The music industry is a vast and challenging place. Especially for the beginners and the ones who are not as competitive as much. Every place has its pros and cons and the same is with the music industry. The problems in the music industry can be big or small, but what matters is how you deal with them and keep on going on the right track. In this blog, we will look into some of the problems of the music industry and their potential solutions.
Streaming and Artist Payments
As the world is getting faster in terms of technology, streaming apps are getting much more attention than they used to get before. Which in short, means that songs and music in general are getting very popular. Young people these days want to take up music as their profession, but they do not realize the problems with music as a career path. One of the biggest problems is about the music streaming. The music streaming platforms pay the artists per stream. It means that whenever you will listen to their songs, they will be paid. Sounds interesting right? But in reality, the music streaming apps pay them a fraction of a cent, which is not so interesting when you want to run your circle with music. Back then it was the sale of albums that made money for the artists but now, it is the streaming that is easy for the audience but it is fairly heavy on the musicians who work day and night to produce a song and it does not bring them the luck they deserve. A possible solution to this can be a better compensation model for the artists. There should be a legal and bigger share for the artists from what the streaming apps make. Furthermore, the merchandise, crowdfunds and live concerts can help the artists as well.
Promotional Barriers
As discussed earlier, back in the day, album selling was one of the major promotional techniques for artists to gain recognition. But nowadays it is not as simple as it seems. Artists usually face barriers when they want to promote their music specifically by their record labels. Some major record labels dominate the music industry. Some labels do not let their artists promote their music on their own. All the labels like these use their power to make their name rather than putting the artist and their efforts on top. This creates a huge problem for the artists. The same goes for the musicians who are not signed to any label. The reach to a new audience is very difficult as many people do not support emerging artists. The feasible solution to this problem can be the encouragement of independent labels and support to local artists. Listening and streaming to new artists’ will make them stable in the music industry and it will be such a good help to solve Problems in the music industry.
Lack of Representation and Diversity
Talking about the nature of the music industry can be a bit biased when looking through the lenses of how different artists are treated in this field. As big as the music industry is, the same is the problems in the music industry. I can pick up anything from this field and it will turn out to be the root of the major problem in music. As stated two earlier, this one is even unfair and hypocritical problem. The lack of diversity and representation in the music industry is huge! And when I say huge, it means big. A lot the artists are judged based on their skin color because “The Music Industry” thinks that they are perfect. Many female artists face backlash and problems from their labels and their peers just because they are females and not male. Numerous Trans artists are not considered artists because of something they do not have any control over. The music industry can drain its inhabitants based on the fact that they’re females, Trans or they have a different skin color. Racism is so high in the music industry that it feels unreal whatever happens behind the cameras. The acceptable solution to this problem could be the more “advanced” or we can say “open-minded” people in the music industry. The more friendly the place, the better the outcomes, in this case, the better the music.
Conclusion
Problems in the music industry are so common that older artists do not take these problems seriously. But for the younger artists who are new to the industry, it is very difficult to deal with these and can be a roadblock to their success. Taking up the given potential solutions can be helpful for the betterment of the music industry.
