Has Tech Killed Your Chance for a Recording Career?

www.pro-tools-expert.com/production-expert-1/2020/9/24/has-technology-killed-the-music-industry

Has Technology Killed Your Chances Of A Recording Career?

Saturday 09.26.20
Has the promise of riches offered by the ‘democratisation’ of music making, production and distribution materialised? For many it seems not. Some of our team with their background in song writing, production, publishing and A&R have joined together to write this article. It is meant to encourage debate rather than be the final word. They offer some thoughts to consider.

When you read a title like ‘Has Technology Killed Your Chances Of A Recording Career?’ you're thinking this is going to be a polemic written by somebody who is living under a rock and doesn't understand or like technology. "Bring back the good ole' days of tape and valves" you imagine them saying as they shake their fists at Garageband. “Move over Boomer, your day has gone!” you think.

Far from it, one of the authors, Russ Hughes, has invested the last decade of his life in helping people use music technology. He has also spent 40 years of his life working with music technology and convincing people of the benefits of embracing it. So it's fair to say that rather than being a sceptic, he is a fully signed up evangelist for the cause. Furthermore, he still collects royalty cheques from a career in songwriter, so he knows how the industry can work for good. Another, William Wittman is a Grammy Award winning independent Producer/Engineer/Musician/Songwriter based in New York. He began his career as a musician and moved from there into work as a studio engineer and producer. He held the position of Chief Engineer at several major recording studios. As Producer and Engineer his credits include the multi–platinum debuts from Cyndi Lauper, Joan Osborne, the Hooters, and The Outfield. His success as an independent producer lead to several years as an A&R Vice President and Staff Producer at two major record labels (Sony/Columbia and BMG/RCA)

However, after the response to a recent article comparing the costs of entry recording in the 1980s with the cost now, it got us thinking. Many people said that it was wonderful that we democratised music-making. Is it? In doing so, have we lost some of the checks and balances that ensure quality, for want of a better phrase, the gatekeepers that we previously had as part of the creative process?

If you were asked the question, do you think that free speech is a good idea? And do you think everybody should have an opinion and be equally able to share anything with the world? Then we would expect you to say that's a great idea. But if we look at the way that technology has powered social media and has affected discourse and reduced it to binary thinking in a febrile atmosphere, and where facts are confused with opinion; then would your opinion change? Technology has enabled anyone with an internet account to share what they like. This is irrespective of them having any facts, experience, authority or sadly any common sense. Social media has enabled fake news, crackpot theories, and the most inane rubbish to occupy the same space as facts from scholars and those with records to underpin their opinions.

“In our recent cost comparison on the cost of entry into home recording since 1980, the difference was staggering. The cost in the 1980s accounted for about one year's salary compared to about one months salary to get the same features and quality today. Hallelujah, we all shout, now anyone can record a song and release via a streaming service."


We live in a world now where we say the experts don't matter anymore, that all opinions are of equal merit. We suggest that a person who thinks the earth is flat or Elvis is living in the moon is to be trusted to the same degree as an eminent scientist.

People who assert that there are no experts haven’t even thought that theory through. Do they really believe anybody would say as they are about to go under the knife for heart surgery that every opinion is valid? At that moment they are hoping the person about to operate is top of their game and has a lot of experience. Or if they were sitting on a Boeing 747 trying to land in San Francisco in a hurricane would suggest that anybody can have a go at landing, that all opinions are the same. Remember the old line during a medical emergency on a flight "Is there a medical professional onboard?" Perhaps now the message over the plane tannoy should be "Has anybody watched a YouTube video on heart attacks?" Of course, the suggestion is absurd, but this is the natural conclusion one must draw to the 'there are no experts' assertion.

People take slivers of questionable information from the internet and run with it as though they hold as much weight as genuine expert opinion.

The same is happening in music production and distribution.

In our recent cost comparison on the cost of entry into home recording since 1980, the difference was staggering. The cost in the 1980s accounted for about one year's salary compared to about one months salary to get the same features and quality today. Hallelujah, we all shout, now anyone can record a song and release via a streaming service. Fuck the studios, fuck the producer, fuck the engineers, fuck the record companies, fuck the mastering engineers or anyone else who happened to stand in the way of your amazing song and the world!

Maybe those we see as the enemy are perhaps our allies? Maybe the gatekeepers we were so willing to see disappear were a valuable and necessary part of a healthy creative process?

“Were all these people putting hurdles in my way, or were they building steps to success? I'm still getting publishing cheques for that work from over twenty years ago. I'm making more money than many of those I see working day and night to put out tunes of Spotify."


Russ Hughes, “I recall meetings with my record label and having to pitch songs to them; I didn't get signed until they thought I had enough good songs to make an album. I recall sitting with my AR guy who suggested I rewrite the lyrics to a song I'd been touring for at least a year before recording it - what would my fans think? I recall sitting in recording sessions where an engineer would suggest we try a different guitar sound. I remember the producer would ask me to consider changing the key or dropping the bridge. I remember sitting with mastering engineers who would show me why the mix could sound even better if we cut some of the bass.”

William Wittman, “We now unfortunately have a generation of music and record makers who have never had the experience of good professional help and so have, as a kind of unconscious defense mechanism, convinced themselves, and each other online, that all those professionals are just leeches who will get in the way of their self expression. This is also somewhat self-perpetuating. First the tech industry managed, by enabling file sharing, to essentially eliminate profit from investing in making records. Then, without any prospect to recoup the costs, people naturally start to cut those costs; “maybe it’s not worth it for me to spend money to hire a professional studio and engineer and producer and mastering engineer…” But it doesn’t take long doing that before, the rationalisations begin and for it to become “I’m better off doing my own engineering and mixing and mastering and appendectomy…”

In reality, very few if any of us are good at everything. Perhaps you’re a genius mixer. But having a dedicated mastering engineer to objectively listen, in another environment and with a different kind of ear, to your mixes can often add that last 10% of magic that you’re never going to able to add yourself, because you’ve already heard it the way you hear it.

“We now have the ability to put music out, but without anyone really hearing it. The number of actual golden needles is the same, but the internet's haystack in which to find it has grown enormous."


And so it is all up and down the line. Someone to question or at least focus your attention at every step of the process is a good thing.

But, in an inevitably circular way, the lack of those gatekeepers has gone hand in hand with a removal of the potential profit that made those gatekeepers worth having and paying for. There is a separate and parallel industry, not the actual recording business, that is all about selling you the fantasy of ‘being your own world class’ songwriter and musician and engineer and producer and mixer and masterer and probably promotion and marketing person as well.

Russ Hughes, “Were all these people putting hurdles in my way, or were they building steps to success? I'm still getting publishing cheques for that work from over twenty years ago. I'm making more money than many of those I see working day and night to put out tunes of Spotify. And I didn't even make the big time I was just an average songwriter who got a couple of deals. If it was about money, then I think I know the answer.”

Ironically, one group that is making money from streaming services are the record labels. According to Rolling Stone "They (the labels) are now jointly generating close to $1 million every hour from streaming platforms." It is also suggested that over half of the content on Spotify isn't even in the top 500. It seems the new world of recording where the barriers to entry were removed isn't the dream we all hoped.

William Wittman, “What we have ‘gained’ is what I like to call “refrigerator finger painting”. When you were a child and you did a lovely little finger painting, your mum would dutifully tape it up to the door of the refrigerator for all the world to see and admire. Except that “all the world’ was at most your family. We now have the ability to put your music out, but without anyone really hearing it. The number of actual golden needles is the same, but the internet’s haystack in which to find it has grown enormous.

"Your actual odds of making a living, let alone a killing, from your band are really no better now with the elimination of the gatekeepers. And in many ways worse, because you’re fighting to be heard amidst a lot more noise"


For example: It used to be common for a major record company to give a promising rock band $100,000 to make a record. This would entail a professional producer and studios and mastering and so on. Labels would probably do this with 3-5 bands in a year. Let’s say there were, back then, 8 major labels, that’s in the neighbourhood 35 bands a year getting a shot. Now granted, most of those bands would put out that record and not be successful. But it needs to be pointed out that none of them ever had to pay back that money, unless they did have a hit in which case the costs were recouped against royalties. So if people were lucky and A&R had made good choices, then 1 of those 5 investments paid off and a career was begun.

And of course, I can hear the screaming : ‘ But that’s only 35 bands out of thousands who deserved a shot!’. But here’s the thing, most of those thousands didn’t really deserve the shot and wouldn’t have made it. And the percentage that did make it? Those 4 or 5 all told who broke through? That’s about the same number that break through now in a year. Your actual odds of making a living, let alone a killing, from your band are really no better now with the elimination of the gatekeepers. And in many ways worse, because you’re fighting to be heard amidst a lot more noise. We’ve only pushed the issue down the road to it being about which bands can pay for marketing or develop the right YouTube presence or connection to an ad campaign to draw attention. Wouldn’t that money be better spent on making better music?”

"Some of us love to cook, we have all the gear but we are never going to win a Michelin star… but who cares?"


We've lost the gatekeepers that, to be frank, if they were still part of the process, would mean that a huge number of tracks sitting on streaming services wouldn't have been recorded in the first place. The democratisation of music-making hasn't been all good; it means anyone with an idea (good, bad or awful) can now record that music and have it share the same space with music from some of the most talented people on the planet. In the 'bad old days' the song wouldn't have got past my AR person, and that's because it was crap.

Russ Hughes, “I may have hated my AR guy at times, but he was often saving me from unleashing average crap on the world.”

So where does this leave some of us? Does this mean you sell all your gear and take up a sport? NOT AT ALL. However, wisdom would dictate we temper our expectations. For some it means that making music is a glorious hobby, nothing more but nothing less. It doesn’t make us second class, in fact once we accept we are chasing an unrealistic dream of fame then we can then settle into the joy of making great music for fun! Some of us love to cook, we have all the gear but we are never going to win a Michelin star… but who cares? There are some who will achieve success with their music, but it’s no more likely than it was in the ‘bad old days of record deals.’ Believing technology has somehow given more people a chance is unwise. The only thing we do when we pump out millions of tracks that never get heard is bolster to value of the streaming services. If they had less ‘long tail’ content to show their investors they would have a very different model and a lot less power. If the only tracks on streaming services were the ones that gave the artists leverage then we would have a much stronger position. The more songs we give them the more powerful they get and conversely the less power we have to negotiate better deals.

AND, if you really think you have talent to make it then find yourself a manager with experience who can work with you on making sure your decisions are smart. A good manager is worth their weight in gold and can advise on song choices, producers, distribution and more.

Pushing the entire music creation process on the artist means those making the most out of music are taking little or no risk in producing the content they benefit from. If technology has helped anyone in the food chain it’s the streaming services and the labels - not the artists.

Democratisation has been great for making recordings as a hobby. But it’s been a terrible model for professionals, and for music as a business.