Good-Pass Filter

NAMM 2012: A Snapshot of a Screwed-Up Music Industry

My first experience at the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) trade show was dizzying. Thousands of booths with everything from sheet music to instruments to computer programs and plug-ins.  Also about a billion iPads.

What struck me about this gathering was how out of touch most people seemed to be.  I don’t mean a drug induced out-of-touch, although I saw some of that too.  What I am referring to is their attachment to an ancient and failed industry model. I saw the symptoms of this as all of the aged hair-metal guys and gals dressed up in period costumes with big feathered painful hair. They talked about their old deals and how close they were coming to a new deal.  Much of the live music was filled with flash and chops, with only rare glimpses of intimate or passionate performances.

 

None of this is to say that it was all bad.  I saw some great music and met some really great minds.  In the display room for Taylor Guitars I saw a first-rate performance from The Silent Comedy.  They began acoustic and transitioned into their usual animated and energetic electric show.  The sound was amazing (compared with the bar shows I’ve seen them at recently), and their genre-bending performance generated a buzz among attendees who were used to seeing boring (but skilled), easily classifiable performances at the show.

 But my favorite part of NAMM was the Saturday afternoon of music business panels, hosted by Moses Avalon, author of Confessions of a Record Producer. As you can tell I like to observe the industry and pick out the trends that I can see.  Among the tens-of-thousands of people at the Anaheim Convention Center last weekend, barely more than a hundred people made the time to listen and discuss the state of their own industry.  Most people were too busy engaging in musical masturbation on the cool gear they probably can’t afford.

 

Now, to be fair, there were certainly a lot of people having meetings and making deals.  Also, the sheer size of this event shows that the music industry is nowhere near dead.  In fact, I learned that the music industry as whole is trending upwards in revenue and downward in cost, potentially making it more profitable than ever before.  But, as I look around I wonder who is reaping the rewards of that profit.  It certainly isn’t the thousands of artists who work tirelessly to put out new music and play live shows.

But it should be.

How does that shift occur? Well I, for one, do my part by finding small, hardworking bands with great music, and write about it every couple weeks.  In fact, I’m slightly annoyed with myself for deviating from that formula to delve into a “state of the industry”-type article.

So I’m gonna mention another artist I saw there: Andy McKee.  He is a solo instrumental guitar player who plays some cool complex songs on his guitar, sans looping pedals, holding multiple parts at the same time.  Check out this video of him from the acoustic stage at one of the NAMM after-parties, playing a rendition of Toto’s Africa:

Ok, I’m getting back on topic now. Do you know what I didn’t see at this giant convention? A representation of truly independent artists and the scene they have forged for themselves.  You know the type.  One example is the hipster/indie scene, which I often mock, but those bands tour endlessly and have dedicated fans, and if those fans had more than enough money for a PBR tallboy, the bands would be raking in the dough. I was expecting those bands to have a skinny-jean representation at NAMM.  Sadly the only skinny jeans I saw were on Motely Crew wannabes.

I attended one workshop which drew me in like a car crash.  It was called “The Psychology of Producing a Pop Hit.” As a producer of music, I was intrigued to see if I could pick up some tips for myself, but as an observer of culture, I found it ridiculous how many people were there to figure out how to win the music lottery with a #1 single.

But why? Recorded music doesn’t make the big bucks anymore (except perhaps in licensing), and yet everyone still wants to make their mark with a huge hit. Thousands of albums are released every year.  What are the odds that anyone will even hear your potential hit if you make it?  Moses Avalon actually calculates the odds of success for an early career artist.  I’m too lazy to look up the numbers right now, but they are LOW.  In an increasingly profitable industry, the barrier of entry is staggering.

Manufacturers are continually tempting us with cool new gear, and often serving to only distract from the process of making good music.  The big record labels are still able to somehow coax artists to sign their money over, despite the fact that they offer very few services that can’t be found independently or online.  Everyone is competing over the attention span of the next ADD generation.

The music industry is not dead, or even dying.  It is just broken, as it has been since the internet gave independent artists a chance to reach their fans directly.  There is plenty of money floating around, and artists have more tools than ever before to capture some of that cash. While a great number of people engage in some form of piracy, there is an increasing number of people who take pride in buying CD’s, going to shows, and turning their friends on to fun new music.

They real key is to not lose touch of those fans.  So many of the NAMM attendees were only in touch with their hair product and wardrobe, and certainly not the tastes and feelings of regular people who love music and want to support it.

But I can’t wait to go again next year.