Music - August 2, 2002 - There Once Were Dinosaurs

My first experience with music industry was in the mid-eighties, when I was introduced to what at the time was considered one of the lower life forms --- neck-and-neck with lawyers or collection specialists --- the A&R person. Fortunately, my band had some reasonably intelligent management, so we avoided some of the likely pitfalls of a major label contract. A fellow from Detroit I used to know went down a different road however, and after having his band lineup, band name, and look changed, his label got him in some reasonable rotation on MTV's "Headbanger's Ball". His stuff didn't rocket up the charts (primarily because he went along with executive decisions that efficiently stripped it of any heart) and several years later he owed a major label close to a million dollars. At that point they refused to release his material, or HIM either. Not an uncommon story. More on that concept in a future article.

With the explosion of the web and young, savvy bands that choose to market their own stuff, the Major Label seems to be destined for the dustbin, and there's a rich but confusing array of new bands, new music, new distribution methods, and even new file types. We hope in future articles to explore all of these topics, with a special eye on the independent & innovative. We've been doing some pre-market research for another project we're working on, with the help of Interfluence, a small Ann Arbor, MI multimedia company, so we've talked first-hand to a lot of artists, and hope they (and you) may join in our Threaded Discussions as this site develops.

Ian Gray
August 2, 2002