and love (and are willing to pay for) ad infinitum. We therefore need new artists to introduce new sounds to the industry.
Additionally, in the contemporary music industry, with millions of acts uploading new tracks everyday to Bandcamp, Sound Cloud and MySpace, it is very difficult to get new artists noticed. Whilst the industry maybe be slightly obsessed with the next big artist, there are so many of them out there in the internet ether, so many truly excellent artist that we haven’t heard of yet, that we may never hear of. Every new act therefore has to become obsessed with promotion. Promotion of new artists saturates everyone in the industry’s inboxes every single day, because every new act wants to be the one that gets noticed. And the only way to be noticed is by being as prolific and as clever with promotion as possible.
I think it is a fantastic thing that the thirst for new music has become so pronounced, and that “new music editor” is becoming one of the most heavily coveted roles in music journalism. Progress is not something to be lamented, and I am fully of the opinion that if established artists work hard, produce good music, and do not rest on their laurels, then they have just as much chance of success now as they have ever had.
