Keep The Rights to Your Music!
Music is a firm part of black culture. When this nation was founded and built on the backs of black slaves, music was one of the few things that slaves could indulge in despite being mired in poverty. Fast-forward to modern-day music, and music is not so free anymore. You either have to pay for songs on iTunes or buy CDs, and at the very least, listen through endless commercials to hear maybe 1 or 2 of songs you actually want to hear every hour.
For me, a more important issue than the cost of music, is who owns it. Except for Jay-Z (who recently bought the rights to most of his music), most Black music makers don’t own their music anymore. We have sold ourselves to “the man.” It started with big contracts in the 40s, 50s and 60s, and now black creators of music don’t even get those anymore, and now musicians are just relegated to a few pennies on the dollar and some passing fame.
Black music makers must take back the industry. And I don’t mean everyone go out there and make deals with P. Diddy. Instead, make independent music, and be the indy-music creator that you have always been.
When I say independent music, I am not talking about signing with an independent label. Artists who sign with any record label never should have gotten mixed up with the term “independent artists.” That’s not being independent, that’s just signing with a pocket-sized version of the major labels. Independent music is really when the creators own their own music. Moreover, if black people really want to take back the industry, especially in terms of the hip-hop, rap and R&B genres that we created, then being independent music makers, in the true-sense of the term, is our only option.
So listen up music-makers, you have to start thinking like entrepreneurs and take your heads out of the clouds for a few seconds. No one is going to come save you and make you a superstar. That happens for less than 1% of the artists out there, thus making it an unrealistic dream for the most part. So why go out into the world and make your own success.
Pay for your own CD production. If you can’t afford to make thousands of copies, make a few hundred, or a few dozen, and sell them yourselves at your live performances, out of the trunk of your car, and at mom and pop shops.
Hire your own distributors, too. If you have the popularity to sell CDs on a mass level, then call distributors and make it happen. Go to the Wal-Marts of the world, iTunes, Rhapsody, and make it happen. Utilize your ability to sell yourselves, as you do all of the time when you sell your creative flare to your audience.
And take advantage of the internet. There are so many ways to spread your music that it is ridiculous. Get involved with all of the social media applications. Post a viral music video on YouTube.com. Host a podcast where you replay your performances or concerts, and where your fans get to know you by calling in. Talk to bloggers and the like to get your name out there. There are so many artists using the internet to make very decent careers for themselves, but frankly, I think the number of them that are black music makers is very low.
But I know what you’re thinking: you don’t have the money to compete with big boys. And you’re right. You are not going to become an overnight success to the extent such that American Idol turns out famous singers at the snap of their fingers. But you can compete with the big boys over time and on a local level. American Idol singers can be on TV two times a week, but you perform live and in front of somebody’s face 7 times a week if you have the time. So get in front of your local audience. Perform for community groups, charities, and kids hospitals. Go get on the radio, community access television, and try to spark up deals with local businesses to see what type of media events they are willing to sponsor.
Then once you have had some success, start saving your money and utilize your power and popularity. Once you have figured out how to do muster up local support, use your extra funds to become even bigger locally, or to expand regionally, statewide and nationally. And utilize your popularity to perhaps make deals with indy or major record labels. But don’t give them the rights to your music. At the most, give them a small percentage on the basis that you do not need any upfront money, just marketing and mass distribution assistance. And if they don’t agree to your terms, “F’em!” Because you control your own music, and that’s the way you intend to keep it.
But what if you don’t make it that way? What if you try to go about it yourself and the success just never comes for you? Well, so be it. Did you enjoy making the music? Did you enjoy trying to turn your music into not just a living, but a lifestyle? Then who cares if you don’t make it. There are worse things in life besides playing music and owning the rights to it without becoming rich. It’s much better to own your creation and be a middle-class worker doing something else, than it is to have made wildly popular music, only to see very little reward from it, going broke a few years later, all the while some record label continues to make money off your original song.
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