Tunecore CEO Jeff Price Responds: “When Artists Become The Product”
Last week we published a post, “D.I.Y. Music - When Artists Become The Product” by William Gruger, first posted at Hypebot. The post questioned the value of the growing “online industry dedicated to earning money and exposure”. Tunecore CEO Jeff Price recently responded:
The challenge with articles like this is they imply some sort of “magic wand” which, if waved, allows musicians to have instant fame and success. This is just not the case.
The secret to success for a musician is in the art itself. If a snake oil salesman comes asking for money, promising, “Kid, I’m gonna make you a star”–it’s most likely utter bull. A case in point: 98% of what the major labels released and promoted failed. They spent billions of dollars over the years pushing music they hoped would cause reaction, and 98% of the time they failed and the artists still had to give up their rights ending up worse than when they started.
Music needs to cause reaction. In other words, the thing that propelled Nirvana to superstardom was Nirvana’s music. If people didn’t react to the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” it wouldn’t have mattered how often they heard the song or seen the video: it was the song itself that caused the fame.Music needs to cause reaction. In other words, the thing that propelled Nirvana to superstardom was Nirvana’s music. If people didn’t react to the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” it wouldn’t have mattered how often they heard the song or seen the video: it was the song itself that caused the fame.
Read the whole response by Jeff Price at Hypebot, here. Please, join the debate and let us know your opinion!