How Digital Killed the Radio Star, Plus the Rise of Hologram Performances

Music industry veteran Darren Rose explores the current state of the music scene and how artists are dealing with more distribution methods than any other time in history. Rose, who regularly discusses the topic on his music series Darren Rose Radio - Inside Radio & Records, gives his view on where the digital revolution is likely to take the music business next.

“I think vinyl is one of those things that will always be here, I collect it myself,” said Rose, who got into the radio business in the mid 90s just as the mp3 format was starting. “There’s not as many as there used to be, but there’s still some great record stores. I think people will always like that big artwork, some really want that vinyl sound, while others happy with mp3.

“I’m personally just happy that there’s folks out there that are buying music, because I think that’s one of the biggest things that has happened in the past 15-20 years in the radio/record industry,” he said. “People just aren’t buying as much music. So the artist has suffered, the industry has suffered, because everything is on demand.” He pointed out that nowadays, people generally just go to YouTube or Spotify, or other places, because music is now always at the consumer’s fingertips.

On the current state of streaming on sites like Spotify, Rose said that while it has cut deeply into musicians’ profits, the advantage is that it gives fans more ways to enjoy the music they like. “I just like that there are options,” he said, adding that the phenomenon has also led bands to operate more like a small business.

“It’s not like it used to be where a rock star would roll out of bed at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, they go do their show, they party all night, and they get up and do it the next day. Now, there’s less than one percent of artists that have that luxury. Most of the bands out there get up early in the morning, and they check their social networks, and they post to Facebook, and they reach out to their contacts, and they’re shaking hands, and they are working on graphics, there’s always stuff going on.”

Rose said in his experience managing bands, each member now generally does something outside of their individual craft. “So if they play guitar, they’re also maybe a graphic artist. One of them might be a singer and also produce the album.”

There are now so many different avenues through which artists can get their music out to the world, and many people are using free software to put out their own music. “It’s possible for the masses to do it, which is why I think, personally, it’s become a little bit of a cluttered marketplace, because there’s a lot of average stuff out there. It’s cluttered, you just have to know as a music fan, or someone in the business, how to cut through the clutter.

“Right now we’re in a moment of an influx of choices. As we speak, someone’s probably launching a new music service… there’s must more and more services and more choices. Personally, I think that’s a good thing.”

He also speaks about the desire by most people to have all their music portable on small devices. “A lot of people don’t want vinyl, or CDs, or cassettes, as we’ve talked about that are coming back. They want everything in the cloud.”

Speaking about dramatic hologram performances over the last few years and music being released long after an artist has passed, Rose said he finds these are embraced by the fans. “I was there for that hologram, and it was amazing,” he said about the much-buzzed about Tupac Shakur hologram performance at the 2012 Coachella music festival.

He makes the point that when artists record albums in the studio, they go in with hundreds of ideas and concepts, and they basically just roll tape, producing a lot of great material that never makes it onto albums when artists are still alive. “I think it’s a good thing, I absolutely think it’s a good thing. I don’t think that it’s degrading – Michael Jackson had studio stuff that he did with Usher – it’s great.

“I think there’s quality music from Elvis that probably lives somewhere. You know, the same with Lennon and others who past away - somewhere, someplace, there are demo versions, there are outtakes of brilliant music that fans want to hear. So I don’t think it’s a bad thing that they’re reliving this.”