Future Recording Business

[bigtree]

Seems its time to do another one of The future of our recording industry , The future of the commercial recording studios and mastering houses.

I have know idea where we are headed. I cannot get a handle on it at all.

Is your recording studio actually making money? Do you see this as a business that will sustain itself in 5 more years? I still hope and keep looking for something to hold onto. I still have a dream.

I'm at work today ( my day job) listening to people talking about how their kids get free music. Their kids never pay for music, they just download it, steal it or what? Maybe its all free now, I don't know?
I hate the sound of it all so I don't buy music anymore. Its of no value to me. If I don't make it or am part of it, I don't invest in music anymore. The last CD's I bought were so compressed they we useless to me. How could I know this either. Everything on the radio sounds similar so you cannot guage it. What a nightmare. Used to be if it sounded great on FM, it was going to be amazing on my turntable.

My colleagues have know idea what I do and what my "real life" is about. They don't know that I am an accomplished musician who toured for 18 years, and who owns such an amazing site like this full of talented people in the recording industry.
People think its smart how they don't have to pay and support music. They don't know why its all gone to hell and because it sounds so bad, I don't think they really care anymore. So we are killing our industry. We are taking high end right out of the equation.
I don't talk about myself around them but I do a lot of thinking as I'm sure you all have had moments the same and know what I mean.
Seems all that's left is thinking and memories of what it used to be like.

But music is everywhere and we know it isn't going to disappear.

[djmukilteo]

I am not in the business of making or recording music commercially.
I've worked in the Sound and Communications industry all my life as an electronic technician/engineer.
I started playing an organ when I was little and began playing with TV's, speakers, tape decks and amplifiers.
Basically anything having to with sound or music...my entire life has always had something to do with sound.
I grew up in the era of the 60's and the Beatles, Rolling Stones. My passion and profession was always audio, electronics and a fascination with synthesizers. I still have some of those keyboards and tape decks and mixers.
I've watched, learned, taught, played and owned a lot of technology in 50+ years.

I've never made a dime in the music business.
I've known many friends and acquaintances through the years who played gigs, recorded albums, one won a Grammy, several played professionally on tour and had record contracts.
None of them became famous. A couple of them still make a meager living playing in the biz for bigger show acts.
Most of them have regular jobs unrelated to making music and like me play an instrument for fun and enjoyment.

Over those years I've bought records, tapes, cassettes, CD's, DVD's Laserdiscs and MP3's.
I have a large library of music and audio video equipment that over the years consumed many tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars....I wouldn't even want to think of how much I've spent on this stuff.

Today's society and culture is growing up using computers and smart phones and playing video games.
It's a different world. People have home computers that are 1000 times more powerful than the computers used to design rockets and space flight in the 60's. People sit inside in front of huge flat screen TV's for hours on end with headsets on playing video games, chatting online or talking on their mobile phones the size of a pack of s. They have complete open access to videos, music, games documents and applications from around the world.
Most of it is free.....and that's what entertains them for the finite amount of time it takes to get their attention. People have the attention span of a gnat nowadays...seriously!
Nobody listens or watches anything for more than a few minutes...seriously!
I've observed and watched this behavior. What that does is devalues the content and places demand on more and more junk being pushed into the limelight for shorter and shorter periods of time.

I'm not a fortune teller or futurist but I do see that anybody can do this audio/video thing now and anyone can paint the musical art that is in their soul if they want to. The amount of exposure and financial sucess (which is still the primary goal) is still up to the gods of chance and fortune.

There will still be talented musicians and as the population continues to grow there will be more and more of them thus diluting the pool.
A lot of people will continue to think there is a buck to be made somewhere in that realm and try to figure out their clever way of capitaizing on that.
And people will continue to gravitate to the money and everyone will seek out open and free access of entertainment even if it's only 10 seconds worth.

Thanks Bigtree for letting me post my lengthy nonsense opinion on this....it helps me with my own technology addicted disease I've been hooked on for all these years of my life. Maybe I'll get better!
I'm pretty sure no one will read my entire post...it's not filled with drama, violence and death...it's not that catchy or gripping...LOL

[RemyRAD]

Well I could hardly agree with you more. Whatever record contracts that exist are only for those of already established themselves by purchasing their fame. It used to be that musicians were the poor and undesirable folks of society. And I think we are going back there yet again? Music made money because of big business. The big business has all but vanished. There are still people creating good music but it takes money to make money. Most musicians don't have money, they have talent. Nobody will appreciate them until they are dead dead dead. Just ask people like Mozart and Vincent van Gogh. Though you might have to wait until all of the planets align December 21, 2012?

The sky is falling, the sky is falling.
Mx. Remy Ann David