Indies in general are every bit as good as the major label artists and in many cases they blow the majors away. Bruce Elrod and I were talking music and recording artists the other night and we came to the realization that our Cashbox Magazine Indie artists and Indies in general are every bit as good as the major label artists and in many cases they blow the majors away. That is not to say that all the Indies are good, you can find some real duds no matter where you look but the same can be said for the majors and the big name record labels are funding this mediocrity. More and more listeners are drifting away from radio because of iPods, cheap downloads, free listens, and hundreds of Indie music playing web pages. Radio is trying to compete and feeling the pressure of trying to hold on to what audiences they have. So to some stations, the answer is not to fight the competition but to join it. Indies this is your chance to get heard in a big way. To start, you may need to clean up the act. Music containing obscenities or questionable subject matter will not make it onto the airwaves. You say, "So what, I have the internet". You are right and wrong at the same time. Radio air play still hits a huge audience in one shot where internet is very much hit and miss. You have to have your music on every music site available and make millions of friends just to get a steady play coming close to matching what radio still can produce. However if a radio station announced your web site URL, you'd see an amazing immediate jump in site hits. That is still the power of radio as a mass media. Cashbox believes in Radio Play basing our charts on actual reported plays and the radio stations in turn use our charts as a guide for what to play. Therefore if it cannot be played on the radio, Cashbox will not allow on our charts, basic and simple. Cashbox Magazine has been a key source for promoting Indies since it restarted over a year ago. You can currently see that our charts are made up of 26 Indie charts out of 70 total charts making the Indies a near 40 percent total. 95 percent of everything in the BB charts is major label, and the remaining 5 percent is major-indie (major-indies have a marketing budget of $50,000 minimum per release, and this does not include making the CD.) So what has BB done for you lately? DON'T JEOPARDIZE THIS OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUR FELLOW INDIE ARTISTS. Indies are not limited by what the record labels tell them to do nor do they have any kind of restrictions on their creativity. This is not completely good since radio stations are not about to jeopardize their license by playing an uncensored Indie cut. Other major web sites and chart magazine have chosen not to promote Indie Artists beause of the unrestricted nature of the beast. More and more radio stations are going directly to the Internet to play songs but only those that they know are safe. Cashbox has really grown due to the fact that we are one of the remaining major chart sites promoting Indies. So Indies, if you are just playing at making music for your own enjoyment then ignore what we have to say but if you are serious about it and want a chance to make it in the music business, the doors are opening to each and every one of you. Don't be the one to cause those doors to slam shut
The Indies have been on line for a decade already while the majors have just recently jumped into the online pool due to the continuing disappearance of the local record shops. The Indies have a head start here and the majors are playing catch up. Back in the early years of internet, an Indie could actually make a small fortune getting music played on internet sites. This was because there were very few music sites available and the site owners knew that it was the recording artist providing them with an audience. The original MP3.com company paid the artist 7 cents for every listen, made CDs on demand for customer purchases paying the artist $4.00 for each CD sold. They even gave away very cool gifts to everyone with music to sell on their site. Today there are literally hundreds of these sites and they now charge the artist to put the music on the site. They sell downloads of the music and kick back pennies to the artist. So today, it's a little harder to become a success on the internet but the playing field is more leveled off since the major labels are being forced to play the same game as the Indies. The competition has brought the really great Indie artists to the top of the music pool. We are now hearing true professional musicians, singers with amazing voices, creativity that is mind boggling and great music that isn't cookie cutter based, same ole same ole stuff like the major labels are giving us. Indies now is the time to give us the best you can, you have nothing to lose and a great future to gain. But don't think that if you can burp the National Anthem in two part harmony that it is worthy of an audience. Now is the time for real quality and real musical art and your song lyrics must be spectacular to get noticed by the few that are listening to it. …OK, maybe the burp thing could make it on MySpace and YouTube. But do you really want to be known as the burp guy? Michael Peace |
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