The lesson is simple.

Selling your artistic freedom and independence as a “success” strategy can bring you lucrative rewards. But it’s not always the best move for your career, as you are also selling off important assets to the record label.

The record label doesn’t want to know your fans or connect with them. They want you to do it, so that the label can make money of that relationship and then pay you a percentage of it. And they do that by controlling your copyrights.

Sometime ago, you signed a contract that gave the label the power to own your rights. In the process they paid you a fee. If those songs went huge, guess who was making some coin. Yep, the label was, because they paid you that fee before and they need to recoup that fee along with some other creative accounting tricks.

But artists are finally fighting back.

In the U.S, there is a clause that allows artists to reclaim their copyrights as long as they serve the labels with a termination notice. Well, the artists are serving their notices and the labels are ignoring them. So off to court they go, as the labels are making money on Copyrights they don’t really own anymore.

And the labels fear this loss of power, because holding the copyrights of artists is what gives them a seat at the negotiating table with the techies and politicians.

The artists have the power to make the record labels redundant, or purely to be used as a distribution arm if needed. But with streaming you don’t need the labels at all as the streaming service is the distribution.

So in all of this chaos, who will rise and who will fall?

Time will tell, but if you compare music to technology, you will see only a select few rise to the top. Smartphones and tablets is all Apple and Samsung. Amazon has online shopping cornered. Google is the king of search. Spotify has won the streaming war. Facebook rules social media. Netflix rules television.

The music market/business is filled with acts trying to make it. It is going to take a huge effort to stand out amongst the rest. And the ones who do, understand that music is a lifers game.

Do you go it alone or follow the paths set in stone 100 years ago?

How do you develop a fan base that will support you?

Do you protest for the old days of record labels acting as gatekeepers, looking to sign the next big thing and when they do, the labels will employ a scorched earth marketing policy to move a million units, give you a platinum record and in the process you think you become a star albeit with a large debt to the label. And you still don’t know who your fan base is.

Do you complain about streaming and comparing the payments of streams to sales? Streaming tells you if you have fans who are listening, in which cities and what songs are being listened to. And if you know how to use this data, you can place options to buy physical items like T-shirt’s, lyric sheets, music books, LPs and other items to those fans who are high streamers.

And if you have the means to do it, you can organize shows in those cities. At its simplicity, music is a connection between the artist and the audience. The record labels fear this, hence they use their power to get legislation passed to protect their business models and their marketing teams make it out that the label is there working for the artist.

But if an artist connects with their audience, they can keep and grow the relationship themselves without the need for a label.

However, artists fear going it alone as the buck stops with them.

But artists are capable. It’s uncomfortable, and there’s no safety net, but you are showing you have the capacity to lead and people like to follow in the footsteps of leaders. And all leaders have people who hate them. Don’t worry about the haters, move on and understand you can’t be liked by everyone.

But if you go it alone, without help, you may feel overwhelmed and give up. Remember, music is a lifers game. If you are not in it for life, you will not be able to build a fan base.

But if your dream is global stardom, then maybe you need the support of a label. But global stardom today is not the same as it was in a monoculture. We used to know who was massive but today, artists are massive in their niche and people who are not part of the niche wouldn’t know any different.

Artists don’t even need the press. They can control their own narrative via their social media accounts. It makes sense to me. Why rely on others to control your story when you can do it all yourself?

And remember music is a connection between artists and their audience. And artists need to do it because their heart is in it. Don’t worry about money. Build a fan base first and the rest will take care of itself.

It takes time to get recognition in this modern world. Bon Scott knew the truth, it’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock n’ roll. And he is someone who had been doing the rounds for years with pub bands before he even got the AC/DC gig and he did it again with AC/DC as they built their audience, town by town.

And sometimes you might be a bit too different and it takes time for the audience to catch up with you. Hell, you can became famous by covering a song.

Quiet Riot made bank with “Cum On Feel The Noize” as it pushed a mediocre album to number 1 on the Charts and platinum plus in sales. Joe Cocker took an okay Beatles song and made it his, with a little help of some friends. Jimi Hendrix made a Dylan song a staple of his live show. Motley Crue told everyone to smoke in the boys room, while the Van Halen version of “You Really Got Me” became the official version.

Unique pricing options or fan funded packages would surprise your audience and work only once. Don’t expect the same interest the second time around.

Protest The Hero did Indiegogo for the “Volition” album, then a few years later they did a 6 month subscription model with Bandcamp for a song a month project called “Pacific Myth”. Radiohead named their own price. Other artists used Pledge for presale offers but Pledge doesn’t always pay and in same cases never pays. Which shows again how people who contribute nothing to culture, RIP off artists who do. Especially the artists who have the guts to go it alone.

It’s not easy to build a fan base and it’s uncomfortable. Even more so if you are a band as not all members have the same patience and staying power. In addition, not all members are in it for the right reasons. As a solo artist, you will have a higher chance to build a base, because it’s you making the connections.

But it takes time, sometimes a lot of time.