“As the biggest labels get bigger and the richest performers get richer, startup labels and new performers would have a harder time promoting their music and penetrating the market, which would lead to diminished consumer choice and a decline in the overall health of the music industry.”
That’s been said so many times, and every time it was false.
Then, along came The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk, Nirvana etc.
And blew everything up.
The issue is the dearth of real talent. Not that somebody can’t get air time.
Having a manager like Peter Grant was definitely good for Led Zeppelin.
Grant used to go around record stores looking to beat up anyone who was selling Zeppelin bootlegs.
who needs talent if ya got Autotune?
Bingo. There's not a line of talent sitting on the sidelines waiting for their chance. It's quite the reverse. The industry is so hurting for talent they're playing the same stuff over and over as they try to grab any new artist they can to try to meet the demand.
Gotta disagree on the talent bit. If anything, there's an enormous number of talented musicians out there. Incredible players are getting younger and younger. I think that's because gear's cheaper than it was 50 years ago and Americans have alot of leisure time.
The problem with making a splash today, or for that matter a living in music, is that the music markets are absolutely flooded with indie music. Everyone with a laptop and cheap interface puts their music on the internet. Some of it's very good, far more of it sucks. YouTube is packed with it. Same with Spotify, SoundCloud and the rest of the popular streaming platforms. So for a band to poke up above all the noise without a ton of cash behind them is now nearly impossible; as impossible as it was for most bands back in the pre-internet days to score a major label record contract.
By the way, Payola's alive and well. Now, instead of paying to have your song played on the radio one pays an outfit to have their music placed on popular Spotify playlists.