It’s been a really long time since we’ve posted any updates. So here goes…
We’ve been on hiatus, as funds have been unavailable for a really long time now. Most of our work has been connected in some way with Hollywood, which is still in the midst of an epic downturn – you can read more about that in the Blog posts on transgendertalent.com.
What we’ve been attempting
What we’ve tried to do is a major TV special, but funds couldn’t be found for it, even though we had major people interested or officially signed on, both in front of and behind the lens. We’re still hoping to get that show produced, once funds can be found, and that will likely not happen until interest rates go down significantly.
We shopped some of our top singers who were interested in solo careers to three different major industry producers we’ve come to work with on projects over the years. (Yes, they are epic, with two of the three having track records with superstar musicians over the years.) The three of them, surprisingly, did not know each other. Each time we brought a singer to the forefront, no funding was able to be raised, nor was there significant interest from major record labels.
How the music biz has changed
The story we heard repeatedly is that around roughly the early 2010’s, the music industry had to deal with that wonderful thorn in the side of streaming music. For decades, or more like more than a century before that, analog recordings were made and sold to fans (like records, tapes, CDs, etc.) That’s where the money was. Once digitizing music became acceptable in quality, and the storage mediums and internet speeds made it so those digital copies could be duplicated easily, then sales of music dropped off precipitously. Streaming platforms became popular, as fans could have one low monthly fee and stream their favorite music. So, that income stream disappeared, leaving only live shows as the major income source for the artist. That is, unless they were able to obtain literally many millions of streams of a song they produced.
One thing that came into focus is the celebrity that can be had through short videos. Artists began making short snippets of their music available as background music for videos on various video platforms. That helped get traction for their fan base to grow.
So due to the timing of that shift in the music business, there are music stars who have come into their fame through both the old way, and the new way that has been established. For example, Taylor Swift became famous the old way, as she has been around for well more than ten years. On the flip side, Billie Eilish has come along more recently and came through an entirely different route.
Today’s music world
Where we are today is that to create a career in the music industry as a performer, whether as a group or individual, is to first get a fan base going. Those are counted through social media subscribers, followers, and streams on the various sites. An artist or group needs these to be into the millions of both streams and followers/subscribers. Ten of thousands are not enough.
Those artists are arrived at by having really great music produced, where one or more songs have gone viral, typically as background snippets for short form videos on various social media.
So, to get there, one must get the funding or provide it themselves, to do great quality recordings. To do a full album, at the time of this writing that would be in the neighborhood of US$30,000. That is something one would need to not release. The soloist or group would need additional similar sounding work they’ve used to go viral with.
Ok, so why the unreleased album? That’s what would attract a major label. They want to see the massive followers, the viral music, and have an unreleased album that’s of the quality they are good with putting their label name on. Once they sign the artist or group, they’d release the album on their label.
Labels simply won’t do the initial investment as they have been known for. Yes, it’s a maddening twist, making it difficult, if not insurmountable, by some artists or groups.
Our advice
To young artists, don’t give up, just keep doing your work and keep looking for the gigs to build your followers and audience. Look at other artists of similar genre that are most like yourself – same age, same look, etc, and figure out what their audience is. Find where that audience is and get in front of them.
To older artists who’ve been around a while – this is the new norm. It’s nothing like it was prior to that shift and none of us can change that. If we want to be heard, we have to be innovative.
For the time being, Key Change is not auditioning. Once things turn around, we’ll likely be back at it. Let’s all hope that is soon!