Capitalizing on capitalism in social media’s music world, the Atlanta way

We sat down with Caitlin at NPR to discuss the Music Business, Atlanta and hip-hop. This is the article for NPR’s Intern Edition.

(READ FULL ARTICLE HERE)

Before MySpace and YouTube channels, before Xanga and WordPress, before Napster and songs that cost $1.29 on iTunes, the music industry was thriving. Artists were actually making money off of their art, and an A&R rep held the keys to radio play, tour buses and MTV. Record labels were the safe houses which every fledgling artist needed access to and from which they could get their music from their mouths to listeners–to consumers, to buyers.

“If you’re Drake, then probably you would have sold a lot more in 1998 and you lost a lot of money…I’m not too concerned about Drake, he’s doing good,” said influential hip hop writer Andrew Noz of CB Raps.

Now, all you need is an iPhone (or something “comparable”).

New media and new technologies have weakened record labels’ monopoly on opinion making, trend setting and revenue streams and created a music industry that represents a purer form of capitalism – a system where the opportunity structure for entering the industry is essentially an equal playing field and the principles of supply and demand, brand power and marketing remain essential to achieving success.

“It’s just easier for anybody to record anything on their laptop and have an audience however small. I guess it’s kind of …opened things up to be more democratic,” says Noz.

“People are getting discovered all over the internet by putting stuff out themselves,” says Blake German, a.k.a. 808Blake, the producer and creator of SMKA Productions and the musical brains behind The 808 Experiment. “I’m just excited about the future as opposed to being wary, of it because it just allows people to…you’ve got to be a little smarter, you’ve got to be a little bit more creative.”

Now that artists are creating a product that’s essentially free to consumers, companies like SMKA have the opportunity, the challenge, of identifying what the new revenue streams actually are, and luckily for them, they are positioned in what Noz said is “probably the most fruitful city for hip hop of the last decade” – Atlanta, Ga. – the home of Danger Mouse, T.I. and most recently, B.o.B.

Because of the rich history of the city and the diversity of musical influences, Atlanta not only has an incredibly unique infrastructure already in place for upcoming artists, but also a community with “so many people trying to build you up…that’s what continues to always inspire me about Atlanta,” according to German.

That Atlanta legacy is not going to end with Mr. Bobby Ray Simmons Jr. either – the city is still churning out promising new talents, which are incredible examples of, and products of, the new music industry. Aleon Craft partnered with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and SMKA to produce an educational hip hop program for Atlanta school children. Without the classic Atlanta acts like Outkast and Babyface, who helped to carve out the city’s musical network and groundwork, today’s new artists would not be able to thrive in the new music world. Sean Falyon is building a fan base out of Atlanta on his own, using networking and his own capital to market himself – he credits Atlanta’s established infrastructure and the South’s unique music style for allowing him to pursue and succeed in the hip hop world.

“The end goal is not to sell 1,000,000 records, because that’s just like…finding a needle in a haystack,” says SMKA’s business manager, Mike Walbert. A visionary in his own right, Walbert has helped develop SMKA into an influential production company by capitalizing on the power of basic business principles and innovative opportunities in the music industry as well as building SMKA as a brand rather than limiting its reach to strictly hip hop production.

The new direction for artists and production companies involves finding innovative ways to utilize new media outlets and stretch the limits of what they can produce – like collaborating with a full orchestra or creating a mixtape that unites some of Atlanta’s best unsigned artists, covering everything from trap music to R&B.

So how does an artist become popular these days? If you’re Drake, you get some established artists, artists who have built a brand around themselves through endorsements, products and affiliations, to lay down tracks with you. But…

“Drake flies in the face of everything I know about hip hop,” said Noz. As a child growing up in New Jersey, Noz kept journals documenting his thoughts on music. He represents the modern opinion-maker: his voice has gained respect and power among readers and music consumers – it has proven itself time and time again to be true – and also, he gained that influence without the backing of Rolling Stone or MTV.

So maybe artists should go a different route…like use the basically infinite resources available to build a grassroots campaign and get their music heard by consumers – this can be anything from American Idol to Twitter – and then let the customers and bloggers decide.

“The bottom line is good music travels,” says Walbert.

Rather than identifying with the established brand of a record label, artists themselves are the brand – other artists you choose to align yourself with, endorsement deals you sign and the types of music you produce, create your brand – and consumers are either going to like it or they’re not – which means as a musician, you can become a celebrity overnight, but it can all fall down just as quickly.

And although this makes me question the integrity of some of the music being produced today, I hope that free enterprise in music will give artists and consumers more direct power over what they’re listening to and give more exposure to artists who might not have had the opportunity structure to get exposure 15 years ago.

“When I was younger, underground hip hop was something that you chose consciously. You were like, I’m not going to listen to this shit on the radio, I’m going to go and check out this other shit…Now it’s getting to the point where it’s sort of seeping up over slowly. You have kids that listen to, you know, listen to Drake and Wayne and all that stuff, but then they are also absorbing, you know, the SMKAs, the Odissees, the Lil B’s…and it’s just all becoming all one big mess now,” said Noz.

(READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Related posts:

1. iCloud Overview: A Music Industry Game-Changing Product
2. “Atlanta production team readies The 808 Experiment: Vol. 2″ // New Creative Loafing Article
3. We Put the “A” in Austin // SXSW // Atlanta Music Showcase

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