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’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,” said Rose, who got into the radio business in the mid 90s just as the mp3 format was starting.
“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 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.”
Watch the full episode to hear more of Rose’s musings about music, including his opinion on dramatic hologram performances over the last few years and music being released long after an artist has passed.
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