The Decline of the Record Label Industry

 

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A Few Reasons to Take your Career into Your Own Hands

As everyone knows the music industry is in the middle of a vast transformation. Record labels are merging and trying to avoid facing foreclosure, CD sales are down, and there are VERY FEW new artists being signed. Here are a few important statistics to remember:

· More than 5,000 record-company employees have been laid off since 2000.

· About 2,700 record stores have closed across the country since 2003

· The eighty-nine-store Tower Records chain, which represented 2.5 percent of overall retail sales, went out of business, and Musicland, which operated more than 800 stores under the Sam Goody brand, filed for bankruptcy.

· Consumers have bought more than 100 million iPods since their November 2001 introduction, and the touring business is thriving, earning a record $437 million last year

· And according to research organization NPD Group, listenership to recorded music -- whether from CDs, downloads video games, satellite radio, terrestrial radio, online streams or other sources -- has increased since 2002.

So as you can see with these statistics, the record label industry is in serious crisis, but the number of music being listened to, and played, has increased. It is time now for artists to think outside of the box, and take their careers into their own hands. Artists that make the big $ are stating in their lyrics that the record label is designed to keep the artist in debt.

So with the change in times, It appears as though the digital music has taken over the industry and is thriving. This change may be bad news for the labels, however, appears to benefit the artists that are able to build their fan base, and work hard to get their music heard. You are NOW in control of YOUR future.

Source: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/15137581/the_record_industrys_decline/print