Coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown is forcing us to be creative with the way we connect with each other. Many musicians I know are presenting live performances from their homes; presenters and venues are organizing online events that helps us to feel not so isolated. Some people think that this global pandemic will be the force that shifts the way we run things in the music business here on out. I get why one might think that but I don’t agree. I don’t agree because we are still dealing with humans and we fundamentally need what we need regardless of how the technology interacts with us.
This seeming paradigm shift and how people are buzzed, for better or worse, about it reminds me of the advent of the internet in the late 90s. All the sudden, it seemed that the internet was going to make everything better. Many of the retailers started moving things online. Many websites for job seekers popped up that gave us false impressions that better and more interesting jobs are at our fingertips regardless of our skill levels. Somehow we ignored the fact that the same jobs are now online instead of in printed media.
I remember independent artists getting excited about the internet’s ability to let you ignore the middle men and reach the fans directly. It seemed, for a second, like the internet was going to make everything a whole lot better for all the “little guys.” But I wasn’t so sure.
I was taking night classes at Baruch at the time. I was working at Kiehl’s (it’s a cosmetic company for those of you who don’t know) and I had been trying to figure out the way to get into the music business. I thought it was a good idea to take a course entitled, “Introduction to Music Business.” That shows you I really didn’t know where to start lol.
The course itself was pretty informative in that it showed me many different entry points to the business (and yet, I ended up choosing the least lucrative field, lol) and it gave me a map of sorts. Towards the end of the semester, I had to pick a subject and do a presentation which will be scored for the final grade. As if your night class grade mattered in any real way, lol, but of course the nerd in me took in seriously.
I chose to tackle the subject, “The Impact of the Internet on the Music Business.” A pretty broad subject. I can’t even remember what my source materials were and how I did my research but I came to the conclusion that the internet is not going to be a game changer for independent artists the way they hoped it would. Why? Because we are still dealing with humans and human nature.
My logic went like this: the fact that now everyone who wants to present himself/herself online can do so means that the market place will be way more congested than it already has been. This would create more needs, not less, for all kinds of gatekeepers and middle men and platforms with somewhat of credibility. Be it the records label (although labels didn’t take the internet seriously enough and the recording industry is in the shithole right now but that is whole another post.), be it an influencer, be it a critic. The amount of stuff that would be available on the internet would be so overwhelming that the general public would depend on “authority” to tell them what to like and what not to like. People have such little faith and confidence in their likes and dislikes and many of us want our taste to be affirmed.
I concluded my presentation by saying something like, “the increased accessibility to the internet is not going to essentially change the game for independent artists like they had hoped and the business would stay more or less the same for participants (artist).” I think I was not so off the mark. I remember the euphoria everyone was feeling with the arrival of the internet in our daily lives. I would have participated in that if I wasn’t given an assignment to really think about the impact (or lack thereof) of it and what it really meant for the arts.
Fast forward 20 years, what I’m observing is that artists who are successful seemingly because of the technology are the ones who would have been successful, anyway, in the traditional music business model, as well. Yes, our tastes are changing and our concepts of beauty are widening and yet, nothing has really changed fundamentally in that people still need to be told what’s cool and what’s not. And that is the human nature that keeps certina types of artists successful and certain types of artists unsuccessful. Depending on which authority says what.
All that to say, my feeling is that there won’t be any Covid-19 paradigm shift in the way people interact with music and more importantly there won’t be devaluation of live experience.
Human’s need physical contact. We thrive on that. It has been experimented that baby monkeys actually die without physical contact. Yes, online activities are cool and it’s an ok substitute given the current circumstances but we will come back to live experiences and also we (as in general public) would not be so independent in our consumer behaviors.
Look, we know that we evolve very very slowly and we are forgetful. This is why history repeats and we don’t learn from them. I’m not saying that it’s good or bad. It’s just an observation. (Also, I'm more about process than outcome.) I believe in music and its value and our fundamental needs for it will never change. And live music will always be the thing. I mean look, Amazon is opening paper book stores and people are listening to vinyls. We like the realness and tangible things. So don’t be quick to rush to online whatever. Human Nature is not really into that.