The album - Episode 3 - The commercial failure

Hello everyone!

What a nice title for a really optimistic article...

Let's think for real, my album will not be a commercial success.

First, because it is instrumental music, not very popular !

But there are some really good bands, touring a lot, Electro Deluxe, General Electriks and Snarky Puppy are some of them that come to my mind. 

Despite an undeniable talent, they are among the few known artists. These three bands, as many others in instrumental music, share a spirit of jazz or jazz-fusion (which I really like).

After listening to the songs of my album, it seems clear to me that I am not in this music style.  

Maybe I could, like many other artists, do some covers. This is something that seems to work well to reach an audience, so that some record companies prefer to ask an artist to do covers and see how the audience is interested before posting originals. 

Again, the music style is a problem. It would be easy to do covers of soundtracks from tv series, movies, or video games, but chances are that the affected public won't be really interested in the album, as it's different from that music. 

Elodie Frege, a french singer, recently complained that she is too often invited to sing covers in a tv show, while she has her own album and songs to sing, but no one seems interested to have her sing her songs on tv or radio.

Ally Rhodes, a singer I discovered on youtube, recently announced that she will stop posting "fillers", as they take time, and despite of the audience she could reach with these videos, time spent on those is time that she doesn't spend on other projects she has. 

Today, the original projects are rare. In France, record companies bring back old artists like Goldman to date, the release some "new" cover albums, professionals in music industry don't really take risks, they recycle (that said, it is the same thing in movies ...). And they dare to say that there is a music crisis.

Obviously, there is a crisis, but maybe there should be more artists in the musical landscape. This is an area which is, like many others, governed by the law of supply and demand.

There is a lot of supply. 

Everyone has music tastes, so there is a lot of demands too !

The problem is that there are too many people who decide of the supply, and then create the demand. That sounds complicated, but actually it is very simple: they just choose from all the artists they could know (who all have an audience, obviously) the less ugly (very important, as the looks is really important), then build him a custom universe, and promote it. With the promotion, advertisings on tv, radio... they sell everything, but other artists are still looking for their audience. 

I remember to have one of my piano student upset when I told her she chose a really bad song (a song from a musical). I then had to apologize and explain.

Obviously, I was sure that she liked the song, because it was made for her. Easy lyrics, nice melody and four effective chords, television commercials, radio diffusions ... that was enough. I'm not saying that the people who created this song have no talent, but the result is more a commercial music product than a song. It was only created to make money from it.

We could ask ourselves if our musical tastes are then really personal ...

Considering that, there are people who say that these are the rules, that's the way the music industry goees, and that you only have to do with it, and there are others.

I am one of the others.

Why I decided to make my album?

• First, because I have the technical and financial resources to produce it. I organize my work in order to make this album in my spare time.
• Then, because I want it.
• Finally, because I am one of those artists who make the music sincerely, and not for commercial purposes. I do the music that I want to do, making it sounds like I want it to sound, and no one tells me how to do it. And some people will like it. Not everyone, because it's a matter of taste, but every music has its audience, the harder thing is to find it.

Maybe I'll do like some other artists I played with, forced to find a "real" job, or who have moved to other countries where music is more important than in France, but I won't regret to do what I want.

This blog is mine, and you are free to comment this point of view!

And if you have any ideas on how to find an audience without any record company... I'm interested ...

Next week, I talk about inspiration!