The government is neglecting Irish musicians
There has been precious little appreciation in official circles of the cultural and economic importance of Irish music.
Niall Stokes, 04 Oct 2007
The music industry is in a state of turmoil. No news there. Record sales are down and there is an air of doom and gloom. And when that sets in, guess who pays? But of course – and this is the important part – it’s the artist.
In the industry power-centres in London, New York and LA, the reaction to the slump is to deny bands and artists the money they need to get off the ground.
With the impact of the internet and the drop in CD sales, clearly there is uncertainty about what the future holds for record companies – but instead of trying to imaginatively shape the entertainment landscape, they seem to be happy to react defensively. The instinct of the guys at the top of the showbiz conglomerates, with the expense accounts and the enormous annual bonuses, is to shore up their own position. And that’s what they’re trying to do.
Record companies are not investing in new talent to the extent that they did five or ten years ago. Now what they want to know is: how little do you need to buy a van, so that you can be shoved out onto the road to slog away on the toilet circuit. What’s more, if they sign you to a record deal, they now want a piece of your live action into the bargain, if they can get it.
The music business was never about altruism – it would be stupid to imagine it could be – but when it was run by people that loved music, there was a sense of everyone being in it together. Not so long ago, artists were at least given time to develop, over two three, even four albums. But now that the business is run by accountants, the credo is much starker: you do the work. And if there’s nothing to show for your hard labour, pronto, then too bad. Next.
Most people in the business accept that – with perhaps the very odd exception – big advances are a thing of the past. The result is that a lot of potentially important talent is struggling to survive. Inevitably, that makes it more challenging for artists – but there is also a window of opportunity in this. Great independent labels are at the heart of what has been achieved over the past thirty years in music, since the punk revolution: now the space is there for them to come even more fully into their own. And that includes Irish labels.
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