In the January 2008 edition of Wired Magazine the ex-Talking Heads frontman David Byrne gives us his take on the the New World of Music (David Byrne’s Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists — and Megastars). I am not that knowledgable about the workings of the music industry but it seems to me the Byrne’s account of the business strategies of today’s artist is balanced and correct. As it turns out, the picture is neither entirely black or white. The aspiring music artist would be well advised to find his or her own way in between the two extremes described by Byrne:

The equity deal:

At one end of the scale is the 360, or equity, deal, where every aspect of the artist’s career is handled by producers, promoters, marketing people, and managers. The idea is that you can achieve wide saturation and sales, boosted by a hardworking machine that stands to benefit from everything you do. The artist becomes a brand, owned and operated by the label, and in theory this gives the company a long-term perspective and interest in nurturing that artist’s career.

or

The self-distribution model:

Finally, at the far end of the scale, is the self-distribution model, where the music is self-produced, self-written, self-played, and self-marketed. CDs are sold at gigs and through a Web site. Promotion is a MySpace page. The band buys or leases a server to handle download sales. Within the limits of what they can afford, the artists have complete creative control. In practice, especially for emerging artists, that can mean freedom without resources — a pretty abstract sort of independence. For those who plan to take their material on the road and play it live, the financial constraints cut even deeper. Backup orchestras, massive video screens and sets, and weird high tech lights don’t come cheap.

What I don’t like about the Wired articles (Byrne’s above mentioned and his interview with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke (David Byrne and Thom Yorke on the Real Value of Music) is the ever continuing aggrandizement and glorification of commercially succesful musicians like U2 and Radiohead. Let’s talk about about musical genius when it becomes clear whether their music survives their own and their audience’s generation!